Percy Jackson and Da Babiez, as well as NaNoWriMo!

Hai again. 

So, maybe it's just me, but I love babies.

I was reading The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, the part where Percy's thinking that maybe when he and Annabeth are older, they could live together in New Rome and raise a family and stuff. 

In The Mark of Athena, Percy tells this to Annabeth, and when she seems sort of shocked, he tells her to just forget it. And do you know how she responds?

"What? No! I mean...Gods, Percy, that's so sweet!" 

Maybe I'm just in a romantic mood, but thinking that Percy and Annabeth could live together in New Rome, and raise a bunch of little wise delinquents... *sigh.* It just seems so adorable and perfect to me right now. 

Can't you just see a bunch of little kids with curly black hair and clever gray eyes, or shaggy blond hair and mischievous green eyes, running around New Rome? Annabeth could teach them about architecture and engineering and Percy could teach them how to fight and be sarcastic.... *tears up.* It'd just be so beautiful!

Anyway, I've been re-reading the Heroes of Olympus series, which is why I'm bringing it up, I guess. I really like Rick Riordan's books and The House of Hades arrives at my house tomorrow! *bounces.* 

But remembering Annabeth thinking that getting married and having kids was such a sweet idea....it got me thinking. 

Do ALL people love babies?

I mean, obviously, I do. Obviously people who have them do. But if you see a cute little kid with a sweet smile and shoes on the wrong feet... Am I the only one who passes them and wishes I could just hug them?

Maybe my maternal instinct is stronger than most. Maybe I just like little kids more than others. But I was wondering if I was the only one who felt this way or if this is something across the board. 

I'm good with kids. I make them laugh, and I'm not afraid to act stupid to make them happy. Really, I like to make people in general happy. 

I'll just walk up to someone and give them a high-five, or send people random texts: "I <3 you. Have an amazing day! :)" 

You'd be surprised how happy it makes me, and how happy it makes others. 

And even if kids misbehave sometimes, even if they make a mess every now and then...I just can't help but love them!

I come from a big family. I have a decent amount of younger siblings. I know how to take care of kids, and when they need to be told no, and when they just need a hug. 

I'm a good babysitter, and when I was little there never seemed to be any future for me other than "growing up, getting married, and having kids"! Of course, I'm not just going to sit at home, cranking out babies. I still want to be a writer. I still want to change people with my words. 

And I don't mean to sound preachy, but staying at home with the kids is a pretty hard job, especially if I think I want to homeschool. 

Laundry, cooking, driving, church, teaching, extracurricular activities, sports, discipline, AND writing? 

Heck, yeah. 

I <3 da Babiez. Maybe I'm the only one. Maybe I'm one of billions. But I hope that the next time you see a little kid you know, you give them a high-five. Maybe they'll remember it in the future, and give some little kid a fistbump sometime. Wouldn't that be cool? 

On another note: Guys, it's October. 

Do you know what this MEANS?

That's right. It's time for NaNoWriMo again. 

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is an international organization for writers. It's run by the Office of Letters and Light, and was founded in the nineties by Chris Baty. Writers of all ages, genres, nationalities, races, religions, beliefs, and sexualities all come together to write a novel (or a book of poems, or a screenplay, or anything, really!) in a month. 

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is held every year starting October 31st at midnight on the dot. People from all over the world can participate. I have friends in the Americas, England, Ireland, and a couple from countries that don't even speak English! The community is amazing! 

There are three sites: The Young Writers' Program, ywp.nanowrimo.org is for writers ages 7-18, where you can choose how many words you'll write in November, and "The Real NaNo", www.nanowrimo.org is for writers ages 13-113, where to win, you must write 50,000 words. There's also Camp NaNoWriMo, which is held in two different months over the summer. This year it was April and July, but last year it was June and August. 

Anyway, NaNoWriMo is an amazing way to write anything you've ever wanted to. Millions of people across the world fill up on coffee, stretch their writing muscles, and write 50,000 words every autumn. It's a truly unifying experience. 

No matter what your background, who you are or how you live, people on NaNo accept you for who you are. After all, we writers are weird. Who cares? 

You can also get NaNoWriMo merchandise to help you persevere during the tremulous 30 days when you feel like you want to give up. Mugs, shirts, books, posters, survival kits, everything and anything you could need to make it through 30 days and nights of literary abandon! 

And the best part is, if you reach the goal you set for yourself, (anything you want on the YWP, or 50K in the real NaNo,) you'll get a promo code for Createspace. And when you finish editing anytime before June 30th? Createspace will send you five free paperback copies of your very own work of fiction! All you have to do is enter the code and pay shipping. 

It's a really spectacular experience, and I strongly encourage you to participate if you are or have ever wanted to be a writer! 

If you end up doing it, I'm Writer-Girl4 on the YWP, and RaineSummers on nanowrimo.org

I hope to see you this November! It'll be a blast. 

Anyway, I'll stop ranting about children and NaNo now. I hope you guys have an awesome day/night/afternoon/whatever, and I'll see you sometime! 

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,

~Adalyn

(Written sometime in October and was never published because I'm a derp.)

NaNoWriMo, and Why I Am Late...Again.

I feel like I'm beginning to fall into a habit of this. 

Before i explain to you why I'm late this week, I also have an announcement to make. 

So, this month, I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo, which is a program exactly like the regular NaNoWriMo, except for the fact that it's in the summer. I'm writing a book and I'm really liking it, and it's been taking up a lot of my time. 

I wanted to do it in April or whenever the first one was, but I couldn't manage it because I was still in school and I had a bunch of other stuff to do to get ready for the hot summer months. 

But I'm doing it this month. It's super exciting and fun and if any of you are writers, I suggest you check it out. There's a children's/teen's website called The Young Writers' Program at ywp.nanowrimo.org , and there's another program for 13-113 that's just plain-ol' National Novel Writing Month at www.nanowrimo.org . And for summer there's www.campnanowrimo.org .

It's super fun and free and you can participate in it at any age. In YWP and Camp NaNo, you set your word count goal, which is the number of words you aim to write in 30 days, though in the "real" NaNoWriMo, the set goal is 50,000 words. 

It's not nearly as hard or daunting as you think, because if you write a certain amount of words a day, you reach your WCG in no time at all! 

Anyway, if you want to try it out, you can do novels, biographies, screenplays, scripts, poems, songs, or even sentences if you want! All that matters is that you write and have fun. Check it out. It's amazing. 

NOW! To the excuses for why I didn't post and my updates on the 4th! ^-^

In my defense, I did have a very impromptu-ly crazy Thursday/Friday. 

So, as you who live in the Land of the Free, also known as that fat lazy country with those unrefined savages, or The United States of America, know, Thursday just so happened to be Independence Day! It's been that way for, oh, about over two hundred years. 

The Fourth of July is kind of an important day for us rebellious, independent US of A citizens, and hence we do stupid things, like throw big parties with lots of meat and potato chips and yummy drinks. And set off big, explosive, colorful and sometimes terrifying tendrils of flame to show our excitement and joy over our freedom and liberty from other countries. 

The only drawback from these parties and fireworks is when you're sitting there watching the show, and your neighbor, who's joined you for the big, delicious celebratory party, accidentally puts the firework in upside-down. 

And so it explodes about 20 feet away from you, shocking and scaring everyone there, making you scream as you feel the shockwave and see the brilliant burst of color that has exploded all too close to you and your friends and family, and setting off the car alarm of your best friend's brand-spankin'-new bright white Toyota Tundra. 

It was an awesome and exciting experience, and since my boyfriend decided I needed to be comforted, and wrapped his arms around me, it was also sort of cute, too. 

After the party, two of my friends slept over, totally ruined half of my makeup doing blind makeovers, and stayed half of the next day, when I had to clean the house and help prepare food for a get-together we were having with some of our closest friends. 

They stayed until ten, and after a long argument between my friend Brianna and her mother, she was allowed to spend the night. And we watched Les Mis. And we wrote, since we're both aspiring authors. And then fell asleep. 

Yesterday was Saturday, and I don't really have an excuse for not posting, and I was even going to post, but in the morning I had to return canopies and chairs to my neighbors that they had let us borrow for the party, and then I was reading all afternoon. 

I finished my book at 1:30 am this morning, finally went to bed around 2am, and then woke up at 11:28 to discover my family gone to 10 o'clock mass.

So here I am, two days late after a crazy weekend, happy that I broke my record for how late I've slept in ever because I'm not nearly as tired as I have been for the past week. 

I guess a good night's sleep solved all my problems. Anyway, my mom and dad are taking my siblings and I on a surprise outing, so I guess I'll see you all next week. Though I probably won't post until Saturday, since I have a birthday party to attend. 

At least I let you know this week, right?

....Right? 

;)

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,

~Adalyn

Let's start in the middle, shall we?

Hello, all. I'm Adalyn. I'm thirteen and I have silver glitter shoes I wear whenever I'm not wearing my blue plaid airwalks. I like to think of myself as a cheerful person, although I do have off days where I stomp around the house getting absolutely nothing done and yell at people and generally do things I regret later.

But, to introduce myself on a more positive note, I shall get into my life story. Okay, not really. But, maybe a little thing about an exciting thing that happened today will get you to keep reading my blog....Or not...

WE HAVE A NEW POPE!

Yay, Papa Frankie! xD I'm a Roman Catholic and proud of it, though I don't go around telling people they're going to hell like some people believe. I'm not very judgmental, and prefer to think of myself as someone who listens to an argument she doesn't agree with, and then fires back with reasonable solutions and examples, without seeming like a know-it-all.

...Sometimes my image of myself isn't very accurate.

But back to the point, I do crazy things all the time, like writing novels in a month with this website: ywp.nanowrimo.org and making response videos I never post on YouTube and being an "unsocial" homeschooler.

Yes, I do have friends. xD

Rick Riordan is my favorite author and role model when it comes to writing, with Ally Carter and Eion Colfer in a close second and third. What I love about Mr. Riordan is that he somehow manages to balance humor with sorrow, wonderful with terrible, and pain with joy. It's awesome. Plus, he has a great sense of humor. As do all my favorite authors. Granted, I haven't read any of the classics like Shakespeare and Mark Twain and Charles Dickens yet. I'm starting all the literature stuff next fall.

My other hobbies include piano and guitar, singing, frequenting various websites, Youth Groups, and sadly, D&D. My nerdy brothers finally talked me into it. I play almost every week with some of my close friends, and I'm actually happy I do play because it helps me really get into different characters and different situations and stuff like that for when I'm writing. They haven't managed to convince me to play anything else nerdy over the last year or two, so yay for that!

I also do annual things with my church like VBS, the March for Life, and retreats. I'm really active in my church, seeing as my parents help out with a whole slew of ministries, and I help them help out. ;)

My favorite TV shows right now are Avatar: Legend of Korra, Psych, Sherlock, and Phineas and Ferb. Okay, so I'm sort of a nerd in more than one aspect.

Sooooo....now you know a fraction about about me. Thanks for reading this far. As a reward, you get imaginary smarties. And a hug. *hugs.* ((Spread the love, man. xD)) But really, I hope you can stay for all the wonderful endeavors life has to throw at me.

Let me just say, it should be quite an adventure.

~Adalyn