Monthly Highlights - November 2016

   November literally flew by. I don't think I've ever felt like I lost so many days so quickly. I blame NaNoWriMo for everything. December ought to be less hectic.

   Anyways. I was too lazy (... or busy ... *shrugs*) to keep good track of everything that happened this month. We'll see how much I can track down and tell you guys about ...

   - Thanksgiving. Obviously. Much food (PIE), board+video games (Settlers of Catan, you guys <3), and singing. It was a blast. And I tried Turkish Delight for the first time! It is ... not what Narnia makes it out to be. But it was okay *shrugs*.  It's kinda like sticky, fruity candy covered in powdered sugar - depending on what flavor you eat.

turkish delight and me *nodnod* I personally like the green ones best

   - My younger sister (Skylar) played in her orchestra's concert and it was so fun to watch her perform (even if we already knew the songs - because she practiced like mad at home, dedicated thing that she is). She's crazy talented on the violin, I love listening to her play. Especially if it's a Narnia/Lord Of The Rings song - not that I'm biased xD.  

   - We set up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving! We were too excited to wait much longer than that - putting up the Christmas tree (and starting to play Christmas music - which I did the day before Thanksgiving xD) heralds in the Christmas season for us, and it's so much fun to do.

   - NaNoWriMo consumed everything for most of the month. But that's for the nest section ...

   - NaNoWriMo. That's honestly it. It took up all the writing things - I had no time for anything else! But at least I hit 50k, so yay for me xD.
   It was exhausting and hard, but most definitely worth it. And I was part of the most epic Google Hangout ever - we were all insane and hyper and super encouraging there. Definitely wouldn't have made it without them *highfives to all my Hangout buddies*
   I actually don't have much to say for this bit. Lots of madly banging on the keyboard and hoping words come out + insane conversation with friends when all my brain cells had been killed by words. It was lots of fun, and I'll definitely be doing it again next year xD.

   *blinks* Wait, I feel like I've forgotten something ... oh, snippets! *sighs* Oh gracious me. Alright, well, I guess I said I'd give you guys some (in an earlier post), so here they are. Entirely unedited, so don't judge.
   *takes a deep breath and shares the words*

   *looks at the snippets*

   *decides to pretend I never showed you* Carry on.

   *blinks*

   Yeah, so compared to last month's 29-or-so books, this is a pretty pitiful amount. But you know what's to blame for that ;). At least they were all pretty good books! I'll give you my thoughts on a couple of them ...

   - Some Kind Of Happiness (by Claire Legrand) I got this because the lovely Katie Grace raved about it crazy much, so I figured there must be something to it xD. And OH MY there was. I loved this book - and it's not the type of book I would normally read. I didn't want it to end, but at least the end was so well done. Definitely deserved the 5 stars I gave it (AND it was the only five star book I read this month *nodnod*).

   - Howl's Moving Castle (by Diana Wynne Jones) I still owe it to Tracey, Christine, and Deborahhttps://deborahocarroll.wordpress.com/ for pestering getting me to read this book. It is epicness and I love it so much. The characters are so amazing and quirky, and even as a third time re-read, I was still able to give it 4 1/2 stars. Which is a big deal because 1) I don't normally re-read books and 2) when I do, they normally get much lower ratings. But this book didn't get a low rating because it is epic, obviously.

   Ooh, also, I won another book this month! My friend Hosanna was having a giveaway for her novella, The Mystery Of The Midnight Trespasser and I was super stoked to win it - it looks great on my shelf and I'm excited to re-read her lovely book. You could should check it out, I think it would be a fun to read aloud to siblings (not that I ever would - I'm terrible at reading aloud xD).

   - Mary Horton got hacked (well, sort of, anyways. She basically knew what we were doing xD) by her friends from the Hangout. It was a blast to write this post congratulating her on beating NaNoWriMo, so go check that out *nodnod*.

   - Sarah Margaret's blog also got (kinda) hacked - and it was a Narnia post for her birthday. There was SO much excitement surrounding the making of this group post. 

   - My friend Hanna Rothfuss did one beautiful post about adoption after another ... and then she did another :D. She's an epic writer, go check her out, too.

   - Hannah White did an amazing post about comparison. Basically all her posts are goals and she's so crazy inspiring all the time. You all need to go follow her *shoos you away*

   - Abbie told everyone why they should play a musical instrument. And now I kinda want to get more serious about piano and violin again ...

   - Liv Fisher did a review on Fantastic Beats and Where To Find Them - a movie I really want to watch *nodnod*

   - Evangeline Yackel did an awesome post about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I still have very mixed feelings about that book.

   - Morning had the EPIC idea to put together an end-of-the-year blogger yearbook. So hurry up and jump over to her blog so that you can be a part of that, because you are not going to want to miss out on this.

   - My friend Micaiah is starting an Advent series on her blog that looks like it's going to be fun + she's having a giveaway, so you'll definitely want to check that out.

   - Abi Ellison is RELEASING A BOOK *shrieks happily* She shares the release date in this post here, so go check that out and remember that date ;).

   EDIT: (yes, my goldfish memory is coming into play again, but I had to add this xD) - Hanna also posted the first part of Catania's Forest, a serial story she wrote. It's a retelling of The Little Drummer Boy that she'll be posting through out December. *shoos you away to read that*

   -- Last month's goals -- 

   - Ace NaNoWriMo. It happened, it happened, you guys! *dies*  *does not think about All. The. Editing. that will have to happen*

   - No requesting library books. HA, no xD. I just couldn't help it! ... but at least I only got a few *shrugs*.

   -- This month's goals --

   - ... not making goals this month. I'll just let things happen as they do. It's Christmas season - which either means lounging around and reading a book or panicking about last-minute things that still need to get done. 

   Hopefully it is the former xD. 

   (because we all know that I'm constantly rambling xD)

   Actually, I don't have anything super planned out for December. I'll probably being joining in the Beautiful People linkup and I have a book (an anthology call 'Once') that I'm supposed to review, but other than that I have no idea. I'll just go with the flow *nodnod*.

   So THAT was the insanely writer-ly November of mine. Hope you guys had a good one, too - and I hope that it was a little less crazy than mine was xD.

~ Savannah Grace

How was your November? Tell me of all your adventures! And what are some posts that you guys want me to do in December?

28 Days Into NaNoWriMo - My Conclusion

   I just beat NaNoWriMo 2016 and I am so exhausted. So exhausted. *collapses* Enjoy my nonsensical rambling (I promise I'm more coherent when it's not the middle of NaNo xD)

   Day 1. I was totally ready to go. My story was going to rock and I couldn't wait to get started. Everything was wonderful and glorious and I basically was wheeling around in excitement, ready to try and write 50k with a bunch of other insane writers.

   The wiser people laughed and told me 'there is no way you will end up with that same attitude at the end of the month'.
   These wise people were correct. Because then came the writer's block. For those of you who don't know, writer's block is not good during NaNoWriMo. Not good. Also, my characters decided to run off and leave me wondering where I was, lost in the middle of some strange story.

   But I carried on and tried as well as I could to wrangle and beat my story into shape. My characters beat me right back, and mostly nothing got done. Somehow. This seemed wrong to me.

   But I think my characters just wanted a smarter author who wouldn't force them to behave for the whole of November. Especially when the author had no idea whatsoever about what was going on in her story.

my characters, complaining about me

   Anyways. Somehow the days kept rolling by, and soon enough I came to the last week of NaNoWriMo (not sure how that happened. I was kind of in a daze, I think) - and I was behind on my word-count. Which I had told myself I wouldn't do. But somehow it had happened, and I was internally freaking out.

   So I sat down and had a nice little chat with my characters, and promised them candy if they would just behave (last resorts, people, last resorts). Of course, they said no.
   So I sharpened my sword pen, decided not to take no for an answer, and went at it with all I had.
 

    Maybe it was my magic Legolas sword that helped - or maybe it was just that my characters thought they might as well indulge me for just one week - but I finished my story.
   I repeat, Savannah Grace completed NaNoWriMo 2016 (not sure how many of my brain cells survived through this endeavor, but still *shrugs*).

   
   But all NaNoWriMo writers know what it feels like to finish a story during this crazy November event. We kind of look at the 50k words we just wrote, and we're not sure what to think.
   I don't even know how half of my scenes (... or characters ...) got into my story, and half the characters I'm simply annoyed at xD.  

   Anyways. That was my little adventure (*cough* that took up the whole month *cough*). I don't know how much of my sanity is left after all that, but insane writers are the best writers.

   Also, BIG thank yous to all the writers who encouraged me to keep going during the whole of November, especially to all of you in the Hangout (and to my sister Skylar for surprising me with gel pens when I finally beat NaNo). Without all of those crazy word sprints (and our ridiculous/writer-ly conversations) I definitely wouldn't have made it xD. You're all the best!

   *deep breath* Okay, I'm done. And I may or may not be sharing some snippets from The Dreamer's Game in my next Monthly Highlights posts - so be on the look out for those *nodnod*.   

~ Savannah Grace

   How was your NaNoWriMo adventure, friends? Are you ready to start editing, or are you simply blocking all thoughts of it? If you didn't do NaNo this year, are you going to next year?
 

Fall-Tastic Favorites Tag

   I kinda wanted to do this in vlog form - but it was rainy and dreary today, so I decided not to. Oh well. Maybe I'll do a Q&A type vlog sometimes, but today is not that day. (plus, Mary already did this tag in vlog form just two days ago, so then I'd be a copycat xD)

   ANYWAYS, I'm rambling left, right, and center now. Onto the tag (thanks, Morgan!). 

   1. Favorite Fall Holiday

   So there are like ... *is lazy and doesn't count* very few major holidays in Autumn. But even if I'm picking out of all the holidays in the whole YEAR, Thanksgiving is one of my top favorites. We have the best time on Thanksgiving - all of us kids are super hyper (... like we are on all holidays ...) and we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade together while waiting for relatives to arrive. Then the real party starts. It's tons of fun xD.

2. Favorite Fall Ingredient: Caramel, Pumpkin or Pecan? 

   Huh. I actually don't eat much pumpkin stuff (*shields self from all the tomatoes now being thrown*), other than pumpkin pie, and peanuts don't make an appearance in this house much, due to allergies. So ... I guess I shall pick caramel *nodnod*. But seriously, I love caramel, you guys. It's so good.
 

3. Favorite Fall Movie

   What do you consider a Fall movie? *is confused* 

   Oh well. Mary (who, as I said, did this tag a couple days ago) said The Fellowship Of The Ring might be a fall-ish movie, and it seemed like quite a few people agreed. So I pick The Fellowship Of The Ring. If you guys know me, you probably know that I am a Lord Of The Rings addict and probably expected my answer to this question xD. But that movie is epicness. EPICNESS.  

 

4. Favorite Fall Candle

  
   We don't actually have any candles in our house - but I want some. I need some pretty, scented candles to put on my bookshelf and light when I'm writing. My bookshelf + writing space is sadly deprived of decorations. So I need to get some candles.  I would want ... I don't even know what kind of scented candles they have ... do they have pine? Because I would love pine. Or maybe cinnamon. *nodnod*. 

5. Favorite Fall Drink 

   HOT CHOCOLATE. I haven't had it in a shamefully long time, but I love it.

6. Favorite Item Of Clothing For The Fall

   Oooh, this was a pretty easy answer - I have a coat that I'm absolutely adore (*points to 'about me' picture*). Even if it's a little more winter-y, I've been wearing it in the fall because I love it. And then I pair it with boots because boots are epic.  

7. Favorite Fall Outing/Activity

   Oh good grief, this one is hard. One of the things I loved doing last year was going out every night with my sisters (and our friends who lived next door) to watch the stars and just talk. Even though that's not exactly an 'activity', I loved doing that.
   As for a more legit outing/activity thing - I love going to pumpkin patches with my family. We've been to multiple different pumpkin patches, some better and some worse, and it's always fun! 

8. Favorite Candy

   *tries to think of a candy I associate with fall* *fails* Maybe Reese's peanut butter cups? I kind of associate those with Fall, because we eat them a lot around Halloween time.

9. Favorite Fall Weather

   All of it. I love all the Fall weather. Foggy, freezing (well, freezing to other people - I'm not very good at feeling cold when I'm outside xD), raining. So long as it's Fall, I'll love it *nodnod*. 

10. Favorite At Home Meal 

   Basically any of Thanksgiving food ever *nodnod*. There is so much good food cooked around here on Thanksgiving! Especially my mom's mashed potatoes, I love those so much.
   Oh, and pie. Always pie. ALL THE PIE.   

   So there is my contribution to all the Autumn-ish/Thanksgiving posts that have been going up lately xD. Take the tag if ya want it, even if Fall is almost over (what is this tragedy?!).

   *waves goodbye to Autumn* *turns to watch Winter roll in*

~ Savannah Grace 

What kind of scented candle would you want? Should I do a Q&A vlog at some point?