Even though October technically has more days in it than September, I feel like October flew by even more quickly than September did. I had big plans for October. It was supposed to be my month where I did everything in advance so my schedule would be clear in November for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  *insert the world laughing in derision at the fact I ever thought I'd be prepared for NaNoWriMo* Though I didn't accomplish everything I set out to do in October, I still managed to do a bit of reading and writing throughout the month. On to the Hot Chocolate Highlights!

1. From a Spark to a Fire: A Look at My NaNoWriMo Preparations 

2. Mostly Thorns With a Few Roses

3. #WIPjoy Wrap Up 2

Oct. 6th #WIPjoy Wrap Up 2

Oct. 8th Hot Chocolate Highlights: September Wrap Up

Oct. 12th The Wrath and the Dawn

Oct. 19th Mostly Thorns With a Few Roses

Oct. 22nd From a Spark to a Fire: A Look at My NaNoWriMo Preparations

Oct. 30th Beautiful Books: Introducing my 2016 #NaNoWriMo Novel

    Print Copies

   Audiobooks (Audible)

My favorite book I read in October was definitely Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. The world building is fantastic, the characters are wonderfully flawed, and the book ends on a cliffhanger. I immediately went out and bought book two in the series, Crooked Kingdoms, which just came out. I gave Six of Crows 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

1. I entered into the #HauntedRomance contest hosted by RomanceSparks on Wattpad and won third place! I had a lot of fun trying to write a 1,000 word romance story in which one or more of the characters is dead as a way to celebrate Halloween (which is one of my favorite holidays). You can check out my short story Wrong Ghost, Right Time by clicking here.

2. In addition to writing a short story, I also added another thousand words to the novel I started writing back in July. This project is going to be placed on hold while I start a new novel this November, but I will be returning to this novel after this month ends.

3. Lastly, I tried to plot out the novel I'm currently writing for NaNoWriMo, but life had other plans for me. So, as of right now, I'm basically writing my NaNoWriMo novel by the seat of my pants. The writing is going slowly, but I'm hoping slow and steady will win the race.

1. I celebrated my mom's birthday and went out for tapas, which were incredibly scrumptious and made me miss Spain a bit from when I studied abroad there for five months. 

2. My students read the play The Crucible in class, so I took a few of them on an optional field trip to see the play preformed live which was a lot of fun. The theater we saw the play preformed in was built in the 1800s and is seriously stunning. 

3. For Halloween, I dressed up as Professor McGonagall and made frozen butterbeer!