Kirk arm-wrestles Kirk -- yes, he's kicked the living shit out of himself in The Undiscovered Country, but never arm-wrestled before.
I spent the holiday weekend (yes, last weekend, not this weekend) in a book coma. You know, read-it-all-night, can't-put-it-down, dawn-breaks-and-you-look-out-the-window-and-just-turn-off-the-lamp-and-keep-reading, book coma.
Decided that, someday, I really wanna go to Mythcon.
The book that kept me up all night was Warprize
by Elizabeth Vaughan. The book had great bones. I fell in love with the characters -- that sort of love is the only thing that can keep me up all night. Indifference puts me to sleep.Wicked & Tricksy totally amuses me. Again.
What surprised me about Warprize is that it was originally published in 2005 (TOR), its sequels in 2006
and 2007
, and all three are already out of print. Warprize, the first book, was picked up by another publisher, Berkley, and reprinted. But I couldn't get the sequels in book format. I had to download them Nook-for-PC style. Is this the legacy of Amazon? Not the deletion of legacy publishers as middleman or the ebook revolution, but the inability to get a "new" copy of a book that was only printed four years ago?
Camp NaNoWriMo = totally fallen by the wayside. Maybe in August? Maybe ... November?
Then again, maybe Warprize
isn't the best example to use to start making claims about what anyone's "legacy" is. While I fell in love with the characters, I should make note of the fact that after reading, I wanted to request edits. The series had the stuff to be epic -- a thousand pages, easily, not three volumns of 200 pages each (650ish when all is said and done). It needed to take its time, really delve into the world. Take it out of first person, and let all the interesting things the author created really blossom. Also of note: It was also published by TOR, who from all my research, is great to their big name authors and really miserable to all their other authors -- more so than other big publishers in the fantasy genre. Also, this was a TOR Romance. Romance has a high turn over. It's bought faster and more frequently than any other genre (I think it still outpaces YA but by a shrinking margin). And this means that publishing house want to keep a fresh supply of new books, new life blood, for all the romance genre junkies to come snack on. It's the last true pulp jungle left in publishing.
Kansas City Public Library, I heart you. Hey, and this dude, too -- I also heart you ... erm, your blog that is.
And while I was busy reading all night and into the day, my neighbors were busy setting off cheap, illegal fireworks. You know the kind: big bang, little spark.
Perhaps firecrackers would be a better term.
In the evening, late at night and -- of all times -- mid-afternoon. I don't get that one.
Now, I find fire as fascinating as the next person. But that's why I play with candles. I can't say that fire crackers have ever held any entertainment for me. Although all the banging and popping had my cats on edge for 72 hours straight. My irregular sleep pattern didn't work to sooth them either.
Wondrous and creepy thoughts on victimization and tarot cards.
You'd think that there would be better amateur fireworks this close to the state line. Take any road into Indiana -- any road: expressway, country highway or two-track -- and the first thing you see beyond the Welcome to Indiana! America's Crossroads sign, is a cinder brick building selling fireworks.
One night, perhaps Monday, I got to see part of the city's fireworks display right from my desk. It was a pleasant surprise but, let me put it this way, I'm glad I wasn't waiting around for it.
