The Thing About NaNo is...

It's a blast, but it's also time consuming. If you have other stuff to do, or are busy, finding time can be a challenge, at best.

Hiya peeps. I'm going to vent for a minute. 

Most of you know, I'm an author as well as a reviewer. I've done NaNo two years previously, and this is my third. I love doing it! The rush from doing month-long writing sprints is fantastic, and a great way to end the year.

Thing is, November is also spectacularly busy. All the best books from the year get promoted, and review requests come out of every crack and corner. Of course, being a book lover, I do enjoy the reading and reviewing aspect of my book life. There are too many good books offered, I just can't say no!

It's difficult. And frustrating.

This month, I'm struggling with a schedule where I have two hours free to get both writing and reading/reviewing done, as well as making blog posts. Two. Hours. A day.

It takes time to get into the book I'm writing, mentally. I have to get my head into it, and can't write when other people are around. I have an office, yes, but my family is loud, to say the least. It's not fair to ask them to leave or stop having their own lives because of my writing - I'm not a selfish person, I just can't do that.

So, what's a girl to do? At the moment, I am somehow cramming everything my schedule demands me to get done, into that two hours a day. Ten hours a week, to get everything done.

If I hit the 50K word count and keep up with reviews, I will be amazed.

Okay, rant over. NaNo rocks, but oh my gosh, why does everything that happens, all happen at once? It's like crickets through October, then *bam* shit-storm in November. *sigh*

Anyone else doing NaNo this year? How do you find writing time? Let me know, because I could use some ideas!

Blog Update

Hiya peeps! I wanted to share a quick post, just to update ya'll.

In case you don't follow my PluggedIn blog, I've made some changes over there. Instead of being a book-focused blog, which it was never intended to be, I've decided to stick to just reviews there. Hence why I named it "Desert Rose Reviews" to begin with.

I want to share far more reviews than just my book reviews though. I actually critique things in several areas, and want to be able to share them somewhere, and am excited to finally get DRR back to it's roots! I do love books though, and always have. So, I did create a new book-focused blog - Desert Rose Word Candy, and I'm so glad to have that space available as well!

So, what does that mean for the UnPlugged blog? Well, basically the same thing. It's still going to be unplugged reviews, of whatever I want. I've always had this blog set up that way, and I'm going to be expanding beyond book reviews here, as well.

I will be posting more reviews once October comes around, and I'm able to focus on them. The next few weeks are majorly booked for me - family reunion of sorts, and all that fun.

Be sure to check out my book blog though, if you want a book-focused blog, and check back here for new reviews soon!

"Desi Pere" Tour Spotlight!!

I'm so excited, this tour is so much fun! Check out the awesome start to an exciting trilogy, and be sure to comment before you leave! Thank you!! =D

It's Ken's Birthday!!

Ken.

K. E. N.

Kind.  Eccentric.  Noble.

So many words fit to describe Ken, but those three seem to jump out at me today.

For those who don't know it, Ken is my hubby, best friend, and one of the most epically amazing people I've ever known.  He is a blessing to me and the world, and I just love him to pieces!!

Today is his birthday, and I'm so glad - I love celebrating Ken!! :D

Across my blogs and our Lifestyle blogs, I'm going to have a myriad of posts all dedicated to, focused on, or gushing about the awesomeness that is Ken.  I can't get enough of him, and I want the whole world to know it, and to know how amazing he is!

If nothing else, I'll get to gush about him.

I hope you have an amazing birthday hun, and enjoy all the surprises Ethan and I have for you over the next few weeks :)

Lots of love,

~Rose

Pet Peeves: Blog Tours Edition

Ok, so I've been participating in book tour hosting for several years now, and I've just about had it with some of the things I've seen.  I need an outlet, so today I'm going to have a bit of a ranting post.

I'm not going to name specific people, services, or tours, because I don't want to get into it with people.  Maybe though, those people will know who they are, and realize they're pissing people off (because I can't be the only one, can I?).

If you know who I'm talking about with a specific peeve, hurrah for you- please don't name names.  Again, I don't want fights, I just want to vent and have a rant.  Thanks :)

The iPersonic Personality Test

So, I was browsing around Facebook recently, getting my daily updates on friends and people I follow.  My friend shared a post about her results of The iPersonic Personality Test.  I love taking personality test and quizzes- anyone else do that?  Well, I do, and I kind of loved the results I got back!  Over the past few years, I've had a bit of a traumatizing identity crisis, and personality tests seem to help guide me in my quest to find myself.  I know...deep ;)

I was stuck in what to post today, so I figured I'd share my results!  I always like reading other people's results for these kinds of things, so in case you're bored today, or simply enjoy reading this sort of thing, here ya go!

We Won a Liebster Award!

*This is an old post - we are re-publishing it as our domain has changed.  The blog is the same, and the award still applies to our blog, it's simply an updated post.  Our nominees have already accepted or rejected their nominations, and aren't being re-nominated.  Originally posted on April 16th, 2014.

Wow, so this week, our blog was nominated for a Liebster award, by the adorable Elle on Elle's 411 on YA Books!  Lots of thanks to her for the nomination - yay! :D

We've won a few of these on our "Plugged In" blog, so this is exciting for our UnPlugged blog! :D

The Liebster Award's purpose is to get recognition to blogs with less than 200 followers, and promote mutual notice and blog love between new blogs.

There are some rules:

1) Thank and link back the person who nominated you
2) List eleven facts about yourself
3) Answer the eleven questions asked by the blogger who nominated you
4) Nominate 9 bloggers, who have less than 200 followers (you can't nominate the blog that nominated you)
5) Ask them eleven questions
6) Let them know of their nomination!

Since Ken hates answering questions, and I (Rose) love this sort of thing, I will be accepting and fulfilling the Award :)

Eleven Facts About Me:

1.  I've been reading since I was 2.

2. I adore reading, as well as writing.

3. I have a ton of different hobbies besides reading.

4. I love music more than anything else, and will listen to anything.

5. I play the piano, am teaching myself guitar and base, and hope to start learning drums soon.

6.  I'm incredibly eccentric and goofy, and a total bohemian.  

7.  I spent most of my life acting and performing, and hope to resume theatre work soon.

8.  I've moved more times than the number of years I've been alive.

9.  I love animals.

10.  I'm writing several books at the moment.

11.  I have violet eyes.

Elle's Questions

1) If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?

Probably to be a successful enough author to actually earn a living (working on that one).  Otherwise, anything with traveling, art, acting or music would suit me just fine.

2) If you could choose any age to be forever, what would it be?

No idea.  I'm way to young to be able to answer that - the best years of my life could be ahead of me, and if I choose any specific time, I'd loose out on a ton of fun :)

3) What is your favorite musical? Why?

Probably The Phantom of the Opera.  I saw it on Broadway in NYC in High School, and haven't seen a musical that's given me chills the same way.  It's a fantastic story, and I would adore being cast for that production! :D

4) What is your favorite book? How did you come across it?

Ugh, this question always makes me cringe.  I don't have a favorite book - I love books way too much to have just one favorite, and I think most book lovers are the same way.  We don't have one favorite book, we have one list of favorite books ;)  

5) What is your favorite color? Why?

Purple - at the moment.  It changes frequently lol  

At the moment, purple, because I'm adoring the purple in my eyes lately, and it just seems to be speaking to me at this stage in my life.

6) Who is your favorite youtuber?

I don't have one.  I don't spend a whole lot of time on YouTube, so I'm not really up on that sort of thing.  

7) Who is your idol? Why do you look up to them?

I don't really believe in idols.  If I have an idol at all, it would be God/Jesus.  I don't necessarily look up to Him, as much as I simply follow Him and trust him with my life.  

8) What are favorite and least favorite book to movie adaptations?

-Favorite: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug , probably.  

-Least Favorite: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

9) If you could travel back in time to any historical period, which would it be?

Probably the Victorian Era.  I've always wanted to see how people lived in that time period, and how they truly acted with each other.  

10) Sunrise or Sunset?

Both.  Probably sunrise though, if I have to choose one :P

11) What color socks are you wearing right now?

I'm not wearing socks at the moment.  Later tonight, I'll be wearing fuzzy pink ones with multi-colored polka-dots. 

My Questions for My Nominees

1) What do you do when you're not blogging?

2)  What is your favorite food?

3)  What is your dream job?

4)  What is your favorite genre of books?

5)  What is your favorite genre of movies?

6)  What is your favorite genre of music?

7)  What historical figure would you enjoy meeting?

8)  What is your favorite animal?

9)  Day or night?

10)  Paperback, or eBook?

11) What book would you like to see turned into a movie?

My Nominees

1)  Angel @ -Spare Reads-

2)  Eva @ All Books Considered

3)  Paige @ Electively Paige

4)  Miss Perfection @ A Perfection Called Books

5)  Tanya @ A Book Paradise

6)  Lauren @ Pink Avenger Prime

7)  Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings

8)  Keeley @ Lost In The Pages Of A Book...

9)  Georgia May @ TeenBookHoots

Congrats to the nominees - I hope you have fun answering my questions!! :D  

Good luck to everyone with their awesome blogs!  Thanks for reading, and as always: 

Keep Creating!

Ok, let's try this again!

Hi Everybody!

So, I tried this before, with the first UnPlugged blog.  I loved blogging on it, but I ran into a ton of technical glitches.  I still haven't quite figured out what happened, but without completely deleting it and remaking it, I was stuck with a glitchy, temperamental blog.

So I decided to simply start over.

This is going to be the same blog as before, the only difference is in the web address - I removed the "review" part, which actually kind of fits, because this blog isn't going to be all reviews anyway.

So, to refresh and introduce this blog, I think I'll explain again what's gonna go on here, and what I'm going to be doing with this blog.

As you may or may not know, I have my original review blog, Desert Rose Reviews.  I love that blog, I love what I've set up there, and I'm not going to stop working with that one.

But!

One of my 2014 New Year's Resolutions, was to try and have more fun.  That worked ok, but I'm extending that to this year as well.  I tend to be too serious, especially with reviews.  I'm very serious and professional, and while there's nothing wrong with that, I miss being goofy, and showing my silly side.  My original DRR site is awesome for my professional side- we do editing, professional reviews, literary services, and blog tours- lots of fun!

This blog though, is Desert Rose Reviews: UnPlugged, Version 2.0.  Here, I'm going to be goofy.  I'm going to be fun.  I'm going to break out of my ridiculously thick shell if it kills me!

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Like two sides to a coin, Original = professional, UnPlugged = fun.  Put them together, and I'll have a balanced world of reviews.

I started the original Desert Rose Reviews as a resolution for 2013- to battle my intense and paralyzing shy streak, by putting myself out there on a blog...to stop hiding.  Well, I think I did that.  Side effect: seriousness took over to compensate for me ignoring the shyness, which was trying to make me remain under the rock I've spent most of my life hiding under.

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So, long story short: I'm going to be posting reviews, but also random stuff here as well.  The difference in these reviews, is they won't be professional.  They won't be the same ones I share on Goodreads and Amazon.  The reviews here, on my goofy site, will be just for fun.  They may be for the same books I review on GR and my other review blog, and I'll write two different reviews, but I'm good with that.

We'll have pictures, jokes, memes, random thoughts, spoilers (maybe, if I need to rant about something) and fun discussions (hopefully).  I'm going to try and be more open about things, share thoughts and opinions like a normal person (not a stuffy robot) and attempt to create a fun place for me to express myself.  Not difficult for most people, but for someone with chronic social phobias (like me) it's a big step.

For a while, I'll re-post some of my popular posts from the original UnPlugged blog, so you all can find them again if need be.

In a way though, this kind of fits!  This is the 2.0 version of the 2.0!!

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I hope you enjoy this side of me!

~Rose
@Desert Rose