NaNoWriMo Rebelling is Fun

So, this year for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I actually have two projects, which is a first for me! Yeah, quite ambitious, although I have no plans of actually hitting the usual 50,000 words like you’re supposed to do. Let’s not get too crazy, okay? I haven’t hit that since 2008, and that was via voice recognition. The book was Hereafter, which was supposed to be a dark comedy, and ended up being a dark conspiracy/paranormal romance thing that I still need to rewrite. Hmmm. Anyway, um, this year’s projects are the following: my Turtleduck Press novella, Soul Song, which is a paranormal romance about twin flames, and also Esperantaj poemoj (Esperanto poetry). Why on earth are you doing both, Erin, you ask? Are you insane? And with working crazy hours, and the holidays approaching, and your health being wonky and and and — Well, see, it’s like this. We at TDP decided to try our collective hands and sporks (and possibly turtleducks) at the novella thing, and I’m uh, way behind. I figured I’d at least get going on mine. And it’s, uh…going? I’m 2,000 words in. Exciting stuff. 🙂 I’m doing the 100 words when-I-can method, which is really all I can manage at the moment. Man, it’s a far cry from previous years, but it beats 0, which was what I had for most of this year. So at least I’ll end on a semi-high note? And the Esperanto poetry…my friend and study partner and I…

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Mardo estas esperanta tago (Tuesday is Esperanto Day)

So, September marked a full year since I took my first class in Esperanto. It also marked a full year since I met my study partner and continued studying with him after class ended. We began a series of video lessons from the 90s called Esperanto Pasporta al la Tuta Mondo (“Passport to the Entire World,” basically). It’s really cheesy, but it’s really great as far as the content for learning goes. There are also PDFs you can get that go with it — an entire transcript (which is so helpful), a vocab list, and excercises you can do as well. Quite a few of them! Let me tell you, this has been awesome for my learning. I’ve picked up so much, more than I probably would have with Duolingo alone. The excercises force you to use the concepts and actually solidify the ideas and grammar points in your mind. So it’s not just passive reading or watching, you’re doing it. And hell, the videos are cute — I often call it a soap opera because that’s what it reminds me of. Just with not-so-great acting. But the Esperanto is spot-on. At least from what I can tell, anyway. So my partner told me about a group in England that was having free classes in Esperanto. Beginner’s classes. At first I couldn’t make them. But this go around…I could make the Tuesday one. He talked me into the Course II – instead of Course I – because he felt that…

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