All About Nora: A #PitchWars Mentee Bio!

Helloooooooooo!

I wasn't going to do one of these, but then I wanted to procrastinate, so here we are.

My name is Nora, and I am a pre-published author. I am currently sitting on my couch in pajamas eating iced animal crackers and watching HGTV. And that right there pretty much sums me up. It's noon and I pretty much look like this:

I am creeping closer to 30 than 20 (when the hell did that happen?). In fact, I'll be ticking another notch on September 7th—I will be accepting early gifts on September 3rd in the form of mentor picks!

Oh, and I should probably mention that I'm 6'4". But since this is the internet, don't worry, you won't have to have me looming over you! And nope, I don't play basketball/volleyball/whatever. I am determinedly uncoordinated!

So, what else about me? I was born in Wisconsin and grew up in Iowa, but I escaped the Midwest via the Navy. I went to college at the Naval Academy in Maryland where I got a B.S. in Astrophysics with a minor in Spanish. After that, I spent the last five years in the Navy. Luckily I was able to get four of those years in San Diego, where I stayed after getting out in June. Among all of these upheavals, moves, underways, and duty days, my writing has remained a constant.

I write science fiction and fantasy. I blame my parents! My dad started reading The Hobbit aloud to me when I was little, and I haven't looked back since. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Heinlein, Asimov, Ender's Game, Star Wars, Doctor Who...well, you get the idea. Magic? Space? Lasers? Give me it ALLLLLLLL!

The manuscript I submitted for #PitchWars, Anna's Stars, is the fourth full novel I have written. I love Anna, I love science fiction, and I love my kickass story! The book deals a lot with grief and loss, seasoned with galactic politics, Imperial machinations, and space adventuring. I can't wait for one of the mentors to fall in love with Anna and her story, too!

Well, that's me! Check out some of the other mentee bios over at the Contestant Hop!

Fun With Numbers

I know, I know, some of you might not think numbers are very fun. I suppose I'm sort of an odd kind of writer who gets all excited about the right side of the brain, but I also suspect I'm not all that much of an outlier.

I have always loved writing. Seriously, I cannot remember a time in which I did not write. In parallel, I have always loved math. I was homeschooled until 3rd grade, and I used to work ahead in my math homework because I just thought it was fun. I had a sign on my bedroom door that said "Fractions rule!" when I was in grade school. One of my favorite classes I ever took was Partial Differential Equations (I took it during summer school basically just because I could), and I'm not too humble to admit I kicked that class's ass. I even got a special write up from my professor.

Basically, what I am saying, is that I am a nerd of both the number and letter type. So, numbers!

I joined Goodreads back in 2011. Initially, I made a pretty good effort at adding a lot of books that I had read. I went through both of the bookshelves in my apartment, for example, as well as adding other books that had stuck in my mind. But let's face it, I've read SO many books that there is no way that I got even close to all of them. Which means the overall numbers on my shelves aren't necessarily indicative. But since I joined, I have been meticulous about logging all of my reading. I would be surprised if I've missed more than 2 books I read in that time. So my recent stats are definitely accurate, and I decided to play with my 2013 books.

Total books read: 63
Non-fiction: 0
Fantasy: 37
Science Fiction: 22
General Fiction: 4

Ha! Well I think there is a definite trend here. I even made a pie chart to illustrate this.

For the record, I had way too much fun doing this.

So I find myself thinking a few things. One, I can't believe I didn't read a single non-fiction book last year. Okay, I read half of one, but I haven't touched it in months. Two, clearly I have little interest in non-genre fiction. Although this set of statistics doesn't show quite the whole picture.

I gave 9 5-star ratings during 2013, and the breakdown for those was 1 general fiction, 4 fantasy, and 4 science fiction. I'm not going to bother with a whole pie chart for that, but that's an 11/44/44 percentage breakdown, compared to the overall 6/35/59. So while I'm reading a whole lot more fantasy than anything else, I'm not liking it quite as much. (Also worth pointing out is that those 3 of those fantasy 5-star ratings are to the same author for books in the same series.) And while I may not seek out general fiction, I often like it when I read it.

What this all means for me going forward--besides that I like Excel far more than anyone ought to--is that I should make more of an effort to broaden my horizons. I've done that in other areas before (like trying to read more female authors, but that is definitely for another post), and I know it can only result in more, better reading for me. I'll try to revisit this once 2014 bites the dust and see if I managed to break out of my comfort zone a little bit!

NaNoWriMo 2012: You Can Do It!

I wanted to make a post about NaNoWriMo. (On a side note, how is it time for NaNo again? I swear this just happened--where does the time go?!) I am not attempting this year. I know I wouldn't be able to make it, and setting an unreachable goal is worse than useless. It actually just makes things worse. So I've set my own goal for the month (10k, not quite on track but still determined), but I want to let the real NaNoers (NaNites?) know that they aren't alone.

Because I had some time on my hands (okay, yes, I was procrastinating my own writing), I made a little pep talk video:

Here are the twitter accounts I mention following: Jon Winokur, Daily Writing Tips, Fuel Your Writing, and Dictionary.com. (And, of course, my own twitter!)

You can find a library near you, or of course just stick to Starbucks. Venti decaf skinny vanilla latte with extra foam, anyone?

Whatever form inspiration and perseverance take for you, I wish you all the best of luck with NaNoWriMo or any of your other writing goals this month!

A Day in the Life

I'm pretty sure every single writer ever has, at some point, procrastinated. Or at least I hope so! Then I don't feel quite so bad. If you have never experienced the utter frustration of your mind wanting to focus on any single thing except what you want to write, then this post is not for you. Leave us poor procrastinators to wallow in our misery!

Anyway, I was inspired to put this together today. I thought it would be amusing and, of course, it provided me the perfect excuse to not get any writing done...

(I am paying for that now, though, as it is way past my bedtime, and I've still got writing to do!)

So true? So false? Am I the only one?!