Frozen – Jen's Pen Den

…And now you’re mine.

Whahahaha

Okay, okay, not really. I only hope I can keep you entranced past this sentence 😉 I’ll start off this Friday by saying happy Halloween! I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for this holiday. I know a lot of people aren’t, and many of you out there feel like this:

But I feel like this:

Halloween is one of the only reasons I embrace the autumn and cooler weather here in Colorado. I just love everything about it: Scary movies. Candy. Spooky decorations. Candy. Silly costumes. Candy. Apple cider. Candy… 😉

I don’t have any special plans tonight except to watch some scary movies and eat–er, I mean, hand out candy to the neighbors. I did most of my official celebrating last weekend at my family’s Disney themed Halloween party. Despite its modern twist, my Frozen costume worked well enough that most of the kids kept calling me “Elsa”.

10711080_10101848208068203_3581436476091146286_n Yes, those are official Frozen pants. If you look at my knee, you’ll see Elsa performing her icy magic.

10686824_10101848207364613_8328769457753683577_n Me with Olaf (aka, my nephew). He wouldn’t let me out of his sight all evening. “Elsa, where are you going?”… “Elsa, take a picture!”… “Elsa! Elsa! Elsa!” It was adorable and funny.

As for writing this week, I’ve continued to chug along with my manuscript. I’m just a few chapters away from finishing my second draft, and if I maintain my focus, I should have it done by early next week *fingers crossed*

I’m actually proud of myself this week. I sucked it up and said “no” to anyone who asked me to do stuff. “Jenna, do you want to come over for dinner?” No! “Hey, can babysit?” No! “Do you have time to–?” No, no, no! I didn’t even take the time to clean my house or buy groceries. I woke up this morning and realized I was out of food and my house was…Well…

Oh well. Tis the life of a writer, right? It’s not always orderly, pretty, or necessarily comfortable.

Are you tired of the Hocus Pocus gifs yet?

Well, fine. Be that way. I’ll end things here. I should anyway. My manuscript is starting to yell at me to get to work on it.

Okay, okay. That was the last one. Promise!

In honor of Halloween, as well as my enjoyable, but slightly uncomfortable journey with my manuscript this week, here are today’s Friday Funnies. Enjoy!

10246266_920050231355632_5333847443471323336_n

10669990_881224548554838_5356247504319315328_n

25cc46c9773464db4d516275cdacd2ce How was your week? Anyone have any fun plans for Halloween? What/who are you dressing up as?

P.S. Good luck to all who are starting NaNoWriMo this weekend! I know you’ll rock it.

Jen’s Weekly Roundup

In case you missed my posts from earlier this week, here you go!

Music Monday – Tomorrow Belongs To Me – Cabaret

Jen’s Top 10 NaNoWriMo Tips

The Last, Definitive Word On Word Count

Photo credits:

http://www.comments20.com/category/occasional-graphics/halloween-graphics/page/4/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lorynbrantz/18-insanely-clever-pop-culture-stencils

http://www.buzzfeed.com/samimain/witches-be-crazy

https://www.tumblr.com/search/movie+flyer

http://mashable.com/2014/10/22/hocus-pocus-cult-classic/

http://www.bookaddictsguide.com/2014/10/20/fortnight-fright-2014-hocus-pocus-morgan-words/

https://www.facebook.com/Writers.Write.Company/photos/a.821983757828947.1073741831.175634409130555/920050231355632/?type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/A.WritersStudio/photos/a.583569911653638.1073741826.583384065005556/881224548554838/?type=1&theater

http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/gallery/#/i/321896/

It’s Fridayyyyyyyy!

So, is it just me, or did every day this week feel like Friday? Seriously, each morning my alarm clock went off, I thought, “Yippee! It’s Friday–No, wait. It’s not. Not even close. Beepity-beep!”

I was very happy when I woke up this morning and realized it was Friday–for real. Woo-hoo!

Anyway, it was a busy week for me, but a productive one. I’m proud of myself for not getting too caught up in the mad dash of life and focusing hard on my manuscript. Since last weekend, I’ve knocked out four new chapters, each one approved by my beta reader.

If I keep up this pace, I might finish my second draft by November 1st. Which means I’ll have two months to edit a third draft. Which means I just might have a presentable draft done by my deadline of January 1st.

*fingers crossed*

Besides writing my booty off this week, I had some fun too. I celebrated my dad and sister’s birthdays (back-to-back days), and then put together my costume for my family’s Disney-themed Halloween party this weekend. I had wanted to go as Ursula from The Little Mermaid (you know, do my hair all crazy like octopus tentacles), but my nephews demanded I go as Elsa from Frozen.

Okay, my costume won’t be nearly as glamorous as Elsa’s, but people will get the general gist–er, hopefully.

I also spent some time this week shooting photos and video clips for my friend’s latest film for the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge. These films are silly, but I love contributing to them. They’re a great way to bring the NYC Midnight writing community together, build friendships, and have fun. Oh, and laugh at myself.

A lot.

JennaDisney1 Like the last round, I needed to use the story I wrote for round 2 as my inspiration. Since Operation Disney revolved around the recent debacles of the Secret Service Agency and Julia Pierson’s absurd Disney quote (“We need to be more like Disney World. We need to be more friendly, inviting…”), I decided to dress up like Mickie Mouse and wave around a toy gun while singing/dancing to “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”.

Here are just a couple of the clips I took:

(And, yes, feel free to laugh/shake your head/mock me. I don’t care–ha!)

I know I look ridiculous, but I actually had a blast while filming. Sometimes it’s therapeutic to let go, act like an idiot, and laugh at yourself, you know? And I laughed at myself a lot. There were many blooper moments, one of which included me accidentally hitting the trigger on the toy gun and dropping it in surprise when it made that motor-like sound. I wasn’t ready for it!

Anyway, here is today’s Friday Funny. I thought it was fitting after taking those pictures and video clips for my political satire piece. The day I wrote Operation Disney, I did quite a bit of research and Googled a variety of things, including Secret Service Agency, Air Force One, Obama, attack, guns, Russia…By the end of the day, I said, “Well, that probably put me on the NSA’s watch list.” 😉

Enjoy!

10671284_10152514271928432_1697126134585438931_n How was your week? Busy? Calm? Do anything goofy and silly? I know many of you are preparing for NaNoWriMo. How’s it going? Are you ready for it?