New Hunger Games Character Posters! Or, Maggie is still a fangrrl despite her better judgment.

Tonight was originally going to be post-less in the midst of school and NaNo madness, but when I saw these photos hit the web I just couldn't resist. Disappointed as I was in Mockingjay, bitter as I am about The Hunger Games movie, I can't quite squelch my fangrrling. Case in point: JLAW LOOKIN' LIKE A HELLA BADASS AND BEAUTIFUL KATNISS, Y'ALL.

There are not even words for how happy this makes me. Would be perfect is she looked a little more pissed off.

Amandla Stenberg as Rue is sad and gorgeous and conveys the character perfectly.

Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket brings the crazy to the party.

And even Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, who in previous promo photos has not impressed me at all, is looking just like how I always wanted my boy with the bread to look. D'awwww.

You can see the rest of the photos here, reblogged on Jessica of Shut Up I'm Reading!'s Tumblr. (Which, by the way, makes for excellent procrastination reading for us bookish folk.)

The tiny spark of hope I have for the movie is starting to win against m cynicism. I am head over heels. I WANT THESE ON MY WALL. So while I wait impatiently for the full-length trailer to air/re-read The Hunger Games for the 7344399th time, what do you guys think? Not how you pictured? Or perfect? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

NaNoWriMo rolls around again...

...and for the first time ever, I signed up!

Not that I have a prayer of succeeding between school, work, family, more doctor's visits than I have ever had in my life, and life in general, but I figured if I was ever going to get a damn draft finished now was the time to try. Who knows? Maybe a kick in the pants was all I ever really needed.

I'm not devoting my precious 50k to any one novel project in particular, but rather to a few short story, essay, and novella projects I've had bouncing around for a long time. (I suppose this makes it just plain NaWriMo for me.) This was really a spur of the moment decision so wish me luck!

Helpful links and other things:

• If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, check out their website here.
• If you want a wordcount bar like the one I just put in my sidebar, I got it here. (I'm sure there are many fancier, prettier ones out there, though.)
• My NaNo username on the site is Mdesmondobrien. Still figuring out how the site works, and I don't plan on spending too much time on it (I'd rather spend that time writing!), but feel free to look me up or add me as a writing buddy if you so desire.

Best of luck to all my fellow NaNoers! I'm pretty excited to be taking the plunge.

In My Mailbox: End of October

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren about books bought, borrowed, and otherwise (legally) received. These past weeks have been something of a Rocky Horror/haunted house/homework daze, but I did pick up some fantastic library books (and win a few in contests) that I thought I should share!

From the library:

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (Goodreads)
The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (Goodreads)

Contests:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Goodreads)
Yossarian Slept Here by Erica Heller (Goodreads)

And yes, you read that right: I won Daughter of Smoke and Bone from Forever Young Adult! I'm excited for all of them, but most especially that one.

What's in your mailbox this week? Please feel free to leave titles and links in the comments!