Monday, March 3, 2014

February Reading

The snow just hasn't let up around here. Even in the few moments of sun we've been getting, the flakes are still falling. This is the most white stuff we've had to move around in all the seventeen years we've been in this house. It's getting a bit absurd. Enough already.

The one thing snow is good for is giving me an excuse to stay inside and attempt to be warm. Warm is best accomplished on the couch or bed under layers of blankets. Which means more time for reading.

Okay, so it's not exactly reading, but I did make my way (there wasn't much making, as much as there was careening) through the entire series of Breaking Bad. I hadn't watched a single episode while it was originally airing, but that turns out to be a good thing, because the best way to appreciate this amazingly written series is binge watching. The last season's writing was particularly excellent.

Hugh Howey's Sand was next on my list of things I'd been meaning to get to. This dystopian world centered around sand and heat and a dysfunctional family in a lawless land of hardships took a little edge off the chill. I don't have a lot to gush about on this one. It was middle of the road for me and the repetitive wording did get on my nitpicky nerves in some spots.

Now I'm going to gush.

Ever have one of those moments at a bookstore when a spine just catches your attention and you must pick up that book? I had that while meeting with a bookstore owner for work. I wasn't even looking for a book to buy, but yes, I bought this one. It cried out to me with promises of awesomeness. And it fulfilled them the next day when I couldn't but the damn thing down. All day. I'm sorry, Douglas Hulick, your ten years of effort in writing Among Thieves was devoured by my hungry eyes in a single day. And what a tasty meal it was.

What made me pick up fantasy novel full of swords and intrigue? I admit that it might have been the guy on the spine in those first seconds. Then it was the endorsement quote on the cover. I usually ignore those, but the words funny and twisting caught my eye. I love a little funny and a lot of twisting. I was sold after reading the first three sentences. The first page so reminded me of Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos Series and my favorite character, Shadowspawn, from the 1980's Thieves' World Series, that I nearly jumped for joy...right into the nearest chair so I could start reading. Full of swordplay, sarcastic wit, and a twisting plot full of mystery and colorful characters, there was nothing to pick at and everything to enjoy. I was blissfully whisked away to a land of reincarnating emperors, thieves with agendas and angels who may or may not actually exist. Now I have to wait for May to get the second book. Is it May yet? Must. Have. More.


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

When the high wears off

I'm in the middle of after-the-fact-outlining the rough draft of Sahmara's Sunset and I hate this novel. There, I said it. It's been awhile since I've immersed myself in bringing order to a rough draft and I was hoping this point in the process would overlook me this time. Alas, I am not so fortunate.

What the hell was the potency of the sparkly-my-words-are-made-awesomesauce endorphins that I was riding high on when writing this? Yes, there are good moments, but damn, the misnaming of stuff, horrible phrasing, extra words in the middle of sentences, summary telling, and where-the-frak-was-I-going-with-this moments are overwhelming.

I brought this upon myself, I know this, having written 50k of this years ago and the dropping back in to add another 21K as time allowed with multiple year gaps between efforts. The random was sure to happen. But damn.

The saddest thing is that I read through what did exist just last October and straightened things up at little. At least I thought I did. Clearly I was in the midst of some high stress times because I screwed things up far more than an form of straightening. Towns were misnamed from one chapter to the next. People had helms and daggers and then they didn't. Inline notes made defied logic. And the thing is, I remember thinking these things over, sure I was correcting mistakes.

And the lesson in all this? When under heavy stress, step away from the keyboard.

Okay, venting over. Back to slogging through the hate to find the bits of sparkle.

Monday, February 10, 2014

So how's that resolution going?

WRITE has been working out fairly well for me. Not that I've gotten a whole lot of new writing done, but I have been doing a lot of reading, critiquing, editing and following up on submissions. So I'm calling it good progress given everything else going on in life.

The new laptop for writing and relaxing only has been working out wonderfully. Its so much easier to turn work off at night when I don't have access to my work programs right along with my relaxing ones. The separation has also done wonders for my stress level.

In addition to three shorts in edits, there are a couple in the percolator and a Sahmara's Sunset to finish. While I'm pondering changes on the shorts, I'm concentrating on outlining Sahmara's Sunset. This poor novel has been on and off the back burner so many times that it's in dire need of continuity checks and major tightening of the plot threads.

I'm not a big fan out outlining up front, but I do enjoy going through a rough draft and outlining after the fact. Because of the Frankenstein factor on this on and off again novel, I'm making a list of all the questions that pop up that I'm pretty sure I never got around to answering as well as making sure I have the correct character details in my notes. Creating a chapter by chapter summary also helps me get the whole story back in my head so I can better attack the draft and make it something I wouldn't mind showing someone. Eventually.

Anyone else still keeping up with a resolution?

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Another short story published

Nothing makes my morning like seeing one of my stories in print. Check out A Little Thing Like Death in Issue 11 of Isotropic Fiction

Bill wants to know why Kate never returned from Cedar Springs Revival Center. What he finds doesn't make the truth any easier to bear.



Saturday, February 1, 2014

January Reading

Because I still have a bunch of books beside my bed begging to be read and several on my computer...I went to my Kindle library to find something to read. What the heck is wrong with me?

I found the sequel to Atlantis Gene that I'd read last year waiting there for me, begging to be read. Who am I to say no? A.G. Riddle's,  The Atlantis Plague is a fast paced continuation of the first book. I finished it in three days. This thriller picks up right up where book one left off and leads nicely into the final book in the trilogy while still being a complete story - which is a wonderful thing, because I absolutely hate the sudden cut endings that some trilogy books suffer from. Thriller, mystery a bit of romance, all in a tasty science fiction shell.

Then it was off to more book crack...because I said was stopping, but my local book dealer found this and pointed it out to me, and yeah, it somehow ended up at my house. Sherrilyn Kenyon's Seize the Night turned into a twenty-four hour readingfest. Somewhere in there I got some sleep and a little work done. Having read the first three books in this series, and then the last, jumping into the middle was fun in that I happened to pick the book that included the single event alluded to in the final book that I'd really wondered how that had come to pass. That's my considerate way of putting it without any spoilers rather than an major effort to be vague. So yes, book 7, that's where that happens. I'm sure I'll succumb to the rest of the series eventually. I'm weak like that.

Next up was The Queen's Vow by C. W. Gortner. On occasion I like to take a break from the paranormal, fantasy and sci-fi and wander into historical fiction. This well researched book was a lovely portrayal of a woman trying to please her country, husband and her God. Mostly it showcased how the church manipulated everyone from royalty to pauper and how many countless thousands lost their lives due intolerance. That aspect was quite tragic, but there was also romance, and lasting friendship to balance out the betrayals and hardships.

Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett has graced reading stack for a while. I picked it up while on a David Sedaris kick a while back and it got lost in my workspace for over a year before I recently rediscovered it while on cleaning frenzy. This collection of short stories is best described as: off the wall, touching, silly, sad, laugh-out-loud hilarious, and thought-provoking. An eclectic array of characters deal with life, death, marriage and everything in between. It was the perfect book to keep in my car to read in between shuffling kids around...until I lost it by taking it out of my car. Oops.