I have been revising My Immortal Assassin into a much better book. Possibly a book unrecognizable by any one who read it before. Almost done. Almost.

Tomorrow, I'm mailing out various prizes etc. So tardy. But I've been revising like mad. The pain. Oh, the pain. But also, oh the good feeling when you fix something . . .

I've also read two really amazing books. The first one is A Bad Day For Sorry by Sophie Littlefield. She's a fellow San Francisco Bay Area RWA chapter member, so I know her which is cool. A Bad Day for Sorry has been nominated for an Edgar. (Because it's a mystery, though there's some strong romantic elements in it.)

This book seriously rocks. It's a debut novel, too. Go read it. It's Edgar nominated for a reason.

The other book is A Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliasotti.


I seriously loved this book. It's just overwhelmingly good. I felt like I was living with the characters. It's steampunk but let me tell you, the romance is beautifully done. There's no sex on the pages, but I defy anyone not to get sniffly at the romantic ending.

But here's the thing. I read the book because I'd heard it was good. You hear things, you know? A friend whose opinion I really trust recommended it, too, so my usual silly resistance to Books I Keep Hearing About got worn down and I read it. And then I remembered hearing that the author was having trouble selling a second book.

WTF? Really? What is wrong with the people over at Juno Books? I went off to her website and I thought I saw that she was still looking for an agent. (What? That's another mystery to me.) But now I can't find that so maybe it's not true. ETA: Found it: Clockwork Heart Sequel: Looking for an agent

The sad thing is that poor sales can doom additional books sales from an author even if the published book is amazing. Were sales for A Clockwork Heart not robust enough to get a second sale? Criminal if true.

I just know I want to read more novels by her and it seems I can't.

Labels: books, Cool Stuff, great books, My Immortal Assassin

This story about a 1543 copy of Copernicus's De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) selling for $2.2 mil. Yes, amazing. I think I would have been shaking just to be in the same room with the book. But check out the other books this guy collected: Einstein, Darwin, Karl Marx, Sir Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler.

::swoon::

Labels: books, great books

NON-FICTION: MEMOIR
Recently named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor's originally self-published MY STROKE OF INSIGHT: A Brain Scientist's personal Journey, tracking her experiences after a blood vessel exploded in her brain and she watched her mind deteriorate -- losing the ability to walk, talk, read, write or remember -- and then fought her way to complete recovery, aided by her understanding of how the brain works as well as her mother, to Clare Ferraro at Viking, at auction, for publication in May 12, 2008, by Ellen Stiefler at Stiefler Law Group (world).

About a month ago, I posted a link to her speech on this subject in this post. The speech is riveting. I can't wait for the book.

I finished Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer. Fantastic. I gushed about it yesterday. Yup. Fan girl. I'll just say this now: If Sherman Alexie keeps writing books like this, I expect a Nobel one day. Don't laugh. I predicted Toni Morrison's Nobel. Sure, it was obvious from Beloved that she was a major writer. You're probably saying to yourself, Carolynn, any idiot could tell that about Morrison. I'm saying the same thing about Sherman Alexie. I have Reservation Blues on tap.

Now I'm reading Lynn Viehl's Evermore because it was on the top of the pile when I left the house this morning. Pretty darn good so far.

And NOW I'm going to bed to read some more.

Labels: books, great books, reading, relaxing

There's a lot I like about the new blogger, but I have to say it now takes freaking FOREVER to login. And sometimes it just doesn't at all. I just wasted almost 10 minutes trying to get logged in. grumble!

I've been reading my son Philip Pullman's Golden Compass books, we're on Book 2, The Subtle Knife. Brilliantly original. And today, as I was reading I came across a line that made me just stop. It took my breath. The two women talking are powerful, far-seeing witches pledged to watch over the protagonist, Lyra. Lord Asriel is Lyra's father and he's already changed the world, possibly not for the better. The two witches are talking about Lyra's companion, a 12 yo boy...

"He's strange," said Ruta Skadi, "He is the same kind as Lord Asriel. Have you looked into his eyes?"

"To tell the truth," said Serafina Pekkala, "I haven't dared."

To me, that's an amazing exchange on so many levels it just defies trying to convey it. But talk about making your words work for you!

I'm still working though paper copy of Magellan's Witch and making some important deletion, notes and tweaks. More at it tomorrow.

Labels: great books, Magellan's Witch, writing