12:08 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
This is the secod book in the series that I've actually read, having only watched "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" in DVD. For me, next to Tolkien, C.S. Lewis comes a close second to creating the best fantasy worlds and bringing the reader into them. It's was a very light read which is probably the reason it was added to my reads-in-progress stack. But everytime I come back to it--- or at least remember to do so, there's that feeling of not wanting to put it down until something that really needs my attention disrupts my reading or I'm already too sleepy that the words get blurred to continue.

19:00 Can You Keep a Secret?
What can I say? I'm chick-lit deprived. The last one I read was from last year's October read-a-thon. I think it was She Went All The Way.  Sometime in the last two or three chapters while plowing through book number 2, I was debating whether or not to finish one of my other reads-in-progress. But I then I realized I wouldn't have enough energy to go through with it if I have to force myself to finish it. Where would be the fun in that?  So, my last book for this read-a-thon will be another chick-lit, also from Sophie Kinsella.

26:00 Remember Me
Again, chick-lit deprived. Even after this second book I would have wanted to go for another except that my eyes already hurt. Hope I didn't make that much damage that my prescription would have to be increased again.. :/  A disconnect had happened between my brain and the optic nerves the because I was seeing the screen of my e-reader as somewhat concave and the lines curved.. and wavy.  Nevertheless, really enjoyed this year's read-a-thon. And for the book, a bit dragging, a bit deeper than Can You Keep a Secret. Not as funny though.  On the whole still enjoyed it so I think I'm gonna give Shopaholic a shot.

2:20 The Partner
I've watched two films based on John Grisham's novels, and read 3.  That third read being "The Partner", and the most disappointing. I liked the two movies, and the first two books didn't take longer than 4 days for me to finish given that I remember reading them on weekdays wherein I had to go to work everyday. I started reading The Partner over two months ago and it had to take a Read-A-Thon for me to finally push myself to finish it.  From this experience I have learned that when it comes this author's works, if I'm about 1/4 into the book and I still find myself easily distracted by other things to do, I should just let it go and not wait for the pace to pick up. Although from experience I've seen this for other books.  And, it'll probably be a long time before I pick up another Grisham novel.

EOD count: 5,328
Total  to date: 29,080

So I'm now at the middle part of my novel. At least, I think I am. Yesterday I was a bit worried because I couldn't think of what to write about the next day. From where I am, I can't see how I'll able to to connect this part of the story to the end I had in mind. The end chapters that I'd been able to create outlines for. One of the characters had been changed, and I'm not sure who the main antagonist is anymore. Or what the real conflict in this fantasy world is.

But hey, I got 5,328 words today! How about that... ^_^

First excerpt post (ever, I think):
"Either he's actually found something, or he's found bait," said Ranma. He and Akane were sitting by a hillside at the back of the castle. They had an overlooking view of Autumn Glades in front of them, but at the moment neither could really appreciate the supposedly breathtaking view.

"Please don't say that."

"Are you worried about him?"

Akane sighed and turned to face him. "Ranma, he's on to them because I asked him to. Judging by what's happened to you, what do you think I'm supposed to feel when they get to him first?"

"He's got the cavalry behind him. And besides, if he gets them I'd have to leave you. How do you think I feel about that?"

Akane didn't respond and turned unseeing eyes forward.

"Is that what you want?"

She slammed her fist on the grass covered ground they sat upon, and turned to face him again. "There's a lot of things I want that I just can't have. And maybe," her voice became almost a whisper. "maybe I'm just not meant to have them..."

"Hey. Akane, look at me." He cupped her face with both of his hands, and he held her eyes for a moment before continuing. "You've been a witness to half of the craziness in my life. You've seen how I fought for the things I wanted, even if they didn't turn out the way I expected them to be. And I never gave up. I never gave you up. Just as you never gave up on me. And I still got a lot of fight in me."

Day 3: 3,025
Day 4: 3,563

Total to date: 13,415

Having a vague plot outline, and not taking the time to do world building, it's quite a challenge for me to create the fantasy world in my story. Today, I had one of the characters explain the basics of this 'other world' to my MCs. It somehow felt like I was also sitting in one of the chairs in that garden listening in and going "oh... ahh..." This is exactly what I love about writing.

Anyway, it's hard for a technical person like me to create a world and not have to think about it logically. Stuff like magic and defying laws of gravity, or any other laws of physics for that matter. It's a lengthy discussion that goes on in my head and usually ends on my left pinkie finger. Or sometimes the left ring finger.

But no, no, no. That will not do for Nano. I need to remind myself that I am the creator. Of the story, that is. I make my own rules. Break them if I have to. Thus, I am reminded of a line in the first Matrix movie. It's the scene where Neo had been taken by Morpheus to see the Oracle for the first time. There was this group of special kids in one area of the room that were doing things that shouldn't be possible. At least in the world that Neo knew. He approached this one kid who was bending spoons with his brain power, or something. And he told Neo the one Truth, "that there is no spoon."

This is now my motto for this year's NaNoWriMo. It's written on the small whiteboard on my wall, and I say it to myself several times a day. There, I did it again ;p It's my way of telling myself not to be bound by any rule when it comes to my story. Especially when I encounter scenarios like the one above about describing my setting. There is no spoon.

Day 1 word count: 3557
Day 2 word count: 3268

Total: 6827 / 50k (nano site's count)

Not bad. Definitely better than how I started last year. I'm not letting the thought of not having a middle bother me. I'll.. write the bridge when I get there. At least 4 points in my story have changed from what I've plotted in my outline. Not sure how the changes will turn out, but I'll be trusting on how "good" the idea sounded at the time of writing them.

This year I'm doing fanfic again based on Ranma 1/2; fantasy/adventure genre.  Synopsis: Ranma is done with the craziness surrounding his life and wants to focus on fixing his "relationship" with Akane after the failed wedding. With the help of his mother, they're able to make his obvious (albeit unspoken) choice understood by the other fiancees in a closed-door meeting sans Akane. Akane, on the other hand, is tired of competing with the women in Ranma's life and decides to put a distance between the two of them.  A stranger from another land pulls Ranma and Akane away from the people in their lives and from Nerima and thrusts them to another world. Where Ranma is tired of doing hero work, Akane takes the opportunity to do something for herself and the people who depend on her.

Still don't have a title for the story. Haven't even made a fix yet on what should be the name for this 'world' that my characters have been thrust into. I was too lazy to do world building.

No drastic changes have happened in my real life yet with regards to doing nano. Well, except for the 30-day Facebook fast that I'm doing. It's a constant battle in my head to hit the Delete button whenever a Facebook notification email comes. I can't view them because it would then be even harder not to post or send a reply. And that the act would be considered cheating.

Four days to go before NaNoWriMo officially starts and I think I'm actually starting to panic. Something that didn't happen last year even though it was my first time to join. I even thought that most were a bit too much in their "panic mode" because it wasn't as though it was their first time to join. I reached the 50k mark on the 22nd and I thought that I did pretty well. That it wasn't as grueling as the other Wrimos in the forums made it out to be.

So, what's the difference between last year and this year? I don't have a middle, not even a lethargic one. Last year's story was easier to plan out because I was using the 40 weeks of my female MCs pregnancy as a guide. I wrote down the symptoms from the first month up to the ninth, and in between came up with possible scenes, e.g., Serena can't stand Darien's aftershave, no more fat jokes, etc.

With this year's story though, I have a beginning and an ending. I have an outline up to the 4th chapter, and probably about 2 chapters worth for the ending. And I'm just coming up blank for what happens in between. It would be cheating, but I feel that I can only know once I've written down even just a few lines of dialogue for the beginning chapters.

But then again, if I thought that last year's Nano wasn't all that hard for me, maybe this time I can just take it up as a challenge to be 70% of a pantser. (That's how much I'm missing in my outline). I think I might actually have plot ninjas dropping in--even though the setting is similar to Europe in the middle ages.

Pendragon: Merchant of Death (Book one)
Author: D.J. MacHale

Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby.

He is going to save the world.

And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. And before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution.

If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly. Because, as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning....
   
    I bought the books (2-in-1) sometime around October of last year. I hadn't yet decided on what genre to write for NaNoWriMo--fantasy/adventure or romance, so I bought this one for research purposes because it seemed like a light read. When I bought the book, I didn't know who the author was. Only later did I find out that he was the co-creator of the series "Are you afraid of the Dark?" I used to watch it when I was young--er.

    The writing style is different from the other books I've read so far. It's a mix of first and third person POVs. When I first started to read this, it somehow bothered me that the owner of the first person POV was a 14 year old teenager. It felt too juvenile for me. Gosh, that really makes me feel old--er. The characters seemed bland and there didn't seem to be enough "juice" in the first chapters to hold my interest in the book.

    Fast forward to 10 months and 290 (out of 374) pages later, I was reading the book in a new light. Maybe it was because I'd gotten used to reading Bobby Pendragon's journals--who was still 14 in the book, or because I needed research materials again for nano (definitely doing fantasy/adventure this time), or I was just itching for a light read after a hundred or so pages of Texas (and Comanche raids) and I couldn't find a lighter read than this one on my shelf. The story became exciting enough for me that I pushed to finish the book in that one sitting. And I did. And I found myself itching to proceed to the next book but kept myself from doing so to save it for the read-a-thon.

    Perhaps one of the IT factors for me was when Bobby Pendragon's character finally matured, somewhat. At page 290. At that point he was in a way accepting his role as a Traveler, and what he needed to do: putting the lives of the people of Denduron before his own. Although at first it irritated me that he was whiny and always talked about how scared he was, it later on made me realize how real that character was being portrayed. Made me appreciate more how his views and feelings have changed over the course of the book. Still scared a lot, but a little bit braver, a lot less whiny.

Rating: 3.5 / 5



Pendragon: The Lost City of Faar (Book two)
Author: D.J. MacHale

Fresh from his first adventure on Denduron, Bobby finds himself in the territory of Cloral, a vast world that is entirely covered by water. Cloral is nearing a disaster of huge proportions. Reading the journals Bobby sends home, his friends learn that the desperate citizens of the endangered floating cities are on the brink of war. Can Bobby — suburban basketball star and all-around nice guy — help rid the area of marauders, and locate the legendary lost land of Faar, which may hold the key to Cloral’s survival?

In the second book a new Traveler, Spader, is introduced. He starts out as the cool guy anybody would want to be friends with, just like Bobby was back in his own world before he left. A relief for Bobby since Loor is currently in her home territory. Then tragedy strikes that will change the lives of the people of Cloral; especially for Spader who doesn’t know yet that he’s a Traveler, and the “that’s the way it’s gotta be” series of explanations for the things he goes through for being one.

The setting of the story, a “territory” named Cloral, made me think of the movie Waterworld. I loved Waterworld. It is possible that the author got the concept from the movie, but I think he did a good job of (re)creating and describing a world covered with nothing but water. Or maybe it was easier for me to picture it because I already had an idea of what it might look like, what it would be like in Cloral. Either way, I didn’t get bored with the descriptions of the place as some fantasy stories usually do for me.

It’s been a while since I got my hands on a page-turner book. The only times that I felt the story drag was when the focus was on Bobby’s friends, Mark and Courtney, on his home territory, Second Earth. That’s this Earth as we know it by the way. Characterization was okay, except for the change in Spader. It seemed a bit off in the way that his character was described at the beginning of the story and how stubborn (and stupid) near the end. In a way, the emotions were “rushed” for the sake of the plot.

Rating: 4.5 / 5




She Went All the Way
Author: Meg Cabot

There are a few places screenwriter Lou Calabrese would rather be than crammed into a helicopter with Jack Townsend, star of her claim to fame, Copkiller, and whose ex just ran off with Lou's ex. Talk about uncomfortable. But when, halfway out to the isolated arctic location where Copkiller IV is currently shooting, their pilot turns murderous and their helicopter crashes, Lou realizes her day has just gotten a lot worse.

Now, while family and friends back home fret over her disappearance, Lou is on the run in the arctic wilderness with America's sweetheart Jack Townsend and only the contents of her purse, his pockets, and their mutual knowledge of survival movie trivia to keep them alive. Can these two children of Hollywood put aside their differences and make it back home without killing each other? Or much, much worse, actually start to like one another?

I’ve seen both of the Princess Diaries movies--and I loved them, so I was curious what Meg Cabot’s writing style was like. I’m not sure what my expectations were when I bought the book. Well, I expected more than the description above but that was it. Doesn’t take more than imagining what the scenes would be like from the words above, and that’s exactly what you’ll get to read. Nothing more. I’d have preferred a heroine with more sass and the male lead with some flaws. Jack Townsend was too much of an eye candy and his only mentioned flaw was commitment issues.  The terrain and the bad weather play the role of the opposition a lot better than the actual person who wanted them dead.

I bought this book almost a month ago, and if it weren’t for the Read-A-Thon I might not have finished it this early. Rating? A flickering candlelight would have held more interest for me. And that’s not exactly a bad thing. Not that much anyway. Because for someone like me, I could be gazing at that little wick struggling to keep its little fire alive and I’d be imagining a scene in a tavern in medieval europe, or someone holding a torch in a cave, or two people lost in the woods in the middle of a thunderstom…Anyway, in numerical terms: 2.5 / 5


I’ve decided not say more about Graceling with only 4 chapters in. I will need to finish the book before I earn the right to give it a review.

Since it's my first time to join the 24 Hour Read-a-thon, I decided that I'd just concentrate on the reading part. Below is my 24-hr account on the events of 10/09.  Meme part on the bottom.

Time check: T minus 14:06
Book: Pendragon: The Lost City of Faar (Book Two)
Number of pages: 384

Just finished book two of the Pendragon series. And my neck hurts. I have to say that I'm amazed that it took me this fast to finish this book because the first one took me months and more than 5 sessions. It usually takes me less than five reading sessions to finish a novel, especially if I really like it (except of course for James Michener's titles because those are mostly more than a thousand pages per novel). Only got around to finishing book one four days ago. I'll just go into more detail as to why later, and my reviews on both books.

For now, I think I'll take a short nap because I wasn't really able to get a decent sleep last night. Too much chocolate during the waking hours. I gave up trying to sleep after waking up the 3rd time in two hours. Now I think it's caught up with me. But what I'll do is get another 3 blocks of Toblerone for the caffeine so that I won't sleep that long, and hopefully wake up in two or three hours at most and continue with the next book--this is not just an excuse to eat chocolate. I swear. Next is either gonna be She Went All the Way or Graceling.

Time Check: T minus 3:18 (About 5 hours of sleep later. Darn it.)
Book: She Went All the Way
Pages: Chapter 22 (69% in Kindle)

I bought this ebook sometime mid September. I was already more than halfway and if it weren't for this Read-A-Thon, I still wouldn't have finished it. Graceling, just isn't it for me. I'm still not seeing how this book got so popular. But what the heck, I'll just try to spend the remaining three hours trying to make sense as to why Graceling has high reviews.

Time Check: 24:00
Book: Texas
Pages: 860 - 945

So, I couldn't really make it with Graceling. Maybe when I've run out of other interesting novels within reach I'll get back to this. More on this later.


1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
    Would have to be Hour 10. This is where I just finished the first book (start to finish). My neck was hurting and I was starting to feel a bit dizzy then from the lack of sleep.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
    Well, every reader is different. But I think it's crucial that the books selected, if the main goal is having a high number of pages read, should be those that the reader really loves. Or from the author/s whose style he or she likes. For example, I like the YA genre and finished The Lost City of Faar in 10 hours but I'm still waiting for Kristin Cashore's Graceling to "grow on me".

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
    Erm…maybe I can give a more helpful comment after I join the April Read-A-Thon and joined in on the other activities.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
    See comment on #3

5. How many books did you read?
    Hmm…I went through 5 books. For the other two, just read a few pages and put them down again.    

6. What were the names of the books you read?
    Pendragon Book 2: The Lost City of Faar - D.J. MacHale
    She Went All the Way - Meg Cabot
    The Prince and the Pauper* - Mark Twain
    Graceling - Kristin Cashore
    Texas - James Michener

* Actually, even from the first few pages I knew that I already liked this book (got through page 26). But perhaps it was fatigue and the thought that I probably wouldn't be able to finish the book that I just opted to bookmark it. I'm wondering now why that thought bothered me when I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish Texas anyway. Hmm…

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
    The Lost City of Faar

8. Which did you enjoy least?
    Graceling   

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
    See comment on #3

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
    Most likely. As to what role (no, I'm not gonna point to comment #3 ^_^), I'll see when I have my book list ready.

Up until a couple of days ago I didn't realize that October was going to be a full month for me.  All my weekends are booked.  Weekday activities include training for a 5k marathon on the 24th, nano-related stuff (e.g., research, outline, etc), catch-up on reading list, and finish on-going stories.  And there's work-related stuff in between there too ^_^   Hmm... now that would be the typical list I'd be posting on the dec_thru_oct community.

Nano Prep 2:
I just finished nano-proofing my room. Took out the desktop (placed it on another work desk in the living room) and readied a couple of notebooks/journals I'll be using.  The desk has been cleared to only contain the bare essentials: Alphasmart Neo 2, pens, Nano calendar, couple of notebooks and legal pads, painting stuff (when I have time to get bored and stuck with my story). My desk is currently facing the bookshelf and in direct line of sight are the dictionary and thesaurus. Maybe I should be moving those to the topmost shelf..

Because I'm stuck again with my ongoing story, I've moved on to creating an outline for my nano story. One of them anyway.  With the natural light of the afternoon sun coming through the window, classical music playing in the background, I was struck with nostalgia as I sat there in the middle of the room writing down storylines. It was the same ambiance while I was doing nano last year. I almost finished the outline. Almost. It's kind of an epic-ish story. At some point I had to force myself to stop because it was getting harder to resist writing down lines of dialogue. *Sighs* I wish I could say that I had the capability to immerse myself in such creative/inspired writing mood at will (or the next time I re-arrange my room). I think it was the just excitement of seeing the familiar setup that triggered something in my brain. It's likely to start wearing off tomorrow. And then the hard work begins. It's the fun factor that I'm actually counting on to finish my story in November. There, I'm starting to feel excited again ^_^

Dewey's Read-a-Thon Booklist:

Books currently on my shelf:
She Went All the Way - Meg Cabot
The Prince and the Pauper - Mark Twain
Graceling - Kristine Cashore
Book Two of Pendragon series - DJ MacHale

Books I'm thinking of adding to the list:
A John Green  novel
Another YA fantasy novel - research material for my nano story
A John Grisham novel -- I miss reading his works

Okay. So it's that time of the year again. The month before the full-month craziness that is the National Novel Writing Month. At which I am still grieving over the loss of my (winning) Nano '09 novel that I haven't had a chance to revise because my laptop crashed. It's been "under repair" since April. Even the IT folks in our company can hardly believe it's been that long. Yes, it's a company-issued laptop. I really should have made sure I had a backup somewhere else. I mean, I thought I did. That's where the "making sure" part comes in next time.

Today is the 3rd of October and I haven't done a single thing for this Prep Month. No concrete story to go with, no research. Well I did make a list of the foodies that I should have within reach while doing Nano. That's about it.

So I thought I might as well formally start this prep month by resurrecting my writing blog. For Nano and for the Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon on Oct 9. Need a blog for the latter to register.

I'll give myself two weeks more to try to finish as much as I can for my other ongoing stories (which haven't been updated since Feb I think) before I head into the Nano story preparation. Finish the first draft, that is. I plan to go at it Nano-style. Sort of a Nano-prep exercise to get myself prepared enough to write that much, that long in 30 days.