more books

Without further ado . . .
26) Whitechapel Gods by S. M. Peters. I enjoyed this; it's sort of steampunk/revolution noir. But it's not a keeper for me. The story was well constructed, I was fascinated by the religion Peters created, and the action was exciting, but I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters. If you dig steampunk books, give this one a shot.
27) Achilles by Elizabeth Cook. A reimagining of Achilles' life. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes classic literature. But I probably won't reread it, so it's not a keeper.
28) The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. There's a lot I could say about this one. It won a Nebula Award, which is partially why I picked it up. The futuristic vision of Bangkok is great, the political strings running throughout the story were great, as was the underlying commentary on the concept of genetically engineering plants/diseases/people. But. I'm not sure what the overall point of the story was. And I really felt like the male characters were well fleshed out while the few female characters present were stock characters. They felt flat to me, and somewhat cliche. That frustrated me. I wanted those women to make choices, to act. Instead they just reacted, over and over again. So this one is not a keeper for me.
29) Daemon's Mark by Caitlin Kittredge. The fifth and final book in the Nocturne City series. Loved it! Good story, and I love the characters. I also appreciate the fact that everything is not all neatly tied up in a bow at the end. Things are still messy. The main character, Luna, still has some big issues to work through. The happyish ending in this book was much more realistic than a happy ending would have been, and I'm glad that the writer was ballsy enough to let the ending be the way it needed to be. I dig this whole series; anybody who likes urban fantasy should definitely check out Caitlin's books.
There is one more book I've read, but I think it needs its own post. I'm still reeling from it. But I've hit thirty books before the end of June, which puts me on track for reading sixty this year.
Oh, important milestone: I hit 40K on my novel last night. Halfway there!
Next time I blog I'll talk about more than just books. I'm not really ready to discuss anything else today. Have a good evening, everybody!

take a breath, dive back in

It's been over a week since my last post. Sorry about that; I just have a hard time sitting down and documenting, I guess. So, life since the last time we spoke . . .
K's visit was great. She was here for a week filled with sunshine and thunderstorms, museums and walks in the park, medical appointments and lazy mornings with big cups of coffee. K is one of those friends who is so comfortable, so easy for me to be with, that it's like we've never been apart. And it'd been almost two years since we'd seen each other last, so it was really nice for her to finally make it out to NYC. It was her first time here ever, so it was really entertaining to show her around the city! We also went to a concert. Concrete Blonde. They were AMAZING, as always! This year is the twentieth anniversary of Bloodletting so it was a greatest hits concert, of sorts. They played every song I could have possible asked for. The night before that I saw Patty Griffin---equally good, but totally different. Much more mellow. Concrete Blonde rocks pretty hard.
The best part of seeing K? I'll see her again in August, when I'm in Seattle, and I'll see her probably one more time later this year here in NYC again.
Ah, books. There've been a few, and I've been remiss by not talking about them. And here I am running out of time, so I'll just hit one or two. 25) Interfictions, edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss. Full disclosure, I submitted a short to this collection, so was really looking forward to seeing what stories did get chosen for inclusion. And I have to be honest and say that I was not impressed with most of it. I understand why most of them got chosen, and the interstitiality of them. But I didn't think all the writing was very good. Sometimes the story was better than the writing, and sometimes it was the other way around. A couple stories really caught me, like Catherynne Valente's and K. Tempest Bradford's, but there just wasn't enough in this collection that I really loved, so it's not a keeper for me.
Happy Litha, everyone! It's that time of year again; Summer Solstice, when the days are longest in the whole year. According to the old calendar, this is actually Midsummer (which makes sense if you look at the length of the days).
And now it's time to go. More books next time, but now I'm heading home to play my clarinet and do some writing!

overdue post

So I can't get my pictures to cooperate for some reason. I was going to post a picture of my huge pile of books from BEA, but no . . . Oh well.
BEA was great! As I said before, I met a number of really nice people. I got some books that I'm really excited about, including Ascendant by Diana Peterfreund (sequel to Rampant; killer unicorns!), Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution, Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon, The Beastly Bride edited by Ellen Datlow, and Melissa Marr's Radiant Shadows. Yes, it was a big YA year. But the biggest score on my bookshelf is Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I haven't read it yet, because I'm working through my book club reading right now, but Cassie's book is absolutely next on my list. So, two days, five tote bags, a ton of books, and one cab ride later, I would say that BEA was a total success for me.
Last weekend I went to the Renegade Craft Fair, which I hit every year in Brooklyn. It was wicked, as always. I got a great green skirt, a darling cloche hat with a pink flower on it, a cross-stitch necklace, and a seven-year pen. I also got a onesie and a hoodie for my nephew and niece, respectively. My partner-in-crime bought three t-shirts, too. All in all, a great afternoon in the sunshine checking out arts and crafts! There was really a lot of cool stuff this year. I could've bought a couple different shoulder bags, a lot more clothing, some cute arm warmers, some AMAZING blank books . . . the list just goes on and on. It was great.
Now a good friend of mine from the west coast, K, is in town for a week. We're having a fun time just meandering around the city. She's never been here before, so it's all a really new, fresh experience for her. Today? The American Museum of Natural History. As soon as I'm done with this post. So I should probably go.
Another post soon, I promise, about the last few books I've read, how the novel is coming along, and life in general in the Big Apple.

lunchtime ramble

I'm sitting in my office eating a bowl of raw veggies drizzled with fig-infused vinegar, giving my busy brain a five-minute break from work by checking out some blogs I recently bookmarked. Like this one. And this one. Somehow they make my soul breathe a little sigh of relief, and keep me going through the rest of the crazy afternoon. You know why I think that is? Reading blogs such as these is like looking through a secret peephole into the mysterious creative lives of these strangers. It's a breath of fresh air in the monotony of my office job. (Not that I don't love my job. I do. But lately I've been REALLY craving more time for me and my personal wants/needs/desires.) If there were a color printer at work I could use, I would print some of the pictures from those blogs and tape them onto my office walls so I could be surrounded by that feeling all day.
On a slightly more down-to-earth note, I'm about 26,500 words through my YA superhero fiction. Which isn't nearly as far as I wanted to be, come June. But hey, at least I'm sitting down to write almost every day. At least there's progress. And even if I don't finish it by the end of June (which I'm still aiming for, by the way), this will still be the fastest I've ever turned out a draft. I also had most of a short story show up in my head on Sunday, which was a pleasant surprise, so I'm partway through writing that.
I dreamed last night that my sister J and I, along with quite a few other women, were trapped in this asylum-type place. We fled one day from our captors at the asylum, and on our way through the grounds, our captors began throwing things at us. They caught J in the side and she was bleeding awfully but we all managed to make it to this huge sprawling university campus. We went into a large building and hid in the rabbit-warren of rooms we found there while someone went to look for a doctor for J. The blood kept coming. And then I too went to look for a doctor and rounded a corner in the building and one of the other women screamed at me. And it startled me so much that I woke up, with a racing heart and panicked gaze in the darkness of my apartment.
There are books to write about, and I know I owe you a long post about BEA, but neither of those things are happening right now. Right now I will eat the rest of my veggies and wander dreamily through another blog or two, then get back to the (enormous) pile of work on my desk. More blogging to come soon, I promise.

a little update

I just wrapped up two days at BEA, and it was great! Loads of books, and a few good tote bags. I spent most of the time with a couple friends from the office. Saw a couple other people I know, met a lot of book bloggers, a few great authors, and one really nice literary agent. Full update to come, possibly with pictures, but for now I'll just say that it was every bit as good as previous years, and my shoulders are SORE from carrying bags of books. But the soreness? Totally worth it.

take a look around

Somewhat lazy Saturday so far. I've done some freelancing, ran some things to the thrift store, tidied that apartment. That's about it. Starting to feel nibbly, but haven't played my clarinet yet, but my partner-in-crime is asleep on the couch so instead of making noise I'm here, talking to you. Went to yoga yesterday after work; that felt really good. After, I sat in a cafe with LG and did a smidge of writing. Banged out an outline for the third short story on my list for this year, and did some brainstorming for my radio play episodes. The remainder of the evening was spent drinking, which was a little foolish but fun, so oh well. Oh, read another book!
24. Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato. It was weird. The writing was distinctive, and consistent, and quirky. The main character, Mathilda, has some ISSUES. To be fair, so do her parents. Mathilda's older sister dies about a year before the events of the book. It is interesting to watch Mathilda deal with her grief, and see how she deals with her life. But I don't think it's a keeper for me. It somehow just didn't quite draw me in enough.
I think that's all I've got for today. I turned the computer on to do some writing, but all I've done so far is bum around on the Internet. Time for some discipline, and some teen superhero action!
Happy Saturday, everyone!

state of the honeydew

Time for a spring check-in on my to-do list for the year. Here's the list I posted for writing goals in January:

• submit Nor -- DONE (although I could do it more, with different agents)
  
• write cupcake truck Western novel -- now the superhero novel instead, and I'm 18,650 words in. I'm really behind, but still gunning for my deadline for draft one, which is end of June. Whole thing is outlined, that's a step in the right direction!
  
• write first novel in urban fantasy series -- this will happen in the fall
  
• outline entire urban fantasy series -- working on it. I've got partial ideas for each book, but need to come up with the underlying big story.
  
• write three short stories -- one mostly written, one outlined, one is still just an idea
  
• edit the two shorts I wrote last year -- edited one, will edit the other this summer!
  

So that's not bad. There's been progress on everything. I feel pretty good about it. Non-writing goals for this year include:

• yoga regularly
• running regularly
• finish Buffy
• take some clarinet lessons
• two-bedroom apartment!

The yoga is happening. The running is beginning to happen. Buffy . . . well, I'll have more time for that once summer Fridays kick in. Clarinet lessons are in discussion currently, and the two-bedroom really depends on how well we save money for the next few months. So we'll see.
Book! 23) The Affinity Bridge by George Mann. Steampunk! Airships! Victorian England! Zombies! AWESOME! I adore this book. The tone is consistent, the steampunk elements great fun, the characters solid . . . No complaints. If you like fantasy, or steampunk, or historical fiction, run out and get this one! The trade paperback was just released April 27, so you don't have to shell out for the hardcover.
Well, there is more freelancing to do, and some grocery shopping and checkbook balancing that needs happening as well. I hope everyone's Sunday has been as peaceful as mine!