State of the Union Address 2013

Okay, so seriously, I'm not the President, so this is actually the "State of My Life 2013".

Will be spending more time on spiritual matters.

Will be writing all year, including in the three NaNo events.

Will be submitting at least two poems for publication.

Will be reading 100 books this year, already finished the first one.

Will be sorting through, organizing and donating a bunch of stuff.

Will lose weight and get out more.

Will hug my friends and family more.

Will have a good year :)

Books Read in December 2012

Campbell, Joan; Jennifer Fromke; Sheryl Holmes; Deanna Klingel
- The Christmas Tree Treasure Hunt
Fiction.  Short story written by several authors about a woman fighting an old hurt, and the treasure hunt her grandmother sends her on to find balance.

Hill, Nancy
- Twelve Days of Fruitcake
Fiction.  The story of people connected by a fruitcake.

O'Dell, Scott
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
Fiction.  Fictionalized representation of a true story.  In the book, a young Native American girl is accidentally stranded on a small island off the coast of California, when the rest of her tribe flees to the mainland. Her quest to survive under harsh conditions with little more than her two hands to make her way as her life is threatened by a pack of wild dogs and Aleut hunters.

Thomson, Rachel Starr
- Worlds Unseen
Fiction.  First in a fantasy series starring a group of people united in a common cause to save the world.

Wagler, Ira
- Growing Up Amish
Non-fiction.  Autobiography of a man who struggled with being Amish and went against everything he had been taught and left his family and his religion to find peace.

Books Read in November 2012

Childs, Laura

- Stake & Eggs

Fiction.  Suzanne and the girls at the Cackleberry Club are up to their elbows in events around town, but one evening while Suzanne is working late, she hears the buzzing of a snowmobile and goes out to investigate.  What she finds would make anyone lose their supper.

Evanovich, Janet

- Notorious Nineteen

Fiction.  Stephanie Plum is back at work trying to apprehend bond jumpers, but as usual, she finds herself embroiled in some explosive situations before she can find the missing clients.

Galenorn, Yasmine

- Shadow Rising

Fiction.  12th in the Otherworld/Sisters of the Moon series.  Another wonderful episode in the lives of the three D’Artigo sisters and their extended family.  This time, they go up against Gulakah, but they also have to deal with all of the ghosts and other spirited creatures he sends forth to create havoc.  Can they get them under control?

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.

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!

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.