Books and the Good Read

Many of us read to relax. The public library is literally two blocks from where I work. The good news: all the money I save from borrowing vs buying books. The bad news: the library calls when a book request comes in, and they're calling at least twice a week, driving DH nuts.

Tuesday I visited the library and two of my requests were in. Yay! I'm currently reading a paranormal, but it's been a challenge to get into. Then I accidentally left it at work. So I did what many of you would have done with time on your hands and a TBR (to be read) pile awaiting. I picked up a new book. Oh, I fully intended to finish the other one first before I really got into the meat of the second one.

Ha.

Every once in a while I come across a series that might as well be my crack. I would give up food for the next page of one of these books, so you know how serious this is. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels are one series. And one of the books I picked up the other day was the latest of the In Death series, "Innocent In Death" by J.D. Robb.

Oh. My. Bob.

I was sucked in, twisted up in knots, turned inside out, horrified and laughed out loud. That book went with me everywhere. To work, the BMV, and to bed. Maybe my eyes looked wild and feverish, because DH and the dog kept their distance. There was no amount of candle snorting that could bring me down off this buzz. For two whole days I might as well have worn a big red sign that said, "LEAVE ME ALONE. I AM TRYING TO READ MY DAMN BOOK."

I finished the book this morning, making me nearly late for work. Seriously, how can you possibly expect me to put a book down when I'm down to the last five pages? I might as well have tried to rip my own arm off.

So, whew. I'm better now. I LOVE books that make me all crazy when I read them. They make me think. I love the "A-ha!" moment when a clue falls into place, even if it is a half-second before the whodunit is revealed.

So now I'm going to try to get back to that paranormal. I still have hopes for it and Nora's book recharged my batteries somewhat (for those of you who don't know, Nora Roberts is the genius behind the J.D. Robb pen name).

Which reminds me, Jayne Ann Krentz has a new novel out. She is another author I go ga-ga over. She also has the distinction of having been the first author I met and where I instantly became a blathering idiot. Sadly, she probably won't be the last.

Which authors rev your engine?

I just finished two books and I am trying to figure out why one took me two weeks to read and the other two days. Yes the one was slightly longer than the other, but I can't remember the last time it took me two weeks to read a book. Wait - I take that back. It was one of the Bronte novels whose title escapes me because it was a classic I never got around to reading before. I enjoyed the novel. I think it rhythm of the prose that took me so long. I don't know. Maybe there is something about the meter of speech from the 1800s or even the early 1900s that slows me up. In a way that is good, like savoring the taste of a new food and trying to decide if you like it or not.

Incidentally, I typically hate "the classics". I'm not too terribly fond of award winners either. I guess my beat comes from a different drummer. I did like "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh." But if someone offered me money to reread "Sister Carrie" I think I'd rather be driven over by a bus. In fact, I remember wishing a bus would run over her. I guess that would have been a hackney or hansom (sp?) cab back then, but you get the point.

Anyway, novel A was a mystery. I like mysteries. I inherited that from my dad. I think he at one time owned every Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie novel in paperback. This novel was by a reputable author with several other novels in print. Maybe it was because of the odd mood I've been in of late. Maybe there were too many characters and I couldn't keep them straight in my head. I hate that when that happens. Even as late as 50 pages to go in the novel, I had to flip back and figure out who the protagonist was because I kept confusing her name with that of a secondary character.

Now the second novel was a romance, also by a reputable author. It had far less characters to keep straight. There was a bit of a mystery that I saw coming a mile away, but I am one of those insatiable people who has to know if the hunch is right (I was). The hero was a little too good to be true, hardly any growth other than "hey, I think I just fell in love." But then again, I've always been a bit of a sucker for those knights in shining armor.

I did like both books. I just thought it was odd that one took me so much longer to read than the other.

I think I need another run to the library. I have a feeling I'll be wanting the escapism this week. Sunday I found out that my uncle was in the hospital. Normally I call my folks on the weekend, but I got sidetracked. The more I thought about my uncle, the more concerned I got, but I tried to shake it off. I mean, if it was serious, someone would have called, right?

I called my folks last night. My uncle is not good. Basically a lifetime of vices and weaknesses have caught up with him. I'd like to say we were close. He is my godfather, but he moved out to Delaware when I was little and I really haven't seen him very often. The last time I saw him was at my wedding four years ago. And yet I really feel smacked upside the head about this. Even over the phone, I could tell my parents were beginning to grieve, and I felt myself beginning to do so too.

DH and I talked about this some last night. Unfortunately, we are reaching a stage in our lives where the death of aunts and uncles is probable and in some cases, a waiting game. I'm just afraid I am not ready for this particular stage of life. Maybe I'm afraid that it will be a domino effect. Then there are our own parents to consider and I don't want to even consider it. It doesn't help matters that the last time I saw my folks they sat me down and told me some of the updated details of their will (on the lighter side of things, my sisters and I were going to sent to live with some divorced relatives - DH thought that was hilarious since we are all nearly all over age 30 and the relatives had about the ugliest divorce ever).

For everything there is a season, right?

Time to air out the place

New post: I'm sick of the last one being the first thing everyone reads when the come over here. I don't know about you guys, but I think it's depressing as hell.

I'm doing all right. I'm sleeping a lot more, and frankly that's better than stressing out. Stress is hell on my stomach. Hopefully the things causing the stress will be over in a few weeks and I can more or less get back to normal. And the sleep is probably a good thing, since before I was existing on about 5 hours a night and then crashing on the weekends. You know how it is. First one up, last one to bed and not enough hours in the day.

On to happier thoughts. I just picked up the the JAK novel "White Lies," which I'm dying to get into. Thing is, I'm in the middle of another novel and I hate starting one thing up when I'm in the middle of something else. I get the characters all mixed up and end up with some pretty wacky dreams. Like a historical paranormal cowboy theme.

The novel I'm reading is "For Better or Hearse" by Laura Durham. It's a light amateur sleuth mystery and I'm enjoying it. I just got to the "I know who done it!" part, and wouldn't you know it, I had to go into work. I don't think they'd appreciate my being late even if the mystery was solved on the next page. I'll have to finish it at lunch. Then I'll dig into Jayne's new novel!

And that, folks, is the extent of my plans for the weekend. Have a good one.

A Good Read & a PS

I know, I know. Why aren't you writing??!

Because I'm a book addict, that's why. If I hadn't picked up a book from the library, I would have reread something from my stacks at home. And I just reread virtually everything. I finished my Calvin and Hobbs anthology last week. It was a nice jaunt down memory lane too.

I think it was on the CB Bar and Grill blog that someone mentioned an anthology called "Valentine's Day is Killing Me" with MaryJanice Davidson. Yes, "Cuffs and Coffee Breaks" was a hoot and she got our emailing culture down to a T. Cruising the stacks, I found another gem of hers called, "The Royal Treatment." I'm almost half way through and I've lost track of the number of times I've laughed out loud.

Yes, I'm plugging a book I haven't finished yet. I like it that much.

And I love Edmund. He is officially my current favorite supporting character. He's snarky and sarcastic as hell.

Go check it out.

PS: I finished the book. Still like it.

I have a question though. Well, first a comment. I am such a sheep. First reaction, I really liked "The Royal Treatment." Then I read other people's thoughts of some other books. And naturally I started to think. Always a bad sign. I don't like whiners either. I didn't think the heroine was that bad, but she wasn't my favorite character either. Edmund is still one of my all-time favorite secondary characters. Come on, his response the the "off with his head" order still makes me LOLROTFLMAO.

But still it reminded me of how on Will & Grace, my favorite characters were Jack and Karen.

It seems I've always done this. Start with my own opinion, then when I hear other people's thoughts on the same thing, I start to doubt myself. Maybe I latch on to the positive and immediately forget the so-so stuff. I mean, really. Is it worth getting worked up about? And I do have my wall-thumper reads. Trust me.

Maybe I just don't think everything though as thoroughly as I should before I open my mouth. And I'm not bringing this up because others have voiced their opinions. Good grief, I'd be the most unilluminated person on the planet if they didn't. Maybe it's bothering me because it takes me so long to formulate a thought I'm happy with to throw out into the fray. Then someone says something and I see a hole in what I've said, and have to think about it some more. And as a matter of fact, I was horrible at debate. It would take me a week to get through an argument.

You know, I actually had a question when I started this PS. Now I think I'll just end it with this. Teach me. Illuminate me. Turn on that light bulb hovering over my head. Tell me your point of view and why. Go ahead and prove me wrong, but back it up.

And don't forget the chocolate. There are wonderful thought-provoking properties of chocolate that add to the thinking process.

Space: The Final Frontier (white space on a page, that is)

My journey into writerdom began as an exercise to block out the day's craziness in order to fall asleep. I hated my job then and the stress was eating me alive. That's how my little world of Fairlane was born.

I kinda liked the people there, and they had some interesting things going on and I decided to write it down.

My first writing project was set in historical New England. Why New England? I've only been there twice, both when I was considerably younger. To be honest, I just cannot see a whole lot of interest for stories set in rural Indiana. For the time period I'm working with, Indiana was predominately agricultural unless you were on the main waterways. My hometown is LaPorte, which means "the door." As in, someplace you pass through on your way to someplace else. I now live in Lafayette and am gradually learning about the importance of the waterways to the area. Shipping and commerce are more in the lines of what I need from my hero. He needs to be wealthy, but not just living off the family fortune. My hero needs to be able to create an empire of power, money and information that will make him a force to be reckoned with -- until our heroine shows up and twists him up in knots.

I also needed a place near the cities of importance to my characters' world. He is in business. He needs to be near big cities, shipping centers, major hubs of industry. She is a physician, a rarity for the late 1800s. The first women's college for physicians was in Pennsylvania in the 1890s. Women physicians primarily treated women and children in the beginning and those hospitals were the first to hire them. Travel by train was common, so to have our heroine working in hospitals in New York, and Boston would fit. Their worlds would overlap in a realistic fashion for the time.

The characters have evolved considerably since my first attempts to put them on a page. My hero was too perfect, too best-friend-like. He had nowhere to grow. My heroine was worse. She was a crying, fainting, weak thing. I had set aside my first draft for a few years and when I reread it, I couldn't stand her. Sure, she had room to grow, but who cared? She wasn't worthy of Mr. Perfect and the two of them together were to most boring lovestory ever told.

So I went back to the "masters." I reread and studied who I liked to read: Amanda Quick, Johanna Lindsay, and Julia Quinn with little detours to Jennifer Crusie, Janet Evanovich, Laurell K. Hamilton and Katie MacAllister.

I am older now and so is my heroine. I didn't really know myself until I hit my thirties, so I made her mature for her age and a bit older than the usual marriagable age. I wanted her to be close in age to the hero so that they grew up together, forging a bond at an early age that carried over into adulthood. What could possibly be more unnerving for the town's most eligible bachelor than someone who knows his every secret?

I'm going to break this process into a couple of posts, but I'll leave you with my worst sin from my first draft: I assumed that since my grandmother talked about making chocolate chip cookies as a child, that the cookies were around forever. What difference could 30 years possibly make? A lot apparently. Chocolate chips were not available to the public until the 20th century, so do not put them in your historical novel taking place in 1890. Do the research. We have the internet now, so some of these things are easier to find than ever.

Hey, Rosalie. I think I gotta little virus.

(from I Love You To Death)

Actually not a virus, but was miserable just the same.

Every once in a while my body decides to take a little siesta, complete with Montezuma’s Revenge for whatever reason. Apparently too much stress, too little sleep and an extremely sensitive stomach was reason enough this time. Plus throw in Mother Nature’s way of saying, “Hey, you’re not PG,” and I was down for the count. I know, TMI, but I swear it’s like getting the stomach flu every month with every worst symptom. Yay me.

While I was in a moping contest yesterday with the dog for “Who is More Pathetic,” I finished reading Janet Evanovich’s “How I Write.” Excellent book, and not just for Plum maniacs such as myself who want to know every since detail of what went into writing the series of Stephanie Plum mysteries. In the back is an excellent section of resources for writers, including organizations, books and websites. As soon as I am fit to go out in public, I’m going to comb my local library to see what they’ve got from Janet's lists.

Over the weekend, my husband and I rented some movies, none of which were particularly noteworthy with the possible exception of “The Sentinel” with Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland. I liked it and was pleasantly surprised. Our other selections were kinda “out there” and included “Larry the Cable Guy in Health Inspector” (DH's pick. I cannot believe someone let my stepson watch it and it wasn’t at our house), “UltraViolet” (loved the cinematography and choreography but fell asleep due to the plot) and a documentary on the Boston comedy club scene from the eighties (love Stephen Wright, but it turns out I wanted straight up comedy, not a documentary about it).

Speaking of, my favorite Stephen Wright line is, “I spilled spot remover on my dog and he disappeared.”

Followed by my next favorite, “I’m in love with my dental hygienist. I eat a box of Oreos an hour before my appointment.”

(These are paraphrased because I don’t have my source handy and the man is just too funny not to share.)

Now if you will excuse me, I need to try and suck down some more 7-Up. Cheers.

Janet and Alex Rules!

DH and I took a long weekend and visited my parents and (wink, wink) Janet Evanovich just happened to have a book signing in Nashville Monday night. Not only was I able to be among the first fifteen fans in line, but I got to meet Alex too.

Can you tell I'm trying to restrain myself here? Because what I really want to say is, "OHMYGOD I GOT TO MEET JANET AND THAT WAS SOOOO COOL AND ALEX WAS FREAKIN' AMAZING TO MEET TOO AND JANET SIGNED MY LIKE FAVORITE BOOK AND OHMYGOD IT WAS LIKE FAN-TASTIC!"

But, no, I'm restraining myself.

Seriously, this was a major deal for me. I am an absolute Plum Crazy fan and harass Alex on the Q&A all the time. I was afraid if I told Alex who I was she'd call security. That and there were tons of people in line and I didn't want to be a pig. Well, any more of a pig than I already was.

As for the DH and DSS portion of the weekend, we were lucky enough to be in town for the Orange County Choppers 2006 tour. For those of you who don't know, OCC is the motorcycle garage on American Choppers on the Discovery Channel with Paul Sr, Paulie, Mickey, Vinnie, Rick, Cody, Christian, Jason, and the rest of the gang. I'm not a true motorcycle person, but I can truly appreciate the beauty of these bikes. They brought twelve of their choppers with them for the fans to see and the level of detail was just insane. The television just doesn't do them justice. It was a great show, and family-oriented which was nice, especially considering I had no idea what to expect. I was accidentally in Sturgis at the beginning of the big rally up there one year. At first I wasn't intimidated, but then I saw part of the pay-per-view special from after I left ... and you can probably kinda guess the reasons for my hesitation from there. There are hard-core bikers and then there are great families who have bikes.

And Mikey ... that guy just cracks me up. I'd consider myself a serious groupie, but well, I'm married and that seriously cuts down on my lusting after the funny guy. Gotta love Mikey though.

So now we are back in Indiana and it just started to snow. Flurries, really, but still. Ugh. I wanna go back already.

Happy Dance

I just realized that I will be heading for Tennessee for a visit with the folks and the Janet Evanovich book signing in little more than a week. I am doing the Snoopy Happy Dance.

I’ve been rereading my Plum novels the past few weeks. Ranger is fun, but I’m definitely a Cupcake. Funny thing is, when I tried my hand at Plum fiction about a year ago, I ended up with Ranger. Actually, his brother, but still. Go figure.

With any luck, I will be able to keep from making a complete cake of myself at the signing. Janet’s daughter Alex runs the web site and I’m just as much a fan of hers as I am Janet’s. The site is a lot of fun, (http://www.evanovich.com), with photos of reader pets, Ask Alex, games, trivia, etc.

Yay!

Wallbangers

Wallbangers
As defined at http://www.jennycrusie.com/cherries.php: books that are so bad they cannot merely be discarded but must be thrown against a wall with great force.

I picked up a book from the library the other day (I’m poor. If I like it enough to read again, I’ll buy it.) In the book’s defense, I was (notice the past tense) actually enjoying the book until I got to the first love scene. Now, I am not really a prude, not even a closet prude. I love well-written love scenes. A well-written scene will advance the plot, advance the emotional level of the story and cause you to either grab some chocolate or your sweetie.

Unfortunately, I read this one over breakfast and all I could think was, “What were you thinking?” Did not start the day on a good note, let me tell you.

The scene not only struck me as wholly unromantic, but smacked of rape. These are alpha males we are talking about, but the hero is never alpha to the point that he becomes a villain. As of that scene, he is no longer the noble protector that would do anything for his lady love. Because now in my head, he just did the unthinkable.

The heroine said no, several times in fact. She fought and did everything she should have to make him stop and he didn’t. And at the end of the act she thought she might be in love with him.

Aack.

Violence and rape is a real hot button with me. I saw The Accused when I was in college, and it emotionally scarred me. It gave me nightmares for years. It was an excellent movie, but not one I will ever watch again. If there is a scene on TV or in a movie, I have to leave the room. If I don’t, the images are burned in my mind’s eye and I see it over and over again. I watch movies to escape or be entertained, not cause me to look up a therapist.

I bullied my way to the second love scene of the book, but my interest is gone now. The hero is no more a hero. He is well, creepy.

The really sad thing is this was an author I thought I actually liked. It has been a while since I’d read anything of hers and the premise sounded light and romantic.

Since the book has officially banged off my wall, it will be long time before I dare pick up another one of her books, if ever.

Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!

(Sons of the Desert, Laurel & Hardy)

I've had an epiphany. I have been shown a marvelous creation, one filled with unlimited possibilities, treasures to behold.

I have discovered ... EBay. Heaven, help me. Please.

And much to my d's amusement, I've also learned the heartbreak of losing an on-line auction. By a measly 50 cents. The bastard. I guess that's what happens if you go brush your teeth with 3 minutes to go. Sigh.

To be very honest, I was buying a new floppy drive for my new/ancient laptop. I think it's circa 1980. Very large, very heavy. But then I am very poor. I got the laptop for $15 in a garage sale. Come on, folks. For word processing, you can not beat that. And now it will have a new floppy drive. For $7. The auction I lost was for the all-important battery, which did not come with the laptop (come on, it was 15 dollars, people!). When I when to brush my teeth, the bidding for 2 batteries was $7, plus shipping bringing the total to a whopping 15 bucks. Can you blame me for getting a little excited? I was about to have a new laptop for under $50. Since the bargain got away, I am now faced with the prospect of paying $35 for 1 battery, plus shipping. Of course, the laptop is worthless without it ...

By the way, the hinge to the monitor broke on my old one. It's like trying to type on a bobblehead. But I have to say, I've done a lot more work on my MS with it when I stay at work for my lunchhour.

I did about 800 words on the MS yesterday. Not bad considering the DSS had soccer practice and I picked up the Crusie novel I had somehow missed, "Fast Women." LMAO at the smashing icicles scene. DH gave me these odd looks as I would cackle to myself.

BTW, the Millers on America's Got Talent last night? They are from my hometown of Lafayette IN. I have never had a harmonica give me chills before. That kid will go places.

Well, back to the grind ...