Things Wrong With My Life Right Now

1. My hip hurts. Persistantly. Wouldn’t be such a bother only the tablets I’m taking seem to make no difference, even when I remember to take them, and I have a number of other things irking me right now (see rest of list). Call this the proverbial straw.

2. My computer is broken. Okay, it’s not terminal – I am able to use it right now. But it’s terribly annoying when your battery won’t charge and you have 0%.

3. I’m so tired I’m about to transition from ‘zombie lady’ to ‘walking coma girl’.

4. I haven’t had the time to write for like three weeks now. And it sucks.

5. I have a speech to write for thursday. I’ve written one line and run out of things to say.

6. I haven’t seen my friends, or much spoken to them except online in forever. Glad I will be remedying this in a fortnight’s time.

7. Snow. I HATE *insert imaginative curse here* snow. I know we British are rather preoccupied with the weather… Just the other day I was ranting about the fog. But snow in November is just ridiculous. I seriously hope we don’t have another two months of this.

8. I have a really shiny copy of Nightshade by Andrea Cremer sitting on my desk and no time to read it *cries*

On the plus side, at least I have a shiny copy of Nightshade sitting on my desk. And it’s Christmas soon (yay). Christmas comes with a glorious holiday in which I fully intend to catch up on everything. Starting with sleep.

Rant over. That feels so much better.

Review: Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynne Barnes

Title: Raised by Wolves

Author: Jennifer Lynne Barnes

Series: Raised by Wolves #1

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Quercus

Summary (from Goodreads)

Adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf brutally killed her parents right before her eyes, fifteen-year-old Bryn knows only pack life, and the rigid social hierarchy that controls it. That doesn’t mean that she’s averse to breaking a rule or two.

But when her curiosity gets the better of her and she discovers Chase, a new teen locked in a cage in her guardian’s basement, and witnesses him turn into a wolf before her eyes, the horrific memories of her parents’ murders return. Bryn becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Chase is the only one who can provide the information she needs.

But in her drive to find the truth, will Bryn push too far beyond the constraints of the pack, forcing her to leave behind her friends, her family, and the identity that she’s shaped?

What’s Good About It

Ah yes, another YA paranormal romance. Who needs another one, right? There are hundreds. Well, I was worried this would be yet another average one, like the few I have lined up in my draft box, waiting to be typed up. I haven’t got round to them yet because I feel so indifferent about them. But this… This was fab.

There are a number of books out there that glamourise and soften the paranormal. (*cough* Twilight *cough*) Where some books remove all the threat from paranormal creatures, turning them into dream dates who aren’t believable as humans, let alone dangerous paranormal beings. While I don’t mind a bit of fluffy romance, part of me can never get past the idea that blood sucking vampires or shapeshifting werewolves, with animal instincts and sharp canines should be scary – and all the more alluring because they are.

Jennifer Lynne Barnes doesn’t skimp on the scary. Her wolves are animalistic, agressive, dominant. They fight for control, take a pound of flesh for wrongs done against them and live by violent rules. They are much closer to wolves than people, something that makes the story much more interesting and compelling than many of the other werewolf books out there.

The connection between Bryn and Chase is as instantaneous as paranormal romance stories have a tendency to be. However, there is a plausible reason offered. Bryn’s mental connection with her pack, and with Chase does make it seem possible that they could feel as connected as they do so quickly.

I also liked the complications that being a female werewolf brought, and the fact that Bryn was human, with no desire to be turned. The gender dynamics of the wolf pack added another level of intrigue and interest, without being too far feminist or anti-feminist (is that even a word??).

All in all, a lot of great stuff going on in what promises to be an excellent addition to the multitude of YA paranormal series, and a strong case for continuing to publish them. Is the market saturated? Not if there are more great books like this out there waiting to grace our shelves.

What Wasn’t So Good

The characters were generally good, but I felt some were a bit stereotyped. Particularly Devon. He was alright, but sometimes I feel characters are quirky for the sake of having a quirky character rather than because that sort of personality really adds something to the story.

Rating: 4/5

Pathetic Fallacy

I hate driving in the fog.

Don’t get me wrong – I love a picturesque scene as I drive: fog rolling on the hills, lit by the soft morning sun. But when it doesn’t stay on the hills, when it’s on the road, I’m not so keen.

I went to see some friends after work the other day and was consequently late driving home. It gets dark so early now, and the extra couple of hours made it all the darker. And the fog that had been present all day hadn’t lifted.

Such driving conditions make me nervous. The last time it was foggy, I was nearly hit when pulling out of a junction because a car didn’t have any lights on. Never mind fog lights, it didn’t even have headlights. I could see the two cars behind, but he was invisible.

It seems to me that the number of people using their fog lights is actually inversely proportional to the amount of fog. And of course, people continue to drive irresponsibly: overtaking in dangerous places, carving each other up and generally driving too fast for the conditions.

Then there’s the creepiness of fog, day or night.

In writing, when weather is used to reflect the tone set by a scene – such as a sad break up happening in the rain, or a giant battle being fought against a backdrop of dramatic thunderstorms – it’s known as ‘pathetic fallacy’.

There’s good reason why every horror story/film ever uses fog. It’s creepy. Even in the daytime, when all monsters except Edward Cullen (and to be honest, I think I could take him) are safely sleeping, unlikely to eat you unless you poke them with a big stick.

There’s something about the way the light dances off it, the way it twists into faces and shapes as you drive through it. It makes you see things that aren’t there. Or stops you seeing things that are.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t the sort of person who jumped at her own shadow. Tonight I’m staying in a supposedly haunted cottage in the Lake District.

I’m seriously hoping there’s no fog.

2011 Debut Author Challenge

Eh, me and challenges. I don’t do well with them. I usually get halfway through and my enthusiasm fizzles out. I usually find life gets in the way and throws hundreds of other things at me in the week I really need to be finishing my challenge book.

But I am quite excited about this one: The 2011 Debut Author Challenge. With so many exciting new authors debuting next year, I’m really looking forwards to reading some brand new talent and adding some new favourite authors to my list!

I’m not going to make a list yet, because to be perfectly honest, what I read will depend largely on what I can get hold of. I really want to read Across the Universe by Beth Revis, so I’ll be looking out for that one.

Primeval Series 4 Trailer

Totally not book related but yay! Primeval Series 4 trailer is here!

I am unabashedly in love with this show. Yes it has pretty poor CGI, yes Becker is the worst security guard ever (I still love him) and yes, sometimes the plots are so thin they’re invisible, but it’s such good fun

And it has dinosaurs.

And Ben Miller is made of awesome.

I really want to rewatch series 3 now…

For your viewing pleasure: Primeval Series 4 Sneak Preview!

Review: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Title: Pretties

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Series: Uglies #2

Genre: YA Future Dystopia

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary (from Goodreads)

Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she’s completely popular. It’s everything she’s ever wanted.

But beneath all the fun — the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom — is a nagging sense that something’s wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally’s ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remembers what’s wrong with pretty life, and the fun stops cold.

Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life — because the authorities don’t intend to let anyone with this information survive.

What’s Good About It

I love how this series is progressing (though knowing the final title is ‘Specials’ does somewhat ruin the last sucker punch). The idea of Tally experiencing New Pretty life is a great one because, as a reader I was somewhat fascinated by their lifestyle – encouraged much by Tally’s own fascination. And I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Zane wa an interesting new character. Normally I hate when a love rival is introduced if it’s not set up very early as a love triangle (and even then I’m not usually fond of them) but Zane was a likeable character and I believed Tally’s confusion and conflicting emotions.

The idea of a human ranch, where people are kept in some sort of experiment – forced to live like savages – was an intriguing one, and a nice addition to the sinister world Westerfeld has created

The Pretty speak ought to have been annoying, but it wasn’t. In fact, I found it creeping into my own head as I thought about what I was going to say. Which could have been embarrassing but fortunately my internal filter caught any stray Pretty words before I actually said them. It’s a testament to how natural the Pretty language sounds, how unforced it was, that I almost found myself imitating them.

I also loved Shay’s total mental break down and how she starts trying to break free of being Pretty-minded in increasingly extreme ways. However…

What’s Not So Good

I did feel this was a bit ‘Uglies’ all over again. The story didn’t amp up the threat, and nothing seemed to move anywhere. Tally gets told to do something by Special Circumstances, Tally doesn’t want to do it, but for various reasons has to, Tally inadvertantly betrays everyone, Tally ends up right where Special Circumstances want her. Rinse and repeat.

Or hopefully not. I’m prepared to put this down to ‘middlebookitus’. It’s difficult to create real tension when you know there has to be a final story. So if Pretties was treading water waiting for bigger and better things in Specials, I can forgive it its minor flaws. Now if only I could lay my hands on a copy of Specials to find out…

Rating: 3.5/5

A Week In The Life

A Week in the Life of Liberty Gilmore and her Long-Suffering Boyfriend

Wednesday

I have a bad day at work. Things get a bit on top of me and I come home, not upset, but frustrated. I go to my mothers on the way home to pick up my mail (two years after leaving home and still some things are sent her way) and vent.

She’s very understanding. I ring the Boyfriend and ask if we can have dinner with her because she’s kindly offered and I don’t feel like cooking. We stay late, eat lasagne and look at old photographs Mum’s husband has somehow got linked to his new blueray player. We laugh at old memories and marvel at how much we’ve all grown.

Mum finds some of me looking incredibly awkward in a pair of leather trousers and a very country denim jacket from when I was about twelve years old and terribly un-fashion conscious. The Boyfriend laughs. I hunt for a photo of me with my head in a wheelie bin (don’t ask) but can’t find it. We head home and I feel better, but it’s much later than we’d normally get back and I haven’t prepared for work. We rush through the bathroom and head to bed.

Thursday

The Boyfriend is on earlies, so we’re going to work at the same time. We trip over each other as we try to get ready. He leaves about two minutes before I do.

I have an easy day at work, which makes up for the rubbish one I had yesterday, and tomorrow we have a day of Teambuilding and getting to know each other. Which I’m dreading, being generally antisocial, but it’s a nice end to the week in a sense.

The afternoon is taken up with a Road Safety Presentation, which I have to babysit. I think I’m immune to it, having heard it all before from the Boyfriend, who doesn’t spare the graphic details of accidents he’s been too, but the counsellor talking about having to console people who’ve lost their children gets me and I spend half an hour trying to swallow the lump in my throat. I drive home like an old lady – pressed up against the wheel like it gives me more control over my car.

The Boyfriend has ‘First Thursday of the Month’ Drill at the Fire Station, so I cook a quick dinner for him and he’s off. He says he’ll be back by nine, but at half eight he rings to say it will be closer to ten. I have jobs to do but I’m trying to review a book, so I leave them to the last minute. The Boyfriend is early and we fight about the chores not being done. I tell him he’s a clean freak (true) and a germphobe (not true). He tells me that book reviews aren’t important (definitely not true) and I get very annoyed. We go to sleep without speaking.

Friday

I get to leave later than usual because of the Team Building. The extra half hour in bed feels so good, but not nearly long enough. The boyfriend leaves before me, and I have the house to myself, yet still end up rushing.

At work I have to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses and discuss them in great detail with my partner, chosen out of a hat the previous day. I’m fortunate enough to be paired with someone who doesn’t take it too seriously and we talk about everything but what we’re supposed to.

I talk about arguing with the Boyfriend and she tells me about fights with her husband. We both agree that you fight about stupid stuff when you live with someone.

We have to create something that sums up our ideas from the day. Not being an exhibitionist (except from behind a computer screen) I play the piano while our group raps about caring and sharing. We are received well. I think the event leader, who plays guitar and made us sing stupid songs, is jealous of our talent.

We leave on time, but an overturned horse cart on the motorway delays me by almost an hour. I get home but have to leave straight away for my first aerobics class. The Boyfriend is not happy about my ‘hello/goodbye’ routine and I don’t blame him. I feel bad, but the class is paid for and I feel worse about wasting money.

Mum is with me for the class. We grapevine and knee lift our way through a torturous half hour, then stretch, press-up and sit-up our way through an even more torturous second half. We leave feeling exhausted but smug and book in for next week.

I go home, and after a much needed bath spend some equally much needed time with the Boyfriend. He’s working tomorrow because of his shift pattern, so I won’t see him all day. We go to the shops and buy fireworks, but won’t be setting them off until next week. The Boyfriend’s best friend will be down from Leeds and we’ll take advantage of Mum’s garden to set off some rockets. Mum usually puts on food and we all have a great time.

Saturday

I spend far too long doing work for next week. Feel like I’ve put in a whole shift, but have at least finished before the Boyfriend gets home.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been shopping, so dinner is a bit scarce. We eat rubbish and vow to go shopping tomorrow when we are both off work and I have access to the car with a boot. My car is pretty, but not practical.

We go to bed early and watch The Illusionist. I’ve seen it before, and get equally annoyed this viewing at the lack of explanation for the magic tricks. The Boyfriend is more concerned about the size of Jessica Biel’s backside.

Sunday

We fell asleep in the film, so we watch the end in bed while we wait for ten o’clock to roll around and the supermarket to open. We decide to have a Wetherspoons breakfast instead, so head into town, planning to shop on the way back. It’s my Step-Dad’s birthday so we drop into visit them after breakfast and spend far too long indulging my two-year-old sister in her favourite selection of youtube videos. (You try resisting the world’s cutest voice saying ‘nother song?’)

Mum and I are supposed to be going to the Gym, but both carry aches from our aerobics session. The Boyfriend cracks a joke about it being an ‘anaerobics’ session and we both stare at him blankly.

We spend far too much money in the supermarket and head home. I have to laminate some things for work, but find the time to watch Valkyrie on Sky before we head off to our ballroom dance class. Well, we watch all but the last five minutes, and get very annoyed when we come back to find it was only five minutes, not the ’14 minutes remaining’ that Sky would have us believe.

Our ballroom dance class is freezing, and our teacher laments at great length about her battles with the owners of the hall over the heating. We roll our eyes and hope she gets us moving soon before we turn into icecubes. We start with a social Foxtrot – an easy and elegant, but boring dance. The Boyfriend messes around and we bicker.

One of the other dancers has exchanged her partner for a new one. The previous one we called ‘Mr Swiggle Hips’ because he was a salsa dancer and like to move his hips, even when we were standing still. At first we think the new bloke is an improvement, but it turns out he is just as swiggley as the last.

We mince our way through the waltz, but totally rock the quickstep. It’s always been the Boyfriend’s best dance.

At home we watch the end of Valkyrie and the Boyfriend asks, as we get into bed, if I think it will freeze. It’s been quite chilly and the Boyfriend is on call. I say it’s likely, but he can’t be bothered to get dressed and put the windscreen cover on the car. He says his alerter won’t go off anyway.

At midnight, almost exactly, it does. I laugh. I’m half asleep but vaguely aware of the irony. The car isn’t frozen. The Boyfriend makes the shout. I fall asleep and don’t wake up again until half three, when the Boyfriend gets back in bed. He’s been back for two hours, he tells me, but couldn’t sleep. I wonder if I should be worried about not hearing the door open.

Monday

The Boyfriend doesn’t work mondays but I do. I drag myself to bed and head off to work. Monday is meeting day, but I’m in luck. The meeting isn’t for me and I get back at normal time. I ring Mum to organise a gym session, but she has two crying babies who need her attention so we cancel til wednesday.

I plod through some more work. I eat a whole packet of Skittles to ease the process and feel sick, both physically and at myself for being so greedy. I lament to the Boyfriend who is at college completing the third year of his degree. He tells me of his course problems and how he is having trouble getting back into learning after a year out.

At nine he gets home and we watch some rubbish on the telly until we go to bed. The Boyfriend tells me I can pick a film, so I go with The Prestige to keep the magic theme going. The Boyfriend denies ever having seen it before (even though he has) and I wish I could forget things that completely and watch them fresh each time, because then perhaps I wouldn’t have such a bad DVD buying habit.

We fall asleep far too early for twenty somethings, both thoroughly exhausted.

Tuesday

Another busy day at work. I’ve agreed to stay late on Thursday, so I’m desperately trying to get everything ready for Friday so I can snooze through it. I have everything pretty much done, but by half three I’m yawning at my desk and setting off my friend. We both laugh at each other and head home as soon as we can.

I come home and skim through loads of blog posts about NaNoWriMo and lament about how I have no time to write 1667 words a day. It gets me thinking about my week, and where I could find the extra time. I can’t really. Every week is like this week – shouts in the night, shift clashes, extra work activities, gym sessions, not to mention battling with a nasty cold and, just occasionally, a free hour to put pen to paper (or you know, the closest modern equivalent). Today I write 1800 words. It is blog, not novel, but it’s still writing.

Finding the time is hard, but it can be done. So all you NaNoWriMos keep up the amazing work and good luck!

Review: Out For Blood by Alyxandra Harvey

Title: Out For Blood

Author: Alyxandra Harvey

Series: Drake Chronicles #3

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary (from Goodreads)

Hunter Wild is the youngest in a long line of elite vampire hunters, a legacy that is both a blessing and a curse at the secret Helios-Ra Academy, where she excels at just about everything. Thanks to her friendship with Kieran Black, Hunter receives a special invitation to attend the coronation of Helena Drake, and for the first time, she sees the difference between vampires that must be hunted and vampires that can become friends—or even more. When students at the academy fall victim to a mysterious illness, Hunter suspects they are under attack from within. She will need someone she can trust to help her save the future of Helios-Ra . . . help that shockingly comes in the form of Quinn Drake, a drop-dead gorgeous vampire. Who said senior year would be easy?

What’s Good About It

If you’ve read my review of the previous two installments in this series, you’ll know that I think they are full of unrealised potential. It’s much the same with Out For Blood. Harvey continues with her comfortably successful formula, introducing a new female character to be a love interest for the next Drake in line. Frothy fun ensues with much ‘he was so hot’ and ‘I couldn’t explain why I was so obsessed with her’, but not a lot of character development.

The pace remains good, and the threat, though not as high as in the last book, is enough to keep pages turning. There is even a little bit of set up for the next book, which has been absent in the previous installments. The set up is, of course, of a romantic nature, but at least introducing it as a possibility now gives it a little more credibility than the other relationships in the series thus far.

What’s Not So Good

As I mentioned, the character development is pretty much non-existent. The romance relies on instant attraction, leaving the whole ‘get-together’ process bemusing at best. If you can get past the fact that there’s no reason why Hunter and Quinn fall in love with each other, or that (as evidence by the fact that I just typed in completely the wrong Drake brother’s name just then) the characters are pretty much interchangeable, then this is an amusing, light read, but nothing that will have you waiting impatiently for the next installment.

Rating: 3/5

Story Dreams

People often talk about inspiration and writing – that bolt of something from above that brings all the ingredients together in one fantastic moment. There are differing views on it.

I had a teacher who said that there was no such thing as inspiration, just perspiration. If you wanted to do anything great you had to work hard. While I totally agree that hard graft is needed, I don’t like to dismiss that an idea can come to you in a moment of inspiration.

Another teacher – this one a creative writing tutor on my university degree – said that inspiration wasn’t an idea from nowhere, it was an idea filtered through the subconscious that somehow got tangled with another, previously unrelated idea that together made something brilliant. I’m with him.

JK Rowling said somewhere that Harry Potter just walked into her head fully formed. After that she spent something like five years working hard to plot out the stories, reinventing other characters, changing their names, the story, everything – except that one central element, Harry himself. My writing process (not to be unduly big headed, comparing myself to the great JKR) is something similar to this.

I’ve talked about When Characters Appear At Random – for me, ideas appear in a fairly similar way. I dream them.

Now that sounds incredibly ridiculous and a little bit up myself, but allow me to elaborate…

I’ve always been a vivid dreamer, and equally a very internal person. I deal with things myself, don’t like to trouble other people and keep things inside. Subsequently, my subconscious has always had to process a lot.

I am a textbook anxiety dreamer. Rather than talk about being worried about going back to work after a week off, I spend the night before dreaming that the photocopier was broken and I was running around without any of the things I needed, trying to operate without them and failing. Miserably. After about three hours uninterrupted sleep, I went to work shattered. And hey, the photocopier was broken. But I fixed it, no drama.

There’s also the dream where my teeth fall out, oh and the one where I can’t wake up in time to go somewhere, my boyfriend dumps me for someone else (though haven’t had that one in a long time) etc etc.

It’s my belief that all the snippets of ideas I have throughout the days, weeks and months, are eventually filtered by my incredibly honed and practiced subconscious into what I call a story dream.

Last night I had a story dream.

I should mention that story dreams are every bit as ridiculous as normal dreams. For instance, this dream involved David Tennant in khakis with a ray gun. Needless to say, that will not be featuring in the story. I consider this excess information that gets filtered through with the ideas, dismiss it and try not to think too hard about the state of my sanity.

The essence of the dream, once I’d removed the odd dream quirks, boiled down to a workable idea for a story, one I’ve been putting the hard work of expanding and solidifying into all day – and will continue to do so when I head down to the gym in a moment. I like to be far far away in my mind when I’m on a treadmill, but that’s fodder for another post.

The problem with coming upon ideas this way is I never know when they are going to strike. As you know, I have a current WIP (and yes, that one came to me in a dream too) that I’m excited about and want to continue with. But when a story dream comes along, I have to take time out to get the ideas on paper before they flitter away with other dreams that can’t quite be remembered. It’s frustrating because once I’m done working out the details, I’ll want to write that story NOW! Patience is not a virtue I am particularly blessed with, and I have several WIPs that will remain ever WIPs, their premature graves dug by another story dream.

Incidentally, this reminds me of a conversation I had with my mother (also at the gym) about character names. She was concerned about Keira’s name because she associated it with Keira Knightly, not an image that married well with the character. She asked if I would consider changing it. I had to explain that I couldn’t, because I never chose it. Major characters usually come to me pre-named. Keira, Marshall and Adam all had names before I even started typing. Others I had to fill in, some I haven’t even decided yet, but the main characters are almost always already named.

Last night’s dream introduced me to Amy, Max, Camille and Simon. Amy and Max are reincarnations of old characters who’ve been trying to get their story told for a long time now, but Camille and Simon are new. Though in the dream they didn’t have concrete identities, dreams being so wishy washy, but when I woke up I knew.

Once Keira’s story is told, maybe Amy will get her turn. I’d rather have heard from her the day I finished writing about Keira, but I’d rather have too many ideas than none at all. And this way I can validly claim that lie in I had was absolutely necessary and totally not a waste of a morning!