Happy October!

It's October... I'm still in awe how fast time passed. But... nontheless, it's autumn and that's one of my favourite seasons. We've been doing a lot of harvesting (Apples! Nuts!). Cooking seasonal dishes, etc. The weather here is still really erratic, one day it's warm and humid, the other rainy and cold. The leaves are just beginning to turn and while I looooove the colours and the walks with my dog, I will not love getting rid of all the leaves in our garden. *gg* Here's what else is happening in October:

1. Uni starts again. Summer is over and I have to go back to my lectures. Honestly, I'm not really looking forward to it. This is my fourth semester and I put a LOT of modules in there so my last two will be a little more lax. What I am looking forward to is applying for the new program I'll hopefully start in spring. *fingers crossed*

2. NaNoWriMo!!! Yes, it's the month before NaNoWriMo. Which means stocking up on things you'll need in November, deciding on an idea you want to write about, possibly doing some light plotting. I cannot wait for it to start. The community is amazing, the writing sprints on twitter are FUN and if you've never tried it, I dare you to take the jump and do it. *nudges*

And if that wouldn't have convinced you. ;-) Holly Black, John Green and Lemony Snicket are pep-talkers this year. The site was updated last night, so it's all shiny for the coming month. Also, NaNoWriMo winners receive a 50% off gift certificate for the new Scrivener 2.0 for Mac and Scrivener 1.0 for Windows, which will come out at the start of 2011. The beta version for Scrivener for Windows will be released at the end of October (woop!) and I might try it out for my NaNo writing.
I already updated my profile and in case you're looking for writing buddies, you can find me here.

3. Frankfurt Book Fair. Next weekend is the Frankfurt Book Fair and I've been pondering to go. Maggie Stiefvater will be signing on one afternoon. If I go, be sure to expect a blog post about it. I was there once a few years ago and it's OVERWHELMING. Especially for a book lover like me. I adored it. :D

4. London. I'll be in London this month for a few days of musical marathon madness (MMM). I'll be seeing the last matinee of Avenue Q and the last show of Sister Act before they close (:() and a lot more shows along the way, cause me and my best friend are a little crazy. *g* We'll also be doing lots of plotting for a possible new writing project and/or NaNo. I can't wait!

5. Exciting releases. There's two book releases I'm very much looking forward to this month. The first is Alpha by Rachel Vincent, the last book in the Shifters series. I started the series way back when the first one was released and I've been dying to read it since I finished Shift. It was officially out in the US yesterday and it shipped this morning (eeeeeee!), which means I should have it on monday. Another book I've been anticipating very much and which has a lot of buzz in the online community is Nightshade by Andrea Cremer (Out on October 19th!).

Click on the book covers to go to
Goodreads for more info!