New Year's Resolutions

I don't always set out to make New Year's resolutions, but I really feel like doing it this year. So here goes. Feel free to share your resolutions in the comments!

1. Write more!
• First off, publish last year's NaNoWriMo novel, which is currently titled Oppressive Underground but will actually be getting a new title. I'm just a few chapters away from finishing with the initial writing, and then I have to edit like crazy. So please stay tuned for more news, and a cover, and a synopsis, and an actual official release date.
• I also want to write the third book in the Man's World Trilogy and get that edited and published, too!
• If I have time, I'd love to finish up my NaNoWriMo novel from 2012 and get that all polished. But that's at the bottom of my list.
• Write more blog posts! Seriously. I will put it into my schedule.
2. Read more!
• I joined the Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge. This is my third year doing the challenge. You should join, too! Set a goal for how many books you want to read this year, and Goodreads will track them. You can change your goal at any point during the year if you're feeling adventurous (or if you're falling behind). I set a goal for 50. Which is a lot. But I really want to read more books than I have been lately. University keeps me busy, but I will have to make time!
• I'm looking to join other reading challenges. I'll post them all here on my blog. If you know of any reading challenges, especially ones involving young adult or new adult books, let me know!
3. Volunteer more!
• I really need to get some psychology experience on my resume.
4. More social networking!
• That means tweeting and updating my Facebook page. Seriously. 

New Year's Eve

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!

There's something exciting about a new year, isn't there? Brand new year, brand new start. Every 31st of December, I have this incredible feeling, a feeling that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to in the next 365 days. It's thrilling.

Tonight, my family is having some super close friends over for snacks, dinner, dessert, and general good times. I'm sure we'll play some video games, check out the goings on in Times Square, and just catch up.

Tomorrow, I will be posting about my New Year's resolutions. To be honest, I'm not yet sure what they all are! Definitely some involving writing, and school work, and reading. I will definitely be publishing at least one new novel this year, so stay tuned for that! It's been taking longer than I had hoped.

What are your plans for New Year's Eve, and the New Year?

Nearly Christmas

This afternoon, I wrote my Abnormal Psychology exam, which was my third of four exams. My final exam isn't until next Tuesday, and since that is a week away, I decided to go home in between, so I am writing this on the train.

My last exam is Statistics in Psychology. I am not too worried about it. Since our class didn't do too well on the midterm, our professor scaled our grades up, apologised for making the exam too difficult, and promised to make the final easier. This was something that has never happened to me in a course before. I've never had a professor apologise for our low grades! On top of all that, he told us what each of the short answer questions are on, and he also broke down the multiple choice, telling us  how many questions there are on each chapter. So now, I just have to go through my lecture notes to make sure I grasp the concepts, and then do a bunch of practice problems to make sure I can apply the concepts, and I should be just fine. And that's my last exam, so, right after that, I'll be going home for Christmas!

Ah, Christmas. It is absolutely, without a doubt, my favourite holiday. The decorations, the music, the Christmas specials on TV, being with my family, just relaxing by the fireplace. Going to church on Christmas Eve and singing carols, and then coming home and unwrapping the new pyjamas my parents buy my sister and I every year before watching a movie and then heading to bed. Even though I am now nineteen years old, I can never fall asleep on Christmas Eve. It's such a magical night, isn't it?

And Christmas morning is just the greatest. I still wake up bright and early. Last year must have been the first Christmas that I slept in past 7 . . . and I woke up at 8! Heading downstairs and opening our stockings in search of the Laura Secord marshmallow Santas I've loved since I was a little kid. Those are usually my breakfast. Well, those and the ham and asparagus crepes that we make the day before! Then we spend the morning opening gifts, and calling our family to wish them a merry Christmas, and to thank them for all they gave us. Even my dog has a stocking and gifts under the tree! No way we could leave out our favourite family member.

The rest of the day we spend lounging about, talking, laughing, enjoying our new gifts, snacking on Christmas snacks. And then an early turkey dinner with all the fixings. I love spending all that time with my family. It's the best feeling in the world. We usually end the day with a Christmas movie. 

I'm really excited to be going home, because we are decorating the Christmas tree tomorrow. That has to be one of my favourite Christmas traditions. I do miss going to get the Christmas tree, though. My family and some close family friends go to a Christmas tree farm every year, where you take a tractor ride and actually chop down your own tree, before grabbing some free cookies and hot chocolate and sitting on log stools by a fire. I haven't joined them in two years. Maybe next year I will.

Are you looking forward to Christmas? What are your favourite traditions?

NaNoWriMo 2012 & Other Things

Hey everyone!

I've been so busy with writing my NaNo novel, not to mention school work, that I haven't even had time to post about NaNoWriMo yet.

In short, I'm behind. On my NaNo wordcount, I mean. As for school work, I am keeping up just fine, thank you. And my grades are there to prove it!

Anyway, I'm just about at 20,000 words. My novel is called Phantom Desires. For a while now, I've wanted to try my hand at a modern day, young adult retelling of my absolute favourite story, The Phantom of the Opera. And I like how this is coming along. The problems I've run into so far are:

• Raoul is rather one-dimensional, and I am having a lot of trouble making my version of his character likeable.
• The romance between Raoul and Christine seems to come out of nowhere, and while that works in the stage version, it's not going to fly in a novel.
• The Phantom is actually really creepy. I've always been enamoured by his character in the musical and movie, but now that I am writing him as a 21-year-old man in modern times, I've realized that a modern-day, 17-year-old version of Christine just wouldn't put up with that at all.

Still, I do like what I have so far, even if it will need an awful lot of editing. And I have changed all the characters' names, except for the Phantom's...I used Erik, which is his name in the Gaston Leroux novel that the musical is based on. And I recommend that book, by the way. Very different from the musical (not nearly as romantic and about a hundred times creepy) but still good in its own right.

Once I finish this novel (which probably won't be for a while...outside of November, it's low priority), I will publish it to Smashwords and Amazon. But it will be free, since it does borrow characters and story elements from both the novel and the musical. I think as long as I provide it for free and give credit where credit is due and state that I do not own any of the characters etc. then I should be safe, but I will have to look into it. I will make it available somehow, though, whether as an ebook or just online. Even on my blog, maybe! I could post a chapter a week or something.

Oh, actually, I decided not to use chapters in this novel. I know, how artsy of me. So maybe a decently sized chunk a week? That could work.

But my number one aim would be to provide it as an ebook. 

But first I need to finish it! Which, as I said, won't be for a while. I need to finish up with Oppressive Underground, which, you may recall, was my NaNo novel from last year and is coming along quite nicely. I've almost finished up the plot, and then comes the hours and hours of proofing and editing. And then publishing! Yay!

And then I need to write Rise of the Women. Getting that written is long overdue, I know! 

Good luck to my fellow NaNoWriMo participants. I know that it is no easy task, so just try your best and have fun with it!

Thanksgiving 2012

There are only two countries in the whole world that celebrate Thanksgiving, and here in Canada, it's happening this coming Monday, October 8.

So, I am home for the weekend, and not going back to school until Tuesday morning. I have an exam on Tuesday, but it is very hard to concentrate on work here at home! I haven't seen my family in weeks, and that includes my dog, Maggie, who was very excited to see me! I've mostly just been catching up on things I've missed at home, and laughing, and eating. It's nice to have someone else cook for me. And it tastes a lot better, too! Tonight we had lasagne, and I think we're having roast beef tomorrow night, with all the trimmings. It's good to be home.

We were all sitting around watching season three of Modern Family on DVD. I just love that show! So clever. I'm excited for the hour of new episodes this Wednesday. Then we watched Dark Shadows, which was strange but pretty entertaining. It's nice just hanging out with the family, doing nothing in particular. Very relaxing!

I'm also trying to fit in some writing. I would just love to finish last year's NaNo novel before NaNoWriMo 2012 starts...soon!

Are you a fellow Canadian, celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend? If so, what are your plans? And if you're a neighbour to the South, how will you be celebrating in November?

Naming Your Characters

A lot of the time, when I come up with an idea for a novel, the characters are nameless. I can see them, I just don't know what to call them yet.

Sometimes, names for characters just come to me. Robin Bailey, for example. Not really sure how I came up with it. I just...did. Seems like a good name for a brave girl like her, doesn't it? And the first and last name seem to really go together. I actually think I made up most of the names for that series on the spot. There are a few exceptions. When I created Bartholomew, I wasn't sure about his name right away. But since Nathaniel is a Hebrew name, I thought Dr. Rollins's brother should also have a Hebrew name. And they both sound so elegant and sophisticated, which is how they try to come off. Also, I had a hard time deciding on Riley's last name. Riley, of course, is an Irish name, so I browsed a long list of Irish surnames before I settled on Jenkins. Again, it just sounds right!

If you're stuck and looking for inspiration, I like to look at baby names web sites. My favourite is babynames.com. You can browse names by gender, origin, number of letters, and what the name starts with. So if you have a character with French ancestry, look up some French names. If you want a three-letter guy's name, you can do that, too. I've been using this a lot for my works-in-progress. It's also neat because you can see the meanings of the names, so maybe you'd like to choose a name whose meaning relates to your character's personality.

Finally, maybe you need a name that sounds like another name. For example, for my NaNoWriMo 2012 novel, I'm making a modern retelling of a rather famous story. [Hint: My NaNo novel is called Phantom Desires.] So, I tried to choose names that are similar to the existing characters's names. Again, this is where baby names web sites come in handy! I used the "starts with" feature. My protagonist's name just had to start with a C, and one of her love interests had to start with an R (more hints . . . please tell me you're catching on!), so I entered that info into the search and voilà!

If you need surnames, just Google surnames of the origin you want, like I did for Riley Jenkins. Those are harder to think of, for sure. I think it helps if you already have a first name. Then you can test out how the first and last names sound together.

I hope this helps you! Or, maybe you have your own strategies for naming your characters. If so, I'd love to hear about them in the comments. I could use the help!

Back to School!

Yesterday, I finally moved everything I'll need into the house I'm renting for the school year. My room is absolutely amazing. It's a loft that spans the entire length of the house, so it's huge! I'll be sure to post a picture later.

Today is the first day of class here at University X. I know a lot of colleges and universities started already, but our school has this crazy frosh week (which was last week), so classes are put off till the week after the week of Labour Day.

I only have one class today, too, which makes it pretty easy to ease back into the routine. My class is at 4:00 this afternoon. Till then, I'm going to finish tidying my room (that's why I won't be posting a picture just yet!) and then head down to campus to buy my new books and sell some of my old ones. The class I have today is called Statistics in Psychology, which is mandatory for everyone majoring in psyc. I know it doesn't sound like the most fun class in the world, but it's my first second-year psyc course, so I am, well, psyched!

The other courses I'm taking this semester are Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, and Comparative Cognition. Now those sound like fun!

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a psyc nerd.

I want to fit writing in my schedule, too, but it'll probably take me a little while to settle in. I'll update this blog as often as possible, though!