This is how my antiresolutions are going to have to go. And you know? It’s hard!

I think it’s second nature to announce what we’re planning to do. And to plan! Failing to plan is planning to fail, is how that saying goes. Though, I think planning and then not executing said plan has a lot to do with failure as well. When you eliminate the planning and the announcement of the planning, there’s nothing left but to DO.

It was my….plan….to read a lot in January and take a break on the writing, particularly because life is pretty slow and droll for me during this month. I’ve read 3 books so far (really) and am on #4. I’ve been picking books that seem easy to get through, around 300 pages. Reading for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Sunday, I picked up Between Friends, a novel by a writer that I follow on twitter DL Sparks. This is her third novel, and as usual with her, I can’t stop reading once I start.

Then I read a mystery/detective type novel- Blindsighted by Karen Slaughter. This story line was… weird. Intriguing, but weird! I watch Criminal Minds and Discovery ID though so I’m used to weird. Couldn’t have been too bad… I’ve started on the 2nd book in the series!

Yesterday I read Crash Into You, a debut novel by one of my writing inspirations, Roni Loren.  This is a steamy erotic romance about two people who were lovers in a past life, reconnecting in a uhmmmmm very sizzling way. You’ll have to read the book to find out what I mean, but Crash Into You is a well written, entertaining debut. Very proud of Roni.

I was talking to a friend last night about these writer people I know releasing books. This time last year I would have been so jealous I couldn’t see straight. This year,  I’m not. I mean, I’d love for it to happen to me, but I’ve discovered that the only thing standing between me and a completed novel is……..me. So once I get out of my own way, it’ll happen to me, too.

I wish I could report on the writing, but I haven’t done any. And according to my mantra for this year, I’m not going to plan to do it either. I’ll let you know when I’ve done some and how it went.

See? HARD!

A bit dry, but also very educating about past, present and history of death care– from clock urns to green cremation. Very interesting.

This brings my reading year to a close, though I do have a couple of books I’ve started. Tomorrow brings a brand new challenge…. I don’t know what to set my goal for, for 2012. Maybe I’ll push myself past 60 and go for 80?

- Finished up a long serial fiction story that I started in January 2009 as a hundred word prompt from Writer’s Digest. It continues to be my “baby”.
- Read 50+ books. I mentioned this before but I’m very proud of achieving that goal! Next year I’m increasing my goal to 60- join me!
- Wrote 120K + words. Yep. That’s a lotta typing.
- Wrote 8 short stories.
-  Four of those 8 were original fiction!
- Started two books- one creative non fiction, one fiction novel. Both are stalled at the moment.
- Joined Atlanta Writer’s Club and Georgia Writer’s Association
- Got knocked down. Got back up again.
- Joined/participated in DIYMFA
- Met four authors: Susan Rebecca White, Kathryn Stockett, Tayari Jones, and Bernice McFadden
- Put my writing on display by joining Six Sentence Sunday
- Featured at Wellness & Writing Connections Newsletter, Storyfix.com and Indie Ink.org
- Led three fiction writing challenges at the Fiction Archive

While I’m in the middle of something, I’m slowly simmering and worrying that I’m not doing enough or writing enough or reading enough or learning enough. I’m not available enough for beginning writers and I’m not paying enough attention to those I can learn from…. but when I step back and take a look at the big picture… it’s a very pretty painting of something I’m very proud of.
Here’s to a busier and better 2012, in which I will PERSIST.

I set a goal this year to read 50 books and since I JUST finished book #50, it’s time to celebrate!

I’ve always called myself a voracious reader but in reality I probably read about ten books a year. Then I started writing in earnest and reading a lot helped my writing. So in an effort to feed this symbiotic relationship, I joined the challenge this year.

Looking over the list of the books I’ve read this year, I’m filled with pride and memories. Some were quick reads, some I had to push through. All of them gave me a sense of accomplishment that I’ve been sorely lacking lately.

Next year, I think I’ll add a few more and go for it again! Join me!

Instead I will yammer about writing and reading. How’s that?

Last week during my luxurious Thanksgiving break, I read three books, which put me a couple of books ahead in the Goodreads Challenge I set for myself. I’m hoping I’ll finish the year over goal, which would be great. I read two books by Hillary Jordan- When She Woke and Mudbound. Both were excellent. I don’t remember the third book… must not have been remarkable. ;)

I am still plugging away on my gift for the Story Exchange. I am on idea #4 now. I mean, at least the ideas keep coming? I’m hoping I have something I can write to the end. Or if it does, that another idea comes to me because… errr. Yeah. It’s due soon!

I think that’s about it from this front. The year is winding down and I’m already thinking about what goals I want to achieve next year.

How about you? Is 2012 knocking on your door already?

I am not really huge on romances. I find them pretty unrealistic and they make me roll my eyes more than anything– and I’m not just talking Harlequin. A romance has to be really good to hold my attention, i.e it has to be more than Bucky and Lucille rolling around in the hay in secret. Probably the only romance author I’ve read is LaVyrle Spencer,author of contemporary and historical romance. She retired from writing in 1997, but before then she published 25 romance novels about much more than romance. Her heroines are not shrinking violets, nor are they shrews. Her male main characters aren’t larger than life or unrealistic.

I really love all of her work, but the one book that stands out to me is Forgiving. THIS is the book that made me love historical romance.

From Goodreads:

Sarah Merritt arrives in Deadwood, Dakota territory, in 1876 with her father’s printing press and two ambitions–to find her sister Addie and to establish a local newspaper. In a town of mining bachelors, Sarah quickly becomes the center of attention in more ways than one, particularly when she knocks heads with marshal Noah Campbell, her soon-to-be romantic interest. Sarah finds Addie working in a local brothel and commences a long struggle to win back her affection and her soul. She writes to Addie’s former fiance, who comes to Deadwood and joins her in pursuing Addie’s salvation, an endeavor which will force them all to confront an ugly secret from the past.

This book, from the amazon reviews, seems to have been panned as a B Grade Western drama. I just didn’t see it that way. I loved Sarah and my heart ached for Addie and I rooted for Noah. *shrug* I liked it.

Oddly, I am watching it right now. This movie introduced me to John Grisham. It is his debut novel, The Firm, turned into a major motion picture starring Tom Cruise. Of course, the book is better than the film.

From Goodreads:

Mitchell McDeere, raised in the coal-mining region of rural Kentucky, has worked hard to get where he is: third in his class at Harvard Law. He’s young. He’s bright. He’s ambitious. Mitch could have the pick of the big firms in New York and Chicago, but he’s chosen the Memphis tax firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke. They’re selective. They pay outrageous salaries. They have a turnover rate of zero. And Mitch is about to find out why.

Several events fuel Mitch’s growing suspicions: two of the partners die in a suspicious diving accident off Grand Cayman; the senior partners seem unduly proud of the fact that no one has ever resigned; and security measures at the office are, even for a company with billionaire clients, more than a little extreme. Then Mitch makes an explosive discovery: The firm is owned and operated by the most powerful organized crime family in Chicago. Even as Mitch discovers the truth, he finds himself caught between the FBI, who wants an informant inside the firm, and the firm itself, which will make him a very rich man—or a very dead one.

]]> http://www.thesweetescape.net/blog/2011/authored-inspiration/books-i-loved/30-days-of-books-day-19-fave-book-turned-into-a-movie/feed/ 0 http://www.thesweetescape.net/blog/2011/authored-inspiration/books-i-loved/30-days-of-books-day-15-fave-male-character/ http://www.thesweetescape.net/blog/2011/authored-inspiration/books-i-loved/30-days-of-books-day-15-fave-male-character/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:26:26 +0000 MJones http://www.thesweetescape.net/blog/?p=1841 Continue reading →]]> Day 15 – Favorite male character

I think this one will be kind of obvious… and tomorrow, too. He’s the first character that comes to mind when I think of one I love dearly.

Fitzwilliam Darcy is the male protagonist in Jane Austen’s classic “Pride and Prejudice”.  I saw the BBC Mini Series before I ever read the novel, so Darcy will forever and always be Colin Firth. Speak nothing of that horrific remake with the most uncharismatic Darcy ever. It’s BBC all the way, baby.

I believe what I love about Darcy is that he is the quintessential strong silent type. He is the ultimate gentleman, no matter how rude, terse and tactless. He’s one of those men who may be disliked in public, but in private, treats his lady like a queen.  He often sticks his foot in his mouth because he has no concept of what he should/should not say. However he managed to win over such a strong character like Elizabeth by acting on his feelings and showing her how much he cared for her– by taking care of her family.

I don’t think another male character has ever been more gruff and aloof but endearing to me. Maybe he is the epitome of wanting what you cannot have.

From Goodreads:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s witty comedy of manners–one of the most popular novels of all time–that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. Renowned literary critic and historian George Saintsbury in 1894 declared it the “most perfect, the most characteristic, the most eminently quintessential of its author’s works,” and Eudora Welty in the twentieth century described it as “irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be.”

Well. I’ll go with an author that I’ve read A LOT of, and that would be Mr John Grisham. My favorite book from his repertoire would have to be The Broker.

From GoodReads:

In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing President grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. What no one knows is that the President issues the pardon only after receiving enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems Backman, in his power broker heyday, may have obtained secrets that compromise the world’s most sophisticated satellite surveillance system.

Backman is quietly smuggled out of the country in a military cargo plane, given a new name, a new identity, and a new home in Italy. Eventually, after he has settled into his new life, the CIA will leak his whereabouts to the Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Saudis. Then the CIA will do what it does best: sit back and watch. The question is not whether Backman will survive—there is no chance of that. The question the CIA needs answered is, who will kill him?

I had felt like Grisham’s writing was ‘off’ for awhile, but when The Broker came out, I was hooked from page one. It was truly a page turner, deeply suspenseful and entertaining. A 4 star book and  rarely give 4 or 5 stars!  The other book that I almost picked was The Partner, another very suspenseful read.

I don’t know. Is that a copout? I could be pretentious here and say Jane Austen, but she’s not really my favorite, LOL.

There are a few authors out there that I love and I read nearly everything they publish: John Grisham, Jon Lescroart, Gillian Flynn, and back in the day, I loved LaVyrle Spencer. A favorite writer, though? I’m not really sure I have one. I’ve certainly put down a Grisham if I didn’t like it, skipped a Lescroart if the synopsis doesn’t look like something I want to dive into. I’m more turned on by a story, and even if the author is an unknown, if the story is good, I’ll read it. And then read everything else they’ve written.