Nothing else matters ...

I did a whole lot of nothing today. Well... let me rephrase that: I did a whole lot of nothing outside of my house today. In fact, I barely got dressed. However, I finished up my epic retagging project over at Reading the Paranormal. It has made me hurt. Physically. My arm is aching from wrist to elbow. Now, it admittedly might have been me sleeping on it wrong or something (as an aside, my shoulder feels like I have a boulder under it) but I have a sinking suspicion that it was all the clicking and typing I was doing. I also have the food shakes at the moment. As in, I'm questioning whether I remembered to eat or not. Yeah, I really don't remember. Whatever. It'll go away. Or I'll die. I'm sure one of those things is bound to happen.

Oh, I also read a book. Like you didn't know that!
Book #290 - Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger Brotherhood #6) by J.R. Ward - These books are not light reading. For all that they're oversexed and considered to be paranormal romances, they do some pretty heavy lifting. Plus, they are full of emotion. Or they elicit a rather strong emotional response from me. I didn't cry this time, though. I totally sucked it up and held it in. Barely, but I managed.

Since my arm feels like it's going to fall off and I might possibly die from forgetting to eat, I'm going to go. I have another 2 books and one short story to read by the end of this weekend. I'd best get to it.

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.

Cole has a book report due on Friday and there's no way he's going to be able to get the book he's doing it on read between now and then. Part of this is my fault because I talked him into the book and I think it's a little more than his poor brain can handle. The book? The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King.

First off, in defense of my poor mothering skills, I haven't read that book in years and I had truly forgotten how much swearing and such there was in it. Until Cole asked me what "fucking rectal palp" meant, that is. Umm... What? He didn't actually ask me, mind you, but he pointed it out on the page and asked me to define it. *face palm*

So, I'm trying to figure out how to handle this. If it was a book that I thought he simply wasn't applying himself to finish I'd probably just let him deal with the fallout but the poor kid has been reading every night and he's only halfway through the book. I really feel guilty about this. I have a tendency to forget that most people can't read 2 or 3 books a day.

I know this is probably a big, flashing neon sign of what not to do in the parenting handbook but I think I'm going to outline the rest of the book for him and help him with the book report. I've already started him on a new book, one that doesn't involve the word "fuck" in any way, shape or form. Amazingly, he's about 15 pages into it. This particular book would be roughly a two hour book for me, so I figure he'll be able to finish it within the week and get a good start on his NEXT book report without any help from me.

Arrgh. I totally fail at this mommy thing.

Okay. Stuff that also involves books, but in a very different way.
Book #208 - Mistress to the Beast by Eve Vaughn - Honestly, I didn't care for it. I just ... no.

30 days of books... Day 28 - Dragons! And Napoleon! Boo-yah!
In My Mailbox - An embarrassment of riches. Seriously. If you're looking for free e-book downloads, look no further!
100 Post Round-Up - I've been blogging at Reading the Paranormal for 38 days and I've posted 100 entries. I've also been accepted as a guest blogger (as needed) at a well-established site and picked up a ton of new authors that I really enjoy. Not bad for 5 weeks worth of blogging.

Before I sign off for the night...
Happy Birthday to my oldest and youngest sisters, Robin and Heather!
12 years apart, same birthday. Coolness.

Alright! I'm out.
Later.

Okay, guys. I did it. I printed out my unedited manuscript for a read-through/first-pass edit. This is just to catch all the glaring errors, whether they're grammatical, plot or whatever. I'll be taking notes while I'm reading to patch up any major plot holes and to smooth out whatever rough edges I run across.

I'm going to be honest here, I'm a little terrified of this part of the writing process. It's overwhelming and mind-boggling and I've never done something for a project of this size. The fear ratcheted up about 300% after I took a good, long look at this ...

Holy smokes. That's a lot of paper. I'm skimming through it in a really haphazard way and I don't remember writing some of it. I was possessed or something. Oh, well, as long as the writing's good who am I to complain?

Anyway. Bookish stuff.
30 days of books... Day 17 - Anthologies are my Kryptonite.
Waiting on Wednesday - The Iron Duke - Steampunk is my genre of choice this week. Zombies are always a plus.

I'm still reading Dreadnought and I'm so in love with it it's ridiculous. Don't you love it when a book just sucks you in and pummels you with delicious words? I do.

So there you have it.
Later.

Yo! Tomorrow, Hailey has a soccer game at 10 AM. That means that I'll start tweeting around 9:30 or 9:45. That's right, guys, I'll be checking for the shambling Zombie horde and fending off signs of the apocalypse as I duck and cover while those around me scream "ATTACK!" Don't worry, I've managed to evade the Zombies thus far, I'm sure I'll make it out alive this weekend as well.

Randomly, while debating which book I was planning on buying next on Twitter (the choices were Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, White Cat by Holly Black or Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane), I got a tweet from Jackson Pearce telling me that I should totally go with her book. So I'm going with Sisters Red. More or less. I'm also breaking down and getting Unholy Ghosts. The point of all this is that in this day and age I love how authors, actors, etc can jump in and converse with their fans. It's just ... neat.

So.
Book #191 - Devil's Due (Red Letter Days #2) by Rachel Caine - Surprisingly good. Especially for a Silhouette Bombshell book.
30 days of books... Day 12 - The Dragonriders of Pern is a ginormous series. No fooling.

Okay. I'm off to read A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. Gothic mansions are love!
Later.

Random Cole moment:
*Cole's opening a magazine I got in the mail*
Me: What are you doing?
Cole: Opening your magazine.
Me: NO!
Cole: Why not?
Me: It could be an adult magazine.
Cole *flipping the magazine over and staring at it*: It's a cooking magazine.
Me: Maybe it's an ADULT cooking magazine.
Cole: What?
Me: You know, like they cook broccoli and stuff. Adult stuff.
Cole *face palm*

I KNOW! I have way too much time on my hands.

Random bookish stuff:
I might have finished a book or two.
Book #187 - Touching Darkness (Midnighters #2) by Scott Westerfeld - Much better than I imagined it would be.
Book #188 - Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins - Loved it. Love love loved it.

30 days of books... day 9 - Mysteriously Mysterious
Teaser Tuesday - Mockingjay, City of Bones and Blue Noon.

Cole was home sick again today. He'll be back in school tomorrow. Even though his stomach is still hurting. Poor guy.

Okay. I'm outta here.
Later.

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.

I have one more day to finish my epic werewolf novel before I lose the chance to treat myself to a Kindle book. ONE DAY! I've written a few hundred words today but I refuse to post my word count until tomorrow. I refuse.

Anyway. Bookish stuff that is not the one I'm attempting to write:
30 days of books... day 4

And...
Book #182 - Compromising Positions by Jenna Bayley-Burke
Book #183 - Her Dark Angel (Her Angel #1) by Felicity Heaton

As a random tidbit, while browsing through Amazon last night I was checking out the top free Kindle books (which I do often since I had to stop actually PAYING for books) and there were a ton of new books on there. Books that looked good. I went on a downloading spree. I think I nabbed 11 new books. Sweet! Here ... Free stuff is good. You have to wade through some of the later pages, but FREE BOOKS!

Okay. I'm off to finish that damn novel. Then I get to take a small break and read The Hunger Games series. Then I get to go back to the novel and make it better. Then I die slowly when I send it out to be looked over by a trusted friend. Then I do it all again.

Later.

I think I'm going to have to resort to dangling a carrot in front of my nose to get this damn book finished. I think that if I can finish it by Friday I'll give myself permission to buy whatever Kindle book my little heart desires. Any book. Any price. Boo-yah!

Yeah, so I haven't written anything today on the epic. However, I did make a bunch of fan pages ...
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Clementine by Cherie Priest
Clementine uses a different template than I normally use through Squidoo so it's a wee bit different from some of my other pages. I'm totally branching out or something.

I also posted some bookish things ...
Book #181 - Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare
30 days of books - day 2
Teaser Tuesday

I signed up with some writing websites this morning to try to get my writing on. Writing, as in, not recreational but article writing, etc. Yeah, I've decided that I want to be a professional blogger. That would rock hard! I could totally sit around all day with no shoes on and write and complain about how cold my toes are. Much like I already do. Except that they'd pay me for it! Win/win/win.

Cole has been glued to his 360 since he got home from school. For those that don't have gamer boys, Halo: Reach came out today. Apparently it's super cool and makes the boys yell very loudly at the TV. In my experience, at least.
Pictorial proof of what a cool mom I am:

I went and picked it up so that it would be here when he got home from school. And he's been lost to me since.

Okay. I have a very important epic werewolf novel to complete!
Later.

Another non-writing day. Once again, I opened Word so there might be something done on it tonight. You know, the way this ending to the book is hanging over me is killing me. I can see the ending. I know where it needs to go. Why can't I get to that point?

Anyway. Despite the lack of writing, I still feel marginally accomplished.
I reviewed a book: Book #180 - City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3) by Cassandra Clare

Made themed banners for the random book memes I'm committing myself to:
On My Wishlist
Waiting on Wednesday

And started a fanpage or whatever you want to call it for the Mortal Instruments series:
The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

Dude, the series is really that good.

Random venting moment: I was at Target today and I had some coupons. As the guy was picking the stuff off the conveyor belt to scan it, he left the coupons on the conveyor belt. Of course 2 out of the 3 got sucked under and sent into an alternate dimension. I pointed it out as soon as it happened figuring that since he had been the one to put them on the moving conveyor belt, I'd still get the discount for them. I even knew how much they were for. The guy apologizes nicely and tells me there's nothing he can do. Wait. What? Dude. You put my coupons, worth $1.55 for coffee and salsa, on the fucking moving belt and let them get sucked under and now you're not going to give me my discount? I wasn't asking for 100s of dollars off. One dollar and 55 cents. I blinked at him a few times. He apologized a little more. I walked away. I didn't buy the things I had the coupons for because why the fuck do I want to pay full price because the cashier's an idiot. Now I'm put out. And still a little peeved. I guess I could have made a fuss, but I was slightly dumbfounded that the guy didn't even try to help me. That's not normal at that Target. That's Walmart behavior. Trust me, they've done that sort of thing to me before.

Ehh. I ended up channeling my minor anger into making web pages, so I guess something good came out of it.

I guess.

I'm done now.
Later.