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Showing posts from February, 2013

sparkle-free and angst-less

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I just devoured the Elemental Mysteries - a very entertaining series of books by Independent Author, Elizabeth Hunter. Ms. Hunter has done something remarkable in these books; she created a new vampire mythology in an age of moody teenaged bloodsuckers. Her vampires have an inherited affinity for one of four elements (earth, air, water, fire) from which they draw power, yet her mythology maintains all the rules for vampires that make sense (death by sun and beheading, blood-drinking for sustenance, passing out cold during daylight hours, and age equals strength). They're not sparkly, or angsty, nor are they inherently evil, and the ones we hang out with spent a considerable amount of time training to fight when they were human, so their enhanced vampire hand-to-hand combat skills are Matrix-worthy and cool. I come from a long history of contemporary vampirism-in-literature readership, beginning with Anne Rice (because why wouldn't you?), and leaving off most recently with

The big stuff

You know those days when you feel like you just put a chink in your kids' armor? I'm having one of those days. Maybe I've been up too late reading, or up too early not-writing (guilt, frustration, more guilt), or maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the planet from friendly, warm, tolerant and patient. And even though the point I was making to my boys this morning about jumping to help when someone asks for it is a good/valid/vital point to make, I wasn't patient or kind. I was distant and annoyed, and I could feel the hurt pouring off both of them in waves. I didn't need to do it that way. I think about all the ways we put ourselves together as human beings; the things we love, or dislike, the way we trust, or not, and the things we risk every time we try something new. Every disappointment adds a little armor, every success loosens the armor so it's not so tight and restricting. A lot of armor gets heavy and unwieldy, and makes walking through doors

Cool Books

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I just sent this list to Becky at The Book Frog, where I get to talk about books next month; other people's (which is really fun to do) and my own (which tends to make my guts twist up in little knots). Compiling the list was fun. First, the easy books - the ones that directly or indirectly influenced the story, characters, or writer (that's me) of  Marking Time :  On a Pale Horse , by Piers Anthony,  Ender's Game , by Orson Scott Card,  Outlander , by Diana Gabaldon,  The Name of the Wind , by the incomparable Patrick Rothfuss, and  The Ivanhoe Gambit , by Simon Hawke. Those are piled in a precarious stack on the most beautifully useless piece of furniture in our living room - a display shelf made from a repurposed Indian wedding carriage that's too narrow to hold anything other than family photos. Which, in a room groaning with books, is totally wasted space. The other books, the ones I buy extra copies of because I'm constantly loaning them out, or the

Something to be said for a great Vampire

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Okay, I love this series. Book one, Dead Until Dark , showed up in my mailbox one day, courtesy of my college roommate. No note, just the book. I only knew it was from her because of the cool, curly writing on the package. So I started reading Dead Until Dark that night, and finished it that night, and haven't stopped recommending it since. But this book, Dead to the World , is my favorite one. Charlaine Harris created a perfect vampire character in Eric Northman, the massive Viking boss of everything, one whose casting has been debated in my circles (the HBO show notwithstanding) with the likes of Jamie Fraser from Outlander . Eric, the most dominant man in any room... or continent... loses his memory and finds himself in the protection and care of Sookie Stackhouse, the perky psychic small-town girl who didn't date a lot of local boys because it was always a bummer to hear their less-than-flattering thoughts about her booty. And since, of course, Eric's hot , and be