Chrysalis - prompt 1

Prompt 1 is up!! I am already over the 1000 word limit...just gotta figure out how to finish the story. Hehe. I'm still not sure where it's going.

We already have a few people participating. Exciting!!

Now, I thought I'd get some more Reverb10 done...yes, after the fact. But I am determined to finish!

December 22: Travel

In 2010 I started out the year in Canada, where my mum and I had been for Christmas and New Year's with my brother who lives there now. We spent that time with him, his wife-to-be and her family, and had an amazing time. Those people are incredibly generous and fun-loving, and they only wanted to entertain us. In short, we're lucky to be marrying into such a family. Hehe. Then again, they're lucky to be marrying into ours too. I also travelled to the U.S. again in August-September, to hang out with friends and go on a road trip from L.A. to Atlanta and back again. It was amazing! As for travelling in 2011, I am going to my brother's wedding, leaving early on January 20th and returning by February 4th. Other than that, I may or may not get peer-pressured by a work colleague to travel to the U.K. I can't really afford it, but she is pretty persuasive. :D

December 23: New Name

If I could introduce myself to strangers by a new name just for one day, I'd probably introduce myself as Squeaky McLean, mouse detective. After all, that's who I was supposed to be in a former life. ;)

December 24: Everything's OK

The best moment from the year that proved everything is all right? Probably the moment when I stopped to reflect on all I had achieved in 2010, writing-wise, and could look back and go, Yeah, I did okay this year! It was a pretty good year! And going into the new year, I managed to set myself greater challenges which I am confident I can achieve.

December 25: Photo

I think this photo encapsulates who I am, quite nicely. My friend Joni and I in her home in L.A., drinking wine and me pulling a silly face. Yep, that's so me, all round.

And nobody took it technically, unless you count the table. Well, either Joni or I pressed the button, and I think it was Joni who set the camera in that particular position, but it was my camera. Joint effort?

Reverb10 days 15-21

I know I reported this when it happened (the finishing of revision part anyway), but I just wanted to reiterate that I have already crossed off one of my 2011 goals from the list. Which can be found at the link below.

Writing G O A L S + 2011

Namely the finish revision of Sundown and order the proof copy. So yeaaaah, ahead of the game I am! Feels good. I'm pumped. Watch out.

(That was meant to sound like some hot-headed boxer before a big game)

Now, back to what I intended to mostly use this entry for...the latest reverb10 crap.

December 15: 5 Minutes

I'll completely lose my memory of 2010 in five minutes? Well sheeet! What would I want to remember most? Probably my trip to the United States - lots of fun - and then all the writing achievements I had this year. And also the foster kitties I took care of for a while. Totally adorable, if ultra needy and...exasperating at times. Hehe. Oh, and discovering my absolute love of the band Lacuna Coil. Yeah, I'm slow off the uptake sometimes, but I uptook them big time!! My interaction with Billy Corgan on Facebook, before he took down his page (ahhh, the heartache!). The wonderful characters I spent time with during the year (mostly my own, but also those in books I read as well). Seeing the latest Twilight movie (sue me!) and the latest Harry Potter movie. Umm...yeah. That about sums it up. And I think my 5 minutes are up.

December 16: Friendship

I think I have to thank my critiquing buddies for how they've changed my life this year. They've really caused me to get more serious about my writing. I guess it's ironic to think I wasn't serious before, when I had already written such a ridiculous number of words across my lifetime. But the truth is, I write just for me, and yeah it'd be awesome to be published someday, but even if I'm not I doubt I could ever stop writing. It's not so much a love as a compulsion, but of course I do love it. Still, I want to thank my critiquing buddies for all the time and effort and enthusiasm and advice and inspiration they've given. You gals are awesome!

December 17: Lesson Learned

The best thing I learned about myself was probably that I am resilient, and can bounce back from stuff. I also have the ability to take advice and work with it, in other words I'm open-minded. How will I apply that lesson going forward? Well, the obvious answer is related to my writing. I'm not going to give up even when the going gets rough and I experience those waves of disillusion. I won't give up, and if I should ever start to lose the passion for writing, I'll make changes to ensure I'm not taking it so seriously.

December 18: Try

Next year I want to try and achieve the longest list of writing goals I've ever set myself (see links to goals above). I'm pretty confident I can do so, but it's going to be a pretty exhilarating challenge! I am going to try my best to stay inspired the whole year through. And I am going to try and get at least one novel ready for submission. Because I'm motivated, damn it!

December 19: Healing

I think my characters really helped me out this year, in that they went through the wringer and experienced some of the things I've been through myself (death, pain, loss, blah blah). Writing their stories was difficult at times, because I really felt mean putting them through all that. Then again, the story sort of wrote itself, so it's not really my fault. Right?

December 20: Beyond Avoidance

What did I not do/avoid doing this year? Try to get a date. Wait, was that really bad date with the spandex-wearing stingy bastard from this year, or was it last year? I can't remember. But yeah, I didn't try at all to work on my love life. I'm just not sure I want to. Imagine if I had a clingy boyfriend who wanted to take up all my time outside of work? How would I ever get any writing done?!?! So I guess that answered the last part of the question, that being "Will you do it?" I...don't know.

December 21: Future Self

Five years from now, I am hoping I will have published something, and will be fulfilled in my life, and still be inspired the way I am today. That's my fondest wish. Not too much to ask for, right? And...as for myself ten years ago...yikes!! I'd say, "Don't worry, someday you'll have more than one friend, you will have travelled heaps and seen the world and proven to it that you're capable of being an independent self-sustaining woman. Congratulations to the future you, life WILL get better! Oh, and you will lose about 10 kg. Good job!"

Reverb10 days 8-14

December 8: Beautifully different

I'm beautifully different in a few ways. Peer pressure has always sort of slid off me like water, the duck, you know? I've never had one puff on a cigarette, never taken drugs, etc. I like alcohol, but if I'm not interested in another drink, you can't make me have one. Everyone seems to think this is some inherent strength of will I have, but in fact it's just me doing what I want to do. I've never even been tempted to do drugs or smoke. It's not a struggle for me to stay away from those things, because I don't want to do them!

What do I do that lights people up? I guess I think I'm pretty funny. Mostly sarcasm, though. I know some people don't like sarcasm. But I love it, and I do it. Plus, I love my own company, so it never surprises me that other people do as well. Does that make me arrogant? I don't think I'm arrogant. I just appreciate the good things about myself. Not everyone loves me, this I know from experience. :) But I'm okay with that, most of the time. Sometimes it hurts to realise somebody actually dislikes you. But since I don't think about it most of the time, I don't hurt over it most of the time. OK, I think that's Dec 8 done. LOL.

December 9: Party Prompt

I would say that this year my favourite party night was my 30th birthday night, when all sorts of friends and some family got together, different groups at different parts of the night, and we had some drinks and listened to some great music and danced our little butts off. I wound up sleeping alone from about 6:30 am outside on my mum's backyard deck, and it was cold. But even that couldn't ruin my birthday. Even some really idiotic behaviour by at least a couple of guests couldn't ruin my night. It was a fun night, and the worst part of my hangover was lack of sleep.

December 10: Wisdom
The wisest decision I made this year? I honestly don't know. I didn't make any major decisions this year. Maybe I could cop out and say the wisest thing I did this year was start this blog. LOL. Seems to be panning out quite nicely.

December 11: 11 Things I don't need in 2011 & how to prevent them

1. Heartache/loss - not sure I can prevent this, but I can hope it doesn't come my way
2. Weight gain - will try to give myself treats when I need them but not as often; will continue to not drink during the week unless at someone else's house :P
3. Crime (i.e. house getting broken into, car getting stolen) - be careful to lock my windows and doors :)
4. Being fired - work hard, be proactive, make new projects for myself
5. Excessive procrastination (with my 2011 goals, just won't have the time!!) - stay motivated and inspired! I guess by switching to different projects if I get bored with one; keep up with critiquing group & other writing groups
6. Car troubles (doubt this will happen, what with my shiny NEW car!) - service car when needed
7. Yet another reason to have to travel to Canada (not that I hate going, it's just my bank account hates me) - this is out of my hands, sup to my brother
8. Maxing out my credit card again - be more careful with money! I know I can do this easily
9. Computer troubles - not much I can do to prevent this
10. Another year of being single - eh...not much I want to do to prevent this. That probably doesn't make sense
11. Getting evicted - don't think this will happen, landlady likes me, but will just have to continue taking care of the place; do more gardening! or weeding, rather

December 12: Body Integration This Year

When did I feel most integrated with my body? Um...probably when I was asleep each night. LOL. Or maybe when we were driving across the States and I was listening repeatedly to Lacuna Coil's "Wave of Anguish", or on the way back into L.A. when I was listening to my Purplene playlist.

December 13: Action

My next step for making ideas happen is to keep looking back at my 2011 Goals list and squealing over how excited I am, and to try and ensure I don't ever stop feeling excited. I can't wait to not only write new stuff but to (and probably especially this) hone the writing I do have already. Honing is my new best friend!

December 14: Appreciate

What have I come to appreciate most in the past year? My alone time each night when I get home from work, my alone time on the weekends, but the good times I've had with friends as well. And my family, of course. Still, I truly adore my alone time. I'd go insane without it. There's a reason I live alone, people. ;)

And now, before I go, the current SUNDOWN wordcount: 127,742. It's really creeping down at a snail's pace, but at least it's not creeping back up! I did however glimpse the prologue last night, and impulsively begin to edit, and even to wonder if I can rip out most of the first section. So yeah, I get the feeling my third revision could be the most productive yet.

Over 'n out! And thanks to everyone who's stopped by lately. :)

Reverb10: days 1-7

I saw this mentioned on Jenni's blog, and thought it looked like a fun way to end the year. I also took a leaf out of her book (no pun intended with the 'book' part) and decided to do it a week at a time, in 'digest' form. Ha.

What's Reverb10, you ask? Check it out here. And now let's get on with it...

December 1: One Word

The word I would use to describe this year is "travel" - I started out the year still in Canada after spending Christmas with my brother, his girlfriend and her awesome family. A more traditional Christmas I don't recall ever having. By the time I got back to Australia, my fondest wish was to never have to eat again. I did, of course, but it felt so good not to be stuffing my face and puffing out even more than I already had. Phew. Later in the year, August/September to be exact, I travelled again to the States to hang out with friends. We did a roadtrip from L.A. to Atlanta and back again. Awesome fun, but it was good to get out of that car at last. And then I had to plan my travels in January '11, when we're going back to Canada for my brother's wedding. It sounds like a chore, doesn't it? But somebody's gotta do it. And truthfully, I look forward to being able to spend money on other stuff at some point in the future. But I still wouldn't change it for the world! This travel bug ain't going away. Sometime I will have to write about other travels I've done - world trips and the like.

December 2: Writing

I guess if I didn't work full time, I'd get a lot more writing done. Theoretically. During November however, I realised that I was averaging 5,000 words a night on weeknights, whereas sometimes the weekend days yielded even less than that, and I often had most of those days free to write. I guess I haven't lost my procrastination skills even now that my studies have been left far behind. Still, I guess things that get in the way of my writing are other things I like to do online, like check out my Last.fm charts, check my email, watch Billy Corgan (Official)'s updates on Facebook, and hang out with my WoT friends at A'vron Ayende. Again though, I'm not sure I want to trade any of that in for JUST focusing on writing/editing. Why? Because I'm sure I'd burn out in 10 seconds flat if I didn't have my methods of procrastinating, and then I'd get nothing done.

December 3: Moment

One moment during which I felt alive? Probably driving through a thunderstorm - and magnificent it was too - in Oklahoma, wishing it would turn into a real live tornado. Yeah, maybe I'm a thrill seeker, to a degree. Hehe. The clouds were truly stunning, and I got some great photographs. There was another amazing storm on the way back to California, when we were in Texas or possibly New Mexico. Got some wonderful photographs of raindrops from that. So yea, I felt alive, and glad to be, then.

December 4: Wonder

How did I cultivate a sense of wonder in my life? I guess I was just inspired right through the year, following on from last year's NaNoWriMo. My life is pretty fun, even if there are areas that are experiencing a severe lack. Some areas. I've got a cool career (librarian), I get to travel quite a bit, I'm loving what I'm writing, I live in a beautiful seaside town with photo opportunities galore, I've got lots of friends and a great family...it's hard not to have a sense of wonder when reflecting on all this.

December 5: Let Go.

I probably didn't let go of anything this year. I think this year was a rather uneventful year in terms of breaking off ties, or getting rid of bad rubbish, or any of that. But wait, I did let go of something: my twenties! Yes, this year I turned 30, and I didn't hate it at all. Not that I precisely loved it, but my party was heaps of fun, and naturally it had a great playlist since I made that playlist myself. Hehe.

December 6: Make

The last thing I made was a painting (I hadn't painted in ages, and it was fun to get back into it, though I haven't returned to it since completing these two paintings). I think that's the last thing I made...

December 7: Community

Well, I've only recently started up this blog, and I am determined to make some good contacts via Blogger, hopefully get some new writing friends and sources of inspiration for me going into the new year. I am inspired already about 2011, but I want to stay that way, and if I can help others be inspired too, then that's even better. I've really enjoyed interacting in the NaNoWriMo community this year, and also the Last.fm community is awesome as ever. And yeah, I guess that goes to show that I get most of my community interaction online, not in person. There is a great community in my place of employment, though, and I get to work with some of the most awesome people ever. So I'm very blessed there.