December 2020 Doings!

Hello, everyone! Yeah, this Doings post is not coming to you on the usual day. But since this is such a posting-heavy week (with Doings!, my 2020 reading wrap-up, 2021 goals, and hopefully a short story for New Year's Eve), I decided to mess with the schedule a bit. So, yes. This will likely be the first of many posts this week. Enjoy?

Writing!

• No, the Midnight Show sequel is not done. Yes, it is behind schedule. I continue to blame research. Also, y'know, Christmas prep.
• On the upside, I've written some every day this month, so I feel good about that. And I think we're close to being finished; nearly all the pieces are in place for the mystery to be solved and the conflicts resolved. I'd feel better if I'd written more every day and if a few more pieces were in place, but I will take the victories I can and try again next month for the losses.
• I also didn't work at all on my D&D campaigns, but we're still working through the current module, and I expect to be in this module for another couple of weeks, so we should be ok.
• I'm finishing out the month with 17956 words (plus probably another couple thousand over the next few days) written in December and 53698 total on The Midnight Show sequel. Some of those words will be cut in edits, but this book will definitely be longer than its predecessor.

 Reading!

• This month's reading was about 50% Christmas stuff, which is more Christmas reading than I've done in quite a while. I started off with Hogfather, which I liked better on the reread — It helped that I'd been seeing posts about the story a lot on the socials, so I was pretty hyped. I followed it up with some short stories: The Sixth Christmas, which was an interesting take on a Christmas Carol/Wonderful Life-type situation, and the Christmas in Talesend anthology, which is always fun. And we finished up on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with The Enchanted Sonata, which was also absolutely delightful on the reread.
• Outside of Christmas reads, I finished the published Magus of the Library books with volume 3, which was about as good as the first two. And I read some short stories: an anthology by Patricia C. Wrede, the highlight of which was an Enchanted Forest Chronicles short story about an enchanted frying pan, and H.L. Burke's "Spider Spell", which was fun but did not make me more favorably inclined towards spiders as a whole.
• I also read Allie Brosh's recently-published second book, Solutions and Other Problems. It wasn't bad, but I didn't love it. I was glad I'd read it once, but I don't think I'll reread it.
• The non-Christmas highlight of the month was rereading Little Women, which honestly gets better every time I read it. It truly is an excellent book, and it was nice to revisit all my favorite parts and all the bits I'd forgotten.
• And I'm finishing out the month with 10 Blind Dates, which is not my usual genre (it's contemporary YA romance, of all things), but it was recommended to me by a friend and I'm actually enjoying it more than I would expect. It has a lot of emphasis on family relationships as well as romance, which is nice.

Watching!

• Obviously, we watched a lot of Christmas movies this month. Some of them were the usuals (Rudolph, Little Drummer Boy, White Christmas, Peanuts, etc.) Others were new to me; we watched Shop Around the Corner and The Bishop's Wife the week before Christmas. Both were . . . I wouldn't choose to watch them again, but I wouldn't refuse if other people wanted to watch them unless I had a compelling something else that I needed to do. (I do want to watch You've Got Mail now, though, since people have told me that it changes most of the reasons I wasn't excited about Shop Around the Corner.)
• We also watched the 2019 version of Little Women, and I was actually impressed. They did better with peoples' character arcs than I feared, and while I have mixed feelings about how they handled the back-and-forth between different parts of the timeline, I think the movie was well-done overall. (I also feel like this movie clarified a lot for me why so many people disliked a particular part of The Penderwicks At Last that I was genuinely happy about. So there's that.)
• Also, Overly Sarcastic Productions posted the next part of Journey to the West, and therefore I am IMMENSELY happy. It was a very fun episode, and my desire to read the actual book has been renewed. (Tragically, no libraries near me have the better English translations. I might suggest the libraries acquire them, though . . .)
• And, of course, I'm still working my way through Critical Role. I'm halfway through Episode 42, and the Avantika arc is still not my favorite, but it's getting better! And I think I only have about eight episodes left before we get to the arc I'm really excited about, which is the trip to Xhorhas.

Life!

• Most of the month, of course, was occupied by Christmas stuff: making and acquiring gifts, sending Christmas cards, baking cookies, and so forth. I am very happy with this year's Christmas baking. I made molasses cookies and gingersnaps (because we were running out of molasses cookies), both of which I've made previously. I did about 60% of making cut-out cinnamon sugar cookies — my mom and I mixed the dough up in a joint effort, and I did the cutting and baking. And, arguably the one I'm most excited about, I made mint chocolate chessboard cookies, which are a variation on cut-and-bake sugar cookies, but with strips of chocolate and mint dough formed into a checkerboard pattern. They turned out very well, and I hope to make the Neapolitan variation sometime in the future.
• In addition to the writing and the Christmas prep, I spent a lot of the month working on the second half of the freelance design project I was working on last month. This month was less of a learning curve, but it still took a lot more out of me than I'd hoped. On the upside, I'm almost done, and what's left should be less frustrating. Hopefully, anyway.
• On a happier note, I did have a second interview with one of the places I applied for back in November, and it went very, very well. And the interview led to a very exciting phone call about a week before Christmas . . . but more on that in the next section.
• And now, back to Christmas! Christmas Eve was . . . not really what I was hoping for? We ended up with the noon Christmas Eve service, which I wasn't super happy about (the service was very nice; it just made for an extraordinarily awkward flow for the day), and we didn't do as much driving around and looking for lights as we normally would because it was raining. (And there weren't as many lights on for the same reason.) But it was ok.
• Christmas Day was very nice, though. We ended up having ham instead of the lasagna we originally planned, and that was very tasty. My family seemed to like the gifts I got them, which I'm glad of. (One highlight: I got my sister her first set of D&D dice!) I also got some very nice gifts, including some expansion sets for Sentinels of the Multiverse (I now have all my favorite heroes, villains, and environments, along with some new environments I'm super excited to try), the most recent Invisible Library book and Randall Munroe's What If?, and two new tumblers to replace the one that has a bunch of cracks in the outer wall from when it got knocked onto the ground in a parking lot back in September. (They change color in response to temperature! I am more excited about this than I have any right to be! Also, they're a little larger than my old one but not so much that they don't fit in cupholders.)
• After Christmas, we took a short trip up to visit my grandpa, since we haven't seen him in quite a while. So that was very nice.
• And throughout the month, my sister and I had several opportunities to play Sentinels of the Multiverse with our roommates over Zoom. It works surprisingly well — it's better when all parties have both the villain and the environment we're using, but we can manage even when only one person has the deck. About half the games we played were against a surprisingly deadly combination: Omnitron (think: murderbot with control of a robotics factory) in the Ruins of Atlantis (exactly what it sounds like). Omintron is a Level 1 villain, so he's usually not hard to beat, but somehow this villain/environment grouping killed very capable hero teams three times (three!) before we finally managed to beat it.

 January Plans

• So, the most exciting thing that's happening this coming month: barring calamity, I am officially starting a new full-time job in the first couple weeks of January! I'll be doing print and web design work for a church about thirty minutes from where I live. I'm looking forward to it, though I'm also a bit nervous (more about changes in general than about anything specific). I think it'll be a good place to start out with professional work: it seems like it'll be less stressful than some other places I applied to, and the people I'll be working with most seem very nice.
• That means I'll have to work out how to balance writing with full-time work and not ignoring my family, as I fully intend to finish the TMS sequel in January so I can send it to Kendra in February. I will have a four-day workweek instead of a five-day one, so that'll help. But it'll still be a challenge.
• I'll also be finishing up the freelance project in the beginning of the month, but, again, I should be just about done with it. Fingers crossed that I'm not wrong . . .
• And in whatever time I have left over, I have a lot of reading to do so I can get in Return of the Thief and Rhymth of War before I have to return them to the library. Because let me tell you, I'm super tired of trying to dodge spoilers, especially since people are starting to leak stuff about RoW. Queen's Thief fans seem pretty good about tagging spoilers even months after the release. Not so much Cosmere people.

How was your December? Any exciting plans for January? Are you as behind on your TBR as I am? What were the highlights of your Christmas season?  Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

November 2020 Doings!

 Hey'a, everyone! We are officially into the holiday season and the final month of 2020. Thank goodness. I'm not going to pretend that all our troubles will end with the dawn of a new year, but I am glad that at least we're in a season that feels a little more hopeful.

(I would also like to say that this is the first time in at least two years that I've actually done a November Doings! post instead of merging it in with December's Doings! So in that respect, I am doing great.)

Writing!

• November is, of course, National Novel Writing Month, so every minute of writing time I had was dedicated to working on my NaNo novel, the sequel to The Midnight Show. Given that, you would think the first draft would be done by now, right?
• No. It is not.
• (Incidentally, I also didn't hit 50K, but I wasn't exactly aiming there either, so . . . it's ok?)
• I would like to say that this is solely because I had fewer minutes of writing time than I expected — which is true. A lot of my time this month went into freelancing and job searching — and not just time, but also a lot of mental and emotional energy, which I'll probably talk about later. And, of course, we had the start of the holiday season, which takes up more time.
• The other part of it is that . . . well, I have this pattern that I tend to fall into when writing series. It goes something like this:
  • Me: *has an idea, gets really excited*
  • Me: *writes a simple, single-plot first book with either a single POV or dual POVs trading off on the same plot*
  • The Book: *is easy and fun to write; gets finished really fast*
  • Me: Hey, that was fun, and super chill. *shares or publishes that book*
  • Other people: Hey, we like this book!
  • Me: Wow, not only did I really enjoy writing that, other people seem to like reading it. I should write a sequel.
  • Me: *comes up with sequel idea*
  • The Sequel Idea: *has more POVs, more plotlines, and is generally more complex*
  • The Sequel Idea: *gets last-minute changes to what I planned*
  • The Sequel Idea: *takes more time and effort to write than I expected or than the first book did*
  • Me: *surprised Pikachu face*
• Every. Time. This happens every. single. time. I'm not sure if this is a case of my being unable to learn from my mistakes or if I just keep hoping that this time will be different. And it never is. It happened with Blood in the Earth, as you all noticed. Before that, before I started publishing, it happened with my Berstru Tales (and got worse with every sequel, to the point where I decided it would be easier to go back and rewrite the stories from the beginning rather than keep trying to salvage the current Book 4), and it happened to my epic fairy tale retelling series (Book 2 of which took literally two years to write), and I have no doubt whatsoever that if and when I write a sequel to Mechanical Heart, it'll happen there too.
• So, yes. In summary: sequels are hard, and I am continually surprised by this.
• But!
• I did write 32,874 words spread out over about 18.5 chapters, and I think I'm about halfway through my outline, so . . . that's good. We can still finish this by the end of December. It'll be great. Just darb, as Dayo would say.

 Reading!

• I usually expect my reading to go down in November, but I actually had a pretty good month. It was helped along by the fact that I had a lot of books available that were low-energy, not quite comfort reads, but close enough. A lot of that reading was also graphic novels, manga, or comic compilations, so . . . there's that. (I actually just now realized that I only read four traditional books this month; oops.)
• Anyway. I finished all the published books of Delicious in Dungeon and found them fairly enjoyable. I still like the early books best, but there are some good interactions, and we get backstory on characters, which is nice. And now I just have to wait for the last two books to be released. I also read Seven Little Sons of the Dragon, a collection of short stories by the same author, which was . . . well, the same sort of mixed bag as most anthologies. My favorites stories tended to be the ones that seemed like they might've been inspired by traditional myths or legends.
• Finishing Delicious in Dungeon meant I could move on to the other manga I was really excited about, Magus of the Library. I've read the first two books so far, and I'm really enjoying it. I mean, a magical library and librarians, an Arabian-inspired world, a lot of book-based enthusiasm . . . what's not to like?
• Moving back to Western graphic novels and comics: I read the third Adventure Zone graphic novel and enjoyed it quite a bit more than the first two. You can tell that the players have gotten to the point where they're coming to care about the characters other than their own and the world they inhabit, and that makes the story they're telling better, in my opinion. I also read both Strange Planet comic compilations (which were awesome; if you haven't read them and/or don't currently follow Nathan Pyle on Instagram, you should fix one or both of those things) and Tom Gauld's Department of Mind-Blowing Theories comic compilation. Both of these comic series are full of a type of humor I like quite a bit — one that pokes fun at humanity's oddities while also celebrating them, and yeah. 10/10, would recommend.
• Finally, we come to the traditional novels! I started out with two rereads: Randall Munroe's What If? and Terry Pratchett's A Blink of the Screen, both of which I liked about as much on the reread as I did the first time around. Then, towards the end of the month, I read Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which has been on my TBR for a while. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about it; the writing quality and the storytelling quality are both off the charts, but I really didn't like any of the characters at any point in the story. Then again, I'm not sure you're supposed to like the characters. It doesn't seem to be that sort of book.
• And then we did a complete 180 and finally got around to Kat Cho's Wicked Fox, which is not a standalone as I thought but rather the first book in a series, and I am annoyed. Not as annoyed as I could be; it had a very satisfying ending. I'm just tired of thinking books are standalones and then discovering otherwise. But the story was good; it was nice to get a setting outside of America or Europe, and I think the author did a good job weaving in traditional Korean mythology with the modern world. I will say that I didn't entirely buy Miyoung and Jihoon's romance . . . but I more than bought their friendship and Jihoon's friendships with others, and that's more important to me anyway.
• And we finish up this summary with a book that's half comic and half traditional text-based novel, Hyperbole and a Half. While I don't and never have followed the blog, I know of it via general internet culture and more specifically, Jen of Epbot and Cake Wrecks. And somehow it (and Allie Brosh's new book, Solutions and Other Problems, and The Bloggess's books) popped back up on my radar, and since I'm trying to read more outside the fantasy genre, I thought I'd pick it up. And while it's certainly not my favorite book I've ever read, it's still a good read. I don't know if I'll read it again (I may or may not), but I'm glad I read it once. You feel me?

Watching!

• Unlike my reading, my watching-of-stuff-that-isn't-short-YouTube-videos went way down this month.
• I'm still crawling my way through Critical Role. I think I got in maybe two episodes this month? The problem, generally speaking, is that I am not enjoying the Avantika arc, and while I like Fjord as a character and Travis as a player, I really don't care that much about Fjord's backstory. I'd be almost tempted to just read summaries and skip this arc, but I also don't want to miss out on small, fun moments. (Like Fluffernutter. I finally got to that bit, and while it's funny out of context, it's hilarious in context.) So . . . here we are.
• In terms of actual movies or similar, all we've watched are holiday shows (namely, the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Rudolph). We did finally get Disney+ to work with our TV, though, so maybe that'll change soon? (Probably not; Christmas movies take precedence in December. But there's always the possibility.)
• Also, I just wanted to say that I discovered the Lockpocking Lawyer on YouTube this month, and his videos are . . . strangely addictive? They've pretty much been my procrastination method of choice as of late. LPL has a lot in common with Rybonator in that they have very calming voices and their videos are very focused on actually doing the thing rather than being clickbaity and repeating stuff a bunch of times, and it's just really nice. I also feel like I know more about security measures now, which is nice. And if I even need my characters to pick a lock, I know more than I used to about how that works too!
• (I have also learned that you should never trust MasterLock or Hotel Safes, but yeah.)

Life!

• This is always the hardest section of these Doings! posts. I have easily accessible records of what I wrote, read, and watched, but when it comes to life stuff, I basically have to rely on my memory. And my memory is . . . sporadic.
• So. Most of the month was taken up by three things: writing, which I already talked about, and job searching and freelancing, which I said I was going to talk about. Not that there's a whole lot to say.
• I had one interview this month, which went well, and I'm going in for a second with the same place soon. So that's exciting. I've never gotten to a second interview before.
• As far as freelancing goes, it's nice to be doing design stuff with an actual purpose and project again. The difficult bit has been figuring out how to work well with a client when I'm the one doing the communication instead of someone else communicating with them and relaying requests to me. So that's been a bit of a learning curve, and a rather stressful one at that, which is what's taking most of the mental and emotional energy I was talking about.
• On a happier note, we celebrated my birthday this month with lunch/dinner at my favorite Mexican place and a pecan pie cheesecake, both of which were DELICIOUS.
• Speaking of deliciousness: Thanksgiving was excellent. A lot quieter than most years, since we were having it at home with just the four of us instead of with the whole Bible study group, but even that was nice in some respects. My dad borrowed a smoker and made smoked turkey, which turned out quite well. I made sourdough rolls and an apple-cranberry pie (and pie crust for my mom's pecan pie), both of which were also a success . . . even if the apple filling didn't cook as well as we thought it should have. (We're not sure what's up with that.)
• And, of course, Thanksgiving meant that my younger sister came home from college, and due to her college's adjusted schedule, she won't go back until the new year. It's nice to have her back in the house. I've missed having someone to chat about books and stories and stuff with, plus I got the Sentinels of the Multiverse game for my birthday and now she and I can play that together. We can also play with my roommate via Zoom, which we did last Sunday. It works astonishingly well.
• The last exciting thing I remember: I did another round of testing on my sourdough bread recipe combination, and I think I found a combo that I like. Essentially, I use the ingredient proportions and mixing method from the old recipe and the kneading and shaping method from the new one. The result is a loaf that has a good sourdough tang and is fluffy and domed enough to match my expectations but solid enough that you could use it for sandwiches. So that's my true baking victory of the month.
• I think that pretty much covers it. Odds are, I'll remember something I should've included about five minutes after this post goes up, but if that happens, oh well.

December Plans

• It's Christmas time! Which means sending out Christmas cards (I have my list; just gotta act on it now), hurrying to find or make Christmas gifts (though I'm ahead of the game this year for half the people I'm giving gifts to), and an abundance of Christmas cookies (many of which I will hopefully be making).
• It also means Christmas music, which I'm enjoying in moderation. (The tragedy of my current WIP is that it's set in the summer, and so I absolutely cannot listen to Christmas music while writing it, even though Christmas music and swing/jazz go together super well.)
• Speaking of the WIP, I intend to finish it this month. At the very latest, it needs to be finished early in the new year. Best-case scenario, I have it done before Christmas so I can use the week after Christmas to work on my New Year's short story. But I'm still going to be freelancing during that time, so . . . we'll see what happens.
• I am also hoping to get in a good bit of Sentinels while my sister is home. That would be delightful. Time-consuming. But delightful.
• That pretty much covers it, I think.

How was your November? Any exciting plans for December? Do you also have problems with being consistently surprised by the difficulty of sequel-writing?  Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

A Symphony of Thanks: A Fight Song Holiday Special

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers! I want to start doing some holiday specials featuring characters from different works of mine, and we're starting today. I hope you enjoy!

 A Symphony of Thanks

People say city streets are chaotic, and they're right. But the busiest street has nothing on my family's kitchen on Thanksgiving morning.

By all rights, no one should have room to move in here. Every inch is packed with people; the oven and the counters and the table are all full of food, already prepared or being prepared or ready to be prepared. But somehow, everyone manages, weaving through like dancers on a crowded stage. No one's rehearsed this, but everyone somehow is where they need to be when they need to be there.
Me, I mostly stay where I am: up to the elbows in flower, mixing or kneading or cutting a steady stream of bread products: buttermilk biscuits, sweet potato biscuits, drop biscuits, and about a million dinner rolls. You'd think we were feeding the whole town with the list Mom gave me, but I'm not complaining. I'd rather knead than mash potatoes and risk catching the blame if they aren't exactly buttery enough. And from here, I can enjoy the music of the morning.

Even without my special gift, I don't think I could miss the way all the noise and movement of the kitchen blends into a song. The thump of kneading dough and the constant pat-pat of feet and the snick-chop of knives through vegetables and the chatter of voices form the rhythm and melody of a particular kind of music. And the songs that only I hear, one and two and three-note hums and melodies, each attached to something or someone in the kitchen, fill out the song's harmony.

The sound of the knife stops, and Uhjin calls out, "Vegetables are all cut and in the pan! What now?"
Mom doesn't even look up from the stuffing she's mixing up. "There's oil and spices already mixed up in a bowl by Callie. Coat the vegetables and then put them in the oven. Thank you!"

Uhjin obeys. It's thanks to her that I made it down here. Between classes and my secret life as the superhero Songbird, I've had to cut back on work hours and wasn't sure if I'd have the cash for a bus ticket home. But Uhjin hadn't wanted to make the drive back to her home in California, and my family didn't mind having an extra person for the holiday, so she'd traded a seat in her car for a Thanksgiving somewhere other than our apartment. It's a good thing she's not the sort to keep track of favors, or I'd owe her for a lot by now.

The rest of the family — two sets of grandparents, five aunts (not including the three staying with us and already in the kitchen), an equal number of uncles, and too many cousins — arrive just as I slip my second-to-last pan of rolls into the oven. They trail an assortment of other people who I think might be attached to my cousins and the youngest aunt in some fashion, or who might just be people from church who heard about our feast and talked Mom into inviting them over. Either is possible. Mom greets them, directs the adults to wherever the food they've brought needs to be, and sends the kids to set the various tables crammed into the dining room, living room, and sunroom.

The movement that is dinner preparation climaxes with Dad's entrance into the kitchen, bearing in oven-mitted hands a turkey wrapped in foil. He's been in and out, checking on the birds in his new smoker, since yesterday afternoon. The lack of sleep shows around his eyes, but he's smiling anyway as he proclaims, "The turkeys are done! Just let me get the other one."

Mom wipes her hands on a dishtowel. "Just in time. Callie, Uhjin, start taking all this out to the buffet. Jen —" this is to one of my aunts — "Help them."

But Uhjin and I aren't waiting for help. We each grab a pan and a basket of biscuits or rolls and hurry out to the dining room. The buffet stand, normally a repository for neatly arranged miscellanea, has been cleared for the occasion, and a fold-out plastic table is set up next to it. Both are already well-stocked with food brought by the family, but I've been practicing this ever since I was twelve and Mom handed the responsibility over to me. With Uhjin, Jen, and a few helpful cousins to carry the food out to me, I find each thing its place, layering similar dishes so when one runs out, the one behind it can easily take its place, putting the kid favorites near the front, and ensuring that Gramma's pecan pie is the least accessible dessert on the table so I can be sure of getting a big slice.

With everything set and ready, there's a confused interlude as people find seats and younger cousins argue about who gets to sit at the adult tables and who's stuck at the kids' table. I roll my eyes at them. Uhjin and I, my younger sister, and the cousins closest to me in age have already staked out the lower end of the adult table for our own, guaranteeing prime conversation and space for games later.

This second movement of the symphony of Thanksgiving officially begins with Grampa's prayer of thanks. We all dutifully stand, heads bowed and hands clasped on the backs of chairs, and then wait longer as the younger cousins get the first pick of food. And then we're released to move through the line and heap our plates with smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, Gramma's trademark cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and more. Every dish on the buffet has its own melody that blends the notes of its ingredients, and to me, a loaded plate sounds like a whole orchestra — admittedly, one playing six or seven different tunes at once.

Between bites, my cousins and I trade news of college and jobs and clubs and friendships. Liz and I tease each other, like we always do, over our respective romantic relationships — the variety of boys at her college all competing for her attention and the fact that I have yet to have a successful date. She and Uhjin hit it off immediately, unsurprisingly.

As we move from dinner to dessert and I steal Gramma's pie to share out among my set, Grampa taps his fork on his glass to call for our attention. "I think we all know what happens now, but I'll remind y'all in case anyone's forgotten. It's time for us all to take a break from enjoying this delicious meal and remember what we're all thankful for. Meri —" he smiles at Gramma, who's seated beside him — "would you like to start?"

Gramma raises her glass. "Thanks be to God for my family and another year to enjoy them!"

Those closest to her cheer, and the next person speaks, and the next and the next. All of them mention normal things: family, faith, friendships, a new job, a new home. Then it comes to Mom. "I'm thankful that we could all be here together for the holiday, and I'm thankful that Callie is still safe and didn't get mixed up in all the hullabaloo up at her college this summer."

I squirm in my seat. I might not have told Mom and Dad much about my work to track down Welsh, but they'd run articles about the trial all the way down here. With the way Mom fussed over just that, it was probably better that she didn't know that I'd been the one to bring Welsh to justice — or that I was still out on the streets in the guise of Songbird.

Thankfully, no one else mentioned anything about me or the trial as the thanks-giving moved down the table. Eventually, it made its way around to me. I grinned at Uhjin, already knowing what I was going to say. "I'm thankful for my wonderful, patient roommate who got me down here and for all the new friends I've made since last spring." In particular, for Jonathan and Starlight, without whom I literally would have died, but no one needed to know that.

The meal drew to a close and the song of the holiday transitioned to a quieter sonata. The cousins and Uhjin and I abandoned the table, stuffed full of good food, to enjoy Uno and Codenames and whatever other card games we could find all the cards for. Relatives napped on couches or cleared the table and packed up leftovers or chatted over the now-clean table while the younger cousins ran wild, burning off all the energy they'd gained from the meal. This was my favorite part of any holiday, the quiet melody of peaceful togetherness.

But every symphony ends. Aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins trickled gradually out, headed home to sleep and prepare for the start of the Christmas season tomorrow. Liz was one of the last to leave, squeezing in one last game of Dirty Uno with Uhjin and I before her parents finally threatened to make her walk home. So, she hugged us both and then departed, muttering about how she should've driven herself.

And then it was just Uhjin and my parents and siblings and I, and the three aunts who were staying with us. Uhjin and I retreated to my room; her to read and me to practice. The sky had darkened; the chaos of the morning calmed to quietness; the symphony reduced to a few quiet melodies. But while it lasted, the symphony of the holiday had itself been something to be thankful for.

November+December Doings 2017!

So, yes, I never actually got around to doing a monthly recap last month . . . oops. In my defense, November was an interesting month, and by interesting, I mean that about half of it was very chill and the other half I spent mentally screaming whenever my professors mentioned how few class days we had left or I thought about all the things I wanted and needed to do. Ah, the joys of almost-finals . . . and, of course, NaNoWriMo, because that happened. And then December was finals- which was actually pretty chill, because I finished on Wednesday and could've finished Tuesday if I'd had my act together a little more- and CHRISTMAS BREAK, which is still happening now and is obviously the best thing ever.

Writing!

• My official NaNoWriMo goal was 25 hours; my unofficial goal was to get through my first edit of Blood in the Snow and work through as much of my second edit as possible. I decided to go with an hour-based goal because, for one thing, I didn't know precisely how many words I'd need to write, and, for another, I thought it would be less stressful than having a daily wordcount to reach, since editing can have a much more variable pace than writing. Despite this, I still felt on more than one occasion that I wouldn't finish on time . . . but I managed in the end, hitting my official goal on the very last day of Thanksgiving break.
• Between then and the end of the month, I continued to edit and got about halfway through the second version, cutting roughly 5K words. I then proceeded to take a way-too-long break so I could work on final projects and because I got stuck on a scene.
• Finally, literally a week before the deadline, I got back to work and . . . um. Did not edit like a madwoman for the next week, because I was scared and procrastinating, because once I finish I have to actually let people read the book, and yeah, I want people to read it but I also don't want people to tell me I'm a horrible writer or that I accidentally morally offended someone because I'm an American trying to write an Asian-esque culture and yeah. I mean, I do want to know those things- the second, at least- so I can fix them? But . . . yeah. I'm human. I'm a mess sometimes. I'm working on it.
• But now it's finished and sent in and I'm going to try very hard not to think about it for the next three months because worrying is a good way to go crazy.

Reading!

• I guess this isn't really surprising, given all the writing and schoolwork I've done this month, but . . . I only actually read one full book in November, despite the fact that Oathbringer and Weave a Circle Round released, I picked up several new eBooks on Black Friday, my roommate and I are in the middle of reading the Harry Potter series, and I still need to read Exiles.
• On the upside, that one book was a good one: Turtles All the Way Down, John Green's latest release. Though I'm a Vlogbrothers fan and will at least consider just about any YouTube video involving John, Turtles is my first venture into his books. I was pleasantly surprised; usually contemporary isn't my thing, but this particular contemporary gets at the type of real that I normally only find in fantasy. Also, there were occasional references to things John's discussed in his videos (or possibly the things discussed in the videos were references to things in his book), and noticing those made me happy.
• Besides Turtles, I reread That Hideous Strength and enjoyed it far more than I did the first time. It's definitely not a fast book, or one you're likely to appreciate if you don't understand the culture and time Lewis was writing to and from, but since I have a better grasp of that culture now (thanks, Honors Program!), I got a lot more out of it. I also read it with a journal on hand, encouraging myself to take a more thoughtful approach to reading, so I think that helped too. And I could more easily recognize the different modes of manipulation and propaganda and all that . . . it's kind of scary in some respects, because some of Lewis's words could perfectly describe what's going on today.
• Oh, and I got a new bookshelf! And it's super pretty and big, and it's Amish, so, yeah, really nice and sturdy and high-quality. It makes me very happy. I still need to reorganize my books now that I have more space, but hopefully I'll find time for that this week.
• December, on the other hand, was a much better reading month, because I was home for half of it and could catch up on all the reading I didn't do the rest of the semester. I spent the first week- well, mostly knitting, but when I wasn't knitting, I read Weave a Circle Round (which was excellent) and reread books to catch up for new releases. Then the week after Christmas I dug into those new releases . . . which means I basically killed myself with feels the week after Christmas by reading The Dire King and Oathbringer, but oh well. I regret nothing.
• (Actually, Oathbringer wasn't that feels-heavy. Or hasn't been so far, other than the fact that I'm worried about Shallan. I suspect that'll change soon, though.)

Watching!

• Yep. The roommate and I are still watching Fairy Tail. We intended to get through three arcs before break, but only managed two, Daphne and Edolas arc. Daphne was ok; I was annoyed with Grey but otherwise it was pretty interesting. Edolas, on the other hand, happens to be one of my roommate's favorite arcs. I enjoyed it, though I don't think it's my favorite. It's definitely unique and interesting and all, plus it has Mystogan backstory and he's basically one of my top ten favorite characters in the entire show, maybe one of my top five, so yay for that- even if he wasn't actually in it half as much as I wanted him to be.
• That said, the epic boss fight at the end was a three-way Dragon Slayer teamup and it was absolutely the best thing in that show to date. (Well, that and "A bunch of stuff happened and now we're here," and "Wait! There's an unnecessarily complicated explanation!", the latter of which basically sums up everything about the show and the former of which just amuses me a lot.) Gajeel ate the dragon, y'all. And that makes no sense out of context but yeah.
• I also ended up rewatching a bunch of Fairy Tail episodes because I had a lot of knitting to do and couldn't decide on an audiobook. So . . . yeah. That happened.
• In addition, my sister and I are watching the Lord of the Rings extended editions! She's never seen them- which is my fault; I keep asking her to wait for me and then we run out of time on breaks- and I need to watch them again, so yeah.
• And we watched Christmas movies. Obviously. Before and on Christmas, we got through Rudolph (which is fine) and The Little Drummer Boy (which is . . . not like I remembered?) and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (which I'd never actually watched before and don't plan to watch again). Then after Christmas we finally got to the good ones: White Christmas and A Christmas Carol (the 1984 version, which features a ridiculous number of redheads for some reason).

Life!

• . . . I don't even remember half of what happened in November, honestly. There was a lot of running around trying to get everything done, I know that much.
• Towards the beginning of the month, I had mock interviews, both phone and face-to-face, for my Portfolio class, which went a lot better than I expected. I was pretty nervous going into them; even if my career wasn't at stake, my grade was, and I freely admit that verbal communication is one of my weak points. (As I told a friend one day, I'm a professional writing major, not a professional talking major.) The first phone interview was especially stressful, since several of the questions caught me off guard. But, on the upside, one of the people I interviewed with said she would've hired me if it were an actual interview, so that's pretty awesome.
• Also, partially because of one of the interviews and partially because of my intro-to-the-major class, I found out that I might be interested in instructional design, not just corporate comm. They both seem to involve a lot of variety and a good mix of writing and design, which really excites me, and I feel like helping people learn, understand, and remember concepts and skills and such better would be pretty cool. I should have an actual class on the topic next fall, so we'll see what I think once I actually give it a try, but . . . yeah. I have another idea for what I might do with my life.
• Midway through the month, I had a free Saturday night, so I decided to treat myself to some culture by attending my university's dance showcase . . . and all I have to say is: Wow. Seriously. Wow.
• (Ok, I actually have more to say than just that.)
• I didn't know until now that I really liked dance that much; like, I thought it was cool and impressive and pretty, but I didn't really get it? But the showcase had a lot of swing dancing and a lot of . . . I don't know the technical word, but it was less stylized, sort of? More rough and forceful and in-your-face. Like, the type of dance I'm familiar with, aside from Irish dance, is sort of like poetry, or hymns, where it's real, but it's also very graceful and elegant and probably highly symbolic but I don't understand the symbolism and it all seems very distant. But this dancing was more like really good, really exciting prose, even though it's still poetic in a way? And I could understand what was going on, and why the dancer put this action with this part of the song, and it just made sense. So, yeah. That made me happy.
• And then the week after that was Thanksgiving break! So I got to go home! And it was lovely! And that's when I found out about my new bookshelf, because my family bought it for me as a surprise. Plus we had Thanksgiving with our Bible study, which was fun, and we put up the Christmas tree, and my mom made a pecan pie, and I didn't really get half as much work done as I meant to, but oh well.
• And then I got back to college and it was finals and everything was running around screaming- mentally. Not literally. I leave the running and screaming to my friends.
• Also, CHRISTMAS! I ended up photographing the campus Christmas celebrations for the newspaper, which meant I got paid to go see all the decorated dorms and stuff- which I wanted to do, but without the extra motivation, I probably would've ended early and missed out on some of what ended up being my favorite decoration setups. (Also, I got to see the inside of the newest dorm on campus and it is nice, let me tell you.) So, yeah. Best assignment ever.
• Then I finally got to go home on Christmas break, where I spent most of the first week frantically knitting so I could finish Christmas presents on time. Christmas itself was lovely and more relaxing, for me at least, than some other years have been. Also, I acquired several of my favorite books from this past year, so yay for that!
• Also before Christmas, my family went down (up?) to DC and visited the Museum of the Bible and the National Christmas Tree. The museum was pretty cool, particularly the exhibit on the history of Bible versions and translations and such. As for the National Tree, well, it's about how I remember it. Seeing it again was nice, but by that point I was tired (and hungry, because I missed lunch) so I didn't enjoy it as much as I might've.
• And now it's New Year's Eve and my Bible Study always holds a party- with the countdown at 8 or 9, not 12, because small children- and I'm quite looking forward to that. Hopefully there'll be board games and the right people to play them with, but if not . . . oh well. I know there'll be good food and a chance to see friends, so it'll be fun whatever happens.

January Plans!

• I need to decide on a writing project for the month. I should probably get back to work on editing Fight Song, but I need to do some research first. I'm thinking of setting another time-based goal for the month, probably something along the lines of a half-hour a day, because I know I can get that in but it won't cut into other stuff as much as the full hour I needed for NaNoWriMo did. I don't know; I'll decide tomorrow.
• Obviously, classes start up again in about a week, so . . . there's that. All but one of my classes are for either my major or my minor (Graphic Design), which should be fun. I hope it'll be fun. I have to take an hour-and-a-half class on editing at 8:30 in the morning, which probably won't be fun, but what can you do?
• I have reading to catch up on, of course. There's always reading to catch up on. I still need to read Exiles (yes, I know, I'm a terrible person) and a few other releases from this past year, plus I really should stop procrastinating on Wheel of Time . . . oh well.
• Also, my sister and I are going to watch and rewatch (respectively) The Lord of the Rings extended editions! This is her first time watching LOTR, because I kept insisting that she wait for me to watch them with her, and we're both pretty excited. We wanted to watch them sooner over break, but I had to finish Blood in the Snow and she's a wonderfully patient person, so yeah.
• I may have a few other plans too, but I'll talk more about those in my 2018 goals post, which should release either tonight or tomorrow. So stay tuned for that!

How were your holidays? Are you caught up on your 2017 releases, or do you, like me, still have some that you need to get to? Any fun plans for January? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)   

October 2017 Doings!

Oh, look! It's November, the best month of the year! (Well, one of the best months, anyway. April and September are pretty nice too.) October, though? October can be great, but sometimes— this past October, for instance— it can be a pretty mixed bag. Don't get the wrong idea; it wasn't a bad month . . . but it was a pretty tiring one.

Writing!

• The thing about college . . . if I don't have either a deadline or a challenge to meet, I don't write. I want to write. I carry my notebook around in hopes that I will write. But things that don't have deadlines, or that have very distant deadlines, tend to get pushed to the side in favor of everything that's due this week. And I apparently have a knack for taking on projects that end up more complicated or time-consuming than they're supposed to be, which doesn't help matters at all.
• That said, I managed to edit the first two and a half chapters of Blood in the Snow during the first half of October. 4K words down; probably-25K words to go . . . (Well, actually a little less at the time I write this, but that's November news.)

Reading!

• My reading for October has been mostly dominated by C.S. Lewis's books— which is a good thing! I started the month by rereading The Silver Chair so I could give a presentation for it in one of my classes. Then I also reread Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra for the same reason. I haven't read the Space Trilogy in years— not since I was in my fairly early teens and mildly obsessed with Dekker's Circle Trilogy. As you might expect, I didn't really get it the first time, although I did enjoy it. I liked it even more this time around, and I actually look forward to reading That Hideous Strength as soon as I have time. I actually think I prefer Out of the Silent Planet to Perelandra, although most people seem to like Perelandra better. I can understand why; Perelandra is an amazing book; it's theologically rich, with a fascinating concept, deep themes, and a surprisingly high-stakes conflict. I know and appreciate all that, and I do genuinely love the book; it's become one of my favorites. However, I also like stories and exploring new worlds and new peoples, and Out of the Silent Planet gives me a little more of that and a little less theological argument, and so I suppose it's just easier for me to enjoy. And I feel quite uncultured and unspiritual for saying so, but it's the truth all the same.
• I also took my first step into Lewis's nonfiction this month with Mere Christianity and quite enjoyed that as well. Lewis covers a surprisingly broad range of topics, he explains them well, and he presents his message in a friendly, familiar style that makes even complex concepts understandable and enjoyable to read about. At times while reading the book, I felt as if I were sitting with Lewis and a few friends beside the fire on an autumn evening, each of us with a cup of tea and Lewis with his pipe, listening to Lewis talk. Other times, mostly when Lewis made a particularly dry and sarcastic comment, or when he covered an especially difficult concept, I felt like I was sitting in a really good lecture by my favorite philosophy-and-Bible professor. Both are good things. The content of the book, of course, was top-notch. I could probably write a whole post, or a whole series of posts, just going over different insights that stood out to me.
• My only non-Lewis book this month was Before She Ignites, which I read and reviewed for my college newspaper. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the book! A lot of really hyped mainline fantasy and sci-fi ends up disappointing me because of content or overwhelming romance or annoying characters. But Before She Ignites had surprisingly little romance and plenty of intrigue, diversity, mystery, drama, and worldbuilding, along with great characters and excellent handling of real issues. There weren't as many dragons as I expected, but I'm ok with that. And, ok, yes, the main character could be a touch naive and helpless at times, but she made sense and grew past those things, so it was all good, and I would definitely recommend the book.

Watching!

• Still watching Fairy Tale. My opinions on the show haven't really changed much, although I enjoy it more and more as I watch it, become increasingly attached to the characters, and get used to how the episodes generally play out. And apparently we're about a fifth of the way through, according to my roommate, so we might finish by the end of the school year. We'll see.
• However, I have rather mixed feelings about the last two arcs. The first one was Erza's backstory, which is good- Erza is one of my favorite characters, she has an interesting past, and it was an exciting storyline- but at the same time, it was kind of depressing in parts and featured altogether too much of the "No! I must do this alone! I must sacrifice myself to save you!" variety of dramatics. Then the second arc involved one of my least favorite characters getting a his well-deserved punishment, plus lots of cool magic, a super fun teamup on the part of Loke and Lucy (who I ship very hard, by the way), and a focus on one of my favorite minor characters whose name I don't know how to spell. On the other hand, it also involved betrayal and characters turning other characters against each other, so . . . yeah. That happened.
• As for the arc we're currently in, I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I met Wendy (one of my roommate's favorite characters) and quite like her. All things considered, she's one of the more accurate depictions of a 12-year-old that I've encountered in fiction.
• So, yeah. I haven't really watched anything besides Fairy Tale, but I haven't had much time to. We'll see whether or not that changes next month.

Life!

• Basically, October has mostly consisted of running around, trying to do all the things, because right around Fall Break is generally when professors decide to throw everything at you. In the course of four weeks, I've presented on two C.S. Lewis books, written two book responses and one report, edited a group essay, taken my first English exam, created, perfected, and presented my professional portfolio, and created various and sundry design projects for Visual Rhetoric. On the upside, that's roughly half, possibly two thirds, of my big projects for the year out of the way. On the downside, I don't feel any less busy now.
• Oh, and on top of all that, I also wrote my first book review for my college newspaper and took my first photo assignment! I covered the Women's Ultimate Frisbee team practice, which I figured would be pretty fun. While I have no interest in sports, I have friends on the team, and I've had success with action photography in the past. Then my dad pointed out that the lens I had on campus wasn't exactly ideal . . . but I got the shots I needed and had a good time doing it, so it's fine.
• Fun or not, though, I was more than ready for Fall Break when it came around. I went home with my roommaate again, and we spent the first two days of break crafting our costumes, which I posted about on Tuesday, and eating yummy homemade food (like sausage potato chowder and legit homemade donuts). Then, on Saturday, we went to her grandparents' house to celebrate her grandmother's birthday, which was fun and involved fireworks and more delicious food (namely apple and pecan pie- I've been craving pecan pie for literally a year now and I finally got some and it made me happy). And if I seem a little food-obsessed . . . well, my college's cafeteria is in the country's top ten for a reason, but it still gets old after a while, especially when they keep serving my least favorite things and never seem to have my favorites. Plus, as I mentioned, pie. And donuts. Both homemade. Those deserve as many mentions as I can give them, arguably.
• On the other side of the spectrum: I'm still doing Martial Arts and very much enjoying it. It's actually a really great stress reliever, which I didn't expect. I mean, it's hard and tiring and sometimes I wonder if I'm doing anything right and if I'm ever going to actually improve, and I never can get my stance quite right for my forms. But at the same time, martial arts force me to slow down a little, to think a little more about what I'm doing, and it makes me feel like I've accomplished something (which is invaluable when I spend so much time working on long projects). So, yeah. No matter how busy I get in the next few months, I'm not quitting this.
• Speaking of stress relievers: my church's Bible Study has finally started up again! We're going through 1, 2, and 3 John, and I think it'll be interesting. We have an actual book this year, as opposed to just talking through a chapter or two a week, so we'll see how that works out. I'm excited to be back, though. Even though we lost a few people from last year, it's a great group and we also have good (if sometimes weird) discussions.

November Plans!

• It's NaNoWriMo! I'm going Rebel this year and not starting a new novel. Instead, I'm rewriting Blood in the Snow so I can submit it to Rooglewood Press in December. Not only do I think this will be a more achievable goal for this year, it's more practical. I need to get this done soon; I don't need to start another novel, especially since I have so many already that need edited. For maximum effectiveness, minimal stress, and easy conversion to NaNo-winner-dom, I'm actually tracking and recording my time spent rewriting, rather than my words. (Well, I'm still tracking my words, but I'm not recording them on the NaNo site.) My official goal is to spend 25 hours rewriting this month. My hope is that a time-based goal will help me keep writing even when I would normally allow myself to stop on days when the words flow well, but will also keep me from getting too stressed when I'm stuck and can't accomplish as much as I want. Also, I don't actually know how long Blood in the Snow is, so I don't want to set a word-based goal and then have it not be enough.
• Of course, besides big writing projects, I also have final projects in most of my classes. Most of those aren't due until December, of course, but I need to start them sooner rather than later. The exception is my final project for my portfolio class, which is basically a series of mock interviews, and which is happening this week and next week. I've finished my phone interviews— huzzah!— and those actually went fairly well. Now all I have to do is survive the face-to-face ones . . .
• Because of NaNoWriMo and the start of final projects, regular blog posts may or may not go on hiatus during this month. That said, I also may or may not post occasional NaNoWriMo updates, potentially featuring snippets, so . . . yeah. I'm not sure you're really missing out.
• I'm also starting work on Christmas presents already. I'm a firm believer in keeping holidays separate, even if certain people who I know occasionally try to start Christmas music in September. However, Christmas presents I'll start thinking about as early as I please. There's no reason to restrict giving to one season, and when you handmake gifts, you can't always wait until after Thanksgiving to begin. That's just a recipe for stress, even if you can make a hat in about a week.
• Of course, Thanksgiving is only three weeks away, which means the certain people don't have long to wait before I'll gladly join in on the Christmas music . . . and which means I get to go home! I don't want to say I can hardly wait, because that implies a conscious eagerness, and often I'm too busy to think about how much I want to be home— which is a good thing, don't get me wrong. If I spent all my time thinking about how I'm not home, I'd be miserable. Besides, I like being at Cedarville and spending time with friends and going to class and all that. But at the same time . . . I miss home, and I miss my family, and I want to be back.
• Other than that, I don't have any real plans for November . . . but I don't exactly need other plans either; I have plenty to keep me busy.

How was your October? Do you have any plans for November? Are you doing NaNoWriMo, and if so, what's your project? When do you think you can start the Christmas season? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
 -Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)
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November Doings!

Hello, everyone! December's come and November's gone, and that means it's time for another Doings post. I could wax poetic once again about the passing of time and how it seems like an eternity and a blur all at once, but I won't- instead, let's get on with what's happened this past month.

Writing!

• Um. So. You remember how last month I made the goal of writing a hundred words a day every day in November? Yeah. That kind of didn't happen. I did manage a decent streak the first third of the month, and then it all kind of fell apart, and . . . yeah. 
• On the upside, I finally got unstuck, thanks to my roommate helping me brainstorm! I'm still not 100% certain how my hero actually confronts my villain, but I did figure out how she can test and solidify her plan. So, that's good.
• I also wrote a research paper about online friendships, which I'm very proud of indeed. I haven't gotten it back yet, and I won't until tomorrow, but my professor did tell me today that she'd read it and liked it, so that's a good sign! I am mildly frustrated that apparently I made the same mistake (relating to quoting sources) about a half-dozen times in the essay, if not more- but, in my defense, I didn't know it was a mistake. I'm still annoyed that I'm going to have to fix it so many times, but  . . . at least the rest of my paper was apparently good?

Reading!

• Most of the month was taken up by reading the Cat's Eye Chronicles, one of my roommate's favorite series. The first book was kind of  . . . eh. I liked it well enough, but I wasn't thrilled. I liked the second one slightly more, though, and they kept getting better from there. (My favorite is Caprion's Wings, which is actually a novella set before the rest of the series, but yeah.) And now I, like my roommate, am eagerly waiting for the next book- which makes her happy, that she has company in her waiting.
• For my literature class, I read Much Ado About Nothing (not pictured) and Brave New World. I loved Much Ado- Beatrice and Benedick seem to be the prototype for one of my favorite types of story-couples. Brave New World I didn't love, but it's not the type of book you can love- it's terrifying and fascinating and thought-provoking, but not lovable. That said, I would definitely recommend it to mature readers.
• Also not pictured are my two rereads: Jackaby and Beastly Bones. I reread them in hopes that I'd be able to read Ghostly Echoes while I was home on break . . . but, alas, it wasn't in at the library, and so I must wait until Christmas. (Ah, the agony!) Oh well. At least I enjoyed the rereads . . .
• Finally, I read the Wingfeather Tales, a companion anthology of short stories set in the world of the Wingfeather Saga. Not all were by Andrew Peterson (and, actually, the one he wrote was my least favorite- which isn't to say it wasn't good, but that I liked the others better), but they were all still wonderful. 
• I also acquired some new books this month. Two were gifts: my parents bought me Samara's Peril, and my roommate bought me Jackaby (another reason why I reread the latter this month). Sadly, I didn't have room in my bags for Samara's Peril, so it stayed at my house and, like Ghostly Echoes, will have to wait for Christmas break to be read. But at least I have it now! And I bought Calamity, because Barnes and Noble had signed editions on sale on Black Friday, and Arcanum Unbounded, because I'd literally been saving my spending money all month so I could buy it more or less as soon as it was out. Calamity, like Samara's Peril, remains at my house- but Arcanum Unbounded I bought online, and I'm pretty sure the package will arrive in the next couple days.

Watching!

•  Still watching Merlin! We just finished episode 10 before Thanksgiving break. Merlin's still an idiot, but he is getting better . . . even if he did use magic in the most conspicuous way ever in the last episode. He did have a good reason this time. And Arthur and Merlin's developing friendship amuses me muchly. 

 

• My roommate and I also watched the movie of Much Ado About Nothing after I finished reading the book. I enjoyed it, though I was mildly disappointed that a few of my favorite lines got cut. Also, I find Dogsberry annoying on the page, and he's far worse on-screen. Every time he appears, I cringe and hope he goes away soon. But I thought the other characters were well-portrayed, and the Benedict-Beatrice interactions were excellent.

Life!

• I feel like November was a super quiet month. It's not that I wasn't busy, but nothing particularly exciting happened- it was just business as usual. 
• I did manage to survive a group project, though- and, in fact, I actually enjoyed this one. It helped that I knew and liked the people involved, as opposed to last time when I was randomly assigned to a group with four people I'd never met in my life and haven't interacted with since. (I also survived reading most of Luther and Erasmus's debate on free will . . . that was interesting.)
• On a happy note: I think I finally found a church! It's super small, and still pretty different from my churches in NY and VA, but I like it. It's within walking distance of my college, and several students and professors from the college go there. In fact, the pastor is also a professor here, which is one of the things that initially attracted me to the church. The pastor's style is closer to the teaching style that I'm looking for, and their Sunday school is more discussion than extra sermon, which is nice. Also, they have a fairly heavy emphasis on Bible memorization as part of the Sunday school, which will hopefully get me back in that habit.
• And on an even happier note: Thanksgiving break was last week, and I got to go home! Getting to spend time with my family, sleep in my own bed, and eat home-cooked food was generally awesome. I didn't realize just how much I missed home until I was there, honestly. (And now it's just three weeks 'til Christmas break . . . more like two and a half at this point, really.) 
• Thanksgiving was different than usual, since we weren't able to go down to VA to spend it with our Bible Study there. But it was still great and contained much delicious food. (Funny thing- I've spent the last several years thinking that pumpkin pie was ok, but not that great. Turns out, that's because I haven't had homemade pumpkin pie all that time and I'd forgotten how yummy it is.)
• And, of course, after Thanksgiving comes the Christmas season! We put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, like we always do, and I've been listening to Christmas music the last few days. I'm not sure yet what this year's favorite songs will be- there's a few that stay constant, but I tend to have a few new obsessions every year- but Pentatonix's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is looking like a pretty strong contender so far. It's also the first properly eerie rendition I've heard since the one that made me like the song in the first place.

December Plans! 

• Finals would seem to be the most pressing thing on my plate at the moment- final exams in three classes, a final essay and a portfolio in a fourth, and nothing whatsoever in the last. I'm honestly not stressed- but maybe it just hasn't kicked in yet. I don't know.
• Other major thing that's happening, obviously: Christmas! I'm still working on gifts for most of the people to whom I'm giving things, but there's two people who I know for sure and one more who I'm pretty certain of. Plus there's lots of on-campus events that I have to decide whether or not to attend. (I know three that I'm going to for sure; it should be good.)
• One of those events, incidentally, is that one of my favorite professors has invited all her students to stop by her house at some point on a particular evening to have cookies and say hello and meet her family and generally have a good time. So that's technically not an on-campus event, but whatever. I'm going and I'm quite excited.
• Obviously, reading will continue. Hopefully there will be some long-awaited books in there, like the ones I mentioned above. We'll see what happens.
• And I'd really like to finish Fight Song before the year ends, but I don't know what'll happen with that either, especially given finals. (Though, on the other hand, since the portfolio's due the week before and I don't know how much time studying will take . . . maybe writing will be a good way to relax? We'll see.)
• And, obviously, there's Christmas break, which I'm very much looking forward to. Home! For three whole weeks! That's almost a month! And it's going to be lovely, let me tell you; absolutely lovely. 
• And I should also probably finalize my schedule for next semester. Which I may be changing for the third or fourth time. Ah well . . .

How has your November been? What plans do you have for December? Please tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! No matter how you celebrate (or even if you don't celebrate at all), today is an excellent day to be thankful- and so I'm marking it with a list of things for which I'm giving thanks today.

I'm thankful for . . .

1.  Thanksgiving break! I'm so happy to be back home with my family for a little while. Even if it's not quite as schoolwork-free as Christmas break will be, it's still wonderful. I've missed them a ton while I was at college- my sister in particular. We aren't doing anything especially exciting, but it's nice to be able to just hang out and talk and play games.
2. Audiobooks. Because without them, the already-long drive to get basically anywhere would feel even longer. Also, because there's something special and wonderful in being read to, and audiobooks are a socially acceptable way for people of any age to experience that.
3. The fact that God knows what He's doing with my life way better than I do and that my parents are wise enough to recognize it when I don't. White Sulpher Springs, my internship this past summer, Honors, my whole schedule this semester . . . God has opened so many doors and worked so many things out in the past year and a half, things that I never would've chosen for myself but which have turned out to be incredible blessings. 
4. The incredibly long summer. Until last Saturday, temperatures at my college had stayed in the upper-50s-lower-60s range. That's the longest Indian summer I've ever seen, and it was lovely. Believe me: I appreciated every day of it (particularly since that weather is the easiest in which to look nice: it's warm enough that you don't have to wear heavy coats and hats and sweatshirts to keep from freezing, but it's cool enough that you can wear long sleeves and cardigans). 
5. However, I'm also thankful for cold weather . . . Because it's a lot easier to restrain oneself from ice cream when it's a chilly 38° outside than when it's an unseasonably warm 60-something. Also, my roommate gets excited when she gets to wear sweaters, and her excitement is generally contagious.  
6. Mail. Getting mail in college is as exciting as it was when I was 10 or so; I'm not getting college advertisements anymore, and so anything I do get is something personal . . . or a grade, but that's still exciting, just for different reasons.
7. Sunrises, which I'll probably be seeing a lot more of in the next few months, since I'll be walking to breakfast around the crack of dawn. They're still beautiful, though, as is golden morning light on the lake.
8. Homemade meals. Don't get me wrong. Being a generally positive person, I like the dining hall, and I can almost always find or assemble something tasty. But it can't compare to my mom's cooking. (We had cheeseburger soup last night, which is one of my absolute favorites. And she made my favorite cranberry granola for me as well! Have I mentioned that my mom is awesome?)
9. Random discoveries of fun music. Like when a friend and I found LEAH a few years ago (a discovery that would lead to inspiration for one of my novels), or when my TPS friends introduced me to Starset, or when I tried this Asian Epicness playlist and found out that I really like Asian music, or my recent discovery of Nightcore covers (which, I've discovered, are sometimes bad but also are sometimes really sweet and cute-sounding). As a general rule, it's really cool to explore a new artist or genre of music and find inspiration and stories in the songs.
10. And, last but not least, my friends, both old and new. I'm thankful for the friends I knew before college, whether online or off, for those who've chatted with me and prayed for me and helped me grow and supported me through moving and starting college and everything else. And I'm grateful for the community of new friends I've met at college, for those in my hall and in Honors and in my Bible study group and my major, and those who I don't even know how I know them, I just know that I do and they're awesome. 

What are you thankful for? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving, everyone!

Unless you're in somewhere other than the U.S. In which case, have a happy Thursday, and be thankful that you're not dealing with Black Friday tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is here again, that time when we enjoy family and friends and remember all the ways we've been blessed throughout the year. I definitely have a lot to be thankful for, and I thought I'd share some of them with y'all. So, here are some things I'm particularly thankful for right now:

1. An overabundance of books. In past years, I've often gone long stretches with very little new to read. Since I don't mind rereading books, this isn't terrible, but in the past year, I don't think I've had this problem at all. I've always had at least a few new books to read, and actually ran into the opposite problem- too many new books- once or twice. And quite honestly, having too many new books isn't really much of a problem, and if it is, it's one I'm happy to have. 
2. On that subject, I actually have time to read again. Right now I'm reading Five Glass Slippers, a collection of Cinderella retellings, and it's lovely. Next on my list is either The Word Changers or Out of Sight, Out of Time, depending on my mood and how long it takes me to finish up Five Glass Slippers. 
3. Roleplays! I love roleplaying, and in this past year, I've been a part of a lot of awesome ones. One particular highlight is the Star Wars RP on The Underground, which I've been more active in lately than I used to be. The superhero RP on that same site is also really awesome- and it's restarting now, so yay! On the TPS forums, the Keepers RPG is probably my favorite one that I'm actually active in. They're all fun, though, and it's great to be roleplaying more.
4. On the subject of roleplaying, I'm better at it (and writing in general) than I was 3-4 years ago. I've been copying/rereading one of my favorite roleplays on The Underground, the Battle! thread, and it's bringing back a lot of fun memories. However, it's also made me realize something: I was not as good at roleplaying as I thought I was. Comparing my more recent posts with my older ones, I think I've definitely improved- at the very least, my average posts no longer consist of "She smiled. '(dialogue).'" Also, my characters are no longer quite as melodramatic. (Note: I'm not saying melodramatic characters are bad. I know some people who do quite a good job with them. However, 3-years-ago-me didn't handle them quite as well as she thought she did.)
5. School is no longer trying to kill me on a semi-daily basis. Overall, the school year thus far has gone well, and I expect that to continue through the rest of the year. All my subjects but one have been either about what I expected or better, and the one (literature) is getting better unit by unit. Admittedly, the second half of the year is often harder than the first- but hopefully it won't be too bad. 
6. I'm very close to finishing at least two stories. One is my NaNo novel from this year; the other is my April Camp NaNo novel from this year. Both are within 5-8 scenes of being finished, I think. I also have my April Camp NaNo novel from last year that needs finished, but that one's a bit further away from being done. Once I finish the other two, though, I can give it more attention and hopefully it'll be done by the end of the school year. 
7. I don't live in the 1800s. That's the time period I'm on in history right now. It's interesting, but I'm much happier in the 21st century.
8. I can start listening to Christmas music tomorrow. 'Nuff said.

What are you thankful for? Please tell me in the comments!
Happy Thanksgiving!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

WINNER!

Hello, everyone! Who can guess what this post is all about?

Yep, that's right! I won NaNoWriMo 2012! That means that I wrote 50,000 words. It's actually 50,120 words, to be exact. I still have a little more of my novel to write before it's actually finished plotwise, but nowhere near as much as I had left when I finished my Camp NaNoWriMo novel in July.

In other news, Thanksgiving was very fun. We had a sort of potluck Thanksgiving dinner with our Bible Study, which was awesome. One of the families has a smoker, so we had smoked turkey, which is pretty much my favorite kind of turkey. Mommy made butterhorns and these turkey cookies that involve Rice Krispie treats, Oreos, frosting, and candy corn. Both were very, very, very yummy. After we were finished eating, my friends and I played Settlers of Cataan and two games of Phase 10. I also enjoyed seeing one of my friends who I haven't seen for several months.

The day after Thanksgiving was spent mostly in shopping and putting up the Christmas tree. We put the Christmas tree in the corner this year, instead of in the middle of the room, and I think it actually looks better that way. I also decided that this year, I'm going to write my own Advent calender. The main reason for this is that most of our Advent calenders have been done at least a half-dozen times each (or so it seems), and we've done my favorite one so many times that I've memorized it.

In other news, I plan to start listening to the Blood of Kings series, which the friend I mentioned earlier recommended to me. The author, Jill Williamson, did a free podcast of her reading the books, so I was able to download those. Now I just need to find some kind of project to work on while I listen to them. I've also been reading the Sherlock Holmes short stories. I'm really enjoying them, though I very rarely even come close to solving the mystery. Once I finish Sherlock Holmes, I'm going to reread the Legends of Karac Tor series. I read this series over the summer and very much enjoyed them.

Well, that's about it. Thanks for stopping by!

Namarie!

- Sarah