2015: A Summary

This was a tag from Bella back in the beginning of January, which I'm not finally getting to. (Congratulate me, friend! Two blog posts in March!) It was supposed to be a New Year's Tag, but since I'm so late, it's going to be a "2015: A Summary" tag. So whatever.


1. What was the single best thing that happened last year?

Um, let's see. Honestly, probably going to Carmel and visiting a couple of the missions. That was such a wonderful and epic trip. My older sister and I went for three days and it was just really lovely. Plus, the ocean was gorgeous! (I think I might love the ocean.)

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

I had a two-day jury summons, waiting while the judge and attorneys tried to decide on jurors.

3. What was the most memorable thing?

Christmas. Christmas was definitely the most memorable thing about last year.

4. What did you get really, really excited about?

'Kay, I was able to go to this thing called WordWave, where I got to meet an agent from Fuse Literary. That was really cool and exciting and SO helpful for my query and synopsis.

I was also excited to hear that Prison Break is getting a new season. YAY! :-)

5. What song/album will always remind you of 2015?
Josh Groban's STAGES CD. Especially "What I Did For Love" and "Dulcinea."

6. How did you spend your Christmas?
Epicly! (Epically?) We had Midnight Mass privately up near where we live, and we got some pretty awesome snow Christmas Eve, so we had these huge soft drifts everywhere, and there was a full moon that night, so I wished on it.
Christmas is always glorious in our house. We light the Christ Candle first thing and sing Joy to the World, and put Baby Jesus in the manger. My dad always gets a fire going and makes sausage rolls and puts down a pot of coffee, and we open stockings and eat food and drink mimosa and/or orange juice and coffee and pass out gifts and get really, really loud. We had a lot of people over that day, too. We have a friend who moved to Tahoe from Wyoming, and her brothers came for dinner, which was our traditional gnocchi and ham. We also had a snowball fight later that night, and it was pretty freakishly cold out there, which probably wasn't good for all of us with our wicked chest colds. We were all:

 7. What was a hardest thing you to face in 2015?

I don't even know. Maybe... That one time... Or perhaps... Nope, I got nuthin'.

8. What were the best movies you saw in 2015?

Antman, Age of Ultron, and The Scorch Trials, because Marvel, because AVENGERS, and obviously because Dylan O'Brien. 

9.What were the best books you read in 2015?
What Came From The Stars by Gary Schmidt; The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski.

10. Was there any awesome/fun TV show you discovered in 2015?

I was briefly hooked on Person Of Interest, then a female character was introduced who sort of usurped my boys, Reese and Finch, and I later discovered she was having a relationship with another female and I lost interest. I restarted 24, though. (Still adore Jack.)

11. Did you discover any new musicals?

Yes! Finding Neverland, and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.

12. Did you write any new books?
I am mostly revising books I've already written - namely, DragonFire and Fulcrum. I had been kicking around an idea concerning nightmares, and that one has really taken off this month. I've been actively writing it a few hours each night. I'm pretty excited about it. :-)

13. Did you make any new friends?

14. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?

15. Is there some change you will have to go through in 2016?
Gosh, I hope not. Well, I'd like to move. But otherwise... Gosh, I hope not.

16. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

Pinterest.

17. What was biggest thing you learned this past year?
Life is hard, but trust in God. Worry gives you insomnia.

18. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"He will always hate me / No matter what I say / And there is no mistaking the love is gone."
(This is actually a man's song, so I had to change the "she" in the original lyrics to "he".)

19. What are five things you want to do in 2016?
a.) Land an agent. (That makes me sound like I'm hooking a fish. Sorry, agents!)
b.) Buy a piano and start composing music again.
c.) Go to one of the two SCBWI Annual Conferences in either LA or New York (though since I didn't get tax returns this year, that's probably not going to happen this year).
d.) Get a better job.
e.) Move.

20. Describe 2015 in your own words.

Truly, not the best year I've ever had. It had it's ups and downs, and I was mostly very worried and stressed during it. I concentrated on trying to be a bit more trusting and take it one day at a time. I sometimes felt like I was doing good with that, but then someone would say, "Are you okay? You seem sad," and I so I guess I wasn't being as brave as I'd thought I was being.

2015 did have some epic moments - Carmel and WordWave and Christmas were three incredible highlights to the year and I want to go back to check out more of the missions in the very near future. That's a definite To-Do. I also got myself submitting to agents, which is an A+ for me in regards to my courage. (Submitting to agents is scary!)

However, I seem to have grown more antisocial. The best thing in my life is going to my little home and being alone, with no people other than my sisters. And Netflix. (Seriously, guys. NETFLIX.)

So that was my last year.

And this was my relationship with last year

HERE'S TO A BETTER THIS YEAR!!! :-) 

God bless. 

The Cat

TA DA! Sparkles!

...SOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

Notice anything different? 

Huh? Huh? Huh?

If you didn't, you might consider getting glasses.

Yep, I changed my blog. I'm still trying to decide how I like the colours. I was getting over the dark green, so I decided pale green. Yeah, pale green was good. Then I thought, grey. Or maybe pale blue. So I'm not totally sure what colour I've ended up with here, but it's definitely not what I had before.

I like my new header. Sparklies!

 

Okay, so what's been going on with you for the past... 53 days? (*Stage whisper* - Has it been 53 days? *Not so stage whisper* - YEP! *Stage whisper* - I iz ASHAMED! I 'pologize. Oh well.)

I haven't done much. Writing, reading, writing, reading, writing, reading. Rinse, repeat.

I do confess to a sudden huge adoration to James Blunt. Most of his songs speak to my soul. I don't recommend watching his music videos - they can be a little we'rd - but my goodness, his songs are GOOD! Here, see for yourself.

 
You should also listen to "Carry You Home" and "She Will Always Hate Me." Oh, and "Bonfire Heart." And "Postcards." And, "No Tears." Okay, I won't post anymore. I like him. :-)

Also, I have a sister who does videos. She's rather good, you know. I requested a music video to Eleven, since his catchphrase is "Geronimo" and this song is called "Geronimo." QED, this is Eleven's song. I quite loved it. But then again, Eleven (and the Ponds) are my favorite:

Oh, and I did go to this thing called WordWave. I heard tell about it by Bona Fide Books (our independent small press in Tahoe, which is cool) and it was quite a lovely event. It was three days - Friday and Sunday were both more of "events" that you had to pay for, but Saturday was a free day, so my mother, three sisters, a friend and I went on Saturday. There were some workshopping conferences (more conference than workshop, unfortunately) and booths where you could make your own simple journals, a printing press, a booksale, and agents.

Yep, agents.

Not in the booths, of course. Just, there. Offering 10-minute pitch sessions. So I did what any self-respecting writer with two books written would do. I signed up for a 10-minute session, a one-on-one pitch, if you will, with an agent from Fuse Literary (formerly Foreword Literary). It ended up being more than 10 minutes - the agents were really chill on time, which was cool - so I had more like 20-30 minutes where I pitched my story to Laurie McLean and got awesome feedback on a query and synopsis. I tell you, I haven't felt this good about a query and a synopsis since... like, ever.

So now I've changed my blog. Because, it was time to change my blog. FACELIFT, PEOPLE!!! I'm also trying to figure out what I want to do with this blog. Like, it's sort of drifting in La-la land, poor thing. It's just sitting here patiently, going, "Oh, don't mind me. I will come when you caaaaaaalll!!" Sort of like a chorus line from Les Miserables. So I guess 2016 resolutions would be:

1.)  Submit to more magazines.
2.)  Blog more.

A hesitant extra would be: 3.)  Get the keyboard in working shape and start playing music again.

'Cause I miss that.

And draw. That would be #4.

That's starting to feel like a lot of resolutions, and it's not even 2016 yet.

That's all for now, peeps. Until then, ciao!

"The road to hell is paved with adverbs." - Stephen King

God bless! ~The Cat

I'm Like Sherlock!

I'm here one minute, and gone the next.

(YOU thought I was going to say high-functioning sociopath, didn't you?)

At least I pop up more than once a year to say hello. That's something, right?

Mmm, yes. I'd definitely say that was something.

What are you all doing this bright and cheery Saturday?

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I'm not doing much. I'm editing my novel, and critiquing a friend's manuscript.

Delete ALL the commas!

I'm also listening idly to some music in the background - mostly Imagine Dragons and Taylor Swift.

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We watched Despicable Me 2 about two weeks ago now, and I was surprised how upset I was at the Minions' transformation. I liked it much better the second time, when I expected what was going to happen to them.

Gaaaaaah!

We also watched Sherlock over the last two weeks. I thought this season was amazing! I was a little sad there wasn't as much detecting in it as there were in the other two seasons, but other than that I loved John and Sherlock's relationship, and I was surprised to discover I was quite fond of Mary, too.

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And that's really all I've got for today.  I hope you all continue to have a good weekend and enjoy the kind of weather you want to enjoy....

Ummm....

Going back and reading that line, I don't think it made sense, but I don't even care. I'm just gonna leave it.

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See you next time! You know, in a little less than a year.

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Toodles! Cheers! Laters! God bless.

Cat

Wherein I Find I Have Nothing To Say.

The problem is, I open a new blog post to write something brilliant, and it occurs to me I have the most boring life in the world, and why would you want to read about it?  I feel like I'm going chatty-chatty-chatty, and all my readers are like:

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So I'm just going to do a random list of things that have been happening around here since Christmas.

The entire family got attacked by influenza.

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I protest the fact the doctors seem to have a hard time enunciating on their dictaphones. Seriously, would it be that hard to invest in a new one every two years?

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After revising (twice) a new story is just about ready for critiques!

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I am super excited about Sherlock Season 3 staring up tomorrow.

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My stupid phone won't charge.  It is a source of great desolation to me.

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I prefer my own food to eating out. In my humble opinion, my food tastes better than restaurant food.

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I finished the first season of Arrow.

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I feel I don't exercise enough anymore.

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And I have now run out of random things to say.

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Until next time...

God bless!!

Six-Sentence Saturday 03/09/2013

Ever have one of those days where your brain just goes, "Uuuuuugh!"?

I'm sort of having that kind of day.

1.) I'm editing a story, and though I'm pleased to say I'm cutting a lot and adding stuff that's much better, I'm feeling rather blah about the whole idea.

source: Tumblr

2.) However, my instructor loves it, so that's what really counts, right?

source: Tumblr

3.) I'm working on a project for my Etsy Shop! I shall hopefully have it completed and posted by Monday! :)

source: Tumblr

4.) Oh my goodness, you should SEE the cute boxes I'm making for my Shop! When I get to camera again, I'll try to remember to post some pics.

source: Tumblr

5.) Maybe I'll do that when I post my new Etsy item.

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6.) I no longer have fingernails. It might just be me, but there will be times when something in me goes, "PANIC!!!" and I chew on my nails until I have these ugly little things that I endeavor to repair with a file and lotion and lemon finger scrub. Sorrows.

source: Tumblr

That's all for now! Hope youse all have a lovely weekend! It's Sunday tomorrow. I love Sundays. You can have cookies on Sundays. And cake. And foods. Yanno, all that stuff you crave during Lent. :)

God bless!

Cat