December 30, 2009

Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K Hamilton

This one wasn't as good as Blue Moon, but definitely original. I was expecting the Red Woman's Husband to be a god with all that power he possessed. It would have given me something more to look forward to in this series, but I was disappointed when he just turned out to be another vampire. However, Anita Blake is becoming more of an executioner now then she has ever been, which is what I like to see. She still hasn't figured out her love life though. Will it be Richard or Jean-Claude? Another vampire vs. werewolf tale.

December 27, 2009

2010 Game Plan

Now that The First Romantic Suspense is complete and ready for review it's time to start thinking about 2010 goals. I generally have the same New Years Resolutions every year. My main one is reading 50 NEW books a year. I made my goal for 2009 and have created my list for 2010 already. See my Goodreads page for the books I plan to read.
When it comes to my writing I have a lot of plans. January is a time for me to work on some short stories. The First Short Story had been put on the back burner when the "Great file loss of 2009" took place and I think January is a perfect time to pick back up on it. I'm giving myself until January 31st to get that one done and then it will be time to continue work on The Second Romantic Suspense.
It's been a crazy year, but I'm happy to say a good one.

December 25, 2009

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

I've seen True Blood and followed it up with starting the series. I was quite surprised. The plot, the characters, even down to the dialogue are identical to the books. The writing was a little choppy in the beginning, but I soon had to realize it's from Sookie Stackhouse's view (first person) and she really does talk like a Southern hill-billy. However, True Blood was not done in the first person so you get to see more of Vampire Bill's side of things and other background stories that aren't covered in this first book, but it's great all the same. I will continue to read the series and keep you guys updated.

December 18, 2009

Name Change

No, not mine. After doing a little more research I've decided to give my characters in The First Romantic Suspense more believable names. My hero is from England, therefore, he needed an English last name. The new name seems to fit the bill and it's not so generic anymore either. My villain's name also had a change, more radical. At the time I was writing the first draft I thought of the most popular Mexican name I could just to get things moving. Gonzales was the name, but after I've spent some time with my villain, getting to know him, his name is now more menacing and evil. It's perfect for the type of past he's had and what he does for a living.
As for the completion of The First Romantic Suspense, it will be done this weekend. I was drastically set back with the loss of those files, but it's for the best in my opinion. I was able to go back through my hard copies and make a better story out of it. The MS which was finished this summer at 331 pages is now over 400 pages because I was typing out those chapters again while adding bits and pieces. It has been a little stressful. I've altered my original ending and now I'm having to think of new ways to kill my villain. It's a very slow process, but I'm confident this weekend will be kind and let me work.

December 11, 2009

Scandal by Carolyn Jewel

To get back into the swing of book reviews, here's Carolyn Jewel's Scandal.
Carolyn Jewel has taught me a lot when it comes to writing. For that purpose I decided to read at least one of her books.
Scandal was my first Carolyn Jewel experience and I have to say I was quite surprised at what I found. I expected another trashy novel that you just buy at the grocery store, but Scandal was very well done. I'm glad I looked into this author. I will be reading more of her, but most likely her paranormal side. Historical Romance isn't generally my genre.
Sophie annoyed me a little, not realizing, or admitting is more like it, that she had been in love with Banalt for some time. I think most of the time she was just denying she wanted anything to do with him and that put me off a little. However, Banalt was my favorite character. He fully applied himself to make Sophie realize he loved her and was a changed man, even when Sophie was being more than difficult.
This was a great book, one that I read in less than two days and will probably read again.

December 4, 2009

So It Begins...

Well, I've done everything imaginable to restore the files that have been corrupted. Unfortunately, somebody doesn't think I should have them. I am retyping all 6 chapters that I've lost and rewriting (hopefully from memory) the additions I had in those files. To those of you who volunteered to read the manuscript: I'm sorry. You'll have to wait until January to get your hands on it.
I also lost my biography, but that's easy to rewrite, my playlist I used to write The First Romantic Suspense and the revisions on The First Short Story.
It'll take a while, but I'll get everything fixed. One word of advise I can give to anyone who is a writer, a photographer, pretty much anything to do with the arts: BACKUP.

December 2, 2009

You Won't Believe What Happened...

So today I went to go make a new word count of the revised MS for The First Romantic Suspense. Everything was going great until I got to Chapter 13. I went to open the document and it wouldn't open. I went on to Chapter 14, same thing. All the way to Chapter 18. These six chapters were the ones I was working on yesterday and today I was working on Chapter 19, which works just fine.
Well, low and behold, my files have been corrupted and I cannot open them.
I've tried my laptop, Kevin's, and my in-laws computer...nothing.
Six chapters....gone....
And being the anal person that I am, as soon as I was done with my additions to the chapters, I deleted them 5 minutes before I found my file corruption. I don't like excess things on my laptop or thumb drive. So they went bye bye.
A couple positive notes. I have the hard copies with corrections (down side to that is I don't have the additions I slid in, about 20 pages total). Second is the files that were corrupted were opened on my work computer today. So I'm hoping tomorrow I will be able to open them there.
Pray for me...