It Snowed Yesterday. Geez.

It didn't accumulate much, and it's certainly melted away by now, but I usually think of there being more time from the start of fall to the first snow . . .

Ah well. It isn't nearly so bad that I'm going to be singing this again (that I'm reserving for March. Or even April) and a little snow in the morning looks rather pretty.

(SOURCE)

Do you get snow, and if so, have you had any yet? Do you like winter at all?


(And yes, I'm trying to come up with topics for the last stretch of NaBloWriMo. Only one day left in October, which is a fairly scary thing. Got to go work some more on my NaNoWriMo novel.)




-----The Golden Eagle

Aspiring Author Interview, Awards, Ninja Writing, A-Z Blogging Challenge, and Snow

BREAKING NEWS:

The post in which I am interviewed at Perfecting the Craft--by the awesome Michelle Merrill--is up for you all to read!

Well? What are you waiting for? Go read it! And then come back to read the rest of this post, of course. ;)

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I was awarded the the Versatile Blogger Award by Hannah Marie at Distant Hoofbeats:

And the Stylish Blogger Award by Lisa Galek at Read. Write. Repeat.:

Many thanks to both of them!

(Again, because I've already been awarded before, and listed seven facts, I'm going to bypass that part of accepting the awards.)

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Ali Cross, at the blog of the same name, has declared February Ninja Novel Writing Month.

What does that mean? It means you sign up HERE and join in with the other Ninja's as you sharpen those writing skills.

I'm going to finish my novel this month. I am. I said that over a year ago, but I know more about my writing limits and what I can do in a month now--not to mention I have the ending set up in my head and I am getting close to the point where I can actually start writing it.

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Don't forget! You can still sign up for the  A to Z Blogging Challenge hosted by Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out.

What's the challenge part? Blogging every day except Sundays, with the theme of your post focused on something different each day--starting at A and going all the way down to Z, of course.

There are already 175 people who've linked up--are you going to help bring it all the way up to 300?

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It's a little icy around here, but nothing like the massive snowfall some places are got as the storm passed over North America. In fact, the sun's shining right now and everything seems to be dripping--hope the rest of you are safe and warm and that there's no more bad weather, wherever you are.

Have a great weekend, everyone!


-----The Golden Eagle

The Answer! (Plus: Award, and Other Miscellany)

The moment has arrived! I shall now reveal who exactly the kind of person it is in the Through the Keyhole Blogfest entry I posted on Monday.

First off, most of you who guessed said that you thought it was a male widow.

Partly right, although not completely. I wasn't aiming for anything so tragic.

He--and yes, it is a he, you were right on the gender!--is a traveling writer, doing research for his book, going to conventions/meetings, and the computer is what he writes on; the CD-RW has his files burned onto it. The green string is indeed a luggage tag, a remnant of his last trip to the airport. The picture of the couple is an image of him and his wife, but they're not divorced/separated, and there's no sorrowful backstory--he's just traveling abroad, while his wife stays home. They're a happy couple. :) The picture is a reminder . . .

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Now, L'Aussie awarded me the Fair Dinkum Award.

So, I'd like to give L'Aussie a big THANK YOU! and  *hug* for awarding me. :) It is much appreciated!

Me being American, I'd never heard of a Fair Dinkum before--L'Aussie apparently anticipated that, and told the award-ees to guess what they thought a Fair Dinkum was. (Read my comment HERE.) Hopefully, I got it at least somewhat right. :P

I also get to pass it on, too, and here are the people I'm awarding next with the Fair Dinkum Award (trying to be sure that no one's nabbed 'em before me . . . LOL):

Robyn Campbell
Brian
Sangu Mandanna
Madeleine
Dominic de Mattos

. . . and there are many others out there--Blogger seems to be a Fair Dinkum melting pot!

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Have you heard that the US Department of the Interior wants to strip Northern Rocky Mountain wolves of their Endangered Species status?

Now, look: I have absolutely nothing against saying that they're not on the brink of extinction. Hooray for that, actually. But LET'S NOT HUNT THE WOLVES. Please. If they're going to take wolves off the list, DON'T let them be hunted back onto it!

Remember what happened last time the wolves were killed, and there weren't enough of them out there? The ecosystem collapsed. Deer populations, (which are still issues in some parts of the country) went wild, eating, then starving themselves out as they ate everything, killing their food supplies due to lack of control by predators. We NEED the predators!

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You know that site that's been circulating for the past few days, every since Jen posted that awesome interview with Miranda Dickinson? Authonomy.com, set up by Harper Collins? It sound like an awesome site, and a good opportunity for getting your work out there. Publishers, agents, and other people like that will be able to read it, and you get exposure. People get to read your books and comment on them. Publishers have actually published works by the authors there.

Well, apparently you can't use it unless you're over 18.

*sigh* I don't happen to be over 18, which means that option's out the window. What's with the rule, anyway? Doesn't make sense to me.

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You may have noticed that I took down the Other Blogs page I had up, with all you bloggers' buttons. I don't hate your buttons--in fact, many of them are quite nice, and I make those kind of images myself--but the format was acting up giving me tons of white space, and it's easier to just add people to the blogroll on my sidebar. So, if you were on the Other Blogs page, rest assured that you are on the blogroll. :)

(I might set up one of the moving, repeating sequences of buttons, if I can figure out how . . . or I may just put up the page again in the future.)

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It snowed ALL DAY yesterday. Non-stop. There are several inches on the ground right now, and it's supposed to snow more this week--hooray! Not that I get snow days, being homeschooled and all . . . but it's the symbolic aspect. Plus, I love snow.


-----The Golden Eagle

Random (But Still Awesome) Pieces of Life

Hooray for Talli Roland! She was all over the blogosphere yesterday--so many posts had that wonderful pink cover, spreading the word about her release! And The Hating Game got far on that bestseller chart. :D

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Dominic de Mattos at Writes of Passage awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award! I big thank you to Dominic for awarding me! :)

I will award:

Jules at Trying To Get Over the Rainbow

Caroline at A Writer's Life For Me

Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs

All of them are very Versatile, believe me. :)

(Well? What are you waiting around for? Read the rest of this post and follow them if you don't already!)

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I set up a playlist at the top of my blog, as you have no doubt noticed. It's entirely instrumental; I tend to like Christmas music better when no one's singing. It's all YouTube video, (made at YouTube Reloaded) since that seemed like the easiest playlist to make, and it has the added bonus of the listener also getting to watch, if they want to.

Many of them have lyrics, and if you want something really cool to see, check out the Mannheim Steamroller videos with the Christmas lights (we have a CD of some of his music--my favorite is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, which is up there.)

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It snowed yesterday! And last night, so there's snow on the ground right now. It's not a thick coating or anything, there's still a lot of grass poking up, but it's snow! *smile*

I hope you bloggers in the UK don't have any serious snow troubles, though; the recent bad weather made the national news here in the USA.

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You know those brilliant pieces of inspiration that pop up, and then you get that wonderful feeling of know where and when things are going to happen in your story? When things fall into place, after thinking hard and coming up with nothing for the past days . . . weeks . . . months?

I just had a moment of such inspiration, and I'm feeling really excited about my novel. It's a relief, actually, since the story was starting to feel kind of dull. Thank goodness for the mind.


-----The Golden Eagle

Happy Halloween! (Plus: NaBloWriMo, NaNoWriMo, And Random)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Hallowe'en. All Hallows Eve. Whatever you'd like to call it, today's the day! Have fun trick-or-treating, partying, whatever. :)

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Today is also the last day of NaBloWriMo! I have posted at least once every day for the entire month of October! Even more reason to celebrate.

But, if you're like me and have participated in NaBloWriMo, don't do party too hard! Because tomorrow is *drumroll*dramatic display* NaNoWriMo!


I know that I've said several times that I wasn't planning on doing this event. For many reasons, I told myself. It wouldn't be good for my novel, I said. It would be better to edit, I thought. I don't think word-vomiting all over my document would be a really great idea, I consoled myself.

*sighs* EXCUSES. But you know what? I've decided to change that. Because of a lot of factors. So, basically, I am going to be doing NaNoWriMo!

(If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is by now, I'm seriously going to question where you've been for the past month.)

I'm kind of pushing the deadline to sign up here, but I did sign up to do it! This will be my first year. But hey, I wrote 40,000 words last month, so it's just 10,000 more than that. So, the thing on my mind right now is, I am going to kill this challenge with everything I've got.

Here's the link to My Profile. Buddy me, if you've got an account. (I can't find a lot of you, because there's no "search" for the profiles or anything like that.) At first I wasn't sure about linking to it, but I managed to disable the Home Region thing, which would basically tell you where I live. Boo. I didn't want to do that.

I'll update you guys over there and on this blog with one of those word count widget-y things. I think I'll use the potato man one:

Anywho. Just get geared up for the absolute writing frenzy--it's 50,000 words, after all!

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Interesting, because they don't come around here often, but I saw a bald eagle yesterday! Just perched. It was sort of far away, but I could see the characteristic white head and dark brown body. It would be nice if it stuck around . . . but I doubt that.

Ever seen one?


It was snowing a few days ago. SNOWING. It just wet the sidewalk a little, but it's c-c-c-o-o-l-d-e-r than usual now. Even for the beginning of November, people are not usually shivering in a winter coat. It's supposed to get colder and stay that way for a while, too.


Have a great Halloween, all!


-----The Golden Eagle

Tag, Award, Random

The tag comes from Shaynie at The Book Blog! She tagged anyone who liked Sherlock Holmes. :)

1. Do you like Sherlock Holmes?

Yes!

2. Would you ever like to go overseas and work with a relief agency in a war-torn country?

It would depend on the type of relief work that I'd be doing. It would also depend on where I'd be doing the relief work . . .

3. Do you like foreign films?

I've never watched a foreign film. (Is this bad?)

4. Do you like writing?

No. I HATE writing! I loathe it! The beings who possess my mind and force me to write are cruel enough that they don't even make me like the awful chore!

*ends good-humored sarcasm* Yeah. I love it.

5. Will you be doing NaNoWriMo? What's your book about?

I'm not going to be doing NaNoWriMo, although I will try to write as much as I can next month.

As for what my book is about, it's . . . complicated. Not to mention it has CLASSIFIED written all over it, (even to my mom because I don't want to spoil the plot for her :D), but I can say that there are spaceships. And dictatorships.

6. What's your favorite animal?

I love lots of different animals, although I get the feeling you've already guessed I like birds of prey.

7. Have you ever been to a foreign country?

I was adopted from China, so yes, I HAVE been to a foreign country! Unfortunately, I don't remember a thing. I flew over Korea, (stopped in Seoul), Russia, and Canada. Plus Alaska.

8. Are your ears pierced?

Nope.

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The award comes from Rachel Morgan at Rachel Morgan Writes!


It is the Cherry On Top Award.

Thank you, Rachel! :)


I received this award a short time ago, and already answered the question, although it was phrased a little different than this: If I had the chance to go back and change one thing in my life, would I, and what would it be?


I'll answer it again anyways. No, I would not, because I've learned too much and done too much in my life to warrant going back and trying to change it. :)

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Now, for the random!


If you visited my blog yesterday, you may have noticed that I didn't appear to have published a post yesterday--when I DID. It was the book review of Krik? Krak! which I accidentally told Blogger to publish on the 17th. Darn. So, if you I slipped up on NaBloWriMo, I didn't!


Only an absolute bookworm would get hyper at the idea of traveling to two libraries in one day and getting out a million books at each, which I will presumably be doing tomorrow. They're both very good libraries, too. Plenty of YA, and MG, and Adult, and even DVDs. Utopia, people.


Which only makes me more frustrated when I learn that the District's representative wants to CUT THE LOCAL LIBRARY'S BOOK BUDGET DOWN TO ZERO. Otherwise known as nil. Zip. Nothing. They may have given the librarians a salary hike, but no new books if this budget thing continues!


They don't do interlibrary loans around here, either. Darn it!

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It's supposed to snow tomorrow. SNOW. It's only the end of October! Whew. But I don't mind--I actually like snow. :)


Have a great Thursday, everyone!


-----The Golden Eagle