October Recap

Excuse me while I prolong scream about the fact that November starts in three days. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Not only is it NaNoWriMo and all that, it's the second to last month of 2018. But we aren't mentioning that.

What I Did

• Went to Air and Scare in Virginia. This year I was Katniss Everdeen. I think I looked pretty good, even if I didn't get a lot of recognition.

• My sister and I got a new bookcase for our room. It looks beautiful and instantly took our room up a notch in the grown-up factor.

• I've been feeling a bit stressed this month from thinking about November. I really want to win NaNoWriMo, but this is also my first year working while doing it. So we'll see how it goes. I've just got to remind myself to have fun.

Books

Ooh, I just realized I'm at 118 on my Goodreads challenge of 120. Two books left! I may up it a little, or I might leave it. I'm not sure yet.

Liked Best

13 Curses by Michelle Harrison

Why I Liked It: It's one of my favorite dark, creepy fairy books from when I was a younger teenager. It's got lots of lore and the Seelie and Unseelie and changlings and is perfect for people who like darker, but not too dark, tales.

Liked Least

Mouseheart by Lisa Fiedler

Why I Did't Like It: It wasn't what I was expecting for one, for another, the main character was so stupid. If the author had told it from the point of some of the other characters, it would have been better.

Other Books

My Life as a Weapon- Matt Fraction
Rooftoppers- Katherine Rundell
Kin- Holly Black
Inkheart- Cornelia Funke
The Faerie Path- Frewin Jones

Movies

Let's see. In honor of Halloween, I watched The Corpse Bride this month, as well as The Desolation of Smaug (because I wanted to). Some new movies included:

Mission Impossible III (much better than 2)
Hotel Transylvania 3 (fun, but very different than 1 and 2)
Wolf Children (cute and deep anime movie)
Hocus Pocus (so fun)

Blog

• This month's most popular post was Writing a Superhero Novel: 7 Powerful Tips. Who knew that would be so liked?

• Next month I'll be trying to keep it easy on the whole blogging front. I plan on not posting too much to social media unless I have time. Blog wise, you'll be getting a weekly update on NaNoWriMo that will probably be short, full of gifs, and tell you where I am in my novel.

Music

I finally got around to listening to For King and Country's new album and loved it. They are one of my favorite Christian artists. You can find the whole thing on YouTube if you're interested. And did you hear about the new Greatest Showman album? I can't wait to hear it. Other songs I'm into this month:

"Control" by For King and Country

"Come Little Children" from Hocus Pocus

"In My Blood/Swan Lake" by the Piano Guys

"A Million Dreams" by P!nk

Writing

• NaNoWriMo prep everywhere. I finished last week, but I was quite busy. If you want to see the novel synopsis and cover, check it out on the NaNoWriMo site. (Also, if you'd like to be buddies, send me a request.)

• I had also hoped to get through all the character editing for the other novel I was working on, but that didn't happen. I got about half of it and that's okay. I can do more in December.

Art

• This month is Inktober, so I've been doing that (which may have added slightly to stress). But I've enjoyed it and did a Disney theme this year. I plan to put up a post on it next month so you can see all my drawings.

• And here are this year's pumpkin carvings. I did Totoro and Martin Luther, which both came out pretty good.

November Thoughts

• I plan to remind myself not to stress. I've got some plans for NaNoWriMo up my sleeve and I'm sure it will all be fine.

• Obviously, I'm going to try to win NaNoWriMo.

• And that's about all I'm thinking for November besides what I said at the beginning.

How was October for you? Did you carve a pumpkin this year? How close are you to your Goodreads goal? Tell me in the comments.