12:23

12:23 by Patrick F. Johnson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If I were to rate 12:23 on the first half alone, my cursor would be hovering somewhere between four and five stars. In the beginning I was totally immersed in this novella. I've never seen this concept done before; it's exciting and unique, with two very likable protagonists.

Unfortunately the story loses momentum for me once the main players enter the gun store. While I love the book-within-a-book concept, the fact that Kim, Dylan, and Denny all know the immediate future makes the unfolding events feel underwhelming. Johnson tries to resolve this by withholding outcomes from the reader, but it doesn't really help. As a reader you want to see the main characters struggle through decisions in live-time, not have everything already decided for them--going through the motions simply because they're following a script in their head. (view spoiler)[The alien invasion was also too rushed. I do see what Johnson was going for, but it was a lot of last-minute exposition to absorb within very few pages. (hide spoiler)] I wish Johnson had fleshed this out into a full-fledged novel, because he hedges on some good, thoughtful ideas, but chooses to skim over major events like a news report instead of taking the time to truly let the reader experience everything firsthand.

The story would be more interesting, too, if it was simply Kim and Dylan with no spouses. Kim/Peggy often felt like the same person, along with Dylan/Darius (all Mary Sues, as noted by the author), so it seemed redundant and unnecessary to feature all of them as characters and made me less invested in any of them. Once the couples joined forces in the gun shop, I could feel Johnson's strain as he tried to give everyone a voice in a situation where there is too many people and not enough distinct personalities.

Despite these shortcomings, 12:23 really is a fun and thought-provoking read with a great premise and some fun, unexpected SciFi sequences. If you're ready for a totally original concept, I say give it a go.

Cringy Character Tropes

I have a few character tropes for heroines that kinda make me want to throw my Kindle at the wall. I don't have anything really insightful to say about them--if you're an avid reader, you've come across these tropes a few times yourself, and have likewise come across people like me who are also irked by them. But I have to get these out of my system, so here goes.

Trope #1: The Short Fuse Chick
This protagonist is moody and angsty. Other than her one best friend who she confides in, she has a tendency to treat people like crap, especially the boy she has a crush on. She also tends to fall into teenage-cliches, such as perpetually being annoyed at her siblings and despising her parents. That is--if her parents are alive. Often her angst is attributed to the fact that one or both of her parents were killed when she was a kid. Her childhood is often tragic, but (in my humble opinion) no excuse to be a jerk to everyone all the time.

Trope #2: The Wet Blanket
This protagonist has no personality. Onwardly she may have original thoughts and clever ideas, but outwardly she is dull and has nothing interesting to say. Yet, for reasons unknown, men vie for her attention (think Bella from Twilight, here). She may be pretty, or plain in appearance...it doesn't matter. Despite her doldrum demeanor, she exudes some kind of pheromones that make every girl want to be her best friend and every guy want to be her boyfriend. Because of her mysterious desirability (which is in no way backed up by one iota of personality), these heroines are often involved in another annoying trope: love triangles.

Trope #3: The Immune Bad Ass
This protagonist wears leather pants, wields weaponry with the ease of an added appendage, has ninja fighting skills, drinks her coffee black, and would never be caught dead in a dress. Basically she's toxic masculinity with a vagina. She almost never loses a battle and has zero flaws, other than being emotionally unavailable and refusing to let anyone get close to her. Males in her world often serve as sidekicks to her badassery, or comic relief. Some feminist authors fall for this trope believing that giving their heroine any emotions, softness, or traits typically associated with femininity is making her weak. Whereas I'm scratching my head thinking "Um, why can't a female be 'girly' and a badass? (Cue Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Don't get me wrong, I love a strong heroine and can't stand Mary Sues. But there needs to be a balance here, because (other than in comic books) very few readers can connect to heroines that are essentially emotionless fighting machines. Relatability is the key to connection, and this character is totally unrelatable. 

I wonder if these tropes bother others? I am pretty picky. To be fair, none of these are deal-breakers, but they will make me roll my eyes and care less about the MC, which in turn makes me feel less invested in the outcome of the story. On the other end of that, I have awesome character tropes that I adore, but I'll save that for a future post.

When the Power is Gone

When the Power Is Gone by P.A. Glaspy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The writing is mediocre, but the story is intriguing and the survival tips are interesting.

I had two major issues with the book that would have been dealbreakers if this were any lesser of a story:

1. The characters lack unique voices. All of the men sound like the same person. I really can't tell the difference between Bob, Bryan, Bill (is there a Bill?), Ryan, and so on. One might say this is simply because there's a huge cast of characters, but this was a problem for me even in the beginning of the novel, when there was only five. The only male characters who stand out as individuals are Russ (due to him being the group's leader) and Mike, due to the author giving him more 'screen time'.
2. The lack of water in the town is never addressed. This is a huge problem. The water turns off fairly early in the novel, and while the human body can survive weeks without food, it's only got about 3 days without water. Glaspy portrays scavengers and marauders who are ransacking homes looking for food and weapons, even attacking others on the street to steal their wagons of supplies; why aren't they searching for water? Or those bad guys who were blocking the interstate and were willing to accept women as a toll payment. Um, no. There's no way they'd be stationed on the interstate or even thinking about sex. They'd be desperately hiking to a stream, river, or lake. The whole town would be dehydrated by this point of the novel. It's like the author totally forgot that running water no longer exists, an unfortunate oversight that almost ruins the experience of the novel for me.

Smaller Issues: The narration was all over the place. One second it's first-person narration and we're in Anne's head, the next second we jump into third-person omniscient narration where we're in "anyone's" head. It's disjointed and scattered. Glaspy would have been better off to choose third person omniscient narration for the entire book. Furthermore, I found the dialogue amongst the men frequently corny and forced. I also thought it was a little unrealistic to demand that the family brush their teeth three times a day in a survival situation. When water is scarce, once a day (tops) is more realistic, especially considering sugary foods are no longer on the menu. Also, in these kinds of stories, I find it a little too convenient when the main characters have access to an amazing farm that happens to have everything they need to not only make life livable again, but to also make you forget there even was an EMP in the first place. This is not very relatable to all of us average Joes out there who (even if we're small scale preppers) will never have such a fabulous advantage. This is why I enjoy books such as One Second After, in which readers get to see what survival looks like from the perspective of characters like you and me who don't have back-up farms up their sleeves with unlimited water, solar panels, etc.

Despite the novel's shortcomings, I found this to be an enjoyable novel and an easy read. I enjoyed Anne's tough-ass character, and overall appreciate the author's no nonsense attitude about people who leech from the system. And added bonus: Glaspy officially convinced me to up my disaster preparations a notch. (Though I'm still crying because I don't have a farm). I've already started the next book in the series and look forward to see what's in store for all of the survivors. 

The Last Librarian

 

The Last Librarian by Brandt Legg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

DNF. Though I have to say, this is the best book I've ever abandoned. Brandt Legg is a writer of beautiful words. I don't think I've ever highlighted so many quotes in one novel.

He expected tears, cornered in that dark part of the cold building which held centuries of lessons and emotion, but all that came was a silent chant from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” He repeated it several times until he stumbled away, bleeding a bloodless pain that he wished would kill him.

This is one of many excerpts that captures raw, unadulterated emotion. The Last Librarian isn't simply a novel. It's poetry that happens to have a storyline.

Why the DNF? Well, at the 89% mark, Legg kills off a character I care deeply about. Maybe when I'm done getting through the five stages of grief I'll go back and finish the novel.

Until then I'm slicing one of your stars, Brandt Legg, for breaking my heart.

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The Royal Companion

The Royal Companion by Tanya Bird

(Book abandoned at 70%)

Ohhhhh no. I should have read the trigger warning. I'm so ticked off.

The Royal Companion started off really well. Smart writing, a lovable heroine...what else can a reader ask for? But at nearly 70% the book becomes unredeemable for me. There are certain unspoken rules in literature you simply don't violate, such as never killing off a beloved animal or including graphic scenes of a child being hurt. Well I think it's time to add a third rule: (view spoiler)[Never have your sixteen year-old virgin protagonist raped and beaten in a gang-bang situation. (hide spoiler)]

Horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE. If this was an adult novel, or even a YA novel based on a true story, then...well...maybe. But for a YA/teen romance? NO.

After reading this scene, I now hate Prince Tyron. His wishy-washiness and cowardice led to him abandoning Aldara and leaving her to the devices of his sadistic brother, and frankly, he should have known better. I have no desire to see him and Aldara end up together. That's a huge problem for a romance novel...if the reader doesn't wants the heroine and hero to find their happy endings together, then the book loses all purpose.

Another thing. Tyron's little brother Prince Stamitos chooses a companion for himself, Sapphira. Not only is his companion smart and witty like Aldara, but she and Stamitos are both quite progressive when compared to others in their kingdom, and neither one has a problem openly showing their love and affection with each other despite the whole Prince/Companion dichotomy. So this begs the question: If Sapphira and Stamitos can have a relationship like this, WHY CAN'T ALDARA AND TYRON? It states in the book's synopsis that "there is no place for love between a prince and his Companion," yet no one seems overly concerned about Stamitos' and Sapphira's relationship. Those two make it look easy. I'm not sure why the author chooses to add these two little lovebirds into her story because they undermine her entire conflict. Stamitos and Sapphira show the reader that the wedge between Tyron and Aldara isn't an external conflict after all; but an internal, perceived conflict created by Tyron. In short, society isn't the problem. Tyron is. Like, dude, your little brother managed to figure this out and rise above it all...why can't you?

Bird did include a trigger warning in her synopsis and that's my bad for not noticing it. Plus the writing, other than a few minor editing misses, is elegantly executed. Bird is a talented writer, her subject matter is simply not my taste.

Dragon Rose

Dragon Rose by Christine Pope
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Dragon Rose, but I did come out of it feeling like I was a little led-on by a synopsis that sounded darker and more exciting than the story actually turned out to be. The blurb on the back isn't misleading at all, it's just that the meat of the story doesn't really start happening until the last 15-20% of the novel. The first 80% features an optimistic Rhyanne adjusting to her new life at Black's Keep.

Between Pope's beautiful world building and an irresistibly compelling storyline, I struggled to put down the novel in the beginning. But after awhile, the story started to get a little tedious and repetitive. Every day seemed to feature the same events for Rhyanne: Wake up, choose in detail what dress to wear, eat breakfast, paint, eat lunch, paint some more, eat dinner with Theron, experience disturbing dreams at night, rinse and repeat. If there was some progression between her and Theron, either emotionally or physically, that would have lent itself to a more engrossing story. But she and her cursed husband never move forward in their relationship until the very end. I'm a huge fan of slow-burning romances, but when it's this agonizingly slow it's not much more exciting than watching grass grow.

I was really craving more from Theron. In some ways I liked his gentleness, but he was almost too mild-mannered and passive. I felt like Pope was playing it too safe with his character. Sometimes Theron's politeness bordered on dull indifference. (view spoiler)[Like when Rhyanne slips into a two-week fugue, he doesn't visit her bedside. Rhyanne gives him mental kudos for coming to her bedroom door, but I'm sorry--that's not much of a gesture when, as far as he's concerned, she's probably dying. (hide spoiler)] Plus his lack of involvement in Rhyanne's daily activities made for a lot of missed opportunities from the reader's point of view. It would have been awesome to have Theron find Rhyanne at the graveyard and witness that whole volatile exchange. Or for Theron to follow Rhyanne to the previous bride's chamber and flounder to explain why that bride wrote down such chilling words. Shoot, it would have been awesome to have Theron burst into Rhyanne's chamber even once in the story just because he couldn't stop thinking about her. By the end of the novel it's clear why Theron kept Rhyanne at bay, but it's still frustrating, and in my opinion, unnecessary. The tension in the novel would have been much more heightened if Rhyanne had brought out the selfish parts of Theron. He was already "nice" with his other brides, Rhyanne should have been the one to drive him to madness and make him forego his altruistic motives. He should have demanded to spend more time with her and constantly tried to be closer to her, and then, knowing the costs, been tormented by his obsession. Ultimately, Theron does such a good job pretending not to care about Rhyanne that even now, having finished the book, I'm still convinced that he isn't overly interested in her.

Pope does a wonderful (though rushed) job of tying all loose ends by the end of the novel, which is something I greatly appreciate. And I really love Rhyanne's character, and Theron's, when you take out the mild-manneredness aspect. Overall I enjoyed the book a lot, hence the four stars and way-too-long-review (I only ramble like this when a book has left an impression on me). I just feel like the author missed some great opportunities to turn this novel from a good little read to an unforgettable one.

Stars Across Time

Stars Across Time by Ruby Lionsdrake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

About 3.5 stars.

This was a cute book, though I found the first half more exciting than the second half. I appreciated the strength and general kick-ass know-how of the protagonist, Andie. Her confidence and determination constantly kept me from feeling depressed or sorry for her, even when she was in predicaments that were truly bleak (such as being stripped down naked in a cave with a bunch of horny scumbags). Sometimes Andie struck me as a little too strong (unrealistically so), but overall she was likable, so no real complaints there.

The love interest, Theron, was adorable. I appreciated how the author chose to give him some sweet boy-like charm, instead of pigeoning him into the larger than life "bad boy" category the whole novel. Moments where Theron was nervous and wanting to impress Andie rang with a lot of sincerity.

One problem I had deals with the technicalities of time travel and a big contradiction that is present in this story. Near the beginning of the book, it is mentioned (I believe through Theron's narration) that kidnapping women from the past is illegal, because it can jack with the future's timeline. That is, a man might kidnap a woman from the past and return to his own timeline to discover that his best friend no longer exists...that whole conundrum. I agree with this premise 100%. This is one of time travel's more universal laws. Yet later in the book, one of Theron's lieutenants discovers that Andie, in her own timeline, (view spoiler)[has a son--one who invents something very important. For that reason Theron can not have Andie remain with him in the future. The mark she leaves in the past is far too important. (hide spoiler)] But how on earth could the lieutenant find this information about Andie's yet-to-occur past when she is STILL in the FUTURE with them? This was such a huge time travel violation that it was hard for me to overcome it enough to enjoy the rest of the story. Andie was stolen from her own time period. She disappeared from a campground at the age of thirty-something and was never found. Until she returns to her own timeline, any records concerning her should reflect that fact.

I did enjoy the dystopian world Lionsdrake created. It was an interesting mix of old and new, swaying from never before seen technology to horse drawn carriages. If a sequel to STARS ACROSS TIME were to come out, I'd give it a chance.

Fifteen Minutes to Live

 

Fifteen Minutes to Live by Phoef Sutton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I downloaded this book for free from Bookbub and it turned out to be one of the best (if not the best) freebies I've ever read. I couldn't put it down. The plot is downright fascinating...it's like a darker, more intense version of "50 First Dates."

The story begins when the protagonist, 36 year old Carl, is visited one fateful night by his high school sweetheart, Jesse, who is acting like no time has elapsed since high school and is behaving like she's seventeen years old (though her face and body reveal her true age). Carl, believing she is perhaps going through a midlife crisis and playing some kind of game with him, allows himself a night of frenzied passion with her. But when Carl discovers that Jesse supposedly died three months earlier in a boating accident, and realizes she is losing her memories of recent events every 15 minutes, Carl is forced to weed through a web of secrets to figure out the truth about Jesse.

I can't say anything beyond this without giving away juicy spoilers, so I'll just state that the novel continues to navigate the reader through all sorts of twists and turns, and every time you have that "a-ha" moment where you think you've learned the truth, another layer is peeled away.

I love the characters. Carl, the MC, isn't perfect, which I find refreshing. He's self-deprecating with amusing quirks like trying to befriend a raccoon...he just comes across as very human. And his love for Jesse, though not always noble or logical, is fierce and moving. And then you have Jesse, who manages to shine with strength and determination, despite the fact that her memory resets ever 15 minutes. Not to mention all of the supposed antagonists--whether it's Martin, Ryan, or even Frank, aren't your cookie cutter "bad guys." They're complex, with redeemable qualities that make it difficult to hate them outright. Frank's character is hands-down the most beautifully conceived/written.

The only reason I would even knick half a star from 15 Minutes to Live is because of a few spelling errors (i.e. spelling the word "hand" as "band," etc.), and because of dropping Kit. I realize Kit is a secondary character who didn't have a huge role to play in moving the plot forward, but I feel that Sutton spent a lot of time developing Kit's character into one that the reader falls in love with, and I wish there had been at least a short scene near the end reconciling him with Carl.

Otherwise, 4.5 stars to an intriguing and gripping read, and I look forward to seeing what else Sutton has out there.

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Entanglement

Entanglement by Dan Rix
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the second book I've read by Dan Rix. Last week I finished reading Broken Symmetry, and I enjoyed that novel so much that I immediately dove into Entanglement. I'll admit, I'm a little underwhelmed. The things that impressed me the most about Broken Symmetry simply weren't there for Entanglement. While Broken Symmetry follows a set of rules which lends authenticity to the story, Entanglement's governing rules are inconsistent, which gives the story less credibility and makes it more difficult to follow.

One of my biggest problems was the lack of adult presence in this book. It sounds like a small thing, but it was just...odd. Where were Aaron's parents throughout the story? The fact that Clive and his sidekick were able to burst into Aaron's house, breaking windows and creating a ruckus, yet neither one of Aaron's parents wake up...it's a pretty big suspension of belief. And wouldn't his parents confront their son the following day about the broken window? Wouldn't they also want to know why Aaron's car was trashed earlier in the novel? Or why Aaron is beat to hell? Aaron's parents didn't even make an appearance at his Ceremony of Halves--something that's supposed to be the biggest moment of their son's life.

It's downright bizarre. We have 17 and 18 year olds bullying each other, fighting, even killing, and yet the adults (other than a couple from the Brotherhood) are completely absent from this story with no explanation offered as to why.

There were other holes too, little areas where details were skipped. For example, in one scene Clive and Amber are on their way to their honeymoon, and in the next scene, she's paying an unsolicited visit to Aaron. How did she get from point A to point B without Clive interfering? I actually thought I had skipped a page or two, because there was simply NO WAY the insanely controlling Clive would allow his Half to drive off without him to meet his nemesis. But evidently, Clive did.

The ending was also a little bit of a let down. I'm a total fan of happy endings, and I'm glad Rix opts for them as well, but I really wanted to see Aaron and Amber pave a new path in their dystopian world by making the decision to love each other despite their obstructed clairvoyant channels. In the beginning of the novel, both characters seemed to despise the idea of halves and mourned for the days when people had the freedom to choose whom to love. This seemed to be setting up for an awesome ending of Aaron and Amber breaking the mold by loving someone who isn't their half. The epilogue hints at this possibility; it's a shame that it's not fleshed out.

Still, I have to give Entanglement three stars for a great plot concept and beautiful writing (seriously, Rix is a master of the written word. His descriptions are gorgeous). I look forward to reading more of his work. 

Into the Dark (formerly Going Gray)

Into the Dark by Brian Spangler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What I loved: Going Gray (original title at time of review) gripped me from the very first sentence. This novel doesn't mess around--it dives into the story right away. The concept is exciting and intriguing--a fog that poisons/burns upon contact. The author does a great job of building intensity and fear. Truly, one wouldn't think that acid-fog would make for a scary book, but there were scenes so terrifying that I had to put the book down for a few minutes and figure out how to breathe properly again. In some ways I would classify this book as YA horror.

What I struggled with: There is very little character development, which made it difficult for me to care about the characters. The protagonist, Emily, has almost no personality. She's not brave, she's not cowardly, she's not smart, she's not shallow, she's just...there. And Peter, the love interest, feels like he was thrown in as an afterthought. He, too, has almost no personality, and the romance that develops between him and Emily is bland. Also, the characters in the mall--I understand that they're minor characters, but there was nothing to distinguish one from the other. Really, I couldn't even tell the difference between Mr. Holcomb and Ms. Parks, which is saying a lot considering they're two different genders. It was disappointing, because trapping a band of survivors in a mall presents such an awesome opportunity for interesting interactions and sub plots, but the characters were so flat that by the end of the book I honestly didn't care what happened to any of them.

Another huge minus is nothing is ever explained. The giant fog machine can't be turned off--why? Why was the machine built in the first place? (We know it was to save humanity, but from what?) The machine is very localized--why can't some military from the opposite side of the country, or the globe, nuke the thing once they realized it had backfired? How does slow-moving fog incapacitate the entire world at once? Why aren't the survivors in the mall able to get ahold of other survivors via radio and such? (Surely there are people in China or Australia who have yet to be overtaken by the fog, given that the machine is local to Emily's town). How was Emily able to walk through the fog toward the machine in the epilogue?

I think Spangler has such a cool concept for this novel, and I don't agree with reviewers who felt it was too reminiscent of Stephen King's "The Mist'--Spangler's novel is definitely its own creature. I only wish he would have given reasons to justify his premise so I didn't have to spend the whole book scratching my head, thinking "Did I miss something?" He includes a lengthy epilogue, but instead of answering questions, it brings up more.

In short: 3 stars for a fabulous concept, awesome intensity, and clever writing; minus 2 for poor character development/exposition. Maybe Book 2 will fill in the gaps? Here's hoping.

Never Never

Never Never by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

OH MY GOD, what a thrill ride. I started reading this book four hours ago and couldn't put it down--I seriously had to shove peanuts down my gullet when my stomach started growling because I couldn't be bothered to stop and eat a decent meal.

Never Never begins with the main characters, Charlie and Silas, both losing their memories at exactly the same time in the middle of their history class. Though they have been dating for four years, Charlie and Silas remember nothing about each other, or their own lives. Friends and family members are now complete strangers. Frightened and confused, they begin working together to unravel the mystery of who they were before their memories vanished, and why this atrocious fate has befallen them. Yet the more they learn about their former lives, the more the mystery deepens.

This novel is intense and fast-paced, full of mystery and intrigue that pulls you through the story so quickly that you don't realize you've hit the end until you're practically gasping for air. It ends with a gripping cliffhanger and a jaw dropping revelation that will make you squeal in delight and growl in outrage that you have to wait until May for the sequel.

The only thing that bothered me were the references to teenagers having sex, especially the scene where Charlie and Silas found their own "sex tape" (to be clear, there was nothing explicit. It was portrayed as a sweet moment via sound only--no visual). Sex might be an everyday part of the teenage world, but as a middle school teacher and mom to a teenaged daughter, it's always going to mess with my moral compass to see it so casually referenced. One comment made by a minor character in the book made it sound like Charlie and Silas had been having sex since the age of 13. I don't think this was the authors' intentions, but it niggled at me.

Also, Charlie's purposely off-putting personality toward Silas occasionally got on my nerves, but overall I thought the two balanced each other well (and Silas is so lovable that you can overlook Charlie's occasional less than personable attitude toward him). I found that I did immensely enjoy both characters, especially Silas's humor and Charlie's acknowledgement of her shortcomings. Charlie has the most room for growth, and I look forward to seeing more of that in the next book.

I rarely find a novel worthy of five stars--much less a novella--but based on sheer enjoyment-factor, Never Never is five stars hands-down for me. But BE FOREWARNED: No questions are answered. This whole book is tension-building only (with a hell of a cliffhanger). I've already pre-ordered the sequel and now have to figure out a way to go to sleep without being able to scratch my itch for the next installment of Charlie's and Silas's story.

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True Colors

True Colors by Melissa Pearl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, let's see.

The premise of this novel is completely unique: Caitlyn is given the gift (or the curse) of seeing what lies beneath people's "masks"--that is, she can see what emotions hide beneath the surface of each person (which also speaks volumes to her about who that person really is--good, evil, happy, insecure, etc.). SO COOL. Seriously, I wish I had thought of this.

And I read this book in one sitting. So there was definitely enough to keep me intrigued.

That being said, there were a few things that left me feeling disappointed.

First, why-oh-why did Eric, the love interest, have to be so hot? (I know--strange complaint, but hear me out). From the very first chapter, Caity is swooning (literally, she swoons) over her hot, model-looking neighbor. Later she receives her unmasking gift, and she discovers that not only is Eric gorgeous, but unlike so many of the other people in her life, he is actually sincere. So basically the beautiful boy next door turns out to be beautiful on the inside too. Considering the title of the book is "True Colors," I didn't understand this decision. Why not make Eric sort of strange...an outcast that no one quite understands? Then later, as Caitlyn's friendships begin to dissolve around her due to her new 'gift,' she could slowly discover that her odd duck of a neighbor is one of the rare few "genuine" people in her world. Eric could slowly become more beautiful in the eyes of Caitlyn as his true colors are unveiled. That would have lent itself so much more with the underlying theme (and title) of this book than Caitlyn going through some shallow insta-love thing with Eric simply because he's hot. And it would have offered some much-needed tension to an otherwise way-too-easy romance.

On that note, even once Caitlyn has spent nearly an entire novel removing people's masks, she still keeps commenting on Eric's abs and such. I was really hoping for more depth from her character by the end...that she'd understand that beauty is so much more than that which can be seen on the surface. To her credit, she does end up befriending an overweight girl named Libby. But when it comes to Eric, she never seems to get it.

Other issues. Nothing in this book takes the reader by surprise. The characters presented to the reader before Caity gets her gift turn out to be exactly who you think they are once Caitlyn tears off their masks. Caity's best friend Stella, who was bossy and self-centered before, ends up being the insecure and mean girl you expect. The people-pleasing and overweight Libby ends up being nice, and desperate for approval. There were simply no surprises. I was waiting for Caity to rip off the mask of the school's most admired teacher to see lust in his eyes--something shocking. But it never came.

Another problem was (*spoiler *) a cheating business at school hardly seems heavy/serious enough to kill over. That was a bit of a stretch. I really thought Caitlyn was going to uncover something much more sinister than kids bullying other kids to do their homework. And it was downright odd that given the criminal lengths Liam was taking to cover up this operation, no one was taking this issue to school authorities, or the police. The author tries to rationalize this by mentioning that Liam was putting incriminating pictures/videos of forced BJs and such in the smart kids' lockers as a scare tactic to keep them from "telling", but see the problem with this? Essentially Liam was offering up damning evidence of his own crimes on a silver platter, and yet not one single kid at this school thought to turn the bastard in. And these are supposed to be the "smart" kids?

Finally, it was a little convenient that the homeless man died before he could give Caity more information about her gift. But okay. I can make my peace with that. The author might be trying to leave some mysteries for future books.

Still, I loved the premise of the story, and it was a pleasant little read. I'm looking forward to seeing what book 2 has to offer, and at the minimum, Melissa Pearl is a talented story teller who knows how to keep her readers from getting anything done on a Sunday afternoon. 

Nobody's Goddess

Nobody's Goddess by Amy McNulty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I were to rate Nobody's Goddess on the storyline alone, I would give it five stars. The concept is intriguing as all get-out, with the complexity of the story deepening with every turn of the page. McNulty creates so many wild threads that I was sure the whole thing would unravel by the end...such as: Why did the first goddess put this horrible curse on the village in the first place? Who is the lord and where did he come from? What/who are the "specters" that shadow the lord everywhere he goes? Why does the ground shake every time a woman looks up at the castle? Well, get this: ALL of these questions are answered. That is such a rare phenomenon in YA novels nowadays that this fact alone had me feeling nearly euphoric by the time I reached the end of the book.

The reason I feel compelled to downgrade my rating by a star is because the main character, Noll, is so unlikable. I'm all for anti-hero types, but there needs to be something redeemable about them to latch onto...some kind of adorable nuance or charm. Noll has none. She is selfish and miserable pretty much 100% of the time. I did understand her frustrations with her village, and I appreciated her rants about the mindless hollow men obsessed with their goddesses. In these instances, her sarcasm and resentment were warranted. But her constant cold treatment of her sister (who was simply trying to make the best of an unfortunate situation) and her downright cruel treatment of the lord were often too much to swallow. The final blow occurs when (view spoiler)[...Noll commands the lord to lift his veil. This was devastating for me, because up to this point, I still believed in Noll. I still had faith that she would change--that she'd have this big a-ha moment that would make her a better person. But when she performed this act, there was simply no redeeming her. Yes, using Noll's love for her mother as collateral was questionable on the lord's part, but his actions were to protect himself from Noll's abusive power. He was in a very desperate position, but Noll refused to recognize that someone else might be suffering a torment even greater than her own because that would require her to think outside of her self. For her to condemn the lord to death was so low and unforgivable. (hide spoiler)] I understand that McNulty was trying to create a believable character in Noll, one complete with flaws, but it's never a good sign when your readers would rather see the protagonist fling herself off a cliff than keep hurting people. Thankfully, by the end, Noll does finally open herself up to change, but it's almost too little too late.

Also, I didn't understand Noll's obsession with Jurij. Why would such a strong-willed female be in love with this weak, passive male who's about as interesting as a limp noodle? Furthermore, why wasn't there more chemistry between Noll and the lord? Noll absolutely hates all of the empty, hollowed men in her village who do nothing but swoon over their goddesses, yet when she is finally confronted with a man who can think for himself, who is clever and stubborn like her, and who fights AGAINST being her slave, she hates him for it. There was simply no pleasing her.

Still you guys, I really, really loved this book. I know this seems hard to believe given my criticism, but even despite Noll's unlikability, I couldn't put it down. I love unique premises, and this one scratched just about every itch I've had for a truly original concept since The Host by Stephanie Meyer. Nobody's Goddess has a satisfying ending, with almost all questions answered and the sweet suggestion of Noll's future relationship lingering in the air. There's enough intrigue to warrant reading the second installment, but no big cliffhangers to drive you crazy waiting for it. I will definitely be on the lookout for book 2 of the Never Veil Series.

Wish Granted

Last night I started reading this book.

 Yep, while my peers are reading Gone Girl and Game of Thrones, I'm reading 1876 by Gore Vidal (who shows a propensity for writing his name so big that it looks like part of the title). 

Why am I reading this lovely, um, flesh-colored book?

Well, it started a few days ago, when I confessed to my husband that I was stalling with writing the next book in the Chasing Echoes Series because I'm completely, utterly daunted by the research it requires. Book 2 is Aviva's story, and half of it takes place in 1876. I know NOTHING about 1876. I mean, really you guys, I do mean nothing. I am really bad with time periods and history. I told some coworkers in the staff room a few weeks ago that if it weren't for the fact that they were labeled "I" and "II," I'd have no idea which World War came first. So while I'm pretty sure they didn't have microwaves in 1876, did they have electricity? What about cars...or was it horse drawn buggies? Had the phone been invented? What about the radio? Oh, and what did they wear? I'm kind of picturing Amish clothing. And what was going on in America during that time? I do know that 1876 is a Centennial year, but WHAT ON EARTH DOES THAT MEAN? 

Of course I can google these questions, but it still doesn't paint a big picture for me. I might find out that they--the 1876ians--churned their own butter, but it would take hundreds of questions answered before I had an idea of what day-to-day life was like.

In lamenting to my hubby, I told him "I wish there was a book I could read that takes place in 1876...just so I could bury myself in that world and come out feeling confident to write about it." A few keystrokes later, he said "Your book is on the way." He turned the screen toward me, and there it was. A BOOK CALLED 1876. I couldn't believe it. 

So thank you, Gore Vidal, for helping me with my research. Your beautiful book with its giant cobalt blue font on its slightly sickly-colored tan background is a wish granted. 

Okay, back to reading.

P.S. This book is big. Pretty sure it's going to take me a year to read about a year.

Inspiring Author and Commissioned Art

Okay, get ready for a shallow intro here: Stephanie Dray is following me on twitter!  See, one day she stumbled upon one of my witty tweets (haha) and thought, "Wow, here's a clever tweeter.  I should follow this person." 

You're not buying that story?  Okay, fine.  *sigh*  Here's what really happened.  I @mentioned her in such a way where I hoped she'd notice my existence and maybe click the follow button.  And she did.  Hey, I didn't say I was proud.  Satisfied?  Yes.  Proud?  No.  Well, maybe a little.
 
Oh, in case you don't know who Stephanie Dray is....

In addition to being the writer of two intriguing novels ("Lily of the Nile" was her debut), she's just an altogether nice person.  We went back and forth a few times on her blog last year, and she doesn't let the fact that she's a published author get in the way of having ordinary conversations with 'ordinary' people.  As far as authors go, she's really becoming one of my inspirations.

In other news, I sort of alluded to this in a previous blog entry, but now it's official.  I've been commissioned to do an oil-painting.  It started because Shannon posted my oil paintings on facebook.  One of her FB friends saw my artwork and asked Shannon if she could pay me to do a piece for her.  Shan went ahead and referred her to me, and the rest is history. 

This whole situation has created a few miniature dilemmas.  The first thing I had to decide was if I even wanted to do a piece of art for payment.  My dream is to be a writer--not a painter--so I can't really see what benefit there would be to taking up a project that would probably cause me more stress than it was worth.  Also, my customer (for lack of a better term) wanted me to paint an image that I found disturbing, and that was something I really wrestled with (hence the question I posed on a previous post regarding compromising your taste/style for the sake of selling a piece).  Shan helped me to settle the first dilemma by telling me "Sell one piece, just to say that you've done it".  Well, the conversation went a little deeper than that, but that was the gist of it. Then a friend of mine helped me to solve dilemma #2 by explaining to me that selling art is a matter of economics.  If I don't feel any passion for the project I'm working on, then it's up to me to decide if the money is worth the exchange of my talent and time, minus that passion.  In a way, here's where art becomes a "job" rather than a pleasant way to spend your Saturday.   

The customer in question--let's call her "A"--has been really awesome to work with so far.  She decided to meet me halfway on her picture choice, and exchanged her first image with one that was much more palatable for me.  It's still not my taste, but doesn't leave me morally unsettled like her first choice.  And with the colors, shapes, and shadowing it involves, it could actually be fun.  I'm charging 'A' $115 for an 18x24 painting, which is nothing when compared to my daily teaching wages.  Shan and I figured that I should go cheap for a first sell, and $115 breaks down to 25 cents a square inch...can't go much cheaper than that.  Now I know where the term "starving artist" comes from.  Better not quit my day job.

11/11/11

Okay, I know I've already blogged enough for one weekend, but I'm trapped in the ketchup and mustard room for an hour because Clint's watching "Grimm" in the living room, and I can't watch it.  I'm a huge baby.  I got through the first minute of it, but once the girl started shrieking in the background because she was being tortured by whatever wolf-creature whisked her away, my stomach started rolling and I had to get out of the room.

Change of subject.  I'm currently reading Crossed by Ally Condie (sequel to Matched), and I am really enjoying it so far.  It is completely different from the first novel.  Matched was more light-hearted, shallow (in a cute way) and teen-agery, although it did get heavier towards the end.  But this one dives much deeper into the characters' pasts, and their current motives.   It's not that the story is incredibly riveting or action-packed...in fact, much of it is slower-paced.  But it's thought-provoking and intriguing.  Unrequited love in a tolitarian society just makes for a beautiful story.  And considering that the novel is geared toward the young adult audience, I'm surprised by how many quotes from the book come across as pure poetry.  Take these, for example:

And it is strange that absence can feel like presence.  A missing so complete that if it were to go away, I would turn around, stunned, to see that the room is empty after all...

The picture frightened me and thrilled me in some vague way--the sky was so spectacular, the land so beautiful and dangerous, so full of heights and depths.  I was afraid of the vastness of a place like that.  At the same time, I felt sorrow that I would never see it.

Because in the end you can't always choose what to keep.  You can only choose how you let it go.

This next one is a little bit more than just one little quote.  It's a conversation between the male protaganist and a smaller child, both who are fleeing from the society:

"Do you know how to paint?"  Eli asks.
"A little."
"How?"
"My mother taught herself, and then she taught me," I say.  "My father used to come here and trade with the farmers.  Once, he brought a paintbrush back for her.  A real one.  But he couldn't afford any paint.  He always meant to get her some but never did."
"Then she couldn't paint," Eli says, sounding disappointed.
"No, she could.  She used water on rock.  Her paintings always vanished in the air."
"Then how did you know what they looked like?" Eli asks.
"I saw them before they dried," I say.  "They were beautiful."

I love that conversation.  Love love love it.  But I really don't know why.  I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Oh my gosh, it's 11:11 at night!  I have to post this right NOW so I can officially have a blog entry at 11:11, on 11/11/11 (yes, I realize my life is sad if I get off on ten "1s" in a row).

Random Updates

I'm blogging from Starbucks right now!  I guess that's not altogether exciting, but I've never posted a blog entry from anywhere other than home.  I did do work from a computer here before, about four years ago when I had to clear my credential.  I remember I had to come up with eleven more items for my teaching portfolio, and my exit interview was that evening around 5:00 or 6:00.  I had to take the whole day off, and I finished all of my work at Starbucks.  But back then they charged for their WiFi; now it's free!  Awesome.  I might come here once or twice a week while the kids are in their karate class.

The rest of this entry is going to be really boring.  I'm just going to give updates on various things.  Here goes:

Bible Challenge: I'm currently on 2 Kings and have officially read 590 pages, although my page-count just jumped up due to switching Bibles.  Yesterday, I went shopping with Teri, and ended up buying myself a brand-new Bible.  I figured it would make a good congrats-gift to myself for sticking with this challenge (one month down, two more to go!).  Thus far I have been using a Bible that my great -grandmother gave me for Christmas in 1988, and for the most part I have been content with it.  But it is a child's Bible, complete with colored illustrations, not to mention the book is absolutely thrashed.  All of John and a chunk of 2 Corinthians completely fell out, and my grandpa had to use his book-binding machine to glue them back in for me about six months ago.  But yesterday, while browsing through all of these beautiful new Bibles, I finally broke down and decided a "grown-up" Bible sounded really appealing.  I found the one I wanted and purchased it for $55.  I know.  Ouch.  But it is so beautiful, and has a larger print that I can actually read without squinting.  Plus it has my name engraved on it in a pretty, silver script.  I might take a picture of it before posting this entry.  I am so crazy about it.  But, like I mentioned earlier, it did change my page count.  My last Bible contained 1,048 pages; this one contains 1,969 pages.  It was thrilling to see my page-count jump up by 150 pages or whatever it was, but then a little bit of a let-down when I realized how many pages I still had left to go.  Anyway, my favorite book of the Bible so far is 1 Samuel. Certain parts of that book actually made me burst out with laughter, like when King Saul is trying to kill David, but everyone he sends to kill him ends up stuck in the city as unwitting prophets (it would be like cursing a really sarcastic, rude person to only being able to say sweet, sugar-coated things).  Finally, he decides to go to the city and kill David himself, but ends up prophesying too.  The whole thing was like the Bermuda Triangle, except for instead of a triangle, it's a city.  And instead of people mysteriously disappearing, they turn into prophets.  So I guess there is really no resemblance between this story and the Bermuda Triangle whatsoever.

Bookworm Challenge: I'm pretty much ditching it. Which is sort of ironic considering that I've finished reading ten books. But I know I'll never get around to writing the reviews. Plus I discovered an awesome site for book lovers: Shelfari, and I'd rather use this as my venue for keeping track of books and reviews. If you love to read, I would encourage you to check it out.  It is SO user-friendly.  I might even have Trinity create a Shelfari account since she loves to read so much.

Manuscript: I'm still at two chapters, plus part of the prologue. Both Shan and Clint have been helping me come up with more ideas, and I'm getting more excited, but still not accomplishing as much as I should.  I'm going to post an excerpt from one of the chapters soon.

Changes on this Blog: You *might* have noticed that I figured out how to swap out backgrounds on this blog. It's just a quick little manipulation of HTML, and now that I know how to do it, a monster has officially been created. Now I'm going to want to change my background every few weeks. The only problem is, I still haven't figured out how to stretch the background from end to end, which leaves an annoying line where the graphic begins to repeat. I have tried every thing I can think of to fix this, so if you are handy with HTML and want to e-mail me with some suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

Blog Award: The Powerful Woman Writer Award was given to me via e-mail by a YA author who I stumbled upon through Shelfari. The blogging community is obviously a small world, because I came across her again on Kristyn's book blog (offering her a Best in Books award, or something to that effect). I know this fellow blogger gives out a ton of these things, so it's not anything special, but it still made me smile and I decided to display it for awhile. Plus her blog offers a lot of insight for anyone aspiring to publish for the young adult market. I added her button, "A Story Book Blog," to the bottom of my screen.

Art: I worked on my Japanese Maple yesterday, although now it's more of a Japanese Cherry Maple hybrid (those exist, right?).  Since it's been three months since I've painted, I pretty much think what I added yesterday sucked, but Clint assured me it looked good.  And since husbands always tell the truth....

Holidays/Vacations: We’re spending Independence Day at the lake with Shannon’s family (of course), but fireworks and such are actually on July 2nd.   In mid-July we’re going on a week-trip to Arizona. Two of those days we’ll spend at the Grand Canyon. Then, not so exciting, but in August we’re going to Vegas for three days. The only thing that makes this Vegas trip worth mentioning is:  1. By some miracle my entire family can make it (Mom/Dad, Grandma/Grandpa, Shan/Jeremy), and 2. The hotel we’re staying at (Flamingo Hilton) has an amazing pool.

Okay, I think that's it for boring updates and my cafe vanilla frappucino is now empty, so I'll post this now.  I'll try to add the picture of my new Bible later, once I'm at home.

Extreme Bible Challenge

Okay, this Bible challenge thing.  I keep saying that I will say something more official about it, so here goes:

I am challenging myself to read the Bible in 90 days.  It all started on May 31st when I was updating my Bookworm Challenge list.  I had just crossed off my seventh book and begun my eighth, when a very eloquent thought suddenly occurred to me.  It sounded something like this:  

This is stupid. 

The thing is, I already love reading.  So how can challenging myself to do something I already love doing possibly be considered a "challenge"?  That's like challenging a junk-food addict to consume a dozen twinkies a week.  Don't get me wrong, I still love having a yearly book list (especially over summer) to keep track of the novels I have read or intend to read.  But I'm just done pretending that it's actually a challenge for me to read twelve books a year.  So then, naturally, I asked myself this question:

What would be a challenge?

That's when a lightbulb sort of went off (or is it on? I may have butchered that expression).  The Bible.  It has always been my biggest literary adversary.  I've tried several times to read it, and generally have no issues getting through Genesis and Exodus.  But once I hit Leviticus (and don't get me started with Numbers), I start to drown in all those laws and eventually lose interest.  

So why would this time be any different?

In the past, I was never on any schedule.  My reading the Bible was contingent upon my interest in what I was reading, so inevitably I would eventually drift away.  But once I determined that I for-sure wanted to read the Bible, I jumped online to see if I could find any reading schedules to help keep me on track. There was a slew of year-long schedules, but I wanted something shorter to keep me motivated.  With Google's assistance, I found a Bible-reading challenge that offered a printable schedule to allow anyone interested to read the Bible, cover to cover, in 90 days.  This shorter time constraint gives me a sense of...panic, for lack of a better word.  A year-long Bible challenge gives me too much leeway to skip a day here and there, until eventually I get into a cycle of not reading.  But a 90 day challenge doesn't offer much wiggle room.  You miss a day; it's over.  It's nearly impossible to catch up (trust me, I've had the misfortune of already discovering this).

Some churches actually offer official 90 day challenges for their congregations to participate in, hence the logo above, and this one from last year:

But they start such challenges right after the New Year, and end them by March 31st.  Unfortunately, since summer is my optimal time to do mass-reading, I am forced to do this challenge alone.  That's the only downfall I am experiencing so far.  I would love to be able to discuss what I'm reading with others, especially when I'm feeling confused by some of the verses.

Below, I am keeping an ongoing list of the books of the Bible as I finish reading them.  This will be really boring for anyone else to read; it's just a personal reference for me for motivational-purposes.  I'm planning to link this page to the "Bi90 Eleven" logo on my side margin, so I can continue to add on to this list.  Wish me luck--or better yet--more self-discipline than I currently possess!

**************************

Start-date of Challenge:  June 1, 2011
End-date of Challenge:  August 30, 2011
Date each book was completed:

Genesis:  June 4
Exodus:  June 7
Leviticus:  June 11
Numbers:  June 15
Deuteronomy:  June 17
Joshua:  June 19
Judges:  June 23
Ruth:  June 23
1 Samuel:  June 26
2 Samuel:  June 28
1 King:  June 30
2 Kings: July 2
1 Chronicles:  July 5
2 Chronicles:  July 8
Ezra:  July 8
Nehemiah:  July 10
Esther:  July 10
Job:  July 12
Psalms:  July 23
Proverbs:  July 25
Ecclesiastes:  July 26
Song of Songs: July 26
Isaiah:  In progress

Last Weekend: Part 2

Blogger has been out of commission for the last few days, which has been sort of a pain.  Not so much for me personally...I've been completely entertained in the evenings reading yet another new book.  But I use Blogger for my students, and this week many of them were unable to finish their online assignment because of all the maintenance issues.

At any rate, Blogger's back online, and I'm stuck in our office right now because our carpet is being cleaned, so I thought I'd finish talking about Mother's Day weekend.

Where did I leave off again?  Hold on, let me check....

Oh yeah, so we left the bar and returned to Shannon and Jeremy's house right after 1:00 a.m.  Shan and I were famished, so Jeremy made us grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  After eating and chattering for awhile, we all went to bed.  I slept in the downstairs family room on the couch, and I think I must have gone unconscious as soon as my head hit the pillow.  Sometime a few hours later, I woke up feeling incredibly thirsty.  I fumbled my way to the bathroom, but didn't want to turn on any lights because I'm weird about that.  I feel like turning on lights in the middle of the night shocks my system awake, so I like to keep things as dark as possible so I can go back to sleep right away.  Plus I was worried that the light would wake up the kids.  So I reached across the bathroom counter in the dark, and my fingers touched a nice, heavy-duty glass tumbler.  Convenient, I thought as I filled it up with water and guzzled it down.  I then refilled it about half-way and took it back with me to the couch, just in case I wanted more water later.  The rest of the night passed uneventfully, other than the fact that Charlotte (the pig) started squealing through the window like some insane demon-possessed banshee at about five or six in the morning because she was hungry.  Madi ran outside and fed her pretty quick though, so all was quiet again.

At around 8:00 in the morning, I woke up to the smell of good food cooking.  I crawled off of the couch and reached down to take a drink from the glass tumbler, but it was no longer there.  Instead, there was a candle.  In a jar.  Half-filled with water.  That's when I realized that there never was a tumbler.  I had drank water from a candle.  With a wick and everything.  Yeah.  Remind me to never quench my thirst, partially hung-over, in the dark, ever again.  Or better yet, just tell me to get over my weird paranoia of flicking on switches at night.

When I went upstairs, Jeremy was up cooking breakfast.  He came up to me and gave me a giant hug and told me Happy Mother's Day.  Then he continued to make Shannon and I a delicious breakfast.  It was awesome.  With Clint gone for the entire weekend (karate tournament in Oregon), it felt good to have a surrogate husband around, making me feel special on what would have otherwise been sort of a lonely day.  During breakfast, the kids all woke up and came tearing up the stairs.  Trinity and Elijah gave me big squeezes since their gifts were at home.  I was planning on driving home after breakfast, but it started to rain, and the fog around the lake was getting so thick, so I ended up staying until late afternoon.  Sometime around 4:00, we all drove down to the desert to meet my parents at Red Robin for dinner.  The dinner was okay.  I had a good time, but my mom told us this really sad story that left me feeling pretty depressed.  I won't get into that.

That night, after being gone for four days, Clint finally came home.  He won two third-place medals during his tournament, so he was feeling pretty upbeat.  The first one was for a nunchucks routine, and the second one was for sparring. 

In other news, one of my students swallowed a thumb tack yesterday in class.  He was sent to the doctors for an x-ray, but it was already "too far" for anything to be done.  The doctors gave him some medicine, and he was instructed to stay home today and wait for it to pass.  Not that this really changes anything, but this was one of my honor students.  He was very upbeat about the whole thing, and doesn't seem to be in any pain...yet.  I, on the other hand, can barely keep a straight face typing about it.  Middle schoolers truly are a unique species.  I'm surprised they aren't endangered by now.

Video doesn't do much for me, but this song makes me feel silly and happy..."like a fool." 

Mary Had a Little Weedwacker

No time for a "real" post, but here's some quick rambling:

We got a lamb today! Her name is Lily. She is soooo cute. We pretty much bought her as a glorified weed-wacker. The dogs just adore her. They follow her around everywhere, and then she turns around and follows them everywhere. If they leave her alone for more than a few minutes, she baaahs unhappily and goes to find them.

Yesterday I finished reading my fourth novel from the Bookworm Challenge. I think I might actually stand a chance of conquering my list this year. Now writing the reviews, that's a completely different story. If I decide to actually write them, they'll probably be special, "one-word" reviews. As in, this book was "awesome," or "mediocre," or "sucked royally" (I might have to bump it up to "two-word" reviews for some of them).

Small group on Monday night was fun!  We stayed up pretty late that night, and then I couldn't spool down afterwards, so I wound up with virtually no sleep.  But sleep-deprivation is a standard for me at least a few times a week, plus I love entertaining, so I really didn't mind at all.  Steve told us this entire story of how he and Becky met, but he did so in such a "story-teller" fashion that it was almost like listening to a light-hearted, romantic little novel, complete with the exposition, rising action, and so on. 

I haven't painted in nearly two weeks.  I miss it...a LOT...so I'm going to set everything else aside and paint some more on Friday.

Clint built a split-rail fence around our yard.  He also put in this arbor-thingie.  We still have to paint everything white this weekend to make it match the neighbor's fence (not exactly the kind of painting project I wanted to do), but once it's finished, I'll try to post a picture.  You can see part of the unpainted fence in the background above.

Well, that was all very hodgepodgy.  Goodnight.