Aurora Dimitre's Books and Rambling

 So, upon going through my archive it turns out that the only real goal I made for 2020 was my Goodreads reading challenge, which I kinda knew from the beginning that I wasn't going to hit, and I, uh, didn't--I hit 129/340, not even half , though I guess it's possible I'll hit 130 before the day turns, so there's that. But! I've got some creative/professional goals for this year! Let's see! Goodreads reading challenge 2021.... let's put the book wall into a random number generator... I'm at 1047... random.org gives me... oh for fuck's sake Yeah, this isn't happening. Let's... maybe... no, this is just what's happening now. Fuck me.  I'd like to get my actual certification to teach! I'm running on an alternate access license now, but my program is just one year, unlike the two years that technically the state gives you to get your license, so I've gotta finish that. Then next year I can keep teaching.  I would like to keep

 

 Ah, 2020. Actually not a terrible year for me? I tend to do most of my things alone at home anyway, and despite missing a Guns'n'Roses concert that I hadn't even bought tickets for yet, I don't think I missed much. But let's see what the hell I did this year.  First up, I did get a job teaching English at my old high school? I don't have a degree in education and I don't know who let me do this, but I guess that's what's happening now, so let's hope that I get that certification! Woo hop.  Steven moved in around March 13th, when the dorms closed down on campus, and so we've been living together for almost a year now. It's going well. We're doing well. As of December 29th, I read 129 books. It is possible that I'll finish one or two more before the year ends, but we're just saying I read ~130 books this year. Not anywhere near my Goodreads challenge (the dumb idiot I am put that somewhere over 300) but not bad.  I completed Na

 

So, I still count the Gone series by Michael Grant as like, my favorite series as all time, because that bitch has got everything. Cannibalism. Murder. Attempted lynchings. Worms eat a boy. It's a great time. Seriously, though, that series was dark, and it still amazes me that it was a cover buy for me.  And I'm not talking the newer, nicer covers. Oh, no, I'm talking these fuckers: But something just. Lit in the center of my soul again, and all I want to do is re-read this goddam series. Keep in mind, I still have 1050 unread physical books. That is an exact count. Except, no, it's not, because it doesn't count my Kindle or my books I have yet to haul. The actual count is something more like 1050+ books.  So yesterday I decided that what if I take some books out of the book wall? What if I just... go... and... yeah, I had another copy of Gone in the book wall. I think the fact that I can very rarely justify re-reading books really adds to me buying books I already

 

 

 Thinking about what's coming up next, publishing-wise, and honestly it's anyone's game. Anyone except probably the third Aughts Boys book--probably? The thing is, with my rotating to-do list and rotating times whether I end up doing shit or not, it's entirely possible that one month I could write fifty pages of, say, the third Aughts Boys book, but jack shit on the second Vendettic book, and then suddenly this Aughts Boys book is closest to publication.  But this is what I'm rewriting currently: Like Hell . Standalone--unsure whether it'll be a novella or a novel as of yet. Not technically a true crime-based one, but it has a lot of true crime-y elements. Currently at 1550 words. First paragraph: Drew is trouble.  Sacrifice. Vendettic #2. Currently at 22128 words. First paragraph: Danny doesn’t even give Niko time to put his shit away before he says, “It’s a good thing that you’re back, because we start our tour with XXXmass next weekend.” Morph Suit Murderer.

 

 

  I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter by Dr. Harper Yeah, these originated on r/nosleep, but I happen to like r/nosleep, and my 2020 reading challenge on Goodreads is in some desperate need of some help (yeah, don't set your GR reading challenge at 340, for all of those who were wondering).  For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund This is some Jane Austen book or whatever set in space as a young adult novel. I don't like Jane Austen or sci-fi, so this should be a fantastically inappropriate read for me.  No Exit by Taylor Adams I read the first few pages of this and it was just, an extremely realistic portrayal of losing control of a car in a snowstorm, which is pretty scary to someone in North Dakota in December, so it's gonna be good. One More Sad Song by Aurora Dimitre One boy, one girl, two hearts, their world, time goes by, secrets rise The secret is that I wrote this book and it's not a secret, it's on the spine

 

 I know, I know, we're all sick of this. Actually, that's a lie. I'm not sick of this. I love this so much every year. I wish they would give me a spreadsheet, that's how not sick of this I am. Let's go through my Spotify Wrapped, teeth-grinding detail by teeth-grinding detail.  First, we've got, somehow, discovered 344 new artists? Probably mostly from those couple of times I decided that I had to what they recommend to me? I don't think I ever listened straight through one of those. Also, top genres are... pretty much as they always are.  Then the first real weird thing happened. "The Bitter Pill" by Warrant is my top song of the year? Not even... Warrant's best song? Like, I love Warrant, don't get me wrong, all of Poison' s success definitely should have been theirs, but like... "The Bitter Pill?" But it's whatever, you know. "Bitter Pill." It's chill. Let's see what else we've got.  Two Guns'

 

 So, I finished NaNoWriMo a couple days ago. I actually finished in the wee hours of the 29th; I think it was about 12:30 AM--it was one of those situations where I told myself that I wasn't going to go to bed until I was done. And I finished! I just haven't written a blog post since then. So, this NaNoWriMo. Well, I did stretch the book to go the whole 50k, unlike last year, where I had to add a second shorter project because it was just ~done~ and there was ~nothing I could do about it~, so that's a good thing. I had several days where I wrote jack shit, though. Shit's weird. It is still so amazing to me, looking back at some of my high school-era NaNoes.... like, shit, past Aurora, what the fuck was up with you ? I did vlog the entire month. Okay, not the entire month--but, you know, the twenty-nine days that I wrote. None of these have been edited yet but they'll be coming out over the next few months. Feat. '46 Updates', which is where I talk about how