What JK is doing

This year, I have done something very, very, very stupid.
I’ve Signed Up For Things.
Some of you may be aware that I’m vaguely considering writing a novel. Well folks, I’ve decided to take the plunge. This year, in addition to doing the due South Seekrit Santa, running On the Nightstand for November, moving house, creating NaNoBetaMo ; and all this while keeping a job and a Bartending program going (for which I need to start posting recipes again)?
I’m doing NaNoWriMo.
In fortunate news, I’ve got all of my books for Nightstand sorted (a smattering of modern YA books, some oldskool kiddie stuff, a newskool kiddie book, an ageless book, some graphic novels, and a variety of different other books, including a nonfiction one); now I just have to reread them and write up the reviews. I haven’t chosen the audiobooks, however (as some of my collection is leaving me partway through, Catherine has agreed to let me use Audiobooks. I’ll be commenting on the reader’s skill as well as the book itself). We have… 21 physical books to read through. So far. If I can find I Am David, then that’ll be 22, thanks.
In really fortunate news, I know exactly what I’ll be doing for my playing of Santa Claus. I hope my recipient enjoys it, because I’ll have to finish a great deal earlier than usual.
Oh, yeah. And I’m doing Bartending for the American Embassy in the evenings. I need to come up with a signature drink, and I’m actually thinking of just mixing up something and maybe something else with maple syrup, to create a properly authentic Canadian Drink. Thoughts? (If I had a choice, I’d actually use Birch Syrup, but it’s a bitch to get hold of.)
Last but not least, I want to try to get a redraft done of High Kick ch1 by the time I get home, so that I can submit it for approval/disapproval when I get back to Wellington. I’ll be keeping the first two pages, definitely (mostly because the first page is hilarious, and the second page is just a cover), and maybe modifying the rest a little bit. And after that, the ‘how to stretch’, ‘how to punch’, and ‘how to do a certain block’ with Carmen, Kyoshi Jack, and Senpai Patrick respectively (all of which I have sketched out in decent detail). I have a new copy of ArtRage (I went and paid for the full version this time), so I feel I’m just about ready to rumble with that.

But right now? Time to do that Ouzo assignment…

Another chapter

I’m officially done with the second level of Chapter Nine of Blood Bound. Now, this may sound like it’s taking a long time (and actually, it is. I’m furious with myself over it), but I do believe I can practically guarantee that I’ll have it all over and done with by the middle of April. Well, the second go anyway. Yay!
The more I look over the early chapters though, the more I see I’ve missed – while it may be up for querying, it wouldn’t be quite up for publishing, so I’ll give it another go over, all in one shot. This’ll mean setting aside a single total day. Should be fun.

So, let’s just have a bit of a general update, shall we?

The other day, s92a (the ‘guilt upon accusation’ clause) of the New Zealand Copyright Amendment Act was scrapped, with the government officially announcing that it would look into more alternatives. Let’s all give a great declaration of ‘Yay!’

Catherine started up another blog. On the Nightstand is a fun book-recommending blog. It’s also a shameless excuse to read as much as possible. I’ve been added as a guest blogger, so I expect I’ll have to read more books. Harder than it sounds – I love books, but recently have been reading more and more online than onpaper.

I’m still trying to get this whole avatar-in-wordpress thing to work out. I’ll let you know how it goes.

My honours list letter came in the mail the other day, which was cool. Now I’d like my Firearms information, kthnx.

I have to go and walk the dog. I’ll go to that as soon as I’ve finished with this post.

The music for the Graduation seems to be coming along nicely. Not. If anybody’s reading this and actually wants music that they think they can put up with, let me know what you want! Otherwise, welcome to my MIKA and Nickelback collections. Seriously, I actually love that stuff. I’ve also started gathering background music for the dinner itself. Inordinate amount of Beatles in there, may need to fix. I think I’ll try to sneak in some ABBA (Fernando springs to mind…) too, and a bit of Jazz maybe some Brian Wilson, and let’s see what I’ve got in my soundtracks, and ooh, classical, and hey! Doctor Who music, that’ll do it, yeah, now, what’s this stuff buried under there- Ooh it’s-
I think you get the picture.

Right. Doggie. With a woof, and off we go!