Cherise, the head coordinator of this blog, is a dreamy young teenager with long, flowing brown hair, who loves writing poetry,drawing, and hiking in the Colorado Rocky Mountains whenever she is not busy working on her first novel, The Prophet of Einehrowaye. NaNo '08 was Cherise's first NaNoWriMo, and her fantasy novel finished the month with 68,500 words. Visit Cherise's regular blog here.
Cherise's NaNoWriMo username is 'FaerynPoetess', and you can view her NaNo profile here.
Vintage Authoress
Katie is a very non-normal, geeky teen girl (and proud of it!) who enjoys sitting on a swing listening to Enya and Blackmore's Night on her iPod while daydreaming about her story, to almost every other activity, and practically lives on her tree swing. She also enjoys wandering around her back yard in a medieval gown, and visiting her Aunt and Uncle's ranch in Hanaskea/Eternethia (aka Missouri).
If it began to rain in the midst of me typing this, I'd jump out of my chair in mid sentence and forget about everything as I would instantly be pulled into my imagination, lost somewhere no doubt. I'd run barefoot into the grass and tilt my head upwards as the fresh rain poured down soaking my hair and cloths. I'd take a deep breath of the wet grassy scent and instantly loose track of all time. That's me through and through, so even when I'm not writing my story, I'm always imagining or day dreaming about it. To know more about me come to my blog click here.
Writer4him
When she's not blogging and template-making, Beth enjoys losing herself in any of her novels in progress. She discovered NaNoWriMo in 2007 and was quite happy to make it to 50,000 words by the end of November, with a final word count of...50,003! Other interests include horseback riding, web design, and friendly debates over the Civil War.
Mariella needs a life other than writing. She's written 3 novels, is working on a fourth, planning her NaNovel for this year, and dreading editing the second, because it just got way too long. She has participated in NaNo 2007 and won, with about 59,000 words. When she's not actually writing, she's fuming because her FictionPress readers died on her, planning more stories/brainstorming about the latest chapter she has to write, daydreaming, panicking about global warming, practicing piano, and listening to music. She keeps pen pals.
Ariana Evenstar
Meggy T/Ariana Evenstar is your average homeschooling freaky 16 year old! She has 9 little siblings, and her real stuff (blood, excitement, elves, emotional trauma, and happy endings)comes out when she's writing fantasy. This is her first time to participate in NaNoWriMo, and she's very excited about it! Check out her blog here
Ness
I like to climb trees that people tell me are too weak; I like climb them to the very top and sit on the branches that people say won't hold me and I like to sit up in a tree while there is a strong wind blowing (strong enough that people say I will fall out:) and that's me.
I don't want to fill out any tags (not that anyone tagged me) I might next month and If you're wondering what I've been doing today, well I've been sitting in the topmost branches of a tree...
Forestcrazy
Svenja comes up with her best ideas when she is supposed to be doing math but is instead staring out the window. This also happens in front of her friends, in public, etc. when her brain sees something that inspires the creative cells to brainstorm. During these times, and other frequent random times, her friends make fun of her and say she lives in another world. Its name is Draeil.
MaidenCapitolaBallot
Capitola, which is not her real name, is very strange 21-year-old. When not found in front of her conputer busily typing away you can usually find her with her nose in a book or riding her bike around town watching people. She feels that the most important thing for a good book is believable characters and so watchs those around her dor insperation. She has a new saying, "If you don't want to end up in one of my books I sugest you avoid me!"
She has been known to yell at her computer while writing and becoming disgusted with certain characters when they take on lives of their own and do things without her permission. All those who know her think she is very weird.
She gets her inspiration for books from books she reads, movies, daily life, certain people, or just from something that popped into her head. She lives in Wyoming and feels that wild wind offers the best inspiration, she can sit for hours, staring into the wind. A daydreamer and adventurer, she lives in her own world and only comes out for occasional visits.
This is her first NaNoWriMo, though not her first tale.
Altariel
Gabrielle, aka Altariel aka ElvishKiwi, has dabbled in fantasy, historical fiction and fanfiction, as well as penning several rants so long they could be classified as books on their own. She finds sordid pleasure in writing extreme angst, and considers nothing greater compliment to her writing than making her readers bawl hysterically.
She takes great delight in writing elephantine comments, raving about her country, chatting online and flitting from one writing project to another like a frazzled homeschooling mother trying to supervise seven kids at once. Which is, incidentally, a situation she witnesses every day.
She has begun countless novels in the past, but in every case seems to have become stuck somewhere around the 30,000 word mark, and simultaneously been inspired with some new plot which really won't leave her alone. Hence, despite a total novel wordcount of hundreds of thousands, she has only actually completed one of the things. She is hoping NaNo will pull her into line...
This will be her first NaNo. She is eagerly looking forward to it, as she is convinced that she thrives on pressure like a bicycle tyre.
Hannah
Hannah is a thirteen year old, homeschooled young lady who enjoys many varied things that mostly revolve around The Arts. Her main passion (that and drawing) would have to be writing fantasy novels.
When she is not writing, you can find her, drawing. singing, dancing, blogging, emailing, chatting, editing html or graphic designing on the computer, reading voraciously, dreaming and thinking, laughing, and loving Christ, her family & friends, and the family computer (:P).
Currently, she is working on her Fantasy novel entitled Whispers of Truth, and is putting together several other plot ideas. Inspiration comes easily to her, and from practically anything, yet she does not know yet how to completely harness it.
You can find her on NaNo here, as well as on her blog, situated here.
Laura Comfort
Laura is a sixteen year old strange young woman who loves to serve her Lord, write books, and listen to music. Yes, in that order. Laura is not tall and yet not too short, has dark brown hair that reaches down to the bottom of her shoulder blades, and has the weirdest eyes ever. Mostly they are blue-grey, but then sometimes they will turn blue-green, and when Laura really gets mad they turn silvery-blue. She is currently writing two novels, Way Truth Life and Danceaway. This is Laura’s first NaNoWriMo, and her novel is currently titled “Dorin”. Laura’s other interests include blogging, talking with friends, drinking coffee and hot tea, and being with her family. Not in that order. Laura is also morbidly fascinated with thunderstorms. She has eight younger siblings, one in heaven and seven on earth. Laura tends to be rather sarcastic, mysterious, weird (obviously), and shy. She is also extremely cynical and is more likely to not believe something than to believe it. She has a Muse, named Arual, who delights in driving Laura batty whenever Laura tries to procrastinate with her writing.
You can visit Laura's NaNo blog Here and her NaNo profile Here
Nov. 28, 2009
*Untitled for a lack of title*
Posted By Daethia
Hello everyone!
Happy belated Thanksgiving, and a very early Merry Christmas to you all!
Well, we're back from our two week trip along the East Coast. We've been for almost two weeks, now, actually. During the time I had my birthday. I'm seventeen now. Not much has changed. *shrugs*
I find myself lacking in interesting things to tell ya'll. Other than I have a sort of odd accent now, I've bought a few new books, we're trucking along with school, winter is almost officially here. . .
Writing is well. I've failed at NaNo, but who cares? Not me. I think my struggles was a sign that I'm not supposed to try and speed through this book of mine, 'Samantha Simmons'. It deserves time and love, and NaNo was not giving it that. Now that I've stepped back, I find a lot more clarity and ease, though of course it is rather hard to hear everyone talk about reaching their 50k mark. . . Oh well. I've written almost 37k in less than a month. That there is a new record. I've also written about 47k in SS in a little over a month, which is ANOTHER record. *beams* So I am contented. I have better word flow and more pinpointed convictions now that I've stepped away from the race. I don't need a purple ribbon or whatever to be a winner. For myself, I have already won. Just not by reaching 50k.
Anyways, I hope to be done with SS by the end of Dec. Maybe by Christmas. We shall see. At almost 50k, I should be about. . .half way finished? At the moment, I know I'm somewhere near the middle. I'll have to simply keep running, typing, breathing, and see where this novel takes me. THEN, I think, I'll take a well deserved break. Weariness clogs my literary veins.
Happy Thanksgiving! We are having our turkey dinner today because yesterday the turkey wasn't thawed out... We went to California for a few days this week. We got there Monday morning, and left Wednesday night but even though it was short trip, it was soooooooo fun! On Wednesday we had the big family picnic at the park. We've done that for quite a few years, and it's always really fun! This year there were about 25 people! Here is a collage with a few of my favorite photos from the trip. I think the only picture that was taken at the picnic was the group photo and the rest were elsewhere.
While we were on our trip I took over 300 pictures, 93 of them being at the picnic. But when we got home I deleted a few blurry ones.
On Monday and Wednesday my dad took Alison and me on bike rides along the man made rivers to the park that most of the above pictures were taken. Alison also rode on tuesday, which made her milage for the trip about 40 miles! I don't think I went anywhere as close. I was riding my grandma's bike though and it doesn't have pedal breaks--only hand breaks, so that can be interesting if you aren't used to them. :-) Thankfully only once I tried to pedal backwards, but no one got hurt.
I might post a few other pictures from our trip later but for now I think I'll go back to making felt strawberries. I found a really simply tutorial here and had to try it out. My other project was a felt cupcake, (tutorial here) but mine didn't turn out quite right... Someday I'll get around to posting pictures. :-) I love using felt!
Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
It's really no surprise to anyone ever that the NEA was more interested in protecting its power than educating children. What is surprising is that they actually feel confident enough in their power to admit it. Here's the NEA's General Counseladmitting as much in his retirement speech this past summer.
"Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power....
This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary. These are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay.
If you're a parent with children in the public schools you can voice your objections here. But the best way to object is by removing your children from their schools. Without your children they have no real power.
In a related story, future teachers in Minnesota are being "reducated" and become "culturally competent"
Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin in order to obtain a teacher certificate.
Today we went to a friend's house and watched her demonstrate making a few things with her Pampered Chef equipment. I got to help and it was soooo fun! We used Philo (I've also seen it spelled Phylo, so I'm not sure what way is right...) dough and that stuff is awsome! It's almost as if you're using tissue paper to cook with. :-) The first dish she made, I didn't help with, but it had quite a few layers of the dough with melted butter in between, then some sliced cheese, and then some more dough, and butter, and on top there were Sesamy seeds and Black Caraway seeds sprinkled. That was soooooo good! In the next item we made I got to help, they were sooooooo tasty! After those were done baking, we ate lunch and us kids played tag outside for a while.
I love picking out fabric's for my nighties, because I can pick out some wild print that I would never wear in public, but it doesn't matter on a nighty. :-) My summer nighty this year was pink with green frogs, (I loved it!) and now my mom just finished my winter nighty, which is a dark blue with sea creatures on it. And on both of them, I've put a gigantic button, because I love gigantic buttons. :-)
Go over to Alison's blog to see how NANOWRIMO is going for her!
Just in case any of you thought I'd given up somewhere between Day 6 and Day 21... well, I haven't!
Word Count? 41,217!
To my dismay, I discovered that the word counter on Google Docs and the word counter on the NaNoWriMo website do not agree. And Google Docs, what I have been using, is the one with the higher count. So I'm not really sure which one's right, but it doesn't really matter, since it's only the NaNo counter one that guarantees winning status at the end of the month.
The writing is going super. I've written quite a bit today, mostly thanks to Bluejane -- the two of us have done several word wars. I did my first word war last night, and it's absolutely amazing!! Now I'm just feeling kinda disappointed that I was into the end of week 3 before I discovered them! I don't get tired out like I do just grinding away on my own. Thanks, Blue!
(She and I sorta have this competition going on over who can hit 50,000 words first. It shall be interesting to watch it unfold.)
Okay, I said the writing is going super. It is, but it is not going perfectly, lest you get that idea. I have several scenes that I think are pretty much pointless. But at least they are there, helping fill that progress bar. I can tell I'm getting close to the end of my novel, but I'm not sure how close. And I'm not exactly sure how it's going to end, either.
Hey, if you're a fellow Wrimo struggling with your word count, let me give you a quick hint. Write a scene telling the gospel in great detail. It accomplishes two things. First, anyone who reads your novel will hear how to be saved. And second, It really does wonders on your word count. I wrote a 1,609 word scene with the gospel as the central focus (not like it was all telling about Jesus, but mostly).
And of course, word wars do wonders, too. Throw in a character with a broken heart who can go on for a long time telling all her troubles. Have someone get kidnapped, betrayed, whatever.
Just a few things I've learned this month.
Oh, and go congratulate Narniagirl -- she reached her goal of 25k last night!!! *throws confetti and sets off fireworks*
We had a very very very fun day at the park today. Beside my sisters and I there were 10 other children from our home-school group. We played tennis, store, house, tag, hide and seek, and more tag. :-) And then all of us went to the library, where I got 6 of the Redwall Series, by Brian Jacques. They are all about 1 and a half inches thick so they'll last me a little while. :-) We didn't get any pictures that I know of though... :-p if I had brought my camera, I'd probably have about 200 pictures. :-) Then we came home, and Alison gave her violin student a lesson, (and during that we played more tag with her brother) and then we watched some of the Leave It To Beaver show, on YouTube. Someone has done a great job of sorting all the episodes and so we've watched tons of them! Now we're waiting for my 3 sisters and Dad to get home so we can have pizza! I think I hear them now so I'd better go. I know this was a boring post, but I just felt like posting. :-)
Dave walked from the office to his car. It had been a grueling day at work. He had been assured that he wouldn't have to fill out extra forms, but the guy who was supposed to do them was sick and he ended up having to do it any way. Then the coffee machine quit working, his chair broke, and the power went out, forcing him to write his business letters by hand. When the power came back on, a multitude of phone solicitors started calling trying to get him to donate to some great cause, and making him feel like a miser because he could only afford to give ten dollars. Dave started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. He called the car repair spot to see how long it would be before his wife's car was done. The newbie employee put him on hold and he had to listen to three minutes and twenty-seven seconds of monotonous "music" before the employee returned and resumed the call. When he got home, his two kids were fighting and his wife was mumbling something about what in the world they'd have for supper. Dave walked up to his wife, told her that they'd have pizza for supper and afterward they would go for a walk and enjoy the serenity of the beach. The children resolved their problem and returned to his and her own pursuits. The day concluded happily.
Leave a comment if you have a pic. request. Thanks!
