I love fall and Halloween is one of my favorite parts of it. At heart it's a holiday that fosters creativity. Think about it. During October, whether you're a writer or banker, you use your creative juices to come up with a costume, carve or paint pumpkins and tell spooky stories.
So, in honor of Halloween, I wanted to share a few of my favorite fall moments and how they helped get my creativity going just in time for National Novel Writing Month, which begins tomorrow.
Searching for a green pumpkin and baking it into a pie based on a dish described in Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter for my inaugural Reading in the Kitchen post. This series continues to challenge me as I look for new treats to try.
I also had a lot of fun baking and decorating Cauldron Cakes from the Harry Potter series. Though not necessarily Halloween-specific, making them certainly put me in the mood for a spooktacular Halloween weekend. (Hahahahahaha. OK, I got that pun out of the way, and I promise there will be no more.)
Painting a literary-inspired pumpkin as part of a tradition I started a few years ago. This year's book pumpkin features Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
This weekend, I carved a pumpkin solo for the first time. I helped once, but doing it alone was a whole new experience. Keeping with my bookish theme, I featured none other than Edward Cullen on my pumpkin. And when the candle inside is lit, he's all shiny, if not sparkly.
I went apple picking in Nebraska City with my little sister. In addition to providing me with the apples to make Reading in the Kitchen dishes, such as applesauce, apple butter and Afternoon Ruby Tea Biscuits, it also gave me brilliant memories. I'm a firm believer that almost every experience we have can make inspire a story.
My Halloween costume: Royal Wedding Gatecrasher. Thought I toyed with a few ideas for weeks, the night before my first Halloween party I decided to do this. It was easy and fun. I made a ridiculously awesome fascinator from fake flowers, feathers, ribbon and a lot of hot glue. I paired it with a dress, high heels and sash, then carried around a champagne bottle all evening to toast the happy couple. I not only had a blast, but I met people who are sure to inspire characters in future writing projects.
As luck would have it, the red and black colors in my facinator also meant that it was a perfect accessory for watching the Huskers defeat Michigan State.
Thank you for continuing to follow me on this writing journey. I'm blessed to have you on board. Through this blog, Twitter and writing organizations I've recently joined, I continue to meet more and more fabulous people who are helping me become a better writer.
With all of you behind me, I know I'll be able to succeed this NaNoWriMo. I know I will not just cross the 50,000-word mark, but I'll also write a quality story worth reading.
If you need any last minute plotting tips, be sure to check out my post about how I plotted this year's book.
0 comments:
Post a Comment