Italian For Beginners

Now technically this is just a little light chick-lit, but it was also a little bit of a Roman travelogue. Sicne I can't travel, I love the romance mixed with travel books. For some reason this one kept me hooked. The story wasn't as predictable as other chick-lit can be, so it kept me entertained the whole way through.

Cat leaves her ho-hum life to do something impulsive and different to try and spice up her life. Well whose life wouldn't be spiced up if they dropped everything and went to Rome for 4 weeks. Cat is 35 and single and spends most of her time in Rome taking pictures, trying to get over the death of her mother, and trying to figure out her relationships with men. I think there was a little too much deep introspection on Cat and her realtionship with her mother. I would have liked to see the love story developed more, but overall it was very readable. It made for a good light weekend read. It won't change your life, but will keep you entertained. Over all I would say it was a home run for chick-lit.

NaNoWriMo Story

Yes I'm doing it. I've even got more than 5000 words already. My reading is slacking and I just can't find anything really good to read. I've tried a few, but nothing has stuck. I did finish Finding Oz and it was awesome, but I'm not in the mood to write a formal review.
I tried Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice but it was so boring. I wasn't engrossed by page 150 so I figured it wasn't worth finishing.
So now I'm engrossed in getting in my 2500 words a day for NaNoWriMo. So far so good, but for me it's only day 3. I've done the math for this and if I do 2500 words a day on the weekdays, not including Thanksgiving Day I will meet the 50,000 mark just in time for the end of the month.

I had no plans when I started this story. I just sat down and waited to see what was going to come out. It started out as me, but now has kind of morphed into an Angelina Jolie bad ass mother kind of character and she will be duking it out with none other than Brad Pitt as the bad guy. I don't know how that happened, but when I visualize the characters I created, that is who they look like so I'm going to go with it.
I tried to think of something that could hold my attention and give me enought little scenes to write for a whole month and what I have come up with is:

From the soon to be released book jacket........ A mother leaves her family to take a job in Las Vegas for six weeks to try and save the family from financial ruin, but once she enters into the seedy underworld of Las Vegas she is unsure if she will ever be able to return to her family again.

Oh yeah. That's right. The "seedy underworld". I want it to be kind of like a combo of Jane Eyre... you know a stranger in a big new house with strange people, a new job, a myserious past, a hidden secret.
And then for the cliffhanger at the end the husband will come and save his wife, but he will do it on the newly finished Hoover Dam suspension bridge.
It is going to be freaking awesome.

The BFG, Laura Day and OZ

I haven't been postign a lot, but I have been reading. Rather than do a bunch of seperate posts I'll just summarize.

I finally read the BFG by Roald Dahl. So many people ohh and ahh over this book and somehow I missed this book when I was growing up. I had bought it for my 9 year old to read and thought this would be the perfect time for me to read it too. Two hours later and I don't see what the big deal is. It's a cute story, but I think I missed the magic by reading it at age 34 instead of 8. Reading it as an adult I loved the way Dahl makes the BFG talk. It was ingenious. Only a linguist could have come up with his perfect giant dialect. The only onther thing I want to point out that is a bit nitpicky is if the giant is so opposed to giants eating people and even touches on Sophie eating pigs and calls her out on it, then why does he eat eggs and bacon at the end? I would have figured him for a vegetarian.

I read a book on intuition by Laura Day. I didn't figure this book was really worth a review. This is a book I would classify as 'common sense'. We all have intuition and some of us listen to the hints we are given and some of us don't. What  I didn't buy was looking for signs and symbols in everything we do. I don't think we should seek out those signs. If they aren't obvious then they aren't real signs as far as I'm concerned.

Best book these past few weeks has been Finding OZ. It's a biography of sorts of Frank Baum. It is absolutely fascinating. It combines history, political and social, and just a really great biography with an everyman story. I haven't quite finished it yet. I'm really into it and he hasn't even started to write the book yet. I'll keep you posted.

Writing has been slow going. I just about decided that I was going to give up on trying to write since all it seems to do is make me feel guilty for not producing more. I was going to try and focus all of my attention on one of my other businesses. That was until I got the NaNoWriMo e-mail appeared in my box and then a friend mentioned it again on FB. I am tempted. It officially starts on Sunday so I have until then to decide. It would be fun and I know I would finally get a chunk down on paper, but we'll see. My other business really needs some desperate attention and if I start writing furiously next month that business will get set on the back burner until probably January. Not necessarily a good idea. I guess I'll just see how I feel on Sunday and roll with it.

Wuthering Heights

No photo today for this book.

I really don't get Wuthering Heights. I picked it up to read a good githic novel. I vaguely remembered reading it when I was a teenager, but it didn't really leave a mark on me, so I decided to read it again.
I have now remembered why it didn't leave an impression. This book is horrible. I don't get the love story. I don't get the ghost story. It just seems like a long meandering family history. The family tree is so confusing and the names so similar that a family tree has to be provided at the beginning of the book. I was still referencing it during the last 30 pages of the book to remind myself who was who's kid.

I read the introduction in my edition and read a theory that Emily Bronte started it and that Charlotte Bronte finished it. I think I believe that this is a real possibility. The beginning of the novel is so all over the place and only about half way through does it seem to find it's style. There is less dialect in conversation, and the characters seem to start moving in a direction. There was a real line that was drawn thru the book and it could very well have been an author change. Add that to the fact that it was Charlotte that brought the book out after her sister's death and I don't see how Charlotte couldn't have added her own shine to her sister Emily's book. Without argument Charlotte was the more talented sister. It wasn't until just a couple of months ago that I read Jane Eyre for the first time and I can honestly say that it is one of the best books I have ever read.

I so wanted to love this book. It is beloved by so many and I wanted to love it too, but I just couldn't do it. maybe if I pick it up again in another 20 years it will strick a chord with me then, but so far I've got nothing for it.

Isis by Douglas Clegg

I found this book advertised in a strange location.....on Perez Hilton.com. Not the place I usually find books, but there it was on the smaller side ads showing it's beautiful cover and I was sold. I looked up Douglas Clegg and saw he was the writer of a bunch of cool horror books and thought this might be pretty good.

It's a tiny little book, more like an elongated fairy tale then a whole book. Overall it was good, but I would have like to have seen it as a whole book. It felt too compact. The message of the book was awesome. What happens after you bring someone back from the dead? What happens if you wish them back to you in any form? I loved that part of the story. It's a different way to think about returning from the dead. Since I am also reading Wuthering Heights (which I'll review later this week) I saw a lot of parallels between the two stories. There is a love so deep that you can't live without the person you are missing and you ask for them to haunt you.. Not a good idea I would say.

I recomend it, but get it at the library like I did. I wouldn't really call it an instant classic, so you don't really need it on your library shelves. The drawings are amazing so if you're into illustration then buy it, otherwise just check it out from the library.

Slacker

I'm slacking and playing way too much solitaire on my i-phone and not reading, and spending too much time on Perez Hilton to write. It goes that way sometimes. Besides those distractions I have also been fairly busy with my real paying work and of course my family. I'll get back to it I swear. I'm still reading Wuthering Heights mixed with How to Write Romance. I'm just taking it slower than usual. I've got a ton of great books on my desk, but I just can't get through them quick enough what with the new fall TV season having started and all.

Candy Girl Diablo Cody

Okay so I read this book a while ago, but I have to bring it back out. I love Diablo Cody (aka Brooke Busy). This book made me start reading again a few years ago. I've read Jen Lancaster and other bloggers turned memoirists and no one spoke to me the way Diablo did. She's hilarious, smart, and tells it like it is. She doesn't write about regular female fluff, but the good hard core stuff beneath all that feminine fluff. I like a book that brings the hard core sex stuff into everyday life. You think it, she writes it. Sex is part of life whether we talk about it or not. I think Diablo brought a thinking girls perspective to the sex industry.

Since reading this book I've become a Diablo Cody fan. I follow her tweets, which are hilarious. I haven't seen Jennifer's Body yet, but will on DVD. (I have kids). I just wish Diablo would bring her awesome writing powers back to another book.

This would have to be one of my favorite books of all time.

Mystery Gothic Romance Chick-Lit

This week I'm reading all over the place. So far I've read How to Write a Mystery by Larry Beinhart and now I'm into On Writing Romance by Leigh Michaels. Both seem really good with solid information and not a bunch of pimping out of their own books. They have of course led me even deeper into my research reading. I'm picking up old Steven King, re-reading Rebecca and Wuthering Heights, and I've even discovered Joyce Carol Oates. How is it that I've never stumbled upon her before? I'm also going back to re-read The Wizard of Oz. Is it too much research? Am I procrastinating? Maybe, but all of these books are fueling my ideas and my story. There is much to be said for reading all over the place. Everybook I read will make me a better writer. There are so many amazing stories out there that it is hard to find one that I don't want to read. I'm trying to find a really good modern gothic fairy tale. I'm picky, but I've found a few. This is my genre. Although is there such a thing as a mystery gothic romance chick-lit?

The Lost Symbol

Don't read this if you don't want the plot spoiled.........

I loved the Da Vinci Code. Let's start off by saying that. It was exciting. It was set in Europe. It had all kinds of cool buildings as backdrops. I was genuinely surprised at the end.

This book not so much. It's just as fast paced as The Da Vinci Code, but it's set in Washington D.C., not a really cool or exciting city to me. All the little history tidbits were here, but it was more like National Treasure then something new and different.

I don't know if this is obvious to everyone who reads the book, so if this spoils it for you I'm sorry, but I figured out on like page 75 that the bad guy was Solomon's son. I thought it was very thinly vieled. Then throughout the whole book it is foreshadowed that the bad guy has this terrible thing he is going to do that will ruin the country, change lives forever, and then when it finally comes down to the end and he is about to carry out his evil plan all he has is a video of a bunch of politicians participating in a Masonic ritual. I was really let down. That's it? That's what he's got that is so evil? Really? I thought he was going to have nuclear codes or a deadly virus or something really scary, but no, just a video. And then even more disappointing...... the thing that they spend the whole novel searching for........ is a Bible. That's it. A Bible. The book thas has more copies in print than anything else. It's not lost. There is one within arms reach of most people their whole lives. This again was a let down. They obviously didn't even need to dig up the final piece of the puzzle once they figured out it was a Bible.  Of course in this book the bible is the "Ancient Mysteries" and if the Bible is decoded it will reveal all the mysteries on earth.

I didn't buy it.

I will say that I read the whole thing. The bad guy seems like a really cool character. If I was writing the book I wouldn't have killed him off. He was the most well written and interesting guy in the whole book. I would have like to have seen him get away and carry out some other "evil" plan. Dan Brown is able to write in such a way that it doesn't feel like you're reading a book, you actually feel captivated and part of the adventure which I like. Overall a good read with a few disappointments.

Dan Brown vs. Georgette Heyer

I'm having a hard time finding another book to read. I've tried 3 already this week and nothing is sticking. I've got The Lost Symbol and I'll definitely finish that one. It's good enough to read all the way through. I'll post a review of that probably on Monday next week.

I was looking for a good romance to read simultaneously, but have yet to find it. I tried Georgette Heyer but I'm not feeling it. It's not gothic enough for me. It seems to be all dialogue and no long description of the houses and clothes and people. It's like reading a play and I can't get into it. There are too many characters and I can't seem to follow it enough to want to read the whole thing. So disappointing. I tried Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer and it doesn't look too promising either.

I read a lot of books and sometimes it's a curse. I've become so picky about what I read that not just anything will do. I'm afraid I'm starting to read like an editor. I get pissed if too many characters are introduced too quickly. I'm annoyed if the backstory is not slipped in delicately, but thrown in my face in the middle of a conversation. I want new and different people in crazy yet believeable situations. I want steamy romance that sucks me in and doesn't seem like a brief summer hook-up. It drives me crazy until I finally find that one book that makes me escape and I have to finish it in 2 days. Those books are so far and few inbetween, but that is why I buy so many books.......on the off chance that I find a gem.

I'll keep you posted if I find anything good. That's my job.

The Marshall Plan for Writing

I just started reading this book (the workbook) this afternoon. On page 13 is a description of a what a dream office for a writer would be...

" Most people have an image of the novelist confortably ensconced in a book-lined office or study, perhaps with an ergonomically designed desk that provides space for a computer, printer, manuscripts and research materials. Maybe there's a picture window with a view of woods or a mountain vista or a peaceful meadow....."

I often forget how lucky I am. I have all of those things listed above including a Bose i-pod dock playing classical music, a space heater so that my fingers don't get cold typing, and a few lap cats to keep me company. I have no excuse not to write. Apparently I have the "ideal" environment for creating books. Watch me now!

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

This book has been everywhere in front of me lately on Amazon and all over the shelves at Barnes and Noble. The cover looked interesting and so did the blurb on the back, but I was hesitant. I finally bought it, and then finally finished reading it over the weekend.

It's the story of a graduate student who moves into her grandmother's old house and then tries to find an old book as research for one of her graduate student papers. It sounded good. It was set in Salem and Marblehead, MA which are two really cool and interesting places, and it involved witchcraft.

It started out soooooo slow, and it never really got to be a page turner. I love libraries more than most people, but the adventures in this book seemed to just follow Connie from library to library. Ohhhhh, Interesting. It was predictable and all of the 'mysteries' were so obvious that I was stunned that this book made it into print. It was technically perfect as far as the set up, the confidant, the love interest, the villian, but where were the suprises? Where was the heart and the compassion? The adverbs and adjectives seemed awkward and overused and to put it blatently Connie for all of her education was just plain stupid. The girl didn't even remember until the end of the book that her name was Constance and not Connie. WTF?

I was very disappointed.

After about the first four chapters when I could tell that the book wasn't going anywhere I went online to check the reviews on Amazon. All of the reviews seemed to be positive. Are they just her friends who are reviewing it? Am I the only one who thought it was just plain lackluster? The few reviews that I found that were not glowing seemed to say what I said above only in a more positive spin, but I'm not buying it.

The book sucked and I went ahead and read it anyway. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they were super bored.

5000 Words a Week

So I did the calculations and figured out that if I write 5000 words a week I'll have 70,000 (the avg. length of a novel) by Christmas. That sounds so easy. I've got over 6000 words already and if I can just sit down to write twice a week and crank out 2500 words I'll easily hit my goal of having something finished and ready to be sent out by the time school lets out in May.

Can it really be that easy? The words are coming out so effortlessly. They might all be crap so far, but it's fun and I can always spend the last 4 months rewriting and editing it into something that resembles a novel. I think that's the part I'll have the most fun with anyway. I've already done that hard part and that is just sitting down and starting. Now I just have to follow this character thru her trials and tribulations, and then later go back and add anything that is missing, and take out the parts that suck. I'm excited, and still nervous, but those calculations seemed to set my mind at ease.  All I need to do is make the word count and by Christmas I'll have something that I can give myself as a gift.

New Moon

Okay, So I'm going to admit that I never really read New Moon. I was so upset that Edward left after the first few chapters, and I couldn't stand Bella's heartbreak, that I had to skip to the end where they are reunited. It was just too much for me. I had read the first 3 books back to back. I was a little late to the  Stephenie Meyer train, but I jumped on board better late then never. I was still so in love with Edward from Twilight that it broke my heart to see him leave like that. I was pissed and I couldn't be satisfied with little 16 year old Jacob.

So over the weekend I picked it up again. I want to know what's going on when the movie comes out in November. I've already told my husband I'll be draging him to it, although I might have to catch an early matinee by myself that Friday afternoon.

Now that I know that they get back together and live happily ever after it wasn't nearly so painful to read about the break up. Jacob was a good kid. He took care of Bella and was there at all those moments when Edward should have been there. Too convenient? Yes, but I totally believed it all because this is the Twilight Saga. The hero always saves Bella. The Romeo and Juliet tie in was a little bit much, and obvious even if Meyer hadn't pointed it out, but I guess it will help all those high school sophomores who are reading both books.

I have a hard time understanding the pull of the Twilight books. I mean I know Edward is the pull, but how is it that a mediocre chic lit novelist can create one of the most steamy desireable men in novel history. I know I can't resist Edward and I'm 34, imagine how 14 year old girls feel. She has created the perfect man who loves a regular old girl. His only real draw to her is her scent which is explained as an irrestible pull he has to her becasue her blood is the perfect scent for him. She is goofy, moody, clingy and I think downright difficult, but she's a regular girl and we are all like that. He on the other hand is the embodiment of the perfect man. He is beautiful, virtually indestructable, a fierce protector, apparently a damn fine kisser, and he loves her to death. How can we resist him? Has there ever been a man with this much perfection ever?

The stories are fairy tales, a little bit hokey and cheesey, but riveting. I can't put them down and when I do I'm hanging on my husband like he was my own personal Edward. It's astounding the power Edward has thru the pages. The way Meyer writes it I felt the presence of Edward when Bella heard his voice in this book. I wanted it to really be Edward just like Bella did. It simply blows my mind. What ever Stephenie Meyer has done with the way she writes Edward will be difficult to surpase. Who could ever be more perfect than Edward?

THE Story

I think I might have finally found my story. Well, maybe not the story yet, but the main character and the setting. I'm excited. I want to see what happens to this girl. She interesting, especially since she is based on me. But I can't decide if she'll be a normal girl in everyday circumstances or if there will be some little element of the supernatural in her or the people that surround her. Real life is so boring that I am oh so tempted to but a little bit of magic in her, but I haven't decided yet. I'll jsut continue writing and see what feels right to her.

I feel better becasue I'm writing. I've always known the answer to, "Why do you write?" is "Because I have to", but this is strange. I just started this story yesterday and I already feel like a weight has been lifted off of my mind. It feels like something I am supposed to do. It just feels right. This is the character I am supposed to write about. She will keep me going.

I don't know where to start on this book. It looked promising. I'm a fan of Jane Austen and I'm always in the mood for some good chick lit, but this was disappointing. Chick lit can be like that I've noticed. I really don't expect too much from it. It's like critics and Will Ferrell movies. They always slam it for being stupid, but it's supposed to be.....it's a Will Ferrell movie. It's not supposed to be an Oscar contender.

Chick lit is supposed to be light and somewhat predictable, but this was just too obvious. Emily goes on vacation to see the historic sites of Jane Austen's books. Sounds interesting enough. What is bad about this book is the feeble attempt to add in a bit of the supernatural. Jane Austen sets up Emily on a date with the real Mr. Darcy, so that she will realize that real men are better then thier fictionalized ideal characters in books. I didn't buy it. I don't know who could buy this story. I had a hard time finishing it, but took to skimming every other page for the last 100 pages and I still didn't feel like I missed anything.

Overall the book felt like a holiday Lifetime movie. Like I said, I like chick lit, but this just didn't pass as good chick lit. I hate to say it, but I am deathly afraid that my attempt at fiction for the first time will be exactly like this, but I think that's why I read books like this.....so I know what not to do.

Fiction vs. Non-fiction

I write everyday. I write 3 different blogs. I write an almost daily diary that inspires most of my posts for my blog entries. I write mad letters to people I would never have the guts to say things out loud to. I write my husband love letters and I'm severely disapponited in you letters. I write business correspondence and personal correspondence.

I've written my entire life. I remember writing everytime that I was in love. When I was in the 8th grade I wrote a complete story chronicling my one sided love affair with a Mr. David Duensing. In highschool I wrote about the mad love I had for my first boyfriend. I hated him and I loved him and we were constantly fighting, but we were madly in love. In college I wrote about how frustrated I was with my boyfriend. I never understood his actions and only 15 years later when I reread all the pages and learned that he had figured out that he was gay did it all make sense. After college I wrote about my move to Los Angeles and how bewildering it all was compared to life in small towns in Illinois. And then I wrote about meeting the love of my life in a small club in Santa Ana.

None of those were diary entries. They were the ravings of a crazy girl in love who was trying to figure out her emotions and where her place in the world was.

I"m still trying to find my place. I've given up one career and I'm trying to find out what is next. I'm confused, frustrated, and still bewildered. Writing helps me find my place. It helps me to figure out where I am and where I'm going. Maybe it will be 15 years from now beforeI figure it all out, but here it is written out for me now to look over everyday and see what's going on it my mind. I share all of this with you. I don't know you, but you know life and mine is like many others. I write in the hope that somewhere out there someone will read this and know how I feel and they will feel better about how they feel and how they live their lives.

So in writing all this I am trying to figure out what it is that I am supposed to write. I can comment endlessly on my own life. I can comment on other people's lives and the choices they've made. I can comment on other writer's stories... if I was entertained, bored, titillated. I have tons of ideas  for stories in my head. I try and get them down on paper, but I'm just not good at it yet. I get frustrated and then jsut slip back into myself and my life and my commentary.
How do you know if you are meant for fiction or non-fiction? I'll keep practicing with my fiction, but I think what I really love is just writing about life. True Life. Where is the audience for that other than in blogs? I'm still trying to figure it all out and this is where I'm going to do it.

The Cabinet of Curiosities

Okay so I thought I might have been a little hard on Douglas Preston and the Monster of Florence so I picked up one of his older mystery books just to see how he usually writes.

Holy Crap! This book is awesome. I just picked it up on Saturday and I'll probably finish it today. It's been a while since I've read a mystery/police/FBI book so this one has me completely enthralled. It's creepy, unpredictable, not too gory, and a page turner.

It's about some old bones that are found during a construction excavation and how those old bones relate to a string of new murders in NYC. I think this is the 3rd or 4th book in a series of books that have this mysterious guy, Agent Pendergrast, as the chief investigator. There is a little bit of back story from the other books that is over my head, but not enough to distract me from the juicy story.

It's got all the cool creepy backdrops..... old archives at a musuem, old buildings, deserted streets, a Jack-the Ripper type bad guy, and just a slight tinge of romance. Like I said I haven't finished it yet, but I don't think I'll be able to keep myself away from it for too long today. I usually try not to read until after 3:00, but I might have to break the rules today.

It's obvious that Douglas Preston's strength in not in the real life crime book, but the fiction book. There are still a lot of facts and figures, but there is more story and people in this book than in the Monster of Florence. I highly recommend this book and will probably have to go out and buy the previous books in the series jsut to try and figure out some more about this guy Pendergrast. He's a very interesting character because he is so ambiguous.

Validation

 I read an awesome essay yesterday by Anne Tyler titled "Still Just Writing". I had been wondering earlier in the day if there was anyone else out there in the world that was living a life like mine that was frustrated by the inability to produce anything creativily due to the decision to have children.  Jackpot! Bingo! There she was. I knew there had to be others, but in this essay Anne Tyler almost describes my life word for word. She has a husband who leaves at 5:30 every morning, makes most of the regular income and she stays home, tries to write and takes care of all the chores related to the house, pets, children, etc. I was amazed.

It's not just me that can't write when the kids are home. There are constant distractions, band-aids, snacks, homework, repairmen, deliveries, school functions, snow days that hamper the desire and ability to write. I have learned through the years that I just give in to the demands and save the writing for my time when there is no one to disturb my train of thought. At first I felt guilty for not doing what I wanted to do, but over time I realized that if I give my full attention to the kids when they are home I am happier and they are happier. I am not yelling at them to be quite or to get their own snack. They are not distracting me from my work. We are all happier if I just go with the flow and work when they are not home. Anne Tyler says the same exact thing.

It's a difficult line to walk. There are days when I have no time to myself and I have to learn to just write that day off as a day that was spent helping the children and realize that there will be days in the future that will be all mine. For now they come first and my time is what ever is left over. Soon enough they will all be off at school and the days will be endless and I will wonder how to fill them all up.

My schedule will always have to be felxible since my husband's is not. I will always be able to stop my work to be there for the kids. That is why I find work that I dictate the schedule. I have chosen to be a creative person. I have chosen to write and to document this time and this place and I will do it mostly between Labor Day and Memorial Day. I am glad to see that I am not the only one who has made that decision.

The Monster of Florence

This book had all the makings of a great read. It had all the things that I love: mystery, history, a cool Italian setting, and dirty little secrets.

But I was so disappointed. I have never read any of Preston's other mystery novels so I don't know how well he writes in those, but this was all journalism and no romance, too many of the wrong kinds of adjectives and a little too bloody for me. It's full of 3 page chapters that seem like they were taken directly out of Spezi's files with little to no addition of human feeling and interpretation. It seems to be lists of dates and facts and people listing suspect after suspect. I understand that the case was never solved, but it seems to be a let down in a book of this kind. The main focus of the story is supposed to be the city of Florence itself, but I never felt a part of the city. I only felt a part of the frustration that the Italian police must have felt at their continual ineptness at containing crime scenes and fingering suspects.

The book was compared to "Midnight in the Garden of Good an Evil", but never did Preston give me the feeling of the city and the people the way that Berendt did. Midnight read like a novel that just so happened to be a true story while Monster read like a newspaper archive.