Books Read in 2019

70. *The Iron Wyrm Affair, Saintcrow, Lillith
69. *The Underwater Ballroom Society, Burgis, Stephanie, editor
68. *Cast in Chaos, Sagara, Michelle
67. *It Takes Two to Tumble, Sebastian, Cat
66. *Cast in Silence, Sagara, Michelle
65. *Unnatural, Chambers, Joanna (re-read)
64. *Seasons Pass, Chambers, Joanna (reread)
63. *Enlightened, Chambers, Joanna (re-read)
62. *Beguiled, Chambers, Joanna (re-read)
61. *Provoked, Chambers, Joanna (re-read)
60. *Merry and Bright, Chambers, Joanna
59. *The Ruin of Gabriel Ashley, Chambers, Joanna
58. *Once Burned, Frost, Jeaniene
57. *Night Shift, Harris, Charlaine
56. *Day Shift, Harris, Charlaine
55. *Midnight Crossroad, Harris, Charlaine
55. *Cast in Fury, Sagara, Michelle
54. *Any Old Diamonds, Charles, K. J.
53. *Tea With the Black Dragon, MacAvoy, R. A.
52. *The Omega Objection, Carriger, G. L. (re-read)
51. *Summage Solution, Carriger, G. L. (re-read)
50. *Marine Biology, Carriger, G. L. (re-read)
49. *Threshold, Hawk, Jordan L.
48. *Widdershins, Hawk, Jordan L.
47. *Band Sinister, Charles, K. J.
46. *The Hollow of Fear, Thomas, Sherry
45. *A Conspiracy in Belgravia, Thomas, Sherry
44. *A Study in Scarlet Women, Thomas, Sherry
43. *Poison or Protect, Carriger, Gail
42. *Cast in Secret, Sagara, Michelle
41. *Cast in Moonlight, Sagara, Michelle
40. *Think of England, Charles, K. J.
39 *A Case of Possession, Charles, K. J.(reread)
38. *The Magpie Lord, Charles, K. J. (reread)
37. *A Gentleman’s Position, Charles, K. J.
36. *A Seditious Affair, Charles, K. J.
35. *Cast in Courtlight, Sagara, Michelle
34. *Cast in Shadow, Sagara, Michelle
33. *Inside Job, Willis, Connie
32. *The Tea Master and the Detective, de Bodard, Aliette
31. *Waiting on a Bright Moon, Yang, Jy.
30. *A Fashionable Indulgence, Charles, K. J.
29. *The Curious Case of the Werewolf That Wasn’t, Carriger, Gail (reread)
28. *The Parasol Protectorate: Timeless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
27. *The Parasol Protectorate: Heartless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
26. *The Parasol Protectorate: Changeless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
25. *The Parasol Protectorate: Blameless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
24. *The Parasol Protectorate: Soulless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
23. *How To Marry A Werewolf, Carriger, Gail (reread)
22. *Romancing the Werewolf, Carriger, Gail (reread)
21. *Competence (The Custard Protocol, Book 3), Carriger, Gail
20. *Imprudence (The Custard Protocol, Book 2), Carriger, Gail (reread)
19. *Prudence (The Custard Protocol, Book 1), Carriger, Gail (reread)
18. *An Unnatural Heir, Charles, K. J.
17. *His Consort, Calmes, Mary
16. *An Unnatural Vice, Charles, K. J.
15. *An Unseen Attraction, Charles, K. J.
14. Chanur’s Legacy, Cherry, C. J. (re-re-read)
13. *An Enlightenment Story: Unnatural, Chambers, Joanna
12: * An Enlightenment Story: Seasons Pass, Chambers, Joanna
11. * Enlightenment Series: Enlightened, Chambers, Joanna
10. * Enlightenment Series: Beguiled, Chambers, Joanna
9. *Enlightenment Series: Provoked, Chambers, Joanna
8. Chanur’s Homecoming, Cherryhh, C. J. (re-re-reread)
7. Chanur’s Venture, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-reread)
6. The Kif Strike Back, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-reread)
5. The Pride of Chanur, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-reread)
4. Alliance Rising, Cherryh, C. J.
3. *Introducing Mr. Winterbourne, Chambers, Joanna
2. *Mr. Winterbourne’s Christmas, Chambers, Joanna
1. Merchanter’s Luck, Cherryh, C. J. (re-reread)

* Ebook

And Bob’s My Uncle

The inside latch on my storm door sort of self-destructed last Friday.  I naturally started googling for a replacement.  I found a latch assembly that looked just like the one I had, but I didn’t need the whole shebang, just the inside latch, which I found on both the Home Depot and Lowe’s websites.  Naturally, none of the local stores had it in stock, but  I could order one and have it shipped to the store, wait 5-7 days for it to arrive, and once it did arrive, I’d have to go to the store to pick it up.  Since I was going to have to order the durn thing anyway . . .  Yep.  Amazon.

My cousin who lives in Capitan, NM, was driving over (4-1/2 hours) to take me and my mom and my brother to lunch at Red Lobster today.  It didn’t take me as long to get ready as I thought it would, so I had about 15 minutes to kill before it was time for me to go to my mom’s house where we were meeting up.  I checked my mail, and discovered the latch had come.  I thought, what the heck, went to my tool box and got my Phillips screw driver, unscrewed two screws, took the busted latch off, put the new latch on, and put the two screws back in. In less than 10 minutes.  The only difficult I had was I dropped one of the screws and had to bend down and pick it up!

The way my luck runs, I was all ready to find out the new inside part wouldn’t fit the old outside part, and I’d have to order a new outside part and wait another 5-7 days for it to get here, but nope.  Bob’s your uncle!   I am still chuffed at how simple it was.

After a very delightful lunch (crab legs!), I set out to do my Wal-Mart grocery shopping for the month, during the course of which I indulged.  No idea what these little darlings are called, but according to the label, they are “hispanic pastries” and came four to a box.  They had a fruit filling that tasted like apple.  (That’s a salad place, for scale.)   Me gustan mucho.

Wait, What?

If you’ve been visiting this space on a regular basis for any length of time, it’ll come as no surprise to you that I play around with creative writing because I’ve inflicted bits of it on you from time to time.  What I do is a lot like an artist doing sketches.   Just here lately, I created a couple of characters, put them in a situation, and aimed it in a particular direction, just to see where it would go from there.

But here’s the thing.  These two characters have to have names — so I have to work out what their names are.  They have to have physical attributes, as you do,  so I have to figure out what they look like, because their physical appearance has some bearing on what’s going on between them.  They have to have context — so I have to figure out the situation they’re in.  But then, they had to get into this situation some how, so I have to figure that out, which means they have to have back stories.  (I’ve noticed that this is typically the point where personalities begin to coalesce around these little character-seeds.)

So then, I have to work out what happens to them during the story, which is when I realized there had to be a doctor, so I had to invent him out of whole cloth, and then, in order to get from point A to point B so the next bit of the story can happen, there had to be this guy who got his foot shot off, and the next thing I know, he ups and decides that he’s way more important to the plot than I had planned for him to be and starts telling me that he wouldn’t have done this one thing he’s supposed to do in the way I was trying to get him to do it, he would have done it this other way, and he wouldn’t have done this other thing I wanted him to do at all, so forget that.  I already knew one of the main character’s parents were going to be important to the plot and that they had to have certain personality types in order for other parts of the plot to work right and I knew that character had two older brothers and a sister because back story, but they weren’t going to figure much in the story.  Then the sister decided she wanted a much bigger role than I had given her and that she was going to fall in love with the guy whose foot got shot off . . . .  And here all this time I thought I was the one telling the story . . .

I’ve heard multiple writers speak about how characters seem to develop a mind of their own, and I’ve had it happen to me time and time again.  It’s fascinating.   It’s also a little weird.  Robert E. Howard related that it always seemed to him that one of his most famous characters, Conan the Barbarian, would read over his shoulder as he typed out a Conan story, and correct him when he got it wrong.   This might strike the person on the street as kinda strange that a made up character would be bossing its creator around, and might provoke a look askance, but a writer would nod their head in understanding and go, “Yep.  Been there.”

The thing is, I think readers can spot those characters that seem to develop a mind of their own.  They have a three-dimensionality that lifts them off the page.  They “ring true.”   The great writers are the ones who can create characters like that, and then step back and let them tell their own stories.  Once you get to that point, it’s just a matter of reportage.

 

Is It Spring Yet?

Haven’t been posting much.  Not much of note has been happening.

I did pass another hurdle on my quest for a new left knee.  Saw the cardiologist last week and he says that when I have a firm date for the knee surgery, I’m to let him know so he can manage the clopidogrel (Plavix), tell me when I need to stop it prior to surgery and when I should resume it after, etc., which amounts to cardiology clearance for the surgery.  I was able to get the authorization to see him through the VA renewed, which would include a heart cath or other such diagno$tic te$t$ that he might want to do between now and September, so that’s a big relief.

I go back to the orthopedist next week to actually try to set the date of surgery, get sent to the necessary “prehab” and all that stuff.  He’ll submit his treatment plan, which includes all that, to Triwest, which is the VA program for seeing non-VA doctors and having things done in non-VA facilities (i.e., in my home town instead of in a hospital 125 miles away!).  That’s the final hurdle.  If they give the go-ahead, then I’m home and dry, and I will get a new knee for my birthday.

At some point between now and April 15th, I need to get off my duff and file my income tax, which is a minor PITA, as PITAs go.  I’ve got all the required paperwork together.  It’s just a matter of making myself sit down and do it.  grumble. . .  grumble. . .   Probably take me less than an hour, if I’d just sit down and do it . . .

I’ve been really fortunate in that my knee only hurts when I’m actually standing on it; if I’m not standing on it, it doesn’t hurt.  However, since I have to stand on that knee to walk, my nonessential activities have been confined to very sedentary ones.  Mostly what I’ve been doing lately is reading. If you’ve noticed from the last post, I’ve been reading a lot of ebooks lately

I’ve been buying ebooks since 2010, and up until the last couple of years, I only bought them if I couldn’t get the book in any other format, or if the ebook was the cheapest format available.  When you are a voracious reader but have a very limited amount of discretionary funds (usually no more than $20-$25 a month, if that), it stands to reason you’re going to go for the cheapest version you can get of any particular book so as to optimize the books-per-buck ratio.

Depending on how old the book is, most ebooks on Amazon run around $9.99, but with the newer books, the ebook can be as expensive as the dead tree edition (DTE) in hardback ($26-$30).  If the book has been out for any length of time, you can usually find used copies, and the used paperbacks are typically the cheapest available copies of any given book (typically $5-$8 including shipping). Similarly, if the book has been out a while, and especially if it’s the first or second book in a series, the ebook price can be as low as $3 or $4.

Up until last year, what I would do was acquire the cheapest version of a book (typically a used paperback).   Those books I either didn’t care to finish, or read once and know I won’t reread, and which are inappropriate for my 14-year-old 1st cousin removed x2, I had been reselling through Amazon, which enabled me to recoup about half my investment. However, going into last year, I knew I was facing some major health issues and I deleted all my Amazon reseller listings (12-15) and donated all those books to our local Friends of the Library.  I will reopen my Amazon reseller account at some point,  probably later in the year, as I have already collected about 8-9 books that are not suitable for a 14-year-old.

However, in my never-ending quest for decent reading material, over the past 8+ years, I’ve acquired quite a number of ebooks. I tend to squirrel those away (out of sight, out of mind), as I’m kind of a purist, and the DTE of books are the ones that tend to get read first.  The ebooks take up the slack on the three or four months out of the year when I have to blow my entire book budget to acquire a new hardback for those books I know I will want to keep and reread over and over again (Foreigner series by C. J. Cherryh, Liaden Universe books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Sebastian St. Cyr books by C. S. Harris, etc.).  I just got the new C. S. Harris book.  A new Gail Carriger book, the final book in the Custard Protocol series (which I will get in ebook format), comes out in August, as does another Foreigner book (not sure when).

And speaking of my 1st cousin removed x2, SEL, (She’s my first cousin JP’s granddaughter), she and her parents K&GL were through here (coming and going) on their way from Colorado Springs, CO, to visit her uncle EP’s family.  EP designs and manages golf courses, and the company he works for sent him to the Austin vicinity to build and manage one there.  He’s relocated his family to the Dripping Springs area.  The L’s stayed with my mom on the way down, and on the way back, and it was good to get to see them.   Twice.  Her parents were both in the Air Force.  She retired (as a Lt. Colonel), but he’s now a full bird.

I’m still in reading mode and haven’t been doing much if any knitting.

I was watching one of Wee Sew’n’Sew’s podcasts, just to see what she was about, (she has such a lovely Scottish accent!) and she was talking about knitting the  Herb Garden Shawl which is a pattern I’m familiar with.  I had a lovely “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon” moment watching her talking about it and showing it off as a WIP.

The weather is starting to warm up.  It was 78F/25.5C on the thermostat the other day because it was 85F/29.5C outside.  It got back down into to the 50’s/30’s F(10/1 C) for a couple of days, but it’s heading back up again.  At some point here soon, I’ll be switching over to the AC, but the AC thermostat stays set on 80F/26.6C.  I may actually have to go into short sleeves . . .

Books Read in 2019

65. *Unnatural, Chambers, Joanna (re-read)
64. *Seasons Pass, Chambers, Joanna (reread) (short story)
63. *Enlightened, Chambers, Joanna (re-read)
62. *Beguiled, Chambers, Joanna (re-read)
61. *Provoked, Chambers, Joanna (re-read)
60. *Merry and Bright, Chambers, Joanna
59. *The Ruin of Gabriel Ashley, Chambers, Joanna (short story)
58. *Once Burned, Frost, Jeaniene
57. *Night Shift, Harris, Charlaine
56. *Day Shift, Harris, Charlaine
55. *Midnight Crossroad, Harris, Charlaine
55. *Cast in Fury, Sagara, Michelle
54. *Any Old Diamonds, Charles, K. J.
53. *Tea With the Black Dragon, MacAvoy, R. A.
52. *The Omega Objection, Carriger, G. L. (re-read)
51. *Summage Solution, Carriger, G. L. (re-read)
50. *Marine Biology, Carriger, G. L. (re-read)
49. *Threshold, Hawk, Jordan L.
48. *Widdershins, Hawk, Jordan L.
47. *Band Sinister, Charles, K. J.
46. *The Hollow of Fear, Thomas, Sherry
45. *A Conspiracy in Belgravia, Thomas, Sherry
44. *A Study in Scarlet Women, Thomas, Sherry
43. *Poison or Protect, Carriger, Gail
42. *Cast in Secret, Sagara, Michelle
41. *Cast in Moonlight, Sagara, Michelle
40. *Think of England, Charles, K. J.
39 *A Case of Possession, Charles, K. J.(reread)
38. *The Magpie Lord, Charles, K. J. (reread)
37. *A Gentleman’s Position, Charles, K. J.
36. *A Seditious Affair, Charles, K. J.
35. *Cast in Courtlight, Sagara, Michelle
34. *Cast in Shadow, Sagara, Michelle
33. *Inside Job, Willis, Connie
32. *The Tea Master and the Detective, de Bodard, Aliette
31. *Waiting on a Bright Moon, Yang, Jy.
30. *A Fashionable Indulgence, Charles, K. J.
29. *The Curious Case of the Werewolf That Wasn’t, Carriger, Gail (reread)
28. *The Parasol Protectorate: Timeless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
27. *The Parasol Protectorate: Heartless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
26. *The Parasol Protectorate: Changeless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
25. *The Parasol Protectorate: Blameless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
24. *The Parasol Protectorate: Soulless, Carriger, Gail (reread)
23. *How To Marry A Werewolf, Carriger, Gail (reread)
22. *Romancing the Werewolf, Carriger, Gail (reread)
21. *Competence (The Custard Protocol, Book 3), Carriger, Gail
20. *Imprudence (The Custard Protocol, Book 2), Carriger, Gail (reread)
19. *Prudence (The Custard Protocol, Book 1), Carriger, Gail (reread)
18. *An Unnatural Heir, Charles, K. J.
17. *His Consort, Calmes, Mary
16. *An Unnatural Vice, Charles, K. J.
15. *An Unseen Attraction, Charles, K. J.
14. Chanur’s Legacy, Cherry, C. J. (re-re-read)
13. *An Enlightenment Story: Unnatural, Chambers, Joanna
12: * An Enlightenment Story: Seasons Pass, Chambers, Joanna
11. * Enlightenment Series: Enlightened, Chambers, Joanna
10. * Enlightenment Series: Beguiled, Chambers, Joanna
9. *Enlightenment Series: Provoked, Chambers, Joanna
8. Chanur’s Homecoming, Cherryhh, C. J. (re-re-reread)
7. Chanur’s Venture, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-reread)
6. The Kif Strike Back, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-reread)
5. The Pride of Chanur, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-reread)
4. Alliance Rising, Cherryh, C. J.
3. *Introducing Mr. Winterbourne, Chambers, Joanna
2. *Mr. Winterbourne’s Christmas, Chambers, Joanna
1. Merchanter’s Luck, Cherryh, C. J. (re-reread)

* Ebook