Nothing else matters ...

Oh, journal! What a long, strange couple of months it's been. I almost don't even know where to start.

Since it's November, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo as I do every year. I've written close to 60K words on an Epic Zombie Masterpiece that is currently lacking zombies. I nearly gave myself a week long heart attack when my computer caught a nasty virus about a week and a half ago and I had to reformat the hard drive. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue since I keep all the important stuff on my external hard drive. However, this virus snuck in and hid all my external hard drive files.

I went from being at 32K words on my NaNo story to...OMG!WHERE'D IT GO? over the course of one agonizing night. I persevered and kept writing, despite not knowing what was going to happen with the first half of my novel or even if I'd be able to retrieve it. Fortunately, I have an awesome cousin who popped over one night and found all the files and fixed them up for me right good.

This was just about the most fantastic thing ever and I'm so thrilled to say that everything has now been recovered and backed up in triplicate. Also, I have so kicked NaNo's ass this year.

I've been very neglectful of all my online sites lately as I attempted to get things up and running, blah, blah, blah. However, Twitter and I have become extremely close and I'm turning into an insane tweeter. INSANE.

I won't be such a stranger in the future. I promise. I think.

Hailey, Cole and I are watching The Walking Dead again. Or at least the first episode. I freely admit that this series is well worth watching more than once. The fact that there are only six episodes total means that you can zip through the entire season very quickly.

So. Today at Cole's football game it started raining on us. I was like, "I can't have my Kindle out in the rain!" Which goes to show you what I do at my son's football games. So I sat in my car and watched the game from the parking lot.

I'm kinda the worse mom ever, aren't I?

Anyway. Books.
Book #195 - Hell by Randy Noble - And reason #1,263 why you shouldn't hitchhike and/or take rides from strangers.
Book #196 - Ecstasy by Bella Andre - Where I get to mention that the word "vagina" is not my favorite word for girl parts in erotica.
In My Mailbox - 19 books for six cents. I think I did pretty good this week.

Okay. We've switched over to season 4 of Stargate Atlantis. Have I ever mentioned that I'm kinda in love with Ronon? Jason Momoa is so damn big. And pretty. And his smile is just disarmingly melting. I think this means I'm going to be seeing Conan when it hits the theaters. Hello, sexy muscles!

On that note...
Later.

Seriously, I have a bunch of random stuff...

Random #1: One of our neighbors is incredibly anti-social and we rarely see her around the neighborhood. I mean, maybe once a week. Maybe. The other day my mom's looking out the window and she's like, "That package has been sitting in front of B's house for 2 days. If we start to smell something weird soon I'm calling the police." I was like, "What? You think she's mouldering away in the bathroom or something?" My mom was like, "I do." I wandered off with visions of Zombies and decaying corpses dancing through my head.

For the record, we still haven't seen B but the package has been mysteriously picked up.

Random #2: I myself got a package in the mail today. It was a book I ordered for a co-worker who didn't have an Amazon account. I kid you not, it took me more than 10 minutes to open the fucking thing. The vendor had wrapped it in packing tape - not the shiny, easily sliced packing tape either. Oh, no. It was the packing tape with threads in it. The ones you can't tear apart with your bare hands in a show of Hulk-like strength. Dear GAWD! I thought I was going to be found in a 100 years with that damn package clutched in my mummified hands and tear tracks carving salty trails down my withered cheeks.

Eventually I conquered the tape and managed to get the book out of the packaging. It was really touch and go for a while, though.

Random #3: I've worked out some of the backstory on how the Zombie Apocalypse started in my Zompocalypse story. I have three words for you: Cursed Glass Eye. I threatened Cole and his friend yesterday that if they didn't shape up I was going to write them into the story and they wouldn't be cool at all. Nope, not at all. They were actually excited about it so it didn't seem to be all that much of a threat.

Random #4: Blogger has been down for most of the afternoon. I'm just pleased that I wrote up those three reviews at work this morning. *fist pump*

And since I'm already talking about books...
Book #187 - Scary Mary by SA Hunter - Fun and fast, this is one of the freebies I picked up yesterday.
Book #188 - Random Acts of Senseless Kindness by Graham Parke - This short story was AWESOME! It was so out there and quirky that I laughed out loud AT WORK!
Book #189 - Dead Drop: A Lawson Vampire Bonus Story by Jon F. Merz - Okay, so this was a really short review but I really liked the writing style and thought it was a good introduction to the series.

Maybe I'll have more random fun tomorrow.
Who knows?
Later.

Hailey got it in her head the other day that she wanted to watch The Walking Dead. We only have the last episode left and she's all into it. I have great hopes that she'll survive whatever the forthcoming Zombie Apocalypse throws at us. Yeah, the Zombie Apocalypse. She's going to have some mad survival skills. She'll be bashing those Zombies in the head and destroying their brains before anyone else realizes that the walking dead have risen.

I am so proud to be able to write that.

In slightly less apocalyptic news, I worked hard today. I think this is the first day I've done this since I started. It was interesting. Especially when you factor in that I still managed to get half a book read at work. I kinda rock, guys. It's true.

And since I'm already talking about books, here's my itty bitty recap for today:
Teaser Tuesday - Angel Assassins, Weather Wardens and Ordinary Wizards!

And that pretty much sums up the day.
Later.

My wee beastly boy (who really isn't all that wee anymore seeing as how he's nearly as tall as I am. I can hear all of you that know how tall I am laughing hysterically at this point and saying that the fact that he's nearly as tall as me is nothing to write home about) slept from 6:30 last night until 6:30 this morning. The little brat was tired, I guess.

Anyway. For Mother's Day he gave me a Karma necklace shaped in a spiral that says "What goes around comes around". Lol! My kid knows me so well.

Hailey asked me if we could watch The Walking Dead earlier and naturally I agreed. Somewhere along the way I started chatting with oddmonster on Twitter about Zombies. I'm proud to announce that Odd shamed me into cracking open my Zompocalypse short and cranked out 450 or so words. Not great, I know, but I still have time tonight to get some more done on that. Hopefully I can finish it up in a few thousand more words and get back to writing the epic Zompocalypse Morgan Hill story. I'm not promising anything but there might possibly be a cursed glass eye that makes an appearance.

In totally random news, I started watching Game of Thrones and really wasn't all that impressed by it. Now, I wasn't fully focused on it so that might have been part of the problem but the first episode seemed incredibly slow. Incredibly. Like, I kept waiting for something to happen and finally I just turned it off. I'll try again at some later date but I'm not really feeling the love at this point.

So. Book stuff. Of which I don't have a ton.
In My Mailbox - A couple of fun ones. Yay!
As an aside, I'm going to attempt to get my TBR pile down by tracking it weekly on my IMM posts. My starting point? 224 books. Let's see how I do on taming that beast!

Okay. I have a sweeping story about Zombies and blood to write.
Later.

For not eating all that much why do I feel like I'm going to explode? Blech. To combat this I'm going to watch a few episodes of The Walking Dead. Because dead-ish things are always enjoyable on a full stomach.

But first...
In My Mailbox - I was a good girl this week. I spent less than $2 on books. I rock, babies. ROCK!

Time for Zombies!

I'm forcing myself to journal today because I like seeing all the days on my little calendar lit up at the end of the month. So, even though I have very little to say (because OMG! work was slow today!), here I am. Yay!

I thought that today, being the first Saturday of the month, would be busy. Boy, was I wrong. Slow slow slow slow slow. I read. I organized. I ate. You know, that's pretty much my normal Saturday so I don't know why I'm surprised. Maybe because I expected people to be in and out all day paying rent and stuff. Alas, no.

Anyway. I might have read a book or two. Okay, fine. I only read one. And I haven't even written the review for that one yet. This is yesterday's book that I was a slacker on and didn't write up until the afternoon. You know, it's like I never get caught up.
Book #131 - Embrace the Night Eternal (Envy Chronicles #2) by Joss Ware - I think this book is my favorite in the series so far. That might be because I read them out of order, though.
On My Wishlist (week 27) - The Sexy Men of Sci-Fi Edition.
In My Mailbox (04/03/11) - This is my Sunday post which I always end up putting up on Saturday night. I could change it so that it becomes the Saturday post but where's the fun in that?

Not terribly exciting, but there you have it.
Later.

I am tired right now. This is what happens when I miss my nap. And, OMG!, it was so, so, so so so so slow at work today. I was there from 10 to 5 and I think I saw a grand total of 10 people. Maybe. I read 2 books from beginning to end, for Pete's sake. That's cool and everything but at the same time it makes for a long day when you're stuck inside and it's raining out. Plus, we have snow on the hills behind my house so it's cold out. Coooooollllllld. I'm totally unprepared for the cold. All my gloves are fingerless and most of my shoes are open-toed.

Which reminds me that I'm on the hunt for another pair of boots. Again. I'm perpetually looking for boots. At least that's how it seems. But I have my eye on a pair from Hot Topic that tickle my fancy.

Okay. Books.
Book #79 - Don't Die Dragonfly (The Seer #1) by Linda Joy Singleton - My biggest complaint is that I don't think the high school aged main character acted like a teenager. She was too composed, too poised. Plus, her boyfriend was so vanilla it hurt. I'm sure you'd find the guy's picture in the dictionary next to "perfect".
Book #80 - Zombie Cupcakes by Zilly Rosen - Yes, I really reviewed a book about cupcakes. ZOMBIE cupcakes! Because zombies are awesome and everyone should totally be down with the undead cupcake phenomenon.
Book #81 - Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1) by Melissa Marr - Holy Hannah! I loved this book. It was so dark and gloomy and cruel. All the things I expect when I rad about Fae.

For the record, the Zombie cupcake book wasn't one of the 2 I read at work. I read it a few days ago and just hadn't gotten around to writing up a review on it.

So, there.
Later.

I've been so freaking tired today. Like, ridiculously so. I think I took a 3 hour nap earlier. Whoa. 3 hours is just about the upper limit for my naps. Anything over that and I'm just flat out sleeping.

Tomorrow is day 2 of my job. Have I mentioned that answering phones is one of my least favorite things to do ever? True story. And yet somehow I decided to go with a job that involves answering calls all day. Boo.

In other news ... no, there is no other news. But I do have some books to talk about.
Book #53 - The Zero Dog War: Zero Dog Missions #1 by Keith Melton - OMG! This book fucking killed me. Dead. It killed me dead and rolled my corpse looking for smokes. Of which I didn't have any because I don't smoke. Dudes. This book was so fun. FUN! There were zombies and mercenaries and a few steamy kisses... LOVED IT!
I also signed up for two more challenges: The Zombie Challenge and The Steampunk Challenge. Considering how many books in each of these categories I read in the month of January alone, I don't think I'll have any problems with these two little lovelies.

Okay. I'm done.
Later.

More writing done today. I am giddy about this. I also opened up the story that was formerly known as the NaNo story that wouldn't die and got a few paragraphs down. I'm going to have to take the lesson I'm learning with that story to heart: If I decide to slack off and ignore a story, it's hard to find the rhythm again. I'm just sayin'.

Randomly, I read this incredibly inspiring blog post by Amanda Hocking about how she became a writer and everything she excelled at was exactly the opposite of what she was told to expect (How Everything Went the Opposite of What I'd Been Told). Okay, maybe only people who have a yen to write and get published will appreciate it, but I thought it was really cool that she became self-published and made it work despite being told that she'd never be able to. It's cool. And it reminds me that there are always going to be things that don't fit the mold so giving up is not an option.

But back to my writing about the Zombie Apocalypse traipsing through Morgan Hill:

Working title: Zompocalypse

Today's snippet:

“Whatever, princess. Keep your stupid feminine products off the counter and I’ll make sure the seat gets put down after I piss.”
I squeaked and hurried down the hall, mortified that he’d say something like that in front of his friends. Feminine products! Oh, gawd!

Haha! Feminine products. I think I've already made 30 references to tampons and/or that time of the month. This story is totally whacked, guys! Totally whacked!

Okay. Books.
Book #11 - Ironside (The Modern Faerie Tales #3) by Holly Black - I loved the overall arc progression and character growth. Love!
Book #12 - Hollowland by Amanda Hocking - Zombies! Zombies in a shattered future! I loved it!

ON a book related note, I was approved to review a ton of upcoming books the other day. Like, 7 of them. I had to make a list for myself according to which ones come out first so I can read them in a timely fashion. You wanna see what they are?
Stone Kissed by Keri Stevens (already released)
Eternal Prey (Gods of the Night #3) by Nina Bangs (already released)
47 Echo by Shawn Kupfer (1/17/11)
Night Betrayed (Envy Chronicles #4) by Joss Ware (1/25/11)
The Mysterious Lady Law by Robert Appleton (1/31/11)
Cinderella: Ninja Warrior (Twisted Tales #1) by Maureen McGowan (4/1/11)
Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer (Twisted Tales #2) by Maureen McGowan (4/1/11)

Awesome-sauce!
Okay. I'm done now. I have to make sure Cole really did his homework before he goes to bed.
Later.