November Notes and College Chronicles Prequel!

I know most of my recent posts have just been updates, but I have a few more things to let you all know, lovely readers, before we move on to meatier posts. Thanks for having patience with me. :)

The day I bought fake tattoos and Augusta and I made ourselves into The Chosen Ones

First of all: don't forget to enter the giveaway for a paperback copy of Sixteen! Open to all countries; ends on Saturday, November 8.

Next up: so far, the Inkshares project for World of Shadows is not going well at all. It's disappointing, I'll admit, but I wasn't really sure what to expect, so it's not a huge deal. If I don't make it to my goal, I'll just go back to my original plan of self-publishing World of Shadows through the same process I used with Sixteen. Either way, it will be on virtual shelves before 2015 ends!

Third: Disclaimer: Yes, I am completely mental. But I decided on the day it started to go ahead and try NaNoWriMo again this year. For those of you unfamiliar with this month of insanity, check out the website. The book I'll be working on is another book in the Once Upon a Dream series (which World of Shadows kicks off). It's a loose Rapunzel retelling currently called My Mother's Shadow, though the title will probably change eventually.

I went to an awesome Halloween dance as Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is the only photo of how I actually looked at the dance, because it was literally freezing all night and I clung to my thick winter cloak for dear life until my roommate and I arrived at the dance.

Then we have this: I've shared my plans for college studies and my future after graduation with you all before. Basically, the plan was (1) go to school, (2) become a teacher, (3) go teach in a missions capacity overseas. That plan has been changed. I'll probably go into more depth in a future post, but right now the main point is that I'm changing my major to English Literature. I hope to use this degree to go work overseas with missions and organizations and then write about it, be it for their website, newspapers, fundraising efforts, anything like that. So there will still be a service/missions focus, and I'll still be overseas, but with a writing rather than teaching focus, and probably with more traveling and visiting different groups rather than working for one long-term. In other words: more writing classes! Yay!

Finally: College Chronicles is going well! I have a handful of videos shot, and I'm editing them for posting. Video-blogging is definitely a new and strange frontier for me, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it with practice. Today I'm sharing a prequel with you all, my lovely readers! This was shot at the Willy Wonka Halloween Dance last weekend.

Really Cool Animals I've Never Heard Of

This is your chance to glimpse inside my biology book!  Okay, I admit that sounds really lame and unexciting, but these photos are really cool.  Like the title says, they're animals I'd never heard of until I saw them in my bio book.  Internet searches for photos led to more unusual animals, and this post kinda tapers into "World's Smallest Animals."  They're all really cool/cute though.  :)
(Yes, this may partially be my personal attempt to turn off my instinct to fall asleep when reading textbooks.  Next up I might share something interesting from history class.)

Duckbill Platypus.  Okay, I've heard of this one, but it's so cool!

Pangolin (with a baby!)

No, not a striped squirrel.  A numbat!  Aka "banded anteater"



Diatryma.  Actually a digital image.  See skeleton.

Real diatryma, long-time extinct.



Epigaulus, a drawing.

Epigaulus, also extinct.

Lesser mouse-deer, highly endangered.

World's smallest lizard species.

Hyrax.

Bee hummingbird.  Actually, I've not only heard of this, I've had one fly right in front of my face!  In Okinawa, *in my backyard.*  It was awesome.

Fairy penguins, aka blue, little blue, and/or little penguins. World's smallest penguins.

World's smallest snake.