The Silly Season Book Review

I love reading book catalogs from small companies where someone in the company has read the book and gives a review along with the description. I decided to make up some books and review them myself. I don’t know why. Maybe because we’re in a winter thaw. Maybe because I think it’s fun.


Unearthed - the second in the Unholy series. Vampires take over Wall Street causing a resurgence in the economy by creating hundreds of thousands of night shift jobs. I slept with the lights on after reading this. Chilling.

Bad Habits - A merry band of bank robbing, gun toting, gum chewing nuns looking to save their church and have a good time while doing it. Completely believable once you get used to how often they stop to pray.

The Earth Stands Still - starts out slow, but if you can stay with it until the protagonist pushes the villain off the roof of St. Paul’s Cathedral, you’ll probably want to hurl yourself off as well.

Hell Bent for the Gallows - a Collection of Back Woods Humor - If you think poking yourself in the eye is funny, you’ll love these.

Bumbershoots, Blunderbusses and Bawdy Bishops - I picked this book up thinking it would be a handy primer on English for my trip to Britain, but, instead, found it to be a thoughtful and emotional look at a rich man’s struggle to remain grounded while traveling the world first class.

So It Be - Intricately plotted mystery with a group of snowbound travelers marooned together at an abandoned inn. Easily the best book I’ve read all year and already optioned by Hollywood. I still remember gasping when I found out Reverend Tinsdale was the murderer!

What I've been reading while the snow falls

I’m not certain anyone will be interested in what I’ve been reading lately, but I find I’m frequently fascinated by the reading lists of others. So, whether anyone else cares or not, here it is.

Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
Let’s Bring Back - Lesley M. M. Blume
Two recent prize winning mysteries by different authors that were the worst I’ve ever read and thus proving, at least to me, that I’m a better writer. I assume the authors have had to go into hiding so I won’t name them or their books here.
The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson
Her Royal Spyness - Rhys Bowen

I wonder what everyone else has been reading?

There's Something About January

I don’t know exactly what it is, but I find I’ve been tearing into things and, most importantly, completing them. Is it the excitement of a new year with anything possible? Is it all the snow and cold outside and the quilts, cat, books, laptop and fireside indoors? I don’t know and I don't think I shouldn’t examine the reason too closely, but go with whatever magic is working.

Maybe, just maybe, I’m becoming that which I most want to be. Maybe I’m becoming fearless.

I’ve noticed I laugh more at the little voice that tells me what I’m attempting to do in a writing a story is beyond me. When I hear that voice, I think, okay, then, I’ll just have to leap farther than I thought, throw myself in and see if I plummet or fly and if I plummet, it’s all right because next time I’ll have that experience on which to draw.

So January comes with a warning. If you hang around me, you’re with someone standing a lot closer to the edge than I ever used to stand. And I’m ready to jump.

Done

I haven’t blogged much this year, but I have been writing. I achieved a big goal, finishing the first draft of a mystery. I also attended a writers’ conference, talked to an agent and, at one time, had eight short stories out in the world at once.

I did it and because I did it, I can place a check mark in the DONE column.

DONE!!!!!

There is that nagging little voice, though, the one that says, okay, you did it, now what? The little voice that reminds me I need other goals if I want to keep moving forward. The little voice that says, 2011, a whole year in front of you! What are you going to do with it?

Dang you, little voice!

So, here goes. I’ve decided to do some of it again. Get more short stories out into the world, write the first draft of another mystery AND rewrite and polish the first draft I finished in 2010.

And that’s enough for a start.

Happy Thanksgiving Week

Haunted

My studio is haunted.

I don’t suppose anyone ever has all the time they’d like to do those things they find most enjoyable. We have a moment here or there, sometimes a whole afternoon, rarely a day. For many of us, this means lots of unfinished creations waiting, usually patiently.

However, I don’t think my particular unfinished creations are so patient any more. When I pass by the door to my studio which doubles as the door to the basement, I’ve been hearing murmuring. My husband assures me this is the washing machine running, but I’m not so sure. I think the pumpkin-headed figures I make are getting tired of waiting for me to decide how they’ll be dressed or what they’ll be holding. I wonder if the other figures, the ones that are still half-formed in my head or jotted down on paper are complaining, wondering if they’ll ever be anything more than an idea.

I’m going to be brave and go down and face them, try to give them time I’ll steal from doing something else. I’m going to try and make them real in an effort to stop the haunting.

But just in case it’s another seven months before I post, I do hope someone checks on me.

Eeekkkkk!

Hanging with my Peeps

I don’t know who wrote that they could tell spring was here because they’d seen Peeps in the store (yellow chicks only for me, thank you), but I know spring is here when I get to hang with my Peeps at Southern Exposure Herb Farm, southernmoon.com. If you’ve never been there, sign up for a class and go. A couple of dear friends and I will be there this Friday night for a wine tasting dinner. Let’s see, friends, wine, dinner and Southern Exposure.

It’s spring.