Books and Computers

A Discovery of Witches showed up in the mail yesterday. Yay! As soon as I finish Take a Thief, I'll read and review that for y'all.

It has become painfully clear that it's time for me to buy a new at-home computer (my netbook is still working wonderfully and I loff it).  A few months ago, it decided it didn't like its battery anymore; the battery light was constantly flashing red.  So I took the battery out.  Last week, when I booted it up, it gave me a warning that the AC adapter wasn't the right wattage.  It's the same AC adapter I've had since I bought the frakking thing.  Also, it has a tendency to not come out of hibernation, instead flashing the caps lock light for a full minute before shutting itself down, or just shutting down immediately.  So, yeah.  New computer time.

I've pretty much settled on an HP All-in-One (I love the idea of not having a tower), and I've started saving up for it.  Hopefully I'll be able to buy it in the next couple of weeks, before this one decides it never wants to boot up again.

Free Books!

Guess who won a copy of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness? *raises hand* So in a bit, y'all will have something to read here. Yay!

In the past few weeks, I've translated 600+ lines of Beowulf, worked on the paper for that class, turned in my Doctor Who paper, begun a Fringe re-watch to work on my Fringe paper, and set up (and had approved) two directed readings, one on Arthurian literature and one on Germanic mythology. It's been rather crazy, but rewarding. So this summer I'll be doing the DR on Germanic mythology and taking a class on the Expatriate Novel (not horribly interested, but I need one more American lit credit), then in Fall I'll be taking the other DR and either a class on women's medieval literature or the history of the English language. I haven't decided yet (I want to do BOTH!).

And at some point, I'll finish the new Dragon in the Mall story and get that through critting and submitting.

Book Review: Among Thieves

FTC Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me, and I was unable to finish reading it (I got through chapter 12 before I gave up; that's a bit less than halfway).

I was unable to make an emotional connection with the main character; in the opening scene, he's overseeing the torture of an informant, which put me off of him immediately, and he didn't really redeem himself after that. I also ha...moreFTC Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me, and I was unable to finish reading it (I got through chapter 12 before I gave up; that's a bit less than halfway).

I was unable to make an emotional connection with the main character; in the opening scene, he's overseeing the torture of an informant, which put me off of him immediately, and he didn't really redeem himself after that. I also had a hard time with the levels of intrigue and keeping all of the minor characters and their positions, relationships, and attitudes straight.

I plan to pass this on to a friend who is much more interested in this type of story than I, and hopefully it will find a good home with her.

If I were stuck on a deserted island with only this book: I'd read it, but only right before I went to sleep.

Dragon in a Mall, Redux

I may have finally figured out how to make "The Dragon in the Mall" work again; I'm combining it with the characters from my Super Tech stories.  Instead of telling it linearly, I'm having my supernatural private investigators figure out what's going on in the mall--and ultimately, fight the dragon.  It's so crazy it just might work.

I looked back over the drafts of the previous attempts, and while the prose wasn't bad, I could definitely see where the plot kept derailing, and most of it was because the linear plotline wasn't going to work.  I tried it as flashbacks from the main responding officer's point of view, but that took out a whole lot of tension because we knew he'd survive (and that his partner wouldn't; there was no way to keep him from thinking about her death). I tried it as a straight shot through in "real time," if you will, from the responding officers' point of view, but for some reason, that wouldn't go, either.

Combining it with my Super Tech investigators gives me a sense of mystery, as well as a whole lot of tension because they're in a mall that's full of dead bodies.  Also, it allows for a certain twist at the end which I won't spoil for you, Gentle Readers, in case it ever gets published and you want to read it.

Now all I need is a better title.  I'm trying to figure out what the scientific name for a mall-dragon would be--the Latin designation for a European dragon is Draconis Occidentalis, and I thought I could title the story "Draconis Mallus" or something, but it doesn't appear that there's a word in Latin for "mall."  I'll figure something out.

I'm just happy to be writing fiction again.  Hooray for Spring Break.

Anthology Submission

"The Queen's Huntsman" is off to the Twisted Fairytales Vol. 2 anthology from Wicked East Press.  According to the website, I'll learn something in mid-April.

Book Review: Voices of Dragons

After the nuclear war of WWII, dragons abandoned their hiding places in the deep places of the world and began a war with humans. They struck a truce which gave them territory in a few mountainous regions across the world, and they and humanity have not spoken for 60 years. When Kay accidentally crosses the border into Dragon and meets a young, curious dragon who wants to learn to speak English better, they begin a new era in human-dragon communication--just in time for war to break out anew.

I enjoyed this book. I don't tend to be a huge fan of YA lit (though there is more and more quality literature in that category these days), but this was good. I read Carrie Vaughn's adult books--the Kitty novels--and like those a lot. This did not have the same depth of worldbuilding or plotting that those do, but then, this is one book rather than several. The pacing is very good, and there are no wasted plot points; everything ties together well at the end. I hadn't meant to read this quite yet--I'm supposed to be reading and reviewing Among Thieves--but it was sitting next to my chair and I picked it up during a commercial, and then I had to finish it. Definitely engrossing.

3/5

Blackberry!

After much whining and pouting and insisting and arguing, I finally convinced the DH to let me buy a Blackberry.  I say "let" not because he's the boss of me or any such thing, but because we throw all our money in a big pot and take out of it what we need, so entering into something like this without his consent would be a big deal.  And then he decided that he wanted one, too, so we went with a family plan.

Mine's a Blackberry Curve.  Purple. Very pretty.  My ringtone is the Doctor Who theme.  My text message notification is a Dalek's "Exterminate!" And other notifications are the ICQ "Uh-oh!"

Later, I might figure out how to do mobile blogging, but for right now, I'm happy with having Pandora Mobile and a QWERTY keyboard.

Submission

I just sent "Talking to Dead People" out to Silver Blade Magazine.  I'll keep you updated.

Edit: The story has now also been submitted to Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show.