Books and Me: a writer wannabe

I don't mention it a lot, but I do a massive amount of reading.
I read between classes, during lunch, on the bus home, at home, in the bathroom, in bed. Whatever. I do watch TV but not so much. (Partly because watching the TV means doing it in the den with whoever is in there) and partly because not so much of it appeals to me.  Yea, I guess I'm a TV snob. I said it, you happy now?

Back to the books. Real, paper books. I don't have a kindle or an ipad or a nook (maybe for xmas??)
I'm a student & I'm strapped for cash most of the time. So what I read either comes from the city library, the school library (which is teh suck), and the few gifts I get from my friends (they all know I love gift cards to B&N & Amazon more than anything else).  And hey, I'm careful about those--when I buy books on amazon I buy used, and I try to get as much as I can for as little as I can.  (Don't even go there with me about getting a part time job, ok? Shay won't let me, and keeping up my gpa (it's 3.89--not 4.0 yet) so whatever.

I randomly picked some books last month. I got them in the mail and been slowly working my way through them (slowly is the operative term-I can read a 500 page novel in less than a day, so I have to limit myself to how much I can read each day--otherwise I'm stuck with no books to read. *sigh *

I picked these up:
The Seer King (Chris Bunch)
The Demon King (Chris Bunch)
Storm Front (Jim Butcher)

I just finished the Seer King this weekend and it was pretty good. I like his writing style even if, I'm not all that interested in the war related bits (which ok, do make up a lot of the story). I like the fact that it moves quickly, and that all the different cultures/societies/sets he uses feel real, like you could find whole other books related to them (there aren't though).  The main protagonist is Damastes a Cimabue, basically a warrior who means well, loves his job and is struggling with his oaths to his friend/boss Liahs Tenedos. I'm not gonna spoil the book for you (incase anyone reads it) but it was good, and I started the sequel tonight. Yea, I know I'm kind of screwed since I didn't buy the last one in the series and it'll be a few weeks /month or so before I get enough to buy more from Amazon.
I always have that problem. One word of warning, there's at least one really steamy sex scene in it that I'd be worried if jean's parent's read it. So don't read it in class, yea?

Jim Butcher's Stormfront was really a lot better than I thought it would be. It moved at a pretty good pace (Thanks Jeff for suggesting them) and Harry Dresden is actually a guy I'd give a damn about if something happened to him in the story. The humor and dry wit in the book go a long way, as does the action. Yea. I don't generally go in for detective /crime novels but since this is a wizard detective it was worth a go. Am glad I did, though I'm gonna have to find more money to get more of the series. There're about 11 books in the series so far. Heh.

Anyway, it's time for dinner soon and it's "family night" here at the Warner household. So I gotta go down and do the family thing with Jean & her parents. See ya.

Writing ideas--maybe?

I yesterday saw this cool bird on the way to school. I think it must have been a hawk or something. It looked so interesting up there in the sky. Miles (it seemed, I guess it was probably a lot less) of uninterrupted space and freedom.

I was going to work on my novella some more...but now I'm thinking maybe I should think about the characters I want to use and what kind of story I want to tell.

What I mean is: I really enjoy the fantasy stuff, and I don't know if the stuff I write will ever be "up there". But I want to try. And I need to really commit to a plot, and some characters.  Last night I went through all my notebooks (would you guess I have almost 10 of them???! TEN!) and my notes. So many ideas but I don't do much with them, and it seemed like the ones I did do something with were pretty lame. I think it's fair to say that while I like reading "quest" and heroic fantasy, I really should leave writing it (and generating ideas for it) to other people.

I think my writing needs to be more about the characters than the places they go/things they have to do. I think. I ran across a link online to some writing tips by Holly Lisle and I'm going to check them out a little later (I've got a double studyhall tomorrow since Gym's cancelled). I'll see if she has any suggestions for getting it together and trying to write (when you feel all over the place)

Bummer: No gaming for me!

Jean's Grandparents are coming to visit this weekend. I guess it could be worse. I mean, Shay could come to visit me (again). That would be way worse than missing a weekend gaming.
But still, I wish (since they aren't like my grandparents) that I could still go. But I know I can't. Blergh!


I guess I'll spend most of the weekend up here in the bedroom. Maybe I can try to work on some ideas for a new story. I was thinking of trying to write some S&S and see what I can get to come out. It's sort of better than gaming in one way -- which is that I have control over what happens with the plot!