3 days, 3 states

What a weekend! There was too much alcohol, too much driving and too much fun! I'm pooped today, and starving, as always, but I wanted to share the past couple of days with you, here.

We left home mid-morning on Saturday to head up to Nashville, where we stayed with a friend of Aaron's from the band days. He's working on some new folksy stuff, so we got to sit in on a recording session before heading to La Hacienda for dinner. It was billed on Urban Spoon as one of Nashville's best Mexican places, and I was craving something a bit more authentic than what we usually get at the Burrito places we frequent. It was delicious! Aaron ordered something that came in a pot with some cactus on top!

The main event was the show we went to later that evening: The Mountain Goats! They're one of my favorite artists, and I can't believe I'd never seen them live until this weekend. It was a great show! It reminded me of when going to shows was kind of what I did. Shows and the show atmosphere is so familiar and nostalgic. After the show, we stayed up way too late with our hosts, but we still managed to get up early the next morning.

After a three-hour drive from Nashville, our destination was Rock Town - a lovely bouldering area in Georgia. It wasn't too different than Alabama (Horse Pens 40). We didn't buy a guidebook for this one day trip, so we did get a little lost... and we ran into some friends from the gym in Birmingham before making the long drive home.

How was your weekend?

Friday five

1. Apple-flavoed tea

I ran out of tea at work this week, so I had to buy more ASAP, obviously. I ended up with Sweet Apple Chamomile and Cinamon Apple Spice. Both by Celestial Seasonings. Both amazing.

2. LOTR

A few weeks ago, I purchased a beautiful boxed set of the Lord of the Rings series & the Hobbit. I guess this was partially because of the new Hobbit movie coming out. It looks amazing, and I've never ready these books. I have no idea how they escaped me, but I'm loving them now. Such a great adventure!

3. Christmas decorations

I put up what I had a few nights ago. It's out of character for me to decorate before December, but I can't help feeling a little holly jolly

4. The Mountain Goats

I'm going to see them tomorrow! In Nashville! They played in Atlanta last year or early this year, I can't remember which. We were planning on going, but the show there sold out. They're one of my only favorite bands/artists that I haven't seen live before, so I'm really excited to knock this one off my list. I'm sure it'll be a great show. We're going to stay in Nashville afterwards and climb in north Georgia on Sunday.

5. Nail Polish

Because...why not. It's fun. My nails have been a really pale pink/nude all week, but I'm excited to paint them a fun color for the weekend.

snickerdoodle love

I could never be an original food blogger, because I get all of my ideas from food blogs and pinterest and Laura Vitale...

This amazing cookies are no different. I got the recipe from a blog called Lovin' from the Oven.

And now that I've stated that, I'm going to take this opportunity to rant about a pet peeve I have: I really dislike it when people say "Oh, I got this recipe from Pinterest." or "I'm doing a Pinterest project!" That implies that Pinterest is responsible the idea you're taking and making your own. ...and it's NOT! Sites like Pinterest and Tumbler and Food/Wedding Gawker, etc. are simply photo-sharing, link sites. There is a real person working their butt off on their blog behind everything YOU may see as a "Pinterest project". So, whatever. Props to Kim at Lovin' from the Oven because this recipe is great, and as she states on her blog, the original recipe is from Mrs. Fields. Cookbooks = old school food blogs? Basically.

Anyway.

I made this batch last night, having never name snickerdoodles before, because we're going to be staying with a friend on Saturday night, and I wanted to bring him something yummy. But...I might have to make another batch just incase we eat all of these before our weekend trip!

They are so, so soft and so,so just...yummy. They're perfect for the holidays, I think. I love a good Christmas cookie. Or anytime cookie. Again, I say, yum!

On not being published (yet)

OK. So, I promised that part two of this NaNoWriMo thing would be about my journey to publication…

First, a quick update on where I am in this year's challenge: I'm caught up! I wrote my 1,667 words today, and now there are only two more days to go. Wow. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I finish. (That's not at all true. There's plenty to do!)

Anyway, I guess this story begins last year," when I finished NaNoWriMo 2011. I didn't actually plan on finishing. I gave up on my story after missing too many days of writing. I was a reporter at the time, and after writing all day for work, it turned out to be really hard to motivate myself to write fiction.

However, I took the week of Thanksgiving off and went down to Florida with my parents and my then-boyfriend, now-fiance. That week was pure relaxation…and a little bit of anticipation since we were planning on moving to Alabama from Arkansas in the weeks following.

So, I realized I had time to finish …so I did! I wrote several thousand words a day for those five-ish days and finished my novel!

And when I was done, I didn't hate it. I still really liked the premise, and my mind was already swimming with edits I wanted to make. But, I took a break from it. I'm still not sure if this is the right decision, but I suppose it had to be for me at the time since did in fact move to Alabama and start a new job/life/etc.

In February, I began the editing process. I edited, and I edited, which I've never really done before. I think there ended up being three drafts. During this time period - from February to about the end of May - we bought a printer!

I was super excited about it, and it has turned out to be such a nice thing to have! I learned that editing in hard copy with red pen? …there's actually something to that. I tend to pay more attention when things are down on real paper.

The next step was to write a great query letter. There are tons of online sources that will tell you how to do that. Mine does its best to appeal to the agent, talk about me and the project AND what inspired it - because that's important to me, I think.

So far, I've been rejected by a number of great literary agencies, and that's what I expected would happen. I think I have the right attitude. I hope I do anyway.

This is the first time I've edited a project and done this! It's GOOD to get rejected. Every writer says so - especially and famously, Stephen King: "My mother knew I wanted to be a writer (with all those rejection slips hanging from the spike on my bedroom wall, how could she not?),"

So, I'm preparing for several more in the coming weeks. I'm going to hold my head up. And, what I'm NOT going to do is keep pushing this project. I want to make sure that when I get published, it's with the right agent and the right project, and if this one isn't it…well, that's why I'm still writing.

NaNoWriMo 2012

Since my senior year in high school, I've always participated in, or at least thought of participating in National Novel Writing Month.

Actually, I finished in 2005, but didn't finish again until last year. In 2010, I wrote a story about it, which has to count for something, right?

As a writer, and aspiring novelist, I love NaNoWriMo! I love racing to meet a goal. This year, instead of writing 2,000+ words a day like I usually do, I've written the slow and steady 1,667, which is known as the "magic" number for NaNoWriMo participants. If you write 1,667 words EVERY day in November, you'll make it to 50,000. I'm pretty busy and pretty entrenched in this routine of mine, which I've come to love, and which keeps me sane, but I have had time to meet this goal so far with the exception of three days, which I've caught up with and made up for. So now, all that's left is this week: finishing it up & calling it a day er- month.

But, I've learned something this year, which I intend to share over the next few blog entries here. It's that I'm kind of over NaNoWriMo. The project is great for new writers: for people who have never written 50,000 words, or for people who want to do it just to see if they can. But, I don't even know how many writing projects I've finished in my life that I sprinted through and just ended up hating, and what I've written this month is just another one of those.

I want to grow as a writer in my own way starting from here on out. And for me, I think that means slowing down. It means planning more before I start and as I go. I might mean even doing some hard-core editing in the middle of things. But I'm OK with that.

I'll write later this week about the querying process for my first, real, official, edited project. Not surprisingly to me at least, it's not going great. I want the next thing I write (after November) to have a real shot at getting published.

I'm gonna try to make it work! Wish me luck.

Hey, Thanks.

Thanksgiving happened.

This Thanksgiving was special because I cooked everything myself for the first time ever! I decided to keep it simple. I made: two turkey legs, a turkey breast stuffed with goat cheese, basil & sundried tomatoes, cornbread stuffing, green beans, butternut squash and pumpkin pie.

After that, Aaron and I took a short, little cat nap

And we went to see Lincoln with my parents, who came to town for the holiday. I just said goodbye to my dad. He's going down to his condo in Florida for the next two weeks, and I'm hoping to head down there for a couple days too! For now, I'm going to continue to revel in my food coma. How was your Thanksgiving?!

Woo pig weekend

This was our weekend. And I'm sorry I'm so late. I wasn't feeling well yesterday, and today has been randomly busy.

Saturday, we went to see our Razorbacks play in Starkville against MSU. It did not go well, and yes, the cowbells their fans use are probably the most annoying things I've ever seen, heard, etc.

On the way home, we drowned our sorrows in some BBQ.

And on Sunday, like most Sundays, we went climbing at Horse Pens 40.

Not a bad weekend at all. How was yours? Or are you already looking forward to the long one coming up?