NaNoWriMo 2019: Mission Accomplished

I’m baaaaaack!

It feels like an eternity since I’ve gotten to mingle with all my awesome blogging buddies here on WP, and this moth is excited to be back and see what all I’ve missed! ❤

As mentioned in my last post back in October, I’ve been on a hiatus from blogging for the past month so I could devote all my free time on completing NaNoWriMo. (The popular writing challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days during the month of November.) Well, my dears, I am very pleased to announce that many heavily caffeinated beverages later, I have indeed vanquished the NaNoWriMo beast and completed the challenge!

I’ll admit, there were a couple times near the end that I worried with my schedule that it just wasn’t going to happen. I wrote almost every day, and sometimes I could squeeze a lot of writing time in, but other days it was next to none, but I did it, and with a whole day to spare, even! 50,161 words in 29 days!

I think doing two creative challenges over the span of the last two months (Inktober and NaNoWriMo) was exactly what I needed for both my creativity AND my confidence. I learned that if I force myself to make time for what I love doing and focus on actually just doing things rather than just thinking about them that I can accomplish quite a lot. I’ve also learned that when experiencing writer’s block or not knowing what to draw, that sometimes just pushing through the creative block and actually doing it gets your creativity flowing again. 2019 may be coming to an end fast, but I plan to take what I’ve learned the last two months and top off the year with that determination. I’m very excited to work on continuing this practice in 2020 as well. 🙂

I’m looking forward to catching up on what everyone has been up to. How was your November? Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? If so, how’d ya do?? 🙂 I hope everyone has a very happy December. Let’s make the most out of the last stretch of the year! ❤

 

 

Inktober 2019 Final Roundup & Farewell for November

Hello, and Happy Halloween, one and all! ❤ Even though it feels like I’ve spent half of October being sick, it’s been a really good month overall. I’m pleased to report that I have now officially completed October’s annual art challenge INKTOBER! Each day of the month I have unleashed a new ink creation to plague humanity, and it’s been quite the fun teaching experience. Along the way I’ve learned new techniques, pushed myself to think outside the box to meet the daily prompts, and I’ve shown myself that I can in fact make more time for the things I love despite all the constant business of adulting. 🙂 So, before I take my previously mentioned writing hiatus for November, allow me to present my final roundup of Inktober drawings. Thank you all for all of the amazing feedback and support during this month’s challenge. ❤ It truly means a lot, and hopefully November will see me through completing a second challenge for NaNoWriMo.

Day 22: The daily prompt was “GHOST” and my immediate thought was Boo, probably my favorite fictional ghost of all time.

Day 23: The daily prompt was “ANCIENT” so I went with an elderly Joker-esque batshit crazy granny because why not? 😛

Day 24: The daily prompt was “DIZZY” and maybe I was feeling inspired by my recent trip to Theatre Bizarre, but I wanted to draw a trippy clown girl for some reason. Hey, I just go where the inspiration takes me. 🙂

Day 25: The daily prompt was “TASTY” so I made a big shadowy werewolf looking forward to his next meal. Don’t mind all the doodles in the background, it was a sketchbook scribble session before I decided to slap some ink on it and call it a day. 😛

Day 26: The daily prompt was “DARK” and I figured since I’ve been drawing sooo many people throughout the month, I wanted to draw a piece without anyone or anything with a face. There are some moths, sure, but they’re too little to see their faces, so whatever.

Day 27: The daily prompt was “COAT” and due to how cold it has been lately, I guess I was feeling inspired to draw a cute girl in a cute coat on a cold, chilly autumn day with wind and leaves blowing about.

Day 28: The daily prompt was “RIDE” and what cooler ride is there than the Cat Bus from Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro? 😀 This one was a lot of fun to work on.

Day 29: The daily prompt was “INJURED” and initially I figured I’d draw a couple roller derby girls post-derby, with busted lips, bloody noses, etc. but then I was having an off day and couldn’t quite come up with the look I was going for, so onto Plan B. That’s when I decided to pay homage to Monty Python and the Holy Grail‘s Black Knight.

Day 30: The daily prompt was “CATCH” so I went with an arcade staple, the crane game.

Aaaaand FINALLY, we come to Day 31: And the daily prompt is “RIPE”. With it being Halloween, of course I had to go with a rotting pumpkin, past its prime and overly-ripe, with bugs crawing in and out of its face.

I hope you guys have enjoyed the various pieces I’ve worked on over the course of Inktober, and, again, thank you SO MUCH for all the kind words and encouragement along the way. ❤ It means so much, and I’m feeling inspired and enjoying drawing more like I used to again and that feels really great. 🙂

While I’m away for November participating in NaNoWriMo I hope you guys all have a very Happy Halloween, a fantastic November, and I look forward to catching up with everyone when I return to my blog in December, hopefully with good news of a completed NaNoWriMo challenge. I’ll still be doing quick posts and updates on Instagram and the NaNoWriMo website in the mean time. Until December, take care and have fun!! ❤ ❤ ❤

October (Thus Far) Monthly Update

Hey, guys! ❤ Halloween is right around the corner and as October comes to an end I’ll be shifting my focus from the Inktober art challenge of 31 ink drawings in 31 days, to the National Novel Writing Month challenge where I take on the goal of writing 50,000 words during the month of November. Like last year, I’ll probably be taking a hiatus from blogging throughout November so I can focus on writing those 50,000 words. It’s no easy task, but I’m determined to see it through this year. I’ve been prepping as much as I can throughout October, but as you’ve seen from my recent posts, a lot of my free time has been scribbling ink illustrations, one after another, the past couple weeks.

In other exciting news, Mr. Moth and I have been reveling in fun seasonal activities, like frequenting our favorite cider mill for fresh apples, delicious donuts and cider, and other goodies, and embracing our love for Halloween in any way we can this month as we celebrate four wonderful years together. ❤ We got the king-sized candy bars for our neighborhood ghouls and goblins when they come trick or treating, have been indulging in horror movies, and went to our second year (and favorite new tradition) of Theatre Bizarre.

Hail Zombo!

Theatre Bizarre was amazing. If you don’t know what Theatre Bizarre is, you can check out my post from last year to learn more about it, see what Mr. Moth and I dressed up like for last year, etc. 🙂 We had a blast, and this year Mr. Moth even got to be a part of one of the shows, getting pulled on stage by two devils as they lit up the stage in a fury of flames, battling over his very soul for one of the stage’s final acts of the night.

This photo wasn’t taken by me but it has Mr. Moth on stage in it 🙂

Here’s how our costumes came out. It was a lot of fun doing the pumpkin makeup and I learned a lot of tricks playing around with different makeup and techniques this year. I did a more cute and whimsical pumpkin grin for my look and a scarier pumpkin look for Mr. Moth.

The Gruesome Twosome

After last year’s skeleton makeup, and this year’s pumpkin look, face painting is definitely starting to become a seasonal hobby for me. It’s a lot of fun being able to completely transform someone like this. We have a lot on our plates for next October with the wedding and everything, but still, I can’t wait to figure out what we’ll be next year, too! 😛

Mr. Moth’s makeup was definitely my favorite! ❤

Other than all that, I’ve been catching up on some October reading. My most recent reads are The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, Bitter Root (an amazing graphic novel from Image Comics), and I’m currently reading The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. Tis the season for reading about things that go bump in the night!

Anyhow, I’ll do at least one more blog post before my November blogging hiatus with my final roundup of Inktober pieces. Other than that, I’ll probably do some posts over on my Instagram throughout November updating my progress with NaNoWriMo and whatnot. What are you guys looking forward to in November? How’s your Halloween season/October been so far? 🙂

Bring It On, NaNoWriMo!

So, life kicked me in the butt today, but rather than letting it discourage me, I’m saying to hell with it, and letting it encourage me instead. You know what goes great with soul-crushing disappointment? C-R-E-A-T-I-V-I-T-Y!!! (Seriously, there’s a reason for the “tortured artist” stereotype.) I’ve been getting back in my art groove this month with the infamous Inktober art challenge, but behind the scenes of that I’ve also been prepping for next month’s writing challenge NaNoWriMo. Two creative and grueling challenges in two months? Oh, hell yes. So, bring it on National Novel Writing Month. I’m ready for ya this year.

I even did a thing and signed up for the official NaNoWriMo website. If any of you guys are on there too, let’s be writing partners in crime and root each other on! 😀 You can see my official NaNoWriMo profile here! 🙂 It’s pretty sparse right now since I just signed up and haven’t had much time to check out the site yet, but there will be updates/content to come–especially once November hits!

So, who else is getting in on the NaNoWriMo fun this year? The more the merrier! 😉

INKTOBER 2019: LET’S DO THIS!

Awww yeahhh! October, which is only the bestest month ever (fact), is nearly upon us! That means Inktober is nearly upon us as well. Bust out your ink pens and watch out for paper cuts because we’re talking about 31 days of pure unadulterated, hand-drawn inky goodness.  Last year was my first year participating in the infamous art challenge, but I just kinda did whatever I wanted and only ended up doing a few pieces. This year, however, I’m following the official Inktober prompts for 2019 and following the official rules.

I recently went and got my art supply haul for Inktober and am feeling good about my weapons of choice for the year. I’ve never actually worked with India ink before so I’m pretty excited to check that out and give it a whirl. I might add the odd dash of color here and there throughout the month, but ultimately I’m going with the traditional black and white look with the occasional metallic accents.

So, who’s with me? 😉 Any fellow participants for this year’s Inktober challenge? Any past participants with sage knowledge and tips to pass on to a newbie like me? I’m aiming to complete a drawing for each theme throughout the month. I’ll try to share them daily over on my Instagram and will probably share a roundup of my drawings here on my good ol’ blog once a week.

I also plan to follow The Shameful Narcissist’s lead and start prepping for November’s NaNoWriMo challenge. Pile plenty of Halloween fun on top of that and October is going to be a busy-but-very-fun month. 🙂

 

Fall 2019 Bucket List

Sketchbook quickie I affectionately title “Blep” 😛

At last! Fall is finally here and I am all about it! ❤ I have a lot of plans for the next couple of months and who better to share them with than all you spiffy people?? 🙂 So, without further ado, allow me to present my official bucket list for the fall of 2019:

• Go to the Michigan Renaissance Festival
• Participate in Inktober
• Work more on face painting Halloween makeup again this year and put together costumes.
• Attend Theatre Bizarre
• Carve/Decorate pumpkins and decorate the house for Halloween
• Horror Movie Marathon
• Enter the costume contest at my work
• Pass out candy to all our little neighborhood ghouls and goblins
• More trips to more cider mills!
• Participate in NaNoWriMo
• Try making some new fall recipes this year
• Bonfires
• Decorate the house more and move some things around/finish some projects out in the yard before winter strikes again.

I’m sure there’s plenty more I’ll get up to in the months to come, but for now this is my go-to To-Do List for autumn. What are your big plans for the season? 🙂 Do you know what you’re being for Halloween yet? Apple or Pumpkin??? Let’s revel in fall! 😀

I’m Baaaack!! (November Wrap-Up)

Hello!! ❤ Wow, it seems November zipped by before I could even blink! I was hoping to get to do this update yesterday but I spent the whole day doing holiday shopping and playing with baby hedgehogs. I’m so glad to be back from my month-long hiatus, though! 🙂 I’ve missed all you marvelous people and I’ve missed blogging. I think that, although November didn’t necessarily go according to plan, it was a good month for me, and I hope it was for each of you as well. ❤

So, first thing’s first, let’s talk NaNoWriMo! So, how did I do, you wonder?? Well . . .

I didn’t end up making the goal of writing 50,000 words for the month, buuut I did keep at it, even when I knew I was too behind to accomplish the NaNoWriMo challenge successfully. I didn’t give up, and I made progress with the book I’m writing so I’m not completely heart-broken. Instead of the intended 50,000 words in 30 days, I wound up with 36,595. Not quite what I’d been hoping for, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it. How about you guys? 🙂 Did you participate in NaNoWriMo this year? If so, how did you do? I’d love to hear about it!

Even though the goal was to do nothing but write this month, I found myself constantly being pulled in different directions: hanging out with my loved ones, reading, work, playing games and watching movies . . . the list goes on. My willpower was weak, but my month was full of fun and good times so I regret nothing. 😛

BOOKS/GRAPHIC NOVELS READ IN NOVEMBER:

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (I got side-tracked when I started this in October for Halloween but ended up finishing it in November.) 4/5 stars.

Parasite, by Mira Grant (November’s book club pick for Sci-fi month, courtesy of my real-life BFF and blogging buddy Cupcakes & Machetes. You can read her review of the book here.) 😉 I’m hoping to do a review for it myself soon as well. 4/5 stars.

Strange Candy, by Laurell K. Hamilton (a collection of Paranormal/Urban Fantasy short stories.) 3/5 stars.

Rat Queens Special: Orc Dave #1, a standalone issue of the Rat Queens comic featuring the character Orc Dave. Definitely an enjoyable little read. 5/5 stars.

Rat Queens, vol. 2, so glad to finally be reading this series again. (Review for this and the Orc Dave special to come soon!) 😀 5/5 stars.

Saga, vol. 9, the latest volume of the series and the last we’ll get for a good while as the series takes a hiatus. As per usual with this series I had ALL THE FEELS! (There’s a review for this one coming soon as well.) 5/5 stars.

A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab (my first time reading anything by this author and I will definitely be checking out more of her books!) ❤ 4.5/5 stars

Spread, vol. 4 and vol. 5 (Woohoo! Finished the series.) I liked it. Didn’t love it, but I liked it. 🙂 3/5 stars.

I didn’t plan on reading much this month, but with the frigid early winter that has hit my home state, I was feeling the cozy-stay-in-and-read vibe and I just went with it. Michigan got ripped off when it came to autumn this year so I’m rebelling in the only way I know how: isolation under blankets with good books and comics. 😛

Looking forward to catching up on everyone’s blogs, but it might take me a bit, so feel free to tell me about or link me to any of your posts if you wanna share some of your own recent updates/news. ❤

 

Happy Halloween, My Dears!

What a wickedly wonderful October it has been! Now that we’ve finally arrived at this most excellent of holidays, I just want to wish each and every one of you a Happy Halloween! ❤ November is nearly upon us, which means my month long blogging hiatus I mentioned previously is about to commence. It’s all in the spirit of NaNoWriMo and I will miss each and every one of you in November, but I shall return come December. (Hopefully with news of a successful NaNoWriMo.) 😉

To those of you also participating in the challenge, I wish you the best of luck and look forward to seeing how you do when the month comes to an end.

Now, let’s get back to the Halloween talk, shall we?? 😀 This Halloween was basically a month-long affair for me. Between doing Halloween-related activities all throughout the month at work and nomming on ALL the pumpkin goodies, I also squeezed in some ghastly good times binging on horror movies/shows and partaking in frightening festivities. The highlight of which has been, without a doubt, the big halloween bash that is Detroit’s very own Theatre Bizarre! Mr. Moth and I attended the event, hosted in the Detroit Masonic Temple (the largest Masonic temple in the world) where they transformed eight floors into a wonderland of curiosities and Halloween delight.

With burlesque performances, live bands, fire dancers, contortionists, body suspension, a ghost train, and so much more, we wound up being up well into the early hours of the morning hustling around to see as many of the sights as we could.

One of the rules for entry into the event is that costumes are absolutely mandatory. We decided to go in matching black and white attire and dress up as skeletons for the night. Originally, the plan was to get our makeup professionally done, but the makeup place was booked the day of the event so I sucked it up and bought the needed cosmetics and ended up doing our makeup myself. I’ve never tried doing face paint before, but I’m pretty happy with how our makeup turned out. We got a lot of compliments throughout the night from people. 🙂

The Gruesome Twosome (Mr. Moth and I) in our costumes.

It was utterly amazing seeing the way they transformed the historic building into a sort of hellish vaudevillian escape. It was something I’d been wanting to experience for myself for some time, so I’m beyond happy that we went.

 

I hope each of you has been having an equally fun October and has a wonderful Halloween! Looking forward to catching up with everyone come December when NaNoWriMo and my month-long blogging hiatus come to an end. ❤ Take care, everyone!! ❤ ❤ ❤

Oh, and here is my final Inktober drawing. Wish I’d had time to do more of them throughout the month, but it is what it is! 😛

Plague Doctor

 

 

Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo 2018

Hey, everyone! 😀 I’ve really been enjoying getting to post a lot more again this month, but I wanted to give you guys a heads up that I’ll be taking the month of November off from blogging to focus on participating in National Novel Writing Month (aka: NaNoWriMo), or “Nano Rhino” as I like to call it. 😉

Taking part in the challenge to write 50,000 words in one month is always difficult, but it’s also a lot of fun. It takes a lot of time and effort, so I’m heeding the advice of The Shameful Narcissist, and avoiding distractions throughout the month that could hinder my word count goals throughout November. Sadly, this means no blogging for the month, but I think it’ll be the only way I’ll reach that goal and complete the challenge successfully this year. Things are always so busy, so I’m going to have to devote any free time I can get to working on my writing. Plus, it’ll really help me reach my goal of having my first draft for my book DONE before the start of the new year. It’ll be a lot of work, but I’m hopeful I can bust my ass and get it finished.

I’ll still be posting more throughout the rest of October, and I’ll miss all you fabulous people in November, but things will return to normal again come December. 🙂 I’d love to see this first draft finished by the end of December. It’s been a while since I’ve completed a first draft for a book I’ve written. I went through a notorious project hopping spree (something I’ve always been terrible about) but I’m feeling really committed to this current project I’m working on. I want to see it finished and I’m going to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

Are you planning on participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Got any big projects you’re working on that you’re excited about? Let’s talk about it! I love the creative process, no matter what form it takes, so I always enjoy reading about what you guys are creating and working on. ❤

 

NaNoWriMo 2017: Conclusion

You, guys. YOU. GUYS. It’s done! I know it’s been a couple days now, but NaNoWriMo is officially at its end, can you believe it? After all the late-night writing binges, after consuming more caffeinated beverages than anything of actual nutritional value, and after writing our little hearts out all last month, it is finally OVER!

We did it, guys! We weathered the storm. If you participated, I’d love to hear how you did. Hopefully everyone got a great experience out of it. 🙂 I think the whole challenge is a positive thing no matter the word count you end with because it is a valuable learning tool as a writer. So, no matter the outcome, congrats on another NaNoWriMo battle fought and survived (and maybe even vanquished!)

I spent the last couple weeks of November sick, but determined not to give up. Hence why I wound up going on a brief hiatus and have been a no-show around here lately. (Can you tell I started to feel the pressure when I wound up a bit shy of my intended word count by the halfway mark?) 😛 Well, the near-maddening level of work I put into it paid off and I DID cross the finish line. Not in a smooth, effortless gazelle-level-of-grace sort of way, but in more of a frothing-at-the-mouth, crashing through the wall and skidding to a bloody stop sort of way.

So, that said, by the end of November I finished the challenge by the skin of my teeth with . . . dun dun dunnnnn . . . 50,246 words. I wrote my little heart out. Some of it is pretty rough, but they call it a “rough draft” for a reason, no? 😉 There’s plenty more to keep writing for this story, but I’ve got a lot of that figured out already, too. I tend to be a project hopper, always bouncing from idea to idea, but I’m really enjoying writing these characters and their world right now, which leads me into another big announcement as the start of the new year draws ever nearer. It’s something I’m pretty excited about. 😀

I’m one of those people who always does the whole New Year’s Resolution thing. For a long time I was ALSO one of those people who made the goals and forgot all about them a month or two into the new year. Last year was different, though. I made a lot of resolutions aimed toward improving myself and I actually did accomplish a lot of them, which was an amazing feeling. I’ll do a whole post about my goals for the upcoming year as January gets closer, but for now, while we’re on the topic of my current writing project, I want to announce that one of those goals is to (by the end of 2018) have a finalized draft of my novel to start submitting to publishers.

NaNoWriMo was a major step in this, but only the first of many that I’ll have to take to make these goal happen. I’m looking forward to the journey though, no matter how stressful it might just end up being. Along the way I may even finally work up the nerve to talk a bit about what it is I’m actually working on. I’m neurotic about only letting people see my stuff when it’s DONE but maybe I’ll lighten up a bit on that. Maybe. lol It’s hard for me to let people see the rough, WIP versions of things I’m making, so we’ll see. Are any of you guys like that, too? I always see people sharing the things they’re working on and I love to see it, just for some reason I’ve always had a hard time showing things until they’re finished. Maybe that is something I should work on, too. 😛

Alright, time to catch up on everyone’s blogs! I’ve missed popping into WP since I was finishing my writing binge and dealing with a very busy last few days. It’ll be nice to see what you’ve all been up to. 🙂