Failure, Black Friday, and New Books

It disappoints me to have to admit that I failed at #NaNoWriMo.  I gave it a good shot, but honestly, I was too occupied with other things in life and I did not give it the dedication and time it deserved.  I made it about halfway to the 50,000 word mark and I am proud of the words that I have written.  I'm not giving up on my novel, I am just disappointed in myself for not being able to complete the 50,000 word goal for November.  It's really tough to do with a full time job, other projects, and personal issues going on in life.  I admire everyone I have met online in my NaNo region who did meet their goals as well as the ones who did not meet the goal.  I learned a lot about myself and about writing in general.  I will finish this project and it will be the first novel I publish.

I have a lot going on this week in my day job and personal life, so I am getting back into reading before bed to clear my mind and help rid my brain of some of my anxious thoughts.  I wasn't sure what to read next, as the last book I read was about a month ago.  Fortunately for me, Amazon had some awesome sales for Black Friday on Kindle Books.  I picked up "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn, "Gray Mountain" by John Grisham, "The Write Stuff" by Tiffany King (you've seen me post about this before and I'm excited to read it), and "Redeemed" by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast.

I chose to begin reading "Redeemed" tonight.  It is book 12 in the House of Night series.  It may seem like I am probably too old to be reading this, but I have been reading this series since the first book, "Marked" came out quite a number of years ago (I believe somewhere around 2007 or so).  It was my first vampire series after reading the first "Twilight" book and I enjoyed it much more than "Twilight."  Part of the way through the series, I lost interest for a little while because I felt the characters were not developing and the storyline was flat, but then the next book came out and everything changed for me.  I was hooked right back in.  I am both excited and saddened to be embarking on the final book in this series that I have followed for so long.  I'm only on the second chapter and I have no idea where the story is going to go, but I hope I am not disappointed.

One thing I've not mentioned in any of my book review posts is that I keep a stack of index cards next to my bed so that if I read a really good quote in a book, I can write it down.  I have quotes scattered all around my apartment, my car, my purses, and my office at work.  Only two chapters into "Redeemed," I found the perfect quote for myself.  This quote stuck out to me because I have been feeling like such a failure lately.  I failed at #NaNoWriMo, which was supposed to be fun and bring me joy.  I have failed at a couple of friendships this month.  I have failed at love.  I have failed at various work projects.  I have failed at self-control on my diet.  I have been so hard on myself because of these failures and I have been afraid that I will let these failures cause me to fail at the things I have coming up this week that are so very important to me.  Just overall, in the last couple of weeks, I have felt like a 100%, Grade A failure.  As I was sitting here in my room partially paying attention to the book I am reading and partially contemplating my failures, I came across this quote in the final book of a series that has never once given me a life lesson:

[Sylvia Redbird talking to Zoey Redbird while Zoey is explaining all the ways that she has failed everyone] 

"Failed - that is past tense, and you should leave that failure in the past where it belongs.  Learn from your mistakes and move on.  Do not fail again . . . "

That quote was exactly what I needed to read.  So I've failed.  So what?  Everyone has failed at something.  Probably more than one thing.  If I leave my failures in the past and learn from the mistakes I made, I can succeed in the present and in the future.  Fate had me choose "Redeemed" over the other books I purchased for Black Friday.  I was really leaning toward the John Grisham book because it's about a young lawyer doing pro bono work in Appalachia against the coal companies and it's a topic that captures my heart and one of my passions, but for some reason, I knew I needed to read the end of Zoey Redbird's adventure.  

Hopefully one of you will benefit from this quote or from my rambling about failure.  And if you also enjoy writing down meaningful or fun quotes from books, don't be afraid to share the quotes in the comments section of this post.  I love quotes.  In fact, I have affirmation and Buddhist quotes written on post-its affixed to my desk at work to look at when I feel like all hope is lost.  As cliche as it sounds, quotes really do help get us through tough times.