Read Your Own Books Readathon

It's been a while since I've participated in a readathon, and I love this one cuz it forces me to ignore my library books and such.

My goals are to finish as many of my my "currently-reading" on Goodreads, which are:

JRR Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter (finished)-Excellent, suspenseful biography!

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathon Stroud (finished)

The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan (finished)- I cried. Yeah whatever.

Idylls of the King and a Selection of Poems by Tennyson (finished) - So sexist, but good poetry!

The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

X-Wing: Iron Fist by Aaron Allston

I probably won't get to all of those, so the top three are my shortlist. :)

Snacks:

vats of A&W Root Beer

tortilla chips and salsa

apple slices

Chips Ahoy *Chunky*

Reading Area:

Pretty much anywhere, but most likely my bed or the living room couch. :) I don't notice my surroundings much when I'm in a book, so.....kinda irrelevant.

Update (Saturday):

I dunno why but I am completely uninterested in The Amulet of Samarkand. So I'm working on Tennyson instead.

Update (Sunday):

I figured out my page count so far: 576. Not much, really, but I'm pleased so far anyway. I'm going to do my best to finish "Amulet" today but I have some social things going on so we will see!

Summer Goals (Awkward Turtle Version)

I know, I haven't blogged in forever. I am ashamed. Truly, truly ashamed. I'm not even going to make any excuses or promises right now.

However, I HAVE made goals for the summer, and I would like to share them:

Writing:

• Finish the rough draft of "Batty Batty Bats," my current project which is awesome. I REALLY need to finish it this summer though, because it's eating my brain, and I don't want it eating my brain when Nanowrimo rolls around.
• Write three more short stories for the Unholy Trinity short story challenge. I actually need to write these in the next....four days. No biggie.

Reading:

• Catch up on the Wheel of Time series. This means I need to read The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight. They're both like 800 pages long.
• read many, many many more books. But I don't want to specify which ones, cuz I'll never stick to it. Let's say 20 total.
• Finish Tolkien: A Biography and The Idylls of the King
• I also really want to reread Fruits Basket, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, and Death Note. Does that make me a bad person? :/

I hope you are all doing well! I'm sorry I've been so inactive. Maybe I will be strong and do some reading challenge updates here soon?

If you would like to stalk me thoroughly, I spend a lot of time here: http://bahnree.tumblr.com/ and here: http://twitter.com/#!/bahnree I occasionally talk about books and writing. ^_^

December Goals

I'm posting this before I chicken out. ;)

1. Post once a day on this blog (I have a huge back-log of planned posts...it's pathetic)
2. Read these books:

How To Ride a Dragon's Storm by Cressida Cowell (awesome series)

Silver on The Tree by Susan Cooper (awesome series)

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (author I want more of)

The West Wood by Charles deLint (author I haven't read before)

Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech (lovely author)

Torch Red by Melody Carlson (pretty much the only Christian-fic author I read)

Gamer Girl (bargain book)

Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy by Ally Carter (bargain book; pretty good series)

Johnny Tremain (gift, Newbery winner I think)

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (sci-fi classic that I just need to read)

Foundation by Isaac Asimov (same as above)

Tuesdays With Morrie (used book bargain; have heard good things)

The Call of The Wild by Jack London (classic?)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (classic, sounds good)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald(classic!)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (tried reading this a while back, going to try again since I like OW now)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (classic)

The Europeans by HENRY FREAKING JAMES

Washington Square by HENRY FREAKING JAMES

Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Stories by Joseph Conrad (liked HoD, haven't read the SSS yet)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (was going to read this for Halloween...FAILED)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (classic)

The Bhagavad-Gita (what's not to love?)

Orthoodoxy by G.K. Chesterton (I have a crush)

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (I heart him)

Princess Lessons by Meg Cabot (I won this book)

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (I won this book)

Dewey's Readathon Goals and Progress

GREETINGS! TOMORROW IS DEWEY'S 24-HOUR READATHON! ARE YOU EXCITED?

I AM.

I didn't make a "what I'm reading" post before this because I didn't want to change my mind five times.

I am strongly hoping to read:

• The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell-almost due back at library
• A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander-almost due back at library
• Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander-almost due back at library
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens-45 pages for school
• The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner-60 pages for school

Alternates/extras are:

• Greenwitch by Susan Cooper
• The Grey King by Susan Cooper
• Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper
• Hetalia Vol. 1

I will post my progress ON THIS POST. Everything else related to the read-a-thon will be on my twitter (@bahnree, request to follow). I will do a wrap-up post w/ any other thoughts on this blog probably on Sunday.

Good luck to all the other participants, and have fun! :D

Update 1:

Whoops slept in! I just started reading a bit before 8 Pacific time.

Book I'm currently reading: The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell

Food consumed: Not yet! I'm BEHIND okay???

Quote for you: "She could, in fact, be completely naked and no one would ever know." (pg3)

I'm listening to: If I Had You by Adam Lambert

Update 2:

Hours since I woke up: 3

Pages read: 171

Food consumed: PANCAKES. And lemonade. My fave combo.

I'm still reading "Renegade X" and LOVING IT. It's hilarious and I want to cuddle the MC. :D It's really fun just waiting to see what he'll do next.

Location: My house, but I think I'm going to pack a bag and go to the library for a while.

Update 3:

Hours since I woke up: about 6

Pages read: 340

Books read: 1

Location: public library

I finished "Renegade X." It's fantastic and hilarious in every way and I wish that everyone who reads this would go out and buy a copy so she can write a sequel. :)

Now I'm going to read my assigned reading (from A Tale of Two Cities and The Sound and The Fury). Wish me luck! Thanks for all the comments/cheers so far!

Update 4:

Hours since I woke up: 9

Pages read: 445

Books read: 1, parts of 2 others

I read my assigned chunks of Dickens and Faulkner. Darnay just left for France, like a moron, and Jason is a d***. XD

ON TO A FATAL WALTZ! I also have couple of volumes of manga I might treat myself to. ;)

Update 5:

Pages read: 596 +144 manga

Books read: 2, parts of 3 others

A Fatal Waltz isn't going quite as speedily as I could wish, so I think I'm going to take a break and read some Greenwitch or possibly How to Ride a Dragon's Storm by Cressida Cowell. I'm a little tired, but I'm going to make some coffee I think. Only seven more hours! I must be productive.

Update 6:

Pages read: 761

Books read: 4, parts of 3 others

I forgot to mention last time that the manga I read was Hetalia vol 1. It was delicious in every way. I was also very amused to see that it was rated "Older Teen" for, among other things, "Mild Fanservice."

Then I read A Fatal Waltz where part of the mystery involved a scandal featuring "deviants." As one does in Victorian England. Finished that one, as well as Greenwitch. Settling into The Grey King now.

I am tired.

2010 Writing Goals

*notice I didn't use the "R" word. It scares me.

These are just big, scary, goals I'm going to make, and see if I manage to get them done. It would be very, very lovely if I could. :D

• Finish Drem rough draft-I love this story. :)
• Write second draft of Wyrd-I also love this story. I love this world. It's barely even sketched out so far in Drem and Wyrd, but I know everything about it I just need to get it all down.
• Write more short stories! One of the things I learned in my fiction class is that shorter fiction is REALLY REALLY fun AND satisfying. To this end, I'm going to write at least one short story a month, either in my Alice in Wonderland world or my Dimension Tournament world. I'm hoping to revamp those novels into linked-short-story sequences, and possibly take those sequences and turn them into novels later, DEPENDING on the results, lol.
• Catch up on this blog. :) I have several posts-in-progress to finish.
• Write every day. I always make this res-er, goal, but I'm just going to keep making it until I accomplish it! :D

THIS IS WHAT I CALL epic.

September Recap:
My goals for this month, I believe, were to finish the rough draft of “The Other Country” and add more stuff to HHNF. I failed miserably, of course, in both of those. ^_^ I did work on TOC a bit: I probably got about 10 pages done. I might post teasers of the scenes I wrote on my LJ. Maybe not. None of them are very good.

October Goals:
Read my existing material for “The Missing Door” and plan for Nanowrimo a bit. That’s all I’m attempting this month. XD I just want to remind myself of where I was GOING to go with the story, and figure out if I want to stick to the same plan or change it. Also I need to re-familiarize myself with the characters. :P
I am writing other fiction, though, for my fiction writing class. Most of it is really short pieces but we have a full short story that will need to be written and reworked.

Nanowrimo is NEXT MONTH! I can’t believe it. So crazy. I’m not really excited at all right now, but I think that’s just cuz there’s too much stuff in my brain right now. Hopefully once it starts I’ll get into the swing of things? I’m REALLY excited about the video-casts (or whatever you call them) that they’re doing. The one they’ve done is soooo cheesy but so win.
I haven’t done much recruiting this year, either. I’m pretty sure most of my friends are sick of hearing about it. :) I did mention it in my fiction-writing class, though, and I also sent info on it to a columnist in my area whom I’m in kinda-speaking terms with cuz I went to a workshop of his. :) He has another one in Feb and my father is bothering me to register. It’s moneyyyyyy...Blarg.

On THAT happy note, I'm off! :)

August Goals Revisited, September Goals, and The Stranger Soundtrack

August Goals:

• Finish third draft of HHNF: Completed!
  
• Finish roughing and editing the last episodes of the Stranger: Just about finished! I just have to rewrite the epilogue cuz it's crappy. :) Episodes 1-20 are on dA and Soul Collectors. I haven't posted 21 yet.

September Goals!!!!

• Add more scenes to HHNF, re-check facts, pay attention to time of year/weather. :) After I do this, I think I'll do a fourth draft to make the writing style consistent (Thanks to Snazel for helping me with this). But the fourth draft will have to wait until October, at least, because I also want to:
  
• Finish the rough of The Other Country (my 09 ScriptFrenzy)! This story is just for fun, but once I finish it I might end up polishing it or, GASPAGE, changing it to prose. I've decided script-writing isn't for me. But still want to finish this.

For the last, er, three episodes of the Stranger I listened to a LOT of Linkin Park (urgh, let's not do that again) but I was amazed at how appropriate the music was for the Stranger and especially for what was happening in the story. Cuh-raze-ay. So this is the Stranger's soundtrack so far:
"In The Shadows" by The Rasmus
"In The End" by Linkin Park
"Somewhere I Belong" by Linkin Park
"Hit the Floor" by Linkin Park
"Easier to Run" by Linkin Park
'Faint" by Linkin Park
"Leave Out All The Rest" by Linkin Park
"What I've Done" by Linkin Park
"Breaking the Habit" by Linkin Park

the sky was thick with crows

Wow so one of my favorite writing bloggers ever posted out of the blue today!!!! She hasn't posted since Nano, I think. Anyway it made me happy so here I am. ^_^

Still working on August goals, despite all the distractions being flung my way!!! Summer is almost over. :( Very tragical.

I have the rough done for the next Stranger episode but still need to rewrite it, and I have (I think) 3 more episodes after that? So I need to get on that.

Hell Hath No Furies is coming along...slowly....This is the third edit and I think I'm going to put it in a dark box in a dark corner somewhere and never look at it again. ^_^ I don't think it's good enough to even attempt publishing and I don't think I could ever get it into shape for it. Which is okay, I just want to finish this edit and put the thing to rest.

not thinkin' bout tomorrow, singin' sweet home alabama all summer long

My fellow writers (specifically Snazel, Merc, and Sparky) are shaming me with their productiveness, so I'm going to make some GOALS! Lolz! And totally complete them. So without further ado:

AUGUST GOALS (look, the letters are all large and friendly!):

• Finish The Stranger roughs for the remaining episodes
• Finish the third edit of Hell Hath No Furies
• Keep up with homework ^__^

After that, if I'm a good girl, I can work on DT. <3

I have written over 1,000 words today, though, it's true. I have this enormous assignment for my children's lit class. Basically we have to read 20 books and write up summaries and answer a lot of questions for each one (this is aside from all the normal writing and reading assignments for the class). It's just absurdly epic. Anyways.

"I'm naming all the stars the same name. There's terrible confusion."

Wow I feel so productive blog-wise! I've posted in my LJ several times recently, and I posted in my Star Wars blog today! SHOCKING!!!

However I am still failing in my fiction writing. :(

I technically have been writing a LOT though. So far this term I've written four responses for my literature class, four short papers for my mythology class, a long paper for Chinese religions, and a long paper on The Scarlet Letter. Altogether about 24 pages, double-spaced, so roughly 6000 words? Okay I guess that's not great for two months, but HEY, it's academic, which is harder. Well, not really. Well, you know. SIGH I'm just feeling guilty and trying to justify myself. ;)

Anyway, goals!

-Finish the Stranger in the next two months

-Finish editing Hell Hath No Furies in the next two months

That's all I'm committing to for now. By the end of March, those things should be done. The problem is all this academic writing. :P Sucks up my time, cuz I'm getting graded on it so I overthink everything and-yeahhhhhhhhhh. I'm doing it again.

kthxbai.