Today is the day where
NaNoWriMo begins. And as indicated on their site, NaNo is about thirty days and nights of literary abandon (the goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November!). I remember I first participated in NaNo in 2005, and then another in 2007 (or was it 2008?) and I had had so much fun doing them. Although I won't be doing so again this year (too many things going on at the moment), still I'd like to wish all my friends who are participating: Good luck and happy writing!
Apart from NaNo, today is also my husband's birthday! I gave him a dinner treat last Friday evening and we also had a simple celebration at home over the weekend - a Premium D24 eggless durian cake. Unfortunately I'm not able to post the picture here since we haven't downloaded them but I can show you the picture taken from the bakery. What can I say? It was scrumptious (even our 2-year-old daughter loved it)!
(Photo credit)
On the reading front, I'm still reading Falling Home by Karen White. I'm enjoying reading it and Karen White is one of my favourite authors. I think the reason for my slow progress is that there are too many things happening in my life lately. My eldest daughter will be graduating from her kindergarten class soon and their school will be having a graduation ceremony in another two weeks' time; and she was being informed by her teachers that she would act as an emcee so for the past week my husband and I became her audience as she go through her 'script' again and again, LOL. And then, there is our office relocation end of this month and I have to get all my things organised and packed before the move. Frankly speaking, I am so not ready for the move in spite that my new workplace is nearer to my house and it takes about half the journey time as compared to my current one. The reason? Because I will miss the bookstore (just a 5-minute walk away) and a few of my favourite eating outlets but most importantly, I will miss these staff who have now became my friends! *sniff*
Back to my reading, I will start reading For the Love of Strangers by Jacqueline Horsfall tomorrow. This is for the Green Books Campaign hosted by Eco-Libris and I want to get it done so that my post will be ready on November 10th (considering I'm a slow reader, ha). After this, I will be reading The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda which I bought last week. This is a story about a woman named Mel Snow and a magician she met and married two days later. Is their love real or just an illusion? I can't wait to find out what happens.
Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead!
NaNoWriMo (
National Novel Writing Month) is celebrating its 10 years of literary abandon this year! Wow, how time flies! For all writing lovers (and to anyone who is interested as well), I am wondering if you have signed up for this big event that is happening in the month of November every year? If you have not, then what are you waiting for?
I first signed up as a member two years ago, and I really enjoyed the fun and the thrill of writing a 50,000-words novel in a month. I could very well remember some of those nights I pounded on the keyboards ferociously as if there is no tomorrow when my husband thought I was insane to do such things to torture myself, haha. But I feel it was a great accomplishment, never mind if the so-called manuscripts have dozens of typographical errors or if they are grammatically incorrect. I still feel I had completed a goal, even though there is no reward but a downloadable certificate and a button to certify that you are a winner!
No matter how much I love to join, unfortunately I would have to give it a miss this year with the new baby and all... (night typing will be replaced by night feeding!) but I will be a good cheerleader and cheer you on!
If you are residing in Singapore, there is a kick-off party on
1st November (Saturday) at
2.30pm-5pm at
Geek Terminal (
http://www.geekterminal.com/). They have contests, goodie bags (while stocks last) and stickers from the main HQ of Nanowrimo. (Please click
here to let the Municipal Liaisons (ML) know you are signing up.)
Have fun and good luck!
"Thank goodness it's over!"
Well, I'm not sure about the other NaNoWriMo participants, but this is exactly how I felt after a month's long of writing and more writing. But then again, it was fun in a way, although there were also the down moments when I encountered writer's block and had to burn midnight oil for several nights to make up for the lost wordcount. (Note: I made myself to write at least 1,667 words per day, because when you use that amount and multiply by 30 days, you get 50k words, LOL!) Anyway, that was all over, so it is time to relax and party.
Rozen and Sarahcoldheart, our Municipal Liaison (ML) and co-ML respectively were great supporters during the NaNoWriMo period; asides from that they also updated the local participants with any relevant news and organized events like the kick-off party on 27 October and of course, the TGIO party which was held last Saturday at the Earshot Cafe at the Arts House.
I was glad I was able to attend the TGIO Party. It was fun, although there weren't many particpants who turned up for the event as compared to the kick-off party. Here are just some of the pictures to share (all taken by yours truly):
A fellow participant reading out his NaNoWriMo excerpt.
What's a party without a cake?! And don't you think this cake is lovely?
Our Municipal Liaisons (Rozen and Sarahcoldheart) blowing off the candles on the cake.
Rozen (first left) and Sarahcoldheart cutting the cake while we looked on. 
I was so thrilled that I won a prize for the "Opening Lines Competition"! I was shocked when Rozen called out my name. I love my prize, especially the $10 Kinokuniya book voucher, hehe. Goodbye, NaNoWriMo 2007! By the way, the total wordcount for this year is 1098,496,066!
Guess what? I managed to make it to the
NaNoWriMo Launch Party on Saturday at the
Earshot Cafe at
The Arts House (with the accompany of the hubs and our daughter)!!! It was nice to see old faces, and also I was glad to see there are more newbies joining in too!
Participants signing up at the Launch Party.
These are some stickers found in our goodies bag.
Mine read "
Be Nice To Me or I'll put you in my NOVEL". LOL!
Once we have signed up, we are asked to play this game. The rules are pretty simple: You just have to construct a sentence based on the last sentence on the screen (which was done by the participant before you). And you are not allowed to scroll up and down to peek what others were writing, you just have to follow the flow of it. We have had a good laugh when the Municipal Liaison (ML) read out our "full story" after that.
Our ML (known as "Rozen" at our Nanowrimo local forum) kicks off the party by introducing everyone. (You won't see me on the pic as I was the photographer, hehe!)
Everyone sat back and enjoyed the warm and cozy ambience while sharing jokes and playing some quizzes. The winner gets to win
this book! (Unfortunately it wasn't me! Sniff...sniff...)
Here's a peek of our goodies bag. The items we received are:
A blank CD to store our Nanowrimo Novel;
Some candies to perk your creative juices;
A temporary tattoo to stick on as a reminder;
"BE NICE To Me or I'll put you in my NOVEL" sticker;
A rubber band;
A small note on the definition of Nanowrimo;
A clip;
"My Internal Editor" Sheet for scribbling;
A strip of yellow dots sticker;
A 'surprise' red packet which was labelled "Emergency Plot Item". (I find a nice tiny plastic toy in there!)
All in all, it was a great launch party! I was glad I went although I'm still debating whether or not to participate in NaNoWriMo this year...and that only leaves me a day to consider since it will begin on this coming Thursday! Woohoo!
Right... I'm helping to spread the words.
If you are living in Singapore and would like to participate in Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) which begins in November, please register yourself at its official website and stick a yes to the thread in our Singapore forums if you are keen to attend the launch party. This will be held on 27 October (Saturday) from 2.30pm till 5pm at the Earshot Cafe (The Arts House). What's more, they have goodies bag to give away too!
I had a great time meeting all wannabe writers during the Nanowrimo launch last year, and I will definitely attend this party again if nothing crops up at the last minute! :D
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