So, I finished reading these two books of mine, and it gave me a lot to think about, honestly. I mean honestly, I've read a lot of books in my time, but these really moved me, in more ways than I can explain.

For reference (and some shameless promotion), the two books are 'The Sparrow' and 'Children of God', both written by Mary Doria Russell. 'Children of God' is the sequel to 'The Sparrow', and in my opinion, 'The Sparrow' is the better of the two, but they're both stellar books.

Also, these books have completely solidified my stance for this upcoming NaNoWriMo. For those of you not familiar with the acronym, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. I posted my last year's winning entry in my gallery, and I intend to outdo myself again this year. Originally, I was stuck between doing science-fiction again, and a new, fantasy idea. For a while now, I was going to try something different, and do the fantasy idea.

But...after reading those two books, I've come to a final decision. I'm going to write a science-fiction story. Not only that, it's going to be a First Contact novel. And I'm going to completely outdo myself this time. Last year, I did 50,231 words. This year, I'll go for 51k.

Wish me luck. :P