Author: grasshopper

NaNoWriMo

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That’s right, ladies and gents, I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year! I have an idea, my mind is obsessed with it, and it just so happens to be November, so why not?

Graphic is from NaNoWriMo’s website, nanowrimo.org. 

For those of you who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it is one of those witty November traditions (like No-Shave-November) that is quickly becoming a Thing. The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. You “win” NaNo by completing the task.

Let me fill you in on a fun little secret: The Year is Now started out as a NaNoWriMo project. I “won” NaNo in 2012 with it and revised the living daylights out of it until it became the book that it is today. I remember being obsessed with the same fervor that I have today!

I decided to have as much fun with this year’s project as possible. The holiday insanity is just around the corner, so I might as well enjoy every single day before Black Thursday Black Friday. I made a mock up cover with the current working title of the project. And yes, it’s fantasy. I’m skipping the kiddie pool and diving into the deep end!

The cover is surprisingly effective. Every time I log into NaNo’s website, it’s there to inspire me to move forward. If you are doing NaNo, I highly recommend creating a mock up cover. It doesn’t have to be the next best thing to sliced bread, just something to make you smile.

Are you doing NaNo this year? Feel free to add me as a Writing Buddy. I will add you back. I am RlyehDreams. I’ve been tweeting about my progress on twitter, @MishiWan

A Drum Roll, Please

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Trick!

Major Pierson did not get his entries! He’s okay though because he’s just going to roll right on through.

In other news, I tampered with the side bar and footer a little bit. I’ve added a contact form and moved the library to the bottom of this blog. Got an idea for a giveway that Pierson might enjoy? Feel free to use the form and send in your ideas!

Happy Halloween

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I hope everyone is having an awesome Halloween! Remember to have a boooooo-tastic time. Eat plenty of candy, and do let the boooo-bugs bite!

I’ve extended the Trick-Or-Treat deadline to tomorrow. You have one extra day to send a picture of your costumes and decorations! I didn’t realize that the 1st fell on a Saturday when I initially made the contest. Saturday is the busiest day of the week for me. I’m home for a total of two or three hours. I’ll announce the winner on Sunday…unless, of course, Major Pierson doesn’t get his three entries.

Full giveaway post is here: 2014 Trick-Or-Treat Giveaway

What is a Halloween contest without posting my own costume?

I am a random extra from the anime, Attack on Titan. I’ve got several sets of shiny keys that lead to no where.

Weekly Roundup
~ is very brief this week
This week in 
Space
It has been a very sad week for space exploration. An Antares rocket exploded on Tuesday, 28 October. It was carrying cargo to the International Space Station. It was an unmanned flight, and no one was injured.
Another incident happened today (I was disheartened to learn). As quoted from Virgin Galactic’s Facebook page:
Virgin Galactic’s partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo earlier today. During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle. The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft landed safely. Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time. We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates as soon as we are able to do so.

I don’t have a blunt opinion (other than the fact that I hope that we continue to venture out into space despite the recent incidents), so I’ll skip ahead to the video of the week.

Video of the Week
 Some cat-tastic cosplay:

Excerpt Time: Richard Edition

Posted on by in Fiction

I laughed my heart out yesterday. It was glitter, glitter everywhere in my mind. I was writing in a cafe and needed a quick, temporary name for a miserable, middle aged character. I don’t want to know what my fellow coffee drinkers thought of the crazy woman laughing and snickering into her tiny keyboard…

Since everyone I’ve told about this wants me to keep the character’s name as it is, I decided to post an excerpt.

The following excerpt is (c) M.L. Crabb 2014

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Richard Butkiss!

“We’ll get you help,” Kenneth stated, emerging from the shelter with a large knife strapped to his brown belt. His ruck sack was hanging from his left shoulder, and he was slipping his right arm into the remaining strap. “Where is Butkiss? It doesn’t take this long to take a dump.”

                 
“We are in…in…” My cousin started muttering something about his books. I didn’t care if he was some hot-shot New York Times bestselling author; he was being ridiculous. Had he suffered some sort of mental meltdown during the crash?
The woods rattled with a sudden fury of noise. Butkiss came barreling through, nearly tripping over a branch that had fallen the night before. He kicked it with his tiny foot and started cussing. I hated him. I hated his awkward fitting khaki pants. I hated his red face–it was never pale. Never. There was always something he was irate about. I hated his beady eyes and his bowling pin of a body. His head was far too small.
I sighed. Was I being too harsh on the man? Maybe he was just miserable and couldn’t help it.
“WHO LEFT THIS BRANCH HERE?”
“Yes, please wake King Avundil. Please,” my cousin whined. I let my face fall into the palm of my left hand. He had truly lost it. Richard Butkiss’s chest heaved, and he clenched his sweaty fists. For a moment, I thought the man might keel over and have a heart attack. 
“My…my…” his tone was stilted and stiff, and his cheeks grew redder. “My canteen had spiders on it.” His dark eyes flickered to my cousin, growing wide, as if asking some sort of unspoken question. “I think I know who did it,” his voice dropped into an eerie bass. His eyes sifted to me. I snorted. We are in the woods. What does he expect!?
Kenneth shot me a sidelong glance and cleared his throat. “Get your things,” he barked. “We are heading out.” That was all it took to shut that red faced monster up. Why my cousin kept that oaf as company, I would never know.

Weekly Roundup: 17 – 24 October

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~A quick recap of things around the Empire Earth over the past week.

This week in…
Things I Find Newsworthy

I missed the partial solar eclipse on Thursday. In my defense it was raining. I came home to a lot of awesome pictures on Twitter–everything from professional photographs by astronomers to snapshots of pinhole projections. Want to see some awesome pictures of it? Let me press the magical Ctrl V keys: Gallery: The Partial Solar Eclipse of October 2014

 …And then there is the tale of yet another white house fence jumper. The number of these is starting to edge away from comical to ruining-it-for-the-rest-of-us. This particular jumper kicked and punched a Secret Service dog. I’m sorry, but that is Grade-A douche baggery right there. The dog is fine if anyone would like to know! I wonder if the dog and his K9 partner get special treats for taking this guy down. You can read more about the incident here: Meet The Hero Dogs Of The Secret Service.

Images posted by the official Secret Service twitter: @SecretService

Geekdom
I’ve been noticing a huge increase in leaked pictures from The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies lately. I have no complaints whatsoever. I loved Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings trilogy and the first two installments of The Hobbit trilogy. I look forward to seeing Elrond, Thranduil, and the others kicking some you-know-what. …I’m also excited to see what new action figures will be coming out…I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care about such childish trifles. 😉 My favorite leaked picture is the one of Elrond in his battle armor. It is by far the picture to rule them all.

Currently Reading
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card — Okay, I haven’t actually cracked it open yet, but I borrowed it from the library when I turned A Dance with Dragons (ADWD) in. Yes, I’m finally done with ADWD! It’s a door stopper of over 1,000 pages, but it was a thrilling read. It gets 4/5 Valyrian blades.

Matters of Opinion
My blunt, unabashed thoughts in 140 characters or less:

I don’t want October to end. I love Halloween. The weather isn’t freezing yet, and It’s the last month of the year before the holiday craze.

Video of the Week
The second I saw this one, I knew I had to share it! And yes, this is the most epic safety video ever. Some might even say it’s the safety video to rule them all.