A New Direction: Rae Goes Away

My name is Raelynn and it has been over 1 year since I've last blogged.

A YEAR! Can you believe it?! Last I was here, I was a Sophomore English major on track to study abroad in Ireland, go into the Peace Corps, and head off to grad school for Linguistics. My how a year changes things. Here are some major points:

• I'm now a Sociology Major, with a focus on Social Work and a minor in Nonprofit Administration.
• While I still hope to go abroad, I'm looking more into internships in global aid.
• Peace Corps is not out of the question, but it seems a little impractical by the time I'll finally finish my undergrad. I have 6 semesters left...
• I hope to go to Grad School for Counseling. I still love linguistics and study it independently, my heart really lies in helping others however I can. I'd love to work the "messy" cases most people don't want to know exist. I want to help the rape victims, the violence victims, those with mental illnesses, and, should I have the opportunity, genocide survivors, political refugees, and the like.
• I'm still writing. I'm beginning my second book next month and another in November. I've not yet approached any agents though, I want to flesh out the entire world to present, not just one novel.
• I have a new boyfriend. See here: Hiatus: Wii Unboxing! "(aka This is Keith)
• AND CHECK IT! NEW BLOG NAME!! LIFEDUCKS = RAE GOES AWAY! (I call that fair warning I will most likely disappear again.)

I guess those are the things that were before and now are changing, but a lot of entirely new things are happening too! Here, have another bulleted list:

• I'M MOVING OUT! As soon as Keith can find a job and we save the money we'll be getting our own place! I'm crazy excited about that, so be prepared for weird posts about moving and decor.
• I'm interning with a local nonprofit called PEP! (The Pet Education Project!).
• Keith and I are opening a nonprofit... in the future. That sounds a little weird and sketchy but it's happening and I will undoubtably say something about it eventually.

So, if you were wondering, life's good. I'm really wanting to get back into blogging and vlogging and everything I really enjoyed doing online. With school and work and interning and life it'll be hard, but I really do love it so hopefully some of you lovely readers will stick around?

That being said, since my life has changed so much my blogging will, inevitably, as well. If you didn't notice, last year, in general, my blogging was less about books I'd read and more just about books in general. I simply don't have the time to read like I used to. And what I do read I don't think anyone will be interested in. So, I think the biggest change to my blogging content will be the lessening of book talk. I still love to read and to buy books for those far off times when I will have time to read, but books take up far less of my life than they once did. Instead, I'll be posting more about my life and things I think about and do. Expect travel pieces, expect rants, expect introspection, expect DIYs and [failed] DIYs, expect recipes, expect anything. 

Basically, what I'm trying to say is I'm really going to try to dedicate myself to blogging again and that this isn't "Lifeducks" as you knew it (or didn't know it). Rae Goes Away is a just another lifestyle blog about random things in the life of a random girl somewhere in the world doing random things like someone cares. I hope you'll stick around.

NaNoWriMo: How I Intend to Keep it Going

As you know from this post, I am taking part in the NaNoWriMo challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. If you didn't realize, this is quite a challenge and to win/succeed is quite a feat. So I thought I'd share a few ideas I have on how I'm going to try to keep myself working hard enough to achieve my goal and win the challenge! 

• Write no less than 1,700 words a day. My daily goal this month is 2,000 but my bare minimum is 1,700 words. If I write 1,700 words a day for 30 days, I will reach 50,000 words on the very last day.
• Forget the formatting. I am obsessive about formatting. I love to make every chapter heading the same, every time jump match, and everything perfect. For this month, I'm not allowing myself to format a single page until I have completed the novel.
• Work every day from 2:30-3:45. I just had to drop a class from my schedule for various reasons, so the time I would have spent in class is my designated times to work every day. Weekend will be a bit difficult for me to keep this, but there is rarely anything going on at 2:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday.
• Keep a regular sleep schedule. If I can force myself to go to bed every week night by 10:30pm then I can get up in time to go to my classes and prepare for the day. Sometimes, when I stay up to late, I roll out of bed and into class then spend the rest of the day trying to prepare myself and making myself take on the day. This simply won't work for November.
• Take at least an hour each day away from writing to read. Every new book I read leaves me with new ideas about style and wording. reading enhances my writing and what could I need more to finish my novel?
• Water. I'm challenging myself to stay hydrated as best I can this (and every) month. I'm horrible about drinking water and it certainly shows in my fatigue.
• Enlist help. My life partner is absolutely wonderful at keeping me on track. He will ask every day if I've done my reading and if I've finished any goals I've set for myself. He really does keep me on track, which is good because I'll be spending about a week of this month at his house and I'm happy to know he'll be helpful rather than a distraction.
• Carry my computer everywhere. I write, as I feel most people now do, on my laptop, or really on a tiny off-brand notebook that barely runs chrome, but it works. It's small and so I intend to carry it everywhere with me this month. 5 minutes of quiet can be that much more towards my goal each day.
• No revision. I'm the worst at reading over my work and revising it before I write anything new. This month that ain't gonna fly. I'm, instead, going to write down in my NaNoWriMo notebook the changes I want to make with a page number and proceed writing as if I've made the changes.

I'm nervous but very excited to continue my work this month. I've had one productive day and am beginning another. Day 2 is on! I hope these ideas help you to keep up at whatever you're doing and if you're doing NaNoWriMo, good luck!

What are your best NaNoWriMo or anti-procrastination tips?

Halloween Reads

I promised earlier today that I'd have more on Halloween and here it is! I love Halloween. I think the history of the holiday and everything about it is amazing. Maybe it's the strange morbid side of me that loves to see the skeletons and creepy things around. This year, in honour of Life Ducks' first Halloween I thought I'd share some of my favorite spooky/scary/ghostly reads.

In no particular order, here are some great ones!

I figured we'd start with an undeniably creepy but little known classic, Henry James's short story "The Turn of the Screw." This is a lovely gothic horror story by a wonderful American writer. You can certainly read this one in one creep filled night!

What good is a Halloween list without witches? This one is actually a 4 novel volume about witches in modern day New Orleans. It's a great story of magic. Check out my review of Balefire.

Speaking of witches, how about some vampires? This little known vampire novel (in fact a trilogy) is about the family line of Vlad Dracul. I read these books in high school and plan to read them again. These are certainly creepy enough to keep you up at night.

Here's another amazing contemporary YA book. This one doesn't have magic or monsters but it does have a sufficient creep factor to make you wary of any alley or warehouse you walk by at night, or even in the day. I loved this one and you can find my review here.

Speaking of creep factors, this one kept me up reading all night! I couldn't put it down! When I finally finished it, I caught myself jumping at every little sound and every doll I saw for weeks! Certainly worth checking out! I reviewed it here.

Here's another classic creeper. I'd never read this one until it was required for my European history course. Man was I missing out on one of the most amazing Victorian books I've ever read! I love this one and read it in one night! So spooky it really makes you wary of science and people in general!

As if those weren't enough to fill your nights with terror, how about this classic vampire tale? Anne Rice has such a great way of writing. It's no wonder this is one of the most beloved classic vampire novels (after Dracula, of course). 

Obviously, I've left out some classics like Dracula, Frankenstein, but I figure those are well - loved enough to be remembered during the Halloween season so I chose to showcase some lesser known titles and some of my favorites! Hope you all have a horror filled Halloween!

What are some of your favorite Halloween/spooky/horror reads? 

New Loves

I always love finding new blogs with wonderful content to follow on my Bloglovin account. Every morning when I first wake up, I immediately check my Instagram and my Bloglovin from my phone. I love seeing so many amazing posts each day. This week, I've found several new blogs to love and follow so I thought I'd share a few with you (continuing with the apparent list theme of this week).

.As Far As The Eye Can See. is an adorable blog I've just found run by a young girl known as S. Christie. Her blog is full of beautiful photos and even more beautiful words. I find a lot of her posts very interesting, beautiful, and inspiring.

Classy Collegiate is a blog run by one of my distant sorority sisters in Georgia. She is currently on Hiatus which she is studying abroad in the British Isles (so jealous but I hope to follow next year!), but her previous posts are amazing and wonderful. She blogs about her life and the things she likes. I really love it! Sister love!

Little Things and Curiosities is a lovely blog run by Laura Marie, a young woman in San Francisco. Her blog is very diverse and beautiful. The photography she chooses to accompany her posts are also extremely beautiful. This is definitely worth a click.

I Like That Blog is a lovely piece written by a lovely lady in Amsterdam, Liset. She blogs mostly about her life and, if you couldn't guess, the things she likes. Her outlook on things is sometimes very interesting and I really do "like that blog"

That just a tiny insight into a few of the blogs I enjoy. Check them out and see what you think!

Do you use Bloglovin or another site to keep up with you favorite blogs? What are some of your favorite? Any I need to check out?