Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Bookkeeper just got back from her church's candlelight Christmas Eve service. It was very lovely, though there was a child next to her who was a little distracting. He kept blowing on his candle to make it burn faster.

Bookkeeper wanted to write something really long and touching in this blog post, but it's really late and she needs to get to bed.

Have a blessed Christmas!

Pet Peeve

Oh look! It's another one of Bookkeeper's mid-week posts that you read thinking it would be important, but it's not.


That's what Saturday posts are for. See you then!

"I know something you don't know..."

Bookkeeper is not left handed:

Here's a way to amuse yourself for two minutes: try to draw a straight line with your off-hand. Any longer than two minutes and you'll get bored.

This week, after trying (and failing) repeatedly to draw a wattle and daub house, Bookkeeper decided she might try drawing with her left hand. It's not like the quality could get any worse.

She was right, in a way. The art quality didn't get worse.

It got better.

No really, Bookkeeper drew that with her off-hand. Admittedly, it took THE ENTIRE DAY and she had to erase and redraw each of the lines fifteen times until they looked right, but she's still amazed it turned out looking good!

Well, not exactly "good." There's a reason she's not going to upload a full size version of her picture: a lot of the lines look really squiggly close up.

Tune in next week to see Bookkeeper draw automobiles with her feet!

If you recall last Saturday's post, the bookkeeper mentioned Kobolde. But what exactly IS a Kobold?

("Kobolds are reptile people from D&D!" is the wrong answer here.)

Kobolde are a kind of German fairy. Thy're mischievous creatures who live in people's houses. If they like their host families, they'll bring good luck as well as do chores, and play some tricks. If they don't like their host families, they'll play worse tricks, run away, or even murder their hosts horribly.

How charming.

"Why yes, I AM charming!"

As for appearance, Kobolde look a lot like regular humans, but they're the size of children. Either that or they're invisible all the time, but Bookkeeper found that kind of Kobold gets boring to draw after a while.

These are the fairy creatures who populate the bookkeeper's fantasy land. They do not have wings. They are not pretty.

They do not sparkle. In fact, none of the fairies Bookkeeper has come across in actual mythology sparkle.

Think about that the next time you see another witty online poster who says that sparkle-in-the-sunlight vampires are really fairies. (If you haven't seen one of these messages yet, you must not get online much.)

REAL FAIRIES DON'T SPARKLE! (And even if they do, they probably still don't wanna be compared to vampires.)

Good night.

If you have computer issues...

If you have computer issues...

...don't ask the bookkeeper for advice.

Freezing up Computers

The bookkeeper just realized how weird it is to write a blog post that doesn't begin with "It's NaNoWriMo week..."

Anyway, hello everyone! You may remember a picture from this post, or maybe not. Either way, it's colored now.

She has a braid now, because Bookkeeper suddenly decided the character was a girl. Maybe the old sketch is her brother.

Who dresses exactly the same, for some reason.

If you're a long time reader of this blog (or have just gone back and read through all her old posts) then you'll know that Bookkeeper is working on a fantasy graphic novel inspired by the story of Rumpelstiltskin.

(Or Rumpelstilzchen, which sounds just as bizarre when you say it.)

She spent a lot of this week brainstorming her Kobolde-goblin-fairy-creature-things. Now that she thinks she's figured out how they'll look, she's trying to figure out how they use magic:

Bookkeeper had more she'd planned to write, but with her browser freezing up every thirty seconds, it's been hard enough writing this much. See you next week, so long as the bookkeeper doesn't smash the computer with a sword before then.

It's not NaNoWriMo Anymore!

With NaNoWriMo over, the bookkeeper is finally going back to her scrape-everything-together-and-post-it-on-Saturday blog schedule. Since her last post was on Wednesday, there isn't much.

Before there is any confusion from the non-NaNo readers, winning NaNoWriMo just means the bookkeeper wrote 50,000 words or more. Everyone who did that gets the label "winner."

If you were curious about why the bookkeeper ended writing at a strange number like 50,009, it's because she'd PLANNED for it to end exactly on the 50,000 mark with the words "The end."

The villain and the monster are defeated, and the town is saved. The end. Then Bookkeeper realized she'd forgotten someone. Again.

The last nine words of the story are:

P. S. We let Fred out of the closet.

WOW ITS THE BEST ENDING EVAR!!!

And here's something entirely different that doesn't have anything to do with NaNoWriMo:

Basically, the bookkeeper had some free time to draw but was uninspired. Her mom told her to draw a mouse, and this is the result.

Until next week, 'bye!

NaNoWriMo day 30: Don't bring a Tree to an Umbrella Fight

It's day 30 of NaNoWriMo and the bookkeeper is SO glad that this is the last day. She's written 50,009 words.

During this challenge she used up seven sticks of mechanical pencil lead. Also, in the last couple of days she tried to see how many words she could fit on one page (1,165 max).

Bookkeeper's brother said that if she needed more words she could write out all her punctuation like "comma," "question mark," and "full stop," but she wasn't THAT desperate for word padding. She did however call the "cafeteria" a "food eating room."

She also made some spelling mistakes:


Unbrella = the anti-umbrella.


Nomsters = why you don't go near the kitchen at night...

In the story's final battle, a tree in a basket becomes a blunt instrument. In fact, there are so many improvised weapons in that scene that Bookkeeper had to note this in her page margin.

Don't bring a tree to an umbrella fight.

So comma have a good day and get some sleep apostrophe-cause you probably need it full stop

NaNoWriMo day 29: One More Day! With NaNoisms!!

Hello! It's day 29 of NaNoWriMo and the bookkeeper has written 44,140 words. There is only one day left of NaNo so...

Forget watching TV, you can watch TV in December.

Forget working, you can work in December.

Forget shopping, you can go shopping in December.

Forget meals, you can eat in December.

All right then! Spending most of her writing time doing actual writing, the bookkeeper hasn't come up with any witty cartoons today. What she has done in drawn two of her characters incorrectly:

Fred, looking older than he's supposed to,

And Hildegard, looking younger than she's supposed to.

In her blind rush to write a lot of words, the bookkeeper has written some more interesting quotes to share with you.

The mere sight of a mad with a huge arm bad full of hats is sure to catch the attention of many people.

A mad what? And what's an arm bad anyway?

Fred has already packed all the things that he thinks that he thinks that he will need to run away again.

Oh, the thinks you can think!

He found it exactly the way that he had lefitin.

Bookkeeper becaused again.

He then took the shovel and then he started to shovel with it.

No, really? He shoveled? With a shovel?!

"I will write about the results of my next experiments in notebook (number symbol) three."

Because "number symbol" is two words more than #.

So have a good day y'all. Tomorrow you'll get to see if Bookkeeper managed to finish her novel.

NaNoWriMo day 26: Last-Minute Panic

It's day 26 of NaNoWriMo and the bookkeeper has written 38,173 words. Yes, that means that she's three days behind.

So, a big HI to everyone else who's rushing to finish their novels in these last four days! Bookkeeper knows you're out there because some of you read this blog, and one of you is the bookkeeper's own sister. *waves*

Bookkeeper had an interesting time trying to write today. At this point in the story Hildegard and Fred are supposed to find the villain's house by following the address on a driver's licence they found. Then Bookkeeper realized that neither of these characters can read and don't even know the address of their own home.

If you want to know where Bookkeeper's novel outline is, it's hiding out of embarrassment. The bookkeeper will just have to wing it from now on!

Here's your misspelling for the day:

It felt something like a little - no, like a medium Sid shock of electricity

There is no one named Sid in Bookkeeper's novel and if there was, he probably wouldn't be a medium.

In non-NaNo news, the bookkeeper went to a craft show today to help at her mom's booth. During the lulls she worked on this sketch:

Mom! Mom! Mom! Come here! Look at me!

NaNoWriMo day 24: Thanksgiving Aftermath

Hi there, it's day 24 of NaNoWriMo and the bookkeeper has written absolutely nothing. If you didn't have the time to write today, please tell her so she doesn't feel so guilty.

Thanksgiving was nice, though the bookkeeper didn't get to visit with her relatives. She misses them terribly. Relatives: if you are reading this, you had better miss her too! You all should have come to her house, but since you didn't, you missed out on pumpkin pie and the apple desert thingy that her mother made.

Today the bookkeeper drew a purple dragon, which doesn't have anything to do with her NaNo, unless you count it's blank stare - so similar to Bookkeeper's when she's been staring at a notebook page for hours on end.

Bookkeeper thought she could do better, so she tried re-coloring it with a new style of shading:


While scrounging around for more things to put on this blog update, Bookkeeper came across this, a picture of one of her NaNo characters that she hadn't uploaded yet:

It wasn't drawn in the margin of her notebook page, so she missed it.

Hope you all had a good day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

(Even if you're not from the United States, the bookkeeper still hopes your day is happy)

Yes, it's technically the day BEFORE Thanksgiving, but seeing how late the bookkeeper is updating, a lot of you probably won't see this post until tomorrow anyway.

So... have a happy Thanksgiving and check back tomorrow for more NaNo-related doodles!

NaNoWriMo day 22: You Deserve Cake

This works even better when you write "and" between each item instead of a comma.

Hello there, it's day twenty-two of NaNoWriMo and Bookkeeper has caught up with 33,868 words, though she did resort to some dirty tricks such as listing everything bought on a shopping trip and making "sidewalk" into two words.

You might recall that in this post she said that all of her nine watchers are awesome and deserve cake.

Since then she has gotten three more watchers on her blog, probably because they wanted cake. So here it is!

Cake for all of you! Including an extra slice for the rest of you lurkers to arm wrestle over.

Hildegard looks for clues in a notebook.

As the villains in Bookkeeper's novel become more of a threat, her characters have magically started to gain more and more personality. Fred is no longer the useless little brother who gets left out of scenes on accident because the author forgot about him. You might even call him a main character now!

It's great.

NaNoWriMo day 21: NaNoisms

From page 58, line 42 (You're supposed to open the door first!)

It's day 21 of NaNoWriMo and the bookkeeper has written 33,868 words, which means she's a little behind again. *sigh*

In her rush to write as quickly as possible, the bookkeeper has added some interesting (and unplanned) details to her story. Such as when she was describing a cafeteria:

...where food could begotten.

Or when her characters were hiding behind an overturned table:

We peered over the top of the top of the fallen table.

Or when a villain threatens our heroes:

"Even if you hit me, it would not hurt me enough to keep me from stooting you..."

And later, the same villain trips over his tongue again:

"Okay now, where is that notebook. If you give it to me I might just kill you."

Wow, that's encouraging.

Maybe in the editing Bookkeeper will just give this villain a speech impediment. Fortunately, our heroes don't have to deal with this mook for long.

She's been informed that miswritings such as these are called "NaNoisms."

The umbrella is closed because you're supposed to close your umbrella when indoors.

Here is a picture of two of the bookkeeper's characters. She drew this to show the differences between their body language, which is why she didn't bother to draw their feet.

Here's a better picture of one of the chairs they're sitting on:

It looks kind of Seussian.

Well, that's all the bookkeeper can think of to write about tonight, so... g'bye for now!

NaNoWriMo day 18: Word Padding Day

Actually, glow stick is two words... and Bookkeeper's been counting them as one. That's the trouble with handwriting, you don't get those goofy red lines under misspellings.

Anyway...

Hello every one, it's Word Padding Day of National Novel Writing Month and the amazing bookkeeper has now written all of thirty thousand, eight hundred and seventy-seven words.

Today's theme is being celebrated in honor of all the word padding Bookkeeper did today including the bizarre "stick of glowing green chemicals in a plastic tube."

LOL

In her hurry to write as much as possible, the bookkeeper makes a lot of spelling mistakes. Glancing back she noticed this one:

I saw the man lift an arm and I swund my staff into it.

How do you swund a staff? And why not call it a walking stick, that would be one extra word...

Other typos she's caught include "swa" instead of "saw" and "directions" instead of "decorations."

When she asked Joel (a stuffed critter - see this post) how her novel was going, his expression of terminal boredom, while cute, wasn't encouraging.

Needless to say, he was not a source of inspiration today.

NaNoWriMo day 17: It's for a Novel I'm Writing, Okay?

It's day 17 of NaNoWriMo and the bookkeeper has written 29,067 words. Her story is finally starting to come together and her long hours of research are paying off...

It can be really awkward to explain to people that you're researching kidnappings and deadly weapons to help you write a humor story.

Today Bookkeeper opened an umbrella inside the house, so she could finally figure out how to draw one. It worked pretty well.

Think anyone will notice it's not Mary Poppins?

Before she ends this post, the bookkeeper would just like to say that she loves NaNoWriMo. It's exciting, it's fun, and it brings more people to her blog!

If you're not careful, she's going to get a swelled head.

NaNoWriMo day 16: Possible

...at the thought.

Hello y'all! It's day sixteen of NaNoWriMo and Bookkeeper just finished writing the 27,231st word in her novel.

The 27,231st word is "possible" by the way.

The bookkeeper hopes you all had a good morning. She's not sure how good her morning was because she slept through it. Then she got to writing again.

Today her characters went to an abandoned house and found nothing supernatural. Fred found some decayed floorboards, but that's about it.

By "Help!" he means "Please make me a three-dimensional character!"

In other news, the bookkeeper just added a bunch of little check-boxes to the bottom of her post! Too bad they malfunction if you try to add long descriptions, the bookkeeper really wanted to add one that said "I just want to click on a check box."

NaNoWriMo day 15: Meet the Characters

It's day fifteen of NaNoWriMo and first things first... Bookkeeper did not update yesterday. The update she had planned was so amazing that it summoned a thunderstorm and she couldn't turn on the computer to post it.

At times like this the bookkeeper realizes just how nice it is to hand write her novel. She has written 25,194 words by the way.

Before she gets on with her post, Bookkeeper just noticed that she now has nine watchers on this blog. NINE, do you hear me, NINE WATCHERS.

You are all awesome people and you deserve cake.

Anywho... here's a picture of all the reoccurring characters in Bookkeeper's NaNo this year:

From left to right they are:

Mysterious-Person-Who-Does-Not-Have-A-Name-Yet, who has only appeared once so far. After stealing Vanessa's notebook, this mysterious person shouted "Thank you!" and ran away.

Mysterious-Etc. remains unnamed simply because the bookkeeper doesn't feel like coming up with a name right now. Technically the mysterious person isn't reoccurring yet, but will be eventually.

Hildegard who likes to call herself "Fern" and also likes to avoid dark forests and creepy shadows. She met a monster on her way to the grocery store once and has been paranoid ever since (for good reason).

Fred, who Bookkeeper finally came up with a name for. He is Hildegard's younger brother and he has no personality, but that's okay. We'll edit one in later.

Vanessa, an overconfident girl who fancies herself the leader of the group because she's the oldest. Her idea of hunting monsters is standing outside in the woods and calling for them.

Thingy that carries an umbrella. Not quite sure what it is, but it can change it's appearance to look like just about anyone. It usually disguises itself to look like a man with mustache who carries an umbrella, but the bookkeeper can't seem to draw mustaches today, so she drew its default face. Even though it often carries an umbrella, it doesn't really understand it's function and will hold an open umbrella over it's head on warm sunny days. It also kills people, possibly on accident.

And there you have it! Bookkeeper is mildly amused at how the question marks over the Mysterious Person and the Thingy's heads make them look confused.

NaNoWriMo day 12: Are You Crazy?

Not crazy... just sleep depraved deprived.

It's day 12 of NaNo and the bookkeeper has written 20,451 words, half of them misspelled.

She was planning to draw some of her characters today, but she took a well-deserved nap instead. She was still a little sleepy when she got to writing again and she wrote things like "thathe" instead of "that the" and the interesting sentences "Fern followed Fred freely." and "My hand hurts."

The bookkeeper will post more on Monday. Have a good weekend!

NaNoWriMo day 11: Characters with Personality!

Hello there, today's date is 11/11/11, but you probably already knew that. Bookkeeper has written 18,842 words in her novel so far.

Today the bookkeeper invented some new spellings of the word "scarf."

"My pencil must be defective."

Because she can't seem to spell correctly, she's considering taking the scarf away and just letting her poor character freeze.

Speaking of characters, Bookkeeper keeps hearing other nano-ers say that their characters have personalities of their own. *eyetwitch* It just sounds so... creepy.

So far in her novel, the bookkeeper hasn't had too much trouble with characters holding her plot for ransom. That is, until Jerome. Invented to be the cranky father of the main character Hildegard, the bookkeeper's sole plan was for him to run around shouting for a chapter or two, then meet a sad, yet comical, fate.

His personality was really fun to write and he ended up being one of Bookkeeper's favorites. He still died, though. Now rest of her characters refuse to be rounded characters until she promises Jerome an important part in the back story as it unfolds throughout the novel.

Her characters refuse...? This is quite disturbing.

Stay tuned to see Bookkeeper have an argument with her notebook!

NaNoWriMo day 10: Spiffy Word Count Thingy

With 17,019 words, the bookkeeper has finally caught up with her word count! Huzzah!

Look what Bookkeeper found! A spiffy little word counting thingy!

Today Bookkeeper found that if you look, you can find distractions anywhere. Even if you're sitting at your desk with your unfinished novel sitting there in front of you, you can always just pick at your fingernails instead of writing.

But somehow she found the energy to meet today's word goal. You should congratulate her! Since the bookkeeper writes her posts in third person, that last sentence didn't sound nearly as self-centered as she thought it would.

Here's a picture of Bookkeeper's character Vanessa getting caught in a thunderstorm.


Yep, that just brightens your day, doesn't it?

That's all the NaNo news Bookkeeper has for you today, but before you go, she did promise to upload a picture of the steampunk story starter cubes when they were finished:

These will be sold at a craft show this month (or at least, Bookkeeper hopes they'll be sold). Bookkeeper is pretty proud of the story cubes, and also of the fabric used to make the bag. You might recognize the graphics from the current background and header of her blog:

Relax, Bookkeeper did not steal the pictures. She drew them. They come from this fabric that the bookkeeper designed (and it's hosted on her mom's Spoonflower account).