Happy Halloween to everyone who celebrates Halloween! It looks very windy outside my office window right now – hopefully the wind will die down before all the trick-or-treaters hit the sidewalks tonight.
I’m feeling a little random today (have you noticed I get this way at least once a week?) So I thought I’d throw all my scattered bookish and non-bookish thoughts together into a post for today.
First, Some Halloween Pumpkin Awesomeness
Twilight fans, wouldn’t you just LOVE to have this New Moon pumpkin standing outside your front door? I’m rather partial to the Yoda pumpkin myself.
There are many more incredible pumpkin carvings here!
NaNoWriMo Starts TOMORROW!
Yes, that’s worth some caps. And I am so behind – I’d planned to get some work deadlines tucked away before November 1st, and now I have one day to get at least one finished (the best laid plans, and all that …).
And when it comes to my NaNoWriMo novel, well, let’s just say “unprepared” is the word that comes to mind. I don’t even know what the names of two of my three main characters are.
Luckily, Twitter came to my aid. This morning, I met @CarmenRenee, who sent me a link to this great article on succeeding with NaNoWriMo. I felt much calmer after reading the article. I might end up at the starting line calling my two characters Thing 1 and Thing 2, and you know what? I’m okay with that. Truly. If it gets me writing the approximately 1700 words I’m aiming for tomorrow, well, that works for me!
And Speaking of Twitter
I’ve decided that Twitter + #NaNoWriMo = Writers’ Watercooler/Cocktail Party/Awesome or What (take your pick). Writing my NaNoWriMo novel this year will not be an isolated experience, and I’m looking forward to taking part in the community feeling as I write (or after I write).
I have also been on Twitter much more now that I’m using Evernote. I hadn’t really been going on Twitter all that much when I was on my iPhone, mainly because one of the things I like most about Twitter are the links I come across, and it was just too frustrating for me to see a great link that would be useful for the future (I’m a link packrat), and have to get out of my Tweetdeck app and email the link to myself.
But now with Evernote, I just send a quick DM (direct message) to the special account Evernote has set up specifically for this kind of thing, and the tweet gets saved. So quick, so easy!
My Husband Has Become a Blogging Machine (Or, What I’ve Been Dining On This Week)
I mentioned recently that my husband has taken over blogging at our food blog, Muse in the Kitchen (after a year of persuading on my part, I might add). And he’s loving it! My job is to edit and format his posts (he insists he’s not a good writer, but he is. He just has his own style, that’s all) and add my two thoughts in at the end of each post.
Unlike me, Ward is not a procrastinator. And since he cooks at least one or two recipes five nights of the week (the other two nights he’s teaching classes at his dojo) he’s got a lot of blog posts in the works. Every time I log on, there are three or four new draft blog posts waiting for me to edit (at least, it seems that way!)
Here’s the latest good stuff we’ve been eating this week:
Spicy Spiral Bread: perfect for the lunchbox, and it’s got a great vegetarian bean filling!
Green Tea Cheesecake: this was an unusual and not-too-sweet dessert that we served at our dinner party last Saturday (the night of the Readathon)
Grilled Sesame Baby Bok Choy: one of the first recipes Ward created, this is our “go-to” dish when we want a quick and easy vegetable entrée
Asian Marinated Flank Steak: another go-to recipe of ours, Ward tinkered with a Martha Stewart recipe and came up with this delicious and very easy flank steak
Grilled Shark and Bakes: I wasn’t here for this one, which is actually the reason Ward made it (I don’t really like shark). I can vouch for the fact that the “bakes” (grilled) are delicious, though!
Comments and Commenting
I’ve been so busy doing things (well, thinking about doing things, I guess) to get ready for my very busy November that I haven’t had a chance to respond to comments here, or to go visiting all the wonderful blogs in my Google Reader.
So I just wanted to end with a huge thank you to every one of you who’ve stopped by this week to read my ramblings! You’re what makes all this blogging stuff fun!
What are you up to this Halloween? And how’s your November shaping up? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, are you raring to go, or feeling unprepared?
TWILIGHT-carved pumpkin, #NaNoWriMo & more random thoughts http://msbookish.com/saturday-randomness…
Hey, thanks for the link to my NaNo article. I’ll be blogging about NaNo the whole month of Nov so feel free to stop by again.
Best of luck with everything!
.-= Hillary´s last blog ..Interestingly, I have discovered my second draft while mercilessly hacking up my first =-.
I’ll definitely be following your posts, Hillary!
I need to remember to check out your food blog — every time I’ve been there I’ve found something good. We went out to buy our candy for tonight and I’ve already eaten some… sigh!
I hope the rain stops soon so the kids won’t be too miserable as they trick or treat tonight.
We get so few kids (maybe 20 to 30 of them), we always have candy leftover – so hard to keep my hands off it. The treadmill beckons …
It’s still windy but the sky is bright so hopefully it won’t start raining here.
I can’t believe I hadn’t checked out your food blog before! I’m on there now, browsing through the recipes. You and your husband have posted some good ones.
.-= Memory´s last blog ..144. Grass For His Pillow by Lian Hearn =-.
Thanks, Memory! He likes to know people are reading his posts and if you do try out a recipe, he’d really like that!
Couldn´t you ask your readers for some good names for your characters?
It would have been easier if I knew more, but here is a variety. Take them or leave them, but don´t say I haven´t tried to help you out
Rubella Charleston
Pearl Cheesecake
Nano Algonquin
Pumpkin Delaware
Seamus Toddlestone
Barbie Cuddlesome
Precious Smith
Anthony Anthony
But if you are smart, you call them Jo and Al – it takes no time to write those.
Good luck and happy halloween!
.-= Dorte H´s last blog ..Spring Cleaning =-.
Dorte, these are actually all such good names for secondary characters for the type of book I’m writing! I actually have words written on small slips of paper in a bag, and I’m planning on pulling out two or three at random to get some good last names for my secondary characters. But I like your list! Quirky is good for this particular book.
Hey Belle, tell your DH that he’s got a new follower. I passed your food blog onto my food loving SIL and she’s thrilled. I made her day!
I am NaNoing again this year and can’t wait. I’ve been so ready to get started. Well, in theory anyways. My research is as done as it can be and I have some character sketches done. I’m a little worried, though, because my MC hasn’t yet spoken to me. Instead my secondary character seems to be the one wanting press time. *sigh* What’s your NaNo user name? I’d love to buddy you.
November is busy, but arent’ they all?
Best of luck staying off the candy and on the treadmill. I’m keeping my eye on your mile bar!
.-= Cat Woods´s last blog ..Blog Award =-.
I would love to be your writing buddy, Cat! My username is MsBookish.
I was hoping no-one would look at my mile bar …
P.S. I left you a little present on my blog!
.-= Cat Woods´s last blog ..Blog Award =-.
Good luck with NaNoWriMo! I passed your husband’s food blog onto my husband. My husband loves to cook and is much more adventurous in the kitchen than I am. Happy Halloween!
.-= Kathy´s last blog ..Review: One Hundred Butterflies =-.
Thank you for passing on Hilary’s post about nano. Just what I needed to here. I’m ready as I’ll ever be and champing at the bit to get started writing. Your husband’s food blog. Yum! Some interesting recipes to try. Good luck with Nano.
.-= Robin of My two Blessings´s last blog ..Halloween Spooktacular One Word Reviews =-.
so much good stuff here! I’m going to star this and come back to it. Goodluck with NANOWRIMO!
.-= Care´s last blog ..Happy Halloween! Beware of Flying Monkeys =-.
I think you had better be careful with Ward! Pretty soon he’ll be offered movie deals for his food blog, and your life will be up there on the big screen for everyone to examine! :–)
.-= rhapsodyinbooks´s last blog ..Happy Halloween Post: Review of “Dead Until Dark” by Charlaine Harris =-.
The wind was really blowing here tonight too. My daughter was holding onto her witch’s hat for dear life!
Good luck with NaNoWriMo! Go, Belle, Go!!
.-= Janel´s last blog ..Jumblicious 10/30/09 =-.
Love the carved pumpkins. Amazing.
I’m not yet prepared for NaNo either, but I’m determined to start tomorrow any way! We can do it! Prepared or not.
.-= Eileen Astels Watson´s last blog ..I DID IT!!!! =-.
I just stopped by to wish you well with NaNo.
And then I got caught on your husband’s blog again. I finally put it in on my GReader so I don’t lose it. I’m with Jill (Rhapsody). I think your husband has a big future in cooking. I don’t know about movies. I was thinking cookbook. I follow a blogger (Pioneer Woman) who has been blogging about her food and she had a cookbook just published this month. Get him channeled.
I happen to like the name Margot and since you now have two Margots following you – think about it.
Anyway, get a good night’s rest and let those creative juices bubble up. No need to reply to this comment. Save all your words for NaNo.
.-= Margot´s last blog ..Cooking For My In-Laws Or How I Became the Jello Queen =-.
Those pumpkins are so coool!
.-= Jenners´s last blog ..Review: The Handy Answer Book for Kids (And Parents): 2nd Edition by Gina Misiroglu =-.