Category: state of me

My life by book numbers

It’s weird, but I tend to use my reading habits as a barometer of the state of me. Everything going great? I am reading no more than two books.

Stressed out of my gourd? Insomnia? I go through kindle unlimited books like potato chips–devouring entire series in a matter of days (Lots of time to read if you cut out sleep, I’m just saying.)

ADHD out of whack? Add another book to the pile. The breakfast book stays at the table. The lunch book stays on the e-reader. I add one book that was too tempting not to start, but then gets carted from room to room, temporarily lost over and over again.

No books? Send me to the doctor. Or more practically and a bit cheaper, send me to the bookstore. I’ll reset. It’ll be fine.

Writing up a storm and using my creative brain non-stop? I’ll be rereading all my favorite comfort reads. Ilona Andrews, Martha Wells, Agatha Christie. If I’m utterly wiped out? Dick Francis or Diana Wynne Jones.

If my life is chaos? Well, I can tell by so many obvious things, but the one that usually makes me sit up and say, okay, time to get things back under control is the number of books I am currently reading. I tend to read two books at a time. One is the breakfast table book; one is the lunchtime e-reader book.

Right now? I am reading a breakfast book (Cascade Failure, LM Sagas, very enjoyable); a lunchtime libby book (A Study in Drowning, Ava Reid; fraught but good); a dinnertime book (same table, different book, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, Mark Lawrence–great characters so far); a bedtime book (How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, Django Wexler–more violent than I was expecting somehow); an ‘oops, I left the bedtime book in another room so I’d better start a different book rather than walk down the stairs‘ book–(if you have an entourage of pets, you know why – Cinderwich, Cherie Priest, enjoyable if spare); the ‘I keep waking up in the middle of the night and the kindle is in bed with me*’ book (Hell for Hire, Rachel Aaron, popcorn book!), or the ‘ugh, I woke up in the middle of the night and the kindle is out of battery so I will use my phone kindle app‘ book (An Inheritance of Ashes, Leah Bobet; good but fraught), plus the two books that I have (kind of) forgotten that I am reading (Hide, Tracy Clark and The Monstrous Misses Mai, Van Hoang).

This is TOO MANY BOOKS. Plus I have two more library books eyeing me distrustfully. They want my full attention and don’t they understand that I just want to pick them up and love their first chapters or two? (Ghost Station, SA Barnes and How to Solve Your Own Murder, Kristen Perrin)…. I fully expect to start them before the end of the day in the name of ‘trying to figure out which one I should read next..’.

Anyway, this means that my solution to a life in CHAOS weirdly starts with… finishing a book. Sure, I’ll get the bills paid at some point, the laundry done before Monday, the house cleaning caught up on, the dogs groomed, etc., but for sheer sense of accomplishment? Getting the currently reading books down to two is the goal.

It gets to the point where I find myself wishing that I had picked worse, less enjoyable books, because then I could just declare them DNF (which totally counts as finishing a book somehow).

It’s okay. That’s what weekends are for, right? To catch up on reading short stories!!! (I know, I’m cuckoo for cocoa puffs, but I am so easily led into reading things and Alex Brown from Reactormag just listed their must read May stories)

That said, here are three book recommendations that I did finish this past week.

Alice Bell’s Grave Expectations. Fun, cozy sort of murder mystery with a ghost and an amateur detective whose life makes mine look neat, tidy, and organized. Claire and her ghostly best friend Sophie are hired to do a seance for an upper class family that is full of delightfully awful people. They uncover a past murder. Claire is kind of a disaster area as a person and I appreciate chaos in a protagonist. I really hope this is the start of a series. The characters are all engaging, and I’d like to hear more about them.

Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon. I picked this book up because well, kind of a long story. A few years ago, I was taking French and decided I would enjoy French lessons more if I could reward myself by reading in French and I found a novel that sounded really good and I thought this was the same author. It is not. I can’t recall the title (or apparently the author of the book I did want to read which is a pity because it still sounds intriguing in my memory) but this book sounded interesting in its own right.

If Grave Expectations is a cozy, Killing Me is a strange in-between step between a cozy and a genuine thriller. The tone is not always quite successful, and there are a few moments that misfired, but overall, I really enjoyed this. Even with chaos brain, I sat down and read this pretty much straight through. It’s about Amber (not her real name) young woman who is nearly killed by a serial killer, then rescued (accidentally) by a woman who is looking for a specific serial killer and is rather put out that she has stumbled on the wrong one. Since Amber has a past of her own to hide, she dodges the police and ends up in Vegas where she reunites with the hunter and a motley cast. The heroine is full of snark, which mostly works. It’s very readable.

The Brides of High Hill – Nghi Vo. I’ve read some of her other novellas in this series, but this is definitely one of my favorites. It’s a Bluebeard tale that gets upended in a sudden, yet delightfully vicious way. I loved it so much! Nghi Vo has become one of my favorite writers for interesting and beautifully written stories. I adored her clever take on The Great Gatsby: The Chosen and the Beautiful, and I also really loved Siren Queen.

*Yes, the kindle lives in the bed, why, where is it supposed to live? Somewhere out of reach?? Don’t be silly.

The week in summation

  1. Ugh Bunnies! Why must you tempt my dog into murder most foul? EVERY FREAKING YEAR. I cannot seem to keep them from nesting in my yard. I have a terrier! Bad combo. Very bad.
  2. Prom dress season is winding down at the day job. The glitter remains. So much glitter. Embedded in the carpet. On my clothes, in the treads of my shoes. I had to remove glitter from my eyeball on Wednesday. So much glitter. It’s following me home and moving in. It’s in my dryer filter. And when it’s not glitter, it’s sequins. The fun part is that at the end of the day, when the lights are low, you can let it all just sort of blur into a multi-colored disco ball. Also? Most prom dresses have pockets now!
  3. Still listening to the Tortured Poets Department. Some great runs of songs in there. Plus a handful of skippable ones. 31 songs was TOO MUCH. But if the entire album consisted of nothing more than the run from “The Tortured Poets Department” to “So Long London” and the run from “Guilty as Sin” to “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart”, it would be amazing. The fact that there are other songs on top of that which I adore? It makes this extended album a winner for me. Another song that I really think is top notch: “How Did It End?”
  4. Checked out too many books from the library and am desperately reading all my free hours. So far my favorites this month are Diavola by Jennifer Thorne (such a great narrative voice!) and What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell, which tells a time loopy YA horror-adjacent story set in a corn maze. Both are high recommends. I also read Gwendolyn Kiste’s The Haunting of Velkwood, which was not quite what I wanted, but was pretty good anyway. I still have 5 books to read in the next ten days: Projections by S. E Porter, Necrobane by Daniel M Ford, The Bathysphere Book by Brad Fox, My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon, and The Book that Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence.
  5. Writing is an issue. The irksome “chronic condition” is really screwing up my writing time. I can sit and type, or I can focus, but the back spasms, joint pain, etc. do not let me do both at the same time. I am trying to think of a workaround, and also being a little sad that apparently my day job does not require the same amount of intense concentration that writing does.
  6. Trying to find good TV to watch. I am sampling Anthracite on netflix, as well as Bodkin. I want to watch Elspeth on paramount (I think), and of course, there’s New Who! But see #4. TOO MANY LIBRARY BOOKS. I have two due back in three days, and it’s going to be a race. I want to read both of them!
Murder Dog and her slightly more laid back buddy.

Three Things and Another One

It’s cold and I’m rewriting a novel. I have no thoughts to spare. Arguably, at this point I have no thoughts at all.

That said, here is one thing in general that I have loved this last month–MYSTERY– and three things in particular.

Nina Simon’s Mother Daughter Murder Night. A fairly low stakes mystery–I wouldn’t really call it a cozy, though I have seen others do so–that shines because of the characterization. I loved that the mother and daughter have a fraught history between them, but that the author doesn’t take the easy route out and tar one of them as “villain” and the other as “wronged”. They’re both stubborn women who know how to fight, and the third member of the trio–the grand-daughter–is just like them both. One of the dangers with amateur sleuths is that often it feels too forced or contrived that they would be able to solve the case, especially when there are police involved. Here, the women are placed in good position to find out what they need to know to beat the police to the solution. The mystery holds up all the way through and was just a pleasure to read.

Death & Other Details on hulu. There was little to no chance that I wouldn’t watch this given the glut of advertising, Mandy Patinkin’s role, and my fondness for mystery. But I really loved the first three episodes: the writing is exactly to my taste, the clues are doled out well, the time jumps are interesting, and I feel like the mystery is going to play out properly–surprises, but surprises that we will have been set up for. That’s the big thing in mysteries, right? That we have faith in the writer. That they’re going to tell their story well, laying out the clues in the right way, and not randomly ambushing us with bullshit twists for the sake of twists. I am grateful to Knives Out and Rian Johnson for proving that mysteries can be well-plotted and profitable again (and probably to a lesser extent Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot outings, which were not faithful to Christie’s books but were still intriguing.). More mysteries please! With the classic form of the amateur detective–the well-respected private investigator. As a side note of no importance, I do love the name Imogene. I hope to see more from the writing crew of Heidi Cole McAdams and Mike Weiss.

In the same vein, I have just this moment started A Murder at the End of the World, and so far, it has the same quality as the above: writing that feels confident, an actor who is compelling, and an amateur sleuth I immediately want to root for. If it turns out to be bad, don’t tell me! I’ll just be disappointed.

A fourth thing, tangentially related: Mystery, yes; amateur sleuth, no. In this instance, The Puppet Show by MW Craven was a really interesting police procedural of the type I like: the protagonist is not without his (significant) flaws, but never to the point where you wonder, how on earth is he even capable of detecting? It is also, despite its very dark subject matter, not unrelentingly grim. I enjoyed it and because for once my library has let me down, bought the second book online.

Three things

As a retail worker, I always brace myself for “Black Friday” week, but forget that the week immediately after is JUST AS BAD. (Let Bad = requiring complex, time-sensitive multi-tasking, coping with the first round of crazed customers, and coworkers who are just stressed out. All of this on a food hangover from the week before.)

So in lieu of a real post, have three things.

  1. I have finally watched Vast of Night and found it excellent. I think the reviews which say the story isn’t anything wildly original, but the storytelling is exceptional have it right. Great characters; great dialogue; and although I am a plebeian when it comes to caring about film direction, even I can say oh, now that’s neat!
  2. Got the Patreon up and running, even if I haven’t really started advertising it. That’s been eating my brain for a while. As a Gen-Xer, I want to know when did all these computer systems STOP HAVING INSTRUCTION MANUALS. I am very tired of just hurling myself at a system and hoping to learn it by pushing a lot of buttons and seeing what happens. Pushing mysterious buttons is not an ideal way to learn something, especially when it comes to troubleshooting. Ugh, I feel old.
  3. Started holiday baking with peppermint snowballs. Not a fan. The cookies are tasty, but they were so sticky as I rolled them in powdered sugar (twice!) that they are going on the list of “never again” cookies. I don’t like sticky fingers. I would rather go back to my old favorite of Marcel Desaulniers’ White Chocolate Peppermint cookies.

Recent reads

There are few things better than hitting a hot reading streak, where each book is a delight to read. It’s so rare!

But here are three books I really enjoyed.

This Body’s Not Big Enough for Both of Us by Edgar Cantero. Ridiculously funny spoof of Noir PI style stories, where it’s less about the crime committed and more about the personality of the PI. Cantero can be hit or miss for people, but I loved this book and bugged my friends by reading excerpts to them, giggling maniacally the whole time.

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. Lots of hype around this book but all of it is actually deserved. It’s got a neat world-building premise of a different type of “human” that lives on the edges of society with their own rules. This book works so well because of its spare style. The protagonist is a desperate mother with her back against the proverbial wall, trying to create a better life for her son. It could be very grim and depressing but because it’s so streamlined (though not to the point of feeling sketchy), it just flows and flows and takes you along for the ride. I will look for other books by this author.

And then there’s Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett. I adored this book. I am a sucker for an academic character dealing with fantasy creatures. I am also a sucker for fish-out-of-water stories where a city lady has to deal with rural life; and a sucker for a romantic relationship where it is evident to everyone but the heroine for a time. I loved the characters here, but I also really loved the fairy elements. I will definitely be picking up the sequel in January!

And it looks like there will be more awesome reading to come: I have Martha Wells’ System Collapse, Alix Harrow’s Ten Thousand Doors to January, and the final Robert Jackson Bennett book in the Founders Trilogy, plus Samit Basu’s The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport. And oh! Can’t possibly forget a new Olivia Atwater! The Witchwood Knot looks delightful. I will have to get my hands on it soon.

What’s that saying? So many books, so little time?

Not my books

Just FYI, Amazon is selling a bunch of self-help books under Lane Robins and they are not mine. I don’t know if there is another writer with my name–it’s an unusual name but not that unusual–or if it is some sort of new scam. I am aggravated nonetheless. I do not write long-form non-fiction. I do not write self-help books. Even self-help books about writing. I especially would never ever create a book to keep track of tardiness because ffs, I have rampant ADD and tardiness is my way of life!

I wish I had more books up on book selling sites! I am working my best to get more books into the world. These are not any of them.

In praise of music videos

One of the things I love best about the internet is youtube. I know, I know, it’s a potential hellscape waiting to fill my head with toxicity, but I’m careful! I use youtube for two things, and two things only. Troubleshooting guides and music. And youtube is utterly wonderful for music.

Part of it is–I am the MTV generation. Not what MTV became–reality tv and some clever scripted shows, animated or otherwise–but the original “I want my MTV” music video source. It was just so insanely cool and new, you have no idea.

It’s a no brainer: music shapes emotional response and adds weight to stories. It’s why movies have soundtracks! To help cement a mood. And music videos? I think they warped my brain from the very start. All my first writings were basically music videos with words: Lots of emotion, lots of drama, lots of style–not necessarily a cohesive narrative. Even now, after decades of writing experience, the best scenes for me are the ones that have a soundtrack and a mental music video. (The soundtrack in my head, FYI, for Sylvie Shadows is the Kidneythieves’ Underneath. underneath I fight your wars, over and over again)

Anyway, the point being youtube not only gives me access to music I wouldn’t hear otherwise in the repetitious radio wasteland, but it gives me access to stories. With music. That’s awesome.

It’s also where I hear about new music from my favorite artists first! That’s an amazing mood booster. A crappy day, and a quick trawl of youtube and hey! ZZ Ward has a new song out! (She does! Forget About Us. Came out the 16th!) Suddenly my day is at least 50% better, or at least, has a better soundtrack than my own miserable thoughts.

So this week, what I want to do is showcase some of the music that has made a difference to me in the past six months. Let’s start with something pop-rock and fun. Voilá Figure You Out which is not only an earworm, but the start of a 5 music video series. It’s fun! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Ugh Blogging

So the thing is: I am not a blogger by nature. I love writing books. I love writing short stories. But when it comes down to blogging, I would rather spend my limited energy on fiction. I thought about writing quick reviews of books I’m reading (I do love reading), or movies I’m watching (I don’t like watching movies very much), or music I’m listening to, or recipes I’m trying, or pet shenanigans, or writing tips, or even my endless struggle with the mud pit that is my yard (this year I’m trying clover!) …. and honestly, it all starts to seem like noise. Just empty static. White noise.

I love social media, but oh my god there is so much of it! There’s so much of everything. It’s a constant hum in our minds–an endless source of distraction (some very delightful, some infuriating and worthy of rising to fight for) and honestly, if you’ve ever been in your house when all the power goes out… you know it’s an actual physical sound. The silence in a powerless house is remarkable.

There is so much noise. And in the end, I just don’t want to add to it without having something worth saying.

So primarily, this blog is a place-holder. If I have books to promote–mine or others–I’ll do it from here. If I have events I’m planning on attending, I will let people know here, as well as the inevitable twitter, facebook, and instagram.

Until then, peace and restful quiet to you all.

Photo by Josh Sorenson, courtesy of Pexels

Tuesday Miscellany 072319

Where did Monday go?  Oh yeah, where the whole week went–to an allergy stupor.  The amazing part about modern medicine is that allergy shots are a thing.  (YAY!)  The nightmare part of modern medicine is that to take an accurate skin test you have to stop taking allergy medicine for five days prior.  I did not die though there were moments I wanted to.  I went through three boxes of tissue. If I ever had doubts about my allergy medicine’s effectiveness, I no longer do.  I am allergic to everything around me!  Except dogs and ragweed.

I’m planning on moving my home office from one room to another, and before I can do that, I have to declutter the chaos of said home office.  It’s terrifying how much mess one writer can accumulate over ten years.  One of the (procrastinatory) ways I’m tackling this is by reading through my TBR shelf.  One of the TBR shelves, let me be honest.  There are multiple ones throughout the house.  And that doesn’t include the digital one (oh, ebooks, how I love/hate you).

So I read Grimspace by Ann Aguirre.  I liked it all right, but not enough to read through the rest of the series.  The world-building just kept shifting too much.  It felt like she was whipping something new out every time the story flagged.  On the other hand, Aguirre has awesome characters.  But that cleared five books from my shelf (because I’d bought the first five books in the series at the same time).  They’ll go to a more appreciative home.

And I am currently reading Walter Greatshell’s Mad Skills.  This one is a weird one.  The blurb is one of those where it’s technically accurate but makes it sound like a completely different book than what you actually get.   I think they must have corrected it, because each edition online has a different blurb; the latest ones, the more accurate.

 

“This is Flowers for Algernon, gene-spliced to La Femme Nikita, the Bourne series, MacGyver, and The Prisoner ….” –Adam-Troy Castro’s review from SCI-FI magazine.

The revision continues.  Right now, the heroine is about to have her grand plan overturned for the third time in as many days. Poor Silene. And her new friends are driving her nuts.

The new monster hunter book scene-sketching continues. Right now, the monster hunter is sulking because his boyfriend didn’t want his help and his sister is picking on him. Life is hard when you’re not actively hunting and killing things. Sometimes you have to stop and have feelings.