October | Cathy C. Hall Writes

10626620_10204178615537318_786430566163493947_n October is a favorite month for me and not just because I happened to have been born on one of its spooktacular days. (But I’m not saying which because honestly, I pretty much celebrate the entire month. And Oldest Junior Hall is taking me to see Wicked this weekend as a birthday /Christmas gift–I suspect he’ll be using this adventure for the next couple years to cover everything–so the party’s not over until I sing so much that Oldest Junior Hall tells me to stop. And P.S. I won’t. Because yeah…it’s my birthday.)

The point is, lots going on in October and now it’s time to catch up:

Remember the Kidlit Fall Writing Frenzy over at Kaitlynn Leann Sanchez’ blog, Math is Everywhere? I wrote Worms Crawl In for this fun contest and boo-yah! I was a winner! I love when writers join together in community to support each other, and when there are prizes, too? Well, that’s just about the best in my book.

Of course, now that I’ve won a creep-tastic critique, I suppose I’ll have to write up something. I’ve got an idea for a sort of nonfiction, sort of funny picture book that I might work on in November during NaNoWriMo.

I’ve also got lots of opinions about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), so if you’re on the fence about whether to participate in this November writing challenge, you might want to give a read to “The Rights and Wrongs of NaNoWriMo” over at The Muffin.

And yes, I know that a picture book is not a novel, even if it’s a long non-fiction one. But I’ve been working on a revision of a middle grade paranormal all month and I’m this close to being stick-a-fork-in-it, I-really-mean-it-this-time done. So I’m kinda novel-ed out right now.

I’m not done with all my research, though. I’ve been binge-watching every ghost hunter show this October–who knew there were so many?–partly to pick up a pointer here and there, but also to get me in the paranormal mood. I even went to a presentation at my local library where a paranormal investigation crew played EVPs and answered questions and showed us ghostly, ghastly photos and videos.

It was all a bit oooOOOOooooo. Until I asked one of the investigators my burning question: Why do ghost hunters always hunt for spirits and such at night? I mean, time doesn’t mean anything to a ghost, right?

No photo description available. But it’s October, y’all, and hunting ghosts and telling spooky stories and getting ready for NaNoWriMo is what you do. Unless you got something different? Spill your guts, please, ’cause yeah…it’s still October for a day or two.

I do not understand how it can be October already.

I mean, I understand how the days of the year work, divided into months, starting with January, then February, and so on and so on but wasn’t I just hanging out at the beach yesterday? And the week before that…wasn’t I singing for Easter? Just last month, I was thinking about what I’d like to accomplish this year around the old homestead. Now here it is October and when I took a look at that list I made (Seriously, it seemed like just last month), well…the less said about that, the better.

Okay, that’s not quite true. I had a whole lot to say about it over at The Muffin today in “The October Checklist (Or EEEKS! It’s Getting Scary Now!)”. Mostly, I shared my plan about how I deal with accomplishing a whole list of goals when there’s not much time left to do ’em.

Or technically, not accomplishing goals when time’s running out. See, I am all about prioritizing so basically, when I have a whole list of things to do, I toss anything that’s not absolutely necessary. That way, I get my taxes paid and I leave the torn wallpaper for another day. And now that I think about it, that torn wallpaper has been tossed off the list for about two years. But at least I have a house so it’s all good.

Or it will be good. ‘Cause I’m off to mail my taxes right now. I may accomplish something else today, but frankly, after the check’s in the mail, everything else is gravy. I was going to work on the kitchen wallpaper project but that ripped paper ain’t go anywhere. I, on the other hand, have a sunny day and a good scary book.

Priorities, people. Happy October!