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Originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

I really like this shot - which reminds me I should get off of the computer and get reading.

Christmas is Coming

So... I am almost finished with my Christmas cards! Huzzah! I am not crazy about them, but they are almost done, so I am trying to let go and move on. I still have much shopping/making stuff to do. It is rough this year because I am really broke, but I am confident I will think of something. I think I've been softening the blow to potential gift-receivers with loud proclamations of my brokeness. That's the thing, though - I hate how I let myself get caught up into $$$ worth of gifts. I like giving gifts, and I won't lie - I like getting them too, although it isn't as crucial as it was when I was a kid. I just wish I could stay centered on the joy of getting the right gift for the right person instead of obsessing if I spent x$ on a, then I have to spend x$ on b. etc.

In other news, I have most recently read Alias by BMB, and the latest Fables. I plan on writing a little something up on them soon - maybe later tonight. I have to get them both in front of me again. I have decided that I also need to self-correct on some classic stuff. Alice In Wonderland is the book I chose to start with. I can't remember if I read it as a child, or only ever read bits and pieces of it collected in other books. It is so twisty and imaginative that I want to look at it with my adult eyes now, anyway. More later.

The Famous Flower of Serving Men

The Famous Flower of Serving Men by Deborah Grabien - This is the second novel in a series, and I enjoyed it very much! I think I enjoyed it more than the first, actually. I was just trying to decide why this one was superior, and I think part of it comes down to the fact that it is a world already in place. Not that this is set in some fantastic other-world, just that the main characters are recurring, and they've already been introduced, as has the basic premise. This premise ties together hauntings with old English folk ballads. I love how they refer back to the ballads, and have even sought them out to hear for myself - but I have to confess that I find that part of these novels to be the weakest. It seems a little "oh, well that must be it, then." Lest it sound like I am not enjoying the hell out of these books - let me reiterate I AM enjoying them immensely. I used to read a lot of mysteries, but they sort of got all samey for me. This is different, and compelling, and I hope there are many more. In fact, if I had more ready cash this holiday season, I can think of at least three people I would buy the first two books for and hope to get them as hooked as I, so we could all talk about it. But, to get back to my point - it seems like the hauntings were more directly tied to the song in the first novel (The Weaver and the Factory Maid), and in this one it was "oh, well, it is this AND another thing, and the song."

Something Grabien does very well is get a lot of information, be it about the layout of the room, or the features on a face, across in very few words. She does that balancing trick that is so hard - just enough information to let the reader fill in the rest, done so skillfully that the reader isn't even AWARE that it is happening. I probably wouldn't have noticed beyond 'good book' if it weren't for the fact that I read it right after nano, and was more attuned to lots of writerly skills I don't posses.

Anyway - cracking good read! Great for a rainy day. Get yourself some of these tunes (I think I found mine on a 2 part collection called Troubadours of British Folk I can't remember what the first disk is called, but the second is Folk into Rock.

Game

Game
Originally uploaded by SingAsong.

Color! Also, I thought appropriate so near the Westing Game.

The Westing Game

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - I just finished this a week or so ago. It is a fun, light YA read. It bills itself as a "puzzle mystery" and it surely is. I read about it recently (in passing) and rememberd that I had heard about it earlier. One of those things that has to pass through my ears/eyes three times before it makes an impression, I guess. Anyway, I found a copy at Goodwill for .99. Hooray for goodwill!

This was a Newberry Award winner, and deserving of the accolades in my opinion. The characterizations were all done in really broad strokes, but I guess that's what you get in a mystery that is right up front about putting puzzle ahead of character development. Plus, there are 16 'players'! Hard to develop much indepth there. It is basically the game Clue, but in novel form.

I found it to be a satisfying light read, which is just what I needed while wrestling with nano.

Time Travel II

Time Travel II
Originally uploaded by Meg Forbes.

I love the color of the sky, the light on the building, and of course the ghost trails of the double decker buses.

Procrastinate

I have read the entire internet, and am bored! OK, I am sure I haven't really read it all, and that there are a million other projects I could and should be working on...

All right then. No more blog for me until I finish at least 3 things.

Dark Sun

Dark Sun
Originally uploaded by coba.

Love this photo. It puts me in the christmassy spirit without being a demented Santa or a goddamned talking snowman. (er, not that either of those put me in a GOOD christmas spirit.) But this picture - all good. plus, beautiful.

Class-y

So, apropos of nothing much at all, Gilmore Girls is taking a kind of fascinating turn this season. I think they are dealing with some interesting class issues. None of this is new - I'm sure it's all been said better elsewhere. Yet I'm going to have a stab at it anyway. The whole basic concept is that Lorelei broke with her oppressive rich family when she got pregnant at 16. She ran off and raised her daughter Rory in this crazy, off-beat, bohemian, character-actor paradise at first on maid's wages, then working her way up to manager of the Inn. This season they are turning that all on it's head by having Rory return, as it were, to her birthright - the fancy college, the coming out party, the European tour. All the things that her mother chose to leave behind when she left her family to do things her own way.

When they first introduced Logan, I thought 'oh, look, it's Tristan again except he's not Chad Michael Murray' I mean, come on! He even had the messy blond hair and the smartass rich badboy demeanor. Marty was clearly meant to map as the Dean character (except Dean was still around, more on Dean later) - the scholarship student who came from a working class background who wins the princess (Rory is such the Disney Princess - they even bring it up from time to time) over the obvious charms of his rich rival. Except... it's not working out that way. Rory seems to have chemistry and an affinity with Logan, who, despite being rich and knowing her snooty grandparents, is not a complete ass. And Marty - I have to admit I really like Marty and am rooting for him, but he is letting himself be pigeon-holed as the 'friend'. And pouting about it. And he is pretty sensitive about money - I noticed this last week when Rory said 'let's take a cab - it's on me' and he decided to walk. I like him WAAAYY more than Dean, that is for sure.

Didn't Dean used to be smart? Or at least interested in what Rory was studying or reading? Well, I can't really say that that would make a difference for me this season, since he is cheating on his wife. Besides being an adulterer, he seems actively incurious about anything except the inside of Rory's pants. I have to admit I did feel a little bad for him a couple of weeks ago when Princess Rory poured herself out of the limo, followed by 6 rich boys. But not too bad since he has been cheating on his wife!

Anyway, I know this is all incoherent, but maybe if I see it down in writing I can make sense of it down the line a bit. I also think it is interesting how they are juxtaposing Rory and her ascent into society with Lorelei and her happy relationship with Luke (LOVE LUKE), who is just a regular guy. Richard and Emily Gilmore continue to be very interestng characters as well.

I am running out of steam on this - more later. It may even be more coherent.

Running down the stairs..

Running down the stairs..
Originally uploaded by Kitten.

Just so cool.

National Nano Nightmare is OVER

It wasn't so bad - except for my 2K word flub up, but I was able to finish it last night and get it all sent in and stuff. The entire time I was torturing myself getting through this year's project, all I could think about is how I would rather be working on last year's. I think THAT piece finally starting to shape into something I can be proud of. I could be out of my mind on that score, though. I felt like I had a much better handle on some things this year (manipulating people in space, being the main one), but so many other things were WORSE. Plot, for example. I thought it was pathetic last year, but this year has to take the cake. I think I over complicated things, which is no surprise to anyone who knows me. It's a particular speciality of mine. I do know that the word count being paramount meant that a lot of things I had gotten out of the habit of doing in my re-write of last year's piece came galloping back. sigh. Anyway, here's hoping I can look at this thing after the holidays and not decide that I could have better spent my time raking and sorting leaves by size.