TBR pile -- part 1

What I’m Reading: Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy (almost finished)

What I’m working on: A few scenes at the end of Slayer. Hmm… letting these sit and then coming back to them has revealed some blaring holes and some really icky writing. I guess that’s what rewrites are for.

New words today: 877 so far (These are new words from rewriting. I’ve actually written a lot more than this, but I’ve deleted a lot and rewritten it.)

Alyson listed several books in her TBR pile that she’d like to read or reread and then decide whether to keep or not.

I have a huge TBR pile. The pile has accumulated for a variety of reasons. First, I have a book addiction that I can control beautifully for awhile, but which always wins again in the end. I HAVE to buy books. There are worse compulsions to have.

Second, I had no idea I’d come home with so many books from RWA Nationals. And, I only picked up books I had good intentions to read. The rest I left alone.

Third, I just don’t have as much time to read as I’d like. That’s the sad truth of it. I have broad tastes and love to try new authors as well as continue reading the backlist of tried and true favorites. But with only so many hours in the day……

For that reason, I’m listing some books in my TBR pile that I REALLY want to read this year.

Have you read any of these? What did you think of them?

1. Accidental Goddess by Linnea Sinclair (CFRWA member, repped by Kristin Nelson, sci-fi romance….this one is near the top)

2. Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas (Technically the book is not out yet, but I have an ARC and the buzz behind this book is HUGE.)

3. McKettrick’s Luck by Linda Lael Miller

4. Spirited Away by Cindy Miles

5. Sunshine by Robin McKinley

6. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison

7. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder (I loved the first one in this series – Poison Study.)

8. The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman

9. The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

10. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

11. the Kommandant’s Girl by Pam Jenoff

12. Eyes of Crow by Jeri Smith-Ready

13. Moongazer by Marianne Mancusi

14. Riding the Storm by Sydney Croft

15. Edge of Danger by Cherry Adair

16. The Unsung Hero by Suzanne Brockmann

17. Virgin River by Robin Carr

18. Mine till Midnight by Lisa Kleypas

19. Wideacre by Philippa Gregory

20. The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose

21. Breaking Point by Suzanne Brockmann

22. Ill Wind by Rachel Caine

23. Falling Awake by Jayne Ann Krentz

24. Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

25. Dark Protector by Alexis Morgan

Whew. I’m stopping at 25 for tonight. The next 25 will be up tomorrow. If you’ve read any of these, tell me what you thought.

Macy

'Nough Said #2

What I’m Reading: Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy

What I’m working on: Surving the work week. Fighting off my sore throat. Oh, you mean in the writing area.... just getting in my 100 words a day..... some weeks are like that.

New words Wednesday (2/6): 112
New words Thursday (2/7): 222
New words today: 105

Check out more cartoons like this from Inkygirl by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

10 Things You'd Buy if You Had a Million Bucks

What I’m Reading: Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy and Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (I’m almost done with both.)

What I’m working on: Just getting some words down today. (Seriously, is it a full moon or something?)

New words: 207

My friend Mimi posted this at the dish last Tuesday. I needed a fun blog, so I stole it. If you’re reading I’m tagging you for next Tuesday (or whatever day you choose).

The rules: Ten things you'd buy if you had a million bucks to just spend, no scholarships or altruism, completely self-centered.

1. A decked out Macbook Air. Estimate with all the extras I want: $4,000.00. (Yep, I pretty much selected every extra you can get.)

2. A 2008 Landrover LR3. Decked out, of course. $55,000.00

3. An around the world cruise for the hubby and me. We’d like a penthouse room on the ship, too. Cruise total: $167,500.

4. On a three month plus cruise, we’ll need a little spending money: $50,000.

5. Complete our bathroom and closet renovations. Hmmm…. I’d say $40,000 so I can have some cool closet gadgets and duel heads in the shower.

6. A daily workout with a personal trainer -- everyday, all year. $54,000

7. A month of summer camp at Kanakuk for both kids, including flights and all the other stuff it takes to get ready for camp. $10,000.

8. New landscaping -- $10,000. (I have no idea what landscaping would cost, but we need alot of it.)

9. A week long writers' retreat with all my writing chicas -- on me -- somewhere cool. Include bells and whistles. $20,000. (Hmm.... maybe a beach or mountain house somewhere....)

10. A chef. (Right. Like I know what that would cost.)

Okay, that was really hard. I kept thinking of sending under-priveleged kids to camp and fighting AIDS in Africa. If I really had a million dollars to spend any 'ole way, I'd like to not just spend it on me.

What about you?

Macy

'Nough said

What I'm Reading: Lay That Trumpet in our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy AND Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder.

What I'm Working On: New words. Edits.

New words today: 454

Voice theory – Emotion. Part 3

AKA Why love triangles slay me….

What I'm reading: Lay That Trumpet in our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy AND Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. (Our book club discussion of Poison Study is next Sunday, 2/10. I’m really enjoying it.)

What I'm working on: I’m back to the fight scene – the big one between Tara and a demon god. And then I’m off to read the 305 pages I printed. No, I won’t read it all tonight, but it needs to be read so I know what's still missing.

New words today: 505

If you recall, I’ve been posting a little series on voice. Today, I’m resuming it with part 3.
The big key to swept-away titles for me – be it books or movies – is a truly emotional story, a story where I feel deeply. I want that bone-deep, overpowering, soul-clutching emotional ride.

I frequently find that ride in stories with well-developed love triangles. Let me just list a few.

Bridges of Madison County
Sugar Daddy
The X-Men Movies
The Anita Blake series – okay, yes, there might be more than a triangle going on now
The Twilight Series

I realize some of these titles don’t have traditional love triangles, but there are triangles.

You see, the deal with love triangles is they require someone (the hero or heroine) to choose. Often the best choice is clear to a reader or watcher, but just as often it’s not any clearer to us than it is to the main character.

The best love triangles involve giving up something you really want regardless of the choice you make. They involve the deep understanding that you can’t have everything no matter how bad you want it all.

Let me give you some examples.
WARNING: THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS BELOW. If you don’t want to be spoiled stop reading when you see the title of a story you haven’t read.

First, let’s look at BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. I loved the movie and the book, but to keep us all straight, let’s talk movie here. The love triangle is between Francesca, Robert, and Francesca’s husband. Immediately, one might think the choice should be obvious, but it’s not. And what’s more, at the end of the movie, you’re heart-broken when she makes the moral choice. Notice – I didn’t say right. There is no right choice. She loses a chunk of her soul and heart regardless of who she chooses. No matter how many times I watch the movie, I cry when the shot cuts to her hand on the door. The indecision is a heart-breaking, emotional ride.

In SUGAR DADDY by Lisa Kleypas, Liberty is just falling in love again when the man she’s always been in love with shows up. I won’t tell you want happens, but I love to watch how both men react – doing whatever it takes to keep her. Very dramatic stuff.

In the X-MEN trilogy (movies), Wolverine is in love, but he can’t have the object of his affection. She’s married to someone else – someone that doesn’t understand her troubled soul. In the end, the husband is out of the picture, but the conflict is still there. It becomes a love triangle between choosing her and choosing what’s right (saving the world). He can’t have both.

In the ANITA BLAKE series by Laurell K. Hamilton, I love the love triangle between Richard, Jean Claude, and Anita. The books with high tension between the three of them were my favorites in the series.

Finally, the series that got me thinking about love triangles: THE TWILIGHT SERIES by Stephanie Meyer.

I recently lay on the bed reading the last book so far in the series – ECLIPSE. Marcus lay next to me watching a sitcom. Suddenly I slammed the book and swung my legs over the edge of the bed to stand up. I dropped the book onto my pillow as if it burned my hands.

“What’s wrong?” Marcus asked, pulling his eyes away from the TV.

“Bella is so screwed.” I say clenching my teeth in anxiety over recent events in the book. “I can’t read anymore right now.”

I stare down at the book. Marcus returns to watching the sitcom.

I plop back down on the bed and pry the book open again, resuming my read.

“I thought you couldn’t read anymore of it right now.” He raises his eyebrows in amusement. He’s seen this side of me before.

“I can’t, but I can’t stop. She is so, so screwed. This will never turn out okay. No matter what happens.”

Bella has a choice to make. If she chooses Edward, there is a huge cost. If she chooses Jake, there is a huge cost. I hurt for her. If it was me, I'd want to stay in limbo -- or perhaps live in a vacuum where I didn't have to choose.

Angsty, emotional, riveting stuff. There’s just something about the emotional journey in a good love triangle, especially when to win, you also have to lose.

I want to write books like these.
(So, I guess it’s good that I have a couple of ideas for love triangles, eh?)

Macy

Hmm... A question: What good love triangles in books or movies can you think of?

Fan Geek

What I'm reading: Lay That Trumpet in our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy AND Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder.

What I'm working on: A scene in the middle of Slayer. Tomorrow I’m printing the current 300+ pages for some editing reads so I’ll know if I’m headed in the right direction.

New words today: 518

I am a total fan geek.

I can’t tell you how giddy it just made me to discover (just moments ago) that Stephanie Meyer, genius author of the Twilight series, will have her first adult fiction release in May. I’ve already pre-ordered.

I’m such a fan geek.

I won’t bore you with too much of my gushing. I’ve waited in long lines to get J.R. Ward and Suzanne Brockmann to sign books, but for Stephanie Meyer, I’d be willing to camp out.

FAN GEEK!

Anyway, here’s the post from her website. (Read below or click here.)

______________________________
Science fiction for people who don't like science fiction…

October 2007 Update: The Host now has an official on-sale date of May 6, 2008!

December 2006 Update: After a fierce bidding war, The Host has found a home with Little, Brown & Company (Adult). I'm very pleased to be with such a stellar publisher, and to work with the same editor that edited Alice Sebold's amazing novel, The Lovely Bones. The Host is tentatively set for release in Spring of 2008.

About The Host:

Despite its genre, The Host a very human story. There aren't any gadgets, ray guns, time warps, black holes, spaceships (okay, there are a few spaceships mentioned), or any of the other sci-fi standards. It all takes place on the planet earth in the present day and is, at its core, a love story (I can't stay away from the romance, I'm a sap).

The basic premise: The Host takes place after a bodysnatchers-style invasion of the earth. We (the humans) lost. Our narrator is Wanderer, one of the invading "souls," who struggles to navigate all the bewildering challenges that come with living inside a human body. She was forewarned about these challenges—the overwhelming emotions, the stunning physical responses, the glut of senses, the too vivid dreams and memories… However, there was one challenge Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body, human survivor Melanie Stryder, refuses to fade away into oblivion the way she should. Melanie lingers as an angry presence in Wanderer's head, holding on to her human secrets and filling Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves—Jared, another human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for the man she's never met. Outside forces combine to make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, and, working together, they set off to search for the man they both love. It's possibly the first love triangle that only involves two bodies.

Click here to pre-order The Host. Release date: May 6, 2008.

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Look -- Love triangles.... Didn't I promise that would be the next topic in my Voice series?
Tune in tomorrow.
Macy

A Finally Friday Five

What I'm reading: Lay That Trumpet in our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy AND Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder.

What I'm working on: A scene in the middle of Slayer.

New Words Thursday 1/31: 0 (I was still in meetings way after the official end of my workday, but I'll catch up this weekend.)
New words today: 479

Did you start the 15K in 30 days challenge yesterday? If not, start today!!!!!!!!!!!! We finish up March 1st.

It has been a long week. Despite my best laid plans, work threw several curve balls my way this week. I love my job, but a HUGE part of it is being prepared to deal with anything at anytime – the perpetual trouble shooter.

This week there was a lot of trouble.

However, I did manage to witness high school kids jumping up and down over the opportunity to read Shakespeare’s Othello, including a big football lineman begging to read Othello’s part.

I did arrange – or mostly so – a guest speaker for next fall. I’m very excited about that. My favorite high school is reading Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy for their summer community book. I spoke to Susan at length this week. I can hardly wait to meet her in person and to hear her address our student body. More about that later, but if you want to see what the hype is about, check out this website: Susan Carol McCarthy.

Despite those good things, lots of less pleasant stuff happened, too, and all that zapped my energy. That means, there will be more on voice later, but not until the weekend.

And that brings me to my Friday Five – five things I’m looking forward to this weekend:

1) A few glasses of Wine at Dubsdread.

2) My local CFRWA meeting.

3) A couple of hours browsing B&N with the hubby while the 12 year old goes to youth group on Saturday night.

4) Lunch on Saturday with a writing buddy.

5) Writing. A lot.

More later.

Macy