C. L. Norman

• Water cooking in the sun on a concrete sidewalk smells like my childhood.

• Annie and Auggie need to begin a romantic subplot on Covert Affairs. Their chemistry is my favorite part of the show so far.

• Writing outlines is hard. I usually am a seat-of-my-pants-type writer. A challenge/assignment for my writing group has us writing an outline for a novel due next Thursday and my brain keeps resisting it. I will do it!

• Abbie on NCIS is cool.

• Having my oldest child out of the country for the Fringe Festival makes me feel old. The first faint feelings of empty next syndrome are stirring in my heart.

• Cast in Chaos by Michelle Sagara is a great book. My one complaint with it had to do with the part just before the ending. Something about the way it was written made me feel almost like things went into slow motion. Can’t wait to hear more of Kaylin’s adventures.

• As Lie The Dead by Kelly Meding kept up the pace of the first book. Coming back from the dead never was so cool.

• Step Up 3D was a good movie but gratuitous 3D effects are annoying.

• Visiting amusement parks on a Saturday in August is not as fun as it may sound.

• And finally, keep your eye on the blankie. If you don’t, your son will make you go to extraordinary means to get it back.

        

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads and Dad-like folks out there. I hope your loved ones showed you their appreciation today with cuddles or food or a phone call. I just finished making my husband breakfast for dinner; I worked this morning and wasn’t able to make him breakfast in bed. He eyeballed the bacon and promptly made himself a bacon sandwich. <shrugs> At least he enjoyed the food.

Reading

Eat, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss: I’ve been reading this book during my breaks at work for the last few weeks and I finished it up today. I’ve been told several times “you should read it” and I finally did. It is a hilarious look at those pesky punctuation rules, trends, and history. I found myself laughing out loud, literally, many times. As an American, I also found it very interesting to look at writing from a British perspective. To sum up, you should read this book.

Writing

Writing group met this week and, while it wasn’t my turn to submit, I learned some things from the critiqued pieces. Both of them were too heavy on backstory, in my opinion; my stories have been lacking on the world-building, or at least on communicating the world building. I detest info-dump-type sharing of the setting and history of the story. I suppose in response to that I have been leaning too far the other direction and not sharing enough of the details of the setting with my readers. Seeing the other end of the spectrum was helpful. Maybe my writing will improve.

        

Hi, guys. Another week, another post.

Reading

Daemon’s Mark by Caitlin Kittredge. The fifth in the Nocturne City series and another heroine shapeshifter. Luna Wilder is the main character in these books and she heads up the Supernatural Crimes Section of the police department. In this book, (despite the mistake on the cover blurb) Luna gets caught up in an investigation into a Russian sex slave ring. Young supernatural women are going missing and Luna is compelled to help them. An ex makes an appearance and her new boyfriend asks a question complicating Luna’s already full plate. This book is one I could not put down, and why would I even try? It is that good.

Revenant by Phaedra Weldon. Mental note: Ask Zoe Martinique how she keeps track of all her mental notes. Zoe Martinique started off this series as a plain old investigator who just happened to have the little talent of being able to go Out of Body (OOB) and spy on people incorporeally. Handy trick that. By this time, as a result of a connection with a certain Vin Diesal look-alike from the Abysmal plane, she is now Wraith. Wraith with a capital W, complete with scary black wings and killer bunny slippers on her feet. Irreverent and funny, Zoe’s friends are being threatened by a series of attacks on Revenants AKA vampires (but not the kind you’ve been reading about) and is off to save them. By the way, you can blame Zoe for my Sunday post being posted on Monday morning.

TV

Lie to Me. Cal is back in business, rooting out the liars and having fun doing it. In the season opener, Cal is after a serial killer. Everyone else doesn’t see it, but Cal pushes forward and proves himself right, again. Doctor Johnny Fever saw a UFO and his career was saved. Ok, so maybe it was the actor, Howard Hesseman, playing a professor who saw the UFO and as everyone thought he was crazy his career was in jeopardy. This show is one of my favorites. The team dynamic, the irreverent Cal, and the “who-done-it” aspects of this show hit all the right notes with me and I am happy it is back for the summer.

Good Guys. I’m on the fence about this new series. On one hand it is a cop and partner show. Two partners who are completely different are out there solving crimes. On the other hand it is a tongue-in-cheek spoof of a cop show, poking fun at the genre with a lot of strange, but funny, flashbacks.  ”I finally figured out how to use the computer machine.”–Dan Stark as he wedges the laptop into the car to hold down the accelerator.

Stargate SG-U. Wow. Season finale and it won’t be coming back until October. I think there were tears in my eyes when I knew how long it would be before I FOUND OUT WHAT HAPPENS TO EVERYONE! The season finale has the potential for new faces (and another faction) to be added to the Destiny. It also has the potential for several favorites to be leaving. I am loving this show and I am going to be counting the days until the next season starts.

Writing

You might think with all this reading and watching of the TV, I didn’t have time to write. You would be wrong. While my word count might not be that impressive, I did make progress on my current story. I am also seeing the path I want to start down with the next scene or two which is always nice. The path is fog shrouded and murky, and I think I hear some creepy music playing, but there is some excitement down there I can’t wait to explore.

Movies

Karate Kid. I told you that I wanted to see this movie and so I took the family with me to celebrate the kids’ last day of school. I really enjoyed it. There was enough of a balance between the familiar and new, that everyone could have fun with this movie. Jaden Smith has a lot of his dad in him (or at least a lot of what his dad shows on the screen) and Jackie Chan is, as always, awesome. Fun, fresh, and most importantly, this movie teaches kids to do their chores and respect their elders. You should see it.

How was your week? Any summer plans you are jumping into already?

        

I took yesterday off from the computer. I needed a break from my normal routine and so this post is a day late.

Reading

I read Ilona Andrews‘ Magic Bleeds, fourth in the Kate Daniels series. I enjoyed this book, as I did all the others, greatly. The pacing, the voice of the character and author, the setting; all these things suck me in and keep me reading until the last page. And then looking for more pages and being disappointed when I couldn’t find any.

Writing

I turned in the first 10 pages of my rough draft for group and it was critiqued last week. I was hesitant to turn in something unfinished and so rough but I am determined to finish a novel length project this year and so I didn’t want to write a short story just for group. My critique raised a bunch of questions and pointed out some holes in the story so far that are helping generate new ideas. I will have to remember how that helped and try showing some pages to a close friend or two when I get stuck in this story.

Movies

My daughter begged for some time with me, asking to go see Letters to Juliet. Y’all know I wanted to see that movie and to spend time with my oldest daughter just sweetened the deal. Together we went and laughed and cried and enjoyed the story. The movie is fun and watching the relationships between Sophie and Claire, and Sophie and Charlie, develop was very entertaining. The one sour note for me was that I couldn’t believe Sophie had ever been in love with Victor, her fiance.

That was my week. How was yours?

        

Good morning all. Another week is drawing to a close and it is time for my weekly post.

Happy Mother’s Day

Today is mother’s day. A day for spending time with your kids and the mothers in your life. My grade school kids have special things they have made for me and my teen daughters will hold in their attitudes long enough to mumble “happy mother’s day, mom”. It is a family day. Hope you enjoy yours.

Reading

This week I read Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris as I promised I would last week. I have to say I enjoyed it. I have heard some people complain that it is slower paced than the previous novels. I agree with this but it felt right for Sookie and Co. to have that breather. To me it feels like the lull before the storm. This book is all about family. Sookie and her brother get close again. Sam is still worried about his family and their reaction to the Great Reveal. Even Eric has some relatives come to town. There is still a lot going on but more of it has to do with relationships. There is even an appearance by Russian nobility. Fun.

I also read The Sweet Scent of Blood by Suzanne McLeod. I can’t rave about this book quite as much. It is the first in the series and all the different things that were introduced in this book were confusing in places. I did enjoy most of it and found it interesting take on vampires and fae. Also the character of Finn is a satyr and you just don’t see many satyrs in fiction these days. I like him. The vampire nobility that involve themselves with Genny’s life are darkly mysterious and their motives remain in the shadows. That said I will be reading the next one in the series. Now that I understand (or think I do) what is going on with Genny and her past, I am ready to dive forward in her world and see where things go.

Movies

I saw Iron Man 2 on Friday with my husband and two boys and I loved it. My 7 year old has dubbed it the third best movie of all time. Tony Stark has more snark than can fit in that suit and Vanko was sufficiently smart and creepy to be a worthy adversary. The action was eye-popping and fun, the way superhero action movies should be. I recommend this movie to comic fans, action fans, and comedy fans. It even has a bit of something for fans of romance.

Writing

I am still working on that “sitting down and writing everyday” thing that I need to progress further in this dream of mine. I have a conference coming up on Saturday where Terry Brooks is the keynote speaker. I have been a fan of his since I was in high school. In particular I have a soft spot for his character Allanon from the first Shannara series. Allanon had that black cloak that obscured his features and his motives wonderfully well. The first time through the books I didn’t know if he was just pretending to be a good guy or not.

 I also will be heading to a convention and participating in a writing workshop May 28th through the 31st. I found out who is critiquing my submission and now my husband is begging to pretend to be me and go. I will share with you who it is after I hear what he has to say. I can say that I am totally looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

How was your week? Are you enjoying your Mother’s Day?

        

Another month has gone and a new one has started. May always feels like the beginning of something to me. The flowers are blooming, the weather is changing and warming up, and school is wrapping up. Everything is transitioning and in some ways this feels more like the start of a new year than January 1st.

Reading

I read Bewitched and Betrayed by Lisa Shearin. It is the fourth in the series and it just keeps getting better. Raine is the perfect protagonist who keeps landing both feet in a lake of trouble and sinks fast. Mychael, the perfect paladin, reveals that he has more than a touch of the rogue in him. Tam, the dark mage goblin, has a fairly small part in this book but a memorable one. Lisa also has a talent for writing in a traditional fantasy setting using modern language that pulls the modern reader in. I am already having trouble waiting for the next one.

Charlaine Harris’ new Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead in the Family, is out this Tuesday so you know what I will be reading when I get out of work then. The combination of the humor, the complicated love life, the who-done-its, and the ever growing cast of characters keep me coming back for more. I am very excited for this one.

Writing

I proved I could write a short story in a few hours Monday. I found out the deadline for a workshop I wanted to participate in was the date received by not the date mailed and suddenly I lost two days. I could have sent in one of the stories I have out in submission but that felt like “cheating” to me and so I wrote something. I read the first six pages on Wednesday night for the Open Mic Night at B&N and everyone seemed to enjoy it. However as I was nearing the end of what I was writing, yet again it seems that I am not writing a short story. I am writing either a prologue or the first chapter of something much longer. This is just further proof that I need to start writing (and more importantly finishing) novels.

Thursday I tried to start and finish my #flashfriday submission because I worked on Friday. All I managed was an intoduction to the protagonist. And then he wouldn’t stop yammering in my head. I have never had that experience before and it was almost unnerving and definitely distracting. After a particularly irreverent comment on a magazine I was putting out at work, I firmly told him to be quiet until I could sit in front of a computer. Since then he has been unusually well behaved for him and I need to smack him until he goes back to normal. Normal for him that is.

Writing Events

Saturday night, Patricia Briggs was in the store for a signing for her latest Mercy Thompson book, Silver Bourne.  I spent about 20 minutes chatting with her husband, Mike. He gave great insights into a writer’s life and especially their beginnings. Nap time will never sound the same again. I will be seeing them again at the end of May at convention in Missoula. Hopefully I won’t be so in awe of her writing that I can’t talk to them both as friends.

That was my week, how was yours?

        

Happy Sunday folks. Another week over and we are back together to talk about it.

Reading

D. D. Barant’s book, Death Blows, was released this week and I had to pick it up. This series starring Jace Valchek, FBI profiler from our world, stuck in an alternate reality where humans are only 1% among a population of vampires, werewolves, and golems, is a delight. This sequel is a fun continuation of the story that began in Dying Bites and delves into comic book history. The world of superhero supernaturals is explored and is very enjoyable. I recommend this series to fans of the urban fantasy/who-done-it genres.

Writing

Still struggling with bad habits. Remember back in November when I was so excited to be writing daily during NaNoWriMo? I am working on getting back to that and shutting my inner critic up. She has gotten very noisy lately, jabbering non-stop from her position behind the driver’s seat. Rude, much? Compliments on my writing has given her permission to try to take over the steering wheel. I am working on tying her up and throwing her in the trunk. If you have a spare roll of mental duct tape, I could use it.

Gaming

We started a new Pathfinder campaign this week. I am running the Kingmaker adventure path for a group of seven friends and family. This adventure is fun and different. It is a fairly open field for the characters to roam in. The quest structure is very free form, in face it reminds me a lot of Everquest 2 or World of Warcraft. Wanted posters, NPCs wanting favors, and location discoveries yield quests that award traditional loot and experience. I fully expect to have fun running through this campaign.

Other Tidbits

Dean Wesley Smith popped the myth that writer’s don’t need to practice here.

Barnes & Noble Explorations tells us how to know if you are a SciFi/Fantasy geek here.

The NovelDoctor has some advice for getting through those troublesome middle sections of our novels here.

Romance Writer’s Revenge has a case for pantsters here, not that I need convincing.

How wondrous fine was your week? Anything new happen? or was it the same-o, same-o?

        

Happy Easter, folks. In honor of the holiday here is a link to the Washington Post Peeps Show IV. I hope you enjoy it.

Reading

This week I read and adored Patricia Briggs‘ new Mercedes Thompson novel, Silver Borne.  My place of work was even mentioned briefly in it. Pacing and characters and their attitudes make this a fun read.

Writing

To put it bluntly I blew it this week. I do have the excuse of not having a day off but in reality my shifts are pretty short and so it isn’t really valid. I know in my head and my heart what I want to do but the physical act of breaking bad habits and writing regularly is much harder. I have always had issues with self motivation. Working for others, paid or not, I take the extra steps to do the job perfectly but for myself I procrastinate. Let’s see if I can do better this week.

Movies

Saturday we went to see How to Train Your Dragon with our two sons. The movie is very good; pretty to look at, easy to relate to, and laugh-out-loud funny. While it has a good message, it doesn’t beat you over the head with it. As my husband pointed out, the Vikings are very close to fantasy dwarves complete with bushy beards, stout bodies, and a love of bashing things. In the words of my 6 year old, “The best movie ever.”

        

Howdy Folks! How was your week? Do anything wild and crazy? Try that hot chocolate with the dark cherry or discover some other yummy treat?

Movies

Last Sunday I went to see The Bounty Hunter with my oldest daughter. I have to say having a kid I can drag with me to romantic comedies whenever my checkbook and time permits is very cool. As anticipated Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston had me laughing and rooting for the big kiss moment and I wasn’t disappointed.

As a side note, after seeing this movie I started brainstorming how I could write a bounty hunter story myself, in a fantasy setting, of course. You see a lot of assassins and pickpockets in fiction but not as many bounty hunters and they deserve to wear the rogue mantle too. So keep an eye out and maybe one day you will see a bounty hunter story from me.

Reading

Remember how I said I had to fix the lack of reading I’ve been doing last week? Well I did. In spades. I’ve read the thee Mortal Instruments books by Cassandra Clare and the first two Blue Bloods novels by Melissa de la Cruz.

It all started when my daughter and I stopped at the bookstore after the movies and I got her a book and me a book with the idea we would swap when we finished. I finished the first of the Mortal Instruments book by the next day and of course I had to go right out and get the next one and the next. By then my daughter finished her book and I read that one and had to get the next. I stayed up super late reading three nights this week and even though I feel a bit sleepy I feel a lot more like myself now.

I probably don’t need to tell you after all that that I thoroughly enjoyed the books. The pacing, world-building, characters and their relationships were spot on. I even have to say that the way the Blue Bloods is set up I could believe that they might exist. Makes a lot more sense than nocturnal bloodsucking pale people.

Gaming

I was suppose to run the second session of my Night Below campaign last night but Monday I decided I just didn’t have the time to work out all the conversions necessary. So instead I am going to run the Kingmaker adventure path by Paizo. The first adventure didn’t arrive before last nights session but it turned out ok as 2 players didn’t show up and another 2 were later than they anticipated. So we worked on characters, building some background and personalities, even generated birthdays. The next session should be fun.

Writing

As you probably guessed I didn’t get much writing done. Balance is not a specialty of mine. I have decided to try to participate in the #fridayflash social event on Twitter as a result. Maybe the structure of having to have something written and posted every Friday will help out poor pathetic me who spends way more time talking and writing about writing than actually doing it.

So, next Friday, if you don’t see a story posted here, feel free to beat me about the head and shoulders with a boffer weapon. I will deserve it.

Have a good week, friends.

        

Howdy folks. Let’s order a hot chocolate with dark cherry (my new favorite drink from the cafe) and let me tell you about my week. Then, maybe, when I’m done, you can tell me about yours.

Reading

This week was a very reading light week which, of course, leaves me feeling out of sorts. Since I was 4, I have always been an avid reader or even more accurately, a bookworm. If my nose isn’t in a book, on vacation or at work or school, then something is wrong. I have to fix that this week. 

I bring up the topic of reading though for a very specific purpose. I checked out Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov this week for two reasons. The first reason is that it is about a rogue and we all know how I love those skulking-in-the-shadows, lockpicking, sticky fingered dwellers of the night-shrouded city streets. The second reason is that every since I discovered my Russian ancestry while working on my geneology several years ago, I have had a fascination with every thing Russian. This book was originally published in Russian and is only recently released in English for American audiences.

I started this book very excited to discover the adventures awaiting within. Very quickly I was derailed and not because the book was bad or boring or confusing but for the opposite reason. This book reminded me of everything that I want to write about. I became more excited about my own stories while reading this than I have been in a long time. I didn’t want to finish it because I didn’t want to know how Mr. Pehov wrote the story, I want to write my own.

I will get back to the book when I can check it out again but for now I will keep working on my own stories and hopefully get as excited about them as I did while reading the first 100 pages of Shadow Prowler.

Writing

It was my turn to submit some manuscript pages to the writing group this week. And as usual I procrastinated. Sorta.

I wanted to write a short story for an anthology with an open call for submissions and I wanted to use the group as my beta readers. I started the story very excited for the protagonist and his situation and every word I wrote made me more uncomfortable. It became harder and harder to continue. A thousand words in and I realized I didn’t want this to be a short story.

I didn’t and don’t know where this story is going or where it will end but I didn’t want to straight jacket myself into ending it in a couple thousand words. There is so much more to explore and discover and to end the story early would be a crime against this character. So I decided not to fence my story in without seeing where it went.

But I still needed a story to turn in for group.

Last fall I had written a short story and set it aside without looking at it again. I had been trying something new and it felt awkward and strange and frankly, I thought the writing sucked. I got out my draft and did a quick rewrite and turned it in. While rereading it, I realized that the story was actually good. Time and distance had removed the patina of grime and dirt and I enjoyed the story again.

So how was your week? You should try the dark cherry hot chocolate. Tastes like cherry cordials.