What's Up Wednesday, #1

I'm back!! It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. But I am now done with school. Completely. WHAT?!?!

I graduate in 4 days. I'm so excited to wear that Master's Hood!!! I still have some work to finish up by the end of the week, but then I am done with everything I have to do for 7 weeks. I am so ready to get my post-Master's-break started.

I've been wanting to get on board with the new What's Up Wednesday meme started by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk a few weeks ago.

What I'm Reading:

For the past month or so I've been re-reading some less-exciting books to keep myself from getting sucked into books when I had massive amounts of homework to do. But! With finally being done, I've been able to read some amazing books I've been waiting to read. 

First, Cinder by Marissa Meyer. SO GOOD. I can't wait to read the next one.

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Then I read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin in 18 hours, with sleep and work and visiting the Best Friend in between. I could not stop. It was amazing. I am dying to read the next book and planning on forking over more money than needed to buy it from a store and have it tonight rather than get it cheaper online and waiting a few days for it to come. 

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I gave myself a graduation present in the form of 11 books bought with my Amazon Prime account. I ordered them late, late Sunday night and most of them will come today. I can't wait for them to get here! Here's the list:

~Prodigy: A Legend Novel by Marie Lu

~Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles, book 2) by Marissa Meyer

~An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

~The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

~The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith

~Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

~Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

~Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

~Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

~Blood Red Road by Moira Young

~Rebel Heart by Moira Young

What I'm Writing:

Well, I'm not technically writing yet. But I am starting writing my first novel on Monday. I have been planning it out in my head and on paper for the past 5 months and am finally allowing myself to begin writing Monday. I told myself I had to wait til after my graduation to make sure I still get done everything I need to. I graduate Sunday and will begin writing Monday. I just realized however, that if I am going to start writing, I better decide on names for my characters, rather than just calling them MC (main character), Boy, Bad Guy, MC's Mom, MC's Dad, etc. So I started looking last night with nothing jumping out at me yet. That's what I'll be doing the next few days. Any ideas? What are some names you love that you haven't seen in any recent books? How do you find names for your characters? 

What Inspires Me Right Now:

Mostly, I'm inspired by the excitement of finally starting my novel. But I'm also inspired by rearranging my room to better fit my reader/writer lifestyle. I can't have an office in my apartment, but I can change where things are so one side of it is like an independent office. I don't have work to do today, so after I post this I'm going to do as much as I can on my own, then finish it up when Sister gets home later. I think the changes will help open my mind to writing. I'm especially excited to re-organize my books on my bookshelf. It is completely over-filled and I need a second one, but I doubt I will get one soon. But, I'm going to organize my books according to color. I've never done that before and I don't know how long it will last, but I'm excited to try it. I like my series together, but they are rarely all the same color. Even if it doesn't stay long, at least it'll make a fun picture! 

What Else I'm Up To:

I have the best sister in the world. Have I mentioned that? After I got home from my 18-month mission for my church, she took me on a cruise to celebrate being home. Amazing. Well, to celebrate my graduation, she is taking me to New York City! She has a work training there starting Monday that goes through Wednesday. So her flight is covered by her company as well as the hotel through Wednesday. I am coming up Tuesday afternoon and we are staying until Saturday. I've never been to NYC and I am dying of excitement! We don't have a ton of money to do a lot, but we are very laid back vacationers. I mostly just want to people watch and relax. See the city, but without spending much money. So, with that in mind, have you been to NYC? Is there anything you would recommend doing? Delicious restaurants? Bookstores? 

In other news, remember this post where I explained that my computer died and I would lose everything? Well, I did lose everything, but I finally got it back. It is such a relief to have it again. Part of why I didn't post was because I missed my little MacBook and didn't like blogging from my old laptop. I still have almost nothing on it. No pictures, no music, no documents. But I'm sure it will fill up again very quickly. 

So, what's up with you?