TBR Stats

Continuing with my post from yesterday, I thought I’d give a brief overview of what I’ve read so far.

The Baby Doctors by Janice Macdonald – Harlequin Superromance
I remember reading this book, but I had to look up what, specifically, it was about. Even then, the details are hazy. A good read, but ultimately one that didn’t stick with me for whatever reason.

Baby, I’m Yours by Carrie Weaver – Harlequin Superromance
Another good read, and this one stuck a little better than The Baby Doctors. (I like the Superromances.) However, I recognized the author’s name before I did the book title, which means I’m more likely to pick up another book by this author. I’d probably enjoy it, too, if this one is anything to go by.

Daughter of the Flames by Nancy Holder – Silhouette Bombshell
Unfortunately, this seemed part of a trilogy or a series. Granted, it was the first one, but I was hesitant to let myself get too involved in the story as the Silhouette Bombshell line had been discontinued, and I wasn’t sure I could follow the story. This book seemed to be setting up for a lot to come, so it left me feeling a bit dissatisfied.

Dark Revelations by Lorna Tedder – Silhouette Bombshell
I had the same difficulties with this one as I did with Daughter of the Flames, though I’m more likely to hunt down the other books in this trilogy.

Bite Me If You Can by Lyndsay Sands – Argeneau Vampires, Book 6 – Avon
I’ll admit, I was predisposed to dislike this book because of the title, but I was happy to find that the book deserves better than what the title delivers. Several scenes have stayed vivid in my memory, and I really enjoyed the twist on the vampire myth. My only regret is that it ended up being the sixth book in an ongoing series, a fact I probably should have realized before getting sucked into the story. Of course, this just means I have some catching up to do.

Unforgettable by Julie Ortolon – Signet Eclipse
Another good one. I’ve read Julie Ortolon’s books before, and this was just another reminder that I need to hunt down the ones I haven’t read yet. Again, several scenes have stayed with me, and I’ve gotten the itch to find the CD that goes along with the book. (How great of an idea is that?) I only wish the resolution had been extended a little, as I felt a little rushed at the end.

What, No Roses? by Marianne Mancusi – Love Spell
I didn’t like this one as much as Mancusi’s Shomi Moongazer. I’m not much into time-travel stories, so even with the twist in this one, I struggled a little. While I enjoyed it, I found parts of it borderline campy. This doesn’t mean, however, that I’m still not a Mancusi fan. I’m just a sub-genre selective fan.

TBR Challenge Update

When I began my “To Be Read” Challenge, where I force myself to refrain from buying any more books until I’d read at least half of my current stack, I didn’t realize how long it’d take. Granted, I knew that I’m not the fastest reader and that real life would refuse to step aside for my reading habit, but I’d thought I’d have hit the halfway mark by now.

Not that it matters much, as I’ve learned to accept that everyone has her own timetable. Actually, despite the slow-going, I’m rather proud of myself. Since the day I issued the challenge, I have not bought a single book. I’ve even stepped into bookstores and breathed that uniquely scented air that triggers the tumble into my happy place, and still I’ve managed to refrain. I have even gone to the bookstore, chosen a book to buy, and then changed my mind and put the book back. Those who know me realize that this is no small feat, and I rewarded myself with a cafe mocha. Yea me!

This is not to say that I don’t have any new books that I need to add onto the list. Having taken pity on me, my friends and family have helped quench that need-a-new-book urge by gifting me with a few, particularly Delicious by Sherry Thomas (Thank you, Kid!), Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (Thank you, Bean!), and Batman: Gotham Knight by Louise Simonson (Thank you, Kate!).

Including the above mentioned trifecta, I have 72 books in my TBR list, of which I’ve read 23. That leaves me a total of 49 yet to read, which is much less daunting number than 72.

Today’s Theme: Complaints

Ever had a day evolve a theme? Yes, evolve and not involve, as in the cosmos take control, not you, and you’re left with that curious “huh” sensation. Well, today’s theme seems to be complaints or, rather, the nature of complaining.

First, the host of the morning radio show I listen on my way to the Day Job read an email complaint he’d received from a reader, which didn’t attack the show or the station, but the host himself. I found it odd that someone had taken the time to not only write a diatribe about the way a stranger dresses, his decision not to drink alcohol, and his workout habits, but had taken that extra bit of time to send it. After finishing the email, the host apparently thought the same way I did. “Who complains?” he asked the show’s other members. “It’s free. If you don’t like it, change the station. Everyone I know just goes somewhere else.”

Normally I’d have forgotten all about the above, but once at the Day Job, I came across this article, all about how people use the anonymity of call centers and the internet to voice complaints in a way that they’d be unlikely to do in real life. Again came the question, “Who does this?” I tried to think back on my personal experiences, but I’ve never gone off on someone via the phone, nor have I used the internet to air a mighty grievance. Of course, this is pretty much the extent of my internet airing, and as this blog has professional roots, I try to tamper whatever complaint I have with either humor or a heavy-handed acknowledgment that my opinion is just that.

In terms of job-related receival of said complaints, I’ve never had to work phones other than a brief stint as a receptionist, so I’ve never been blasted that way. Neither have I come across any internet diabtribes against either myself or anyone I know, and most blogs that I keep up with seem to censor some of their comments or just never receive a deluge of bickerage. Have I ever been the victim of a live verbal beat-down? Heck yes, which leads me to the recommendation to avoid working in the mall during the holidays. The warm-fuzzies definitely take a hike at the entrances. 

The final flourish came when a coworker showed me what she’d received in the company mail: an envelope filled with empty candy wrappers, a broken pen, and pieces of what once had been a white-out tape dispenser. Among the refuse was a neatly folded but illegible handwritten letter covered in what looked to be algebraic formulas interspersed with thickly inked words. While I can’t exactly call this a complaint, as we have no idea what the letter meant to say and can only guess that either the customer was not happy about something or said customer is seriously unstable, I still count this as the third of today’s strange theme, and it all reminds me to renew the “Be Positive” post-it I’d stuck on my computer monitor.

Baby Names Insinuation

Names are important business to a writer. Each of us has our own method of settling on a name. Stephenie Meyer, for example, bestowed her heroine for the Twilight series with the name she’d give her own daughter if she had one. S.L. Viehl tends to choose names based on their sound. (That is, if I remember correctly. I asked her this once, and she responded, but I can’t find the link to the site, so we’re just having to go with my rickety memory.) Personally, I like to mix muscality with meaning, which means I hit up various baby name websites to find the meanings of names I like or vice-versa.

The easiest of these sites to catch is, of course, BabyNames.com, which actually caters to us writers with a nifty “Naming Tips for Writers” link. I applaud the site for its efforts, but I still became a little peevish about Tip #3, which states that ”Exotic names are for romance novels, soap operas and strippers”.

The site states:

“Romance novels and soap operas and strippers all have one thing in common—they evoke a fantasy of romance and/or sex. Characters in these genres tend to have names that are more exotic, like Chesapeake Divine or Rod Remington. If you are not writing a romance or soap opera, however, this kind of name can sound silly and out of place.”

Is this truly a problem with romance? Are there thousands of “Rod Remingington”s and “Chesapeake”s out there that I don’t know about? Keep in mind, now, that a few of my stories deal with characters’ unusual names. I even poke fun at them and the odd phenomenon, but did they really have to lump romance novels with soap operas and strippers? I have absolutely nothing against either of the latter, but the romance genre is so broad that I feel it’s wrong to lump it with pretty much anything. And I doubt that the person writing this meant that, while the name sounds silly outside of a romance novel, it’s perfectly in place within one. After all, we romance writers don’t particularly care about realism. Maybe we should be more like those staid science fiction writers with all their Bob’s, Jane’s, and Karen’s.

Oh, wait. That’s Tip #4.

In any event, I’d consider the tips to be fairly good advice, my grumblings aside. Besides, doesn’t truth inspire fiction? If you don’t believe me, just ask Makena’lei Gordon.

Fringe

So last week, while sprawled happily on my couch after work, having looked forward to a mind-numbing evening of television and popcorn, I happened to catch the pilot for Fox’s new show “Fringe”. The network had apparently put in a lot of advertising for this show because I’d actually heard of it, and I’ll admit that I’d been intrigued. From what I understood, the basic premise seems to be a medical version of “The X-Files”, in which medicine stretches into the realm of the weird and dangerous, and the main characters have to hunt down the mad scientist perpetrators.

Now, watching television in general requires a large dose of suspended disbelief, which I often willingly extend to those I deem worthy. So the idea that enough scientific geniuses who have made huge medical and/or genetic breakthroughs are 1.) numerous enough to make hunting them down difficult, 2.) rich enough to all own secret laboratories with high-tech and state of the art equipment, and 3.) predisposed to murder and/or violent crimes against humanity–yeah, okay. I’ll buy that for an hour, especially if that hour showcases the adorable Joshua Jackson.

Joshua Jackson

Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough.

While I’m thankful that the female lead is capable of emotions and not a botox-induced blank expression, I wish that she’d seemed capable of more than that single furrowed-brow look that passed for anger, guilt, introspection, and sadness. For that matter, I wish the character had more emotions than just the four above, especially when she apologizes to Peter, Joshua Jackson’s character, for blowing up at him earlier. My own brow furrowed at this because, ignoring the argument that halfway through the pilot the audience isn’t going to know what’s out of character for her and what’s not (leaving them to tell us, which we all know is a mighty big no-no in the writing world), I hadn’t been aware that she had acted any differently. The best I can figure, she was referring to the previous scene, and I deduced this not through any emotional outburst on her part but through logic on mine. She apologized in scene 12, so therefore the blow-up must have been in scene 11, right?

Right.