Christine Cook's blog

BOOKS I'M CURRENTLY READING

I realize that Goodreads is now the place where I track the books I'm currently reading and have read for the year, but I haven't blogged about it recently (okay, haven't blogged much recently in general) and it's one of my rotating topics still, so I will do a bit of reportage.

To the left of my normal chair in the family room is the stack of current books. Truthfully, I have a few books by the nightstand, too. Okay, truthfully, I have books everywhere. One can never have too many books, right? So says the writer. But I digress. The books next to me at this moment are:

1) How to Write a Movie in 21 Days, by Viki King. I'm about halfway through this one, on the revising section.  It's a good book, but it intimidates me.

2) War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy. I'm reading this as research for the book I'm in the preliminary stages of writing. I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would, but I also have to say it's not exactly what I expected it would be. It's kind of like a weird mix of Jane Austen and Rudyard Kipling...

3) The Gamble, by Thomas Ricks. This one is for work. I've read it before, but we used it for a course recently, and I felt I had to reread it. It's okay, but I think it gives a simplistic view of why and how the Surge took place in Iraq.

4) Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth. My daughter had to read this for her writing class in college, and I have a goal of reading everything they give her to read in her arts and humanities classes. So I'm reading this. It's kind of boring. D. didn't much care for this one, and I can kind of see why. But I'll finish it, if only to say I've read some Philip Roth.

5) Cobra II, again a book for work. It's interesting, so even though there were only a few sections the students had to read, I'm reading the whole thing. Slowly. I keep getting sidetracked with other reading.

6) Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. This one is also for work, although I'm the one who assigned it for my course, which is "hot" right now. I assigned one chapter, but I'm reading the whole thing. Just because. This one's interesting, but kind of dense reading.

7) The Call of the Wild, by Jack London. Speaking of dense reading, this guy packed more words into "62 pages" than just about anyone I know. It takes me an hour to read 18 pages. My son is reading this for English class, so I purloin it on a daily basis to read it. Boy, is this one depressing...I'm not much into reading about animal cruelty. But I've gotten to the part now where he's with the good owner, so there's a bit of a reprieve. Sort of. And I lie--this one is not next to me at the moment. It's probably tucked in a backpack as we speak.

So there you have it--a report on all the truly active books on my shelf right now.

More another time--

 

RESTART...

Since it's NaNoMarketMo, which is my own invention (National Novel Marketing Month), and since I have news, I have decided it's time to restart this blog again.

First, the news: GUESTS OF THE GUNMEN is published, and is available on Kindle. I'm working on the other distribution venues. As of today, the book is on a special on Kindle--Amazon Prime members can borrow the book for free.

Now, here's my goal for this month. I really want to connect my blog to other things. Like, I want it to be connected to my Facebook account. And I want it to be connected with my Twitter feed. And I want it to connect to my website. How I do all this is a little beyond me right now, but that's all right. I have the technology, I can read, I can play with things until I figure it out. So wish me luck as I move forward with this process. And if anyone has any ideas on how it's done, feel free to drop me a line. Thanks--

QUICK POST TODAY

Since I seem to be back to my old tricks of not blogging for months on end, I figured I needed to put in a quick appearance, and then scoot off again.

Here's what I've been up to:

1) Reading: I have been reading pretty consistently so far, but my list of completed books is now on goodreads.com. I'm about two books ahead of schedule. If I get my act together, I'll head over to that site, figure out how to download my list, and repost it here. Don't hold your breath.

2) Writing-wise, I have completed Guests of the Gunmen. It is currently in the middle of the typesetting process, and the cover design is coming along. This process is probably about 90% complete. With any luck, hard copies will be available within the month, with digital versions coming up around the same time.

Meanwhile, I am at work revising THE MANY ADVENTURES OF MEGGIE McFATE: Book 1, THE ALL-SEEING EYE. I'm in the middle of the preliminary read-through right now. I'm also in the throes of NaNoEdMo, and have, maybe 50% of that goal complete, with 11 days to go. Oy.

3) Editing-wise, after a month where I had little work in this category, I did one project last week, and just received another project to review. It pays the bills.

4) Military-wise, I have completed a major revision for my elective, and we are in the middle of the last non-elective course for the class of 2013. I still need to do a few evaluations, which seems to be a never-ending process. I've been doing a lot of hours "for the flag..."

Done, see you anon.

READING AND REVISING

As I sit here watching the Inauguration, I thought I'd take a minute to do a blog. 

I often feel overwhelmed with all that I have to do, but that's not a good excuse for not getting to the blog more often than I do. I don't think apologies are actually necessary, but how am I to get more readers if I'm not more consistent with this site? That is the real question here.

So, without further ado, I will update my reading list. I had two books so far on my list as of the last post, these being THE LAW OF DIVINE COMPENSATION and MAKING MONEY. Here are three more I've completed recently, including one I just finished this morning:

3) THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, by Brian Selznick. Good book, very fast read, since it's mostly pictures. It was also very similar to the movie.

4) OF MICE AND MEN, by John Steinbeck. I actually finished up this one very early in the year, but forgot to put it on the list. Depressing as all get out, so I think I still wonder why depressing books seem to be the only ones that get into the canon. Poor P. had to read this one right after reading THE PEARL. And that's just not fair.

5) BEAUTY AND THE WEREWOLF, by Mercedes Lackey. This was just a fun romp. I've enjoyed the rest of the books I've read in the 500 Kingdoms series. My husband looked at me strangely yesterday, saying, "Why are you reading that one?" Well, he knows I'm not normally into paranormal stuff. So I had to explain that it was more like an updated version of Beauty and the Beast, instead. 

As to my revising, well, I'm way behind on this process. But the good news is, I've compressed the schedule of the plot, smushing 36 hours into about eight, and so things are looking up. Please send chocolate. And I've shortened the chapters and added new ones and now all I need to do for that process is make sure the titles of the chapters make sense. And then, I need to do more of putting tension on every page, and start working through the various revision workbooks I have.

Speaking of which, I should get back to work. More later,

C.

WEDNESDAY'S BOOK UPDATE

There are times when I feel as though I have so much to do, I just can't keep up with life. I've been feeling that way a lot so far this year. What with editing one book for the publishing company I have a contract with, editing a galley proof for the same, working as a part-time professor for the war college (in the middle of evaluating a forum there), and trying to put the finishing touches on my latest novel, GUESTS OF THE GUNMEN, I often find there are not enough hours of the day.

And when I'm completely overwhelmed by everything I need to do...I read a good book.

That's probably not the healthiest reaction to the situation, but there you have it. Sometimes I just need a break, and there are few things as satisfying as a vacation from all this work than to escape into an alternate reality.

So, I have two completed books to show for my efforts to read 52 books in a year so far. These books are:

1) THE LAW OF DIVINE COMPENSATION, by Marianne Williamson. This was a quick read, and a nice way to start the year. I find her books always help me to reset my way of life to one that is more spiritually focused. This, in my eyes, is a good thing.

2) MAKING MONEY, by Terry Pratchett. This is one of the funnier, if not funniest, Terry Pratchett books I've read so far. Granted, I have only completed the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Disc World series, but this one had me laughing out loud several times a day. Read GOING POSTAL, first, though.

Currently, I'm reading THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET (by Brian Selznick? Something like that). This is the book they based HUGO on, and so far the book and the movie parallel each other to a great extent. I'm about a third of the way through. Although it's a tome at 527 pages long, many of those pages are pictures. The idea is that this book is a combination children's picture book, graphic novel, and Young Adult novel. So far, I'm enjoying it immensely.

And for all I know, I'll be done with it in a day or two. Because, after all, I still have  a lot of work to do...

 

PERSONAL TIME, SUNDAY EDITION

I looked through my list of possible topics I'd like to cover on a semi-weekly basis, and personal time just jumped out at me today. So, for better or worse, that's what I'll cover today.

Not having any agenda for this topic, I think today I'll create a travelogue of sorts for the day. I woke about 0800, which is my typical time for getting up if it's not a work day (misnomer, since every day becomes a work day for me; this is an unfortunate side-effect of primarily working from home).

I ate breakfast, had coffee, and watched part of Sunday Morning, with Charles Osgood. My biggest beef with having church start at 10:30 rather than 11:00 is that I always have to stop watching this program midway through so I can get ready and get to church on time. You'd think I would get myself dressed prior to coming downstairs so I could watch more of it, but...no.

I did get to church on time. D came with me, P and K came afterward. After church we went to Brueggers for brunch. I asked for salmon cream cheese, but they put on normal cream cheese instead. Boo. I ate the sandwich anyway. And we tried to do the crossword  puzzle, but the paper had neglected to print about half the clues.  You try to do a crossword with only the Across clues...

Since I'm technically on a day off, I read for awhile (LAW OF DIVINE COMPENSATION and MAKING MONEY), then got on the internet.

After this, I plan to work on my Army reading, prior to the forum that starts tomorrow, and also work on my editing job. Tonight's ungroup knitting night, so I'll do that, and then, with any luck, I'll come back to work on the next 30 pages of revision for GUESTS OF THE GUNMEN.

See, I told you I can't go a day without working.

Tomorrow, one kid goes back to school, and the other preps to return to college. Such is the life at this blogger's home.

Till the next time--

NEW YEAR, NEW ME

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to keep up better on my blog. A former boyfriend of mine got the number 4 slot for best blog on innovation or something to that effect, and this has served as impetus to jumpstart my blog. I would say I am not to be outdone, but truly, I don't think I could ever be as good as he is.

First, to unfinished business. I know I did not keep good track of the books I read last year, so while I may have finished 50 books as planned for 2012, there is no way for me to prove that. Resolved for 2013--finish 52 books in 52 weeks, and keep better track. I am now on goodreads, and have signed up for their challenge, so perhaps I can do better this time.

Currently, I'm reading THE LAW OF DIVINE COMPENSATION, by Marianne Williamson, MAKING MONEY, by Terry Pratchett, and THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Arthur Conan Doyle. So they should be the first books to put in my finished pile in a couple of weeks.

Regarding my writing, I am in the final stages of revision on GUESTS OF THE GUNMEN (yes, one of the revisions was the title) prior to publication. With any luck, this will be published by the end of the month. Then I will move on to finishing the first draft of PROPHET WITHOUT HONOR, which was the book I wrote for NaNoWriMo this year. Meanwhile, I hope to hawk THE MANY ADVENTURES OF MEGGIE McFATE, starting this month. Crossed fingers.

Yes, this is the beginning of another NaNoMarketMo for me. More on that in the future.

Speaking of which, I hope to have a different theme for each day this year. I can't even remember the daily schedule I used to have once upon a time. The categories I'd like to cover this year on a rotating basis are:

1) Books I'm reading/have read

2) My current writing projects

3) Marketing efforts

4) What I'm knitting/crocheting/sewing/crafting

5) What's going on in my military life

6) Organization issues and progress

7) Personal time

I haven't assigned specific days to these topics yet. Maybe I will, and maybe I won't. Bottom line, I have a lot of goals I'd like to get to this year, and I will be blogging about as many of them as I can.

More soon.

FAST FORWARD TO THE END OF THE WORLD

Dan, I can't believe I haven't been on since October. I'm a bad girl.

There's no way I'm going to remember all the books I've read since I was last on, but I'll do my best in just a minute.

Meanwhile, I will wish everyone a happy end of the world. With the snowy, gusting weather we have here, it looks appropriate to such a day. But I love the snow, so I'm happy it's finally come. Meanwhile, my family and I have reservations for the Restaurant at the End of the Universe tonight, so it's all good.

For realsies, we're going to see Jersey Boys, and then we'll come home and half limited edition peppermint Oreos, put carols on the stereo, enjoy a Christmas movie, and work on the Christmas cards. Because, as usual, I still have too much to do before the big day. But I'm getting there.

Books I've read:

38) GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn

39) PRIVATE GAMES, by James Patterson

40) A book by Michael Connelly--can't remember the title

41) Sacred Hearts, by Cathy Mellett (this was a beta read for a friend, which I very much enjoyed)

More of that list later. Happy end of the world, and with any luck, I'll post later this week...

END OF OCTOBER, ALREADY?

I fear my life is becoming so busy, it's hard to keep up with the blogging, but I keep trying.

Since last I posted, I have finished at least three more books. There's a chance I finished more than that; I just can't remember anymore titles. So here's the list:

35) THE TOWER AT PETITE VIGNE, by Rob Stone. This is historical military fiction, and it was a quick and enjoyable read. The style was spare and pragmatic, and reminded me of Ernest Hemingway's war novels. 

36) THE SERPENT'S SHADOW, by Rick Riordan. I love Riordan's books, but I found myself getting a little frustrated by this one. When I say I love his books, I am especially fond of the original Olympian Series with Percy Jackson. These five books were first person narration, and the voice of the protagonist was cheeky but real. This book is part of the Kane Chronicles, a series that follows two kids who work with the Egyptian gods. He writes every two chapters in one of two voices--one male, and one female. From the first of this series, I had trouble keeping these two voices separate in my head, and the humor seems forced and to a certain extent, annoying. The other thing that is different from the original series is that the Olympian series seemed like fantasy that was grounded in reality. The Kane Chronicles are just plain fantasy, with passing lipservice to reality, and I don't think it works as well. So, while I enjoyed this book, it wasn't my favorite, and I decided I really needed to take a break from Riordan before I read MARK OF ATHENA, which is the next in his Greek and Roman mythology series.

37) HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I did enjoy this classic, even though reading through ACD now makes me think he's lucky he wrote at the turn of the last century rather than the turn of this century. You really need to suspend disbelief sometimes. But this one was one of his better ones, and it makes clear why so many people were upset when ACD tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes.

As for reading right now, I have started MARK OF ATHENA, but I decided I needed to take a break from it. I am about 100 pages into THE GAME OF THRONES, and it's better now than when I started it, but I'm still not really enjoying it a whole lot. I'm reading RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, which has one of the absolute classic stories, called "The Dancing Men." It's pretty much vintage ACD. I'm also reading a few non-fiction books--MARRY YOUR MUSE; ORGANIZING FROM THE INSIDE OUT; and some others. And finally, I am reading through my own GUESTS OF THE GUNMETAL GRAY, as I finish out the second major revision and prepare to mail it to my beta readers.

November is NaNoWriMo month, and I've committed to the challenge for another year. I plan to write the first draft of PROPHET WITHOUT HONOR, the next d'Arcy W. Carter novel. I will try to post on my progress here occasionally. After November, I'll head on into the last revision of GGG, preparing to publish sometime shortly thereafter.

More anon--