Booking Through Thursday – Ever written a book?

How is it possibly possible that a short week can feel so bloody long! I can’t believe it’s only Thursday. It should be Friday. This is the longest week ever and we weren’t even at work on Monday. (Memorial Day. It rained. I stayed inside and read.) Ugh. There is some sort of time bubble going on here. I know it. However, it is time for Booking Through Thursday! Enough procrastinating! Let’s book it!

Our prompt for this week is: If you could write a book, what would it be about, and why? (Though, of course, some of you already HAVE.)

I’m a wanna-be writer. (hangs head in shame) I have lots of ideas but rarely ever finish things. I do write fanfiction and I’ve finished a great many of those stories. But for every fanfiction story I finish, there are about 3 others languishing as half done or just a nice idea. It’s the same way with original fiction. Every year in November, I participate in National Novel Writing Month. NaNo, for short, is a month long game, I guess you could call it, where writers write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Or at least we try to. I’ve participated the last 5 years and I’ve reached the 50K mark 3 times. These stories are at least half done. But, inevitably, I lose interest or don’t know what to do with it after that and the story will languish in that state forever more. (headdesk) God, I suck…

Almost all of my fiction stories feature witches or some sort of paranormal element or character. During NaNo I’ve written a Banshee story, 3 different witch stories, and one ghost story told from the ghost’s point of view. I have no shortage of ideas; I just lack a drive. Maybe I need a cheerleader? Somebody to crack that whip and make me finish things! This is probably why I’m more likely to finish a fanfiction story than an original story because I post the fanfiction pieces on the internet. Even one comment is pretty much enough to keep me writing something. (See, dear fanfiction readers? Your comments do matter!) All of my stories are fantasy or paranormal.

Why? Well, that’s just how my mind works. I have a very active imagination. (An imagination I wished would slow down because it’s always racing to the next idea before I get a chance to finish with the current idea. I have the shortest attention span and I bore easily.) I read to escape. So the further away from the real world a book can take me, the better I like it. All my story ideas function the same. They are created for the sense of the fantastic and unreal. I don’t read much contemporary fiction for this reason. If I wanted realism, I’d stay here. But here is boring with work and bills and leaking faucets and humidity that is killing my hair. So, I read and write fantasy. As for why I write at all? Well, if I didn’t write at least some then I’m pretty sure my head would just explode and nobody wants to clean up that mess.

Feature & Follow – Pick your cast!

I have a bagel. My Boss has a habit of bringing in bagels on special occasions and the Friday before Memorial Day apparently counts as a special occasion. You cannot buy my love with bagels! You can rent it for a while. But not buy it! Mostly this means I’m not plotting anyone’s bloody death at the moment. The power of bagels. Be in awe. And, now it’s time for Parajunkee and Alison Can Read’s Feature and Follow!

This week: Activity! Dream cast your current read.

Oh, I suck at this. I don’t know anything about actors! I’m currently reading Witch Catcher by Mary Downing Hahn. I’m about half way through it, so I think I’ve seen all the characters.

Elle Fanning as Jen, the main character.

Jodelle Ferland as the fairy Kieryn.

Catherine Zeta-Jones as the evil witch Moura.

There is Jen’s father and the evil guy who’s name I can’t remember. I’m thinking Paul Bettany for either, really. And that’s only because I like his voice. Did you know he’s the voice of Jarvis on the Iron Man movies? Ginger’s have no souls, you know? (smiles creepily) [They have no souls because I stole them all and keep them in little glass jars on my windowsil.] {I should probably get some sleep.}

Book Blogger Hop – Negative Reviews?

It’s Friday, I have only five hours of sleep because the internet ate me last night, and I’m stuck doing phones all day as the regular receptionist is on vacation. This does not bode well for my patience. Doing the phones is annoying and frustrating for me. I don’t like it. I get overtime because I have to be here at 7am because I also answer calls coming from the east coast. That’s right. We get calls for offices and people not even in the same time zone as us. Then I get bitched at when calls go to voice mail because I’m in a different state and can’t actually see if these people are at their desks or not.

Okay, okay. Breathe. Breathe and do the Book Bloggers Hop.

Our question for this week: How do you handle the writing of a negative review?

I believe a good review will highlight both positive qualities and negative qualities in a book. But sometimes a book is just that bad and there’s really nothing you can do about that. I’ve yet to not write a review for a book since I started blogging and I don’t intend to leave off a review just because it’s a negative review. However, I often feel self-conscious because I know that the authors sometimes do searches for their books and then I’ve gotten emails and comments from just readers that have reacted extremely to a negative book review I’ve posted. I’ve been called “mean” and “too negative” for my reviews before. Perhaps they are right but the whole point of having a book blog is so I have a place to share my opinions, both positive and negative. Honestly, I think that people who react like that are wound a little too tight. If I think a book warranted a negative review, then that’s my right. When I write a review I try to be honest, even if that results in a negative review.

Booking Through Thursday – What is in a name?

Happy Thursday everybody! The regular receptionist at work has the next two days off, which means I now get to come in early and stay late to handle both the phones and my normal job. Since the front desk and the printer are nowhere near each other, I get to run back and forth between them in order to handle the drawings that print out. I’ll be lucky if I get to eat lunch on the fly today and we’re having a bbq lunch for Memorial Day. This stunning example of managerial incompetence is brought to you by “the people who make decisions” in my office. Otherwise known as “the people who are so removed from the actual functioning part of this office that their dumb decisions are harmful.” Or “the Morons”, for short. Anyway, time for Booking Through Thursday!

Our question this week: Do you have any pets that have a name inspired by your readings? If not, what would you pick if you DID? Do any of your friends have book-based names for their pets? (Or their children?)

I have a cousin who named her daughter Emma but I’m not sure if it was for the literary character or because of Emma Watson from the Harry Potter movies. (She’s not the brightest crayon in the box, if you get my drift. I doubt she even knows who Jane Austen is, let alone picked up a book by her.) I had a fish that I named Elrond when I was a teen. (The movies were just coming out and I had reread the books just before.) He was a blue Siamese fighting fish. You know, those fish that have the long pretty tails? I had three goldfish I named Frodo, Pippin, and Merry but they didn’t last very long. Elrond lived for almost 6 years but the Hobbits all died within a week. Goldfish don’t live long with me for some reason. I’m like goldfish death.

I can’t think of any other pets named for literary characters. If I ever get a calico cat I’m so naming her Alice. Or one of those white cats that have one blue eye and one green eye. I’m weird.

Musing Mondays – What do you mean, do with it?

I took a day of vacation on Monday and it was such nice weather that I ended up going out and completely forgetting to do my usual posts. So I’m sort of backtracking here. I wonder if I can post date this? Anyway, I had a wonderful time. I nearly fell into the Missouri River. It wasn’t the first time. I have a habit of clomping around the river bank on nice days. Yeah. It’s time for Should Be Reading’s Musing Monday! (A day late!)

Our question this week is: What do you do with the book before you start reading it?

Well, first I take it out for a nice meal and then maybe a walk through the park if the weather isn’t too hot. If I’m lucky I get a smooch by the end of the night and then possibly a second date. Maybe by the fourth or fifth date we can start with the reading. (My sarcastic meter is set too high.)

With a non-fiction book I flip through it, checking out headings and any lists, graphs, or pictures that are in the book. I check to see if there is any useful, easy to access reference information. I might skim a page or two somewhere in the middle just to make sure the writing isn’t too dry or mind numbing. I glance through the table of contents and the index. Generally making sure I’m not spending money on information I already have or some fluffy bunny’s Wiccan ramblings. I’m not interested in Pagan 101 books, no matter how pretty the cover or something like that.

For fiction books I read the bust jacket blurb and any foreword from the author that might be there. I flip through the book to make sure it’s not written in a style that will drive me crackers. (Letters!) I look at the cover, of course. Then I drive right in. (Afterward I offer the book coffee and a cigarette and see if it would like to cuddle.)

(I’m sorry. My mind is a dirty, dirty place and I can’t help myself.)

Book Review: Witch Hill by Marcus Sedgwick

We are going to call this a mini-review because this is a very small book. I was browsing aimlessly through the library when the name caught my eye. I’d been on the waiting list for Marcus Sedgwick’s new book for about three weeks and I thought perhaps a peek at some of his early works might whet my appetite and give me some idea of his writing style. So I picked up Witch Hill by Marcus Sedgwick. It’s a short book, not even 150 pages long, and I raced through it in a little over an hour while at my favorite coffeehouse. I irritate the workers by camping out on the couch and abusing the bottomless cup they offer at least once a month. I’m evil that way.

From book jacket: The fire in his home was a family tragedy that Jamie can’t forget. Fire dominates his waking thoughts and his dreams. When his family sends him away to Crownhill to recover, they don’t realize they are sending him to a village with its own dark history of witchcraft – and with ancient buried powers that are unleashed by Jamie’s presence. A present-day boy, a seventeenth-century girl, and an ancient crone: for a single moment, their lives are fused by fire.

This is the type of story that feels so familiar you could have sworn you’ve read it before. (It’s entirely possible I have and just can’t remember.) It’s the type of story that is told around campfires and is ingrained into the human consciousness from our long oral history. It’s a classic with a thousand retellings and drags up the memory of being a young child, wondering at the shadows of our bedroom. Every thump and dump in the night is the boogieman coming to get us. However, the writing style is jerky. It’s as if you’re being yanked along a rough draft rather than a complete, polished book. There is no flow and Witch Hill ends up feeling like something unfinished.

I sincerely hope this is not all that Marcus Sedgwick has to offer. Witch Hill was first publish in 2001 and is a juvenile book, so it is possible that his writing has improved since then. I’m really looking forward to Midwinterblood and I hope it deliveries something different from Witch Hill. I was left dissatisfied by Witch Hill and feel like with more effort it could have turned into something fantastic. I can see the potential in the book and it’s frustrating to be presented with a story that falls so short of what it could have been.

Witch Hill by Marcus Sedgwick
Published September 11th 2001 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
147 pages
Stand alone; not part of a series.

 

Feature & Follow – Vacation Reading?

What would I do without book memes? Never post anything probably. I don’t know how I’m going to get through the day. I have like 5 hours of sleep and I feel like a zombie. I’m going to be useless at work. But, it is Friday! All we have to do is get through today and we’re home free. Plus, it means that today we have the Feature & Follow hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

Our question for this week is: Summer Break is upon us! What would be the perfect vacation spot for you to catch up on your reading & relax?

I’m sorry to say that if I went anywhere on vacation, that reading would probably be the last thing on my mind. I travel so rarely and I have so many places I want to visit that if I did manage to get myself to one of them then I’d be too busy exploring to read. Even if I had just gone to the park or a coffee shop, I’d most likely end up people watching rather than reading. People are endlessly fascinating to me, even if it is sometimes like watching a car wreck. I’m more likely to read sitting on my sofa or out on my deck. I distract easily. Going somewhere to read is counterproductive for me.

As for where I would go? Europe. I’m sure people who actually live in Europe find it nothing special but I want to go to Europe so bad. (I have nobody to go with, even if I did empty my savings account to pay for it. Which I would do in a heartbeat if I had someone to go with!) I want to go to France and Spain and the United Kingdom and Italy and Greece. How about I just start in Scotland and work my way down in a zig-zag pattern? (I also want to go to Egypt, India, China, and Japan.) Ugh! I don’t even travel within the United States and that’s just pathetic.

Book Blogger Hop – # of books?

Something smells in this office! I don’t know what but it’s giving me a headache. I can’t wait for the weekend to start. I took Monday off because I’m fried and I need two long weekends in a row to sleep in. But, it’s Friday! Lovely, lovely Friday and that means it’s time for a few hops. This is the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Jen at Crazy for Books!

Our question for this week is: How many books do you own? This can include books in your to-be-read (TBR) pile(s) and books you have already read that are on your keeper shelf.

I don’t own a great many books. (Not compared to some of the true book fanatics I’ve meet over the years.) (We’ve been over how I’m cheap and get most of my reading material from the library, right?) It has to be a truly great book for me to buy it. I bought my 2011 favorite book, Witchlanders by Lena Coakley. I have about 20 books from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. (Hardcover ones that I won in the most nerve wreaking Ebay auction of my life.) I have several books by Neil Gaiman, including Stardust and The Graveyard Book. I have a set of leather-bound children’s classics from my Grandmother. (Of which the copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is my favorite.) I have several creature books that I collect because I love the art. There are about 20 more books that were given to me as gifts over the years. Then I have my non-fiction reference books that I have to buy because I have an obsessive need to highlight and scribble in the margins. (I’m like the crazy old sorcerer up in his tower, only, you know, a girl.) All told I probably have just under 100 books, give or take, that I own.

Booking Through Thursday – Live in a novel?

It’s entirely possibly I’m going to have to kill a co-worker today, so if you don’t hear from me ever again it’s because I’m in jail for homicide. I swear it will be justified. Anyway, happy Thursday everybody! It’s a beautiful day in the midwest of America and I’m stuck inside an office with windows that do not open. Lovely. But, being Thursday that means it is once again time for Booking Through Thursday. So, without further ado…

Our question for this week is: If you had to choose to live within a novel, which would it be?

Tough one. I don’t want to pick a novel I’d be unhappy in! I need plumbing and air conditioning. But, since nobody ever seems to need to shower or go to the bathroom in books, I’m going to assume I don’t need to worry about that either. Would I be completely bonkers if I said Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Yes? Well, okay then. I’m already mad, mad, mad. I also have a deep obsession with Alice in Wonderland and anything Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). I’d fit right in! And I want to wear a frilly blue dress and talk with cryptic caterpillars and play croquet with flamingos. Mostly I just want to wear a frilly dress.

(Interesting little fact about me. I’ve dressed up as almost every character from Alice in Wonderland for Halloween at least once. Some of them more than once. I’ve been Alice and the Mad Hatter more times than I can count because they are my favorite. I’ve also been the Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and even the March Hare but I kept having to explain the March Hare one and it was very frustrating by the end of the night. Apparently nobody got the straw on top of the head reference. I ended up using most of the March Hare costume for a steampunk getup later on.)

Waiting On Wednesday – May 16

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Moonset by Scott Tracey
Legacy of Moonset #1
Expected publication in 2013

Justin is infamous. The son of warlock terrorists, he and his siblings are all that remain of their parents’ dark legacy. Shuttled from town to town, raised by the very people his parent’s fought against, he struggles to find his own life among five very different personalities. Because being the middle child means playing the peacemaker: deflecting fights and spells and trying to keep others from getting kicked out of school. Again.

And his job isn’t getting any easier. Their new town brings a new threat against them, and a gorgeous girl who fascinates Justin. Ash is enigmatic and fun, and carefree in a way that he adores. But his new home also harbors a dangerous threat: a warlock who wants to pick up where their parents left off, and has his sights set on Justin. Their guardians are no help: they can’t decide whether the siblings should be saved or sacrificed. The only thing Justin knows for sure is that the sins of the father definitely pass down to the son, and if he falters, everyone he cares about will fall.

I loved Scott Tracey’s first book, Witch Eyes, and I am eagerly waiting for its sequel, Demon Eyes, coming out in October. He apparently does nothing but write because there is a third book in that series called Phantom Eyes coming out in 2013 too. I’m very interested to see if Tracey can impress me with the Moonset books.