pbray

Another slow year, but hopefully reading pace will pick up when I finally get to use some vacation days.

FATE'S EDGE by Ilona Andrews
IN THE WOODS by Tana French
SHADOW KIN by M.J. Scott
THE WILD WAYS by Tanya Huff
DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON by Seanan McGuire
FATED by Benedict Jacka
THE NEON COURT by Kate Griffin
DOUBLETAKE by Rob Thurman
DEATH AND RESURRECTION by R.A. MacAvoy
BLACKOUT by Mira Grant
CURSED by Benedict Jacka
ALL SEEING EYE Rob Thurman

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

Reflecting back on 2007, earlier this month I posted my annual writing summary.

Last year I promised myself that I would try to make more time for reading. I'd set a goal of a book a week, but even though I finished up one last book yesterday, I still fell far short. For each book that I managed to read from cover to cover, I have at least two more that I've never opened, or did open and tossed aside after the opening chapters failed to hold my interest.

Not to mention all the reference books that I skimmed but did not read in their entirety.

That said, my ( 2007 Reading List is here. )

the hardest part of packing is deciding which books to bring.

With a Nor'easter forecasted to arrive tonight, the plan was to get up early this morning, head out to the shopping centers to finish Christmas shopping, and then hit the grocery store before things got crazed.

I woke up feeling ill, and didn't take long to realize that whatever bug has been going around has finally caught me. Still I managed to get on the road only a little later than I planned. Finished up almost everything on the list and had lunch while going over the spreadsheet. (Yes, if you are buying for 18 people, 4 of whom have birthdays within a fortnight of Christmas, you make a spreadsheet. But I digress.)

Made it to the supermarket where people had not yet resorted to stabbing each other over the last gallon of milk or loaf of bread, though undoubtedly barbarism set in as the storm drew nearer.

Came home and collapsed on the couch for a nap. Woke up, ran over to jennifer_dunne's house to give the cat a double ration of food and explained that spare human may be late tomorrow, depending on how the storm turns out. Latest forecast says our area should get 4-6 inches of snow mixed with sleet and rain, rather than the 12+ plus of pure snow originally forecast, but as usual we'll see what happens when it gets here. It's supposed to start any minute, so I'm firmly holed up in my cave, ready to wait it out.

Reading: Finished HEART OF STONE by C.E. Murphy, the first book in her new series. That's the second book this month, I'm on a roll!

Watching Criminal Minds last night the part that made my jaw drop wasn't the acting, nor the plot. It wasn't the cinematography that gave a disturbing insight into what it feels like when you're having a psychotic break.

No, it was the part where the writer's agent arrived in a limousine to pick him up for a booksigning.

Later in the episode the agent feels guilty for not having seen his client for several months, and thus not having been close enough to recognize that his client was experiencing a mental breakdown.

It reminded me of Ann Crispin's post earlier this month where she talked about how unrealistic portrayals of the agent/artist relationship may shape the expectations of aspiring writers, inadvertently making them more likely to fall for scam agents with their unrealistic promises.

Real agents don't have time to personally hand-hold each of their clients. They don't drop by for casual visits on the off-chance that we might have a few new pages to share with them, nor do they act as surrogate mothers, secretaries, or lifestyle coaches. I'm sure arcaedia will be pleased to know that I don't expect her to monitor my mental health. Though should I ever make NYT bestseller status and rate a limousine to take me to my booksignings, she's welcome to join me for drinks as we ride.

And in a totally unrelated note, finished WebMage by Kelly McCullough. I'm going to fail at the 52 book challenge I set myself, but it's likely that my 2007 score will be higher than last year's, so that's progress.

Struggling to come up with a decent title for the not-so-sekret project. Having failed at several other methods I'm now compiling a list of suitable verbs and nouns, then playing random mix & match. I'll probably wind up with a title like CHASING KIBBLE or DEATH BY SEMI-COLON.

Luckily I don't need a title at this stage of the game--it would be nice to have, but it's not an absolute requirement.

Reading: Finished DEXTER IN THE DARK by Jeff Lindsay, the third novel in his Dexter series. I enjoyed the book, but not as much as the first two, largely because of ( spoilers here ) Anyway, I'm looking forward to the new season on Showtime which starts next Sunday.

I've reached that stage of not-writing where I am tidying the computer room. Where tidying is a polite euphemism for the pitchfork and shovel required to find buried objects. So far I've discovered the surface of my desk, and sorted through stacks of papers that contained pieces of four different drafts of THE SEA CHANGE. In one stack I had a series of notes that I started to go through, to see if I'd missed anything that could make the book better...

Then remembered that this book is already on store shelves :-)

I have high hopes that I will uncover the floor this weekend, and possibly clear enough space that I can shelve the reference books that are cluttering up the living room.

Reading: Finished Greywalker by Kat Richardson earlier this weekend. Continuing to read the Criminal Investigation textbook and page through histories of the local area, which are proving far more hilarious than their authors presumably intended.

FORENSICS DEMYSTIFIED by Barry Fisher, David Fisher and Jason Kolowski which I picked up at Powell's Books in Portland. It's a basic introduction to forensic science and the various disciplines within--nothing you could use for in-depth research, but enough to get a feel for where I want to go next.

I also took along three mass-market paperbacks and managed to read only about 1/3 of one of them. Very little free time on this trip, as it turned out, and the forensics textbook appealed more than the sci-fi book I was reading, which probably reveals something about both that book and where my brain is at the moment.

Back after spending four days down in Florida visiting my brother & his family. Had a great time--spoiled my nieces, spent some time at the ocean, and we even got out for an adults-only dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse.

Marina and Camila were greatly amused by their Auntie Patricia's repeated attempts to fly, and my obvious consternation when I discovered I lacked the necessary feathers. I wished, and wished, and flapped my arms vigorously, and still was unable to take off.

Marina pointed out that planes don't need to flap their wings to fly. Camila was less vocal in her bemusement, though she did help inspect my back to make sure there was no sign that wings had grown in over night.

Recreated a couple of family pleasures for my brother in honor of father's day--Marina helped me make toll house cookies for him, and then later that night he and I played cribbage, while lamenting the fact that none of his friends in Florida play cards.

No writing was done--I didn't even log onto a computer all weekend, so I'm behind on my friends-list. Though I did manage to read a book during the plane flights-MAGIC BITES by Ilona Andrews, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Two trips in a row has played hell with my novel-in-90 performance, but there are no more trips scheduled between now and when the book is due, so I'll be getting back on the treadmill.

It was a very busy weekend. I became proficient at dosing the cat with her antibiotics, a life skill I hope I don't have to use again soon. Fortunately jennifer_dunne returned home last night, so the cat now has her proper human instead of a spare who merely stops by three times a day.

In writing news, I polished up the article on character naming for the STAR chapter newsletter. While doing the research for the article I purchased yet another book of names, proving that you can never have too many. Which reminds me of the conversation that I had with my brother, while he and his wife were thinking of names for their baby.

Patricia: "Which one of us is expecting a child?"
Andrew: "I am."
Patricia: "And which one of us owns seven books of baby names?"
Andrew: "I guess that would be you. Hey, you think we ought to buy one of those books?"

Yesterday I went to lunch at the Cybercafe, bringing along mizkit's Coyote Dreams, which I couldn't wait to finish. The music system must have been set to shuffle on someone's MP3 player, treating us to everything from heavy metal to power ballads. I wasn't paying much attention when Frank Sinatra came on singing My Way, but as the chorus came up, the patrons spontaneously began singing along.

The rotation also included the theme from Hill Street Blues, which inspired me to go home and purchse my first downloaded song from iTunes. Just hearing the opening bars of that theme I can instantly picture the rain, and the bleak cityscape. It's a great song for evoking despair, which is probably going to be one of my playlists when I get more organized.

Now it's back to the grind--I've finally been allowed to leave the old job, and will be taking a new assignment in the company starting tomorrow. Less finance, more technical. Looking forward to a new set of challenges. Of course, there will be the inevitable transition period where I'm doing two jobs at once, but hey, that's the breaks.