I got the proof copy of my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel. Aside from the picture on the front cover being a bit too low-res for the size it was printed, it looks awesome. It's put me in the mood to push on my editing a little more.
Speaking of editing, I've worked my way through the first four chapters and am working on chapter 5. I'm making at least decent headway!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Draft Ordered!
I ordered the draft of my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel today. I can't wait for it to get here! /bounce
Treasure Hunt - reading
Finished "Treasure Hunt" by John Lescroart. I think I'm going to give up on the private eye/murder mystery genre, and this book is to blame. I picked it up solely because the project I'm doing at work is codenamed Treasure Hunt. By the time I was halfway through, I was tired of it. I couldn't wait for it to be over. The dialog was lame and repetitive, and the author seemed to have some kind of food fetish. I *really* don't need to be walked through the entire recipe your character is preparing! So, yeah, not recommended.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Redwall - reading
Finished "Redwall" by Brian Jacques. It was the cutest little story of war, brutality, maiming, death and heroism I've ever read!
CreateSpace Draft of 2010 NaNo Novel
I just spent a couple hours compiling a version of the first draft of my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel for CreateSpace. Hopefully if it gets approved, I'll be able to order a print so I can put it next to the one I printed with LuLu from 2008. Then I'll need to figure out what I'm going to use to print a copy of my 2009 story.
On the up side, CreateSpace provides Word templates that you can use to format your book contents. On the down side, I have OpenOffice, so it might not come out exactly right, but hopefully it will be close enough. Also on the down side, OpenOffice crashed when I got about halfway through the reformat, so I had to basically start over from there. I saved much more frequently the second time around, I assure you!
Now I'm off to read a bit.
On the up side, CreateSpace provides Word templates that you can use to format your book contents. On the down side, I have OpenOffice, so it might not come out exactly right, but hopefully it will be close enough. Also on the down side, OpenOffice crashed when I got about halfway through the reformat, so I had to basically start over from there. I saved much more frequently the second time around, I assure you!
Now I'm off to read a bit.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
February, March, April 2011 catch-up - reading
February 15, 2011:
Finished "The Terror" by Dan Simmons. Nasty and brutish, but not short (766 pages), this explored the 1845 Franklin Expedition searching for the Northwest Passage and the difficulties they faced, both natural and mythical. Fantastic and immersive, I admit the ending was less satisfying than I would have liked, but still enjoyable and revealing. I was particularly tickled at the difference between the sea captain's thoughts and words while in polite company.
February 17, 2011:
Finished "I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!" by Bob Newhart. This was my break after finishing The Terror, and it definitely was a change of pace. Silly stories and jokes, recaps of old routines, old shows and old friends, it was a light memoir from someone I remember from when I was a kid. I do like his dry sense of humor.
March 5, 2011:
Finished "Saturn" by Ben Bova. This didn't even get interesting until most of the way through book 1. After that, the author liked to show his hand a lot, so it was really only alright.
March 14, 2011:
Finished "Time Travelers Never Die" by Jack McDevitt. Of all the time travel books and movies I've read/seen so far (and there are a LOT of them), this one is the lamest. It's not that the writing was necessarily bad. It's just that the two protagonists were just that stupid throughout. I was amused when near the end they were described as a comedy duo because of their differences, since throughout the story I was thinking it should've been called, "Laurel and Hardy Find a Time Machine." Or Abbott and Costello. Maybe it was Laurel and Costello.
March 25, 2011:
Finished "Variable Star" by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson. Have you ever been impressed by a discussion with someone who is very smart and quick-witted, who always seems to be just ahead of you? That was the beginning of this story for me. The pace was quick, and the main character smart and funny. It was difficult to maintain, however, as though the very smart, quick-witted person got tired but kept talking for a good chunk of the middle. The ending was excellent, though - almost as good as the beginning. Overall, this was entertaining and well-researched. I find myself wanting to look for more from Spider Robinson after having finished this.
April 13, 2011
Finished "The Dark Volume" by Gordon Dahlquist. I did not realize this was a sequel to another book! (Such is my curse, it seems.) Not having read the predecessor did not detract from this book much, though. I loved the world he created, and the "science" of the clay and glass. Mr. Dahlquist's prose describes a scene so efficiently that it sometimes takes a couple passes through to really understand all the nuances he has presented. Not to say it is bad - just that I couldn't keep up! He certainly had some pet words (scruple & snort!), and used more analogies than he really should have, but the writing was generally solid. On the other hand, the story itself was a bit hard to follow. I had a tough time keeping track of everyone and what they were doing and with whom, especially when some were using aliases and others were "remembering" things that someone else had experienced. The story ended with a cliffhanger, which I really did not appreciate. I would have liked some things to be wrapped up a little better.
April 20, 2011:
Finished "Haiku: A Novel" by Andrew Vachss. I really liked this story of a group of homeless who are drawn together from vastly different places. On the other hand, the main character, Ho, reminded me of Sphinx from Mystery Men, so I found comedy in places where it wasn't intended.
April 26, 2011:
Finished "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien. This was my first time reading the trilogy all the way through. (I've seen the movies, of course.) This emotional conclusion pulls together the rest of the story quite nicely. Even in triumph, the cost of victory is heavy. I still need to go through some of the appendices. I find it difficult to push my way through Tolkien's writing style, which is why it took me so long to get to this point.
Finished "The Terror" by Dan Simmons. Nasty and brutish, but not short (766 pages), this explored the 1845 Franklin Expedition searching for the Northwest Passage and the difficulties they faced, both natural and mythical. Fantastic and immersive, I admit the ending was less satisfying than I would have liked, but still enjoyable and revealing. I was particularly tickled at the difference between the sea captain's thoughts and words while in polite company.
February 17, 2011:
Finished "I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!" by Bob Newhart. This was my break after finishing The Terror, and it definitely was a change of pace. Silly stories and jokes, recaps of old routines, old shows and old friends, it was a light memoir from someone I remember from when I was a kid. I do like his dry sense of humor.
March 5, 2011:
Finished "Saturn" by Ben Bova. This didn't even get interesting until most of the way through book 1. After that, the author liked to show his hand a lot, so it was really only alright.
March 14, 2011:
Finished "Time Travelers Never Die" by Jack McDevitt. Of all the time travel books and movies I've read/seen so far (and there are a LOT of them), this one is the lamest. It's not that the writing was necessarily bad. It's just that the two protagonists were just that stupid throughout. I was amused when near the end they were described as a comedy duo because of their differences, since throughout the story I was thinking it should've been called, "Laurel and Hardy Find a Time Machine." Or Abbott and Costello. Maybe it was Laurel and Costello.
March 25, 2011:
Finished "Variable Star" by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson. Have you ever been impressed by a discussion with someone who is very smart and quick-witted, who always seems to be just ahead of you? That was the beginning of this story for me. The pace was quick, and the main character smart and funny. It was difficult to maintain, however, as though the very smart, quick-witted person got tired but kept talking for a good chunk of the middle. The ending was excellent, though - almost as good as the beginning. Overall, this was entertaining and well-researched. I find myself wanting to look for more from Spider Robinson after having finished this.
April 13, 2011
Finished "The Dark Volume" by Gordon Dahlquist. I did not realize this was a sequel to another book! (Such is my curse, it seems.) Not having read the predecessor did not detract from this book much, though. I loved the world he created, and the "science" of the clay and glass. Mr. Dahlquist's prose describes a scene so efficiently that it sometimes takes a couple passes through to really understand all the nuances he has presented. Not to say it is bad - just that I couldn't keep up! He certainly had some pet words (scruple & snort!), and used more analogies than he really should have, but the writing was generally solid. On the other hand, the story itself was a bit hard to follow. I had a tough time keeping track of everyone and what they were doing and with whom, especially when some were using aliases and others were "remembering" things that someone else had experienced. The story ended with a cliffhanger, which I really did not appreciate. I would have liked some things to be wrapped up a little better.
April 20, 2011:
Finished "Haiku: A Novel" by Andrew Vachss. I really liked this story of a group of homeless who are drawn together from vastly different places. On the other hand, the main character, Ho, reminded me of Sphinx from Mystery Men, so I found comedy in places where it wasn't intended.
April 26, 2011:
Finished "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien. This was my first time reading the trilogy all the way through. (I've seen the movies, of course.) This emotional conclusion pulls together the rest of the story quite nicely. Even in triumph, the cost of victory is heavy. I still need to go through some of the appendices. I find it difficult to push my way through Tolkien's writing style, which is why it took me so long to get to this point.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
January 2011 Catch-Up - reading
January 4, 2011:
Finished "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. Though highly rated and recommended, I didn't like it. Two forms of deus ex machina; suspension of disbelief suffered from several things I just couldn't buy into even temporarily; lots of time wasted running circles around the main character's insecurities. Also, if I were betting on the games, I'd have good reason to claim fraud on the part of the game controllers.
January 6, 2011:
Finished "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club). I'm still not sure what to make of this one. While the transformation of the main character was extreme, in some respects I might have better enjoyed the story of the main character's brother. On the other hand, filling in the blanks as the story unfolded was kindof interesting.
January 18, 2011:
Finished "Catching Fire" (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins. The writing was better than The Hunger Games (better editor?). I hate when the main character is left to her own thoughts, devolving into irritating worst-case scenario self-loathing. Rarely do her thoughts come to pass, and as such, I tend to dismiss them out of hand. Plot-wise, I can only say, "It's about time."
January 30, 2011:
Finished "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan. This showed up in my mailbox randomly yesterday, sent to me by my employer (also the book's publisher). It was kindof like reading someone's blog posts on food. There were 64 rules, each just less than a page long. What they said made sense, mostly. Most annoying thing: referring to rules by number, particularly to ones that appear later in the book.
Finished "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. Though highly rated and recommended, I didn't like it. Two forms of deus ex machina; suspension of disbelief suffered from several things I just couldn't buy into even temporarily; lots of time wasted running circles around the main character's insecurities. Also, if I were betting on the games, I'd have good reason to claim fraud on the part of the game controllers.
January 6, 2011:
Finished "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club). I'm still not sure what to make of this one. While the transformation of the main character was extreme, in some respects I might have better enjoyed the story of the main character's brother. On the other hand, filling in the blanks as the story unfolded was kindof interesting.
January 18, 2011:
Finished "Catching Fire" (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins. The writing was better than The Hunger Games (better editor?). I hate when the main character is left to her own thoughts, devolving into irritating worst-case scenario self-loathing. Rarely do her thoughts come to pass, and as such, I tend to dismiss them out of hand. Plot-wise, I can only say, "It's about time."
January 30, 2011:
Finished "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan. This showed up in my mailbox randomly yesterday, sent to me by my employer (also the book's publisher). It was kindof like reading someone's blog posts on food. There were 64 rules, each just less than a page long. What they said made sense, mostly. Most annoying thing: referring to rules by number, particularly to ones that appear later in the book.
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