C. L. Norman

Last night, Covert Affairs premiered on USA; and I had to watch it. In fact, when my husband saw the commercial for it he commented “I know what you will be watching Tuesday night.”; that is how ‘right’ this show is for me.

Annie Walker as played by Piper Perabo is a delight. She is funny; awkward in new situations; and a master deceiver, even on her first job. Annie hasn’t even completed her CIA training when she is pulled in for a job which sounded a little forced at first. However, by the end, it is revealed that using her had a secret second purpose, a plot within a plot. And I love those.

Auggie Anderson, the blind tech specialist played by Christopher Gorham, is a fascinating character as well. He has humor and confidence; leading Annie through the hurdles of her first day on the job with finesse that is fun to watch. Right now he is set up as the new best friend but I am hoping that there is a bit of a romance subplot in his future. The chemistry between the two characters works for me.

An obstacle to that romance appears in the form of the mysterious ex from Annie’s past. She met him in Sri Lanka and he disappeared one night leaving a cryptic note. Ben Mercer, played by Eion Bailey (I remember him from Dawson’s Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will be coming back. Count on it. And when he does, sparks will fly; and I don’t mean just the romantic ones.

There was a lot of potential in the pilot for this series and I found myself setting my DVR to record this series, upgrading it from record this episode after the first ten minutes.

        

Another month has come bringing with it more movies to look forward to watching. Here is a list of the ones I am eyeing.

Iron Man 2 on May 7th: Robert Downey Jr is back as Tony Stark and ready to suit up and it promises to be a wild a crazy ride. I had fun with the first one and I see no reason why I won’t have even more fun with the second. Action, humor, and superheroes in one movie? Count me in.

Robin Hood on May 14th: I love Robin Hood stories. Movies like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Disney’s Robin Hood. Books like Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley and Jennifer Roberson’s Lady of Sherwood. The story of Robin Hood is all about a do-gooder rogue with a bow. Which puts it squarely in my area of interest. Russell Crowe stars in this version and I can’t wait to see how the story is told this time.  

Letters to Juliet on May 14th: A love story, Verona (where Romeo and Juliet takes place), and Amanda Seyfried in one movie? I am so there. I have mentioned before my love of romantic comedies and this one looks especially touching.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on May 28th: While I am not familiar with the game, the fantasy element of this movie is very attractive to me. Add in a magic dagger that appears to have some sort of time travel powers and I’m hooked.

That’s my list for May. What’s yours look like?

        

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?

        

                That was easy. I knew as soon as I thought those words it was a mistake. The job wasn’t done, anything could go wrong still. Stealing the fancy box had been fairly straight forward. Mind, I ain’t no theif. At least most of the time. I’m a merc, mercenary, sword-for-hire but when my pockets are empty, I dabble in thievery.  If the pay is enough.

                This time the pay was more than enough. Too much almost. Caid Caellan doesn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and if a client wants to pay generously for a little theivery, who am I to complain?

                My rooms were in the Traders Corner. Traders kept hours that were compatible with mine. They slept at night and left me free to wander about without anyone sticking their nose in. During the day, they were too busy with their businesses to bother me in bed. It was a good arrangement.

                I strutted along a deserted street towards bed. The meet with the client for the exchange was tomorrow night. I thought longingly of the Red Light district but I had to guard this all-important box and until I had my payment I couldn’t afford what I wanted from the ladies there.

                A faint scrape of a boot against the cobbles was all the warning I had before I was jumped. It doesn’t take much to surprise me and that let me know that either these gents were professionals or had help. The magic kind of help. And that let me know that this wasn’t your usual run-of-the-mill mugging. One long knife was in my hand faster than thought and a bright flash of steel flew from my other and burrowed itself in the throat of one of my assailants.

                One less dance partner for the party.

                Three scruffy men in thick leather jerkins formed a triangle with me in the center. Each of them had a sharp weapon in their hands and were ready to use them. Clearly not a capture the merc mission.

                I waggled my fingers at the one with the blond bedhead. “Let’s dance.” I drew a second knife and held it with the blade along my bracered forearm. The familiar crooked smile stretched across my face. I loved this part. Me against them. Proving who is better. The ultimate prize for the winner. Life.

                For the space of several breaths, grunts, clashing metal, and the slap of flesh against flesh filled the air. Another gent went down and unless he could survive a hands length of steel punched through the gut, he wasn’t getting up again.

                “Is that the best you can do, boys? I haven’t even broke a sweat yet.”

                “Perhaps I can fix that.” A brown man stepped onto the street; brown because he had brown hair, brown eyes, and wore brown robes and onto the street because he had been floating above me and settled to the ground.

                “Oh crap.” The words had barely escaped my lips when I was caught in a mage’s trap. A sick purple glow encircled my wrists and throat holding me still and sweating. I hated magic. Magic was for cheaters, no clean skill against skill contest there. But sure enough, the mage was right. I was sweating.

                “The great Caid laid low by a single spell. By your reputation I thought you’d be … taller.”

                “What can I say? I’m tall enough to get the job done. “ I’d have shrugged if I wasn’t slowly being stretched between the three points. “You’ve heard of me as is only right. But I haven’t heard of you so you must be some piss-poor mage hiding behind his master’s robes.”

                The mage approached and pulled the box out of my jerkin. “I’ll just take this and be on my way. My men will have their fun with you.”

                “Not so fast.” My feet weren’t bound in spells and I took full advantage of that fact. I landed a kick where it counts the most. No man can keep concentration in the face of that agony. And the mage was barely a man. The binding spell dropped and I fell to my knees.

                As I reached for the box, one of the gents stomped on it and it cracked under his weight. I hooked his ankle and lifted. He landed on his back with a ‘whoof’.  I snatched up the box and ran. I hadn’t come prepared to deal with the mage.

                The second goon tackled me and we both fell to the ground. I wrestled him to the bottom of the stack and a short quick jab to the chin had his eyes rolling up in his head.  The box was smashed to smithereens and I could see the fat paycheck trickling away. A glitter of gold caught my eye among the splinters.

                A ring. All this over a glitzy piece of fluff? Maybe it was for some girl. Some fools did extraordinary things for girls. It didn’t matter, maybe I could still get some of my commission if I brought back the ring.

                I slipped the ring over one scarred knuckle, sliding it on to my little finger. A black oily cloud seeped from the ring and crawled up my arm leaving a chill in its wake. The mage eyed me while the magic enveloped me and then soaked into my skin leaving an awful nauseous feeling in my gut.

                I spat a word that wasn’t fit for a lady’s ears. Hell, it wasn’t fit for a gentleman’s ears. My night had just got a whole lot worse.

        

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.

        

I finished rewatching the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series and it got me to thinking of love triangles and what works for me and what doesn’t.

Buffy by the end of the series is in a love triangle with Angel and Spike. Both are vampires with souls and both love her. And let’s face it, both are good looking. So why is it that folks vote for Buffy to choose one over the other?

Personally, I think Spike is who she should end with. The reason why is the same reason I am glad Joey ended up with Pacey on Dawson’s Creek and why I was frustrated with Felicity choosing Ben over Noel on Felicity.

Angel and Buffy was the dream relationship. The first crush. The first love. The hazy, rose-colored, slow-music playing relationship. Don’t get me wrong. I fully believe that Buffy and Angel loved each other and they had a nice run, but they changed and grew up over the next few years and their love was more of a reflex after that happened. It wasn’t real anymore.

Spike and Buffy started as enemies but they grew and changed together. They worked at their relationship or tried to avoid working at it. Their feelings for each other grew from enmity to allies to friendship and finally to love. After all that effort and growth, they should be together.

At least for a while, the whole unaging thing on the part of Spike will get to be a problem eventually. But that is a whole other topic for discussion.

A new vampire love triangle is on TV. This one is on Vampire Diaries between Elaina, Stefan, and Damon. I’ve read the books and despite a love triangle being advertised on the back cover, I never thought that there was any danger of a triangle forming. Elaina was never in any danger of loving Damon and so no triangle. In the tv show that possibility is already there. My daughter is an avid fan and I like it but the triangle possibility is starting to draw me in. I want to see what happens next.

Of course all of this may be me justifying the girl ending up with the ‘bad boy.’ I am a sucker for the bad boy, they are more fun.

What is your favorite love triangle? Which ones worked for you and which ones had you yelling at the book/TV/screen “No!”?

        

I like Urban Fantasy because most of the protagonists in the stories are rogues. Or at least roguely.  Urban Fantasy takes magic and puts it in worlds not too different from our own. Urban Fantasy is fun and usually a fairly easy read.

The protagonists in Urban Fantasy rarely follow the rules, rarely lack for a snarky comment, and rarely have that quality that keeps them out of trouble.  Most every one of them loves their weapons. Whether it be a gun or a sword or a knife, they take care of it and keep it close by. Most of the time the love comes from the necessity to defend themselves from the denizens of darkness at a moments notice.

They also tend to have a colorful past. Orphans or abused children growing up on the streets, these characters have story hooks written all over their backgrounds. Enough hooks to keep their authors busy for years to come. This is great if you are a fan of the character, not as great if you like the author but not the series. I tend to adore the spunky character so this is a good thing in my eyes.

Their love lives. I could stop right there. Every one by now knows that urban fantasy is a hair away from paranormal romance and vise versa. Love lives will be complicated and involved. I love it. And I am frustrated with it. I like romance in my books, I even like the occasional romance novel. These complicated love lives make the books go from ok to great. I get frustrated when I think a couple should be together and book after book comes out where they dance around each other, meaningful glances exchanged, but no one acts on it. It is sorta like a TV series that keeps finding excuses not to put the main characters together. Frustrating.

A fair amount of urban fantasy takes our common, every day, hum-drum world and twists it. Just a little, just a nudge, and then magic happens. In Lousiana there are vampires, elves, and weres living side by side with bar patrons. In my home town of the Tri-Cities there is a wolf pack down the street and a vampire nest in the hills, and down near where my dad lives is a community of fae. Magic is happening all around us in these books. And it is fun.

Other urban fantasy push today’s world into the future or make tomatoes deadly to humans or cause magic and technology to alternately work but never at the same time. And then the monsters come out to play. How cool is that?

Most all urban fantasy that I have read or perused in the process of putting it on the shelf at work has a single POV character. A lot of spunky females and a few snarky males are telling their stories on these pages. Sometimes it is in third person but most of them seem to be in first. Either way the story is usually an easy read. Lots of action, quips, and mystery drive the reader through the pages which is my favorite type of book.

 A fair amount of epic fantasy (which I love too) spends a lot of time jumping from character to character, all around the map of their world, slowly bringing together disparate threads into one single rope. I admire the authors who can do this but it requires extra work on my part to keep every thing straight in my head. The urban fantasy is easier to read when my schedule is busy or my mind is feeling overworked.

These are the reasons why I like Urban Fantasy, what are yours?

        

In no particular order, here are 10 roguely types I am thankful for. I am grateful I had a run in with them either in the pages of a book or on the screen, big or small. They are fun and exciting and have contributed to my love of the snarky not-so-law-abiding characters.

1. Phillipe the Mouse from Ladyhawke.  From that first scene where we see him chattering away to himself and God while making his escape from an inescapable prison, Matthew Broderick as Phillipe captured my attention and my adoration. If you are wondering where Mouse got her name it was from this character.
2. Silk from David Edding’s Belgariad and Mallorean.  Silk mastered the arts of disguise, lockpicking, pick pocketting, corrupting the young and he did it all with a flair that left him my favorite character in a series of ten books full of so many interesting characters.
3. Han Solo from Star Wars. Who says rogues can only be in european fantasies? I certainly don’t. Han Solo with his blaster at his side and that crooked grin is my favorite rogue in space. So what if he can’t pick pockets (that I know of) or pick locks. He gets into plenty of trouble without those skills and watching him try to get out is something I have loved to do since I was a wee child.
4. Malcom Reynolds AKA Mal from Serenity/Firefly. The only reason Han is my favorite rogue in space is that I’ve known him longer. Mal holds a very very close second place in my heart. Mal has attitude and flair that is attention grabbing from the beginning. Watching his confidence leak away when confronted with a woman, Inara, is so much fun that I kept hoping for more of those scenes.
5. Sydney Bristow from Alias. Ok, so Sydney didn’t have the snarky attitude most of the rogues on this list have but she was so cool in her many disguises and spies are such close cousins to rogues that I had to include her. I rewatch the Alias seasons about every six months I adore the character so much. She had mad skills and so many obstacles to her dreams that I love watching her journey through it all to the happy ending she so much deserves.
6. Max Guevara from Dark Angel. Max had the snarky attitude, the world outlook that said theft was just part of a healthy economy, and enough selfishness to make her a world-class rogue. She was also genetically engineered to make her really good at it. While the second season of this series (with the exception of Jensen Ackles) irritated me with its complete change of direction, I love the first season. Logan’s attempts to make Max into a heroine are a joy to see.
7. FitzChivalry FarSeer AKA Fitz from Robin Hobb’s The FarSeer Trilogy and beyond. We get to see Fitz learn how to become an assassin under the tutelage of Chade and once he starts mastering those skills his life gets more complicated. At the end of the first trilogy I felt so sorry for this character for everything that he had to sacrifice and endure. He lacks snark but he is a hero with skills with poison, sword, and sneaking. This rogue is one I feel so sorry for that I don’t want to leave him alone in his world. I have to visit to keep him company as he goes through his trials.
8. Kylar Stern from Brent Weeks‘ Night Angel Trilogy. Kylar is an assassin, a wetboy if you will. He is also an orphan like Fitz but instead of growing up in a castle being trained there he grows up in the slums. Kylar is trained by Durzo Blint who has plenty of his own secrets of his own. No snark but a conscience, Kylar chose the field of assassination as a way to escape his life on the streets and rides that very bumpy road to the end. And I couldn’t put the books down until he got there.
9. Hanse Shadowspawn from the Thieves World series.  Hanse had attitude, stealth, nimble fingers, and mystery. He was a the ultimate second-story man and his stories were my favorites in this series.
10. Seregil from Lynn Flewelling’s Nightrunner books. Seregil has aliases, a way with a set of lockpicks, a trick for dealing with pesky guard dogs, and snark enough to light up a suite of rooms. He is part spy, part rogue, and all fun. And he may be showing up on the big screen soon too. So very cool.

That’s it. My list of 10 rogues I am thankful for this holiday season. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. What roguely types are you thankful for?

        

Monday nights put my DVR to work, overtime. Heroes, Lie To Me, and Castle are three of my favorite shows and I get cranky if I can’t watch them in a reasonable amount of time.

Heroes

I haven’t managed to watch Monday night’s episode of this but I will be as soon as I get home from work tonight. I am an avid fan of Sylar (who isn’t?) and the Sylar that is in Matt Parkman’s head has me creeped out. Is he really there? at least in part? Or is Matt hallucinating and going crazy? Did Sylar figure out how Matt’s power works during the process of making Sylar into Nathan?

Speaking of which, the whole Sylar is Nathan thing was bound to fail almost immediately and why Angela, who gets flashes of the future, couldn’t figure that out, I have no idea. It is an interesting premise but Sylar had too many powers that would reveal the truth for it to work properly.

HRG needs to get back to work. It was fun trying to guess what he was up to, who he was working for, who he was protecting. If there is a true rogue in the group, I would nominate HRG. He always seemed ahead of all these super powered folks around him. Is it possible his power is to outthink the people who he is surrounded by? His motives are always mysterious or not easily believed. I want to see him in action again.

Lie To Me

I am a new fan of this show. I watched about 4 to 5 of last season’s episodes and now I am hooked. As a lover of liars and thieves in fiction, it is a natural leap to adore deception experts. And of course I also am an avid fan of whodunnits, so this show is firmly in my sights.

The Lightman character has a wonderfully complex personality. He is able to detect lies and hidden truths from the littlest clues. He is also able to lie freely and easily as needed with very little time for planning. At least it appears that way. The lies he tells help him get to the truth, like a crowbar to pry open a rusty door to see what is on the other side. I love to watch it.

Monday night’s episode also added that he is willing to remotely spy on his office to keep control of it. He can’t let it go for even a week of fun in the sun with his daughter. Also he seems the most genuine when he is interacting with his daughter. His temper appear, the games disappear and he is just a dad worrying about his kid. It is wonderful to see.

Castle

I have to admit it. There is one singular reason I chose to watch this show in the beginning and that reason is named Nathan Fillion. I have adored watching him on the screen since he was Joey in One Life to Live, as the Preacher in Buffy, as Mal in Serenity/Firefly, and others. The approach he has to most roles make me wonder if he isn’t a rogue in life as he is on screen. He has an energy and a twinkle to his eye that makes me think he is putting one over on every person watching him. He is fun to watch and so I was predisposed to like Castle from the beginning.

Castle is also a whodunnit so I am hooked. It has a lot of sparkling banter between Castle and Beckett that reminds me of Moonlighting with David and Maddy. Banter that just proves that these two characters are attracted to each other but aren’t ready to pursue it, which is always fun.

The crimes they solve are complicated and figuring out who committed the crime before it is revealed is fun, and usually I am wrong. Which is ok because when the answer is revealed I realize why I was wrong and I vow that the next time I will get the answer right.

What do you like to watch on Monday night?

        

I just finished reading Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie.

I was attracted by the blurb on the cover that mentioned a female mercenary who is left for dead and vows revenge on those who tried to kill her, and that the best killer in the world is sent to finish the job. Mercenaries out for revenge and assassins sounded right up my alley, so I checked the book out.

I have to say up front that I haven’t read any other books by Mr. Abercrombie and this was my first experience with his writing. I adored the level of detail and the characterisations in the book. Almost everyone could be classified as a rogue and I had no problem with that.

The pacing of the story was a little odd for me. It read more as episodic than as one continuous narrative. So there were a lot of ups and downs in the tension through the story. This made for natural places to put the book down for the night. I could get use to that type of pacing but it felt uncomfortable in places.

The ending was a little weird for me and I don’t want to give anything away so I won’t give details. I expected certain things of the story and was surprised often that events didn’t unfold in the way I anticipated or wanted. As I mentioned before I am a sucker for a happy ending and this ending was neither good nor bad. It just was.

I came away feeling like the author set out to make a statement about revenge. I definitely felt “cold” by the process in which revenge was sought and achieved.

The story made me think. I picked up the book for a fun, roguely read. I didn’t get that. I am still thinking about the book and probably will continue to for several more days.