Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter - Finale

I finished my homework.

I found I liked it a lot better once I got into it. The beginning was a bit scattered, but a few chapters in and the flow smoothed out. I liked the occassional snark, and I warmed up to Dixie, the protagonist.

Things I didn't get into so much included the fairly shallow cast of characters and the way Dixie basically Forrest Gumped her way through the mystery. Practically every time she stepped out of the house she stumbled on a clue or someone who had information about the murder.

I will say that I think the mystery came together pretty well. A decent collection of suspects and motives. In the end, I liked the journey of finding out who the murderer was. The clues were fun and I enjoyed trying to connect the dots.

My overall impression is that while I don't think it was excellent, it was a decent read. Not brilliant, but not bad either.

Cozy Homework

This month, I have CWC homework. D.B. brought some books in so we could get a feel for cozies. The one she picked out for me is Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement.

"Let me know what you think," D.B. said. "Think about what you see as conventions of the genre, what you like, what you don't. Tell me if something makes you just chuck the book across the room."

I think those are pretty fair guidelines. I'm not usually much of a mystery reader, but I cracked that sucker open and got to it. First thing that hit me? Loads, and loads of cat information. Yeah, I know, it's a cat book. But still. It's a little silly when it gets to the point of, "Hey look, a dead body! By the way, let me tell you this thing about cats." I mean, honestly, it's irritating.

Then I asked myself, "Why is she doing it?" and "Why is it bugging me?"

My best guess on the first one is that her intention was to prolong scenes. If the same scenes had less cat stuff, they'd all be super short. When you're doing the big reveal of the dead body, a super short scene doesn't work so well. Then it'd read more like, "She walked into the kitchen and saw the dead body." End chapter. That'd be lame. So, we get encyclopedic info on cats.

It bugs me because it's a total tension breaker. The timing of the "cozy" part tends to wreck the flow of the scene. Just as she gets building up to something interesting, she breaks away for pet related information. It's bad rhythm.

There are some redeeming qualities, like some snark and some fair character development. Overall, I've got some definite concerns, but I haven't tossed it across the room yet. I'm thinking I'm perhaps not the ideal reader for cozies.

A Zombie Memoir

This Christmas was a minimalist Christmas for me. I didn't get many gifts because my family and I decided that instead of getting big presents for each other, we'd donate to charity. We went through Kiva and made loans to people. I was cool.

One of the presents I did get was from my friend Amanda. She got me a book titled Brains: A Zombie Memoir. It is very much what it sounds like. Amanda knows the author, Robin Becker, and that means that not only do I have a copy of the book, I have an autographed copy.

Now, as a zombie afficionado, I've seen a lot of zombie movies and read a lot of zombie stories. This is the first time, however, that I've ever come across one that is based in the POV of the zombie. It's a fun experience. I like the way she's approached zombie lore - a lot of the classic trends are there, but then the twist is that some of the zombies aren't entirely the shuffling undead. The POV character is a former English professor who's retained his ability to think and to write. As the plot goes on, he meets other special zombies who have retained some of their human abilities. It's a cool concept and I like the balance between the classic and her unique twist.

I'm about half way through the book so far and there are some interesting complications. I'm really curious to see what she does with them.

What I Learned From Harry Potter

One of my biggest problems in writing is going too fast. I speed through scenes I should take my time on and my readers always give me grief for it, as well they should.

One thing Rowling definitely doesn't do is write things too fast. I mean, we're talking about a seven-book series filled with thick, chunky books. And, aside from a spot or two, I didn't really notice the length. Nor, obviously, have hordes and hordes of kids, adolescents, and adults.

It's reassuring and a good example of why I need to slow the heck down. Now, knowing it and doing it are two different things.

Deathly Hallows

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this morning. I have to say, it was well done. I won't go into it much, 'cause Harry's been plenty talked about already.

I will say I think Rowling did a beautiful job of bringing the series to a close and I really enjoyed seeing all of the characters & plot threads come together. I also liked her overall tone and emotion.

As a writer, it all makes me wonder about which parts Rowling always had planned and which parts she came up with as the series went on. It also makes me wonder what Rowling will do next. How do you follow up a seven-part series that's been so gigantically successful? There's no way to top it, so how can it be matched? She's got a tough job ahead of her. I'll be very interested in seeing what she does next. I know she's already got the Beedle the Bard book out, but I dunno how much I count that as a force of itself.

Any bets on how well Rowling will (or won't) live up to herself?

Manuscript Makeover

I'm not much of a one for writing books most of the time, but in light of my search for writing exercises, I've been digging through a few. So far, I've found one I really like, Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore by Elizabeth Lyon.

If you're in the mood for checking out a writing book, take a look at this one. She's got really strong, practical suggestions and she uses a lot of examples from both classic writers and contemporary folks. She totally got bonus points for using a passage from one of Sherman Alexie's stories as an example.

Lots of good stuff, and I'll be coming back to her in the next few days as I do a couple of the revision exercises she suggests.

What's a writing book you'd recommend? Why do you like it?

Harry Potter

In September, when I was doing my long, long drives every day, I started listening to Harry Potter. I know, I know, I'm way behind the 8ball here, but whatever. Better late than never, right?

This morning, on my way to a training for work, I heard the last bit of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and I'm liking how it's all getting dark now. Not that there haven't been dark themes throughout - something I really like about Rowling.

One of the things I like a lot, and which loads of others have liked before me, is the fun of the magical world and creatures she's created. There's plenty of fantasy that has either a world overlaid with this one, or a separate world, but Rowling is somewhere in between. That's cool.

When I get back to the library, I'm on to book six.

Sherman Alexie, the Author Who Writes Epically Long Titles and Has Jay Leno Hair

Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" is this year's pick for All Pueblo Reads.

That means that I got to see one of my very favorite authors live, in person on Sunday when he did a library-sponsored talk. The talk was great. He's a very good speaker and his personality and sense of humor in person are very much in the same vein as in his books, which I largely adore. (With one or two exceptions, but, you know, nobody's perfect)

I brought a copy of my the first Sherman Alexie book I ever read, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" and now it's got his signature in it. How awesome is that?

It was impressive, as he talked, to see just how much of the featured book was autobiographical. He talked about events and characters from the book and the events and characters they were based on, which was fun. Also cool was when he started talking about the idea of "crossing the waters," of making a journey to a new land. He was very poetic about it, describing it in terms of the human quest to go and seek out new places. To paraphrase:

"We are travelers, we humans. We started out in Africa and started walking. We've been walking ever since. Anyone who denies that journey denies the very essence of humanity."

I'm glad I picked him as one of my major writing heroes. He's very cool. And, he gets bonus points for having to apologize to one of the audience members for calling her a zombie.

Guys Who Write Gals

Two books I've listened to lately have been The Last Queen and Cold Mountain. Both books are written by men and both use a central female character's POV. Authors who write POV characters who are of the opposite sex have a challenge. Sometimes they can pull it off. Sometimes it makes you wonder how many members of the opposite sex they actually have met.

The first one I listened to caught my eye because it's a historical novel about Juana of Castile. She was Katherine of Aragon's sister, and I just watched the next-to-last season of the Tudors, so I was totally primed. Also, C. W. Gortner's area of expertise is this time period, according to the blurb on the back of the book about him.

It started off okay, though it quickly became clear that the main character was kind of a cliche. The book is in 1st person POV and Juana describes herself a lot. When a character describes themself as a free spirit, it's kind of annoying. Then, throughout, there are a lot of author-intrusive kinds of "internal thoughts" where Juana comments on a tradition or practice with a distinctly modern perspective. But, whatever, I could forgive it a bit. The part that made me groan was Juana's habit of looking herself over and talking about how gorgeous she was. Gag me. Of all the women I know, I know exactly... um, none? who like to stare at themselves in the mirror and say, "Look at what a babe I am." After the part where she discovers her husband in bed with another woman and, to paraphrase, loves him too much to be overly bothered by it because she's kind of an idiot, I stopped listening to it. Truly, I would have stopped before that point, but I was on a road trip to Denver and didn't have anything else to listen to in the car.


I watched the movie a few years ago and liked it, so I thought I'd check out the book. One of the first differences I noticed was that this one was read by the author, unlike The Last Queen which was read by a female actress. Charles Frazier's reading style is a great deal different. Instead of a dramatic reading, his voice is almost flat. He reads at a slow and steady pace, which is actually remarkably fitting with the tone & subject of the book.

I was feeling kind of neutral about the book for the first chapter in Inman's POV, but then Frazier got to Ada and I warmed up to it. Ada's in rough shape trying to get by on the already-neglected farm after her father's death. In her first chapter, there's a part where Ada crawls under a boxwood and finds she likes being hidden away from everything. Frazier writes (this is an approximate paraphrase): "Ada decided that if she could think of three reasons to leave the boxwood, then she would. However, at that moment, the only reason she could think of was that she did not especially want to die in the boxwood." I instantly liked Ada then. She's got a really dry kind of sarcasm to her and Frazier writes her like she's human, vs. like she's a daydream of what a woman's like.

One of the parts that made me really like Frazier's perspective on women, too, was toward the end of the book when Ada and Ruby (another great female character) are talking about Inman. Ruby tells Ada, "We can live on our own just fine. You don't need him."
Ada says, "I know, but I think I want him."
Ruby responds, "Well, that's alright then."
The two women have done all the heavy lifting on their own and they're at a point where neither is a damsel in distress, waiting for a man to save them. Ada's choice to be with Inman is then based completely on her attraction and affection for him, and not on the idea that him being in her life is going to make things easier for her. Cheers, Frazier.

So, two books. One pulls off female POV, one doesn't. There are plenty of male authors who can write convincing female characters, but then there are plenty who can't. I think it would be interesting to look at men who write women and women who write men and how successful each group tends to be. It makes me wonder if it's easier for a woman to write a man or if I just notice fewer problems with it since I'm not a dude.

I will end with one word of advice for guys who want to write gals. If you find yourself writing in your female character's POV and describing her body in terms of, "Oh, I'm a girl. I have boobs. Aren't boobs awesome? I'm totally hot," then you're going in the wrong direction.

Spoken Word

The past little while my new job has been my main priority. The good news is that I've gotten to the point where I feel like I've got a good grasp on the lay of the land. Now, though, comes the even more challenging part - beginning the nitty gritty of the work itself. For September, I'm also going to move to a new place.

In light of all this, and my long daily commute, I'm dubbing September in honor of audiobooks. No particular goals here, but I'll be talking about them on the blog.

Current audiobook: Cold Mountain

Mind the Gap, or At Least I've Got Fun Books

I've been lagging behind on the contest for a while now. No Bueno. Sadly, half a dozen other things have been demanding my attention lately, and while they're good things to pay attention to, they're rather distracting from the thousands of words I currently need to write in order to catch up.

Oops.

In other news, I was at the library the other day and I stumbled on The Best of Joe R. Lansdale and since I was looking for something that'd be either funny or horrific, I picked it up. I'd never heard of Lansdale before, except, when I looked at the Table of Contents, I realized that I had, sort of. A few years back I got talked into watching a movie called Bubba Ho-Tep which is based off of Lansdale's story of the same name. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, which stars Bruce Campbell, by the way. So, I was quite delighted to find out that the book I'd more or less randomly picked off the shelf was directly connected. Sometimes, it really is a small world.

I'm about two stories in to the anthology right now (one of the two I've read was "Bubba Ho-Tep") and I'm quite enjoying Lansdale's style. In some ways, he rather reminds me of Chuck Palahniuk, whose book Tell-All I'm currently listening to on audiobook.

I may be lagging on the writing contest, but, on the other hand, I'm in a good reading place right now. It's kind of a wash.

Book Recommendations

Since I gained some reading momentum last month, I'm hoping I can keep it up at least a little. To that end, I'm going to ask you all for some help. I'm looking to find some new authors and I'm hoping you might have some books to point me to.

These days I'm looking for books that have some humor to them, whether that's the overall tone of the book or an undercurrent. Snark, slap stick, whatever, I'm in a mood to bring on the giggles. Genre-wise, I'm pretty open. I'm not really interested in Romance and I tend not to read a whole lot of Sci-Fi because it's a genre that I think translates better on film. That said, I'm open to any other genres.

So, can you give me a couple of titles to look up? Thanks in advance.

Wow, 4.5 Books Is A Lot

On the 31st, I considered finding a YA or comic book to get me through. Ultimately, though, it felt too much like cheating so I called it and finished the month with 3.5 books. That makes me one book short of my goal. Bummer.

I will add a bit of a "however" to that, though. March was a weird month involving strep throat that knocked me out of commission for a week. I initially thought being sick would be a great time to do some reading, but it turned out that it's hard to concentrate on a book when all I wanted to do was sleep pretty much all the time. Ugh.

Still, I read more than I would have otherwise, so I call that a win, even if it's not a complete one.

Fits and Starts

Right after my last post about how my reading momentum was gathering speed, I hit a road block in the form of the picky reader impulse.

I picked up Sherman Alexie's new short story/poetry collection, War Dances. Since it's Alexie, I thought I had it in the bag. An easy book to get into, right? Not so much. His style in this book is very different than the books of his I love, far less dry humor, far more literary. I read a story, thought, "Eh, maybe I'll like the next one better." Half way through the book, I set it down and didn't feel like picking it up again.

Next, I opted for Chuck Palahniuk's Stranger Than Fiction, a collection of non-fiction essays. They're basically mini documentaries and lack story. I got about half way through that one, then I set it down too.

After some thought, and another trip to the library, I cracked open Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel. I figured I was in that kind of mood and now I've whipped through about half of it in no time at all and look forward to finishing the rest. Thank goodness I finally found one that fit my mood.

I'm staring down the end of the month and trying to read as fast as I can. For the sake of being on a deadline, I'm counting the half-way books. So, right now my tally is:

The last half of John Connolly's book + the whole Gail Carriger + half of Sherman Alexie + half of Chuck Palahniuk + half of Christopher Moore = 3 books. That leaves me with the second half of Moore's book and one other whole book to read by Wednesday. Doable, I think. I hope. Time to buckle down.

Gathering Reading Momentum

My, I've got to say, tackling four books in one month is proving quite the undertaking. More so since this is a busy time of the semester, and on top of the books themselves I'm also reading many student papers. Time's flying, which means it'll be spring break before I know it.

So far I've finished The Gates and Soulless. One and a half books down, three more to go. I'm not sure what I'll start next, but I've got a substantial pile from the library to choose from.

How's your March going so far?

Like Being An Agent

I just stumbled onto a fun website called Webook. It's got an interesting premise based on the idea of book selection by consensus. You can play with it two different ways:

1. Read 1st pages submitted by randomly selected authors. Rate them. Then you can move on to rating the 1st chapter, then 1st 50 pages of books that are rated well.

2. Submit your own work to be rated, and perhaps advanced, by the readers on the site.

The principle is that the books which are advanced and rated well then come to the attention of professional literary agents. It's kind of neat. I've signed up just for giggles, and I tried reading one 1st page. I read it, then I rated it, then I got to see the average ratings from other readers, broken down by percentage of ratings. That part was cool. As it turns out, my rating was the same as the majority rating. Fun, huh?

Quatro Libros

February's 28 things in 28 days didn't quite happen. I got overwhelmed, I got distracted, I just couldn't pull it off. It was good to shoot for, though, and I got some things done that I wouldn't have otherwise.

This month, I'm shifting gears. My recent goals have been all about producing things. For March, I'm going to focus on consumption. My March goal is to read four books in addition to finishing the book I'm currently reading. So, four and a half books total.

I just need to average about one book per week. Should be doable. I hope. It may not seem like all that much, but when I factor in the workload of teaching, especially at this point in the semester, it's more intimidating. Wish me luck.

Ancient Hairs, How Exciting!

I just stumbled on this nifty science article that talks about DNA testing on a sample of hair that's thousands of years old. Ok, I know it brands me as a nerd to be all excited enough about this article to pass it on, but, well, I've never claimed not to be a nerd, have I?

Mostly, I thought I'd pass it on to you folks because it offers fun imaginative possibilities. We're learning more and more about those who came before us, and an article like this practically begs for a story behind the man. If you close your eyes and imagine what this man's life might have been, what comes to mind?

Deal-breakers, or Books I Didn't Read

In the past week or so I've picked up three different books that looked interesting at the library. Each seemed interesting when I read the back flap, but I ended up abandoning all three. I'll readily admit that part of it was circumstance - I just came off of a couple books that were really, really good, so I'm pickier than usual. However, there were reasons beyond that for why I put them down. At least two of the three would have been put-downers regardless of mood, and so it makes me curious whether or not you would have done the same.

Book 1: The Harsh Cry of the Heron by Lian Hearn
It seemed promising because the back flap says the main character has a secret - he can only be killed by a member of his own family.
It lost me in about three pages thanks to a zillion exclamation marks - just about every other line of dialogue ended with a ! Also, there was the part where the narration was talking about how the main character sparred with his wife so their daughters could see how a woman could be a fighter. Then, a few paragraphs later there's the part about how the daughters are going to a special assassin school - i.e. they're already fighters. It's not the hugest thing, but the logic glitch combined with the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!s, were enough together to pull me out of the book.

Book 2: Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet
It seemed promising because it has beastmen in it, which can be fun.
It lost me when I started to see how the premise was going to work and I just didn't get into the characters. Some POV jumping right away didn't help.

Book 3: Wraith by Phaedra Weldon
It seemed promising because it's an urban fantasy with a female protagonist - the type of books I'm keeping an eye out for as I work on the Cass book - it's good to know what's out there that's like your stuff, after all.
It lost me when the protagonist started getting on my nerves. She's 28, but she spews out this constant stream of airhead teenage vocabulary - words like "neato" and "oogy" all over the place. Now, while I don't mind the odd cornball word, when they're in every other sentence and make me think, "What is she, twelve?" I have to put the book down. Cutesy and noir do not play well together.

How about you, have you got any recent deal-breakers that made you stop reading?

Mapmaker

The new issue of The Absent Willow Review came out yesterday and I've been looking over some stories. I just read one, called Mapmaker, that I wanted to pass along to all of you because I think it's quite beautiful and well-written. I hope you take a few minutes (it's short) to read it.