Wicked Wenches

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Keep them doggies rolling. Or heads or anything else rolling in your story. What to write about today? Hmmm. Well, I unfortunately spent the week mourning my grandfather so no writing got done. Today though I’m back in the saddle. I’m nearing the end of the story and working my way to the final conflict. I’d love to finish this by the end of the week but I need another 17K words and I can’t see that happening. It might if I can get some people to sprint with me. It helps me focus when there are other people doing it at the same time and I have to post the results of the time spent.

I loved Nano last year because when a friend of mine got ahead of my word count I knew I needed to bust my a** to get ahead of her. Maybe this was a two way street or maybe I’m the competitive one. Either way we both won Nano. Of course, what I’d written had to be completely hacked apart and rewritten, but it helped me realize who my characters were and the way I really wanted the story to go.

Has anyone tried word sprints? Set the timer for 30 minutes and don’t allow yourself to do anything but write? It works for me.

(Argh. I’ve just lost a nice post I was writing. So I’ll try to recreate it. *sniff*.)

All authors are readers. If we didn’t read, we wouldn’t be able to write. It’s that simple.

Occasionally I will review a book, good or bad. If you want to read any of the reviews, they are here.

That said…

Have you ever read a book and then wished you hadn’t? One that gave you mixed feelings once you put it down – or even before you picked it up?
I just did. (You can read the review here. No spoilers.)
And I wish it for none of the usual reasons.
I wish I hadn’t read it, because… Reading the story was like finding out about a dirty secret you knew existed – and then not knowing what to do with the knowledge once you have all the gory details.
Acheron (Sherrilyn Kenyon) is the book I wish I’d never read, even though I desperately wanted to read it, and I truly like the book.

I fell in love with Ash the first time I ran into him in Sherri’s Dark Hunter series. He was dark. Awkward. Mysterious. Larger-than-life. Even mischievous at times. But lovable. There was a secret hanging over him and throughout the series you catch glimpses, but never anything more than that. You kind of get the gist of what he is, but you never know for sure.
Well.
Now I know.
I’ve had the book sitting here since last Monday. I kept looking at it. Wanting to read it desperately and yet… I didn’t. It’s not a book for the squeamish, it’s full of torture, pain and heartbreak. You get to see into Ash’s head and get to know him. It was a difficult book to read, for me. Not because it’s badly written, or the story is bad. It was because it took down the wall around Ash. The trouble is, knowing him destroys the mystery about him. He’s still awkward, guarded and mischievous – but the mystery is gone.
I read the book in one (almost one) long sitting (736 pages!), only put it down when my eyes started to droop at 2am, with 200 pages to go, and I was up with the chickens to read the rest. I resented needing to go to the bathroom (with the book…), hated to go eat (with my nose in it), but us mere mortals need to get some shut-eye when the lids can’t even be held open by matchsticks.

And even while I read, my thoughts were, dang… I don’t want to know all this.
I liked the heroine. And I resented the hell out of her. She took Ash away, and that’s why I resent her.
(I did mention I’m nuts, right?)
Well, you know what I mean, right?

Do you ever review books? Or do you rather keep your opinions to yourself. (I’m biased about Sherri’s books, so I don’t normally write down what I think about them.)

I’ve written some vitriolic reviews that tore books apart. Lindsay McKenna is one of the authors I refuse to read. "Unforgiven" was unforgivable to me. I hated it, I even threw the book at the wall while reading it, and let me tell you… I don’t normally do that. I have 2 more of her books on my shelf. I glanced at the first one and put it back, because it was more of the same tripe. Never even opened the third. The only reason I have it is because I wanted to collect the entire Nocturne line. Even so, I might make an exception if there is another one and not buy it.

Then there are books where I’d love to laminate every page for posterity, because I love it so much.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café (Fannie Flagg) is one of those. It’s not romance, far from it. I guess the term would be Chick Lit, but I abhor that label and it doesn’t belong on that book. If it were up to me that term would be stricken from existence.
Fried Green Tomatoes is a book about survival. It’s about life, about growth, about midlife crisis, about women. And about BBQ Sauce. It’s one of those books where you cannot help falling in love with the characters and rooting for them, and laughing with them, crying with them. Be that the 80 year old telling the story, the bee charmer, the middle aged woman trying to find herself, or anyone around them. I rooted for all of them, loved all of them and wanted to take them home with me.

So, what is your favourite book?
Did you review it?
Do you get books based on reviews?
Word of mouth?
Or just blindly pick them off the shelf because you like the cover?
Or the blurb?

I do all of the above, actually.

I try to add a new author every now and then, and I occasionally drop an old favourite. I got bored with Christine Feehan’s "Carpathian" series, but I picked up Gena Showalter’s books about some cursed guys purely from a blurb. I love Kresley Cole’s books, too, that one I picked up because of a combination of cover and blurb. I picked up Anne Bishop’s Jewel series because someone recommended it to me. I bought her Ephemera Series… because I loved the Jewels.

I dropped Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita series a long time ago, when the sexual tension turned into depraved sex, instead. Haven’t read another one since, and I’m not interested in reading any again. All it took was one book too far. Same with Stephen King. I dropped Jude Deveraux from my list of favorites because I didn’t like the books she wrote anymore. Her (and Johanna Lindsay and Judith McNaught) books are still on my keeper shelf though.

Well, that’s how I feel about what I read. J

How do you feel about it? How do you pick your books? Why do you drop authors? And if you do — do you ever go back?

I had this nice long blog about writing challenges and goals and the computer ate it. So here’s the shortened version. Goals are good. Making short term goals for writing is awesome even if it’s just I want to write 1000 words. Challenges have sprung up all over the web. NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write 50K words in the month of November. This challenge draws writers of all shapes and sizes. There’s also the 70 Days of Sweat. Write 1000 words a day for 70 days. These challenges exist as a way for the writer to be part of something larger. To get advice and encouragement from other writers.

What motivates you? What goals make your writing stronger? Have you participated in a Challenge?

I officially gave myself the month off from all writing endevors, including my blogs. However, I’m back and going to get right back on the wagon. So anyone have any ideas for what you all want to hear about? If you have a chance Paperback Writer has an amazing set of articles and links for when everyone was away at the National RWA Conference in San Francisco. So what have you done with your summer?