Book reviews and wrap-ups and a return to normalcy

Well, now that the National Novel Writing Month is offically drawing to a close, it's time to do some catching up here.

First order of business? October's wrap-up which I never managed to do. Don't know if I can realistically blame it on NaNo... but that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. In my own defense, however, I do believe I reviewed all of my reads.

October's reads included:

84. A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison
83. Every Which Way But Dead by Kim Harrison
82. Silks by Dick Francis and Felix Francis
81. The Memory of Water by Karen White
80. Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Only five books for a total of 2220 pages or 71 pages a day. Not great but it included one of my favorite books of the year - The Memory of Water, and one of my new favorite authors, Kim Harrison. So, over all it was a decent month.

Now, on to November, which was a surprisingly good month, given how much of it was taken up by NaNo. No reviews, but I may have a few things to say about the books.

93. Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin
92. Ice Hunter by Joseph Heywood
91. When Demons Walk by Patricia Briggs
90. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
89. Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich
88. White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison
87. The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison
86. Rough Country by John Sanford
85. For A Few Demons More by Kim Harrison

For A Few Demons More, The Outlaw Demon Wails, and White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison continue the adventures of Rachel Morgan, white witch who shares her home with a fairy and a living vampire. She deals with personal tragedy and the revelation of a life-changing secret while dealing with the demons who seem to be out to get her. Harrison's stories are excellently paced, filled with characters I enjoy, and just plain old fun. Jenks, the fairy has quickly become my favorite.

Rough Country by John Sanford, is a book I won in a contest hosted by Cheya, who's site I've temporarily misplaced. I have no idea how... but thanks again for the book, Cheya. It was an interesting read. I've read Sanford's Prey series, which the main character of Rough Country seems to have been born. The story was decent enough but I felt like I was jumping into the middle of a story, given that this is part of a series. Also, Sanford chose to format this book strangely, breaking it up into short sections consisting of two or three paragraphs each. It interrupted the flow for me.

Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich is a so-called 'between-the-numbers' Stephanie Plum book that includes a new mystery man in Stephanie's life, Diesel, who may or may not be more than he seems. It was okay, but I prefer the numbers books.

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs is the next installment of the Temperance Brennan series. It's the series that inspired the TV show Bones. Tempe wakes up to find herself tied up and seeminly buried alive in a crypt. As she struggles to free herself, she also struggles to put the pieces together and figure out what happened and why. She also struggles to work out her relationship with Andrew Ryan.

I've enjoyed most of the books in this series. Reichs has the insider's take on her topic that give them an edge. Tempe is a strong character but isn't super human. She's flawed and she occasionally does the wrong thing. She and Andrew definitely sizzle, even when they're at odds.

When Demons Walk by Patricia Briggs is the story of Sham, sorceress and thief, and Lord Kerim, Reeve of Southwood. Kerim is trying to hold Southwood together, blending warring factions into a solid whole. Complicating things are the mysterious deaths that point, at the very least, to one of Kerim's own or, according to Sham, a demon. She agrees to investigate, pretending to be Kerim's mistress in order to gain access to all parts of the castle.

Briggs doesn't seem to write a bad story. I not only enjoyed this one but I fell in love with Sham and Kerim to the point of going to Briggs' web site to see if there were more books with the same character. I learned that while there aren't at the moment, Briggs plans to revisit the pair. I hope it's soon.

Ice Hunter by Joseph Heywood is the first in the Woods Cop series, set in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan - a place I know well and love dearly.

Grady Service is a former Marine, serving as a sniper in Vietnam. He is also a conservation officer, one of the independent breed of people who protect both the woods and their inhabitants, the animals. When a murder seems to point to unscrupulous miners, Service finds himself trying to balance the needs of the land against the possibility that diamonds may exist in the UP.

Service is a seriously flawed character but one with more than his share of good qualities, too. He clearly loves the land and will go to almost any length to protect it. He understands land and people alike and can deal with both. I'll be revisiting the series, soon.

And finally, Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin.

First, a disclaimer. I am an unabashed fan of Governor Palin. I was a fan before John McCain selected her as his running mate and I was thrilled when he did. My feelings and faith in Governor Palin is based on her record in Alaska and her strong conservative beliefs... regardless of how the press has managed to paint her.

Going Rogue is Governor Palin's story, told in what is undoubtedly her voice. She describes her childhood growing up in Alaska, a childhood that instilled in her a strong love of nature and of Alaska; she is the state's best advocate. She recounts her time as a city council member, where she "believed the key functions of local government to be: infrastructure development, fiscial responsibility, and simply being on the side of the people." It's a stand that has never changed - she believes politicians serve the people and she believes in fiscal responsibility, two things that seem sorely lacking in today's politicians.

I'm not going to go into depth about the book here because it would wind up being political in nature and I try to keep politics away from here. What I will say is this: If you're judging Governor Palin by what you see in the main stream media, you're judging her unfairly, based on a biased view of a strong, independent woman who seems to make those who oppose her crazy. Case in point? Tina Fey and her "I can see Russia from my house." Governor Palin never uttered those words but far too many people believe she did.

If you read the book, you'll discover that Sarah Palin is a strong, independent woman, who relies on her faith and her family to get through whatever life throws at her. She loves Alaska and she is a staunch, commonsense conservative who isn't afraid to speak her mind. Personally, I like that in a woman.

So... It's Official

NaNo 2009 is officially over for me.

My final word count, just verified and made nice and legal at the National Novel Writing Month website was 52,308 words.

I think this is the earliest I've ever verified my word count.

I'm happy with my story and there are definitely parts I love. I also don't think the characters are quite done with me yet... but that's okay because I love them, too.

But, I have one question that has bothered me for a couple of years now. This story isn't finished. I'll continue with it until it is complete, but since I didn't write an entire novel in 50,000 words... did I really win?

I think so but I'm curious. What do you guys think?

Happy Thanksgiving...

I'm at work currently. Campus is mostly empty and I'm hoping to be able to drop home for a quick dinner with my family in a bit. We'll see how that plan works out.

As you may have noticed, I have a friend with me - my very own Miss Piggy. She arrived in the mail this week from her former home in Florida with DesLily. I think she's adorable and she's right at home at the department. Think her being a pig has anything to do with that? I just hope she can handle the change in weather!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day today.

Sunday NaNo News, Part 4

Wow.

This month is flying by. Thursday is Thanksgiving here in America. My niece will be home Tuesday for the long weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing her. Hopefully it'll be more than the few minutes we seem to have together lately. I miss her a lot.

NaNo wise, things are going tremendously well. In fact, tonight while in the shower, the ending for my story became perfectly clear. Right down to the last line. Now, all I have to do is get there.

My total as of earlier this evening was 42,691 words. I'm liking the story a great deal but I'm still in that stage where I'm not entirely sure I've gotten it right. Is my MC being too wishy-washy? What's up with the love of her life? Is he a good guy or delusional? And where the heck did the bad guy go and for what reason? He's up to something... Wish I knew what.

The final week ought to be interesting.

Music Mundays 7

It may be on the hokey side but it reflects my mood today. I'm needing some mellow. Don't we all at times? And this sort of smooth jazz lets me sit back, close my eyes, and picture myself on a beach or the banks of a river, as it where. It's like taking a mini-vacation.

So, if you're in need of a momentary break from life, come along and join me. It's free.



And can't you picture yourself here?



I know I feel better already.

Have a great week, everyone.

Sunday NaNo News, part 3

I love my new computer. Really. It's pretty. It's sleek. It's fast.

It has software I'm not familiar with.

*sigh*

I lost several pages of my NaNo project because I wasn't paying attention to the new word processing program. It asked me if I really wanted to replace a file and I said yes without taking the time to find out what file I was replacing.

It was not the one I wanted to replace.

As a result, I lost several pages and something like 2,500 words. I thought I'd lost almost 5,000 but I'd figured wrong.

Bottom line?

I like what I had to redo better. I think. There's now a scene that I really like that wasn't there before.

That is the nature of NaNo.

It'll drive you crazy if you let it.

I'm currently at 28,516 words, which puts me ahead by two days. Things are still going well, in spite of operator error. My main character, Honor, is sorting things out slowly. Xavier, the good guy is still doing his own sorting. And Orly, the bad guy? Not quite sure what he's up to yet but I'm confident I'll figure it out.

Announcing the 2009 Virtual Advent Tour

Kailana from The Written World and Marg from Reading Adventures are very pleased and excited to announce that we will once again be running the Virtual Advent tour this year. This is the fourth year that we have hosted and we hope that the event has become an integral part of the book blogging community's holiday traditions.

The Virtual Advent tour first started when we pondered why should the kids get all the fun of opening a box on the advent calendar and finding a treat in there, and how could we have some blogging fun with a similar concept? So the Virtual Advent tour was born.

Each day anyone who wants to participate takes turns sharing a treat with our friends here in blogland. For example it could be something about your family traditions, recipes, your country's holiday traditions, or a favourite Christmas memory, movie, book, song...anything you like. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas we would like to hear about what your family does during the holiday season, whether it be celebrating Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever it is that you do during this time.

I've just signed up and I'm looking forward to the adventure. Christmas is my favorite holiday and I have so many rich memories from my childhood... it may be difficult to pick something to talk about. And what a wonderful opportunity that will be, won't it? Reflecting on all of those holidays past.

Thanks, Kailana and Marg. It'll be great to celebrate with you!

It finally happened

I've been using a very old laptop for well over a year now. The newer one I had died so I had to resort to a second-hand one I bought from a student to help him out. It was perfectly fine for me - I'm not into a lot of razzle dazzle computer stuff. Give me the basics and access to the net and I'm happy.

Well, last night it died. Something to do with the backlight for the display screen, which is a fairly expensive fix. Given the age of the computer, it wasn't worth it. So, off I went in search of a new one.

It's a Dell, another, newer Inspiron. I know there's a model number somewhere but I don't worry about things like that. It's got everything I want on it and so far, seems to be working perfectly.

Now, I need to get back to NaNo. My comfortable pad has been diminished to one day...

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Sunday NaNo News, part 2

Yes, I know it's Monday... but I just realized that a little bit ago. Time has been warping or something for me lately and I've lost all track of what day or date it is. So, here's my Sunday update...

I hit 20,452 words last night. As usually, I'm uncertain as to whether or not it's a good effort or so much fodder but I do believe it can be fixed if it isn't good. The bones are there and if I have to rebuild on them later, I can do it.

I think I mentioned this is a sequel to a story I wrote earlier this year. I'm still learning about the characters and they seem to be having a good time revealing themselves to me. The one thing they're never shy about is letting me know when something isn't right. I had to dump 945 words the other day because it was wrong. Lame. Not right and the characters let me know it in their usual way - they stopped cooperating until I went back and fixed it. It's much better now and I've learned to trust that feeling. It's priceless.

I haven't written today, however. I spent the day trying to get the brakes on my van figured out and out at the barn with my niece. It was a stellar day here today - blue skies and a breeze a little on the cool side but I loved it. I got to see my niece take a big step today, too. She referred to herself as a trainer, which is what she wants to do. She's got one student and things are going well but I've never heard her call herself a trainer before. It was a cool moment. That's another reason why I love being at the barn. We seem to have our best conversations out there. She's in her element - so centered and at peace she's not afraid to let some of what she holds so tight loose.

Anyway, there's my update. My good guy is having trouble, my main character, who is supposed to be bad yet keeps finding herself doing good things is struggling, and the bad guy isn't as bad as he thinks he is. All of it is right on schedule, too.

In Memory

Of the men and women at Fort Hood.

God Bless You.

Sunday NaNo News...

The first day of The National Novel Writing Month is done for me. I'm happy with my output - 5,542 words, which puts me something like 1,200 words away from the day three total. I love getting off to a good start. Not that it means the story is good but the words do seem to be flowing which has always been a good sign for me. We'll see.

So... my NaNo history? I did my first challenge in 2004 and did horribly, with a final word count of something like 13,000 words. Since then, I'm proud to say I've finished each year. I don't even remember what that first story was supposed to be about. The others, however, I do:

2005 - was a story about a vampire who happens to be a police detective assigned to work the 'special cases' that crop up. A run in with a faith healer, however, has left her and her world changed forever, in ways she can't begin to imagine.

2006 - was about a young woman with a tragic past that included being sold into prostitution by her father as a child. Her life changed one day when a client realized that she was gifted as an adapt - a segment of the population able to tap into the energy of the universe and bend it to their will. Oh, there was also her faithful companion, the telepathic dog.

2007 - was the story of a former marine taken captive during a battle with an alien foe. Fifteen years later she returns home with a son, leading to complications of prejudice, honor, and life in general.

2008 - was the story of a young woman committed to a mental institution at the age of 15 because she pushed the much beloved parish priest off the roof of a building to his death. No one believed her when she explained it was because he was a demon. Released and on her own, she finds herself fighting demons with the most unlikely partner - one of the condemned souls from Hell itself.

2009 - is a sequel to a story that I'm trying to get up the courage to submit. It's about a young woman, created to be a plaything for the devil. In the first story, she was sent into the human realm where she learned just how difficult it is to be human. The sequel is the continuing saga of Honor and Xavier and that's about all I know. Hopefully it will work itself out.

I'll try to do a Sunday update for the next three weeks but if I disappear, you'll know why.