April // SlavicNovel draft done + other reasons to party

April is the month in Denmark where the weather decides to ignore all seasons and just do whatever the heck it feels like. This is basically the same as in Chicago, except the average of warm days to cold days is much smaller in Copenhagen. I suppose it feels the need to live up to being a Scandinavian city. 

I've been to Budapest and Prague this month, and those were the last time I'm traveling this semester before my family shows up to visit. Sad, but kind of relieving too. I get to relax without making any more travel plans! 

What's my life been like on the bookish front? Actually, let me direct you to my travel blog for that, because I wrote about my adventures as a bibliophile studying abroad (suffering from four month withdrawal from my bookshelf). Check it out here! I also explored the famous Royal Library/Black Diamond Library in Copenhagen, which I SHOULD have done MONTHS ago (and if you feel the need to chastise me for being a shame to the bookish community, I will accept the scoldings guiltily).

In the writing world, I discovered the wonderful thing that myWriteClub is (thanks to Ava Jae). Also, I finished Draft 0.5 of #SlavicNovel! (!!!!!!) 

I've been waiting for this day and now it has finally arrived! The tangly bits have untangled and I can move on to Draft 1ish and hopefully finish that by August (and then start planning something new for NaNo).  Oh yeah, talking about planning something new for NaNo - I have a plot bunny sniffling around that I will now call #MagusNovel, though it will have an actual title and all by the time NaNo rolls around. It's really epic, but currently is just a bunch of notes about worldbuilding and a girl named Cecilia who may end up being the MC. We shall see what it turns out to be.

Also, do you know what's happening next month? MY 3-YEAR BLOGOVERSARY! Will there be festivities? Will there be giveaways? Will there be glitter and cake? YES!

(...well, hopefully, if I can get my stuff together :-P)

(photos link to instagram versions)

  

Because I am missing my family and will see them in just about two weeks (!!!) I think it's a good time to tell you (again) about my epic sister and her epic blog and her epic instagram. Remember that I mentioned her way back when she was starting all the interneting? Well, guess what. After some friendly competition, she now has MORE INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS THAN I DO. As an older sibling, I find this almost unacceptable, but as an older sibling, I choose to ignore these annoyances. (We get good at that.)

Therefore, as a PROUD older sibling, I think you should go check her out at Kitchen Whimsy. She posts really funny stories about her life, with recipes as kind of epilogues. Also, who wouldn't want their instagram feed to be full of delicious cakes and things? So go follow her over there, too! (Pictures link to instagram) 

Skye @ Further Up and Further In talks about writing what you need, and using writing as a sort of therapy.

Emily @ Ink, Inc. talks about ENDINGS (dun dun). And when they can be well done, or problematic.

Emily @ The Loony Literate gives super good tips on taking pictures for bookstagram! 

Cait @ Paper Fury asks if we need books without discrimination used as a plot point? Is it possible (is it even just okay) to write a world with NO DISCRIMINATION?

My Favorite Bookish Twitterers

{Follow all my favorite people on the twitterverse! Go! You won't regret it!}

Guest Post: Not a Poet

{Mike Taeger talks about his experience reading poetry as a writer of prose}

Scandinavian Murderousness in Novel and TV-show Form

{Scandinavia is the land of feminism and eerie forests, obviously coming together to make epic crime fiction!}