Off The Blog

Hi Folks!  How is everybody today?  Today I am gonna do something a wee bit different.  Hubbin sent me the most wonderful and amazing post today.  It's called I am in a Bookshop by Julian Stodd and it pretty much sums up everything about books and reading and bookshops and libraries and well pretty much all thing book related.

 Please go read it, I found it inspiring and hope every person who has ever picked up a book and found a new world, thought, idea or feeling will get a chance to read this post.  Ok I'm gonna quit yapping at you and let you get over to that other site and read it for yourself.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Ch Ch Ch Changes

It is that time of year again, the time I re-evaluate my blog and blogging stuff and see what I want to do different in the coming year.  This year is gonna be some significant changes and I thought I would give you all a heads up and invite some input if you so desire.

1.  As I am sure you've noticed, and as I have mentioned, my work schedule is all over the place.  Some days I don't see my bed for 48 hours and as much as i love you all I just don't have it in me to come home and write a good post.  Therefore the biggest change this year is that this will no longer be a daily blog.  I will still try and get as many post up as possible and some weeks it may be every day and some weeks there might only be two or three, keep checking 'cause I will still be writing.

2.  Better quality posts is my goal for this year.  In the interest of trying to maintain this as a daily blog I have noticed I do a lot of quick, pointless repetitive posts that really don't say or contribute much.  I am going to try and focus on stuff that actually matters to me, or that has struck my fancy, or I really want to write about, and a lot less of throwing up a quick stock photo with my "I'm so tired" excuse so yeah, better quality.

3.  I am also working on a new format for my ramblings.  This will be a lot different from my current format and hopefully be a bit more coherent without interrupting what my friends and family call my "you sound just like yourself when you write" style...'cause I like the idea that myself comes through.  I think the new format will allow me to focus in more on the things I personally liked, disliked or found intriguing about any number of things.  I will start using this format as soon as I get all the logistics worked out.

Hopefully these changes will make for a better, more interesting blog and allow me to really take the time I need to work, read and really get some decent writing done.  If anybody has any other suggestions I am open to all advice...may not take it, but am willing to listen.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Writing Desk

I need a writing desk.  I need one to write this blog and become famous and successful...because I heard that is how it works...if you have a great writing desk you win...I might be a little tired...somebody send me one of these and lets see what happens.

Multidrawer desk

I LOVE all the little drawers...don't know what I would put in them...but I love them

Palm Beach Curved Desk

I could write the prettiest books on this pretty desk

Contemporary Writing Desk

I feel more creative just looking at this desk.

Antique Victorian Desk

For writing it old school

Portable Desk

For on the road

I am positive that possessing any of these fine desks would be very helpful in my reading and writing "career" so anybody who assists me with this acquisition will be mentioned in some sort of literary note.  Ok I'm going to bed now.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Blogging

Here are some random facts/thoughts from me about this blog that I have discovered over the years.  Some of them sound like whining, but they are just part of the process I promise :-)

1. I started this blog completely on impulse.  I literally sat down one day, designed and wrote the first week of posts in about 3 hours.

2.  The main reason for the blog was to give my poor Hubbin a break from my epic book ramblings, thoughts, musings and general blather that would last for days and only have nominal coherency...oddly enough he is one of my most consistent readers, love ya Hubbin!

3.  The blog makes me read books in a different way.  I now usually am writing the rambling in my head as I read, this makes for a completely different experience from before the blog.

4.  The post I write in my head is rarely anything at all like what actually gets posted, between my head and my typing the words come out completely differently.

5.  I sometimes want to rewrite all my ramblings, or add 100 different ramblings for the same book

6.  Sometimes I am so tired with my real life that I hate this blog.

7.  Sometimes I am so tired with my real life that this blog is the best thing I have.

8.  I get anxious when I feel like I won't have a book t ramble about...usually happens when my life is crazy and I don't have any time to read, but somehow it always works out that I finish a book just in time.

9.  Sometimes I read a book with no intention of rambling about it for several reasons.

10.  I can't spell and my grammar is horrific...even with spell check.

11.  I like to change up the look of the blog at the most random times because chaos appeals to me.

12.  I like to go back and read my own posts.

13.  I am still amazed at how much books make my life better, happier, easier, saner and richer.  This blog reminds me on a regular basis how lucky I am to be able to read what I want, when I want and and have any opinion about any book that I so desire.

Now you know a bit how and why I feel about my own blog.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Metawritingreading

Hola!  Guess what?  I finished another book, YAY ME!  Sorry, still a bit sleep deprived and loopy, but very very happy to have gotten a chance to read Afterworlds by one of my favorites Scott Westerfeld.  I actually got this book back around January with one of the gift cards Hubbin got me, but have just now gotten to read it.  Do I love it?  Lets find out, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

This is a bit of a tricky one to sum up, so I'll just try and quickly get the basic points across.  The premise of the book is unique in that it alternates chapters between an actual story and the fictional author who wrote it...confused yet?  It seems very complicated, but it actually works very smoothly.  I will sum up the two stories separately so that we don't get to mixed up.
 The Story - The story portion of the book (helpfully highlighted in black) is called Afterworlds and is the story of Lizzy a girl who survives a horrific terrorist attack by playing dead.  She plays dead so well that she accidentally finds her way to the Afterworld.  In this strange world of the dead she meets Yama a supernatural hottie who has been the lord of the underworld for a very long time.  He sends Lizzie back to the world of the living where she discovers that she can now see ghosts.  She discovers she is what is commonly referred to as a psychopomp, a living person who can navigate the afterworld and guide the souls of the dead.  Lizzy also meets Mindy, the ghost of her mothers friend who was murdered when she was 11 years old.  Lizzy uses her new powers to try and help Mindy out, all while getting all kissy faced with Yama, and learning some very intresting and disturbing techniques from Mr. Hamlyn, a twisted psychopomp who has taken a liking to our heroine.  Lizzy ends up killing the man who killed Mindy and this causes a rift between her and Yama.  She is sad, but learns to move on with her little ghost friend and carries on with her life on both sides.
The Writer - The other half of the book (helpfully marked in white) is about the author of the above story.  Darcy Patel is an Indian-American 18 year old who wrote the book in her last year of highschool.  She gets a huge signing deal for the first book and it's unwritten sequel which makes it possible for her to move to New York and write.  We follow Darcy as she struggles with becoming an adult and working on her writing career.  We watch her try and balance her writers integrity with the need to please her editors, deal with a brand new relationship with fellow new writer Imogene White, balance her budget, and just survive.

Ok...so that was probably a super simplistic summation of the book, but that is essentially what it was.  The question is, did this make for a good read?  I think it did for several reasons...want to hear them?  Good.  The book as a whole seemed to be a big commentary of the world of YA writing, which is not really surprising as I feel most of Mr. Westerfeld's books are a commentary of some sort.  What works so well in this book is that he also tells a great story and creates his signature worlds.  The story side of the book was a very typical (if original) YA paranormal romance, it has all the elements of the genre and checks all the boxes.  I have read a few reviews where people were complaining that the story was a very typical YA paranormal romance and that they expected more, but I think that was kind of the point of the story.  The story side was supposed to be written by a 17 year old girl writing her first novel that was to be published by a company looking for its next big money maker, not an established adult male author who is known for writing original stories.  All that being said, I still thought the story idea was pretty original.  On Darcy's side, I thought it was kind of fun to watch her make decisions about her book and then read the changes in the next chapter.  I like watching her try and juggle her new life, her new relationship and her new career all at the same time.  This allowed the author to bring up several different topics and discuss them in different ways.  The topics of cultural appropriation, writer's integrity, money, sellability, customer expectations, deadlines, stealing ideas, sharing idea's, other authors, and other writery things.  There is a bit of a"wow this girl is super lucky" feel to Darcy's journey, but even this is addressed in the book.  It was fun learning a bit about the process of writing and publishing, while reading the "book" that was being written and published.  Overall I give this book 7 out of 10 ramen noodle bowls and would recommend it to any Westerfeld fans, people who are interested in writing or like a typical paranormal romance.
What do you think of the duel story format?  Do you like knowing how the sausage is made?  What kind of book should I write?

Good Writer Bad Books

I have been noticing something in a couple of the books I have read recently.  The writing has been pretty good...the books have been pretty bad.  What do I mean by this?  Hmmm, how to explain.  Well lets take for instance the Divergent Trilogy, I loved the character of Tris, in fact I liked how pretty much all of the female characters were written.  I thought the how the Dauntless faction was written was wonderful and interesting.  But, the books overall were not good, poorly thought out premises, trite and convenient plot twists,and lead males written like 14 year old girls.  To me there were flashes of brilliance, of a competent

writer and it frustrated me that I did not like the book more.  A book I just finished called Gone Girl (rambling coming very soon) which had a similar problem.  The book was page turningly well written, but the book itself was pretty awful.  I get this some times where I am trying to explain why I don't like a book to somebody.  A lot of the times it has nothing to do with the author and everything to do with it is just a bad book, or story, or premise, or characters or something.  I think these books annoy me so much because I want to read something good by these writers.  I see the potential, enjoy the way they write or their style but just cannot stomach a lot of the actual book.  I doubt I am explaining myself very coherently (what else is new : -) ), but hopefully I am getting some of my frustration across.  I just want these authors who are really good writers to write good books!  

Did this post make any sense?  What book have you read that has a good writer, but you still don't like the book?  What about a good book by a bad writer?  How insanely picky am I?