Posted on by Karissa

Create Stories

My career is in accounting. It took me four years to get my CPA license after graduating with my bachelor’s degree. The first year of that I was also getting my master’s degree while working full time. Accounting students that may be reading this: I do not recommend doing all three at once. Pick two. I used to be a tax accountant- did five tax seasons- and now I am a cast member. I create a story with numbers.

However, that is not the type of story I want to create. I started college as a creative writing major. I wrote a lot of fanfiction and a trilogy in high school. I want to be published. I want to write stories.

My goal this year is to create the stories I want to tell. But I’m treating it more seriously. I am reading books on writing. I am watching Brandon Sanderson’s lectures on YouTube. I even have a planner separate from my normal one to keep track of how much time I put into my writing. This blog included. It’s practice.

While my main goal is to finish the NaNoWriMo project I started in November, I also want to start creating more short stories. Ones that I can share here. I haven’t done that in some time, but I think it would be good for me. Exercise my brain and all that jazz. It should hopefully help with writer’s block as well when my main stories get to be difficult.

Speaking of NaNo, Camp NaNoWriMo starts next week! I have a modest goal of 20,000 words as it is a slightly busy time at work. I will be working on that 2019 NaNo project, and I hope you guys will join me! The people at NaNoWriMo are also doing a “Stay Home Wri Mo” right now. They are posting daily challenges and prompts on the Facebook page if anyone is interested.

Add me as a NaNo buddy: https://nanowrimo.org/participants/destinydalma. DestinyDalma is also my author name if you feel like reading cringey fanfiction on fanfiction.net that was written a decade or so ago. Tell me about your writing projects! We’re a large community, and I am excited to be a part of it.

Posted on by Karissa

Happy NaNo!

Go start yours!

National Novel Writing Month is here! 20 days. 50,000 words. Roughly 1,667 words a day. Time to ration the discount Halloween candy to get through the challenge.

My project this year is Golden Soul. I am also using the software Schrivener for the first time. So far I really like it. Go start your project by going to NaNoWriMo.org and announcing your novel! Then add me as a buddy: DestinyDalma.

Well, I have writing to get to. Good luck to all the novelists out there!

Posted on by Karissa

NaNoWriMo 2019 Planning Update

I finally have a title! Golden Soul

One of my main characters’ name means empty light and I think that is the coolest.

While filling out a character sheet on Scrivener:

That’s right. The devil’s occupation is…. DEVILLING.
I cracked myself up with this one.

Right now the story is going to be set in Victorian era with a steampunk feel, but I may make it set in the future just so my MC has to have a music off in Hell with Elton John (I love Elton. It’s just a thing in my story that all musicians and script writers are in hell. ESPECIALLY the anyone who creates a musical. My devil is super into theatre.)

Just over a week before NaNoWriMo starts! If you are also taking the challenge, add me as a buddy: Destinydalma.

Posted on by Karissa

2018 Reading Roundup

So back in August I posted about the books I’ve read from January till then as a celebration of hitting my reading goal of 30 books. I’ve read a total of 60 books this year (thank you Goodreads for keeping tack), and here are the rest of them, in order that they were read.

  1. The King’s Curse Phillippa Gregory
  2. The Hammer of Thor Rick Riordian
  3. The Kingmaker’s Daughter Phillippa Gregory
  4. The Warrior Queen Emily R. King
  5. Outlander Diana Gabaldon(Love the show, but it was a slow read for me)
  6. Mistborn Brandon Sanderson (Not as good as his work with Wheel of Time, but still great)
  7. The Red Pyramid Rick Riordian
  8. Caraval Stephanie Garber (I loved this one. I’m on my library waitlist for the sequel)
  9. Big Little Lies Liane Moriarty
  10. The Throne of Fire Rick Riordian
  11. The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern (This one was weird, but I enjoyed it)
  12. Ready Player One Ernest Cline (Liked both the book and the movie despite all the differences)
  13. Star Wars Trilogy George Lucas
  14. A Court of Mist and Fury Sarah J. Maas
  15. Crazy Rich Asians Kevin Kwan (Loved it! Still need to see the movie)
  16. Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel A.W. Jantha
  17. Children of Blood and Bone Tomi Adeyemi (Totally counting down to the sequel. This one was one of my faves of the year)
  18. Whiskey in a Teacup Reese Witherspoon (I just love her)
  19. Crown of Midnight Sarah J. Maas
  20. A Court of Wings and Ruin Sarah J. Maas
  21. Circe Madeline Miller
  22. Furyborn Claire Legrand
  23. Girls of Paper and Fire Natasha Ngan (This one was really good. I think James Patterson is helping her? Anyway, totally recommend)
  24. An Ember in the Ashes Sabaa Tahir
  25. The Outsider Stephen King (I read this in 24 hours cause holy crap)
  26. Heir of Fire Sarah J. Maas
  27. Skyward Brandon Sanderson
  28. Queen of Shadows Sarah J. Maas
  29. The Well of Ascension Brandon Sanderson (This one took me a good while to read, mostly because library books were priority)
  30. Crimes of Grindelwald J.K. Rowling

The Throne of Glass series was probably my favorite of the year. I know I still have a few more to go, but I believe it is better than A Court of Thorns and Roses. My other favorite new series was listed on the other post- the last book comes out next year.

I can’t wait to see what 2019 brings book wise! My reading goal is 40 books (there is a lot planned for 2019, including buying a house), but hopefully I can beat it again like this year.

Posted on by Karissa

A Not So Secret Secret

Growing up, I did not want to be an accountant. I was an English major, and I had decided that years before college (but after dissecting things in middle school biology made me realize I did not have what it takes to be a veterinarian). I wanted to be an author, and I had also accepted that my English major would probably lead to teaching.

More literally: I wanted to be like Christopher Paolini, best-selling author at age 19.

Spoilers: that did not happen.

Anyone who knows me can tell you I do not have the patience for teaching. Now, I knew that going into my freshman year of college, but I still enrolled as an English major with a concentration in creative writing. That lasted a year. My style of writing was just not a good fit for the program I was in, so I switched to Business and eventually Accounting.

Don’t get me wrong. I like accounting. I like math. But I LOVE writing. I haven’t put as much time in as I used to because of the CPA exam and working full time, but I still find ways to practice my passion. This blog is one of them. National Novel Writing Month is another, although I have not come close to the 50,000 words needed to win the challenge since 2013. Part of that is because I am a writer who uses a notebook first before typing, so it takes double the time to get the words into a word counter, BUT I edit as I type, so lose-win there.

I have a few novel-y projects in progress. I honestly don’t see myself ever seeing my dream of becoming published at the moment, but the stories I write are for me anyway. It’s one of the ways I like to escape. And who knows, maybe my current crap will be crap that someone likes (note: I think most of my writing is crap, even when others tell me it’s not. That’s how I get myself to improve).

Maybe one day I’ll have a panel at Dragon Con about the world I created and my characters. Gosh, wouldn’t that be amazing. I went to Brandon Sanderson’s panel a few years ago (another side note: Christoher Paolini was also there that year and I did not get in line early enough to make it to his events. So sad), and that was so much fun. How often do you get to hear from your favorite authors like that? If I ever become a published author, that’s the kind of author I want to be- open to fans and willing to talk to them about their theories and questions.

So, yeah. That’s my “secret.” Accounting is not my dream- writing is. I just happen to be really good at numbers and accounting pays the bills. And once I get this CPA thing done with I will have more time to dedicate to my dream. Lord knows I already have more than enough notebooks to use.