Last Squees for the Year

Mario Christmas Avatar

Been a busy past couple of days, and I’m just now starting to get caught up on year-end chores and holiday-making activities. Yep, I’m behind. Which means half my cards haven’t been sent out yet and there’s cookie dough still sitting in the fridge–three kinds! Thankfully, my cards say: “Happy whichever holiday you celebrate.” So technically if I get them done before New Year’s… Yes, I’m terrible I know.

I’m glad we went to California and very grateful for the time I spent there. It was a whirlwind of a trip, what with deadlines packed on top of travel, but totally needed. I have pictures (of course) but they’ll take a while to sort through and upload. Joy of joys!

With that last, here are the fifteen remaining squees for the year. This’ll take me up through December 31st!

1.) The Hogfather: It’s an annual tradition for the holidays!

2.) The Muppets’ Christmas Carol: On Netflix! WOO!

3.) Finding out that baking recipes are supposed to be conducted with unsalted butter. Thanks to my friend Suzanne for helping me figure out my cookie fu!

4.) Seeing the redwoods. How beautiful!

5.) Figuring out what was wrong with my netbook. So, HILARIOUSLY, my memory was borked because I had synced all of my cloud storage to that device instead of just the one folder. Nice, eh?

6.) The suggestion that I revisit talking about the process of writing as opposed to the YOU MUST DO THIS NOW kind of writing advice. Hard to find a niche when so many others are already blogging about the how to’s of writing. This is definitely a jumpstart to my brainpan.

7.) A really kick-ass draft of [redacted], which will be shared in 2015!

8.) A Kickstarter for [redacted], which will likely launch in January!

9.) A skull spoon, for tea. Want!

10.) And on that last… Sugar cube skulls!

11.) Possibly cheesy, but I figured out what to do with the tombstone cookie cutters I have. For sugar cookies, I can decorate them with RIP 2014! HAH!

12.) Party went well and I figured out logistics for next time despite brain space issues. Thinking this’ll turn into a monthly event.

13.) I’m back on the workout train and my chemistry is starting to normalize. It really is disturbing how easy it is to get one’s body out of whack, but inactivity–especially for writers like myself who get sucked into a cycle of caffeine, carbs, and whiskey whilst on deadline–is pretty damn detrimental and hard on the body. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t drink to get drunk, but the triumvirate of sitting for hours at a time plus too much coffee plus an apertif made me crankier than I expected it to. I didn’t realize how much it screwed me up mood-wise, but there it is.

14.) A book I picked up in California is The Drunken Botanist. FIVE STARS!!! This is GREAT for writing research and general knowledge about planets and such. Plus, the cocktail recipes are pretty awesome…which brings me to a moment of serendipity. I had the Aviation at The Alembic, and lo! and behold! the original recipe is in that book.

15.) As the story goes, I’m baking gingerbread for the first time. (Zombies and skeletons, mostly.) However, my paltry attempt is nowhere near as awesome as Martha Stewart’s Downton Abbey made out of gingerbread.

121/365

    Mood: Getting caught up
    Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: managed
    Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: 30 on the elliptical
    In My Ears: The Hogfather
    Game Last Played: Brain Age 2
    Book Last Read: Gah! It’s on my nightstand!
    Movie Last Viewed: The Hogfather
    Latest Artistic Project: Beading!
    Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last Man Zombie Standing.
    Latest Game Release: Things Don’t Go Smooth
    What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work, original comics, and novels.




Monica Valentinelli is an author, artist, and narrative designer who writes about magic, mystery, and mayhem. Her portfolio includes stories, games, comics, essays, and pop culture books.

In addition to her own worlds, she has worked on a number of different properties including Vampire: the Masquerade, Shadowrun, Hunter: the Vigil, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, and Robert E. Howard’s Conan.

Looking for Monica’s books and games that are still in print? Visit Monica Valentinelli on Amazon’s Author Central or a bookstore near you.

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