Monday, July 13, 2009

Yeah!

Z
What do you get when a librarian and a reading teacher breed? Z is seven months old. No, he's not reading but he loves to look at the bright pictures and play with the book.




Yeah !
No more hunting and pecking. I got my bandages removed today. I still have to be careful, it’s only been 10 days since the surgery and while the stitches were removed, the incision site is still not fully healed and the wrist and hand are still sore and bruised. But it’s nice to be able to type semi-normally again.



Politics

I’m watching the Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Nominee Judge Sotomayor. I now have no doubt why nothing ever gets done in Washington, DC. The Judicial Committee has been in session since 10:30 this morning and has accomplished nothing except that each member of the committee has given an opening statement. It seems to me we could have significantly cut the time and the cost of this process if the procedures were reviewed briefly and then everyone got down to business. You’re all (Republican and Democrat) going to repeat this nonsense later as you question her so why are we spending so much time hearing about what you’re going to ask her? Just ask it for Pete’s sake.

This is why our country and our economy are in trouble. No one can get past their own bs long enough to do their job. Seems that part of the Oath of Office they keep secret is that you swear to be as full of hot air as is humanly possible.

By the way, does any one else find it flippin’ surreal to see Al Frankin as a Senator? I keep expecting him to blurt out, “And this is Saturday Night Live.”




Books

I just finished reading World Without Winter by Steve Pierce. I’m writing a review for the September 09 eMuse but let’s just say I don’t recommend the book. It has certainly made me appreciate my own editor and the writing seminars I’ve attended. The writing in this novel can be summed up by calling it undisciplined. It fails to follow the important rule of writing that says that what happens in your story should serve the purpose of the plot.

I recently bemoaned the problem of authors who cut too much to keep to a low word count; this book has the opposite problem. It has too much filler, chapters and chapters of irrelevance that do nothing to advance the plot. Pierce obviously felt strongly about global warming and was eager to demonstrate his scientific prowess, but this story just simply was not meant to be a novel.


If you're looking for quality writing I suggest you check out Goblin Market by Jennifer Hudock. This free podcast novel has the first two installments up on Hudock's website, www.jenniferhudock.com . This is fantasy as it should be done. If you like stories of faeries, or contemporary fairytales, you'll love it.

1 comment:

Anny Cook said...

Glad you're feeling better!