THAT season

As we slide into the last quarter of 2016, crawling to the finish line of a year that seems to have spared almost no one I know, I'm hanging on for dear life as we approach the busy season. I'm not talking about Halloween (seriously, a Monday?), feast days or the jolly man's budget busting annual visit. And for the record, I don't even have the energy to hang my head in shame because I don't have one single Halloween decoration up. 

No, the busy season I'm talking about is NaNoWriMo - that most high holy, batshit crazy let's write a 50,000 word minimum novel in a month. In a month in the middle of those other more mainstream occasions. Because why the fuck not?

National Novel Writing Month. Cue the bitching and moaning. Cue the internal excitement that lasts the first 36 hours followed by 28 and one half days of frenzy. 1,600 words a day? No problem. Wait, stuff happened. Now it's more like 1,800. Still doable. *flash* *bang* *smoke* *mirrors* *stomach flu* *wizards* *zoo animals on the loose* 2,800 words a day to make it? *breaks out in a cold sweat* Emails and text messages count, right? Right?? 

I'm going to whine. I'm going to panic. I'm going to resent the whole frigging thing. And I'm going to do it anyway. Although I'm not buying the t-shirt this year. Gotta draw the line somewhere. Honestly, this is also the first year I'm going into it fairly sure I won't finish. But I still want to try. 

If you're curious what this NaNoWriMo nonsense is all about check it out: NaNoWriMo  

It's free to sign up and participate - though they would love for you to donate or purchase something from the store. If you are going to give it a go, feel free to comment your NaNo user name in the comments & I'll add you to my writing buddies on there.

In other writing/book news, have you heard about the Serial Reader app? (I'm in no way affiliated with this app, fyi.) I came across a social media article about this app a few months ago and wanted to give it a try. It's free to download/use and appears to be ad free. There is an optional (and inexpensive) upgrade to unlock a few nice features (ability to read ahead, for instance). 

Ever feel like you're dismally behind on reading the classics? Or that the ones you missed (or avoided) in school are just too dry or daunting to attempt? The guy behind the app breaks down classic literature into daily, tolerable snippets delivered to the iOS or Android device of your choice. There's a decent collection to choose from and more are added on a regular basis. Brontë to Lovecraft, Twain to Virgil.