Weekly Update: the End is in Sight

This week has been plenty busy. Craziness at work (which should soon be resolving itself in a very positive way.). Trying to get everything for the first week of classes done, as well as the reading done for the second week (Just about have that complete.). And perhaps I should pack sometime today, since I’m leaving for Atlanta tomorrow. Perhaps…

However, HTRYN Lesson One is going well. Sort of. It’s a bit depressing, but I should finish the first pass through Witches today. I’m seeing a lot of the same issues. Being aware of them is the first step to fixing them, right? (Here’s hoping.) I’m seeing a lot of telling-not-showing, and there’s more distance from my characters than I’d like. I do have an idea about fixing one issue that’s been bothering me somewhat for a long time, however.

I’m also less than five scenes from finishing the outline of Siren Song! I’m really happy about that, even if it’s not the greatest outline ever. I’m hoping there will be less wandering about with an actual outline to work from. (Knowing my tendency to get distracted, I’m almost positive that will be true.)

I’m off to finish things up so I can enjoy my sort-of-mini-vacation!

Writing Inspiration: Too Busy

It’s true, I really am too busy to write (fiction) right now. I know that sounds like a cop out, but it’s not. Really.

School starts next week, and I’m going to be out-of-town M-F for work, so I have to attempt to get everything done for the first week, plus the second week’s reading, this week. So there’s that. Plus, an hour-long commute to work right now. Let’s not forget trying to work out, eat healthy, and not let the house become a complete disaster.

Priorities.

So, while I may not actually be writing fiction, I am outlining Siren Song (just a general phase outline), to the tune of 5 scenes a day. And I’m almost done with that, which will make the actual writing so much easier!

I love when my stories surprise me. On Tuesday, I had a character I never even thought of saunter onto the screen and inform me that he was there to provide conflict (And also scenery. Of course.). So there’s that.

I hope everyone else is getting more writing done than I am.

What I’m Reading Now: The First Week in January

So, last year, I joined the Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge. Initially, I set my goal at 50 books. Between school and work, I decided that was a good number, but I ended up revising it to 75 later in the year, when I passed the 50-book mark with plenty of time to spare. I actually ended up reading 110 books (My Goodreads account only shows 108, but I re-read The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear, both of which I had previously read, and if there’s a way to mark them as re-read, I haven’t figured it out yet.)

This year, I’m setting my goal a bit higher right from the start, at 75. We’ll see how that works out.

Currently, I’m reading this:

The_Runes_of_the_Earth_-_2004

And this:

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(This isn’t the actual book cover, but it is the movie poster that is hanging over my desk, on a piece of old barn wood. My parents got it for me somewhere years ago.)

I’m also reading Warrior Chick, by Holly Wagner, and various assorted other books (textbooks) for school.

Can we talk about The Runes of the Earth? I read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant I-have-no-idea-how-long-ago, when my mother gave me the initial two trilogies. Meanwhile, these last four books have been on my TBR shelf for…I have no idea how long. At least 6 or 7 years (hence the goal of actually reading from this shelf this year). It’s ridiculous. Initially, I didn’t start the first book because the second book was about to come out and I wanted to wait…then life happened.

I picked this up New Year’s Eve, and immediately got sucked in. Now I’m slapping myself in the forehead for not reading these years ago.

So, what’s everyone reading right now? What do you plan to read this year?

New Year, this Time with Some Actual Goals

Happy new Year 2016 Images (20)
(I do not own this image.)

Happy New Year!

I used to make very complicated, intricately planned-out lists of resolutions every year. A few years ago, I stopped that, but this year I decided to give it another go. I ended up with three separate lists (Life, Writing, and Reading), each with eight goals.

Here are my Writing goals for the year:

1) Finish Witches HTRYN.

2) Finish 1st draft of Siren Song. 

3) Finish 1st draft of The Fall.   

4) Start Camelot

5) Revise Casting Shadows.

6) Finish copyediting classes and make X dollars at it per month.

7) Have 500 followers on this blog. (I can dream, right?)

8) Have 200 followers on my personal blog (It’s a goal.)

HNY

Here are my Reading goals:

1) Read Gone with the Wind (for at least the 25th time. I normally read it every year, but it’s been a few years.).

2) Read 1 book per month from my TBR shelf.

3) Read all books on the reading list for my American Women Writers class (8 total).

4) Read one classic per month.

5) Read one book of poetry.

6) Read 2 books per month to review.

7) Read one inspirational book per month.

8) Read 75 books total.

The Poison Artist, by Jonathan Moore

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Poison-Artist-Jonathan-Moore/dp/0544520564

http://www.amazon.com/The-Poison-Artist-Jonathan-Moore/dp/0544520564

Jonathan Moore finished law school in New Orleans, which probably gave his fiction that creepy twist. Now he works for a firm in Honolulu, after an eccentric career past. He was short-listed for the Bram Stoker award. His new novel, The Poison Artist, hits shelves January 26th.

Caleb Maddox is a toxicologist who studies the effects of pain. His work is demanding and all-consuming, leading to a fight with his girlfriend that leaves him wounded and emotional. He goes to a speakeasy to brood, and over absinthe, sees an alluring woman who whispers in his ear after getting his blood on her fingertips before leaving. Caleb is fascinated and must find her.

But a rash of dead bodies in San Francisco delays his search for Emmeline. One of the men vanished from the speakeasy the same night Caleb was there, so he feels obligated to help his medical examiner friend solve the case. Caleb remembers nothing that will help the detectives, but continues to help his friend in secret while also continuing his search for the tempting Emmeline. Soon the hunt for the killer entwines with Caleb’s obsession with Emmeline, linking with his past in ways he never imagined.

The Poison Artist is a haunting, creepy tale full of twists and turns. Caleb is a conflicted man driven by the horrors in his past. His obsession with Emmeline drives him to places he never believed possible as he seeks to unravel her mysteries.

(Galley courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley.)

But You Did Not Come Back, by Marceline Loridan-Ivens

butyoudidnotcomeback
(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Grove Atlantic.)

Marceline Loridan-Ivens is a French writer and film director. Her memoir, But You Did Not Come Back, is available on January 5th, 2015.

When Marceline was fifteen, she and her father were arrested by the government. He told her that he would not come back. They were sent to concentration camps, he to Auschwitz, and she to Birkenau. The three kilometers separating them might as well have been a million. Occasional glimpses of her father kept her going, but the note he managed to get to her kept her hope alive even in her horrendous, terrifying surroundings. She made it out of the camp alive and came home. Her father did not come back.

But You Did Not Come Back is a novella-length letter that Marceline wrote to her father, the man she never knew as an adult. Her experiences in the concentration camp colored the rest of her life, and through it all, her father’s memory lived on, her grief over him shadowing every day. Eventually, Marceline found her calling as an activist for refuges and as a documentary filmmaker.

Her heart-wrenching tale is filled with emotion and sorrow, grief and determination, in this memoir of one of the darkest times in history.

(Galley provided by Grove Atlantic via NetGalley.)

 

This Is Where It Ends, by Marieke Nijkamp

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Sourcebooks Fire.)

Marieke Nijkamp is from The Netherlands. She is the founder of DiversifYA. Her debut novel, This Is Where It Ends hits shelves January 5th.

This Is Where It Ends is told by four different characters, over the course of 54 minutes. It is a tale of love, of family, of friends, and of violence. It is the story of a school shooting, something horrifically more common today than ever before.

When the semester starts in Opportunity, Alabama, everyone is gathered in the school auditorium to listen to the principal’s beginning-of-semester speech. That is the last normal thing they experience that day. When they get up to leave, the doors won’t open. And someone starts shooting.

The author weaves together the viewpoints of four different characters, telling a tale that is sadly familiar to today’s society. It is a story of a small town ripped apart by violence, and by people forever scarred by the actions of one person.

(Galley provided by Sourcebooks Fire via NetGalley.)

This was not an easy book to read. It’s a hard topic, but one that is far too common today. The characters are diverse and vividly-imagined. The setting feels familiar. The details bring the story to life.

Side note: I knew going in what this story was all about. I was also clear that this story was told from multiple POVs. Which is why, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why someone on Goodreads gave this one star, and listed their reasons, starting with 1) “I really, really hate violence.” And, 2) “I hate multiple POV books.”

Um, okay. So you requested this book, when it was clear it was about violence and told from multiple characters’ viewpoints, which you hate, but you gave it a bad review for these reasons? Hmmm….sounds like the problem is with you and not with the book. I’m just saying: if the book is about something you hate, why even read it? More importantly, why give it a bad review, when it’s your fault you didn’t like it, not the author’s?

The Widsom of Dead Men, by Oisin McGann

 

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Open Roads Integrated Media.)

Oisín McGann is an Irish author and illustrator. His newest offering, The Wisdom of Dead Men, is in his series of books in the Wildenstern Saga; a steampunk Victorian adventure set in Ireland.

Women are turning up dead. Women of the working class, with no obvious connection to each other. They are found alone, frequently in locked rooms, apparently the victims of spontaneous human combustion. Law enforcement isn’t sure what to make of the cases. Neither is the clergy. Naturally, turning to the powerful Wildenstern family for help is the only solution.

Berto Wildenstern, the newest head of the family, doesn’t really have time for a murder investigation. He’s too busy trying to keep the rest of his scheming family from killing him for how power and position. His brother Nate, although taxed with protecting Berto, finds the time to investigate the deaths. With the help of Berto’s wife, he encounters a history the Wildenstern’s claim to know nothing about, a history that just might be linked to the deaths.

The Wisdom of Dead Men is an adventure tale wrapped up in a murder mystery, with a side of family intrigue thrown in for good measure. The Victorian setting is vividly realized, as are the mysterious engimals, the living machines that no one knows the origins of. The Wildenstern family are bloodthirsty and conniving, but they aren’t all bad.

(Galley provided by Open Road Integrated Media via NetGalley.)

Books: What I’ve Read Lately

After a computer snafu a few weeks ago, when I saw an early Black Friday deal for a hard drive on Monday, I jumped at it. (The old one was 6 or so years old.) It came in today, so I’ve spent the past few hours trying to gt it set up and all my files transferred over. (Thank you, DropBox.) Instead of a review, here’s a list of some of the things I’ve been reading lately, in no particular order:

  1.  Shock of Night
  2. Queen of the Night
  3. Death Before Decaf
  4. This is Where it Ends
  5. The Poison Artist
  6. Did I Mention I Need You?
  7. Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic
  8. Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic
  9. Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic
  10. Currently Reading:  The Range, by Dave Farmer

Did I mention I Love You, by Estelle Maskame

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Sourcebooks Fire.)

Estelle Maskame was sixteen when she finished writing her Did I Mention I Love You trilogy, which went viral via Wattpad with over four million hits. Estelle lives and writes full-time from Scotland. Did I Mention I Love You is her first published novel, available now.

 

Eden Munro hasn’t heard from her father in years, not since he left her and her mother behind. Now he’s re-married, with a new family and a new life, and he wants her to spend the summer with him in Santa Monica. Even the prospect of the beach and three new stepbrothers can’t make Eden look forward to the visit.

 

Tyler Bruce is Eden’s oldest stepbrother, and her total opposite. Angry, egotistical, and with a troubled past and a drug problem, Tyler is bad news. But Eden soon finds herself hanging out with Tyler’s friends, going to parties and doing things she knows she shouldn’t be doing. Despite Tyler’s clingy, vindictive girlfriend and her own love interest, Eden finds herself drawn to Tyler. Can she find out what’s really behind Tyler’s façade and help him win his battle against himself?

 

Did I Mention I Love You is an edgy young adult romance with dark layers. The parties and drugs aren’t glorified, but presented in a realistic manner that makes them heartbreakingly real. Eden finds herself going along with things she never imagined, as she searches for a way to save Tyler from the depths of his anguish. Their relationship is tense, complicated, and ever evolving. Did I Mention I Love You is a fast-paced read that is not all sunshine and light, instead focusing on the darker moments that give life its depth.

 

(Galley provided by Sourcebooks Fire via NetGalley.)