Monday, October 28, 2013

Random Thoughts - NaNoWriMo Edition


Less than 4 days until NaNoWriMo starts!

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This is our family's 5th year participating.
We've won the past 4 years.

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I'm our area's municipal liaison again!
Headquarters sent me a VERY bright Neon Yellow-Green shirt 
to commemorate the occasion.
I shall don it proudly.

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Nothing gets me jazzed for NaNo like a great author event.
This one was absolutely top notch!
(We attended the one discussed near the bottom of the post - 
the one with the awesome-looking cupcakes
to match the book cover).
Whoever was behind that deserves serious praise.

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Fine.
 Lazy.
I'll show you the pictures I took of the cupcakes:


Aren't indie bookstores the best?!?














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A.S. King is an extremely dynamic, engaging, captivating speaker.
I had read so much about her on her website 
that I knew we were in for a treat.
And even then, she exceeded my expectations.
Support this author! Buy her books!










Amy does a reading

And receives an award



























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 While there, we met one of the students that she mentors.
Joe McGee was so kind to talk to us while we waited in line
(a second time, mind you - 
she was so awesome, we waited in line TWICE:
we got several books signed the first time
and the second time we took pictures with her).











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Also? Amy was gifted a first edition copy of
To Kill a Mockingbird.
My jaw met the floor.
What a great gift!

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Sooooo, Joe.
He was ridiculously nice
 and super sweet and encouraging about writing 
and he shared so much great information with us.
He is a writing professor as well as an author himself.
I love to meet people who are passionate about what they do!
We've been in email and blog contact ever since.

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Now I wish we'd gotten a picture with Joe, too.
We'll have to do that when he does signings for his book! :)

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Joe's book comes out next fall - watch for it!
and it's a children's illustrated book about a zombie
who wants to eat a PBJ rather than brains.
How cute is that?!?

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And get this.
Today, he posted a beautiful post on his blog
 that mentioned us all, particularly Kate.
I'm not going to lie - I got misty-eyed.

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Great, great author event.
I am PUMPED for NaNoWriMo.


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 We've got a ton of write-ins set up for the entire month
and we are all really, REALLY excited.

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Mark and I are writing 2 books together this time.
We had so much fun writing one together in 2011
that we want to do it again.

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The kids are, as usual, voraciously devouring their YWP manuals
in preparation for writing a TON of words.

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My TBR (to be read) pile keeps growing - 
bad timing when I'm trying to concentrate on writing a novel.
It includes:

Everyone Sees the Ants by A.S. King
Reality Boy by A.S. King
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
One of my daughter's books (Fantasya)
Hoot by Carl Hiassen
Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
and many, many more.

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My Top 3 favorite books so far this year include:

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The Fault in our Stars by John Green
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

I also love The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
(The film adaptation did not disappoint)
and I just read The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier 
for our book club book this month.
All excellent reads.
Highly recommend!

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Enough procrastinating.
Back to my list of "Things To Do Before NaNoWriMo" -
one of my goals includes not laughing when I look at the list.

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Writing this post was not on the list.
Ahem.

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9 comments:

The Magic Violinist said...

LOL, with no mention of Kirsten being there with us, it's almost like she was your kid since she was in the pictures with us. ;)

That even was seriously AWESOME. I clicked over on the link that had pictures of Amy's tour(s) and did you see that she got a Kindle signed by Neil Gaiman, John Green, and Rainbow Rowell?!?! That's the first item on my wishlist once I'm published.

Emily said...

I've never been to a book signing, can you believe it? I've had books signed y Brandon Mull but that doesn't count because he did that at church for me. :)

Emily said...

Ugh, by.

Good luck with NaNoWriMo Foleys!

Anonymous said...

Cool waht Joe McGee had to say about Kate. And enjoy NaNo!

And I recommend that you add The Orphan Master's Son to your reading list.

Dr. Mark said...

Great (distraction) post. That was a seriously fun night, and Joe is fantastic. I'm looking forward to our books together! Go NaNoWriMo!

Boquinha said...

Hilarious, Kate! I hadn't noticed I did that. She fits in so easily around here!

And I DID see that e-reader cover. WOW!

Emily, they are REALLY fun and inspiring. And thanks!

Jimmy, thanks! Adding it to my list . . . I've heard of that one.

Mark, me, too. :) I think seeing "Enough Said" and "Blue Jasmine" were good prep. Maybe we should be doing films, too?

Dr. Mark said...

Films? Maybe. I wouldn't be opposed. Or, when one of our novels is a hugely popular best-seller, we can write the screenplay!

Boquinha said...

I think it was the shots of the hairbrush and the baseball in the kitchen drawer that made me think, "I love those visuals! A quick shot like that tells so much!" I was thinking about how to incorporate details like that into a novel, too.

Dr. Mark said...

Yes! It's that kind of stuff that makes a huge difference.