Categories
NaNoWriMo news Work in Progress

Mid-Month Announcements: Progress on the Podcast, but…NaNo?

A Wintry Tokyo Road, 2004.

It’s already mid-July. Why does time seem to fly by so quickly? So, just to update you all on my progress I mentioned two weeks ago:

  • My International MBA has been pretty smooth sailing for the time being. Episode 5 today! Also, definitely helps that I’ve received more material from DU since the beginning of the month, so there’s much more to report on. Please visit & tune in when you can 🙂
  • Camp NaNoWriMo novel is…going slowly. But surely. The past two weeks have been a little dramatic in the real world, and just so much info coming my way for school. Well, I’m still interested in my novel. Just gotta pound out the words. Aiming for 70k words this time. According to Rachelle Gardner (literary agent), fiction word counts average 80K – 100K.
  • This coming Tuesday, will begin featuring my short stories in audio form. I tried to read my first story, “Tight Jeans“, as a test run but it sounds too awkward to be read out loud (well, at least by me). That may be a sign for me to go back and revise this story, which was written three years ago (my, I was so young back then, ha).

Hoping there will be more progress revealed by the beginning of August. Hope all has been well in your world, everyone!

Categories
#foodie friends

Frozen Yogurt Guest Blogging (Fro-Yo Girl!)

In the past few months since being back on the East Coast, I have had the chance to help out my friend, Lolia S. aka Fro-Yo Girl with guest blogging from across the country.

I have to tell you, I really got into frozen yogurt back in San Francisco in 2008, when the Fro-Yo boom was happening. I hadn’t met Fro-Yo Girl yet, but I admired her blog a lot and aspired to be “Fro-Yo Girl Jr.”

Alas, I fell off the wagon a few times with fro-yo shop visits. Only in the past year as I got to know Lolia more (and met up with her frequently) did I find the joy of fro-yo again. Well, it also didn’t hurt that my brother and I lived near the original Tuttimelon location on Irving Street!

So now, here are the fro-yo reports I have written for Lolia so far; shall be writing a few more once I can nab some time away from pre-Fall Quarter coursework!

Fro-yo in Southwest Virginia by Guest Blogger Helene K.

Live from NYC: Fro-yo Trucks!

If you love frozen yogurt just as much as we do, please be sure to check out Fro-Yo Girl Speaks!

Categories
goals Slice of Life

The Knitty-Gritty of it all…

Scarf received from friend in Australia, 2008

(This post is not about the scarf in the picture btw)

I’ve been knitting a scarf since 2004. No, it is not the world’s longest scarf. More like: knitting has been an on-off hobby for me since then.

Initially, I became interested in knitting because I had a few college friends who enjoyed the art and were willing to teach me. I attempted to knit a scarf with my friend’s tools but then I gave up and unraveled that project.

The following semester, I wanted to buy my own knitting supplies and attempt a scarf again. So, my friend went to the store with me and we bought two skeins of yarn and knitting needles. I was set.

I worked on the scarf diligently for some time, but then I became frustrated and impatient. This takes forever. Why are some loops missing? Yeesh…

So then I set aside my knitting for a few years.

Time passed…nobody else around me showed interest in knitting post-graduation…

And then, my knitting instincts came back to me late last year when I met some like-minded folk through NaNoWriMo. “Let’s have a stitch-n-bitch night!” they suggested. So we did.

And my scarf has grown longer since then with my diligent practice. The skein has thinned out to the point where I can’t securely stick my needles in anymore. My parents look proud as they watch me knit away on my project, never giving up. “Just a little while longer until you can finish it,” my mother said.

So I’ve made myself the goal that I must finish this scarf before I get to Denver. I have less than a month. It doesn’t seem like such an unattainable goal anymore.

Categories
editing NaNoWriMo Novel 1

Back to My First Novel.

Scene Setting Novel 1, Jan. 2009

You might have read my post about how I have trouble focusing on just one goal.

So of course that leaks into my novel-writing. Since 2007, I have been penning novels. None of them have set titles yet; I just keep naming them Novel 1, 2, 3, and so forth.

In early 2009 I became really really motivated to get my first novel revised and ready for submission to agents (read all about that over in the “Novel 1” Category).

But, as with my side projects, I became distracted and the progress on that novel has halted.

Now I am making a point to myself to really work on this novel. When I wrote the first draft in November 2007, I was so elated to know that I could complete a novel in that whole month (thanks to NaNoWriMo’s encouragement). And, I really liked the plot. So I don’t know why I have stalled with getting the manuscript polished down.

Today is the day I start improving from square one and getting myself past that “first-draft” doldrums phase.

Categories
NaNoWriMo news Work in Progress

Announcements: Podcast, Audio Stories, Camp NaNoWriMo

Flying over the Rocky Mountains

Exciting news this weekend:

  • My podcast is now LIVE: My International MBA . Please tune in via my new blog/podcast as I chronicle my journey through graduate school. SPREAD THE WORD! I’ll be posting links via my Facebook Page and on Twitter.
  • Coming soon: all my currently-published short stories (on Scribd) will also be in audio format. Why not listen to a short story by yours truly while you ride the train to work/school?
  • Instead of doing NaNoWriMo in November this year (or maybe, in addition to?), I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo for the month of July. Already, I am over 2,000 words in to my new novel. It is quite a hoot of a novel already.

So there you have it: my progress in writing/promoting/etc. More news coming along in this exciting month of July!