Snuffing the Candle

Ah, here we are once again, and also for the last time.

This summer has proven very productive and I thank those of you that have followed my progress. It's been fun, but now that I'm back at college, preparing to begin my Sophomore year, I am ready for summer to be over and to start classes. I'm very excited for the line-up this semester - lots of great classes and teachers! 

Here's my final report of progress. Looks like I was able to manage to read one book per week (give or take) and watched one movie every few days. Writing the book took a month and a half, but I finished it! That was the main goal of the summer, and I got it done. Huzzah! I think I will do something similar to this next year as well. I like to-do lists more than is good for me, I think....

Books:

Inheritance (of the Inheritance Cycle by Paolini) (5/11)

The Girl who Played with Fire (5/20)

Man's Search for Meaning (5/25)

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (5/31)

City of Bones (6/7)

City of Ashes (6/14)

City of Glass (6/23)

Clockwork Angel (7/15)

Clockwork Prince (7/20)

Clockwork Princess (7/25)

The Fellowship of the Ring (8/6)

The Two Towers (8/9)

The Return of the King (8/23)

Movies/Shows:

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (4/28-5/08)

Wreck-it-Ralph (5/07)

Cats Don't Dance (re-watch) (5/14)

Dinosaurs: We're Back! (5/14)

Road to El Dorado (re-watch) (5/20)

The Fountain (5/22)

Saving Private Ryan (5/24)

Swan Princess (5/31)

Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain (5/31)

Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure

 (for old time's sake; I was obsessed with these movies as a child!) (6/1)

The Road (6/8)

500 Days of Summer (6/9)

The Possession (6/13)

Matrix Trilogy (re-watch) (6/15)

Avengers (rewatch) (7/2)

Phantom of the Opera (rewatch) (7/3)

Thor (7/3)

Bachelorette (7/4)

Mean Girls (rewatch) (7/4)

Tarzan (rewatch) (7/5)

Despicable Me (7/5)

Déjà vu (7/7)

The Island (7/10)

Hell's Kitchen [season 10] (7/7 – 7/16)

American Psycho (7/17)

Tron Legacy (7/26)

Elektra (7/27)

Pretty Woman (7/27)

Legion (8/6)

Fried Green Tomatoes (8/10)

Games:

Bioshock (6/3 – 3:55 PM to 11:58 PM = 8 hour completion)

Halo: Reach (6/4 – 9 hrs: 16 mins: 48 seconds on one day)

Bioshock Infinite (7/17 – around 8 hours for completion) Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo 2
Halo 3

Serious:

Revise the living daylights out of first book in trilogy (5/21)

Outline second book (6/28)

Write prequel-sequel book (7/1 - 8/19) 

Well, here I am on the brink of Fall 2013 - you better believe I'm diving in head-first!

Ta-ta for now,

V

The Fire Abates

Buon pomeriggio!

All right, folks, it's that time again. Time for a summer update (the penultimate one, in fact - hence Tarzan in disbelief and shock). I have certainly gotten a few things done (mainly books) since the last update in July, which is satisfying. I am one book shy of having the list finished (The Return of the King), and at the last update, it should be marked off the list. I am steadily getting through it, whereas The Fellowship and The Two Towers I was able to get through pretty quickly. This week has been fairly busy and finishing writing this sequel-prequel thing has been the priority. I plan to have that done before the first day of classes as well, but cross your fingers for me. I only have ten days until I zip out of here and to the Noke. Crazy, right? Summer is rapidly coming to a close.

Books:

Inheritance (of the Inheritance Cycle by Paolini) (5/11)

The Girl who Played with Fire (5/20)

Man's Search for Meaning (5/25)

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (5/31)

City of Bones (6/7)

City of Ashes (6/14)

City of Glass (6/23)

Clockwork Angel (7/15)

Clockwork Prince (7/20)

Clockwork Princess (7/25)

The Fellowship of the Ring (8/6)

The Two Towers (8/9)

The Return of the King (28.8% done!)

Movies/shows:

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (4/28-5/08)

Wreck-it-Ralph (5/07)

Cats Don't Dance (re-watch) (5/14)

Dinosaurs: We're Back! (5/14)

Road to El Dorado (re-watch) (5/20)

The Fountain (5/22)

Saving Private Ryan (5/24)

Swan Princess (5/31)

Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain (5/31)

Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure

 (for old time's sake; I was obsessed with these movies as a child!) (6/1)

The Road (6/8)

500 Days of Summer (6/9)

The Possession (6/13)

Matrix Trilogy (re-watch) (6/15)

Avengers (rewatch) (7/2)

Phantom of the Opera (rewatch) (7/3)

Thor (7/3)

Bachelorette (7/4)

Mean Girls (rewatch) (7/4)

Tarzan (rewatch) (7/5)

Despicable Me (7/5)

Déjà vu (7/7)

The Island (7/10)

Hell's Kitchen [season 10] (7/7 – 7/16)

American Psycho (7/17)

Tron Legacy (7/26)

Elektra (7/27)

Pretty Woman (7/27)

Legion (8/6)

Fried Green Tomatoes (8/10)

Games:

Bioshock (6/3 – 3:55 PM to 11:58 PM = 8 hour completion)

Halo: Reach (6/4 – 9 hrs: 16 mins: 48 seconds on one day)
Bioshock Infinite (7/17 – around 8 hours for completion)
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo 2
Halo 3

Serious:

Revise the living daylights out of first book in trilogy (5/21)

Outline second book (6/28)

Write second book (7/1 -    ) [I’m fifty thousand words in, with a bit more story to tell!]

Well that's it for me, it seems. Off to drink this strawberry-banana-blueberry smoothie I just made - and it's one of the frozen kind, so it's fresh and refreshing (:

I shall return to update again in ten days or so, unless I have something else that I simply must share between now and then.

Ta!

V

Much Ado About Something

Salve, tutti!
Hello, everyone!

It is yet again time for another summer update on my lists and progress! It's not quite as impressive this past month as the previous one was, but hey, progress is progress no matter how you slice it, and that is all that matters to me (especially about how my second book is coming along).

So, here's the line up. I also have a spot of explaining to do (I'll get to the asterisks toward the bottom):

My reading list:

Inheritance (of the Inheritance Cycle by Paolini) (5/11)

The Girl who Played with Fire (5/20)

Man's Search for Meaning (5/25)

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (5/31)

City of Bones (6/7)

City of Ashes (6/14)

City of Glass (6/23)

City of Fallen Angels*

City of Lost Souls*

Clockwork Angel (7/15)

The Fellowship of the Ring

The Two Towers

The Return of the King

Clockwork Prince

Clockwork Princess

My movie/show-watching list:

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (4/28-5/08)

Wreck-it-Ralph (5/07)

Cats Don't Dance (re-watch) (5/14)

Dinosaurs: We're Back! (5/14)

Road to El Dorado (re-watch) (5/20)

The Fountain (5/22)

Saving Private Ryan (5/24)

Swan Princess (5/31)

Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain (5/31)

Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure

 (for old time's sake; I was obsessed with these movies as a child!) (6/1)

The Road (6/8)

500 Days of Summer (6/9)

The Possession (6/13)

Matrix Trilogy (re-watch) (6/15)

Avengers (rewatch) (7/2)

Phantom of the Opera (rewatch) (7/3)

Thor (7/3)

Bachelorette (7/4)

Mean Girls (rewatch) (7/4)

Tarzan (rewatch) (7/5)

Despicable Me (7/5)

Déjà vu (7/7)

The Island (7/10)

Hell's Kitchen [season 10] (7/7 - 7/16)
Legion

American Psycho

(new) Tron

Games:

Bioshock (6/3 – 3:55 PM to 11:58 PM = 8 hour completion)

Halo: Reach (6/4 – 9 hrs: 16 mins: 48 seconds on one day)

Bioshock 2*
Bioshock Infinite
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo 2
Halo 3
Halo 3 ODST

Serious:

Revise the living daylights out of first book in trilogy (5/21)

Outline second book (6/28)

Write second book (7/1 -    ) [I’m fifteen thousand words in, with lots of story left to tell!]


Ah, so here it all is. I've watched more movies in the last month than done much reading (due to being busy, of course) but hopefully in the coming few weeks I have left I'll get done all the books I want to.

As for the asterisks - they mean this:
I am removing them from the list. The two books I'm cutting are because I have talked with some people I trust who say the now-series would have been much better if the author had stopped at the end of the third one, which I have finished. So, my interest was lost upon reading the blurbs about the next two books and thus I am chopping them from my list. Nothing personal.

I'm also cutting Bioshock 2 from the list because I have started it, with a couple other people, and it's just not holding my attention. I thought it would be cool to be a big daddy (as I loved that little nugget in the first one) but for some reason it just seems to be an illogical continuation of the first Bioshock. They brought in a new villain and a new protagonist, if I'm not mistaken, and left the environment as Rapture. Overall, nice idea, but it isn't doing it for me. Bioshock Infinite, however...that one I'll definitely need to finish. (:

So! This is my progress. Not quite so impressive. I just have two more updates on this list left (one more on August 15th and the last one probably around August 24th - I leave for college on the 25th which means summer will be officially over!). 

Fun fun fun!

Talk to you later!
Arrivederci!

Let Summer...BEGIN

Heya friends and critters,

Being home from college for the summer has been great so far (it's only been two weeks) - I've been able to do a lot of sleeping (ohhhh yes) and have finally started knocking things off my to-read and to-watch lists. While at school I didn't really have enough energy/time to start reading/watching movies leisurely since there were so many other things I was meant to be reading/doing (Creative Writing major probs) so it has been wonderful to be able to kick back with a thick book and not care that I have an eight page research paper due in the morning - because I DON'T!

My reading list consists of the following titles (in no particular order):

Inheritance (of the Inheritance Cycle by Paolini)
The Girl who Played with Fire
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
City of Bones
City of Ashes
City of Glass
City of Fallen Angels
City of Lost Souls
City of Heavenly Fire
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
Clockwork Angel
Clockwork Prince
Clockwork Princess
Man's Search for Meaning

My movie-watching list consists of the following (also in no particular order):

Legion

The Fountain

The Road

Saving Private Ryan

Deja Vu

The Possession

The Island

American Psycho

500 Days of Summer

(new) Tron

Scream Team (re-watch)

Road to El Dorado (re-watch)

Swan Princess Trilogy (for old time's sake; I was obsessed with these movies as a child!)

Cats Don't Dance

Dinosaurs: We're Back!

As for my "serious" to-do list, I'm mainly going to be editing the living daylights out of my most recent novel and once done with that, I'll be moving on to write the next book in the trilogy. Exciting!

Pre-revisions, this recent one is sitting at 85,257 words. I'm only currently on (Word doc) page 35 out of 179 of revisions, but I'm not peeking at the word count till the end! Besides, that is not what's important here - if I ended up below pre-revision word count, but felt the quality climbed a few rungs in the ladder, I'd be more than pleased! Overall, though, I do feel like there's much more to tell and lots to elaborate on that I didn't take the time to do while writing through it the first time. I'm just so happy to have the time to give my baby some long overdue attention.

Perhaps this plan seems a little ambitious, but what the heck! It's Summer! I've got three months and a week or two to get all these fun things done, and if I don't, oh well - they'll be waiting for me next year! The most important things that must be completed are 1) editing my most recent novel and 2) writing the sequel - even if it's the roughest draft I can come up with, at least it will be written. 

So, let us see just how much I can get knocked off these lists in the next little while, hmm? 

Huzzah!

Onwards!

V

P.S. the City of Bones, Ashes, and Glass I want to read by the time my lovely cousins Kylie and Richy grab a train down here to visit so we can talk about them FINALLY (: (Which will be either mid-June or some time in July. Seems doable.)