The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
- Bertrand Russell
~*~
Okay... this will be a quickie today. CP is going well, though I'm procrastinating more than I would like. Nothing to do with the story, either - I still love my plans for it. And I am excited about its prospects, though I have to write it before I can judge if those prospects even have a chance of opening up this time around.
I am caught up on my OWG required crits, though there are others that I want to do and am not sure that I will get to. And I'm supposed to edit my Naked Project story, and haven't done that yet. 4 days left...
That's about it today. I don't have much energy for writing an update post. The writing-related energy I do have I'm saving for the story plotting.
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Week 38 ~ Sept 17-23, 2007
The Buried Pyramid
by Jane Lindskold
(historical fantasy)
This is a fun book with a nice premise, and Mozelle the cat is just the cutest thing ever. I’m not really sure where to classify it, though. It’s a very nice historical fiction to a point, and then it becomes a historical fantasy, and then at the end it seems to be a YA (aka young adult) historical fantasy. Now, I have no problem with YA or historical or fantasy. Or all three combined. My problem is that I like to know going into it what I’m going to get. An example would be the letter game books by Patricia C. Wrede and Carolyn Stevermer - before the first chapter is over, we know the era, we know there’s magic involved, and we know (based on the age of the main characters) that it could be a YA book.
Regardless of the issues I had with the book, it was very enjoyable. I liked reading about the Egyptian theme, and it seems that Ms. Lindskold did her research. I may not know much about Egyptian myths and hieroglyphs, but what I do know matched what was written.
The characters were mostly well-developed, even if one or two was fairly transparent. (By this I do not mean shallow - I mean I saw through their actions from the start, or nearly, and figured out their roles in the plot.) They were not all so easy to pinpoint, however, and there were some pleasantly unexpected parts as well. Definitely an enjoyable book, and it has piqued my interest (again) in the Egyptian myths.
I may one day try another of Lindskold’s books, though I would much rather continue with these characters than start a new series with new characters.
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Okay, okay. I did say that my ‘Around the Blog’ from yesterday was going to be short. There are lots of blogs I read these days. But due to reader request, here is one more… 
Charlie, the wonderful gal who also loves dragons, did indeed post this month. She has a fun little exercise with homophones.
Isn’t this yummy fiber? I just love it. It’s from Tamara’s (aka Spincerely Yours,) Etsy store. Love love love. I can’t wait to spin it up. It’s a merino/tencel blend, and looks softer and shinier than anything I’ve spun before, with the exception of the silk I used to make my feather & fan scarf. (But silk is also a touch hard on the hands, or at least my hands, and I’ve never had that problem with wool.)
I think I will have to practice spinning on my alpaca roving/top/whatever just to get back in the swing of things. The only thing I’ve spun lately is pencil roving, and so I haven’t really gotten practice drafting. And drafting is the thing that I have the most trouble with, so is the thing I need the most practice on. Argh. Don’t wanna wait. But I think I have to.
Miss Suzy watched with interest as I set out the fiber for the photo shoot. She also seemed to like the colors, or perhaps the smells. Or maybe just the tissue paper. But whatever the reason, she was very attentive. She even let me get my photos taken without disturbing my fiber.
Of course, she thought it was hers.
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1. Do you like looking at stars? Absolutely. I can stargaze for hours, as long as I don’t get cold and my neck doesn’t hurt too much.
2. Who do you say “I love you” to? My family and M. And my pets. They seem to appreciate it, too.
3. Did you say “good night!” to anyone last night? Yep. (Oh, you want to know who? M and my parents.)
4. When is the last time you felt blue? I dunno. I try not to dwell on it, and so forget it fairly quickly. I was angry yesterday, but that’s more red than blue.
5. Tell us one of your dreams: I really don’t remember them much. The one that I remember the best is a nightmare from when I was probably around 10, in which I started flying on my bicycle, and when I landed I was caught by an animated skeleton. Not a good dream.
The first part of this post was the Friday Fiver, and pure fun. I don’t have a Friday Snippet today, sorry. Still working things out with what - if anything - I want to post right now.
The rest of this post will be a bit more … well, it’s raw for me, and more political than I usually get.
So, last night I saw an advance viewing of
In the Valley of Elah. I was given a pass by a co-worker who gets them from a PR firm, and I’m glad I went since this is a film I probably wouldn’t have seen, otherwise.
I know, the inevitable question is, “did you like it?” Or, “was it a good movie?” I don’t know how to answer either of those questions. It was a very well acted movie. It was a movie that made me think. It was an unconventional movie that deals with hard truths which most people would rather forget about. I am glad I saw it. I would recommend it to those who are prepared for it to be a hard movie to watch, and who don’t mind some nudity or scenes of violent death. I do not know if I will watch it again. It is still too raw in my mind to make that decision.
One of the things that the movie brought up to me (for those that don’t know, it deals with a missing soldier and his unit who have just returned home from the war in Iraq) is how under-prepared our soldiers are for what they face. They may be trained enough physically, but emotionally and mentally there is so much more going on than they are ready for. I do not know how to better prepare them. I don’t even have a clue how to begin. But I think that we need to do something about it.
We should be putting more money into the military, but not for more troops - we should be putting the funds into making sure the troops we already have are cared for, and are prepared for the horrors that is modern warfare. (I was not around to think this at the time, but I’m sure that this was needed in Vietnam, too. And I have believed for some time that it was needed for the Gulf War. And it is still something that seems largely ignored or swept under the rug.)
(Back to the movie…)
One interesting note was the underlying religious themes in the movie. The title seems out of place, until Tommy Lee Jones’ character starts telling the story of David and Goliath to Charlize Therone’s character’s son. He tells about how the battle took place in the valley of Elah, and how in order to beat Goliath, David first had to conquer his own fear.
And that seems to be the main focus of the movie, for me.
Not the mystery behind who killed Mike Deerfield (Jones’ character’s son), or why he was killed, or even what is pictured in the broken-up video clips Mike shot while in Iraq. Overcoming your fears and besting the monsters inside you… that is the real theme of the movie.
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Week 37 ~ Sept 10-16, 2007
Dark Need (Darkyn book #3)
by Lynn Viehl
(urban fantasy, paranormal romance)
This third book in the Darkyn series focuses on Lucan, a character we meet in the first book but don't see in the second. I really liked him, and the insights we get into his life. Samantha, his heroine, is also likable and has nice depth to her character. I think they are a good match and I enjoyed reading their story.
What I disliked most about the book, however, was how little time it seemed we actually spent with either Sam or Lucan. It seemed that there was more focus on this particular book's subplot than on it's main plot. (Clarification: the series has a main theme, and that's a huge theme in the first book since the original MCs are who drive that theme. The other books all have their own book theme that goes along at the same time as the series theme. In the second book - Private Demon - the series theme was a definite SUBplot, and didn't compete with the book's theme. It probably enhanced it. In this third book - Dark Need - it feels like the series theme and the book theme are given equal time, and it feels slightly unbalanced to me. But that's just me.)
Anyway, I did still enjoy it. It's a good read with well developed characters. I had a hard time reading it straight through, however, instead of flipping to the Sam/Lucan parts and ignoring the rest.
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It may not be much, and perhaps isn’t enough.
But it’s the least we can do.
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Week 36 ~ Sept 3-9, 2007
Night Pleasures
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
(urban fantasy, paranormal romance)
This is one of the Dark Hunter books, and while I think it's the first actually about a Dark-Hunter, Fantasy Lover does precede it in the world Kenyon has created. (The main characters from FL show up again in NP as supporting cast.)
I enjoyed the book. It was fun to read, with nothing that jumped out at me as a 'flaw' until the end of the final battle. And even then, it's not so much that there was anything 'wrong' with the book, more that some important stuff happened off-screen (in order to keep the reader guessing, I presume) and we got shoved exclusively into the hero's head instead of flowing back and forth between the hero and the heroine. (Actually, the POV shifted too often to fit my personal preferences. I like a tighter focus in third-person-POV, and I like it to be obvious when the focus changes. Some kind of visual break is what I prefer.)
The sex scenes were okay. I didn't roll my eyes at the positions, and only chuckled at the language a teeny bit. They weren't as steamy as I find some other authors (such as Kresley Cole) to be, but they were quite adequate.
The character development worked for me, too, though I would have liked to see more of Amanda's (the heroine) family and their oddness for myself. We're told about a lot of strange things that they do, but very little of it happens on screen. This wasn't necessary to the plot, but it would have been fun.
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Friday Fiver: 9.7.07
And maybe I should do the same
1. Have you ever run away? From what? From home? No. From emotions, or feelings, or other such? Yeah, I suspect I have.
2. What is the longest you’ve dated someone? Dated… a couple of years, I guess. Then I married him, then we got divorced. Take that as you will.
3. What don’t you like to think about? Sad things.
4. What was your last illness? Something that made me throw up. I’m not really sure what it was, but it wasn’t pleasant.
5. Do you like to get revenge? What’s the point of it? Once you get revenge, then the person you got revenge on wants revenge, etc. I really don’t see much of a need for it. It’s better and healthier to move on and get past it. –note, please, that ‘revenge’ is different in my eyes than ‘justice.’ If someone were to do me wrong in an illegal way, I would want justice. But not revenge.
~*~
As the title says, there is no snippet this week. I’m still working on where I want to go with that story, and I just don’t have the energy to put up a snippet from it. But, I did get a moment of clarity with regards to SS, so there will likely be bigger changes to it than I had originally thought. Anyway, it means a postponement of snippets for the moment. Maybe next week I’ll post a poem or something else, but I wasn’t thinking that far ahead for this week…
Have a great weekend!
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