Summer

I'm going to be in and out alot in the coming weeks. I'm committed to getting a post up once a week -- at least, but for June and July, it might be sparse.

M

Waiting on Wednesday

What I’m Reading: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult and Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel by Diana Peterfreund

What I’m Working On: Another draft of Slayer. Seriously – I have to finish this book soon. Or else.

Waiting On Wednesday: THE DEVIL’S COMPANY by David Liss
July 7th 2009 by Ballantine Books

Synopsis:
From the acclaimed author of The Whiskey Rebels and A Conspiracy of Paper comes a superb new historical thriller set in the splendor and squalor of eighteenth-century London. In Benjamin Weaver, David Liss has created one of fiction’s most enthralling characters.

The year is 1722. Thief-taker, ex-boxer, “ruffian for hire,” and master of disguise, Weaver finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, pitted against Jerome Cobb, a wealthy and mysterious schemer who needs Weaver’s strength and guile for his own dark purposes.

Weaver is blackmailed into stealing documents from England’s most heavily guarded estate, the headquarters of the ruthless British East India Company, but the theft of corporate secrets is only the first move in a daring conspiracy within the 18th century’s most powerful corporation. To save his friends and family from Cobb’s reach, Weaver must infiltrate the Company, navigate its warring factions, and uncover a secret plot of corporate rivals, foreign spies and government operatives. With millions of pounds and the security of the nation in the balance, Weaver will find himself in a labyrinth of hidden agendas, daring enemies and unexpected allies.

With the explosive action and scrupulous period research that are David Liss’s trademarks, The Devil’s Company depicts the birth of the modern corporation, and is the most impressive achievement yet from an author who continues to set ever higher standards for historical suspense.

Why:
Well, first and foremost because I won an ARC from Goodreads.com. I’m excited to get to read and write a review for this book. It’s not my normal fair. Neither (I thought) was THE HELP, which I also won from Goodreads and which I voraciously devoured and which I’m certain might be my “book of the year”. I love finding new authors and new types of stories to love. This one looks, oh so promising.

Waiting on Wednesday

What I'm Reading: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

What I'm Working On: Writing everyday.

Waiting On: FIRE by Kristin Cashore
October 6th 2009 by Gollancz

Synopsis:
Fire, Graceling's prequel-ish companion book, takes place across the mountains to the east of the seven kingdoms, in a rocky, war-torn land called the Dells.

Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

Wondering what makes it a companion book/prequel? Fire takes place 30-some years before Graceling and has one cross-over character with Graceling, a small boy with strange two-colored eyes who comes from no-one-knows-where, and who has a peculiar ability that Graceling readers will find familiar and disturbing...

Why:
I just finished Graceling, and absolutely loved it so of course I want to read more by this very talented author. Her character development is stellar and her imagination is one of the best I've seen in a long time.

I've got FIRE on my "buy right away" list, but October is so far away.

Memorial Day

Enjoy your memorial day.

......and remember why we celebrate it.

M

The last days

Whew. The last day of school with kids.

I still have lots of work to do, but there is a certain quiet relief to know the kids are off for summer.

M

Waiting on Wednesday

What I’m Reading: Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Tithe by Holly Black, and Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

What I’m Working On: Writing every day. So far, so good.

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY

What: Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon

When: June 16, 2009. Harper Collins

Synopsis:
Dismantlement = Freedom
Henry, Tess, Winnie, and Suz banded together in college to form a group they called the Compassionate Dismantlers. Following the first rule of their manifesto—"To understand the nature of a thing, it must be taken apart"—these daring misfits spend the summer after graduation in a remote cabin in the Vermont woods committing acts of meaningful vandalism and plotting elaborate, often dangerous, pranks. But everything changes when one particularly twisted experiment ends in Suz's death and the others decide to cover it up.
Nearly a decade later, Henry and Tess are living just an hour's drive from the old cabin. Each is desperate to move on from the summer of the Dismantlers, but their guilt isn't ready to let them go. When a victim of their past pranks commits suicide—apparently triggered by a mysterious Dismantler-style postcard—it sets off a chain of eerie events that threatens to engulf Henry, Tess, and their inquisitive nine-year-old daughter, Emma.
Is there someone who wants to reveal their secrets? Is it possible that Suz did not really die—or has she somehow found a way back to seek revenge?
Full of white-knuckle tension with deeply human characters caught in circumstances beyond their control, Jennifer McMahon's gripping story and spine-tingling plot prove that she is a master at weaving the fear of the supernatural with the stark realities of life.


Why:

I like the clever idea behind this book. I want to know what happens when things go too far. I hope the characters grow and learn from their action. And, the words spine-tingling and supernatural have me hooked.

A short haitus

What I'm Reading: Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (iPod), Graceling by Kristin Cashore (traditional book), and Tithe by Holly Black (on my KINDLE)

What I'm Working On: Finishing up a scene (580 words tonight) that proves the WIP has altered its course somewhat -- and after MONTHS of fretting over the WIP, I finally feel more on track.

I didn't post a Waiting on Wednesday last week. Hopefully, I will this week. At least that's the next blog I plan to write.

I hate to be "away" but my step father-in-law died after a painful battle with lung cancer. All of us in casa de O'Neal were very close to him.

I'm sure you'll understand me taking a few days off.

But, surely I can get one little "Waiting on Wednesday" post prepared by Wednesday. And, then, hopefully after that I'll feel like blogging about my new KINDLE.

(Yes, I just got an Amazon Kindle. And, yes, I have quite mixed emotions about electronic books living up to all that "real" books are to me, but I will say that this little toy is addictive.)

But more on that later.....

M