Tuesday, November 27, 2012

NaNo 2012 Finished

I finished it, but I don't like what I wrote.  I had planned to continue the novel I began during last June's camp, but my characters had other ideas and ran off into the forest to hide from me, so I started something new that I didn't like at all, but it's done.  Now I can go back to working on last year's NaNo novel, as my muse for that has been steadily tapping on my window for the past week.

Monday, November 26, 2012

NG Geno 2.0 Results


I got my National Geographic Geno 2.0 DNA results back on November 21 (they received my samples on 10/22)  Here they are compared to Ancestry's DNA results:  

Geno 2.0 - 
24% Northeastern Asian (Lani)
22% Mediterranean (Richard)
19% Southeastern Asian (Lani)
13% Northern European (Richard)
8% Oceanian (Lani)
5% Southwestern Asian (Lani)
4% Sub-Saharan African (Richard)
4% Native American (Richard)

Ancestry DNA -
44% East Asian (Lani)
27% Southern European (Richard)
7% Eastern European (Richard)
6% Pacific Islander (Lani)
16% Uncertain (Richard)

What I know via my genealogy research - 
Lani's side:
Filipino/possibly Spanish
Hawaiian
Chinese

Richard's side:
Basque
Spanish
Cuban
Puerto Rican (Spanish/Taino/African)
Norwegian
possibly some French

The boundaries for the different regions vary on both tests, but they seem to say pretty much the same thing.  National Geographic obviously has more people who have taken the test around the world, so they were able to fine tune the percentages.

The funny thing is, they also say that I'm 3.5% Neanderthal and 4.4% Denisovan (which is another offshoot of the hominids that left Africa way before modern man)  I keep picturing Fred Flintstone as my ancestor peddling his car down the road, complete with sound effects.

I know it doesn't change who I am, but I find it all fascinating.  It gives me more cultures around the world that I want to learn about :)

For those of you who don't know, Lani and Richard are my birthparents.

I'm thinking of taking the 23andMe DNA test, which gives you medical information, but that will have to wait until I have a few more bucks in the bank, it's quite pricey!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Books Read in October 2012


Bevill, C.L.
- Veiled Eyes
Fiction.  Wow, action-packed paranormal fantasy about a woman, a mysterious clan who lives by a lake, and a giant catfish.

Lavid, Linda A.
- Teddy Bear
Fiction.  Short story about a middle-aged man pining after the young wife who has left him, only to finally being able to let her go and get on with his life.

Mittlemark, Howard & Sandra Newman
- How NOT to Write a NovelNon-fiction.  Humorous tongue-in-cheek look at the 200 most common mistakes made by hopeful published authors.

Finally caught up!

I've been feeling so guilty, because I was so far behind on my NaNo story.  It was stressing me out, which is a bad thing for numerous reasons, one of them being that I was getting depressed, which makes me sleep more, which makes me stressed out even more, because I'm not being productive!  Whew!  

But I'm doing better now.  The time-off I've spent since the last time I worked on Avienne wasn't doing me any good, and my characters seem to have run off to play in the forest without me, and they won't tell me where they are.  So while I'm hunting them down, I decided to just get SOMETHING down for NaNo, and in doing so, I have finally caught up, and my stress has greatly lessened.

One thing that has helped me is that I've been writing from 10pm to midnight every night, except Sunday, when I had a show to watch on TV and typed from 9-10, then 11-midnight.  I'm getting at least 2,000 words done a night that way, sometimes more.  I'm also crocheting at least five rows a night on an afghan I'm making my mom for Christmas.  Maybe there is something to having a schedule.  So far, it seems to be working for me.

I also suggest that anyone attempting NaNoWriMo invest some time in getting to know some good Writing Buddies.  They're invaluable!  Not only do they understand what you're going through, they're available as cheer leaders, beta readers, and resources, and you might just find yourself with new friends who will last beyond the one-month-long craziness that is NaNo.    

I've even managed to save some time to read one of my favorite authors, Yasmine Galenorn's most recent book, "Shadow Rising", another offering in her wonderful Otherworld series.