Carolyn's Blog

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Well I started something all right

Oh my good golly. It's been something the last few days.

Sigh.

Right. Monday is a total blur. Number one it was a Monday and that's hard enough. But I'm doing my grocery shopping on a Not-Sunday so as to preserve Sundays for non-drudgery stuff. That part of the plan worked brilliantly. So, I went shopping after work Monday and got 3 homework related calls while doing this. Got home, dealt with the homework situation and then someone says, Say, isn't today the [insert REALLY important meeting]? Long story short, yes. It was. In 30 minutes. So I cooked a pizza, sliced it up, left the kid to fend for himself and was at the meeting 15 minutes later. Got home fagged, but the Fudgester wanted to play and so we went out and I threw a stick for him. Blogger wouldn't post my blog, so I left it in draft.

Yesterday is a blur, too. Some stuff happened which I can't remember what it was only it was busy stuff. Then at 9:30 pm the darling child remembers important homework. I did get Monday's blog posted.

Today is becoming a blur. The DC calls me at 2:15 to tell me he'd forgotten he was getting a ride to soccer practice with someone else and was on the bus home instead and calling from a friend's phone because he'd left his at home EVEN THOUGH I called him at 7:00 am to remind him it was on the charger in my room.... I had to leave work early in order to get him to soccer practice 15 minutes late. Then we got home just in time to leave for his Jr. High Open house at which his French class sang a French song. They were very charming. Got home from that and now after a bit, I'm here doing this. It was so freaking hot today I took a shower when I finally got home.

In reading news, I finished Lisa Kleypas's Sugar Daddy which was fantastic except maybe the ending wasn't strong enough for how fantastic the rest of the book was. But still a big thumbs up. I also finished Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues which was brilliant and his fiction debut. I will buy more of his books soon. This weekend if I make it past Friday.

In writing news, I did officially start notebooking the next historical. The heroine's name is Camilla, I think. And the hero's name is Lysander, I think. Nobody has a last name or title yet. But the idea has fleshed itself out in my head over the last week or so of down time and now it's ready to get fleshed out on paper. I'm pretty sure what chapter one needs to be.

Labels: notebooking, reading, Regular life, writing

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Friday, May 09, 2008

Listen Up!

Look, people. If you're on Twitter, it seems pointless and probably is until you're following a few people. Really. If you have a twitter profile go out and find people to follow. You can unfollow them if they're boring you. Look over over there to the right (unless you're reading this in a feed, in which case, click through to my blog and then look to the right) you'll see the link to my Twitter profile. Follow me (cuz I'm so charming and all) and then follow a few of my followers. Being a geekish sort, you might want to skip the tech tweeters. You can search twitter for people in your home town. That was fun and I'm glad I did that. I'm following a bunch of writers. Once you're following more than 10 people, the point becomes more obvious. So go do it.

In other news, it's Friday!!!! oh thank all the powers in the universe for that!

I finished Evermore. Now I'm reading Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs. But I may set it aside for Reservation Blues because as you may know, I am now a huge fan of Sherman Alexi.

Off to my local RWA chapter meeting tomorrow which means I should go to bed.

Thought A LOT about the next book today. I'm getting anxious to start. I'm thinking May 14 should be my official start date. That way I have this weekend for a last bit of massive reading.

Labels: reading, relaxing, the next book

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Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Ends and Odds

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

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Monday, May 05, 2008

Reporting In On Project Relaxation

So, yeah. I'm not so sure how relaxing things have been. I've been trying to get all the stuff I've been ignoring for practically a year done and off the To-Do list. Today, I tackled a major one -- which is getting together the paperwork for submitting an extension course proposal to my alma mater. I'll refine it tomorrow and make a call to find out what I can email and what has to be snail-mailed.

Other than that, I've finally started in on the TBR pile. So far:

Mine to Possess By Nalini Singh. I've been meaning to read her forever, and at last I could. And am glad I did. Fun read!

The Short Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao By Junot Diaz (Still working on this one, but it's great!) Only, I've set it aside for:

Indian Killer By Sherman Alexie

I'm becoming a Sherman Alexie fangirl. His YA The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was so freaking good -- rush out and buy or borrow this book, people -- I went out the next week and bought two of his adult titles. Wow. Just wow. He's amazing.

I should be ashamed about setting aside Diaz, but you know what? It's my TBR and I can read in whatever order I want and I can be reading as many books as I want at the same time, too.

Today, I notebooked some of the next historical and I think I nailed the basic idea. Things began very badly. All confusing and none of the parts were fitting together. But then I realized I needed to change the location and ta dah! everybody was very happy.

OK, off to bed because I want to read some before it's too late.

Labels: Authors, brainstorming, plotting, reading

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Saturday, April 26, 2008

Catching Up Is Hard to Do

Today I've been reading some and spending time doing stuff that's been piling up. Updating website content, answering emails. Sigh.


In Fun and Happy news, feast your peepers on this:

Delivery estimate: June 4, 2008

Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 6)

J.R. Ward; Mass Market Paperback



Delivery estimate: August 6, 2008

Acheron (Dark-Hunter, Book 12)

Sherrilyn Kenyon; Hardcover;

squeeee!!!

Labels: reading, writing only not

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Why some Rat Poison maybe isn't so bad

I started reading this book last night and I can't stand it so much, I'm not going to read past page three, which is I think how far I got. I know all about Mary Sues, the heroine who is too perfect and so brave and all that. And I think the male equivalent is called a Gary Sue or something. But what is it when the whole world is like that? There's a scene in the movie 9 to 5 in which Lilly Tomlin is skipping through the lunchroom with Disney characters and bluebirds and cutsey animals swooping and trilling around her while Lilly T makes her boss coffee and spikes it with rat poison. This book was like that, only without the rat poison or the coffee. This world needed some rat poison.

I'm just saying, is all. No Planet Sue's or Culture Sues. Please.

Labels: craft, reading, writing

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Sunday, January 20, 2008

Today I turned into an Ice cube

Went to lovely Ripon CA today for my son's soccer tournament. Let's not speak of the result, though the boys played hard. We arrived about 10:30 to blue skies and a slight wind. It was actually kind of nice. A good day for sitting on the chair at the sidelines we parents thought. Then the wind picked up and half an hour before game time everyone had gone back to their cars for coats. By game time everyone who had a blanket had pulled out those too. It was windy, freezing cold and oh my gosh, we were nothing but ice cubes on the sidelines. It's hours later now and I'm STILL cold.

I car pooled with the coach which meant a stress free drive for me since in fact, I did no driving at all, except to the coach's house and back. Yippers! I'm reading this non-romance vampire book and by now I'm more than half way through because I'm skimming and/or skipping sections. The man did his research into the history of New York City and, alas, has so far missed no opportunity to insert the results in his narrative AND his dialogue. Oh my gosh, it's painful. The history comes at the expense of character development because his characters are all too busy telling the other characters supposedly obscure historical facts. Not to mention a pet peeve of mine, which I know some people don't mind, which is historical characters -- real ones -- who are characters in the book. Boss Tweed (can you say High School U.S. History?) Jay Gould, Diamond Jim... Oh, it's just so not for me. I am very sorry, but no matter how fascinating U.S. History is, and I totally agree that it is, it doesn't belong as a character in your novel, because what happens is readers skip the history lecture Like this:
"Why, yes, and did you know that in 1862 blah blah blah.... " page turning until something actually happens.

Off to watch Buffy and then go to bed.

Labels: avoidance behavior, reading

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Monday, January 07, 2008

Just a Few odd Thoughts

This weekend, I took my son and his cousin to the bookstore. They went off to the children's section and I wandered around. There weren't any new bestselling mass market paperbacks on the display. Most of them I'd already read or didn't want to read. Rats. So I wandered over to the Romance section to see if maybe whoever at the store hates Romance had maybe moved on to some other section to hate, but no. The Romance section still stucks there. So, there I was in an extremely large bookstore (my local independent is doing pretty well, they just expanded again) and here's what happened: I went over to the children's section because, I thought to myself, that's were most of the really interesting books are.

Oh. My. Gosh.

It's true. I can name off the top of my head, at least five fantastic books (or series) that are marketed YA or Teen:

1. Harry Potter, JK Rowling


2. Bartimaeus Trilogy, Johnathan Stroud


3. Faerie Wars, Herbie Brennan


4. Twilight etc, by Stephanie Meyers


5. Inkheart, Inkspell, Cornelia Funke


6. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

See? Right off the top of my head. And what am I reading right now? City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It's really good.

Why is that? I mean, it's fantastic that there's so much great stuff out there for kids to read. But where's the neat stuff for adults? Now, one reason for having teenage characters is nobody has to have a job. And it would be terrifically un-PC to have the characters doing -- you know. Those two things alone decrease the plotting and plausibility burden by about two thirds.

Here's the inappropriate NON-PC comment list to the above list. The anti-list list that will get me in trouble I bet.

1. Professor Snape (OK-- Alan Rickman) I have the hots for you. But if you're busy, send over Lucious Malfoy.


2. I'm quite sure Bartimaeus would have had the hots for me, too. You could be anything you want. Please pretend this is a footnote.


3. Lord Hairstreak. Oh. Yes.


4. Eric, you can bite me any time. If you're too hung up on Bella, then well, send over Jake. I'll distract him.


5. Dustfinger rocks.


6. Lord Asriel. Need I say more?

Just some odd random thoughts.

Labels: reading, writing

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Monday, December 31, 2007

Rant Alert! (Carolyn Finds a Practical Use for Grad School)

Save yourself while you can.

Oops. Too late.

I got off from work early and decided to finish reading my Fall 2007 Author's Guild Bulletin in which volume is contained a lengthy essay entitled Goodbye To All That ¹ penned by Steve Wasserman, former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review. The essay was originally published in the Columbia Journalism Review September/October 2007. You can read the essay here.

Here's my entire thesis:

It's not all or none, people!

Here's a sub-plot (that's writer's humor for This is totally off the cuff, otherwise it's not a rant.)

Maybe there's another reason no one reads the book review section...

I'm going to riff of Valleywag and give the 100 word version of Mr. Wasserman's essay²:

Nobody reads important books anymore, we're all going to hell in a hand-basket and it's all the fault of those low-culture morons plus popular fiction. The only way to save democracy is to revive the Book Review section (but for dog's sake, don't do it any differently.) Keep it exactly the same so we'll all still find it mostly irrelevant.

Pretty much, that's what he's saying. Maybe I inserted a bit of Carolyn Rhetoric^TM in there. Can you find it? Because that's an advanced technique and I only know about it because I had to take Rhetorical Theory in grad school. If you try that at home, just be careful, okay?

Right. So, western culture can only be saved by reviewing IMPORTANT books in newspaper Book Review sections. That's IMPORTANT in big red letters because he doesn't mean anything else. Marxism Alert! He means ONLY stuff the cultural elite find important. Substitute "Rich White Men" for cultural elite to round out the typical Marxist view. He doesn't get off the hook for mentioning a Spanish nun. And now let's go to my favorite bit because it's soooo Post-Modern and Post-Modern, folks, is grad-school-ese for ist-isms³: sexist, elitist and freaking annoying.

I often tried to imagine what I might do if I had been, say, the literary editor of The Times of London in 1900 when a then obscure Viennese doctor named Sigmund Freud published his first book, The Interpretation of Dreams⁴ Suppose I'd had on my desk only two books -- Freud's and, say, the next surefire best-selling novel by Mrs. Humphrey Ward, the Danielle Steele of her day.

I'm sure you can guess where he was going with this. Because we all know that if only we eliminated the Mrs. Wards of the world from the literary landscape, we would all leap to read whoever is the equivalent of Freud today. (I have no idea who that is because I'm pretty sure all the theorists I read in Grad school were dead. Except Kristeva, she made my head hurt, so it's probably her. I think she's still alive.) Because no one would ever in all the world read both Freud and Ward. I mean, what kind of freak would do that?

Ohmygod. Wait! I have. I've read Freud. And years ago I did read some Ward. Because I was one of the massive readers he talks about. 20 books at a crack from the library when I was a kid. And now, I still read a couple books a week. Unless I'm on deadline and working at the collapse of civilization. bwahahaha!

And since when has Nora Roberts or J.R.Ward ever been reviewed in any Book Review section of the sort Wasserman eulogizes? I think the answer's never. There's a really fine rhetorical device. Set up a hypothetical dilemma that didn't happen in 1900 and hasn't ever happened today, either. And now, we can all conclude that Mrs. Ward (J.R, are you listening??) is single-handedly responsible for the decline of Western Civilization.

And that's my point. It's not Freud vs. Mrs. Ward. (But, if it came to a throw down between the two, Freud would die because Mrs. Ward would shoot him dead before he had a chance to explain the significance of her weapon. Either that or Vishous⁵ would perform a laying on of hands and zzzttt goodbye Sigmund.)

I think more people probably know who Sigmund Freud is than can identify Mrs. Humphrey Ward. And it's not because of The London Times Book Review. Sorry.

Intellectual importance isn't determined in The Los Angeles Times Book Review (especially not now, I guess!) mean little snicker (ohh, prosody!) It's determined in Universities by professors and students who rigorously study difficult issues and who figure out stuff like the parts of Freud that are complete and utter crap. (There's no penis envy, trust me. Admiration and maybe longing, sure, if I'm in the mood) and which parts have something useful to add. Like possibly dream interpretation. What Mr. Wasserman is actually suggesting is an intellectual trickle down theory. Please, editor, let me inform the Proletariat!

Wasserman: You there! Put down that Ward!
Reader: Hey! I didn't get to read what happens to Phury!
Wasserman Here. Take this edition of The Lais of Marie de France.
Reader: But I already read that.

See, the thing is the really massive readers do both.

Is there some reason you can't have a short review of J.R. Ward's latest and a longer review of Ransom Seaborn? That's my question. I don't doubt for a minute that Ransome Seaborn deserves a long, intelligent and thought provoking analysis. Ward maybe not so much. But not none, either. And if they're both there in the same section... But that way lies heresy.

. . . . .
1. Yeah, I get that the title comes from Robert Grave's WWI novel Goodbye To All That. Isn't that ironic? I mean that someone like moi would get the reference?

2. Don't count. I'm sure it's not 100 words.

3. I just now coined that word, so don't say you did. It was me.

4. Just to repeat viz Freud: Professor Kunat, you were right and I was wrong. I was honor bound to take that dratted Introductory Lectures and go confess that yes, Freud was brilliant. Rats.

5. Hey, Mr. Wasserman, there's a cultural reference for you. Get it?

Labels: Rants, reading

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Sunday, December 30, 2007

More stuff and stuff

Unfortunately, the blog title is only funny to about one person in the world besides me. Whatever. I got writing done today. Up to Chapter 5 in Xia. Interesting things going on. At the moment, I'm very happy with my progress.

Last night I finished the 2nd MaryJanice Davidson mermaid book. Swimming Without a Net. It was cute.

Tired. Off to bed.

Labels: reading, writing, Xia

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Saturday, December 29, 2007

Saturday Afternoon Post

I've been working all day, but in spurts. This precise moment is a non-spurt. Last night I watched several episodes of Buffy with my son instead of writing, so I have to make up the difference today. I'm halfway there.

In other news, it's been raining, or at least constantly drizzling. A couple of counties north had snow. But it's not that cold here, much to the darling child's dismay. The big fuzzy cat is asleep on my lap, which is nice.

Regarding my switcheroo to the Mac, I'm pleased to report further good progress. The keyboard that comes with the iMac is a thing of beauty. It's awesomely gorgeous. But if you type for several hours at a stretch, which as you may well imagine most writers do, it's a torture device. Ergonomic this keyboard is not. And, some of the keystroke combos for WordPerfect don't work on the iMac keyboard: Alt-F3 for example. So I pulled out my extra Ergo keyboard -- I'm pretty hard on keyboards and one time I spilled something on my keyboard and kablooie I was left high and dry until I could get another one. Ever since I've kept an extra keyboard around. So anyhoo, I plugged the Ergo keyboard into the iMac keyboard and voila. The Ergo keyboard works in Parallels exactly as you'd expect. I can reveal codes and everything. And, even though the iMac doesn't quite recognize the keyboard, in fact, it works just fine on the iMac even though the box said it was Windows only. I am back to being a pretty fast typist and my hands don't hurt.

Note to Patti: Thumbs up for Word Perfect in Parallels. I'm happy.

In reading news, I read a Romantic Suspense by a major author and was pretty disappointed. By the end, I couldn't remember if I actually finished it and I didn't even care. The heroine was supposed to be computer genius, but the author conflated programming ability with technical support skills and business sense, too. Not to mention, it was blatantly clear she didn't bother to run the geekish pages past an actual geek. It was pretty sad.

Sigh. Back to work. Mommy wants to buy a MacBook Pro. Or whatever Apple announces on January 14.

Labels: Mac vs. PC, reading, writing

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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Ransom Seaborn

I finished Bill Deasy's POD book Ransom Seaborn this morning. It's a wonderful, emotional and affecting book that's beautifully written. There's some just absolutely breathtaking sentences. I teared up at the end, right there in the gym. Thank goodness I was all sweaty. I don't think anyone noticed. It's a story that's going to stay with me. Beautifully, beautifully done.

Labels: reading

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The Sad Tale of A Failed Novelist

Yesterday I read the Portfolio interview with Andrew Wiley. An absolutely fascinating interview. Alas, he also called commercial writers (ie, genre writers) failed novelists. Huh? Failed, I guess, because such writers are unable to write literary fiction. As if they secretly want to but can't and so must muck about with mystery and SciFi and Romance. Because it's not possible, is it, that there are writers who aren't interested in writing literary fiction. Interesting assumption there, Mr. Wylie. Or is it more an interesting revelation about Andrew Wylie? Some writers in the canon today were considered hacks in their day. I say thank God we're not all trying to write literary fiction. I wonder if Mr. Wylie would argue that a singer who isn't Pavarotti is a failed singer, because, after all, Pavarotti's voice will be heard for years after his death. Surely, it wouldn't be the case that there are commercially failed novelists whose work might actually be read through the ages, if not for a rather pernicious chauvinism? Consider Andrew Wylie Exhibit A.

There are more of us failed novelists than novelists because genius is actually rare. The way Pavarotti's voice is rare. It's not a matter of will. If I just wish hard enough will I write a book like Beloved? And if instead I write a story that entertains, why am I a failure? Just asking. When I was growing up, I read a lot of books by failed novelists, and those stories made me fall in love, and stay in love, with reading. They're why I read Toni Morrison and Michael Chabon and Virginia Wolff. There's not just room for us all, failures or not, but a need for all of us.

Just wanted to point that out.

Labels: Rants, reading, writing

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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Reporting In

Just a couple of things, actually. So far Ransom Seaborn is brilliant. I don't expect that to change. Wow.

I started blocking out Xia's story. The due date is May 1. Yikes!! After Christmas I'll start writing.

Did I mention that the official title of Magellan's Witch is My Wicked Enemy? I've sent an email to my contest winner. But if I don't hear back from him by end of December, I'll select an alternate winner.

Going to bed.

Labels: Magellan's Witch, My Wicked Enemy, reading, Xia

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Monday, December 17, 2007

So I found the book

I went through my TBR and pulled out a POD book that I heard was really good. Ransom Seaborn by Bill Deasy. It starts with a sort of author's note:

     The shower water felt like tiny pebbles on my skin. It had been days, maybe even a week. I put on fresh jeans and a T-shirt, and set up shop at this worn, nicked, underused desk. PowerBook, 20 ounce Styrofoam coffee cup, ashtray, cigarettes-- all the essentials.

     It's raining outside, a fine mist. I hear it just barely against the window-- imaginary childhood horses rushing toward me from beyond the pale. I'm trying to think too much about what I'm writing...what I'm doing here. I guess I have a story to tell you.


     Here goes nothing.

Wow. I read the first page of the story and it's just as fine as that.

Yes, I found the book to read next.

There's nothing like starting to read and realizing it's brilliant. I'll report back and let you know if it stays that way. How could it not?

Labels: reading

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Friday, December 14, 2007

Me and Apple

The switcheroo continues. I'd be in happy heaven with this iMac except for one leetle thing... A decent word processing program. I have NeoOffice, which is Open Office for the Mac. And this other program, a demo, called Nisus Writer Pro. Think of that last program name as being highly ironic. Snort snuffle snark Um. I don't think any real writers (by which I mean writers who must turn in a properly formatted and paginated MS to a traditional publisher) use this program. NeoOffice has some promise. But I have a low tolerance for bad help files. I'll probably play with it some more. The thing is, I got comfortable with WordPerfect which, I still maintain, is a superior program. I had everything set up to do exactly what I needed with all the shortcuts I needed. The point being that WP is, in fact, able to do everything: automatically number my pages and chapters. Easily set the line spacing to something appropriate but non-standard (that is, not 2 or 1.5) among many other things.

Yeah, I understand that I need to invest some time in whatever program I end up using, but to be honest, despite my being On Vacation I don't have much time to invest. I have to get cracking on Xia's story damn soon. I'll have to play a bit more with Parallels, but it's not quite the same as a native program. But I'll play some more this weekend.

My mom turns 80 tomorrow and we're having a party for her. And by the way, she in no way acts or looks 80 - I should be so lucky myself when the time comes -- I hope. I have to get drinks and a present for her tomorrow morning. Here's a life tip: when people ask you what you'd like for your birthday or some holiday or whatever, please, for the love of dog! do not say Oh, I don't want anything... because that just makes the asker feel bad and useless. And possibly irritated. Particularly if you sigh and say this in such a way as to imply that the asker has not guessed what is desired and/or you just sound like you want to be a martyr to your own personal space. Sigh Not that my mother has ever done that. I'm just saying, you know, don't do that.

In other news, I finished The Reincarnationist and it was pretty good. I felt, in some odd way, that at times it lacked a certain emotional depth. But it was still a good story. Then I started Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union only to discover that it is written in the present tense. For me, the present tense is like fingernails down a chalkboard. I can't read it. So instead I'm reading Jodi Picault's Plain and so far it's really quite good.

Oh, one thing about The Reincarnationist that got me was a scene in which a character is able to easily and without any effort at all lower the bodice of an Edwardian gown and expose the woman's bare breasts. Um, no. Somebody didn't research.

Labels: reading, relaxing

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Thursday, December 13, 2007

Vacating the Premises

Ok, not really. But I am vacating as in not writing, freaking writing. I finished Michael Sedgwick's My Swordhand is Singing. I have to agree with I forget who said it, but that's got to be one of the greatest book titles ever. It's only 200 pages, I whipped through it in a day and read the ending of the creepiest chapter to my son. Now I'm reading M.J. Rose's The Reincarnationist. I'm enjoying it.

Also, I have an iMac. The switcheroo is kind of a long involved story, but we'll see how I adjust. I've only been using it for 15 minutes and I think I love it already. Anyway. I still have to go to work tomorrow so I'm off to bed.

Labels: reading

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Well, now what?

Now that Scandal is done and off to editor-land, I don't know what to do with myself. OK, I have a few ideas:

• Christmas shopping


• Update my website


• Reading




1. My Sword Hand is Singing (will finish tonight, awesome so far)


2. The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose


3. Plain Truth, by Jodi Picault


4. A bunch of Lee Child


5. The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon


6. The Immortals series (I've got them all, I hope I can find them!)


7. What Came Before he Shot her, Elizabeth George


8. And lots more




• Sleeping


• Spending time with my family

But first I have to calm down. I'm totally still hyped up.

In two weeks, on to my bad boy Xia.

Labels: reading, relaxing, Scandal

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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Technology, Readers and Writers

Big "news" in the tech-blogosphere about Amazon's Kindle eBook reader. Here's two links to check out if you want: Booksquare analysis and Sandy Schwab's post on the subject.

Here's my take:
What a colossal mistake. Again. Boy, I hope somebody gets this right someday. But acting like a cell phone company ain't going to sell your gadget. Why would anyone do that? People already despise their cell phone carriers for overpriced and underperforming technology designed to rip you off -- because they can.

I remember reading a while back, can't remember where, that someone attending an O'Reilly conference, who happened to be a techie and Romance reader, challenged the assumptions about the assumed market for eBooks and eBook readers. The Techies, being basically ignorant about reading and publishing, assumed it's men and refused to believe the truth about women and their reading habits. Alas. What a missed opportunity.

Here's a few facts to set the scene of this fiasco:
Women buy most books. Women also buy the most eBooks. Let me direct any non-believers to Ellora's Cave See also eHarlequin, their Spice offerings in particular. I've bought from Ellora's Cave. Typically, I download my eBooks in pdf, print them two book pages per page, and double-sided (I love my printer!) stick them in a binder and read in bed. Since I'm a writer, if I read on a computer, my head is in editing mode...

So, I read a bit about the Kindle and here were my thoughts pretty much in order:

1. $400?? Are they out of their effin minds?¹


2. It's ugly


3. Black and white? That sucks


4. No pdf? Are they out of their effin minds?

Plus, it's too big. But maybe that wouldn't matter so much if it weren't so ugly. Still how is that thing going to fit in my purse, to be brought out at moments of downtime (waiting in line, appts, lunchtime, boring events.) Booksquare is right. The only color for a device that people are going to carry around and push buttons on is black. Or at least dark colors that hide grime. Quick, what color is your keyboard. Take a good look at it. That's what your reader will look like in 5 months, only worse.

And then I moved on. I'm not going to pay that kind of money for DRM'd crap that won't load formats provided by the REAL eBook pubs (and Amazon, sorry, that's not you) If this device were say, $200 or less, it took pdfs and html, even if the display was B&W, I could load up all my eBooks, probably including my grad school research (oh, my god!! wouldn't that be awesome? Research at my fingertips!!) Hell, I could even pdf my own WIPs. All my Regency Library stuff why, the mind boggles... See, that's what's missing from the Kindle, that, oh my gosh, look at all the stuff I could do with that! My life would be better if I had that. Only it wouldn't be.

So to sum up, no one at Amazon seems to have thought about talking to actual readers or publishers, with or without eBook experience. They have a gadget and can only think that gadgets are for men. (I'm guessing here.) But at RWA in NY, which was what, 2002? 2004?, there were women there reading eBooks on their PDA's. Because the ePubs were already successfully selling eBooks². But PDA's were not the right gadget -- plus, too expensive.

1. If I had $400 to burn, I'd get an iPhone.
2. In those days, EC looked like a promising venture, but it was by no means certain. Fast Forward a few short years. NY is copying EC. They proved eBooks work.

Amazon, you blew it.

Labels: reading

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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Been Readin'. . .

Yes, I have read Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward I read it yesterday. A lovely day married only by the fact that I've picked up my son's cold. I'm trying hard not to spoil anything, so actually, it being this early on, I'll only say that the story was larger than life which is exactly what I so love about the series. Big bad boys. Really BIG bad boys. I love bad boys.

Anybody who would like Carolyn's patented inside scoop can email me privately, and I'll dish you some Vishous dirt. I'd love to compare notes!

I also recently finished reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. This book has been out long enough that I don't think I'll spoil anything by talking about it. For anyone who doesn't know, this is the first of a now prominent YA series. The protagonist is 17 year Bella who moves from Phoenix AZ to Forks WA and meets the gorgeous and mysterious Edward, who is her classmate. So, yes, the characters are teenagers, but the story is quite complex and utterly compelling, as any good novel is, regardless of target market.

Edward is a vampire.

The book is quite long, but yay for long stories that need to be long! Bella, Edward and their developing relationship is brilliantly rendered. When the villain shows up the story is absolutely impossible to put down. He's scary. Legitimately scary. The guy is probably one of the best villains I've ever read.

I also read Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon Lucky me! I haven't read all the Dark Hunter novels. Naturally, I enjoyed this one. The hero is one of the were-people, so no actual Dark Hunters. Fun story.

Scandal is going well enough. Maybe not fast enough, but well enough. I'm heading for bed early tonight since I'm not really 100%.

Labels: Black Dagger Brotherhood, reading, Scandal

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Some days are just . . . not my favorite

Like today. Today was not my favorite day. I got to work and there's servers crashing every time I blink. Then I was cleaning up some untidiness from that and other issues and dealing with developers who really should have been more chilled but weren't. Then more work, you know, crap and stuff. I left the office a bit late and went to pick up a game for my son, he'd pre-paid and pre-ordered the thing and today was The Day, which meant I got home later than usual. My brother and his wife were visiting, which was nice, except I was hoping to get some work done, which didn't happen. Nice visit though. My sister-in-law and I love the same tea so it was nice to chat and drink Yogi Egyptian Licorice Tea. Then I had to cook dinner only I got distracted and there was this alarming little fire for a brief period. Remarkably, nothing actually burned. Dinner got cooked, the Darling Child got fed, then I thought, Yes! At last! I can sit and get some work done. Which I would have done only there were all these bills to pay (I pay mine and my parents) and wouldn't you know, some bills were complicated because billing addresses had changed, and other bills were ending so I had to make sure no more payments were sent and others had been paid but never credited, and I had to deal with all that. Sheesh!

So now it's 8:34 and Rats! I forgot!! I have to go start the laundry.

> > > >

OK, so now the laundry's started. Anyway, then my other brother called, the one who's getting married Saturday and said he hoped my son had Khakis and a collared shirt for the wedding. Well, the answer is no, he doesn't. But the DC has a soccer scrimmage in another town on Thursday and practice Friday evening and we have to leave by 9:00 am Saturday to get to where the wedding is, so when exactly I'm supposed to get clothes for my son I really don't know. Not that this town has 16 or 18 slims anywhere. I guess tomorrow evening sometime. Note: Please do NOT point out that I should have realized my son should have had wedding-suitable clothing long before now. I didn't even know until yesterday exactly where the dang wedding was going to be held. Well, that was an amazing bit of sleight of hand, conflating an unknown location with an inability to obtain wedding clothing. To be honest, the days just all got away from me, and besides we were at the soccer tournament all weekend.

Right. So now it's 8:43 and I'm going to try to get SOMETHING done on Scandal. Yesterday went well.

Oh, wait. Yesterday I finished Julia Quinn's The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever and I LOVED this book. Quinn at her amusing best. Everyone go read this romance and next week we'll all have a chat about it.

Now I'm going to write.

Labels: reading, Scandal, writing

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

overheated

Today was day 2 of my son's soccer tournament. As expected, they got their butts kicked by the Under 14 teams. We were missing one of our bigger players and another good mid, too. Some of those U14 boys were, no fooling, six feet tall, at least one was at least a foot taller than my son, who's coming up on 5'3" They made a much better showing against the U13 boys. They have some offensive issues, but they dominated most of the time (they just couldn't get it in the goal). Against the U14 boys, my son made two absolutely stellar defensive plays, one came with the goalie too far out of the box. The giant boys blew past the goalie but my son blocked the shot in the goal (no hands since he's a fullback). Awesome play. He made another similar play in the next game. He played a little offense but not for long, since they soon needed him on defense. Interesting, though, to see him on offense. Still, there's signs of the team coming together. They should win some league games.

Today's games were deadly hot. 100+ degrees. Yuck yuck yuck. I'm wiped out completely, and that was just from watching. My brain is fried. I managed to get through 2-3 books this weekend so far. More on that later.

The tomatoes are starting to come in and it's heaven. Tonight I parboiled a couple of tomatoes with the pasta, then skinned them, mushed up the innards with garlic and butter and mixed in the pasta. Yummy! I like cooking that doesn't require a recipe. And garden tomatoes. Oh, to have tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. Heaven, indeed.

So, I read books during the tournament in-between times (they had games at 9am and 2pm both days) one book I won't mention by title or author because I didn't much like it. It was Romantic Suspense by a NYT author and included everything I consider cheap parlor tricks. I intensely disliked the heroine, too. She was a whiner. But mostly I despised the deliberate inclusion of tricks, just plain authorial tricks, to make it look like one of the characters was the villain. There's a difference between a red herring and an authorial lie. Like, suppose you have two characters whose names are, say, Fredericka and Felicia and everyone calls Fredericka "Freddie". So, when the psycho has a conversation with "Freddie" who could it be but Fredericka, right? No. Turns out Felicia has a secret nickname of "Freddie" which isn't revealed until the last few pages. This book went straight into the garbage.

I also read Lori Foster's Simon Says which I enjoyed a lot. It was well written, internally consistent, mostly worked against stereotype and cliche, and was fun. I've started Tess Gerritsen's Mephisto Club. Pretty good so far. I read a page or two of Cormack McCarthy's The Road, realized it was going to be depressing as heck and set it aside for a time when my brain isn't fried from heat.

I'm going to bed now. I'm going to sleep late tomorrow morning and then get myself caught up on Scandal.

Labels: reading, Scandal

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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Big Sigh

Sigh.

I have got to stop staying up until 11:00 pm. So, yeah, I'm tired. Let's see... skipped the gym this am because I was too freaking tired. Went to work. Came home from work. Family stuff. Take son to soccer practice. I got some writing done. I wrote my emotional pain chapter last night; that came out good. In the car at practice, I spent some time staring at the laptop, then I realized I needed to move a chapter, so I did that and felt happy about about 20 seconds. Then I started working on the next chapter in which things get worse for my heroine Sophie. I wrote a paragraph, deleted it because it was stupid and boring and started with a different paragraph. I wrote some stuff and left off when I realized I had written mostly narrative and I needed to start putting people in the chapter. Practice was over.

Then we went to the bookstore because, well, my son has never been the world's most avid reader and for quite sometime I despaired. How, I've long worried, was I going to communicate with a boy who doesn't like to read much and who's good at math? Sidebar: Today, he was singing (a nonsense song) as he was doing his math homework and darned if he can't carry a tune! If he can sing, and it appears maybe he can, that's not a talent that comes from my side of the family. Sidebar Over

So, there was these series of books that enthralled him, the first book of which he HAD TO READ to himself for school. Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver. And he loved it enough to want to read the rest of them. Then came this series based very loosely on Greek mythology only set in modern times which he loved even more. He has a friend he admires very much, and they have quite a book club going between them. Because of all the books I've read to him, he and his friend had an amazing number of book-loves in common, and they recommended books to each other.

At his school, every day from 12:00 to 12:20, EVERYONE spends 20 minutes reading a book; the principal, the janitors, teachers, students, everyone. So, we found a book for him to take (after much complaining from him) and he finished it the other day, and begged to be taken to get the next one. And THEN, this was the most exciting part for me, he started reading it in the store and as we were walking back to the car. I had to hold his hand when we crossed the street because I didn't want him to trip or something. Suddenly, I seem to have reader on my hands, and this delights me even more than his being good at math and soccer. I'm just jealous about the singing thing. Rats. I've always wanted to be able to sing.

What these books have in common is lots of fighting, he says. Makes sense. He's a boy.

All right. I have to go meet my minimum word count. My heroine is about to find herself obliged to write to the hero to beg for assistance. Or something like that, I won't know for sure until I write the scene. Then I'm going to bed.

Labels: reading, Scandal, writing

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Thursday, August 23, 2007

It's Friday's Yesterday!

Thanks, Margaret, for coming up with that keen replacement for Thursday.

Blogging earlier in my writing day is tough. I feel like I'm taking up time I could be using to do things that feel like writing but aren't -- like email and MySpace and now Facebook and, uh, blogging -- but lately I've been so tired that blogging at the end of my day just hasn't been happening. The previous day's writing is at this point pretty much immaterial since that was yesterday and this is today or, if you will, Friday's yesterday. Be that as it may, yesterday, I worked in the car while my son was at soccer practice and ended up resurrecting an old chapter which needed some pretty minimal work in order to fit in around its new home. Which meant I had 5,000 "new" words yesterday. But now it's today and yesterday doesn't matter. Except if I hadn't written anything, I would be panicking.

Last night I finished Blackburn by Bradley Denton. OK, look. This isn't a book for just everyone, so if you read it and hate it or can't get past the first few chapters, well, all right. But I have to say it's a damn good book. The protagonist (Blackburn) is completely real. It isn't a book I'll forget anytime soon. If you're interested in seeing how an author makes a protagonist consistent within that world, this is a good book to study.

Here's why I recommend this book: Yesterday at the Day Job cube-room there were HVAC guys all over because the HVAC in the server room is getting fixed so as to avoid another server meltdown. One of the guys, the boss, I believe, goes in the server room, shuts the door and proceeds to have a cell phone conversation with a co-worker. His end is all yelling so everyone outside the server room, which is all of Systems, can hear him quite clearly. Part of his yelling included the phrase (remember, he's yelling) You HAVE to OVERESTIMATE every job! and a bunch of other stuff related to why this particular job should have been overestimated. The moment, the very moment I heard that phrase, I thought If Blackburn were here, he'd kill that guy. And it would have been the right thing to do in a sick and demented kind of way.

So, that's why you should read Blackburn.

But if you're the squeamish type, don't (only, you know, maybe you should just try to get over that for this book). Bradley Denton has written SFF and Horror, it looks like, which probably accounts for why his literary novel is so good. Genre writing teaches you a lot about getting a story to hang together. You have to leave out all the self-indulgent MFA crap. I should know, right?

For the geekish, here's my twitter stream: http://twitter.com/cjewel I don't post to it all that often, but hey, if you're a writer or a reader, you can jump right in and we'll be the first authors/readers on twitter. Right now I think it's mostly geeks. Basically, it's kind of a way of shouting over the fence hey! I'm going to cook dinner, then write?.

Labels: reading, Scandal, writing

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Friday, August 17, 2007

Catching up

I have the day off, sort of. My son had his Jr. High orientation this morning and after that mom-related business we had to go get tickets for the school bus (no longer free as it was when I was a kid) and then find the driveway where he's supposed to catch the bus. He's got soccer practice later today. I'm hoping to get in a couple of hours of writing work right now.

In the meantime, I've continued reading. I just finished Suzanne Brockmann's Force of Nature which, naturally, I enjoyed. She's a wonderful writer. Then I started this odd little book called Blackburn by Bradley Denton and I'm reserving judgment. Beautifully written, but the content is quite disturbing. I'll report on that when I'm done with it.

Lately I've been thinking about writing, mostly because I'm working on Scandal which at this point is a lot of first draft writing, the books I've been reading to which I've reacted in a sort of meh way and those to which I have not reacted that way. For example, I really really enjoyed Lone Survivor even though I vehemently disagree with his take on the evil Liberals and/or Liberal Media. Would I have liked it better if he'd toned that down? Maybe. But he didn't need to. The story is fantastic with or without that, and at least he was honest (wrongheaded, but honest!). Then there were other stories that felt to me like they ought to have been more exciting. Lots of stuff was going on. The stakes were high for the characters but gosh I was just not taken away as I should have been. Perhaps, I've been thinking lately, because they didn't face any moral difficulties. They faced outside evil but were never morally threatened by it. There was no chance of the characters making the wrong decision.

And, I am now compelled to add this thought. Lately, I've read some books by big authors that are not as well-written as they should be. I read them and felt the author was rushed or careless or that she/he needed another month or two of work. Deadlines help get the work done, but they can also keep a book journeyman good instead of awesome. This problem probably also has something to do with most writers having to have a day job to pay the bills. Sigh.

I like my literary landscape fraught with moral ambiguity. Write me a story where I'm reading something that ought to be evil but I'm cheering for it anyway. Someone do something reprehensible and yet have that be fascinating. Anyway, I was just thinking about that. Kind of half-baked. And thinking about baking, Scandal awaits.

Labels: futzing around, reading, Scandal, writing

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Monday, August 13, 2007

Procrastination! Get yer Red Hot Procrastination Right Here!

So, um. I've been reading a lot. I read Sherrilyn Kenyon's Devil May Cry and enjoyed it. There was a lot of her gods-inhabited world in it and it was interesting to see how that worked. I keep hearing that she's going to write Ash's story. Awesome if true.

Yesterday I read (in one sitting) Marcus Lutrell's Lone Survivor, and boy, oh boy. (I'd give a link to him directly, but he doesn't seem to have a website.) I really, really loved this book. It's the account of his SEAL team's mission in Afghanistan. If you're curious about what it's like there, this book is full of details you have to look hard to find elsewhere. I do have to quibble with his propensity to blame liberals and/or the liberal media for perceived slights, but he's entitled to his interpretation, wrong though I think it is. I have a bleeding heart, and I don't blame the military for their actions in combat and frankly, I don't believe much of the US does either. If a trained soldier has to make a me-or-them decision in battle, then let's not 2nd guess the instincts our tax dollars helped give them. I do think there's something wrong when it's reported that soldiers planned and carried out the rape and murder of an Iraqi family. I'm not stupid or naive enough to believe everything I read, but reports like that need to be investigated. Personally, to the extent I have any sort of an informed opinion, I think a military and Commander in Chief who allow an environment in which soldiers take the blame for the political undesirability of deaths in war might be a better target. At least a shared target.

And really, that's a minor aside from an absorbing, amazing and inspiring story. It's just that every time he went off on liberals, I couldn't help thinking, I'm a liberal, and I don't feel that way. Not to mention that there were times when he simply failed to account for the complexity of the world and the way it works. Liberals make a convenient scape goat for him. I suppose it's ironic that as he goes off about how it's the fault of liberals that he has to worry about getting charged with murder so he can't do the needful, as it were, it's his religion that keeps him from casting his vote in a militarily correct way. Um, so maybe the big-bad liberals are right? All right, I have to say I think there's some intellectual dishonesty going on there. But, heck, he's been brainwashed by Neo-Cons and the fascist Right, so can we blame him? (Right. That was Carolyn's patented sarcasm. Move along. I'm just evening the score in an equally dishonest manner.)

As I read I kept thinking the author's name sounded familiar, and then when I read the thank yous at the very end, I realized why. I also read Dick Couch's The Making of SEAL class 228, and Marcus Lutrell was a member of that class and is mentioned in that book. I picked up Lutrell's book because it's been getting some good reviews and is selling quite well. Way worth it. As I said, this liberal bleeding heart read the book in one afternoon. He and his fellow soldiers are tremendously brave and I'm glad there are men like him in the military.

I also read A Taste of Honey by Jami Alden. This was three novellas about three brothers finding love and hot sex. Grin. I very much liked the first two stories and I loved the last one. I cried at the end, and I hardly ever cry over books.

Then I re-read my previous two historicals, just to see how I did it way back then in prehistoric times, but I probably shouldn't have. All I wanted to do was go back and fix crap. I'm a different writer now, writing a different sort of book. (Gee, that was what, three years ago?)

The Darling Child had a soccer tournament this weekend, so I was off being soccer mom most of Saturday and Sunday. They did not win the tournament this year because they had to play two under-14 teams and I am here to tell you that the difference between U-13 boys and U-14 boys is spelled T E S T O S T E R O N E. My son is very tall for his age and most of those boys were much, much taller and they had muscles. So, his team got their butts kicked. They won their game against the U-13 boys, and that was good for them.

I think I opened Word Perfect a few times and stared at the blank screen. What else? Played on MySpace. Friended people. Commented. Important stuff you know. Checked my spam catcher. I have so many friends who want to send me ecards! Worshippers, too. Just wait til I whip myself back into shape, then we can talk worship. Until then, I'm afraid you and your malware just have to go ka-blooie!

Oh, yeah. I did driveway torture today after a week of pretending I wasn't getting sick and then 3 days of actually being sick. I missed a lot of gym days. I was slower by a minutes or so, which meant I only had to do 1.5 minutes of sprints to make 45 minutes total torture time. But I didn't have to stop. All four miles well done. I hope to add another up-and-down in the next couple of weeks. Plus, seeing as how it was 4:30 am and in the boonies when I was running (slogging?), I did see the tail end of the Perseid Meteor Showers. Wow. Breathtaking. I think I'm up for 3 days of DWT, 2 days of resistance training and a couple days of rowing. I'll do weights tomorrow and see how I am Wednesday for DWT. I might do a regular run.

Also, during the DWT this morning, I figured out at last what to do in the next scene for Scandal, so I guess I really have no choice but to go write that. Now.

Last thing: you know I am the master of procrastination because I did not have to resort to housework or other chores. It's advanced procrastination. Don't try it at home unless you're trained or have supervision.

Oh, and Patti O'Shea? If I had the money, I'd get a Mac. I grilled Marjorie Liu about her Mac experience and that decided me. If I had the bucks, I'd get a Power Book.

Labels: exercise, procrastination, reading, Scandal

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Friday, August 03, 2007

I have returned -- Reading List

I got something icky and came home from work Wednesday and pretty much slept the rest of the day. I pried myself out of bed to take the son to soccer practice then got us home and went back to sleep. Slept most of Thursday, too. When I wasn't sleeping, I was reading. This morning, I went back to work and even made it to the gym. Just 45 min of cycling, nothing hard. I have my make-up rowing class tomorrow so I'm going to bed in just a bit.

Recent Reads

• MaryJanice Davidson, Sleeping with the Fishes, Half-mermaid, half-human heroine. Very funny.


• Cait London, On the Edge, an empath coming into her powers. Billed as Romantic Suspense. Liked it.


• Liz Maverick, Wired, This gets a big WOW. Really interesting, absorbing.


• Janet Evanovitch, Metro Girl, Very funny. I laughed a lot.


• Angela Knight, Master of Dragons, Liked it. Kept me up too late


• Mary Balogh, Simply Love, What can I say? I love Balogh, and I loved this book.

What else? I tried to write some on Scandal but I couldn't get Nikodemus, the hero of Magellan's Witch, out of my head. But now it's been a few days and I've read a lot, so I think I can start fresh this weekend. I have two scenes mapped out and I've started thinking about how my heroine is going to move through this story.

About Magellan's Witch: I don't think I've actually ever mentioned what the book is about. There's a witch. And a mage named Magellan. And there's fiends who have been known to destroy the lives of humans they possess. And Magellan's witch needs to figure who the good guys are.

Those of you who know me, take a guess, is the hero a mage or a fiend?

Labels: Magellan's Witch, reading, Scandal

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Impending Collision

That would be me about to collide with my bed.

Last night I finished Angela Knight's Master of Dragons which I enjoyed. The lights were off before 10:00 pm. I didn't go to the gym Monday or Tuesday but slept an extra hour instead. I'm tired right now. So I'm going to bed. I hope I'm not coming down with something.

Anyway, I've started sketching out the next chapters for Scandal, and I'd do more tonight, and probably should, but I'm too darn tired. I don't even care that it's not dark yet.

Labels: reading, Scandal

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Monday, May 28, 2007

miscellanea

Yes, I'm working on Magellan's Witch. It's slow going. Sigh. But I'm making progress.

Yesterday I read Warrior Elite, the making of SEAL class 228 by Dick Couch. It was a really good read. Sometimes I had to remind myself that I wasn't reading fiction. Couch got permission to observe the class through to the end, and it was riveting. The attrition rate is incredible, and I got attached to some of the guys who, ultimately, didn't make it. I'm almost at a loss for words to express my admiration for what these men go through. Amazing.

I think my only negative reaction is to the apparently obligatory apologia for why there's no women in the SEALs. Honestly, men just don't get it. The essential answer was, no women because even the ones who could hack it, it would destroy the chemistry. I do think that's true, the chemistry, which demonstrably works, would be changed.

The issue isn't really gender. It's exclusion. So, why not train women separately? Why not take advantage of the things women do well and better than men? Upper body strength isn't everything. You don't need testosterone to be a good shot. And endurance is assuredly a desirable trait, no? I think more women would get through Hell week. And I think a woman's typical excellence at multi-tasking should be leveraged. Interesting thoughts anyway.

And now, I want to gush about the Nintendo Wii. My son has one and I finally broke down and played Wii sports with him. What a blast! I was working up a sweat, by the way. Then we discovered that it has a mini-card slot (the kind that fits in an MP3 player or digital camera.) I quick snapped some pics, stuck in the card, and voila. Pictures that he could alter and play with. The Wii is fun, fun, fun!

Ok, back to work.

Labels: Magellan's Witch, Navy SEALs, reading, Wii

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Friday, May 04, 2007

Good Day!

Today I went to my favorite place for breakfast and had my favorite breakfast, did the crossword, walked around and shopped, then got a massage (an hour and half of bliss). I picked up my son from school. He still loves me because I walked into the Game Store the other day to ask my usual question When do you think you'll get any wii's? (Usual Answer: we're not sure, come back tomorrow really early.) But this time they said, We have one. My son's birthday isn't for 6 weeks, but of course I got the wii for him. Early. Now I am the greatest Mom ever. I must say, the wii is pretty awesome. It was ridiculouly easy to set up. I think it took five minutes. And the motion sensing is wow. So, my son really loves me. (Awwww).

I messed around on MySpace for a bit, caught up on some emails for a bit, read for a bit. Now I'm doing this. The only thing is I can't find a book I'm eager to read. But, I did find out that Michael Chabon is going to be in Petaluma on May 19th! Since I bought his latest, I have a card to get me in and my books signed.

Maybe, I might take a look at paper copy for Magellan's Witch, but I might sort through my TBR for a book that really calls to me...

Labels: Magellan's Witch, reading, relaxing, writing

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Monday, April 30, 2007

Today is my birthday!

Picture courtesy of musingorchards.

Yes, indeed. I am another year better. And, since I am home from the day job working on getting my final project for my Master's all done, it's been a very nice day. First off, I got to sleep in, then I got a lot of writing done. I was right yesterday that my last chapter for Magellan's Witch wasn't the actual last chapter. I wrote/re-wrote that today, so now all the chapters are done and I'm going through chapters 19-25 getting them more up to speed. So, I think I might be able to call this thing done on Wednesday. Tomorrow I get signatures and go visit the grad dept to clear up a bit of ambiguity on my project defense. All should be good.

In birthday news, my sister bought me a cala lily, which I love and will plant outside my window, and some sparkling water, my favorite kind. I got a free smoothie at the smoothie place downtown (I got Protein Power), my son got something with too much sugar in it, and my sister got something or other and I used the rest of the gift card for them so 3 smoothies cost me 40 cents. Awesome, no? My son got me a scented soaps which I love. So nice in the shower. Then we came home and had birthday cake more or less for dinner.

This morning the dog rolled in something disgusting and so I was forced to give him a bath. He was not happy with me, but he forgave me.

Last night I finished reading Addicted by Zane. Somehow, and this is distressing to me, I had never heard of her. She writes erotica and apparently started out self-published and sold 250,000 (!!) on her own. Now she's with a major print publisher, as she should be. Zane is African-American. I found out about her from My Space, as she was often mentioned as a favorite author by others, at least some of whom I could see were persons of color. Addicted is written in a very deft, very culturally specific style. It's a far more complex story than most erotica, and I really, really enjoyed it. I'll be reading more of her.

Got to get the son to bed...

Labels: Graduate School, Magellan's Witch, reading

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Reporting in From the Land of Sleep Deprivation

Lover Revealed has been consumed. Now, here's the odd thing. Up until yesterday, I just knew I wanted to marry Zsadist. But no, in fact, it's Vishous. Go figure. I had no idea I was so fickle.

In writing news . . . Uhm. uh-oh. I've been reading. Sorry. No writing news. And tonight I have to go to bed early to make up for my sins. Fortunately, I think Vishous will be okay with that.

Since I'm anthropomorphizing here, I'll mention that I got an email the other day asking who fathered Claudia's baby (from A Darker Crimson) Tiber or Lath? Good question. But, they may not know for sure until their child is much older. And besides, Tiber doesn't care. He loves the baby. And Claudia. No matter what. The way I love Vishous.

!

Labels: books, reading

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Monday, January 01, 2007

Words, She Bought

Today, I worked on the writing. Things went OK. But I hit a problem chapter. There's stuff going on, but nothing's happening. Drats. And, I know this chapter should totally rock, if only because of who's in it. But I'm not sure how. I slightly exceeded my minimum word count, and then had to go grocery shopping before it got too late. I was kind of hoping I'd have a far-away-from-the-writing moment and come up with a solution, but no such luck. Still, I made excellent progress in working on the mood I want. I'm not there yet, but I can feel it getting there. Chances are good I'll hit on the answer at the gym tomorrow morning.

I've been reading more. Eloisa James has been in my To Be Read pile for a long time, and this weekend I finally read Much Ado About You which I totally enjoyed. I discovered I also had Kiss Me Annabel, also very enjoyable. So today in the grocery story I saw Pleasure for Pleasure and bought that. My hand just kind of shot out all by itself. I don't seem to have the Duke one which I really want to read, so I'll have to get that.

I took my son to our local independent bookstore so he could spend his gift cards ($60.00) for books. He came back with $90.00 worth of books so I told him to start adding up the prices and come back when he wasn't over his limit. My sister came along, and we're all there in the store, perusing our various sections and calling each other on our cell phones: Are you done yet? Where are you? What did my son get? Well, they didn't have any Bone Comics (a book, not paper) that he doesn't already have -- isn't that a reader frustration? but he got lots of Asterix and Obelix and the next two Golden Compass books. That put him only a little bit over, so I gave him the gift card and my frequent reader card to get stamped and off he went to the cashier. My sister was behind him with her mysteries, and as usual, I ended up undoing any progress in the TBR pile. Oh, well.

Strange thing in the Romance section of the store. The section is tiny, which I've mentioned before, and now the books are shelved all weird and sh--- stuff. On the very top shelf where you'd have to be 6 feet tall to reach, the books were stacked on the sides 5-6 books high, then right-side up and spine out across the top of those. It was impossible to see what was there. And on other shelves, a bunch of books were laid side-down across the top of the row of spine out books and a few were face out directly OVER books that were not the same. Anybody with more books than shelf space knows exactly what I mean. And then, at the very bottom, there were two shelves of westerns. Partially blocked by the back of a display. So, now westerns have the very worst shelf allotment in the store. But, they did seem to have more authors than just Nora Robers and Danielle Steele. The actual selection was pretty good.

I bought Jeff Lindsay's Dearly Devoted Dexter, Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, Dead Man Rising by Lilith Saintcrow, Stephanie Laurens's An Unwilling Conquest, The Witch of Cologne by Tobsha Lerner and Night Pleasures by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Where to start?

Well, I have to go to work tomorrow so I guess I'll start by getting my files backed up, logging my word count, and then getting ready for bed.

Oh, and hey, Happy New Year!

Labels: reading, writing

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