April: mostly Camp NaNo, right?

Here's my slightly late recap for April. (but maybe that's a good thing, that it's late? because I know on the 30th of April my Blogger feed exploded and I still haven't gotten to you all yet, sorry!)

Obviously, April was Camp NaNo month. I survived. Just.

As you can see from the graph, I started off fine. Life rapidly caught up. I had trouble writing; not that I never had time, or that I was 'blocked', but I'd sit down and I simply didn't want to write.

The situation seemed dire. (Actually it was quite bad.) But I discovered myWriteClub (which I may have mentioned?) and managed to get a good 8 days or so of 1.2-1.8k.

 
 Three Sisters is nowhere near finished, though! The graph will tell you that my goal was 'only' 15k; I'm not slamming myself, I'm just accepting that although this is a great achievement for me, my story is obviously going to take more than 15,000 words. (Haven't even got the girl + guy to meet yet! ....that's my Cinderella thread; the whole story is not a romance. Imagine if I was writing a romance and, 15k into the story, they hadn't met yet??)

Maybe I'll do some snippets or something of Three Sisters sometime. Not now, though... there is no way I'm letting my NaNo writing out. Even to you guys. I didn't have a plan (still don't know how I'm meant to wrap up all my characters' problems??), and my characters are still developing and changing as I write. (I barely recognise the characters on the first page, to be honest.) But sometime I'll tell you more about the sisters; Billie (who feels responsible for her sisters' safety) and Elsie (who lost her happily-ever-after) and Josie (impulsive Josie, whose sister stood in front of a Beast for her and now she can't shake the guilt). 

We had two weeks of school holidays - which doesn't really affect me directly anymore! - but it meant we spent a lot of time catching up with family. 

Also, I did that local comic-con volunteer thing. It was awesome. There was a ten-year-old kid who was a super ninth Doctor with his leather jacket, and every time I saw him I wanted to tell him how pleased I was someone remembered Nine, but I didn't want to be a creepy stranger-lady. ;) Of course, I hadn't had any previous experience with comic-cons, and apparently the point is to walk up to a random stranger who'd dressed like a character you love, and ask for a photo with them? Is this conclusion I drew correct?? (Forgot a camera, though, so... Nine/Eleven/Batman/Galadriel/etc escaped.)

 

Read: 

Fairest, Marissa Meyer. Did not enjoy. I like happy endings. Sorry, all you fans. I'll still give Cinder a chance, though.

The New Recruit, Jill Williamson. GoTeenWriters author + free on Kindle? Obviously I'm reading that.

By Darkness Hid, Jill Williamson. Now I have to find the rest of the series!

The Iron Queen [+ series], Julie Kagawa. Read at your own discretion; these books go full 'fey' (Oberon/Mab/Puck), which was a bit too much for me; also there seemed to be a compulsory pre-battle sleeping-together-for-the-first-time scene for both of the couples, which mostly 'faded out', but it's pretty obvious what happened. Morally, I do not recommend these (also contain a few explosive swears with no warning); story-wise, meh - in my opinion they aren't worth the risk.

Scythe, Neal Shusterman. Okay. So I enjoyed reading this book, but when my mum read it, her opinion was 'sick' and 'not helpful'. That made me think a bit more. It's true that this book is... morally ambiguous. It doesn't say killing is wrong. Right at the start, Faraday took the kitchen knife to carve their neighbour up with (that's when my mum started saying it was sick, which that bit completely is). There were several spots I thought the author could put in a redemptive bit, about the whole situation showing how much we need God or something, but he didn't. I suppose the rest of the series could be where that comes in, but on its own, Scythe doesn't have that. 
The False Prince, Jennifer A. Nielsen. I love these books. Although by the third one, it gets to the point where everything goes catastrophically wrong and I just squint at Sage and mutter, 'How is this part of your plan because I know it is and you can't trick me.'
Rogue, Mark Walden. Book 6 or something? of the H.I.V.E. series - about a school for training kid villains. Which sounds worse than it is, because the main characters spend all their time stopping villains (??). Contains violence, but cartoonish violence.

Watched:  

The Great Escape. DID I MENTION I LIKE HAPPY ENDINGS WELL THIS WASN'T.

The Desolation of Smaug. A rewatch, but I wanted to see Thranduil and Legolas and Bard and of course more Bilbo. And more Thorin and Fili and Kili and Bofur and all of them. *squees* *and doesn't watch Battle of the Three Armies because nooo* *nopity nope*

Muppets Most Wanted. Only watched because my cousins were; I FORGOT TOM HIDDLESTON MAKES A 10-SECOND GUEST APPEARANCE. That was the best bit of the whole movie.

Doctor Who (season 5): Time of the Angels, Flesh and Stone. Rewatch, but the angels were still totally creepy. ...I actually just wanted to see River again.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Rewatch. Because Bucky. (And Natasha. But not together, sadly.)
Thor. Loki had the potential to be a good guy. :'( Also Thor is sweet as always (once he loses his arrogance).

Music:

At Last, The King and Ghost of a King by Grey Havens. I have been listening to these on repeat.
He's a Pirate theme, violin cover, by Taylor Davis. Great for writing. 

Agents of Shield (season 2). Borrowed it from the library and I'm trying to watch it while I write this post, which is most of the reason it's late. :P

Doctor Who (season 8). I want to give Twelve a chance, even if it's just for Clara's sake. I miss Eleven, though; he was my first Doctor.

A Time to Speak and A Time to Rise by Nadine Brandes. I've read A Time to Die, and it was pretty good! Now I just have to get my hands on the other two. :)

The only real thing I have planned for May is to continue with Three Sisters. (Maybe this will be the story I finish??)

So that's April. I'm late - as usual - to the wrap-up party, but now you're here, welcome! Talk to me in the comments! About literally anything! *side-eyes Captain Literally* Almost literally anything! Not actually 'literally anything'. That would include some freaky stuff. But definitely Studio C, if you want to talk about that (I've still been binge-watching). ;)

What cool things did you do in April? How did you go with Camp, if you did that? I'd love to hear!