Day Two of Parajunkee’s Spooky September Challenge!
It probably says something that first two “adult” books that I actually fully remember reading were Lovers and Gamblers by Jackie Collins and ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. Both provoked almost equally horrified results from the folks who caught me reading them.
Parajunkee’s View has issued a six-day Spooky September Challenge. I figured I’d participate, as there’s nothing I like better than the run-up to Hallowe’en. Seriously, folks, you have no idea how much I love Samhain. I love October 31st so much that I book time off from work to coincide with the day (usually a full week). I love Hallowe’en so much that as much as my significant is boggled by my enthusiasm for handing out candy at the door.
It’s 2015, and Patricia Cowan is very old. “Confused today,” read the notes clipped to the end of her bed. She forgets things she should know-what year it is, major events in the lives of her children. But she remembers things that don’t seem possible. She remembers marrying Mark and having four children. And she remembers not marrying Mark and raising three children with Bee instead.
It had to happen sooner or later.
I figure that I should start posting my thoughts about the books I’m reading for the Auroras, mainly so that I don’t forget what I’m voting on. I’ve tried to actually create a form for myself, so that I can try to be fairly even-handed in the way I treat the books. I’ve tried to think of the things that I’m taking away from the books, positive and negative.
So far I haven’t read anything truly bad. Not that I expected that I would need to. Some of the content, however, raises questions for me, and the method I’m using to break it down seems to help.
I haven’t disappeared! Particularly after the promises of my last post.
I’ve been on vacation the past 2 weeks. You’d think that would mean I had time to do things like write. Unfortunately, no.
I spent my time putting together IKEA, cleaning house, and hiding from the big, hot sun. When it wasn’t raining. I’ve had a lot of headaches this past couple of weeks. I’ve been trying to Instagram pictures where possible.
I did, however, sneak in a little time to read two of the contenders for this year’s Aurora Award for Best Novel. I’m working my way through the nominees so that I can make an informed choice. I’ll post my full opinions when I can figure out a format that adequately explains my reasoning in a positive manner.
It’s amazing how looking at other blogs can remind you that you have one of your own that you’re sadly neglecting. It’s hard-truth time — I actually considered closing the door on inkyblack/stringchronicity and just creating a bog standard blogspot/wordpress site. The problem with that is the same I’m having here — What to put in it?
I had thought that I was getting better at generating content until I took a look at my post history. A handful of imports from Instagram had taken over the main content. There were a couple of posts about books that I’ve read recently. Not much else.
I didn’t even like the colours on the blog. Grey, beige and blue what? That’s not me. I needed to make some changes. At very least, time for a redesign!
“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
I keep meaning to update with what I’ve been up to but my mind has been jumbled all over the place. I’ve been taking a bit of a break from knitting, and trying to get in a little spinning each week. The biggest difference is that I’ve been doing more reading and writing.
Yes, writing. Just not on the blog. Ouch.
I mentioned previously that I’m trying to do more fiction-reading. I’ve been fairly successful at that. Here’s the most recent picture of the stack o’books:
We went window-shopping at The Mall this weekend and I had a chance to stop in at Indigo. I came out with Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I’d heard good things about it online.
I devoured it in one day.
And this is what skulking around on Youtube netted me today. Amazingly enough, this is the kind of thing that goes through my mind often. It’s the same kind of musical sense of humour that has one track down a copy of “Bach ‘n’ Roll” because who doesn’t want to play Nights in White Satin […]