Busy busy busy!
First, see, a friend loaned me these books, DARK LOVER, and LOVER ETERNAL. (There are seven books in the series, I believe.) Vampire romances! What can I say? They are actually pretty good. Not Patricia Briggs good, but not bad. The writing is not flawless, but again, not bad. The dialogue is good, often quite good. I like the characters – often especially the secondary characters. The point-of-view is pretty scattered, but actually in these books I don’t mind, partly because, as I said, I like the secondary characters. There’s some explicit sex, but not so much the plot bogs down while steam rises from the pages. Unlike Laurell Hamilton’s books, say. I’m definitely going to hit my friend up for the third book.
Now, for me, it’s totally impossible to read fiction AND write at the same time, because if I start reading a book, I’m going to finish it, and that kind of gets in the way of doing anything else, right? (I mean good fiction that I’m reading for the first time. That’s why I save nonfiction and not-very-compelling books I’ve read before for times when I’m writing.) So I didn’t fight this, when I picked up the second book (LOVER ETERNAL) on Friday, I just read the whole thing that evening and didn’t try to do anything useful. Then I could re-read bits over the rest of the weekend while really focusing on other things.
Like seeing The Avengers! I mean, it’s a tough call, go see a movie or pull weeds. (Actually I pulled weeds and then saw the movie.) Awesome movie! I can’t believe I was making snide comments about The Hulk before I went to see it, because he was great. Just great. I was never a Hulk fan, but I think my two favorite bits in the whole movie were Hulk things. Can’t say what they were because of course that would be kind of spoilery.
Loved Hawkeye. I actually have no real memory of Hawkeye from the comic, never being really into comics, but I bet he was cooler in the movie than the comic anyway. Did you see how he shot that plane? The one behind him? Without looking? Whoa.
Loved Natasha, too. Did you get that she was putting it on that second time? Because I totally did.
Hey, how about that bit where Captain America got the reference that Thor missed? Wasn’t that hilarious?
Man, I lust after Tony Stark’s armor. And the automated systems to put it on and take it off. Very, very cool.
I am so looking forward to the next movie!
But can I just mention one quibble, though, even though it might be a little spoilery? Hopefully not too much. I have to say, I didn’t believe in the thing with the nuke, because who would be that stupid? Great merciful God, is Tony Stark the only one who can think of better things to do with a nuke than, like, BLOW UP MANHATTAN? Because that idea was just nuts and what Stark did was extremely obvious. Though I guess I do believe that The Government can be run by incredibly stupid people from time to time.
Also! This movie is another example of why you should usually just skip the prologue. Anybody else feel that way? It didn’t add anything. Just start at the beginning, okay?
But after the book and the movie I did get some useful things done. A fair bit of dilettante-style gardening, for one thing. You know, the kind where you rip out the big weeds to make a flower bed look nicer, but don’t worry too much about little things like the roots. Too hard to pull stuff out by the roots when it’s this dry! Kind of worrisome, when it’s this dry in early May! Sure hope it rains soon.* Things are looking fabulous, though. I need to take another handful of pictures. Soon. This week for sure. My camera needs batteries, but hey, phone!
Also FINALLY got the squash and melons and okra and green beans planted. And set out the peppers and eggplants. Naturally it is supposed to get chilly again, but I don’t believe it.* It’s hot as blazes now. Anyway, I have enough seeds to replant if necessary.
Also! And here we are at last back in Author Land. Got 4000 words written this weekend, not bad for having so much else to do, including important things like go see The Avengers.
That takes me up to 15,000-plus words, which is about 48 pages. This is chapter one of the project I’m working on, plus part of chapter three (depending on where I decide to draw the chapter lines, which may change), plus a bit of chapter two. I’m going to finish chapter two, which I expect to take me to about sixty or seventy pages. Then I’ll let this project stall out and start something else, something YA, because my Knopf editor says (good news here!) that ISLANDS is doing rather well and she wants to see something else from me. So! Not going to take the current iron out of the fire till it cools down a bit, but I’m expecting to finish something else for Knopf this year. That’s the plan! Wish me luck.
* Rained last night! Much cooler now!
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Congrats on ISLANDS doing well! My copy is lent out to a friend right now, but I’ve got a line of friends I’ll be pushing it on after that. Looking forward to the paperback release so I can convince them to buy their own. :)
And YES to everything you said about The Avengers, including Hawkeye and Natasha’s awesomeness and Cap’s adorableness and the stupidity of basically EVERYTHING the government/Council said or did. I get that they were just a plot device to make Fury and the Avengers look awesome/get that nuclear warhead into Stark’s hands, but c’mon, how do you rise to levels of high command when you’re THAT much of an idiot? On the other hand, Natasha gave me all the competence porn I could ever have asked for, so I’m inclined to let Plot Holes of Idiocy slide.
Exactly, it was like the council members had signs blinking over their heads saying The Audience Must Hate Us.
I was definitely thinking, Fury’s right about everything, so everybody just hush and do what he says!
And, hey, good to know you’re nudging people toward ISLANDS!
So glad Islands is doing well. I would really love to see further books, sequels.
J. R. Ward’s books are addicting. They sound kind of silly when trying to describe them, but they flow well. I really like Butch-but I usually like cops/excops in story lines.
I like Butch, too. I have right from the beginning. I’m glad the next book in line appears to be his book. I do wish the conversation with Marissa in the third book had gone like this, though:
M: I had hoped you might call on me.
B: [thinking that he had and she wouldn’t see him] What?
M: I thought you might call upon me . . .
And the way it should have gone from there —
B: But I did! And you wouldn’t see me!
M: [surprised] What?
B: I came months ago to see you, and you wouldn’t see me.
M: You came to see me? [And in dawning outrage] Who turned you away?
And poof! Everything is clarified and the two lovebirds fall into each others’ arms and all is well. No doubt a scene much like that is on its way, but can we move that along?
Incidentally, many of the women in these novels need to find a way to make the men listen to them, because, jeez.