read: The Shack

The Shack by William P. Young


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Why is The Shack so popular? Answering that question is the reason I picked up and read this book. Short answer: Probably because it's so easy to read and seems to offer spiritual insight. But for me it was a mixed bag on both fronts, ultimately leaving me underwhelmed. [more...]

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Look to the Stars

I just moved some book notations to GoodReads from ancient scrawls in InfoSelect. In the notes was a reminder of what I had in mind when I gave each book from 1 to 5 stars. I think they still work:

***** WOW - everyone must read this book
**** Good - I would recommend it
*** OK - Read it if you like this sort of thing
** Whatever
* Yuck
- Why did they print this?

I also have a grading system for films, correlating the Yahoo! Movies grading system (which used to have the associated text) and the IMDb 10 star rating system.

10 = A: Outstanding
9 = A-: Almost perfect
8 = B+: Memorable
7 = B: Good
6 = B-: Fair
5 = C+: Flawed, but worthy
4 = C: Mediocre
3 = C-: Disappointing
2 = D: Dreadful
1 = F: All-time worst

Yahoo! also allows A+ for films. But I've always thought that A was as high a grade as anyone should get. And below C-, I don't bother distinguishing "+/-". What does it matter at that point?

read: Boneshaker, Little Brother, Wrongful Death

Some other recent reads that I neglected to post here:

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The setting, as unbelievable as it was, was fun and exciting. The characters were well drawn and likable and unlikable as appropriate. I read it as fast as I could, but wanted more when I was finished.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an absolutely fantastic book. What it mostly is about is fear and civil rights and personal responsibility. But for all of that, it's a very strong, personal story with plenty of action, adventure, and suspense.

Wrongful Death: A Novel by Robert Dugoni


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

About a fourth of the way in, the book became a thriller. Nice crisp writing. Setups that seemed to be headed in one direction and then surprisingly, but logically, taken in another. I was kept up reading way too late.

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read: Enemies and Allies

I've shifted my book lists and reviews over to Goodreads.com.

Enemies & Allies: A Novel by Kevin J. Anderson


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Enemies and Allies sets forth a comic book thriller set in the early 1950s, creating a weird time frame with both Batman and Superman just a couple of years into their superhero gigs [more].

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Throwing in the towel on NaNoWriMo

This is the first time I haven't 'won' National Novel Writing Month since I gave it a try 4 years ago. This was my 5th attempt. There are still almost 4 days to go in November. So, why am I giving up now?

1. With only 4 days to go, I have just over 1/2 my word count yet to write. That's over 6,000 words per day. I've managed one 4,500 word. Even if I had nothing else happening on those 4 days (like my day job on Monday), the probabilities are against me.
2. My excuses for such a poor word count stem mainly from getting a late start. Trying to return from a long vacation and hit the ground running with a writing project was a bit over-ambitious. Then there were a couple of sick days when my brain wouldn't work. About a week ago, I figured out that I was about 10 days behind. I made up a few of those, but not enough.
   
3. My other excuse probably stems from having been writing fiction for 4 years. I just could not build up momentum because I kept paying too much attention to the characters and story. I just couldn't let go and slam stuff out.
4. As usual, I didn't have enough of my story planned out before I dove in. I kept writing my way into it and was about to get started on my third story angle. I do like this new angle. It's promising. But I want to flesh it out and give it the attention it deserves. This sort of goes back to the previous point where I couldn't just keep driving down a dead end once I saw it was a dead end.
   
5. I wanted my life back. I needed to get some stuff done this weekend that didn't involve staring at the screen waiting for words to come out of my fingers.

Am I sorry I even tried? No. As usual, I got to learn more about the writing process and my strengths and weaknesses.

Will I try it again? Perhaps. It will depend on where I am in the process next year. If I'm finally in the middle of finishing off the first draft or first (or second edit) of a story (maybe this one), I will probably stick with it until it's done (at least I hope I will).

In the meantime, I'm going to keep on reading. Nothing is more motivating for me to write than to experience a good story and think that I might be able to do that. Except maybe reading something like 'Atlantis Found' by Clive Cussler and being pretty sure that I can write better than that.

Broke 1000

That's not really a big accomplishment, considering it's day 5 of NaNoWriMo and I'm supposed to be somewhere between 8000 and 10000 words. But at least I'm getting some stuff down. I'm still hopeful that I can get some big numbers this weekend and maybe even catch up (if not get ahead).

NaNoWriMo begins

I'm a day late and a couple thousand words short. But I've begun and that's what counts. National Novel Writing Month is all about overcoming inertia (getting started) and building momentum.

Word count: 375