michele

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October

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October was kind of ridiculous. I thought September was all bad ass with 48 books read. October kicked September’s patootie into the ground and then stomped on it a few times for good measure.

Stats:

Books Read: 66 (+2 unfinished)

Books Bought: 21

Books from Library: 22

Books Loaned/Given: 4

Money spent (approximately): $100 (curse my inveterate spending.)

Favorite Books: Fruits Basket Vols. 1-23 by Natsuki Takaya and The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede

Other Worthies: Ill Wind by Rachel Caine, The Tapestry: The Second Siege by Henry H. Neff, Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore, English as a Second Language by Megan Crane, Tempt me at Twilight by Lisa Kleypas, and all the Julia Quinn books I read from the Bridgerton series.

Least Favorite Book was a toss up between: Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grill by Steven Brust and Dead Girl’s Dance by Rachel Caine (these are the 2 I didn’t finish)

Books remaining on To-Be-Read-Shelf: 23

Number of Boxes of Books for Sale: Still 5, but an overflowing 5. Seriously I need to get rid of these.

It should probably be noted that 37 of the books I read this month were manga. I’d say that maybe 5 of those counts as one actual book just in terms of how long it takes me to read them. 12 of the books I read in September were also actually manga. These are probably inflating my numbers. But at least I’m admitting it here.

23 of the manga read this month were of the Fruits Basket series. So good. Man, I’ve seen the TV anime of it multiple times but I’d never read the whole series before. The library had most of the ones I didn’t already own and I just tore through them. I had to keep going back and checking the last image of the last book a couple days in a row before I could finally stand to give them up and return them to the library. It was so perfect and made me so happy. Now I want to own them all.

The Thirteenth Child, my other favorite book of the month, is by an author I have long liked. I read Wrede’s Dragon series multiple times as a stripling and was both amazed and delighted that she suddenly had a new series coming out that I had been unaware of prior to seeing it in my mom’s Scholastic order catalog. So not only was it a miracle, it was also free since mom gets stuff gratis from Scholastic when her 4th graders place orders. And then it turned out to be really good! It reminded me a lot of Robin McKinley’s Dragonhaven just because of the world building as seen through the eyes of the main character. It’s an impressive feat to present an entire story based around the POV of one character. Wrede doesn’t do it in quite the way McKinley did, but I read it as similar all the same.

I have also now read all 4 of Megan Crane’s books and stand by my statement that she’s a female Jonathan Tropper. Everyone Else’s Girl and English as a Second Language are definitely her best two. I liked Frenemies and Names my Sisters Call me but not nearly as much. Anyway, if you like Tropper (and if you don’t, you should: especially How To Talk to a Widower) then you should give Crane a chance. Or if you just like amusing, well-written light fiction (yes, ok, it’s basically chick lit), then you should try Crane.

All right! Onwards into November then. Don’t look for much though since I will be trying to devote several hours a day to my own writing, I will probably not be reading so much of others’. November should be a slow month for reading. Though the new Ouran High School Host Club is coming out. And a new Margaret Mahy. And the new John Flanagan (which I totally ordered from Australia already). And and and….sigh. There goes my bank balance.

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NaNo’ing

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Thoughts on my first day of writing a novel:

  • It was easier than I thought. Which probably does not bode well. I mean, if I did so great today than I’m probably just going to get over-confident and not write tomorrow and then I’ll fall behind and then I’ll never think I can catch up and then I’ll just give up and be a NaNo failure. Again.
  • I wrote a whole chapter! And then some!
  • Jenny emailed me with a pep talk! Well her pep talk basically only said, “WRITE.” And yes, it was all in capitals. Then she talked about how great “The Hunger Games” was and I could only nod in violent agreement with her.
  • I feel sort of disassociated from what I’m writing. It’s weird. I’ll go back to read something over or add a word or something and I’ll get sort of intrigued by the dialogue or whatever and forget that I wrote it. It’s whole pages of writing and I kind of feel as if it just appeared there with no mediation by me. Though my wrist and gimp elbow tells me a different story.

Current Word Count: 2,942

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Nyan Koi!

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There is a new anime I just discovered titled “Nyan Koi!”. This is the description:

Kousaka Junpei is a second-year high school student who despises cats and has an allergy to them. It just so happens that his high school crush is Mizuno Kaede, a girl who adores cats. One day, while walking home from school, Junpei kicks an empty can and unfortunately beans the local neko-jizou-sama (guardian deity of cats). He finds he can now understand what cats are saying, including his family’s own ill-tempered cat, Nyamusasu. However, if he does not grant 100 wishes from cats, he will turn into a cat himself.

It’s like it was made for me! I will let you know my thoughts once I watch an episode.

p.s. The Max costume I made long ago has passed on to Lucas. Tyler is a Spy this year.

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Paille Maille

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I recently got snookered into re-reading the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn. Which, I don’t have a problem with per se, but reading romance novels does tend to leave me depressed at the end. Giggly during, of course. I could just stop, I suppose. But they’re so delightful. They play a vicious, cutthroat version of Pall Mall (basically it’s croquet for those unversed in the parlance of historic romances). Plus they’re sarcastic and lovingly snarky; my favorite kind of people.

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Napa Weekend: Story #4

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As any of you who have been on the Houseboat with me know, the one thing I lament its not having is a slide. A slide in to Lake Shasta! How awesome would that be? Then I could go off the 3rd deck without fear! I could rival Garren in my ability to hook my leg over the railing and….go down the slide!

As any of you who are acquainted with Adam will know: if you want something he will provide it. And thus, I arrived at his mom’s Napa house to discover: A SLIDE!

I went down it many, many times. And thanked my lucky stars for the provider which is Adam.

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Napa Weekend: Story #3

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This is my illicit story which I probably really shouldn’t be posting but it’s too good to pass up. Also this story is kind of inferred from what I vaguely remember in my drunken haze. Only the photo is irrefutable.

At our 4th or 5th winery of the day–Jefferson Cellars, or something like that–I was pretty drunk. Mostly because I kept drinking Jason’s tastings as well as my own. No. Not mostly because of that. That was only like three tastings. It was really just the aggregate of all my tastings and champagne in the car.

Point is: Erica was texting with Jolie who wanted something scandalous to happen on this wine induced fog of impaired judgment. Her example was that Erica and I should make out in the stretch yellow Hummer. Well….we weren’t in the Hummer at that particular moment so we made do.

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The Jason element was a genius move on Erica’s part. And Jolie’s reply was immediate and laughingly asked what else she should request if we were going to oblige her so quickly and in a most amusing manner.

Later that evening Jolie texted to ask if we did anything else sordid that Jason endorsed.

My reply: “Erica and I made out all day long, Jason’s thumbs are SO tired.”

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Napa Weekend: Story #2

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On Kristen’s birthday morning I paced back and forth in front of the glass door leading to her and Gene’s sun-porch bedroom working up the guts to walk inside. I am a Nervous Nelly, ever unsure of my welcome–especially in the wee hours. But of course I was graciously accepted as I came bearing gifts.

My present this year for Kris was a hand-made ticket redeemable for admission to “New Moon” at a place and time of her choosing. Which, let me tell you, is a concession for me since it means I probably won’t get to see it the day it comes out. But considering that it’s her 30th Birthday and I couldn’t buy something actually expensive or nice or join her on a trip to Vegas, it was really the least I could do. Plus my ticket had a picture of Edward and Bella as Barbie dolls on the front. You can buy them as Barbies. BARBIES. So ridiculous.

And then the STRETCH. YELLOW. HUMMER. arrived. To grant you a good visual of how awful this looks, please see the below evidence of our trip.

I highly recommend going to look at a bigger version of the picture to get a gander at some of the priceless facial expressions. Erica’s in particular. Though Kim is probably flashing the middle finger behind her back too. And Kristen on the end looks like a model.

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