Pitch Wars 2017 Bio

Hiya there,
I'm Melissa and I'm new to this whole Pitch Wars thing, so here goes!

Here's my story in a nutshell:

WHERE NIGHTMARES REIGN is a dark fantasy YA. It involves some kidnapping by fae and other creatures of the dark, a girl refusing to give up hope in finding her sister, and the Boogeyman in between them. 

It takes place split between two worlds: ours and Faerhavan. Faerhavan is a world in constant darkness--not even a star in the sky--with monsters and beautiful people terrifying truths. My two MC's are sisters Eve, who is abducted by fae, and Samara, who is stuck in Wisconsin searching in the wrong place.

About me:
I'm a dreamer, I spend a lot of time in my headspace thinking and imagining crazy things. Sometimes I try to transcribe those imagined things onto paper, it doesn't always work they way I think it will, but still I try. (The cats like to "help" with the process on occasion).

I'm also busy raising and wrangling my one-year-old daughter, my Little Dragon. And to add to the insanity of prepping for Pitch Wars and raising my inquisitive, adventurous Dragon, I'm taking a post-graduate course to work toward my Licensed Clinical Social Work licensure. I may be crazy, it's okay.

Well, that's about it. Thanks for stopping by and good luck to all my fellow pitchers!

~Melissa

P.S. I can be found on Twitter here.

Becoming an Adult--Buying a House!

Hey there,
Boy has it been an exciting past couple of months! My husband and I are getting a house (we close on it next week actually :D). I must say, it is a crazy, but fun, experience. Looking at all the different houses was a lot of fun, though the market moves fast here so we'd find a house we really liked and within the next day it would be gone. Some places we never saw because they were taken off the market as we were driving to the house to view it! The crazy stressful part comes with the bank and figuring out all the financial stuff. I'm pretty sure we've killed at least one tree with all the paperwork we've signed. One day alone we signed like 60 pages of documentation. Now that just seems unnecessary if you ask me.

When we first decided to start looking at houses we really hadn't much of a clue what to look for either. We didn't really know what we wanted beyond a finished basement and a fireplace if possible. We quickly started to figure out what we liked though as we saw houses in our budget. I swear we saw close to twenty places by the time we found our house, probably more honestly. Aside from seeing houses with our realtors we also went to several open houses because the market moved so fast here.

At times it was hard to figure out why some houses cost what they did on both ends of the spectrum. Some seemed to be priced way more than they should while others seemed under-priced. The under-priced ones made us wonder if there was some reason why the house was so cheap. The houses that seemed over-priced were most likely so because the seller couldn't afford to sell for any less (at least that was probably true for some cases). We got to the point of knowing what we wanted that several houses we threw out of the running by just the pictures posted online. Other houses we didn't even have to see the whole place to decide it was a no.

All the other things that go along with buying a house, like the inspection and appraisal, were added steps along the way that had our realtors not given us a time sheet for when things had to be done by we probably would've been late with! It's also crazy the amount of financial information the bank needs from you too before approving to give the mortgage, like all of my student loans, for example. Since I'm still in school I figured it wouldn't be something counted against us since I don't need to start paying for any of them yet. One of the banks wouldn't give us a mortgage because of it though, because for them it didn't matter that the loans are in deferment, which was a headache in and of itself. But we eventually found one that didn't count them against us. Yay!

Now we get to start the fun-times of going through things to figure out what goes to Goodwill and what comes with us to our new place. We've just starting packing and I'm already not wanting to get rid of a lot of it. Oops. Ah well. I might find more things to part with as my motivation for packing decreases. We'll see!

Well, thanks for stopping by :)
Melissa

Do Something Daring!

Hey all,
Last night as I tried to sleep I was bombarded with ideas on how to change a story I've been working on and one that the writing group I'm in has been critiquing. I'm thinking of completely cutting out a character! I kind of feel like I'm killing him in an odd way, I know a bit melodramatic, but still. I've never just completely taken an important character out of a work that is mostly finished! I believe my main reason for considering cutting him out is that I think he might be a crutch for me. Jeremiah served as a knowledgeable outsider that steps in to help (eventually). I know that as I was writing the story in the haste of NaNoWriMo that I eventually had an oh shit moment of what to do with him, his story ends up winding off in a weird way. So instead I was thinking of focusing more heavily on the main character Eve and her sister Samara and how they deal with Eve's kidnapping, etc. I think removing Jeremiah would help me build Eve as a stronger character in that she can't just rely on him as she does at times. It would also feed into her fear more if she truly was alone in the strange world of Faerhavan. I think I'm also going to make her older. Here's to hoping this only improves the story, but if it doesn't I'll still have the original to play around with!

Are you doing anything daring with your writing? :)

Thanks for reading,
Melissa

Oh Man Where did All That Time Go!

Hey all,
It has been way to long since I last blogged and I am incredibly sorry! Turns out that extra class I took really was a super crazy challenge so it kept me busier than usual. Now that it's summer break I am going to try to get back in the swing of things with this blog!

Do you have any goals for the summer? Mine are to read a bunch of books (maybe I should actually attach a number to it to keep me honest XD) and to write, write, write! Currently I am working on the His Dark Materials trilogy  by Philip Pullman to help me with writing a darker story for youth. It's hard to motivate myself to read it at times though, maybe the fact that all three books are together in one in my copy just makes it look daunting, or it's just not a story that draws me in. I'm not sure, but I'm hoping to keep it up.  I found another series at random at a used book shop called May Bird by Jodi Lynne Anderson, it looks intriguing to say the least! I did finally get around to reading the Watchmen though. The graphic novel is so much better than the movie (in my opinion any way), I don't know how the movie wasn't any good.

Anyway, here's to hoping I keep my goals up for the summer! I hope you do too :)!

Thanks for stopping by,

Melissa

The Value of a Writing Community

Hey all,

It's been a while, I know. I'm taking an extra class this semester and it's got a lot more to it than I thought it would. (I know this is still an excuse though!) Anyhow, I thought it might be good to mention how valuable it is to have a writing group, whether it's just you and a friend or you and a group of writers, it's great to have someone to bounce ideas off of and to share your work with. It is also very nice to have someone who understands the challenges and rewards of writing--because writing isn't easy!

I've been a part of a writing group now I think for about a year and I have to say it is a increasingly beneficial group for me to be a part of. Not only does this group help motivate me to write, they also help me grow as a writer in regards to learning new or more appropriate writing techniques. This writing group is a great place to learn from other writers as well: writing tricks, advice on publishing the old school way vs. self publishing, and so much more! This group isn't anything extra, super fancy either. It's just a bunch of people who like to write that get together once a week. It's a Meetup group. Seriously nothing special regarding how the group started. The cohesion of the group is pretty awesome though. That part is special. So I definitely recommend forming a group, no matter how informal, no matter the size, just to help you get motivated to write and to have people you can bounce ideas off of.

Take care, keep writing, and thanks for stopping by!
 Melissa

Oh the Internet

Hi all,
I know, I know...it's been a while, between getting my wisdom teeth out and class starting again I just got all distracted-like, not to mention playing around with Band of the Purple Feather on Blogger, I decided recently to also start a Tumblr account. I don't know what my issue is, I guess I love the internet! I am putting my attempts at a webcomic on Tumblr and then I also have a Cleo and Bailey page of all their silliness. I guess it's good to throw yourself into things, right? Maybe? Who knows, it might be more than I can manage, but I am going to try! Has anyone else tried maintaining all of these different modes of communication? Any tips on how to keep it all under control but also updated?

I also haven't written for nearly two weeks :o oops! I am reading a book for fun though and reading is just as important as writing, you can get ideas and see some pretty useful techniques that way if you read a lot. But balancing all of it can be tricky, believe me I understand, so it might be easier to lean to the side of just writing or just reading, but try if you can to do both, it can be so very helpful. :)

It's a short one, I know, but thanks for visiting!

Melissa

A Writing Prompt and a Slightly Swollen Face

Hi all,
Here is a writing prompt I did with my writing group a few weeks ago! It was pretty fun and pretty silly. There is a princess trying to eat a pie and someone is trying to stop her for some reason. It could be upped to an end of the world kind of situation even. You have 10 minutes. Go!



Have you done it? Great! Feel free to share in the comments section. Here is what I ended up writing:

     All she wanted was a nice slice of the apple pie her great aunt made for her. She smelled it baking long before she saw it.
     "Here snow dear, have some pie, I've made it just for you."
     Snow reached her hands out excitedly, the smell tickling her nostrils playfully.
     Just as she was about to take the plate a stout man, the realm physician, with a big white beard knocked it from her reach.
     "Don't eat that!" He shouted.
     "But why?" Whined Snow.
     "How rude of you, shoo you old kook." Snow's great aunt hissed. "I'll slice you another piece dear." She smiled, but her crows feet didn't deepen.
     "Come this way Princess." The gruff voice of the stout physician's brother blared. "Quick."
     Soon several pairs of hands were on Snow's arms pulling her from the kitchen.
    "Where are you taking me?"
    "To a safe place Princess Snow." The overly happy one said.
    "He's waiting there to keep you safe." Said the exhausted one.
    "He? Who is 'he'?" Snow demanded as she tried to rip her arms free from the wee men.
    "The Prince from over the mountain. He warned us of your peril, he'd had a vision, but was too nervous to enter a kingdom his family wasn't on good terms with." The physician said.
    "You trust him?!" Snow struggled further. "He of all people is liable to harm me, is he not?"
    "He spoke the truth, you'll see once we get there. Trust us dear Princess."
    On they dragged her down the hallway and toward their cottage just outside the castle in the enchanted forest.



Well there's what I got in the ten minutes allotted to us. I hope you found it silly if nothing else. As the title states for this post, my face is slightly swollen since my wisdom teeth were removed yesterday. I don't full on look like a chipmunk and only one side even looks swollen compared to the rest, so I can't complain!

Thanks for stopping in,
Melissa

Another Blog!

Hi all,
I have another blog in the works as my attempt at a webcomic, I finally decided to roll up my sleeves and get to work! I hope it's not too terribly cheesy since it's done with Lego's--I am not an artist! Here's the blog: http://bandofthepurplefeather.blogspot.com/

I am also getting my wisdom teeth removed on Friday, I'm totally nervous for it, but I just found out that it's only going to take 45 minutes. I'm ok with that. I'm expecting to be pretty useless afterwards, probably super sleepy, but who knows.

I am going to do my best to equally divide my time between both blogs, I know I haven't been terribly consistent with this one....sorry :o!

Thanks for stopping in,
Melissa

Lesson Learned in the Super Cold

Hi all,
As many of you may know, there was that incredibly cold polar vortex that came to visit much of the United States earlier this week. In Madison, Wisconsin the high for Monday had been -9F. That would be without windchill factored in. I believe it got close to -40F with windchill, give or take. It was cold enough that after about five minutes outside frostbite was a very real possibility. Tuesday wasn't much warmer, the high had been 2F. There was still a pretty frosty windchill going on that day. On Monday all the schools in Wisconsin closed, or at least almost all of them, schools followed suit for Tuesday too since the weather advisory did not end until noon Tuesday.

Some of my siblings and I did some science experiments in this super cold weather. One of the experiments was the throwing boiling water into the air to see it freeze instantly. And yes one of us did get burned. My brother had successfully thrown the boiling water into the air a few times, but the time he got burned was due to him overfilling the cup from his electric tea kettle (we brought it outside with us to keep the water hot). Poor brother :(! We also attempted to see how long it took for cold water to freeze, but got impatient and gave up. The final experiment we did was blowing bubbles into the frigid air--they are supposed to freeze and look very neat. The first few attempts were done with homemade bubbles, so we thought maybe it wasn't successful because they were homemade and the recipe I used called for the bubbles to sit for a day, but SCIENCE! So we eventually got real bubbles, and it sort of worked, but we did the trials later on in the evening on Tuesday and thought that perhaps it wasn't cold enough any longer.

Tuesday I discovered why heet is an important factor in helping my car start. It took several tries and several hours in between to get my car to finally start. My siblings and I went on a quest to find heet to put in my car, figuring it at least wouldn't hurt to add. We went to several places: Walmart, BP gas station, Woodmans (grocery store), O'Reilly Auto Parts, Sears Auto Center, and Metcalfe's Market (another grocery store, we were kind of thinking no one would think of looking there). All of these places were out!

This is at O'Reilly Auto Parts, it's hard to see, but there is a sign on the door that says

Sorry We Have No Heet

We asked someone at the Sears Auto Center if they had any suggestions on what we could do to help get the car started. He suggested pushing it into a garage, which we had considered doing; or get a hair dryer and hold it over the starter--I totally don't know what or where the starter is so that one didn't help me much. After Metcalfe's we went back to try again, I had to work at 3:30 so I really needed to know if my car was going to start! After trying a few more times and pumping the gas it finally started. Woot. I finally got to put my spare key to use, locking my car up while it ran for a good 15 minutes or so before finally leaving my brother's apartment.

As a silly note, for most of this time (Sunday evening to Tuesday afternoon) I was totally being twelve and having a sleepover at my brother's apartment. My oldest sister was in town for a few more days before she had to fly back to Singapore, so we decided to have an epic sleepover that ended up going longer than expected because of the cold. We watched a few episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Sharknado, Two-Headed Shark Attack, Jersey Shore Shark Attack, and Paranormal Activity 3 and 4 amidst all of our science experiments. It was good fun :D!

Thanks for reading,
Melissa

Yay for Holidays and MORE LEGOS!

Hi all,
This holiday season has been keeping me pretty busy, so sorry that it's been a while. I hope you all had safe, fun-filled holidays as well, or if nothing else some time off from your busy schedule! I definitely ate way more food that I needed to or should have, but it was still a lot of fun.

I got several new sets of Legos this holiday season--I know, I'm an adult, but Legos are just so much fun. I also have been scheming a plan with all of the many Legos I've gotten. I still don't know how well it is going to work out, but I am going to try to make a webcomic (sort of?) following one of the D & D campaigns.

Here is a test run of what I've been scheming!

I've found a way to utilize Google Documents to make this a little easier too. I know the backgrounds are kind of cheesy, but I'm not sure how to make it better. I just think this could be a lot of fun! Plus, I can't draw ;). If anyone has suggestions please leave them in the comments section! It would be much appreciated.

Also, here is an attempt at a pirate ship I also made of Legos for funsies.

Thanks for stopping by!

Melissa

I Think Sears is Holding my Car Hostage

Hi all,
Hooray! Class is done for a few weeks, just finished my last class of the semester on Saturday (the 21st). Although I still have to wait for my grade, at least I can sigh with some serious relief that class is done. It was a pretty informative class too!

Alright, so now time to get to the title of this post. As of Thursday December 19 because my heat was once again no longer working--only cold air was coming out of the vents even after being in the car for an extended period of time. So I bring the car back in, I know I really should stop bringing it there....unfortunately they are the only place with openings in the area and I can walk home from the auto center.

Anyhow, after they figured out what was wrong with my car on Thursday they told me it was the water pump this time. Fun fun. And then they said they didn't have anyone that day that could specifically work on it, but there would be someone in on Friday in the morning. So I was like ok, I want the person that knows what they are doing to fix my car. Makes sense right?

I was told it was projected to be done by noon on Friday. After hanging with my sister for a bit while she shopped at the mall, I decided to just hang around for two more hours to wait for my car to be done (Sears Auto is right next to the mall). I go over just after its noon to find out my car isn't done yet, that they discovered that the engine needed some special thing to prop up the engine so that it doesn't fall out and that it wouldn't be done until Saturday. Sigh.

I hitch a ride to class figuring it will be done by the time I get finished with class at 1. That was silly of me. I call only to find out it is STILL not done. They need some special tool or something, I don't really know, but that it would be done at 5. I worked 4 to 7 that night so clearly I couldn't pick it up then. The sales rep was even reminding me of the incoming snow storm. I was well aware, but unable to do anything else about it.

Sunday morning I call at 10, figuring they may need a little extra time just to get to the auto center because of all the snow (we got approximately 6 inches total I believe). Alas. My car was still up on the thingy for fixing. Awesome.... Supposedly it will be done today. We'll see. All I know is I am NOT paying more in labor because it's taking them so long. If they say I need to because it's not their fault that it's been taking so long than I'm going to just have to ask if that means they are saying it was my fault for bringing it to them. All I know is there service is so far not earning my business.

Sorry, rant over! I learned today how to clean up an alkaline battery explosion, quite proud of myself for not having to ask my husband to do it for me :). Also, Bailey trying to be sneaky!

He was hiding under Chris's winter coat. Cleo had totally being playing with that pink and blue ball until Bailey did a surprise attack on her. It was kind of funny.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

P.S. Happy Holidays and/or hooray for a day off this week for most people!

Apologies and Poetry

Hi all,
Sorry again it's been several days since I last posted. There's only one week of school left and I've got two assignments to finish up before then, so I guess my brain is a little frazzled :).

I don't often write poems, but a few months ago I was inspired to write two different poems, I don't know if they're really good, or even decent, but hey I figured it could be fun to share even if they aren't. The first poem is a little whinny, it was written during a time of serious frustration with work where a kiddo and I were just clearly not a good match, but I didn't want to give up on the team (the kid pretty much hated me for some unbeknownst reason), I ended up leaving the team so that he could thrive in therapy. The second poem is more of a criticism of the U.S. inspired by a mixture of what I've learned in my classes.

Caring
I find the caring inside of me
Is gone, it's not simply that I am unsympathetic,
It's that it has atrophied.
Thank society.
Or the media epidemic.
Thank the dwindling fervor that is humanity.
Maybe thank me.
The moving, aching muscles of compassion are gone.
So long.

What is the world coming to, you ask.
It's worst nightmare, I respond,
Humanity is gone.

False Dreams
The American Dream
Isn't as it seems,
Try as one may
No matter how hard they work each day,
Those bootstraps to pull upon
Are long gone,
If they ever existed
To start with, which is twisted.
This ideology,
This philosophy
We hold so dear
Is never near
Unless
You hold riches of boundlessness
And every opportunity is afforded
You. All of it is hoarded
For the rich, for the white.
It seems impossible to fight.
Change isn't easy or often fair,
Will it really get us anywhere?
Perhaps. Unknown futures
Could be the sutures
We need to save us
From our false dreams of greedy lust.

As always thanks for stopping in and visiting. If you've written any poems or flash fiction you'd like to share please do so in the comments! I forgot to say that with the last writing prompt I offered.

Thanks!
Melissa

The Burden of Convenience

Hi all,
Warning to the reader, this might get a little ranty, sorry! I noticed Sunday that my car was making an odd noise, it had just been in the shop on the 20th of November, so I was less than thrilled to hear that odd noise. Then yesterday my heat didn't work at all, which isn't good when you know, it's winter. My car also got awfully close to the "hot" temperature reading yesterday evening while I was driving to work, so that was concerning. Now I'm hanging out in the mall while my car is getting checked for a coolant leak--it's low on coolant which it shouldn't be because I just had the coolant exchanged. The noise apparently is coming from my muffler, that'll be dealt with a different day.

Cars can get so expensive, there are times when I want to just swear off driving and just bus and walk everywhere instead. But then I think about waiting in the cold for the bus, or remember the time I got on the wrong bus and ended up walking the two or so miles home from where the bus could drop me off that was closest to that point. I do generally try to walk where I can when I can (weather cooperating). I might even consider walking to one of the houses I work at once it's not winter and it stays light out past 4 pm. I'm not exactly keen about walking home alone in the dark for about a half hour's worth of time. The other house I work at would just be too far to reasonably walk to. If I were to get a bike that could solve some of the problems of travel time and distance, but I'd not ride a bike in winter, I am not that tough or daring.

So instead of getting a bus pass, which I can get one for free from campus since I am a student, I eat the cost of my car repairs. The convenience of cars certainly has it's associated cost. As for why I don't have the bus pass, well I'm kind of lazy, I'll admit it. In order to get the pass I need to go on campus during the week which means not only will I have to deal with the joys of throngs of students, I'll have to deal with finding parking that will most likely be a place I have to pay for. The office that gives the bus passes isn't open on Saturdays when I'm at campus for class. Maybe I think I'm being spiteful by not giving in...? I don't know, it's probably just laziness. Riding the bus, biking, and/or walking would be more environmentally friendly than my car too. Once winter is done I'm going to try to make a more earnest effort to not drive when possible. Cut down on my carbon foot print if only by a little!

Thanks for reading,
Melissa

Is it the Cold Deterring Me or am I Just Lazy?

Hey all,
So since the Hot Chocolate Run in November I really haven't jogged at all. I ran on Monday this week, but I haven't been able get myself to jog since then. I don't know where my motivation that I had from September to November went! I'd like to blame the wintery cold outside, right now (at 10 am) it's 10 degrees Fahrenheit, but it feels like -1. I don't even know what it was at 7:30 when I try to do my jog at, or at least when I had been doing my jogs prior to the Hot Chocolate run. Too bad I don't have a treadmill in my apartment. Some day I plan to, but for now I need to walk like five minutes to my apartment complex's main office where they have a decent gym. If anyone has suggestions on how to motivate myself, please share!

Here's a writing prompt for any of you writers out there! Write from a non-human perspective. It can be from an animals perspective or an alien's or even an inanimate object if you are feeling daring. I found this prompt here (Writing Prompts). But I am going to take the writing prompt suggestion one step further, write from the non-human perspective about a devastating event, it could be a deadly crash, a war, even the end of the world. Give yourself five minutes Now. GO!


Here is what I got, maybe five minutes isn't enough, that or my brain is rusty:

Lights flashed from the sky as Princess gazed out the window. They were so bright she shut her eyes from the suddenness of it all. Her humans were running around the house yelling in their drab ways. Princess didn’t even care to listen. 

She stood from the window, stretching all of the kinks out of her back, then she took in the panic of her people. The noisy picture box was on, there was red at the bottom of the box with something in white scrolling quickly. Red-orange color consumed the room, originating from the world beyond the window. Princess snapped her head back to the window, her humans ran to the window as well. 


Thanks for stopping in! I hope some of you try that writing prompt, I'm sure you'll do way better than me ;D.

Melissa 

Cat Personalities

Hey there!
While visiting with family for the Thanksgiving holiday I was really struck by just how different one of my in-law's cats is personality-wise in comparison to my two cats. My in-law's cat is named Hunter. Several years ago on a particularly chilly winter evening he was found by my father-in-law. They brought in the little kitty, fed him, and took care of him. At first Hunter didn't really interact with them at all, he more stared through them than anything else. Eventually he warmed up to them and started playing. He was estimated to be about a year old when he was found, he was probably a barn cat, and he was a scrappy fighter from the looks of his tuffed ears. Since opening up to my in-laws, he has become the most friendly cat I've ever met. He's hungry for attention (he will even use your hand to pet himself if you have stopped petting him) and playful as ever. I believe my mother-in-law said he's approaching eight years old, you wouldn't think he was much older than a year or two by his energy level.

Hunter is helping with quilting.

I think what surprises me so much about his personality is when I compare it to my cat Bailey, who was found when he was three weeks old and has been with people since that. Bailey is five now and although he has his playful moments, he's still a pretty stand-offish cat in a general sense. Maybe Hunter had been socialized with other farm cats when he was a kitten whereas Bailey didn't get much cat socialization. I'm not sure, I just know there is such a difference between these two orange cats!

Since we adopted Cleo I don't know exactly what her upbringing was like, but I do think she may have been a street cat. There are times when Cleo and Bailey get along really well though, so maybe she's rubbing off on him. He is a brat to her still though, don't get me wrong, he chases her through the apartment often. But they can at least both sleep on the bed at times without having a tussle. That's progress in my book :)!

Thanks for stopping in,

Melissa

It's Been So Long!

Hey all,
Sorry it's been yet another lengthy time between posts! I finished NaNoWriMo last night, I've been working crazy hard to get all my words in, I think I wrote 5,000 words or so yesterday alone. Now I can say I've officially made it to 80,000 words! I must say, never again. I will not ever agree to write that many words in a month again. I seriously think it messed with my brain a little bit, there were times when I felt almost like I was drunk when I'd had nothing at all to drink. BUT I am glad I challenged myself to do this. It was one crazy awesome fun experience. I just didn't do a whole lot else this November. I'm going to give myself a break from writing for a few days, but only to do homework....

I did find a handy way to trick myself into writing a lot of words one of the days. I took a post-it note, covered it with permanent marker, and then put it over the clock on the computer. I set an alarm on my phone for when I could be done. I also could not neck my word count in that time. I thought by the time the alarm went off that I'd written maybe 3,000 words. I was way off. I ended up writing over 5,000 words in that one sitting. It felt like a mega accomplishment to get that many words in, my mind was seriously a little blown that day. That trick only worked once for me though. I tried it two more times after that and ended up eventually removing the post-it or checking my word count. Maybe I pushed myself a little too hard that first trial with the post-it note trick.

Poor Cleo has a cold now, she's been sneezing and she clearly sounds stuffed up, this kitty just can't get a break! The vet recommended having Cleo kept in the bathroom while the shower was running as a steam treatment, the vet thought maybe part of Cleo's sneezing was due to the air being too dry for her. I think it's been helping so far though Cleo gets annoyed fairly quickly with it. I can't blame her either.

Also, it totally snowed again, Monday I woke up to this:

Oh Wisconsin, you can be cruel sometimes. This time the snow is sticking too. The last time it snowed a good portion of the snow melted over the next couple of days, however it is still rather wintery white out now.

And now, the pictures you've been waiting for: Cats (and a related picture)!

Bailey helping Chris play DDR.

I found this in my shoe one morning from Bailey,

I am glad it's only a toy mouse.

Cleo is helping Chris with NaNoWriMo, 

she's doing her best to motivate him.

I'm going to try to get better about posting from now on since I no longer have the excuse of NaNo, I promise!

Thanks for stopping in,

Melissa

Caffeine Problem and Word Wars!

Hi all,
Sorry it's been several days since I last posted! My days are all kind of meshing together, I can't wait for November to be done. I think NaNoWriMo is feeding into my caffeine problem:

I don't have a fancy thermos, so I ghettoed it up and brought two coffee mug thingies with me to class the other day. To be fair I was there ridiculously early so that I could get parking and have time to write. I just got the silver one (it's a fancy-schmancy NaNo one :D) so I totally poured the coffee from the pink one into to silver one. Still, that's a lot of coffee... probably not good for me. I think today I'm going to be all defiant-like against my coffee maker and not make any coffee. We'll see how successful that is since both cats work me up around 5:30 and then kept nagging me. I do think I drink double or even triple the amount of coffee during November than I usually do the rest of the year, that's crazy scary really.

Last night I discovered the fun of word wars! Basically you and some other people figure out your word count, then you write for fifteen minutes straight. Then everyone stops and you see who wrote the most in those fifteen minutes. I participated in two word wars last night and I got 1220 total words between the two fifteen minute segments! I don't know how having that challenge helped to push me to write so quickly then, but man if I could keep that writing pace up for an hour I'd have my word count in! Maybe I can trick myself into thinking I'm in a word war....

I can't believe it's already November 20th! I've written 57,148 words so far. It's looking more and more possible that I will actually get to 80,000. I've also totally promised myself to splurge on something if I do get to 80,000 as a reward (my splurgy reward). It's totally something silly that I've been wanting for years but couldn't actually bring myself to buy because it is costly. I think this is helping me motivate myself though :D. I wrote just over 4,000 words yesterday.

And to end, here is a picture of Bailey transfixed by Chris playing Dance Dance Revolution:

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

NaNoWriMo Update

Hey all,
I've been doing my best to keep up with the daily word count which I've been able to do so far. It's just been more challenging than the past couple of years, I realize it's mainly because I'm making myself write more words than necessary for the typical NaNo word count. The type of story I'm writing is more challenging for me too, I'm really concerned it's not scary at all and that's what I'm hoping to do, make it scary!

I started getting unmotivated the closer I've been getting to 50,000 words since if I did stop, I'd at least be done. However, my motivation was reinvigorated when some of my friends that I'd thought had given up went to town and wrote several thousands of words in a day (one wrote 10,000 words!). Seeing this made me want to do my best not to give up! Thanks friends :D! As it stands now, I've written 45,057 words so far in 15 days. Let's see if I can keep it up. Only 34,943 words left to go.

On a super positive note, Cleo's lip is looking better, the swelling has gone down that had been present, but the ulcer is still there. I think the ulcer has gotten smaller as well, so maybe the the steroids were helping. I'm out of free samples from the vet, so we'll see if things change, that will help figure out if she needs another course of steroid treatments or not. I will keep you updated.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

Winter Has Come and Cleo's Struggle with Face Issues

Hi all,
Well winter decided it wanted to visit the southern part of Wisconsin. It snowed yesterday and the snow stuck. It wasn't a lot of snow, just enough to cover the ground in a white blanket. It was also enough to need to scrape off my car (it initially was raining or sleeting I think, because then it froze!). A lot of it has already melted today, but I have a feeling we'll be seeing more snow pretty quick. I will try to actually be good about taking a picture too. I just hope we don't have a blizzard like the one we had last December. It shut down the city I live in (a big city). The mall shut down a week or two before Christmas if that's any indicator for you. I think it was something like two or three feet of snow in day that we got that day. Pretty insane. The snow plows were pretty much only on the main roads and interstate that day. Many, many people got stuck, including the squad cars that were trying to get to people to help them get unstuck! So yeah, no thanks, we don't need that degree of snow at once this year. My fingers are crossed for nowhere near that much snow.

As the title states poor Cleo (one of my kitties) is dealing with face issues. Since we adopted her last April she's had on and off infections and irritated scabs on her lips. The vets decided maybe it was an allergic reaction with some cat acne tossed in there, I so did not know cats could get acne. Well, yesterday I took her to the vet again and now they are thinking on top of allergies and acne that she's got an auto-immune disease that causes her to get ulcers on her lip. I was given a liquid steroid to get her the next couple of days to see if that helps get things under control. I also bought some fancy, and expensive, hypoallergenic food for her in hopes that it will help calm the acne which might be irritating her lips to the point of giving her ulcers. She at least doesn't seem to be in pain or bothered by it, unless I'm holding her still trying to get a look at it.

(Here's Cleo in a silly sitting position in case you forgot what she looks like!)

I switched from plastic food dishes to ceramic ones as well, I saw on a few forums that that has helped with cat acne issues. I've purchased some cat wipes too called Nature's Miracle that should help with the acne too. That won't help the ulcer though, which I was rubbing on the ulcer too before I knew it was an ulcer and the vet said that probably would hurt, oops :(.... I'll try to keep you updated on how she's doing in the upcoming posts!

Here's Bailey deciding this was his way of helping the quilt finish drying. He gave me quite the perturbed look when I folded it later once it was dry. He apparently rather enjoyed that as a laying spot.

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave comments :D!

Melissa

Writing Ruts and the Conspiracy of Women's Clothing

Hi all,
Yesterday was my first day of NaNo that I really hit a writing rut. It took me several hours longer to reach my daily goal than usual. I think a big part of it was that I had to start writing later than I usually do, I hope that was why anyways. I am a little concerned that I won't have enough to say of this story for 80,000 total words! That doesn't mean I'm giving up, I'll find a way, probably. I've been doing the math lately to see how many words I have left and how many it would take to get to 80,000--I should stop doing that, at least for a while, it's depressing to see that I still have more than 50,000 words left to go. As of this moment I've written 26,125 words in nine days. Sad thing is I still have 53,875 words left. So. Many. Words.

I think the encouragement of family and friends helped me get those words out yesterday though, it's always useful to have someone cheering you on with any challenge you are facing, especially once that is important to you whether it's writing, or drawing, or something completely unrelated to art. They can really help motivate you. My friends and family certainly motivate me not to let them down, so I keep on trying and pushing myself to do the best that I can.

As you can see from the title, I'm also going to rant briefly about the conspiracy of women's clothing. The biggest conspiracy in my mind is how freaking small the pockets are on pants. Unless I were to start buying men's jeans for bigger pockets, I'm pretty much doomed to lugging around a purse. Thus this conspiracy points to jeans designers and purse manufacturers in cahoots! They've got to be working together and making some shared profit off of this somehow. Jerks.

A couple weeks ago I noticed an odd warning on one item of clothing I had. It said keep away from fire. This wasn't on the tag of a shirt or pants, you know the things that would catch fire first... It was on the tag of one of my bras. I don't know if this is some reverse psychology thing trying to stir the angry, bra-burning feminist in me, or if it's some aim to dissuade me from purposefully burning my bra. I still can't decide if it is something that offends me or not. It certainly leaves me wondering why and feeling a little vexed at it. Anyone have a good explanation for why this would be the only piece of clothing that has a keep away from fire warning?

Thanks for reading!

Melissa