soulswallo: (DW-Rose-Look to the side to see it!)
Monday, August 1st, 2011 08:55 pm
This is my inaugural post trying the cross-posting feature from Dreamwidth to LJ. I'm going to assume I'm going to do something wrong somewhere and will have to spend hours tonight trying to undo it. I mean, that's about par for the course for me. So, you know, okay. I'm resigned to it.

On the other hand, if everything goes perfectly, I'm going to do a little jig. And praise Dreamwidth from here to the great beyond for making things easy on poor, confused souls like me.

Anyway. I've had the Dreamwidth account for a while and I've been using it as a backup for LJ. And by that I mean that I've been importing the content from LJ whenever I remember to. Which is about every three months or so. Yeah. I'm not so good about remembering. However, if I decide to go this route, I won't have to worry about importing. I'll have all my mental diarrhea automatically strewn across the internet. Isn't that fabulous?

The point I'm trying (badly) to make here is that I have a Dreamwidth account. If you're so inclined, you can add me over on DW and I'll be all happy and joyful. Otherwise, I still plan on checking LJ and responding to comments and what have you. Not that there's a whole lot of commenting going on anymore. Which is not a complaint, just an observation. Hell, I'm not the greatest commenter in the world so I have no cause to berate others.

As a reminder, I'm on Twitter pretty much daily. If you do that Twitter thing and don't mind tipsy tweets and talk about how my mom and dad named my sisters and I after colors, follow me there and let me know so I can follow you back.

Since this is getting long...Books!
Book #299 - My Lady Taken (The Archangels #4) by Shirl Anders - A sassy and fun historical. I didn't even mind starting the series at book 4.
Book #300 - Altered (Setenid Blight #1) by Kimberly Montague - I loved this book. I'm on pins and needles for the next one to be written so I can see how things work out. *sigh*

There you have it.
*crosses fingers and hopes everything works properly*
soulswallo: (Psych-quote-suck stopper)
Sunday, July 31st, 2011 10:35 pm
Do you guys see what happens when I don't have access to LJ for a few days? I lose my journal writing momentum and then days and days and DAYS pass without a journal. I even wrote a list up yesterday of things I wanted to get done while at work and update ye olde LJ was on it. Yet, it didn't get done. I did everything else on the list. Just not that.

I am horrible.

But now I'm going to get right back on that momentum horse and not let my slackerish tendencies control me. Because I'm strong like that.

Since we're talking about momentum and other scintillating things, I'm having a crisis with my Epic Werewolf Masterpiece #1. I originally had great plans to add a bunch of stuff to the narrative to expand the time frame of the story and then link the new writing back up with what I wrote way back when. The thing is, the more I add to the story the less likely it looks like the original scenes will be able to merge with the updated timeline. It's just not going to work. I can see the main female character changing as I write it. She's growing in ways she wasn't able to in the shortened timeline I wrote originally. This is a good thing because the entire reason I decided to add narrative was to make her growth more realistic. Yet, now the growth she's experiencing makes her later actions out of character.

What a conundrum!

I think I'm going to cut the entire end of the book and just let this new story unfurl. Of course that'll mean that EWM#2 will have to be completely rewritten as well. *face palm* Still, it's better for the book and for the characters that it plays out this new way. I can handle some hardcore rewriting. Or just, writing.

Anyway. I have a lot of bookish stuff to post. You know, since I haven't been good at updating recently.
Book #294 - Earl of Darkness (Heirs of Kilronan Trilogy #1) by Lix Rickloff - Decent enough but the ending was so abrupt that I kept looking around waiting for the next bit of action.
Book #295 - Amaury's Hellion (Scanguards Vampires #2) by Tina Folsom - Tina Folsom can write some steamy vampire sex. For serious.
Book #296 - Warrior (Blades of the Rose #1) by Zoe Archer - I loved the way the author brought the landscape of Mongolia to life here. It was so vivid and bright.
Book #297 - Awaken Me Darkly (Alien Huntress #1) by Gena Showalter - Not the best book I've read by this author, but still entertaining. As a plus, there's great setup for the later books in this series.
Book #298 - Sons of Apollyon by G.A. Colin - Bloody, gory fun. With vampires! Sweet!
Teaser Tuesday (07/26/11) - Warriors, monsters and vampires. Lovely.
Book Blogger Hop & Follow Friday (07/29/11) - Books I'm looking forward to, t-shirt slogans that represent me and one sexy, sexy back.
In My Mailbox (07/31/11) - A lot of fabulous free books!

Dude. How the hell is it almost August? I honestly didn't realize it until I typed the date in that last link. Whoa. Just, whoa.

Alright. I vow to be a better blogger and post more than once a week. Also, I might be relocating to Dreamwidth and crossposting those posts over to here. I don't know. I'm very torn about giving up on LJ as my main blogging place. I've been here for quite a while, you know. Quite.A.While.

I'm done.
soulswallo: (Actor-KUrban-lensflare ahoy!)
Sunday, July 10th, 2011 08:55 pm
I feel like I've been a terrible journal writer lately. Which is funny because my last few posts have actually had some substance as opposed to be just rambling about books. As I'm so fond of doing. But I really do try to post every day and it seems like lately that's fallen by the wayside a bit.

One of the reasons I originally started posting on a regular basis (besides the fact that I have this unlimited capacity to write and write and write and write about things that no one wants to hear about) was so I had a record of these fun, sometimes interesting, often bizarre things that happen to me. I have a terrible memory. TERRIBLE. When I hang out with [livejournal.com profile] malkovich03 she'll say stuff like "Do you remember that time we went to dinner and you ordered the pasta and then we both had wine and your was white and mine was red and these guys came over and one of them was an alien and he wanted to take you away to the mothership and show you the galaxy?" You'd think I'd remember an alien wanting to take me away to the mothership BUT I DON'T. Much less what I ate that time it happened. I swear, if my brain had any more holes in it I'd be a walking medical miracle. Imagine what I'd be like if I were all drug addled and drank like a fish. I know. I'm scared now too. I'm sorry to put that picture in your head. So very, very sorry.

Anyway. I feel like I've been doing a poor job keeping up with my lj lately. I don't exactly know if that's going to change in the near future but I'm not going to let myself stress out over it too badly. Because I've got plenty of other things to stress over. Right?

Okay. Books. I have some.
Book #273 - Midnight Howl (Poison Apple) by Claire Hutton - The 2nd of Hailey's books that I filched. This one with werewolves!
Book #274 - Space Junque (Apocalypto #1) by LK Rigel - I barely knew what I was reading through half of this book and I STILL ended up picking up the next in the series. That must say something.
Book #275 - Never a Bride by Amelia Grey - Another quick little historical romance. nothing mind bending or earth shattering about it but it was fun.
In My Mailbox (07/10/11) - I found out this weekend that Goodreads has a section for free ebooks they offer. I downloaded a metric ton right after posting this post. Meaning that next week's post is going to be HUGE!

I'm a little hungry. Should I eat? I must think.
Later.
soulswallo: (Office-Jim-Their bread is VERY good)
Saturday, May 14th, 2011 08:48 pm
What the fuck is up with that LJ navigation header? I realize that the end of the world is nigh and everything (hey, I saw it on a billboard it must be true!) but this kinda feels a little to rapture-y to me. I don't care for it. I don't want to look at it every time I'm preparing a post.

Today at work I think I saw a total of 7 people all day. And one of them was the girl who does the grounds keeping. Yeah. It was crazy. I almost couldn't handle it.

Anyway. The slowness of the day (every Saturday, I swear!) means that I read and put up a few reviews. I know. Shocking.
Books #190, 191, 192 - Moon Trilogy by CL Bevill - Three separate stories that I think could have been easily combined into one book. But they weren't and I'm trying to keep my totals here on par with my Goodreads books. So, there.
Book #193 - Windfall (Weather Warden #4) by Rachel Caine - Seriously, this series just keeps getting better.
Book #194 - The Warlord Wants Forever (Immortals After Dark #1) by Kresley Cole - Wow, this was one steamy novella. And I read it at work which was amusing because I kept blushing when I had to put my Kindle down to answer the phone.

Cole and I are randomly watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Not my favorite Indy movie but still a lot of fun.
Okay. I'm done.
soulswallo: (Psych-Gus is stealth)
Monday, May 9th, 2011 09:25 pm
I'm attempting to condense down some of the random sites I have here and there around the web. I deleted my fanfic journal this morning. Mostly because I haven't updated it in over a year and I have big plans for being published in the future. That might not make sense but if I ever decide to share all my random writings with the internet again I'll probably go all out and do it on my own domain. I also have plans to delete my graphics journal, mostly because I really don't see myself making icons or wallpapers or anything like that in the near future. So, yeah. That'll go away soon. I think [livejournal.com profile] jenah and I need to decide if we're going to do anything with [livejournal.com profile] blabapalooza or just let it fade away. I don't really care one way or another, I just know that I haven't been watching many movies lately and thus have nothing to review.

Oh, and yesterday I mentioned that I'd written about 450 words on my Zompocalypse story. I cranked out another 150 words last night after I wrote up that post, so I ended up at 600+ words. Nice. Not fantastic, but definitely nice.

And for books...
Book #181 - Turned at Dark (Shadow Falls #0.5) by CC Hunter - An interesting introduction to a new series. I liked it.
Book #182 - Fallen from Grace (Dark Passages Prequel) by MJ Putney - Not quite as tight as I would have hoped for a new-to-me series but it tickled my fancy and left me with a lot of questions.
Book #183 - Voice of the Blood (Voice of the Blood #1) by Jemiah Jefferson - I liked some things about this book and then there were other things that I wasn't as in love with.
Book #184 - The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton - Oh wow. I loved how we were given three different storylines from three different times and we slowly begin to unravel the mystery of what happened so many years before and how it ties in with the present.
soulswallo: (Psych-Gus is stealth)
Friday, March 25th, 2011 08:35 pm
I've missed a lot of blogging days this month. I find that amusing because I used to be super gung-ho about blogging every single day. Like, WOE! if I missed a day or something. While I admittedly blog more for myself (because I have a terrible memory and need all the help remembering the little things that happen that I can get), it seems that lately all the people that I used to interact with on a daily or weekly basis are transitioning away from blogging.

I have several friends that post on Facebook but I can't stand the way FB is set up so I avoid it as much as possible. I like Twitter but everything you write there is so fleeting. I wonder how often people take the time to check out tweets that came in while they were offline. Once it's off page 1 of your timeline do you even see it? Plus, when people respond to a tweet hours after I've written it I usually don't know what they're talking about. Maybe that's just me, though.

I don't get Tumblr at all. I just... don't. Every time I've followed a link over there I have no idea what anyone's talking about. It's like there's this whole other language on that site that somehow just passed me by.

I love my book blog but at the same time I hate the way comments are set up there. Unlike LJ, Blogger doesn't let you respond directly to comments (you know where it nests the response under the original comment) so replying over there is a mess.

I guess I'm trying to say that I love blogging. I love the act of writing out a (mostly) daily journal and knowing that if I need to know what day Cole and I went and got delicious fro-yo it's there for me. But at the same time, it's a little depressing to think that no one will ever see the genius of my posts anymore. I'm a bad commenter, btw. Probably one of the worst. So I guess I can't complain that peeps aren't commenting here and letting me know they're visiting when I never do either.

I really don't know what I'm saying. I love blogging but I'm feeling a sense of ... I don't know. I'm feeling adrift right now. Maybe it's because I don't have all that much to talk about. Maybe I'm just having a weird day.

Maybe I need to stop reading a shitload of books a day and get back to my writing so I can talk about other things besides sexy paranormal romances.

Speaking of which...
Book #119 - Dragon Warrior (Midnight Bay #2) by Janet Chapman - Frothy, fun and magical. This is the type of book you read when you're not looking to tax your brain too severely.
Book Blogger Hop, Follow Friday & Tagalong Friday - When I get to talk about books with sexy Fae warriors, pooping out gold babies, and cosmic middle fingers And I get to put up pictures of a shirtless Jason Behr... well, you know you're going to be reading a crazy post.

Now that I've vented my discontent all over you, I'm going to go watch TV.
You're welcome.
soulswallo: (Heroes-Red umbrella in the rain)
Monday, February 14th, 2011 06:36 pm
I didn't journal yesterday. I had such a streak going, too, but I just wasn't in the mood. I also didn't post anything at my book blog. This is the first day I've missed since I started that one. I think I started it at the end of August, so that's a lot of consecutive posting.

Oh, well. Like I said, I just wasn't in the mood.

We had a storm roll in last night. It was crazy windy. I had left my window open a crack and I had to get up around 1 in the morning to close it because the wind was absolutely whistling through it. It was creepy.

So, I have some bookish stuff that I've posted today and Saturday night.
Book #73 - Hunted by the Others (H&W Investigations 31) by Jess Haines - I think I need to take a break from urban fantasy books for a while. I start to nitpick at them when I go on these extended reading sprees and that's never good.
Book #74 - Jewel of Atlantis (Atlantis #2) by Gena Showalter - Oodles of fun! Paranormal romance with a mythological twist. Plus, I get to read about vampires and demons and shapeshifters! Oh, my!
In My Mailbox (02/13/11) - Lots of freebies this week with a few random purchases thrown in there.

I have one more review to write tonight but my computer is crawling along and I'm too impatient to wait for all the webpages I need to use to load. I'm an impatient little bitch, you know.

On that note...
Later!
soulswallo: (DW-Books-Arm yourself!)
Friday, December 10th, 2010 07:38 pm
You know, I'm usually so good about blogging here, even though I'm not sure how many people actually use LJ anymore, but I've already missed two days this month. TWO! Seriously, I think I've posted every day this year except for *maybe* 10. And that includes the two this month. All that blogging is nothing to sniff at, admittedly, but I think I could have done better. Hell, it's not like I have anything else going on right now.

So. Yesterday. The fam went to see Hailey's 2nd grade Holiday performance where all the 2nd grade classes sang Christmas carols. It was cute. Except! Except that the fucking parents behind us talked through the entire thing. And when they weren't talking they were singing along... loudly. Okay, seriously? I know it's all supposed to be fun and such and I shouldn't get bent out of shape but at the very least SING IN KEY! And then shut the fuck up. Because I don't want to hear what Betty at the office is getting your boss for Christmas. I don't.

Okay. I'm done now. You can all come back. I promise to keep my swearing to a bare minimum. Hopefully.

I caught up on all the shows on my DVR recently. A bunch of them were shows that Cole watches and he cleared those out on his own. I had a few episodes of Fringe which is a show I was honestly thinking of giving up on until I got caught up. Wow. All of a sudden it's good again. Or maybe I just understand what's going on. I don't know. I just know that I watched three episodes back to back and enjoyed them all.

I'm also up to date on Vampire Diaries. Holy hell! Does anybody else start drooling when Tyler strips off his shirt? It can't be just me. That's not possible. The guy is a Fucking hardbody with a capital F. Considering the guy is, like, 25, I feel like a total perv for saying that. But then again, rock hard abs cross all age barriers. I'm pretty sure it's a law of nature. And if it's not, it should be.

Okay. Book stuff. Two days worth so I'm all caught up...
Book #256 - Candy Houses (Grimm's Circle #1) by Shiloh Walker - I decided to go back and start this series from the beginning. You know, since I read the last 2 books first.
Book #257 - No Prince Charming (Grimm's Circle #2) by Shiloh Walker - Finishing off the series with book 2!
Book #258 - Tempt Me With Darkness (Doomsday Brethren #1) by Shayla Black - Engaging fluff. Which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Book #259 - Explosive by Beth Kery - Not my usual type of book, until I throw in that part about the dominant man and his penchant for tying up his lady. Which I forgot to talk about, come to think of it.

Book Blogger Hop & Follow Friday - Why I like book blogs and under appreciated authors.

I also cobbled together a page for all the series reviews I've done. Guys, I called it... wait for it ... Series reviews. I know. I'm brilliant.
The next task I'm setting for myself is to get an About Me page up and running. So everyone can be all... Ohhh! So that's Kelly. Or maybe they won't say that. I don't know.

Okay. I'm done. I have The Descent 2 to watch. It seemed appropriate since I just watched the first Descent. Hopefully that'll mean I can easily figure out what's going on. Hopefully.
I'm out.
Later.
soulswallo: (Dr Horrible-Evil evil evil)
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 08:25 pm
Oh, look! Yesterday was my 2200th post. Big number. How is it that I feel like I say so little with a number like that?

Speaking of big numbers ... Holy smokes! I exceeded my NaNo goal by a country mile today. I was hoping to edge up on 28,000 or so. Realistically, I would have been happy to hit my 1700 and go merrily on my way. Honestly, as much as I love the days where I go hog wild, I just want to prove to myself that I can set a goal and keep it. For an extended period of time. Even though I'm ahead on my writing, I want to continue hitting 1700 per day. It sounds simple enough. Right? Well, for the most part it is. Except that I notice that once I hit my 1700 I start to slack off. And that's something I don't want.

However, today I can say that I took my daily word goal and threw down the gauntlet.

What? That means I wrote almost 4400 words since yesterday. *blink, blink, blink*
There was a very naughty sex scene that practically wrote itself and an aftermath scene that wrote itself and a "girlfriends commiserating" scene that has almost completely written itself. Actually, it's not so much girlfriends commiserating as one human girl trying to understand her place in the Pack and my heroine coming to the realization that everyone has problems, not just her.

I was really trying to push to break that 30K barrier and I did it! *celebrates with peanut butter* *seriously, peanut butter. Reese's Pieces to be exact* *Oh! and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Yum!*

NaNo Update: Word wars and scaling those unimaginable heights - A rambling look at how I managed to reach the high point of today.

On top of oodles of writing, I also got some book stuff done. As I always do.
Book #232 - Dreadful Skin by Cherie Priest - Not your typical werewolf book.

30 days of books... Day 59 - Celtic gods and the women who love them.
Waiting on Wednesday - Ruthless Game - Just because an author writes overwrought books doesn't mean I don't look forward to them. Especially when they're steamy.

My peanut butter stash is inexplicably getting smaller. This s clearly a sign that I should go.
Later.
soulswallo: (SotD-Zombies are Love-big)
Saturday, September 18th, 2010 08:33 pm
Today I got up early, cursed on Twitter (Fuck you, 6:30!), went to Hailey's soccer game, went to the new Halloween store, finished a book, wrote up some bookish things, napped, got dinner for Cole and his friend, went to two more Halloween stores and checked out the costumes at WalMart. Whoa. That was a lot of Halloweening.

Now Cole, Hailey and I are watching Resident Evil 3.

Randomly, after using LJ for so many years where I put in my own coding for italics and such, Blogger kills me because I automatically do the < > tags while typing without thinking about it.

Bookish stuff:
On my wishlist (week 2) - Zombies, Werewolves and Alien Princes
30 days of books... Day 6 - It's a red letter day!
Book #184 - Guns Will Keep Us Together (Bombay Assassins #2) by Leslie Langtry - Where I liken finishing that book to Frodo's quest for the ring. My precious ....

I haven't picked out my celebratory Kindle book yet (for finishing my novel by the deadline I gave myself) but I did start reading The Hunger Games. I'm only a couple of chapters in but I can already see why people are so enraptured of it.
soulswallo: (DW-Tardis-Take me away)
Monday, July 19th, 2010 08:02 pm
Uggh. I was all happy and spritely this morning and then I took a nap and when I woke up I kinda felt like I'd been run over with a small truck. Due to the fact that I suffer from An Excess of Awesomeness, I went from feeling like I'd been hit by a truck to being sure I was about to melt into a puddle of disgusting and probably very hard to clean up fluids in the middle of my kitchen. Because that's what happens when you're overly dramatic and you don't feel well. You melt. And it's messy.

Anyway. I didn't really melt into blood and guts and I do feel marginally better now although the thought of eating makes the queasy come out in force. Needless to say, I haven't eaten anything since noon. I'm hungry and nauseated and it's not a good combo. On the plus side, I'm not the aforementioned puddle of oozing goo. Look, you take the wins when you see them.

Nauseous and achy means that I read.
Book #134 - The Nights Before Christmas by Kerry Allen - I had no idea what I was reading about half the time. Things would happen and I'd have no idea how we made the leap from point A to point B. Things weren't explained clearly. There were interesting ideas here, they were just poorly executed. Ehh. Naughty Elf with a death sentence on her head has to convince Scroogy Vampire that he has Christmas spirit or she'll be killed. Continuously. Every day. Because she has an immortality hex on her that makes her keep coming back to life. I thought that was an interesting take on immortality but then we came to the end scene- I didn't know who half the people were in the room. I didn't know whose side they were on. I just ... didn't. I wasn't terribly impressed here.

-and-

Book #135 - Along Came A Demon (Whisperings #1) by Linda Welch - There were plenty of things I liked here and there were plenty of things that I hope get deepened in later books because they were not explained to my satisfaction. I like that Tiff can see the restless dead. I like the mythology behind the world that was created. I liked Royal and Tiff's pervy roommates. I didn't like how easily the ending was tied up. I felt like everything was rushed. Which is really a pity because the story was moving along very nicely in terms of character development and plot progression before we hit the epilogue. So, Tiff can see dead people. She helps the local PD solve violent crimes as a civilian consultant but when she's teamed up with a new detective on a case, she begins to have some serious misgivings. A good start to a series. I'll more than likely check out the next.

I'm done. My Excess of Awesomeness Syndrome is telling me that it's not enough to just journal every day (twice a day, recently!) but it would be superawesomecool if I could illustrate these entries with pictures of me doing all the super awesome things that I do all day.

No, brain. It's not going to happen. Even if I think it would be cool.
Later.
soulswallo: (Stock-Nature-Oblivion)
Sunday, July 18th, 2010 12:24 pm
I know that everyone was horrified and otherwise completely grief-stricken that it was possible that the POST OF COMPLETE AWESOMENESS yesterday was the pinnacle of journal writing for me. You were wrong! Because I feel another awesome post coming on!

Unfortunately I have to just jump in and get all my feet wet because if I take the time to decide what order this needs to go in, it will be lost for all time! To the journal, gentle readers!

Guys, I took THREE showers yesterday! Three. Only they weren't all actual showers. The first one was. It was early, I needed to bathe. I did. Then we had Hailey's party and there was swimming and when I got back from that I had to jump in the shower again because I DON'T WANT MY BEAUTIFUL RED HAIR TO BECOME NOT RED! So, I rinsed off the chlorine and conditioned my hair. Nice. Then it was later and I was sweaty and uncomfortable because my room has zero airflow in it and I was gearing up for the Night of Epic Tweeting while watching a bad SyFy movie. So I jumped in the shower again.

Which leads to the Night of Epic Tweeting. I don't even know how to explain what happened there. I had salsa and a bad movie and all of a sudden I was tweeting constantly and I COULDN'T STOP! I'd apologize to all my followers for that but when I went back and re-read it this morning it was entirely accurate. Like, I could get a job writing up pithy, scene by scene comments on movies and people would be all "Whoa! That was entirely accurate. Did you see that? It was exactly as she described it! This girl is gooooood!"

And I thought I'd found my calling in life when I started writing werewolf porn. It's like I'm multi-dimensional now or something.

Finally, I don't know how many peeps have seen this already, but this song is catching my fancy right now (I think it was originally featured on SYTYCD, FYI). This is a live version so it's a little different from the single (a little rougher, still good) and I can't stop listening to it. I even broke down and purchased it from iTunes.


That's it. I make no promises that I won't be back later. And I may just Tweet the shit out of something in the meantime. Fear me!
Later.
soulswallo: (Books-SK-Bad Moon Rising)
Sunday, April 25th, 2010 09:56 pm
The baby = 5 days late. Amb came over and we went to the pool because she's GINORMAS and I think I got a teeny, tiny bit of a sunburn. Maybe it's just the beginning of a tan. Sometimes it's hard to tell with me.

Anyway. I wrote another few hundred words on the story that still rattling around in my head. Not the one I've been posting at [livejournal.com profile] bay12_fic, the other one. The one that only I can see at this point. The one that I've been plotting for.ever. The amazing thing? I haven't killed anyone off yet. Don't worry, though, there's still time. Lots and lots of time. The blood and guts can wait for a few more pages. *evil laugh that sounds more diabolical than I can actually make it*

In sad news that should be happy but makes me feel a little bit empty inside, I finished the last two books that are currently out in the Dark-Hunter series. I really don't know what to do with myself now. I mean, I read 17 books (of the 18 because book #3 is still being borrowed. *cough*Jenn*cough*) and one short story in 9 days. I'm adrift. I found myself looking at the Dark-Hunter manga this morning and thinking "Hmmm, that would be a good thing, right?" Except that I don't want to pay $20 for a two part comic that is essentially book #2 which I read a week ago. It makes sense in my head. Truly.

So.
Book #75 - Dream Warrior (Dark-Hunter #18 and/or Dream-Hunters #4) by Sherrilyn Kenyon - This book opened up a whole new can of worms. Which is funny because once that can opens and you can look back on the clues and hints that have been dropped in previous books, you can see that there's a lot of stuff that's been leading up to this. A.Lot. Honestly, I love when a series is so well put together that every book deepens the mythology. So. Jericho is a Titan who used to be the right hand of Zeus before he laid down his sword and shield and walked away from it all. With a dark power rising and causing the pantheon to fracture, Delphine is sent in to recruit Jericho to the side of the Gods before all is lost. The burning question is: Why would a God who has been banished from Olympus and stripped of his power want to help the very Gods who turned him aside when he needed them most? I liked that Delphine was given some very big ties to characters in previous books and the morality of what Zeus did to the Dream-Hunters was explored. The recurring theme that you can't circumvent something that's fated to be (Acheron, anyone?) is thrust front and center again. It looks like there's going to be a showdown on Olympus. I'm curious how this is going to play out.

-and-

Book #76 - Bad Moon Rising (Dark-Hunter #19) by Sherrilyn Kenyon - I've been waiting for Fang's story since he was attacked and left comatose in Book #6. A Katagari wolf of the Kattalakis clan, Fang is caught in the Nether Realm after he is attacked by Daimons and has part of his soul stolen. The only person who he can connect with in the real world is Aimee Peltier, the only daughter of the Peltier bear clan. As he fights demons in the Nether Realm, she hunts down the Daimons who stole his soul to free him. Even if he finds a way free, they both know that a wolf and a bear can't be together. It's against the laws of the Omegrion, the very laws that both their families are sworn to uphold. It's interesting how the Were-Hunters are stratified; there are the soldiers of both races, the leaders, the Aristi. It also seems that a lot of Katagari are mated to Arcadians or humans. I'm wondering if this is going to have an impact somewhere down the line. Hmm.

It's taken me almost an hour to write this post up. Wow. FYI, yesterday's post was my 2,000th post here on LJ. That is a lot of words.
On that note, I'm out.
Later.
soulswallo: (TVD-Elena-Laughing and lovely)
Thursday, April 8th, 2010 09:13 pm
I'm a little bit in love with my new layout over at [livejournal.com profile] bay12_fic. Lovely!

I don't like lime flavored candy. However, I have a serious weakness for lemon flavored. I also don't like most strawberry flavored things. I like real strawberries, but strawberry flavor tastes so fake to me. Blech.

My mom and I took Hailey and Cole up to the pool today. It was a little too much on the breezy side for me. I had the towels draped over me trying to keep from shivering. Cole tells me that the pool was a nice temperature, but I'm not sure if I'm going to believe him.

I read two books today ...
Book #53 - Swallowing Darkness (Meredith Gentry #7) by Laurell K. Hamilton - This book closes out the story arc that's been driving the series since book 1. Merry is pregnant. According to the rules her Aunt set down for her, she will become Queen of the Unseelie Court. More, more, more )

-and-

Book #54 - Divine Misdemeanors (Meredith Gentry #8) by Laurell K. Hamilton - Having taken her men and voluntarily exiled herself to LA, Merry gets caught up in the middle of a series of murders of a group of demi-Fey. The wild magic is still riding her and causing her consorts to gain power at every turn. Some of the humans she saved while escaping the Unseelie Court have gained power as well, something that's nearly unheard of. Not quite as tight a story arc as in the previous books, but still engaging and fun to read.

I did write today, but not much. I wrote a page or so at the pool but I couldn't sit comfortably in the chair. It just didn't work out well.

I think tomorrow is going to be Verizon day. I'm ready. I'm ready to get myself a new phone. Wish me shiny, techy things.

And now I'm done. I have to get started on all the lovely shows that I watch on Thursday.
Later.
soulswallo: (Books-KH-Black Magic Sanction-Rachel/Bis)
Thursday, March 25th, 2010 08:32 pm
Dudes. Is it me or has lj (and the internet in general, come to think of it) been slow lately? Not slow, like not loading quickly but slow like not a whole lot going on. Just curious. I obviously have way too much to say and will just keep posting my posts and writing my journal and being my muse's little bitch. Word!

Here's my story for the day. I painted my toes green for St. Patrick's day. Actually, I painted them 2 days after, so it was more for me. Not really the point of the story. I hated the color. Hated it. With the blinding fury of a thousand suns. I have no idea why it took me a week to take it off. Every time I looked at it I wanted to hurl. Barf. So I took it off today and although I was going to paint them red or pink or ANYTHING that wasn't green ... well, I haven't yet. And I still like them better than that nauseating green.

Did I mention that I might possibly have a pub-date planned with the always scintillating [livejournal.com profile] malkovich03 on Saturday?. I'd know for certain if she'd respond to my comments or texts. Or if I just called her and talked to her. Where's the fun in that, though? I'd rather be filled with righteous indignation that my BFF doesn't like to return my texts. What a jerk. :)

I also have my other BFF coming down from the Seattle area for a visit at the beginning of next week. Awesome. Since I royally screwed up the last time she visited (by not being here!) we haven't had a good get-together in a while. It's going to be FUN!

Yes. I did read a book today. Thank you for asking!
Book #37 - White Witch, Black Curse (Rachel Morgan/The Hollows #7) by Kim Harrison - The last time I read this book was around this time last year and what a difference reading it back to back with the others in the series makes. Whoa. So much continuity and little things that I felt like I missed the first time around. The bulk of this story revolves around Rachel helping the FIB hunt down a banshee running loose in the city while looking into Kisten's death. Her latest almost-boyfriend takes a step up and then a big step back and another man from Rachel's past puts in a ghostly appearance. There are more and more interactions with Al (which I enjoy immensely) and Trent and she butt heads as usual. I loved the conclusions of Kisten's story. Well, I didn't love it because I liked the guy, but I loved how Rachel was able to honor his memory. All in all, a good book with lots of blood and guts and flaming balls of Ever-After. Sweet!

FYI for [livejournal.com profile] oddmonster, I'm re-reading the 8th book in this series which I read earlier this month. According to Kelly's Rules of Book Counting for the New Millennium, I will not be claiming it as another book read. You have a day of reprieve. Take it, my friend. Take it and read the shit out of it!

In writing news, I went back and re-read the chapter I wrote yesterday and I still like where it's going. I added another 800-900 words which brought it more in line with the word count I was aiming for. The only thing that's still make me look at it with perplexity is that I might have to go back and tweak a few scenes from earlier chapters to make the tangent the storyline is heading off to make more complete sense.

It's cool. I can do that.
Okay. I think I have enough time built into my The Vampire Diaries recording to be able to skip all the commercials now.
That means that I am out of here!
Later!
soulswallo: (Stock-Nature-Oblivion)
Monday, March 22nd, 2010 09:31 pm
I've washed my hair twice since I had it dyed and the color still looks gooooood. I'm such a happy girl. It's funny how I always seem to roll back around to the reds with my hair. I might dabble in the blonds and browns (not the black, though, because my coloring just wouldn't work with it) but red has a siren call that keeps me coming back for more.

Book. Me. Book. Reading is good.
Book #34 - A Fistful of Charms (Rachel Morgan/The Hollows #4) by Kim Harrison - When word comes around that Rachel's old boyfriend is in trouble, Rachel does what she does best and drops everything to rush headlong into danger. Her rescue mission draws her from Cincinnati to an island populated by several packs of werewolves who want what Nick has stolen and who aren't afraid to kill to get it. This is the book where Rachel begins to accept that her ability to kindle demon magic isn't bad. If she's not hurting anyone to twist the curse and she's not hurting anyone by casting the curse itself, it doesn't make her a black witch. It just makes her someone who likes to play with dangerous things. Bringing the storyline with Nick back around helps tie up some loose ends and put his betrayal behind her. More or less. There wasn't enough Trent/Rachel interaction for my liking, but I can wait. I can wait.

I was re-reading what I've written for Chapter 5 of my multi-chapter epic (*ahem* chapter 4 - read it. Please. *ahem*) and although what I've written in it so far it something that both needs to happen and needs to happen now, I'm kinda stumped as to where the rest of the chapter is going to go to. Does that make sense? The point of the chapter has played itself out and I'm only 500 or so words into it. That's not a chapter. That's a ... something smaller than a chapter. Now I have to have a long look at what's going to happen in the near future with Maia and her ghosts and decide what I can move forward without making the chapter either excrutiatingly long or incoherent.

Speaking of which, I kinda see why some people wait to post until they have a couple of chapters written (whether it's fanfic or original) because as I'm getting deeper into the story I see that there are some things that either should have been expanded on at the time or simply laid out a bit differently. Yes, I can go back and make changes, but ... oh, bother! That was me expressing mild frustration. I can also see a difference between the first chapter and the following chapters in regards to my writing style. Since the first was supposed to be a completely contained story, I wrote Maia's voice a bit differently than I wrote her later. Bother, again. Once again, fixable. I know that. It's just that it would have been nice to present a story in it's entirety that I wasn't constantly going back and thinking about fixing just so.

Those are my writing woes.

Do you all feel so bad for me? Yeah. Don't. I'm unemployed, I get to read all day long and write until my eyes hurt and my fingers cramp. It's kinda the best time I've ever had!

I'm done now.
Later.
soulswallo: (DW-Tardis-Take me away)
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 09:15 pm
First things first ... I finally got chapter 3 of my multi-chapter epic posted. Finally. The thing's been done since Friday. You'd think it would be easy to type up and post. But no.

Chapter 3

Overall I was happy with it. It clocked in at a lot more words than the previous chapter and I like the voice I've given Maia. I also have some ideas for what the cover will look like. I mean, I have ideas, I'm just not sure if I can translate what's in my head to something on the screen. Words I can do. Photoshopping, not so well. Yet, I want to try. Mostly because it makes me feel powerful that this entire story is spilling out of my head. Everything about it is coming from me. Even the things that don't make sense. Although I hope the non-sense making things are few and far between.

I did read a book today. I know. You're all shocked.
Book #28 - Dime Store Magic (Women of the Otherworld #3) by Kelley Armstrong - The first in the series to not feature Elena as the narrator, this book follows Paige Winterbourne (one of the witches from the previous book) and her young charge Savannah. Fighting a custody battle for Savannah against one of the most powerful Cabals in the US, Paige finds herself accepting help from an unlikely source, lawyer/sorcerer Lucas Cortez. Where book 2 introduced the other Supernatural races to us, book 3 expands on them practically exponentially. Paige is caught between the ways of her old-fashioned Coven and the good she knows she can do for others if she can break out of the mold the Coven is setting for her. Savannah is spunky, sometimes spoiled and a wicked strong spell caster. Lucas is the perfect foil for Paige and it's about time that someone realizes that witches and sorcerers are stronger together than they are apart. I'm thrilled to be immersing myself in this series all over again.

I've almost finished the next in the series. Sweet.

I wrote, read and napped today. Not in that order. Man, I have to admit that this time change hit me hard today. It might be the complete lack of sleep I've been getting lately coupled with the time change. It was brutal trying to stay awake this morning. Now, I could go to bed earlier, but ... ehh. Why would I want to do that? It's so lovely and quiet in the dark hours of the night. Or the morning. Whatever. It gives me lots of time to plot and read and plot some more.

Speaking of which, I'm back over at my sister's house tomorrow. Hopefully it will be the last day. The hardwood is done, they only have the carpeting left to install. I've been told that it should take a few hours at the most. Good. Good good good. Her house is so cold that I end up checking for frostbite while I'm there. It's always enjoyable when your fingers are too cold to write. Or type. Or anything. You might be thinking that I should turn on the heater, but I do. However, with the workers going in and out it doesn't do much good. So I layer up and huddle. It works marginally well.

Have I mentioned how behind I am on TV shows? A lot. A lot behind. Days and days. Or maybe a week. I haven't watch the Lost from last week yet if that tells you anything. Books. They are my downfall.

And I'm done!
Later!
soulswallo: (Books-KH-Black Magic Sanction-Rachel/Bis)
Saturday, March 13th, 2010 08:01 pm
I have no idea what has put in this almighty pissy mood that's hovering over me, but there it is. Clawing and screeching and making me glare. This mood has ensured that the kids are driving me bananas, Cole especially. Yes. I do remember how much I missed him when he was gone, but his "I'm so helpless" act is getting really old. I swear to you that when he acts like that I believe he couldn't find toilet paper while he was sitting on the pot. Arrgh! Maybe I've been too lenient with him lately, but I've had it today. Had.it. I've reached the point where I've told him that if his attitude doesn't magically fix itself he's not going to go to Gamestop tomorrow to pick up the Pokemon game he pre-ordered. We haven't paid for it yet, just put down a deposit, and I'd be willing to lose the deposit just to prove that I'm serious.

Kids.

I did manage to get a book read. Well, a book and a short story ...
Book #24.5 - Infusion by Kelley Armstrong - Another short story set in her Otherworld universe, this one following the events leading up to Pack leader Jeremy Danver's birth. Not as enlightening as the last SS I read by her, but (if I'm looking at it honestly) it's harder to get to know a character who you haven't met in a previous book in a few short chapters. Still, it was interesting, well written and raised some questions about who Jeremy's mother was and what her endgame was in having a child by a Werewolf. I'd be interested in finding out more.

-and-

Book #25 - Black Magic Sanction (Rachel Morgan/The Hollows #8) by Kim Harrison - Awesome, another series that I'm feeling to urge to go back and re-read from the beginning. Where am I going to find the time? I think this might be one of my favorites in the series. I liked that Rachel is finally accepting that she can twist demon curses. Is she a demon? Not exactly, but she's not strictly a witch either. She can do things that both can do and that makes her unique. It also puts her in the sticky situation of being wanted by both the governing witch coven and the crazy as a fruit-cake lead demon. Throw in her demon mentor, an ex-flame who's betrayed her more than once, and a potential new man who can twist a curse faster than she can and you've got a pretty jam-packed book. I would have liked to see more Trent, but I'm content to wait and let those two play out in later books (what? I can have a twisted pairing if I want to).

Umm ... I've read 11 books so far in March. On the 13th. And and and I read two of those books more than once. Cover to cover. One part of me feels like I should slow down but there's another part that's yelling "Fuck, yeah! Read those books!"

*face palm*

In other news that isn't "read a book, feed the soul" related ... I've been backing up this journal over at Dreamwidth. I do it every other week or so, plus I have this entire journal dl-ed to a LJ Archive file on my comp. Is that a bit much? I just keep thinking that the reason I'm writing this stuff is so I can remember it. Not just the books or anything because I can remember books pretty well. It's all the other stuff. The stupid little the things that make me smile or snarl or whatever. And the not so stupid or little other things that I just want to remember. Like working at the bank. Although it's not something I want to dwell on day in and day out, I want to remember how miserable I was there so I can remember that it's not something I need to be stuck with for all eternity (in the event that I do have to get a job soon and the only one I can get is at another bank).

Does that make sense? I want to remember that there are always options out there.

Okay. Getting maudlin, here. Going to go. Don't want to ruin the fun.
I might have part 3 of my multi-chapter epic up tonight. I might not. It depends on whether or not I can shake this funk off.
I'm out!
soulswallo: (Birthday cupcakes)
Friday, February 26th, 2010 09:32 am
First off ... Happy Birthday, [livejournal.com profile] iron_knife!

Second ... Part 2 of the Epic is posted ... The Dream in Motion.

If you like the story, please feel free to follow [livejournal.com profile] bay12_fic. I won't mind. Seriously.

Has anybody tried Starbucks new Dark Cherry Mocha? OMG! So good! I haven't had Starbucks in a while (saving money, you know!) and this is just divine!

I'm going to have my taxes done tomorrow. I think I have all my paperwork together. I think. I'm fairly well organized during the year so it's not a huge deal and I don't have to go hunting for receipts and such, but I did have to add up my health care expenses and make sure that it all matched up with the paperwork. Ehh. It's done. Tomorrow it'll be out of my hands.

I have FIVE books in my currently reading queue on Goodreads! FIVE! I think I'll finish the two that I'm a good way into and let the other three percolate for a bit. Five. Yikes.

I have to finish cleaning the house now. And figure out where the next chapter is going. let's see how quickly that one gets up.
Later!
soulswallo: (4400-Maia-Chance)
Friday, February 19th, 2010 07:18 pm
I was having a thought earlier about [livejournal.com profile] blabapalooza and something new I'd like to incorporate there, but then I started really thinking about it and I'm not sure if it's too much overlap with what we already do. Hmm ... maybe I should run it by [livejournal.com profile] jenah and see what her feeling are on it.

For those that don't know, Blab is a movie review site run by Jenn and myself. The whole idea is to give people an idea of movies that are worth skipping or those that are must-sees (I tend to focus on the bad SyFy channel movies, while some of our reviewers go for movies that are still in the theater). It doesn't see a huge amount of traffic or anything, but we have fun. In the past I've done reviews on "special edition" movies on DVD that don't have enough extras to warrant shelling out the bucks, especially if you already own the original or theatrical copy. I've been toying with the idea of a "movies to watch even though I don't have time to review them" type of thing. I have a list of over 10 movies that I've been trying to review for a couple of weeks. You'd think that not working would give me the time to do those reviews. Umm. That does not appear to be the case.

I've kinda lost the point I was trying to make here. I guess I'm just wondering if it's worth it to post a list of decent, little-known movies without a detailed review. Would anybody be interested in watching a movie based on a "I think this movie is grand!" recommendation without knowing what it is about the movie that I think makes the movie worth watching?

Does that even make sense? I've thought myself into a tizzy here! I really don't know what I'm trying to say anymore.

Okay. I guess I'll just move on.

Cole spent the day up in San Francisco with his dad at the Academy of Science. It sounds like he had a good time. He took pictures of a giant cockroach just to gross me out. Thanks, Cole!

I do believe I'm done now. I'm seriously tired of having to correct all of my spelling mistakes. I'm not even going to proofread this anymore because I DON'T WANT TO!
Later!