No Shave-NaNoWriMo-November Wrap-Up and upcoming contests info!
December 5, 2020
Weird to think this is my last wrap-up of 2020! I’d say the year went by fast, but that’d be a total lie…
Let’s get some housekeeping things out of the way 🙂
FIRST — my October winners haven’t contacted me, so check the post to see if you’ve won something.
SECOND — We’re running a Christmas Countdown contest for 7 Days starting on Monday, so keep an eye on my social media for details and prizes 🎄
November was a weird-ish month. Due to South Dakota being a Covid-19 hotspot, our daughters wisely decided not to come home for Thanksgiving. Sad, but smart. And I got to spend 5 days in Denver with the precious granddaughter when her daycare closed due to Covid-19 and she needed a fill-in daycare provider (twist my arm — haha) so that was really fun. Holy crap is she a busy girl! When she finally napped, I was perfectly content letting her nap on me since she’s usually got no time for snuggles.
Since Mr. James couldn’t come to Denver with me, I loaded up the dog and took off. Normally my hubby drives, which leaves me time to dink around on my phone, or read, or craft, or 70% of the time I’m in the backseat working on my laptop. Obviously none of those were options, so I decided to sign up for Audible. In my writing life, I can’t listen to audiobooks because I’m working. When I’m not on my computer, I’m usually watching something with Mr. James or at least in the family room with him crafting while he’s watching TV. To be honest, I never understood the appeal of audiobooks because I didn’t have time for them.
Oh, how things have changed.
Since it is the busiest time of the year in the gun business, my hubby goes to work at like 5 am or something. Which means he’s exhausted when he comes home. So recently, after we eat and spend some time together, I slip on my headphones and listen to an audiobook while crafting, which also has a delightful side benefit of blocking out his snoring 😝 A new addition to my monthly wrap up — at least this month’s and next month’s — will include the audiobooks I listened to. Without further ado…
AUDIOBOOKS I LISTENED TO
All right, the fact I wasted 14 hours of my life listening to possibly the WORST book EVER, which I used my ONE monthly credit for, should’ve turned me off audiobooks entirely. No, I’m not going to tell you the name of it, BUT CHRIST ALMIGHTY IT SUCKED MASSIVE DONKEY BALLS. It has like 3000 something positive reviews. It wasn’t just the narrator — I honestly don’t think anything could have fixed all the things wrong with the story, the characters, the premise…everything. IF you can’t tell, I’m super pissed that I fell for the hype.
Here are the books I liked:
The Rivals, Vi Keeland — great dual narration from Andi Arndt and Sebastian York, good premise, kept me entertained.
The Seventh Bride, T Kingfisher — the main character was a 17 year old girl, who was engaged to a man she detested but she didn’t have a choice but to do as he wished. It was NOT a romance, more a YA magic/fantasy tale. The narrator did a great job with all the voices. I mentioned how much I liked this author last month, but the reason I chose this audiobook was because it was included in my membership.
By A Thread, Lucy Score — I seriously laughed out loud with this one. Set in the fashion magazine industry with a grumpy boss and forced proximity. So damn funny and poignant. Outstanding dual narration from Erin Mallon and Sebastian York.
The Happy Ever After Playlist, Abby Jimenez — a super meet-cute between an artist coming out of mourning her fiance’ and and up and coming musician. A little angsty with a slow burn. Enjoyed the dual narration from Zachary Webber and Erin Mallon.
Say You’ll Be Nine, Lucy Lennox — a male/male romance that I really loved the storyline. Fake dating between a gay man and his best friend’s little brother as they film a home improvement show. Loved the single narrator Michael Dean doing both male voices.
WHAT I CRAFTED
Since I listened to audiobooks, I was able to get quite a bit more crafting done this month (plus I wasn’t writing)
This first piece is one I started, hated, and put aside but it drove me crazy to leave it undone, so I went back to it. I knew I’d picked the wrong bead colors, and the 14 count aida fabric is too wide so the beads don’t snug together. The finished size fits into a 5X5 frame When I ironed it, I scorched the fabric, but it actually improved the shading around it. I ordered a mat and I’ll hang the damn thing somewhere even though it’s ugly. Yes, it’s supposed to be pansies, but I can’t help but think the “bud” in the bottom looks more like a pickle penis.
I shared my obsession with these beading kits from the Ukraine that are done on wood and I’ve been looking forward to completing the Christmas themed ones. Here’s what the gingerbread house looked like started and finished. It shines a lot more in hand than it does in photos. It’s about 5 inches tall.
Here’s the snowflake also from a kit – while I like it, I’m more of it “it should be in Christmas colors” kind of chick. That said, it will match the decor of the tree in our family room.
I bought a bunch of these themed Santa kits, that are all different and are supposed to be pins. But I finished this with felt and turned it into an ornament. Stringing the beads for the loops of the beard didn’t take as long as I expected, but this is 2-pieces. The hat had to be glued on. Still, pretty cute huh? It’s about 3 inches high.
This was a kit I converted from cross-stitch into beads. I like it better. Especially since I only did half a wreath rather than filling in the entire thing. It’s about 3 inches. Again, a little phallic looking, but hey, aren’t ALL tapered candles phallic?
WHAT I WATCHED
I guess because I listened to audiobooks, was gone for a time and the we’re watching shows that you can’t binge, my TV viewing was way down.
The Queen’s Gambit — Netflix. This show was absolutely AMAZING, I can’t recommend it highly enough! I know nothing about chess, but I still loved it.
Lilo and Stitch, Disney Plus — Watched this with the granddaughter and apparently…I’ve seen it before but I absolutely didn’t remember it at all.
Lucifer, Netflix — I tried. I really did. But by the 4th episode I knew it wasn’t for me. Crossed off my list.
WHAT I COOKED
I didn’t have to bring a single thing to my folk’s Thanksgiving feast, so what I cooked for us the rest of the month wasn’t anything special. However, it was a BAD month for baking. I burned these chocolate chip cookies at my daughter’s house — and yes, I had set the timer:
And then, the very next week, I mixed up a quick batch of chocolate chip cookies and THIS is what happened:
We scraped it into cookie crumbles and put it atop ice cream. At least it wasn’t burned….
WHAT I READ
Another odd month for me. I bounced around a bit and didn’t really read a romance until the very end of the month.
Red Queen series, Victoria Aveyard — I’m pretty sure this is a YA series. It was a swash-buckling, fantasy, saving a kingdom type from centuries of discrimination type of series. Since fantasy books are so long it seemed like I spent half the damn month reading this. When I got to the end of the 3rd book, I was PISSED OFF. I’m like — how can she end the series like that? It was not satisfying at all. And to prove my indignation was justified, I hustled over to Amazon, expecting to read scathing reviews, only to find…this:
There WAS a 4th book. Sigh. It did have a great ending. And there is a short story collection that follows, that I bought, but I can also listen to it on audio, which is what I plan to do.
A Stitch in Time, Kelley Armstrong — I LOVE Kelley Armstrong’s work, and I was excited to buy the time-traveling gothic book she’d penned. I actually read it in October but forgot to list it, but I highly recommend it!
The Past Is Never , Tiffany Quay Tyson — weird southern gothic about a brother and sister determined to find out what happened to their little sister when she went missing at the local rock quarry after they were supposed to be watching her. Kind of depressing, but really different. Don’t know how I ended up buying it.
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, V.E. Schwab — this is one of those “it” literary books that everyone is reading and is making the year-end “best of lists” and I had a $6 credit so I spent it on a $13.99 ebook so I didn’t feel too bad buying it. I have to say, I liked this book as I was reading it, but if you asked me what it was about besides no one ever remembering the main character for centuries, after her deal with the devil, I cannot tell you. Strange, right?
Loverboy, Sarina Bowen — I LOVE EVERYTHING SARINA WRITES. This was another hot, sexy, funny, unique book with great characters, and a great premise and just…everything. Sarina sent me an early copy, but between being in Denver and the holiday I didn’t get to it, so as soon as it went on sale December 1st, I bought a copy and the whisper-synch so I could listen to it.
CONTEST!! Since Sarina was so generous to me, I’m gonna pass on the love and gift a kindle copy to the first FIVE people who comment on this post! I want to send the gift copies ASAP TODAY, so make sure you’re around so I can get the correct email address to send it to!
As always, thanks so much for listening to my month-that-was 😘 If you feel like sharing, tell me what you’ve been up to. If you’ve got your Christmas presents bought, your tree up, your crafting done (NONE of which I can cross off my lists…sigh)
XOXOXO
L~
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Mary C said:
Happy Holidays!
Pamela said:
I love your newsletters!
Aly P said:
Interesting books and enjoy audiobooks. November ended disastrously for me so I am happy to read when people have better days/weeks
Nancy Shaw said:
I MUST comment on your review on the WORST BOOK EVER!
Thank you for saying out loud what I thought about the book. I can only say in the book revies but I found the review is placed in the ” Bad Review” pile and then the good reviews are open. I sometimes find myself giving an author a pass because maybe the book just wasn’t to my liking but someone else liked it for the exact reason I did not. I do have to admit I LOVED YOUR REVIEW!!!!!
Amy said:
I have a new nephew I haven’t got to meet yet so I’m glad you got to spend time with your granddaughter!
Marina Marinova said:
I so love your posts. And you are amazing at crafting. I’ve tried multiole times but I never have the patience for it.
And thanks for the Kelley Armstrong recommendation. Can’t wait to check it out 😍😍😍
Chrissy said:
My daughter loves Christmas and, since she’s high risk, is getting a little bored being at home. We got all of our decorating done early and are watching a bunch of Christmas movies now. I have yet to do any baking but I did pick up an amazing platter from our local bakery that everyone has enjoyed.
Tambra Byrne said:
I just finished making CC cookies for my grandkids and Oatmeal for my hubby.
Dar said:
Great monthly wrap up! I’m finding it hard to get into the holiday swing of things this year, with COVID and my chemo, it takes all my effort just to get through the days sometimes. But, I will be getting my tree up tomorrow, and the presents are all brought and wrapped, now to figure out how to hand them off without contact!
Maggie D said:
Shopping’s done but not all wrapped. Tree is up but not decorated… do you see kind of a theme going on here. LOL!
I’m with you on audio books, I still love to read, but it’s lovely to put on my headphones and listen while I knit, or play Harry Potter games on my phone. I can do two things at once!
Juliana Forrest-Lytle said:
Thanks for the wrap up and reviews! I was debating getting Loverboy and you have pushed me all they way to yes (admittedly I was leaning that way, but was holding out 😊) . I actually just started another re-listen of Long Hard Ride yesterday as I found myself in a book slump and it is my absolute favorite book to re-read but I’ve been listening to audiobooks so I can be somewhat productive in my life too 😂.
Elis said:
Audible will let you return an audio book within a certain amount of time–I forget what, but it’s pretty generous. Try that and get your credit back!
AnnaMarie Melchiorre said:
I would love a copy of her book. Thanks and Happy Holidays.
Elizabeth said:
I really appreciate your quick review of what you have read. I, too, love Kelley Armstrong, and outside of romance, fantasy, SF, and mysteries are all fun.
Ruth S said:
I dropped my oldest son off at the airport so he could join the Air Force. He is currently in TX at his BMT training. I am trying to adjust to him being gone. 🙂
TARA said:
Love audio books. Love to listen to and from work, crocheting, or taking a relaxing bath.
Jeanine Lesperance said:
Everyone keeps recommending Queen’s Gambit, I am going to have to try it. I love Kelly Armstrong’s books, but had not gotten this one because I usually don’t read historical, even though I love everything else she has ever written.
Please don’t include me in the contest….I just finished Loverboy on audio and loved it…
Michelle D Holden said:
I have been on vacation since Thanksgiving, not looking forward to going back to work on Wednesday. I went to order a couple of the books you recommended and already have them. I have never tried an audiobook so that would be fun to try.
I’m jealous of your beadwork, I wish I could do that. I like to scrapbook and make my own cards.
I have 90% of my Christmas cards written.
Wishing you and yours a very safe, happy and Merry Christmas!
Anne Stevens said:
I love love audiobooks, and a good narrator makes it come to life. As always, I love your reviews/recommendations.
Susan Dougherty said:
I love your posts. They always make me feel better, even if the day is not going so great. I love your crafting, even the pansies. I also thank you for your recommendations, especially for audiobooks. I had to move to the 2 a month plan, because I can not drive anywhere now without listening to one.
Mary C said:
I really want to know what was the name of the horrible audiobook! LOL! I don’t understand when readers/listeners give good reviews to novels or audiobooks because it is an author they like. Oh please share the title of the audiobook so I can avoid it.
Thanks!
Lisa said:
Love to read your books and what you have been up to. I also love Sarina Bowen, but I can’t get into any fantasy books 🙃 for some reason. I listen to audiobooks at work and while cooking and driving and anything else almost! I read some books but do love audiobooks which I use most often. I love to laugh out loud (humor) and romance. Can’t wait for more of your books to read and add to my collection.
Oh, I think when we really want our cooking/baking to be good, disasters strike LOL.
Lisa said:
I love your updates. Sorry I missed out on Loverboy, congrats winners. I am so glad you got to spend time with the grand. I miss time with mine.
Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year
Caroline said:
I liked A Stitch in Time, too…but I also read her book, Every Step She Takes, and loved it! Haven’t read a book that hard to put down in a long time.
Joy Jenner said:
Merry Christmas!
Jenny Black said:
Merry Christmas.
I love your little crafts, phallic or not 😆. I had to put my cardinal cross stitch aside because I have to get a baby blanket and burp cloths set done before the end of the month. Had to get the fabrics (cotton flannel), cut, and sew. I’m working on decorative crochet edge now. I’m getting through it quickly.
We got our tree today and will be decorating it tomorrow once it has opened up a bit more.
Danielle said:
i love your crafts !! where can i find the winners of october ?
Anne said:
I have found that when I listen to audiobooks when a book is badly written it’s three times as noticeable. Not sure why. I listened to one by a formerly favorite author. Whooo weeee, what a repetitive stinker with main characters who were too stupid to live. Could have made it a short story instead of a novel for the lack of story line and content that was repeated over and over and over.
Patty said:
Hi, if you don’t mind, I would like to recommend the audiobook Heidi’s Guide to Four Letter Words by Tara Sivic and Andi Arndt. Narrated by Andi Arndt. It is hilarious.
JENNIFER BEYER said:
Oh my gosh! I’m so glad to hear someone else didn’t connect with Lucifer! Everyone around me loved it but I thought it was meh.
Kelly McEntaffer said:
Happy Holidays! I hope you continue to enjoy your family time and me time, you’ve devoted so much of your time to us it’s nice to see you relaxing and enjoying hobby time. Keep sending your recommendations on what’s good to read or listen too, I’m making list.
flchen1 said:
Great update, Lorelei–you’ve been busy!! My daughter’s read the Aveyard series, and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a keeper for her. She does read a lot of fantasy. Love seeing your crafting–bet that is all going to look amazing on your tree!
jodi george said:
would love to win a copy ..thank you for the chance and happy holidays to you and yours
Judy Cohen said:
I’m retired and I don’t do half of what you do daily. But I do read. Thank you for all the giveaways.
Happy Holidays to you and all of your readers.
Lauren said:
Mama it was so amazing to have you in Denver. Noelle certainly missed you and “Bucko” when you left. I still can’t believe you don’t remember us watching Lilo and Stitch when we were girlies! Hahaha
I really don’t think the charred cookies were your fault at ALL- gotta blame that on my nuclear 1958 oven 😂.
Limecello said:
LOL the giant cookie! That reminded me of a time in college 2 friends surprised me with a HUMONGOUS cookie nearly that size – so big it of course broke apart. They brought it to me at a retreat and I shared it with ~everyone. 😛
… ah cookies.
I didn’t listen to By a Thread but I read it and really enjoyed it. I should re-read it.
I too “discovered” audiobooks/they started working for me this year.
Not much on the holiday front this year, though my family has been pretty low key about it the past few years. My parent never know what they want so I just give them random little things I think they’ll want/use and … well generally take them out for a really nice meal. That’s obviously not an option this year. [Their anniversary is in early January, so I used to do it twice…]
I did have a hot cocoa/coffee mix today though. Next time I’ll add vanilla vodka. 😉
Brandee said:
Happy Holidays!
Amy Perrault said:
Great idea
Elisa said:
I LOVE audiobooks! I started listening to them 13 years ago when I drove 90 mins each way to and from work. It was a great way to pass the time (instead of swearing at every blasted idiot on the road). It provided a bit of Zen time for me.
I don’t have a favourite, but I can tell you I didn’t like listening to The Game of Thrones series. It was very difficult to follow on audio! Often when I got into heavy traffic, I would tune out so I could pay attention to the yuks on the road. I ended up rewinding so many times. And once or twice, I googled a few things simply because I couldn’t remember what happened 40 hours ago! (Each book was over 30 hrs of listening!) I got as far as Book 4 and gave up. LOL.
And a few times, I was listening to a Romance, in the summertime, with the windows rolled down, waiting at a stoplight… Ooops! Hope the guy next to me couldn’t hear the raunchy sex scene!
April P said:
I’ve also started listening to more audiobooks. I just don’t have the tone to sit and read right now.
Kellie M Rossow said:
Love your blog, books and how you keep all your readers interested in everything!
Thank you AND Merry Christmas!!!
melissa braden said:
I love it when one of my favorite authors loves one of my other favorite authors! Loverboy was fantastic! I love listening to audiobooks. I’ll have to finish listening to the Red Queen series and I haven’t read anything by Kelley Armstrong since her Otherworld series ended. I’ll have lots of books to listen to while I get my house clean and Christmas presents wrapped.
Linda Holmes said:
Now I know what to do with all of my beads. As a crafter I sew, crochet, make up plastic canvas kits and felt kits and counted cross stitch. I have a Santa/Snowman felt kit that I am almost done with, but I have been working on it since the 90’s, and I don’t have much left to do. It would be nice to finish it because that is one less kit
I will have in the buckets. (3) of kits. I somehow find time to read as well.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Linda
Moran Videletz said:
I started listening to audiobooks a few months ago and I love them.
I work from home so I can listen to a book while working on the computer.
I also listen while doing my daily walk so it’s a great way for me to read more.
I love Sarina Bowen books. I read Loverboy as soon as it came out. She is the reason I started listening to audiobooks this year after winning 2 of her books in audio.
Karen said:
Love your blog posts!! The Queen’s Gambit is amazing, I agree! I just finished Hillbilly Rockstar for the umpteenth time and it’s still one of my very favorites. Liberty is absolutely my spirit animal! ❤️
Tiss Johnson said:
NO, I don’t have my tree up, but the Church is decorated. A young girl is planning on putting on a concert. Singing some Christmas songs and live streaming it on FB and later you tube. I’m going to video it. Just a few neighbors will be invited. No big crowd. COVID is nuts around here and ND governor loves his numbers.
I’ve been crocheting a little, but didn’t go to any craft shows. Now, we are getting ready for calving which starts about Jan 10th. Not reading much either, just not into it.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Love reading your posts.
Bobbie Sue Kearse said:
Well my five year old keep me at the ocean today and it’s not a tropical place, so I’ve been chilled all day. Ughh kids lol but gawd I love the little shit. That what my day was like
JUDY D BOYLE said:
LOVE that that didn’t only happen to me with the cookies. Mine did the same thing
We just crumbled it up and ate it. lol
Susan Dougherty said:
So, if you wouldn’t mind, I would love to know the places you like to purchase your beaded kits.
Thank you.
Lesley said:
I am further along on everything Christmas this year which I think is just because we need some extra cheer this year! Also, I got all the way to Season 4 of Lucifer before giving up. The first two seasons were pretty good, but by season 3, it was hard to get through.