Book Bites on hiatus because of NaNoWriMo!

I won’t be posting my usual memes for a few weeks. I have been distracted by planning for NaNoWriMo, and now writing, so I haven’t been reading all that much. Add to that, the books I _want_ to read were lent to me by Rosie, and I have a rule about borrowed books – they don’t leave the house! So I haven’t been reading as frenetically as I normally do. I've just been reading a few chapters a day. As someone who reads most of a book per day, this is quite mind boggling for me, but I just haven’t been able to churn through them like I normally do. I think I could if I could take them with me during the day – I am so rarely home! But books that travel with me become well loved. My book bag also has my notebook, bottle of water, and umbrella, so it never stays pristine. If it is my books, that is okay. I don’t mind a book that is well loved. But I am not going to prematurely age someone else’s books! So they get to stay cuddled up on my bed while I go to work *sigh* This is also the reason I am still reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Because I have all these goodies waiting at home for me to read, I haven’t been just reading Never Let Me Go. I read it in my lunchbreak and while I am commuting, but not at home. I’ll have to start, because the book club I am reading it for is on the 13th of November! I've only read two thirds of it so far! I am really really enjoying it however. It seems to be the type of book that sneaks up on you. You aren’t expecting it, but it just keeps on drawing you in. I don’t know how to define this book AT ALL! I don’t know who I would recommend it to, or who else would appreciate it. It will definitely be on my recommendation list however.

I am currently focusing on Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Beyond The Night by Joss Ware. Both are dystopian, but with different bents. Beyond The Night seems to be a dystopian romance or science fiction romance? I haven't gotten far enough in to see if it is a romance, but it definitely has that feel to it. The story is interesting enough and the writing is good enough that I haven’t been focusing on the couple, but the whole story. I can’t wait to see what happens!! And if the Strangers have created those zombie like creatures! o_O And how they kicked off the apocalypse! Love it!
Edit: I finished it last night. Epic! So buying this series!


As I mentioned, I am undertaking NaNoWriMo this year. It started this week, and to put it simply, it is an international month-long write-a-thon. The goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. So I would basically need to write just under 2,000 words per day. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but life gets in the way. I don’t want to be writing complete and utter crap, and I have a very definite story in mind. I gave up on the concept of writing seriously when I was a teenager, so I am doing this for myself. I spend all my time editing, reworking and waxing lyrical and never finish a story. I am using this NaNo to try and overcome that problem. I’m not allowed to get hung up on editing. Which is going to be so bloody hard! I am the type of person who dithers over each sentence, and the challenge for me is to leave them be and come back latter to edit them. The problem with that is that I love words. I love making them work together, and I love them individually. So choking that impulse down will be difficult. I am already behind, so I need to up my daily goal to catch up. I am writing by hand, so I don’t have a fancy automatic word count *sigh* I thought I had a system worked out for estimating, but I counted it by hand yesterday, and I am about 1000 words behind what I thought. So instead of being about 4000 words I am about 3000, give or take. I was sick yesterday, so I only wrote 3 pages *sad face* I went to a write-in in the city on Wednesday night and found it really helpful, so I think I am going to go to the one on Sunday as well. I’ll miss the one next Wednesday because it is the same night as the Galaxy EOY party. I also miss the Galaxy book club because I am going to see Metallica (!) perform *grins* Worth missing one night, surely! Anyway, I am hoping the write-ins help me spew words onto the page, because leisurely scrawling in my lunchbreak is only churning out 3 to 5 pages… those pages have anywhere from 150-200 words per page, so it really isn’t enough! :( My friend Ari has already passed 25000 words!!! And Bons has passed 10000! O.O I need to get my freak on! Wish me luck! I already want to go back and edit the crap out of it *sigh* Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Do you want to add me as a buddy? I do have a writing blog, but I am not really writing much on there at the moment. Nothing is ready for someone else to read. It needs a lot of pruning! Instead I am commenting on twitter and facebook LOL You can add me at http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/682560 and follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/obsidiantears83 Good luck if you are doing NaNo this year! :D

I have a rule for November not to read anything urban fantasy, because I am writing an urban fantasy and I don’t want to be influenced, even subconsciously! Already it is starting to seem like her dog is a little bit more than just a dog *sigh* I need to turn him back into a canine and not a lupine! Maybe he is just a smart and empathetic puppy?

Oh, and I am also reading up on Jung's theory of collective unconsciousness in relation to my story :)

Also, I am hopefully buying the Sony Reader next week! :D I am so freaking excited!!!

Sorry if there are any typos or badly constructed sentences above! I haven't time to proof it, and I wanted to get it up and out there why I have been so quiet :) I may still pop in now and again, but I won't be blogging religiously!