Week 6: Caressed by Ice

*Here is book 6 of the 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge…*

Random edit note: I will be having a book give-away contest on the blog starting tomorrow. The contest will run through Valentine’s Day… stay tuned for details!

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Caressed by Ice
by Nalini Singh

(paranormal romance)

This is the third book in a series about an alternate future Earth where psychics and changelings co-exist with humans. The Psy have conditioned themselves to feel no emotion, putting their children through a process called the Silence. Changelings, on the other hand, are very sensual and emotional. (A point of curiosity is we have yet to really see any humans. I wonder if they will ever show up in the series, or if they are just there to make this an urban fantasy rather than a completely different world.) Also, changelings can be many different species: this book focuses on wolves. The two previous books were more about cats.

This book’s hero is a Psy whose telekinetic abilities cause intense accidental damage when his emotions run wild. So for him, Silence works. The problem is, one of the wolves loves him… And being near her breaks down his resistance to emotions. To be fair, he feels the same way about her, he just tries to convince himself otherwise because he wants to keep his emotional shields up.

I really enjoyed this book. It flowed well, and the story was believable. It could be read without having read the others before it in the series, but I would recommend against it. Things make much more sense if you have the references that they keep going back to in the story. (Plus, there’s no spoilers that way.)

If I had one complaint with the story, it’s probably that there’s a lot of points of view. It’s not a big problem, but it is not my preference for reading. I prefer to have a few (2-4, but even 4 is pushing it) really strong POVs. This had 2 strong POVs (the hero and heroine) with a minimum of 3 weaker ones. It wasn’t as confusing as some books I’ve read, but as an author I’ve come to the conclusion that you can often cut out a POV and have other characters convey the information… and that by not introducing another voice, you dilute the narrative less.

Still, it is a very solid addition to the Psy-Changeling series, and I’ve already ordered book #4.

Grade: B+

One Week In February

It’s late (Sunday night, when I’m scheduling this post), I’m tired, and so I’m just going to do a quick goals recap. I suspect this will often be the case for my Monday blog posts, since I will be doing things that affect the status of my goals all the way up until it’s time for bed on Sunday…

So. Here’s the goals with their current progress:

1. Do needed marketing work for “INTO THE WOODS” – due date 2/15/10

Working. On track with this one, I think.

2. Write the first 10K of SPN – due date 2/28/10

Also working. 4,592 on it so far. Finally getting into the swing of the writing. It often seems like the start to a novel goes slowly when I plan it out, but then the pace picks up in the middle. Hopefully the case will be the same for this novella.


3. Post my chapter for the OWG and get my 2 critiques done – due date 2/7/10 & 2/28/10

Chapter posted. No critiques done yet.


4. Send T to 5 sub ops – due date 2/28/10

Not done yet. I’ll get there.


5. Write the first 15K of SPN – wish list

10.5 K to go, as you can figure out from #2.


6. Write a book review a week for the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge – due weekly by Tuesday

So far so good. I kept up last week, and should manage to this coming week as well.

And there you have it. Good progress to date on the month’s goals. Now here’s hoping the progress rate continues…

Friday Around the Blog

So, what has been buzzing in the blog-o-sphere lately?

Well, first of all there are still lots of posts detailing the repurcussions of the Amazon-Macmillan thing.

• Chris @ Stumbling Over Chaos has a lot of links, some of which are to contests and some of which point toward some of the stuff surrounding eBook pricing.
• Nathan Bransford has a nice post on the cost of e-books, which makes a nice complement to the Shiloh Walker post on the same question that I posted earlier this week.
• He (Nathan) is, however, still optimistic and thinks this is a good time to be an author.

Knitters are gearing up for the Olympics, getting projects frantically off the needles so they can participate in one form or another of Knitting Olympics.

• Melanie at Pink Lemon Twist is trying to finish her Cassidy sweater.
• Turtlegirl76 is in search of some more yarn to finish a sweater. Although she may have found it by the time this post goes live, she also has some lovely WIP photos in this post.
• The Yarn Harlot has some darn sexy socks. I think I have to knit these socks. (Okay. “Darn sexy” were her words. I’m not sure I would have picked those words for these socks. But I do love the way the heel looks and want to see how they knit up.)

And other fun things are happening, too:

• Lynn Viehl aka SL Viehl aka Paperback Writer (etc) has posted a list of reasons why God must be a writer.
• Shiloh Walker is doing a valentine’s contest, where she asks for fun valentine’s day stories (good or bad).
• Chris has been posting pictures of her cats in boxes. (She also seems to have a perpetual book/e-book contest going on over at her site.)

Have a great weekend!

An App A Thursday

So, since it’s been a while since I mentioned Apple anything on the blog, today will be an Apple day. A random Apple day, but still.

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Chris and I were talking eReaders, and so the iPad came up, and somehow the conversation floated around to me saying something to the effect of: “It’s a dumb name but I want one anyway! What does this say about me?” In the course of the following conversation, we decided it meant I am an iPhangrrl. And that we’re going to totally trademark the name. So there.

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My friends at Portable Zoo have made a really fun iPhone app. And it’s free. If you have an iPhone, you should check it out. It’s a boomerang!! Tons of fun. But don’t take my word for it: go see for yourself.

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I really hope that the iPad is all it has the potential to be. One thing that’s on my wishlist (but I don’t know if I will get) is an app from Literature and Latte that syncs with Scrivener. That would be very awesome. (But, alas, it looks like it’s not to happen. At least not yet.)

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As an author, I am very leary of the eBook movement. I think it has great potential, but also the ability to be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous.

As a reader, I love the forward progress we’re making. And iBooks look so pretty! I want. Now. (But must wait.)

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I have mentioned favorite apps on here before. (They include the Lightsaber app and Crazy Penguin Catapult, for those who missed my prior mentions of them.) It has, however, been quite some time since then and I have many new apps. Time to remedy that…

Remember Dirk the Daring and Dragon’s Lair? There’s a game of it. Too funny.

There’s also a SECOND Crazy Penguin Catapult. In case you didn’t get enough of splatting penguins around the first time.

And of course, there is magnetic poetry. On your iPhone instead of your fridge.

Or a jam session with Animal (from the Muppets).

Noro FO

I don’t think this blog post requires many words. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

This is the completed Noro Short Row Scarf.

It’s made from Noro Silk Garden Lite, yarn that I bought with Christmas money.

I love the pattern. I intend to make more and to modify it for other purposes.

And on top of that, I picked the perfect day to cast off so I could take FO pictures.

Pattern: Multidirectional (aka Short Row) Scarf by Karen Baumer
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite
Mods: None
For: me

Week 5: Daily Life in Victorian England

Before I get into my book review, I am going to briefly touch on the Amazon/MacMillan blow-up from this weekend. (For details, see Lilith Saintcrow’s blog. She gives her opinion as well as a nice set of informative links. More info can be found on Nathan Bransford’s site. His post goes into more background and detail, and has a catchy title to boot. Or, for a very fair look at e-book costs and such without going into the specifics of this mess, check Shiloh Walker’s blog.)

I do not agree with the way Amazon has been playing with authors lately. You may also remember a scuffle where Amazon delisted LBGT titles without warning, so this is not the first time the company has behaved in a way I disagree with. (Having worked in a library, I am highly against censorship of the written word. Yes, some things are of a sensitive nature, and there are some things that should probably be restricted. But it gets very tricky where to draw the line, and I do not believe that book sellers should get to decide where that line is for everyone. If they don’t want to sell certain books, fine. But if that is the case, they need to be up front and honest about it. And there’s my $0.02 on the matter.)

So, what this means for Book-Wyrm-Knits is that I will no longer be using Amazon links on the blog. (Which is why writing about it on a book review day is highly appropriate.) If you would still like to do your purchasing on Amazon, cool. I, however, will probably be taking my (online) business to B&N. (My walk-into-a-bookstore business is almost all done at my local store, and if you have a local store, I’d like to suggest you do the same.)

One quick note is that I am not supporting MacMillan’s decision universally either. I am not sure that charging hardback prices for an e-book is the way to go. It might be. It might not. But. The reason I am mad at Amazon and, actually, bringing this up AT ALL is because of the heavy-handed way Amazon seems to have handled this. From what I can tell, Amazon did not make any announcements or news releases until the very end of the whole thing, at which point they made themselves sound like the victim. Hello. You’re not the victim. You’re a party to the discussion, and if you don’t like the way things are going, TALK about it. With MacMillan, with the press, whatever.

Right. Rant over. We now proceed to our regularly scheduled review.

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Daily Life in Victorian England
by Sally Mitchell

(non-fiction)

What we have here is  very rare breed: the non-fiction book I’ve read cover-to-cover. I started out thinking this would be a good way for me to get a glimpse into background details for my steampunk world, and I ended up finishing the thing. There are so many aspects of the Victorian and Regency novels I enjoy that I thought I understood, but didn’t. So many little details of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas that make much more sense after reading this book. It is one that I intend to buy for my research shelf.

How do you review non-fiction? I’m really not sure. But I do know that this book was:

1. Helpful.
2. Entertaining enough for me to read the whole thing.
3. Well organized and laid out, so if you are just looking up a specific detail you can find it.

February Goals

A quick recap of January’s goals:

1. Get a workable plot for SPN (aka the SteamPunk Novella — this will be my standard abbreviation for this story) – due date 1/15/10

Done.

2. Write the first 7K of SPN – due date 1/31/10

Did not get to 7K. Not going to focus on how far off that goal I am; just going to write in Feb.


3. Complete 2 critiques for the OWG (my online writing group) – due date 1/31/10

Done.

4. Send T to 5 sub ops – due date 1/31/10

Did not do, partly because I realized late in the month that I still had some edits I wanted to get in before sub’ing. Now that they’re done, I’ll get the sub work done.


5. Write the first 10K of SPN – wish list

Was wish list, and didn’t happen. This is okay.

And here’s a look at what I want (or need) to do for February:

1. Do needed marketing work for “INTO THE WOODS” – due date 2/15/10
2. Write the first 10K of SPN – due date 2/28/10
3. Post my chapter for the OWG and get my 2 critiques done – due date 2/7/10 & 2/28/10
4. Send T to 5 sub ops – due date 2/28/10
5. Write the first 15K of SPN – wish list
6. Write a book review a week for the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge – due weekly by Tuesday

Oh, Yeah, I Have Time…

I have this problem.

I tend to say “I can do that” before I really stop to think about the consequences.

What does that really mean? It means I am going to be VERY busy these next two months. It’s nothing I can’t handle, but… well, you may end up with a lot more wordless (or word-sparse) blog posts until mid-March or even April.

You see, I have several things on my plate right now that all have matching timelines. And due dates. And this is starting to freak me out.

1. Day Job – things here are fine, but there will be major changes somewhere around mid-April.

2. Steampunk Novella – needs to be written (20-30K) by mid-March so I can get it out for beta reads and then start editing it in April for an April 31 deadline.

3. Into The Woods – a theatre production I’m co-producing which hits the stage in… you guessed it. April.

All of these things are highly important to me. Prioritizing them is nearly impossible. So, one of the things this means is that nearly everything else will be taking a backseat to these three things. Good thing I’d already stopped most of my Facebook games. I really don’t need to spend time cooking stuff in a fake Cafe, or running a fake mob, or throwing snowballs at my friends.

Bejeweled, though… Well. We all need our downtime, right?

Dear Blog, Love Suzy

Hi there.

Mom wants me to tell you something fun. Or to do something cute.

I want to sleep. But she says she has no blog inspiration today. And that I’m supposed to distract you from the fact that she hasn’t done much writing all week.

I don’t get paid enough for this. Can you get Mom out of my face with that camera now?

This WiP in Pictures

Here is a quick picture post of one of my knitting works in progress:

The Serenity Coriolis socks! These, as you may remember, were my mom’s birthday gift. Only one was finished at the time. And the pair is not quite done yet.

I had been working on my sister’s Damson, you see. Which was supposed to be done in time for her birthday this past weekend.

It was not.

So, it has become a Mother’s Day present, and I can now split my time between knitting Damson, the Coriolis socks, and my Noro scarf.

It is so nice to have options again, rather than focusing on one project. Knitting monogamy is just not for me. I guess I’m too fickle.