Working

Well, we made it safe and sound to Gettysburg and are settled into our motel room. (Kate, please give the pups some extra love, and a couple of treats, while we're gone?)Monkey Girl has already put a nice dent in her souviner fundage, but she's the proud new owner of a really cool-looking chest.We're heading back to the Gettysburg Diorama tomorrow to take in their battlefield diorama show. It should be fun and I will take plenty of pics. Not sure what else we'll get into, but we also have reservations for a ghost hunt with Gettysburg Paranormal Association tomorrow evening that should be a blast.

The girls are excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I think even Mr.I is enjoying it. Tomorrow I'm going to also start gathering....whatever...in order to prep for the next Josie novel. I'm hoping to make it my NaNo novel come this November, which will give me time to plot out the story and absorb enough info about historic Gettysburg to write about it naturally - I hope. I'll also, hopefully, get the original novel, Glimmer of Sight through the final edit and have embarked on the learning adventure known as finding an agent. I also want to go back and revist this past year's NaNo novel and see how much of it I can salvage.

So, have a great week folks. I'll try to keep posting, although the wireless at our motel doesn't seem all that great. :/ Oh, and there will be pictures.

Now, just how much am I going to torture poor Josie with psychic visions...?

Teaser Tuesday - Catseye, The Elvenbane, and A Long Way From Chicago

Well, it appears I'm good at playing along with this meme every other week. *grin* So, that's just what we'll do. This time last week, I was finishing up Black Trillium and starting Catseye, the third book in my A-Z Reading Challenge list. This week I'm on book five on the lsit - The Elvenbane. (Book four was skipped for now since I have it in electronic format.) I'm also going to be reading Richard Peck's A Long Way From Chicago, prepatory to starting it with the reading group at school. We're nearly done with Charolette's Web. There's also a Civil War book I want to read before our trip to Gettysburg, but I doubt I'll get to it before next week, at the earliest.

Okay, enough prattling. On with the book excerpts!

Catseye was first published in 1961 and has a very strong ecological vibe to it, as well as some underlying commentary on the mindless destructiveness of war. Having said that, the book really was a fun, easy read.

"Troy studied the animals. Although those blue eyes regarded him squarely, there was no other contact. Yet he was sure it had not been only his imagination that had stirred him earlier." (pg. 25)

The Elvenbane, by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey, was first published in 1991. I'm reading the 1993 paperback edition. Gotta love a story with elven overlords, human slaves, and dragons on the edge of it all! I found today's except while reading this afternoon.

"Fire and Rain! The creature wasn't even finished yet! She should just leave it here to die with its mother; it would be better that way. She didn't even know exactly what to do with it - she'd probably kill it by accident." (pg. 95)

A Long Way From Chicago, by Richard Peck, was published in 1998. My youngest daughter assures me that it is "a riot". Hopefully the advanced 4th grade readers will agree.

"It was as hot as Grandma's kitchen in the tent, so people fanned paper fans, compliments of Broshear's Funeral Home, each with the Broshear motto printed on it: WHEN YOU COME TO TEH END, YOU'LL FIND A FRIEND." (pg.70)

There ya go. That's it until, well, probably the week after next.

Teaser Tuesday: Black Tryllyam

Wow. It's been a week already? It felt so wierd working all of last week at my regular hours. We actually had school, with no delays, for the entire week, for the first time since before Winter Break! I've also been busy sorting, filing, and cleaning in preparation for a couple of pieces of furniture we'll be recieving soon. I'm taking it as a good sign that I really want to get back to writing and jewelry making, since I've gotten little of either done in the last few weeks. And I'll get to work in a much less cluttered environment. I'm really looking forward to it. (And I'll try to share some pics of it all when it's finished.)

I've also been reading. If I go too long without reading anything, even a magazine, I might just explode. *grin* I've been working on book two on my A-Z Reading Challenge List - Black Trillium, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, and Andre Norton. I've read the book before,  but it was around 15 years ago and I've essentially forgotten everything that happens - at least so far.

"In the Eighth Hundred after those of Ruwenda came to rule over the swamp wilderness called the Mazy Mire (though not completely, for they never mastered the intractable Odlings), legend and history both awoke to record one of those great changes which now and then alter the very balance of the world." (From the Prologue)

If you don't know how Teaser Tuesday is played, check it out at Miz. B.'s blog by clicking on the badge to your right. And feel free to come play along!

Fragments

"And so he raised his hands to his face and screamed. And screamed. And screamed. There wasn't anything he could really do."

Doesn't that make you want to read more? Or at least find out why the guy is screaming? Me to. Welcome to my world at the moment. I'm currently sorting through old papers and files, preparing to get rid of one of our two filing cabinets. Coming across a hanging folder marked "Misc. Writing", in a folder labelled "Fragments", I found the above, along with bits and pieces from my freshman tutorial paper on nuclear power plants, some character sketches and I haven't discovered what else...yet. But really, at the moment I just want to know why the guy was screaming.

(Makes me wonder if he worked in the public schools...some days are like that...;)

Teaser Tuesday: What are you reading?

It's Teaser Tuesday again already! Get the details on how to play along here, at MizB's Should Be Reading blog.

From Three Days to Dead, by Kelly Meding, which I just finished reading:

"This just won't do. 'Hey, Jesse,' I say loudy, "know what's uglier than a dead half-Blood?'
He grunts. "What's that?"
I look right at the spike-haired Halfie on the car hood. 'A live one.'"

And from Harvest Moon, by Mercedes Lackey, Michelle Sagara, and Cameron Haley (from Tangled Web), which I'm about to start reading:

"'By Zeus's goolies, it's about time you got here!' the young man said, indignation written in every word and gesture. "I thought you said the wench was going to come willingly! I finally had to gag and bag her! If I can't father children, Hades, it's all your fault!' Then he stopped, and stared at Persephone, 'Who,' he said slowly, 'is that?'"

Should be some fun reading!

Book Reviews - Aristotle, Andriods, and a Dead Vampire Hunter

Amazingly, I finished up THREE books since last Tuesday. Considering I have other things to do during the day as well, this amazes me just a little bit. And while I may not do this with any of the other books I read this year, I thought it might be fun to write up short reviews of each book.

Up first is Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters, by Michael Tierno. Obviously, I'm not a screenwriter, even if I do want to try ScriptFrency in April. However, it seems that the essentials of storytelling are the same, regardless of the medium. This book is a concise, easy read that covers the essentials. I found it helpful enough that it's going on my reference shelf. I would have really liked it if he had gone into a bit more detail with some of his examples, but I'd still recommend the book to other beginning writers.Oh, and apparently Doug Clegg recommended the actual Poetics. My goof. Having him comment on my blog absolutely made my morning. :-) Now I have to decide if I'm up to reading the Poetics anytime soon. It's been awhile since my brain had to tackle any writing quite that complex.

The second book I finished was Andre Norton's Andriod At Arms, originally published in 1971. That the book is dated is obvious in the reading, placing itself easily after the beginning of the space age and before the era of the space shuttle - rockets "fin down" when they land - but the essence of the story still holds up over time. The setting is pure Sci Fi/Fantasy, with the main setting possessing a mix of "space age" techonology as well that of a more archaic/medieval time. Norton is such a deft storyteller that it works. I found myself caring about the main characters and believing in the world.

To briefly fill you in on the book, a group of captives on a very hostile planet are freed by a violent lightening strike. Coming from disparate worlds, they all work to return to their original homes. The story eventually focuses on our main character, a prince and future emporer, and his new companion/blood brother, as he tries to regain his throne. Our creative and capable prince finds himself in an alternate dimension where his world is being torn asunder by ultimate war between good and evil. Toss in the fact that the prince isn't sure if he's the real Prince Andas or an andriod and you want to keep reading to the end.

This was the first book in my list for the A-Z Writing Challenge, making me think I'm off to a good start.

The third book I finished up last night. It's the debut novel of Kelly Meding called Three Days to Dead. My husband requested this book via OhioLink and read it in a couple evenings, which means that it's an easy read. It's also a lot of fun. I liked that it was an urban fantasy with a happy-ish ending.

Evy Stone is a Hunter who, along with her Triad companions, deals with the Dregs of the Fey world - half-vampires, goblins, gremlins, etc.. - who don't play nicely with us humans. At least, she's a Hunter until her two companions are killed in an ambush and she's framed for the deed. Oh, and she dies horribly at the hands of a Goblin queen and comes back resurrected in another, recently dead body. But she's only got three days to figure out what's going on and setting it to rights. As I said, it's great fun and we're now off to track down the second in the series, As Lie the Dead.

Next up is a Mercedes Lackey short story recommended by Kate that retells the Persephone myth, followed by another book from Norton. I just haven't decided yet if I want to read them in alphabetically order or by series, which means I'll either tackle Black Tryllyam or Wraiths of Time.

2011 A-Z Reading Challenge Reading List

Booklist Update

Whee! I'm not past the halfway point of Android at Arms. Yes, it's very much dated in some ways, but it's still proving a good read. I was starting to worry that my vocabulary was starting to suffer, but not after this. I love her use of language and of unusual words. And even though I'm reading the book for the enjoyment of it, there's also much to learn from how she plots the book out and the way she handles chapters and stop points. This could be a very educational endeaver for me as well as just plain fun.

Also, if you look in the right-hand sidebar, you'll notice that I've finished out my reading list. Yes, they're all Norton's work. For a moment I was afraid "L" and "U" might be my undoing, but I managed to find titles in the bibliography. The book titles with asterisks next to them are ones I'll need to track down through OhioLink or AbeBooks, but there are only FOUR of those. The fifth title, Ralestone Luck, is available online through Project Gutenberg, complete with the original illustrations. All of the rest of the titles are off of our bookshelves. That seemed pretty impressive.

Okay, off to either read or make some chain maille. And yes, I will try to get a post up this weekend about my new obsession, maybe even complete with pics. :-)

Melinda