NaNoWrimo 2019: The End of the Road

Did I completely flake on seeing my project through to the end, if not to 50k, at least staying writing until the end? Yes. Yes, I did. There's a good reason--the day job. It's the slow season, so if there's work presented to me, I'm going to make it a priority. I really wanted to do more with the NaNoWriMo project, but when it comes down to it, I have to take the immediate payday over everything else.

I was busy enough to not provide Patreon updates as well, so I will be back on the posts every Friday schedule from now on. I hope I can come up with some new, exciting stuff for all of my patrons for the month of December. Things are looking up, if I can just keep to my schedule. Holidays throw me off--not only do I have the holiday, I also end up with a day of recovery from said holiday.

Now I have to go find some caffeine to counteract the leftover turkey coma I feel coming on...

Holiday Work Magnet

It never seems to fail -- as soon as I sit back and relax with, I don't know, a hot dog or whatever holiday-related goodies I have on hand, it happens. I get that ding on my phone telling me I have work to do. For the past year, I rarely get work on certain platforms (Fiverr, Guru, etc.) unless it is a holiday. You read that right. I seem to get loads of work almost exclusively on official U.S. holidays. If everyone else gets the day off, I'm at my computer typing away. I'm wondering if this happens to all freelancers, or is it just me?

I know that the biggest reason this happens is because I have many international clients. Don't think I'm complaining -- I love the fact that these clients trust me with this work, and if you have ever worked with Fiverr, you know that the world domination map on where you've sold a gig is kind of cool (I'm at 5% world domination so far). And there wasn't a big holiday in June, so I was waiting for an influx of work to come my way. I just find it curious that even for those who are outside this country, why would they choose to hire me on the day where it's likely, if I was a normal person with a normal job, I wouldn't be available? Am I just that awesome, or am I just really bad at hiding the fact that even if I did have the day off I wouldn't be doing anything different anyway? A riddle I must unravel...

The First Listen: Holiday Wishes - Idina Menzel

What do you think of when you think of Christmas? There are the warm, cinnamon scented candles wafting through the air, the sweetness of the hot cocoa, cakes and pies baking in the oven and twinkling lights coming from the Christmas tree, complete with packages wrapped in shiny paper. What are we forgetting in this scene? Christmas songs, of course! If you are looking for something that combines the holiday classics you know by heart with a spin of originality, you should check out Idina Menzel's new album, Holiday Wishes.




You may know Menzel from the immensely popular movie Frozen, but she has many other credits including a number of Broadway shows. What Menzel does for Christmas music is provide that voice we all know and love to help celebrate holiday classics in a fun, charming way. There are the songs that everyone knows, such as "Do You Hear What I Here?" and "Silent Night," but there are also some other, maybe surprising tracks, such as "River." She also piars up with Michael Buble to sing "Baby It's Cold Outside" with all of the charm that has graced so many other duos with this tune.



If you want a new way to celebrate your holiday traditions, Holiday Wishes is something that you will want to check out. You can purchase it through iTunes and Amazon.


**I participated in the Idina Menzel Holiday Wishes album review program as a member of One2One Network. I was provided an album to review but all opinions are my own.

Week 1 Wrapup and On to Week 2

Here's the compilation video, as promised. It sucks. I had a music track for it, but after a computer update yesterday, Movie Maker went bizzaro and started making an awful screeching, popping noise instead of the track. The program has changed since I last used it a few years ago and is more frustrating than I remembered, so next week I think I'll be using Adobe Premiere Elements. 

Week 1 of NaNoWriMo has gone surprisingly well. In past years, I've usually fallen behind at this point. By the 15th, I'm out of the game completely. This was always due to a lot of things--lack of money, lack of work (we're smack in the middle of the freelance holiday dead zone), and the guilt that comes along with spending so much time and effort on something that may never make a dime for me. While the guilt has subsided this year, every other little problem that had held me back in the past is actually ten times worse. Either I'm getting too old to care about things or I'm being really, really stupid. I haven't decided yet.

As of right now, I'm still on track with my work count. The novel went from focusing on the narrator to focusing on the narrator's boss. I don't know how that happened, but it's making it easier to meet the word count. Eventually, I'll get back to the narrator's seemingly petty problems.

Family Cookbook Project

Want a fast and affordable present for your loved ones? This sounds like such a fun idea for the holidays! If you want to know more, go ahead and check it out:

Off With A Bang!

I feel upbeat and energized--not your typical Monday morning doldrums here. I managed to up the ante on my workouts. I'm up to 25 minutes of walking/jogging on the treadmill each morning. No excuses. I recently ordered a pair of pants (the right size, mind you) but the material doesn't stretch so I'm motivated to make those pants as comfortable as possible to wear. Since I bought it for holiday gatherings, I have a few weeks to work on that.

What I need to work on is my writing. I'm not sure if I have writer's block. I don't feel blocked, but I can't seem to walk over to the desk, grab paper, and start writing. I'm reluctant to start stories on the computer these days just because I spend so much time here already. If I'm not working, I'm preparing articles or paying bills or a number of other mundane weekly tasks. Nanowrimo isn't that far away, so I need to be putting a daily writing ritual into practice, or I'm going to lose again this year. Not a big deal as long as I surpass the word count from last year's contest.

Well, work seems to be out this morning, so maybe it's a sign that I have some time to write? Rock and roll, writer friends. Rock and roll.