I'm Made of Win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, I am not done by a long shot, but I hit my 50,000 words this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I’m going to actually finish the book. I’m just over 50,000 words right now. I think it will need another 40 to 50 to actually finish it off. Then who knows what the re-write will be like?

One thing I’ve learned this year?

Just write and keep on doing it. Apparently my novel style is very much like my article style. Sometimes I just don’t hit my groove until the middle.

I know I’m in the groove with my book now. I know my characters, I have the over all plot and I’ve managed to weave an underground culture in there as well.

Once I plow through this draft, I’ll have to go back and set up the ground work for the realities in the latter half. I’ve skipped some seeds of character development, but I can take care of that easy. And maybe I’ll be able to use some of my deleted scenes. (I actually have about 2500 unused words.)

Okay, that’s all I’m going back to the book. Hopefully, I’ll be published sometimes in the next couple of years…..Wow, what would that be like?

Devil May Cry: Kenyon-Book Twelve

I’ve just finished Devil May Cry!!! It took me forever because I’m in the middle of Wrimo. (As may be obvious by some of my entries.) But I got through it, happily even.

Oh what to say about this one?

In many ways it was very, very good. In others, not so much.

The over all story is great. We meet Sin learn about his past with Artemis and why he’s such the anti-social bitchy dude. He’s certainly doesn’t come across like the fuzzy wuzzy type. But we all know many of our Dark-Hunters are misunderstood, assumptions are made about them regardless of reality, and if by chance those assumptions are remotely true, there is a gods-damned good reason for it.

We find much the same here.

It’s hard to tell you too much about what happens in this book, though. Some of it is obvious like Kat’s heritage for instance. You knew, kind of. It was never said out right, but come on!!!!!! There were truck sized hints and a little part of you has been saying, yeah I think she’s…

Well, you’re right and for those of you who were too caught up in the sights of sounds of all the delectables, Kenyon spells it out for you, point blank.

And we are so totally revving up for Acheron! Devil May Cry is a great lead in to it. Unfortunately, if you’re going to read things in exact sequence, we have two Dream-Hunter novels to go before we slip back onto the Dark-Hunter track. If you skip the Skoti crowd though, you can march to the bookshelf or your closest shop and pick up Acheron.

Oh, you might want some kind of plot description. Okay, here goes:

The end of the world is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You’re not really surprised and maybe even thinking you’d like some tea and biscuits with that, I agree, but get it iced because this book is rockin’.

Sin our Dark-Hunter du’jours is on the table. He’s hot. His angry. He’s an outsider. He wants Artie dead and I mean Artie in the Artemis sense. Artie is thinkin’ it’s going down this time because Sin has been causing trouble and has obtained a device to help him do it. So Artemis sends her fave koris member Kat to stomp Sin out since Ash will not do it.

Ash always has good reasons for not tossing folks into the tomb. Is Kat able to figure out why?

Oh boogers, you gotta know and I think it’s okay to tell you that yes she does. Too bad knowing that doesn’t make it easy. The crapper is truly on overload this time and we need more than a Home Despot Golden Plunger to save the day.

We need and army and now!!!!!

Too bad that’s too tall an order for the time frame.

Wow is that enough info? No, not really but this book is so jammed pack full of goodies that I’m having a hard time plating them for you. Let me say this.

READ THE DAMN BOOK!!!!!!!!

It’s fun. It’s sexy. It’s intelligent. You meet some really great characters like Daimon casino managers and sarcastic immortal humans . Simi’s in this one too, BBQ sauce and all. But there’s more than just Diamonique sparkling here.

You get some hardcore goods on Ash. We all want it and we get to see it. Truly we are ramping up for the big guy’s own story. All that said why is this book not as good as some of the others? It’s truly hard to eff this one up and really, Kenyon didn’t. But…

There’s too much fantastical and a lot of info to suck down in 358 pages. There are moments of depth that just don’t go deep enough and this installment lacked the tear ripping it should have had. For all intents and purposes, I should have been balling at least once.

I didn’t, but maybe you will. Maybe you’ll connect with that something that is Sin and you’ll find yourself longing for his redemption. Me? I had no doubt about it. I had way too much confidence in him, romance formulas aside.

But the worst part of the book is the ending. Normally, the end of a Kenyon book sucks just because the ride is over. This one wasn’t as great because she revved the energy so fucking high that when we got to the conclusion, it drooped. Basically, we got teased too long and the wad was shot before we could blink.

I’m okay with that though because she drove it in hard enough that the rest of it is fine and well worth the read. You’ll get your tingle and you’ll still be hungry for more.

What’s up next?

Once Upon a Midnight Clear followed by the Dream Chaser. These are two Dream-Hunter novels and in truth many don’t like these as much as the Dark-Hunter series. I’ve been thinking of hopping the line and going straight for Acheron, but you know I think he can wait for me to get my grubby little hands on him. I’m going to draw it out, get some Skoti time in and wait for the Fate God. Besides, I don’t let others form my opinions for me. You shouldn’t either. Read ‘em then tell me if you thought they sucked. I’ll certainly be telling you what I think.

Until then read hard and remember just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

© 2008

Wrimo: Week Two

Can you believe it? I haven't started Devil May Cry, yet. I think I turned to page one and got interrupted a million times and then NaNo WriMo hit. I didn't start it for two days then blam, I was at a few thousand words. I didn't write all weekend either and was stuck around nine thousand something.

However, my new number is 20,093. It's a about 1500 short of the goal, but it's better than nothing. The best part? My story is actually starting to take shape!! I actually like it!!!

At first I was thinking this is crap, no one is going to want to read this. Super romance hero, my ass!!! But I've let go of perfection once again and am only worried about getting it all down. Wow, I think I'm actually taking my own advice!!!

Well, I've got to head out. I just wanted to let you know that I'm still reading, just not as fast and sooner or later you'll have a review and sooner or later I will have a finished first draft!!!!

AWESOME!!! Even WICKED AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael Crichton: 1942-2008

In Memoriam:


Michael Crichton, writer, physician
(1942 to 2008)


“If you don’t know [your family’s] history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.”

“We all live everyday in virtual environments, defined by our ideas.”

“They are focused on whether than can do something. They never think whether they should do something.”

“Books aren’t written-they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”


Articles:

Yahoo
CNN
BBC

Fan Sites:

My Space

The Dream-Hunter: Sherrilyn Kenyon-Book Eleven

Okay before I get into the nitty gritty of The Dream-Hunter I have some ‘splainin’ to do.

The Dream-Hunter though part of the Dark-Hunter world is not technically a Dark-Hunter novel. We have a smattering of known characters coming into play, Katra aka Kat, Artemis’s servant play a rather large role in the story. We see M’Adoc and D’Alerian, two Oneiroi that have been briefly mentioned or played a role in the growth of a Dark-Hunter. We also see a smattering of Trieg, a Dark-Hunter, and Acheron, but not enough to move the story, only enough to connect this book to Dark-Hunter goings on. So while this is book eleven on your Dark-Hunter reading list, it can also be seen as book one for the Dream-Hunters.

Too wordy? Not needed?

Maybe.

Essentially, I’m telling you that you don’t need to read this book to understand the Dark-Hunters series. This is a stand alone and only a tie in, not an integral piece of the puzzle. There is a mention of Acheron being a god of fate. Not that this is news, but I don’t think it’s ever been clearly stated as such. And like I said, it’s not integral to the story, just a neat tid bit for Dark-Hunter fans.

So now that that’s done what of The Dream-Hunter?

I would love to tell you that the book was great through and through. I would love to tell you that Kenyon delivered another masterpiece of love overcoming the overwhelming. I would truly love to, but I can’t. In all honesty, I really didn’t like this book until I headed into the later chapters. Chapter 15 is where it starts getting good. Before that, the story was so full of holes that I started craving Swiss cheese.

Here is the premise: Arikos, a once Oneiroi dream god, turned renegade Skoti dream god makes a bargain with Hades to turn human so he can experience emotions and be with the human, Megeara who has enthralled him via the dreams he’s been siphoning her emotions from.

Said bargain involves turning either losing his soul or that of Megeara to Hades once the two week stint is over. Arikos thinks he can follow through even though that wasn’t exactly the bargain he had hoped for because once turned back to a Skoti, he will lose his human only emotions and have no issue condemning Megeara to the hands of Hades. Essentially, he’s going to do her then kill her. Kind of sweet huh?

This all surrounds a hunt for Atlantis, a hunt Megeara scorned all of her life. But since she made a promise to her Father as he lay dying, things have changed a tad.

Basically the plot is okay. It’s not the best plot Kenyon has tossed out to us, but it’s doable. What wasn’t doable for me was the fact that a Harvard educated woman of science bought so easily into the many holes of why Arikos suddenly appeared, his cover-ups for his strange behaviour and well every oddity we have to muck through to get to the part of the book that starts getting good.

Maybe if Megeara was a light-hearted, carefree, somewhat gullible artist entranced by a hot bod and sexy smirk I could handle it, but not from an anthropologist, not from said Harvard Doctor.

But this book is readable if you bypass the logic stuff and take away our modern cynicism and ignore the initially stalker like characteristics of our hero. Some of us can do this easily beacause Arikos is hot.

You know, we do get to see Arikos learn what it is to be human and he does suffer from it and realizes his selfish motives, something he couldn’t understand in his god state. You see, the Oneiroi were cursed by Zeus to have no emotions and Skoti, by nature are incredibly selfish.

That’s all fine and dandy, but I just don’t feel the pull here. I don’t feel the love or the enormity of Arikos’ transformation or Megeara’s draw to Arikos himself. This is not a grand love story. It’s a mediocre one at best.

The book does have some saving graces. Mageara’s saving of Arikos is well done and there are bits of this story that show the true mastery of romance that Kenyon has. Plus, the sex parts are tasty reads. Is that enough to buy the book and read on?

For me it is. I’ll read through the next few books and make myself wait for Acheron and the just released One Silent Night. (Already on my shelf!!) The book didn’t entirely suck and there was an introduction to a rather intriguing character, Solin and if you’re anything like me you’ll want to know what little Dark-Hunter treasures are hiding in the Dream-Hunter books. I’m sure the hard core Kenyon fans will eat up everything Kenyon delivers. So, if you want to be in the know, read the books. Up next? Devil May Cry…


Go here for Dream-Hunter information.


© 2008

Take, Run, Follow

Somewhere in here I mentioned that I was heading toward the final book in the Dark-Hunter series. The Minions out there know that statement is incorrect. I know it now, too.

This year, dubbed The Year of Acheron, by Miss Kenyon herself gave us the long awaited book, Acheron. I thought that was the end of it because he’s the driving character behind the creation of the Dark-Hunters.

In a way, I’m right.

The Kenyon website states that we are heading into “Phase Two” of the series. Acheron is the first installment of the second phase. So from a point of view, there was an end in sight. Lucky for us fans though, it’s not exactly the end, but a new beginning.

Next up in the series is One Silent Night. There is a ticker on the website that says it’ll be here in nine days. I clicked it for details, but got an invite to sign up for the newsletter instead. I did sign up, but I have no other info on that book.

Looking at the rest of the site, I came across two future installments, Dream Warrior and Bad Moon Rising. Both are slated for 2009.

So where does that leave me? It kind of leaves me caught up with the rest of the paranormal romance world. I’ll have to sit and wait like the rest of you.

That kind of sucks.

So what will I do while waiting?

I’ve been asking myself that for a while now. I’ve mentioned that I am going to start a novel on November 1st. I feel the need to ride the Wrimo buzz all the way through to the end of the month and beyond. (There’s no way I’m going to send a query out on a first draft piece. I’m arrogant, but not stupid.)

And speaking of queries, am I really going to do it? I think I am this time. Or rather, I am this time.

I’ve spent many years writing. My first journals are from grade school. I’ve been praised for the ability all of my life. I was told I was going to be a star when I was seventeen years old.

So what happened? Here I am at 36 and I’m unpublished and the height of my “career” is in a high school that no longer exists.

Life happened. Poor choices and wayward paths happened and maybe just a tad of insecurity. I stopped pursuing my dream because I didn’t think I was good enough. I held myself to such a high standard that anything but a perfect first draft was unacceptable and I did the worst thing a writer can do, in my opinion anyway.

I wrote for my audience.

Sure, it’s good to give the people what they want. I want more Dark-Hunter books. I don’t want Kenyon to stop producing them. But you know, you can put too much into the wants of the crowd; It can destroy creativity. It can make a writer question themselves.

I did and the words wouldn’t flow. They’d come out jumpy and unsure of themselves. And it read that way.

Four years ago I stopped doing that. I got back to writing for me, writing the things that came to mind. I even stopped caring about what I was actually saying. My goal was to get it on paper, get it out, no worries about depth or being seen as good.

After awhile, my brain was trained to pick out the good from the shit I was spewing on paper. I grew confident in my word choices and understood that nothing is written in stone. Second drafts are a possibility! And I have this button on my keyboard that says “delete”.

Deleting can be a wonderful thing. So is backspacing.

So here I am producing relatively coherent stuff and there are people who actually like what I do. Imagine that? And I am writing for me, writing for my sanity, not them or thiers.

But after a while, my writing started to include the readers. Not because I catered to them, but because they started coming along for the ride.

Nah, I can’t please everybody and I don’t expect to. I am expecting to keep at it though. I’m going to keep going, even if my words never get past a few lone pages on the internet.

A couple of weeks ago I did something that I never did before. I answered an ad for our local News and Review. It felt good to do it, even though I know the Editor won’t give me the time of day. Who am I, but an unknown writer with absolutely no experience?

It doesn’t matter if I don’t even get a Thanks-but-no-thanks letter. I applied. I applied to prove that I was actually doing something with myself.

This Saturday, Wrimo starts. It’s nothing but another day to most, but to me it’s a start of a new perspective on my writing life. I aim to get published or at least turned down by every publisher in the country: twice.

So I’m feeling good on this Halloween Eve. I’m riding high and have much joy to share. Take it, run with it, follow your dreams!

© 2008

Dark Side of the Moon: Sherrilyn Kenyon-Book Ten

I think I’m still a little giddy from this read. I have to tell you that it was one of the better ones and our hero Ravyn ranks as one of my fave Dark-Hunters. For those of you who don’t recall, he’s the Were-Hunter turned Dark-Hunter. This oddity gives him some special powers, and I likes ’em.

Here in Dark Side of the Moon we see a meeting of two souls – well, as much soul as a Dark-Hunter can manage – who have lost everything dear to them. We see in Ravyn the kind of integrity and predatory strength we like to see in our heroes, and Susan ain’t too bad either.

I actually like Susan a lot. She’s tough in that not-so-overbearing way. She’s likable, gutsy, classy, and all those things our DH crew likes in a mate.

So what’s going down in this installment anyway?

Looks like the Daimons may have retained some human allies. Those allies may be bad asses in their own right. They might be, you’ll have to judge that for yourselves. But what really matters in this plot is that Susan and Ravyn are wanted for the murder of her dear friends. They are being hunted day and night, and the only place for them to run is for the Sanctuary, the Serengeti. Sounds good until we find out that’s where Ravyn’s family is, the ones who basically want him dead.

So what happens to two would-be outlaws whose lives are being torn apart, whose normal safe houses are now deemed unsafe, and whose very city is under siege?

They do their best to survive.

But not everybody does. We see death in this novel. We see three lives being changed for the better and for the worse. Ravyn’s and Susan’s lives aren’t the only ones transforming. Nick, Cael, Belle and others’ lives are going to be changed or ended in these pages. In fact, maybe the whole Dark Hunter world is changing as we read. Little by little Stryker and his crew are wreaking havoc, and as the pages pass by I can see an ultimate challenge brewing.

But then I could be wrong. Please read along and tell me what you think.

And where is our wayward Acheron, our cavalry of this here world? He’s busy with the bitch goddess herself. Her games are never-ending, and Ash is constantly torn between deals made and duties sworn.

He’d better keep his eyes open because betrayal is afoot, and it’s coming from the most unlikely places.

Trust me when I say read this book. It’s one of those pivotal ones and it’s a lead into something huge, I can feel it!!!!

Okay boys and girls and girls and boys. I’m off! I’ve got to read the next book!!!!

© 2008