Twiddling my Thumbs

Waiting for Guylty’s weekly RA Round and realizing it might not come because she’s been traveling all week. How insensitive of me!

No, I’m not being sarcastic. I mean for real, how dare me?

EDIT: While I was composing this, the weekly update went up! WHOOOO!!! 

And I realize that I’ve not done pretty much squat of anything this week myself AND it’s the end of the month – well, almost the end of the month…. and things I’ve been saying I’m GOING to do and HAVEN”T done for ages…. like say PAINT THIS SHELF.. 

Really, I’ve reached a point to as I’m either going to PAINT it or just deal with the fact it’s an ugly shade of blue and start putting books on it!

My sister and her daughter are coming down for the last weekend end of March. Where she doesn’t make me anywhere nervous, unlike my parents, I would like to have the place cleaned up and completely settled. The Princess enters college next year and while she’s gotten LARGE scholarship offers from good schools out of state, her father is demanding she attend an in state school. There is a nice college about 30 minutes from me and she’s checking it out – mostly to appease him, I think. Spawn and I will join them, as he’s looking at them as well.

But I’m looking forward to their visit. Baby sis is my bestie.

But right now, I need to catch up on things. LOTS of things.

Like… well…

1. GuyDay.
2. Weather Woes
3. Movie Madness
4. Zee Reads

I suppose I should make separate entries and/or spread them out, but I just want to whack them all like Whack-A-Mole and say done.

1. Guy Day.

Well, I didn’t forget (please see previous entry) however after a full day at work (in which I try very hard to be good and NOT do personal roaming except before classes and during lunch) and then heading straight home, changing clothes, putting on some smell good stuff – no I’m not trying to impress anyone, I just smelled of Child – and then dinner and then heading to the coffee shop where no I didn’t see any hot fine male specimens that talk about subjects we’re both interested in, we got home fairly late.

And seeing how on Thursday night, I got home, ate and took a 7 hour nap at 6 PM…. well.. there ya go.

So no I did NOT forget

1. GuyDay. 

Admit it – you want to reach out and play with those curls…

RAWR!

Background Gizzy… I have a certain… adoration of background Guy…

Eye lash porn

Snarlitage.

I just discovered I CAN post multiples as individual pictures… imagine that.

I really hate when WordPress breaks stuff and demands we just cope. Meh.

And the rest of it

2. Weather in my neck of the woods has been… strange.

This would be Wednesday

And a beautiful day it was, sun out and bright. I had the sunroof open, blaring the tunes.

And then Thursday…

It says ’61’. This is as you can see 24 hours later. And it was windy as heckers. I am now the crossing guard in the afternoon and raising my pathetic little stop sign almost caused me to be lifted up ala Mary Poppins and taken away to lands unknown. It was a hazard.

And then yesterday…

I’m trying my damnedest to stay WELL folks. Really!!! With the exception of August, in which I had no voice and was completely run down, I’ve been remarkably healthy, for me in the winter.

Of course, spring is coming…

3. Movie Madness

I missed my installment of Movie Madness this week. I forget what number I’m on, but I remember the question

Best adaptation from a book.

People, the movie is NEVER as good as the book. Books can do things, get away with things, that a movie can’t reasonably do. I recall Richard talking about the improbability of the dwarves having beards so long, they tucked them in their belts. Can’t turn your head. Can you imagine traveling so far, with your armor and weapons and stuff and your harp??? REALLY??? So much left out… so much added. Someone told me once they felt that The Hobbit movie was Peter Jackson’s fanfiction. I can see where she thought that. I didn’t think the movies were that bad or that far off. They had to answer and interest a different audience than the books. And then there is the reality of having a beard you tucked in your belt and carried your armor and your weapons and your personal affects and your money purse and your harp…

Nope. Not happening.

I started scrounging my brain – Harry Potter… no those adaptations were pretty bad. Important information was left out – HOW did Remus know HOW to read the Marauder’s Map?? They never tell you he and Sirius and James and Peter created the map! Never. Many things they never tell you. They never tell the story of young Dumbledore, his friendships, his family, which were so important to the story.  I know Jo approved them, but they left stuff out. I know I make fun of people who whine about things left out of movies that were in the book, but they shouldn’t leave important information out. I will state that the 2 movies that depicted the last book were better than the book. Jo was limited in her writing and the scope she imagined in that last and final chapter of the saga just wasn’t vivid enough for me. The movie was. The chained dragon alone… and the scene where Helena Bonham Carter played Emma Watson playing Helena Bonham Carter.. was sheer genius.

It’s time for me to reread the books.

I went to the IDMB base – and realized going through the list that I had read many of the books, had seen quite a few of the movies, however, I’d not watched and read both. Which leaves me in a serious quandary with this question. Perhaps I should skip it.

But as I was ready to give up and move, I came across one movie I had seen and I had read the book. And I was shocked because both were wonderful. I’ve seen movie adaptations of this man’s books before and they NEVER were near as good as the book. Except this one (and one other which I’ll name afterwards). Both made me cry. Cry and cry and cry.

Stephen King’s The Green Mile.

The book had been a serial, which drove me nuts. 1 chapter a month. Say what? I know me. I would chafe. I bought them, set them aside, and then read them in one sitting. Of course, I discovered there was a contest at the end of each chapter and I missed the deadlines of each one, but that’s okay. Stephen King was my favorite author for many years. The years I was reading horror, his books were the ones I had to have the minute they came out. There was one series I never got into the Dark Tower. I should probably try again. I still have great love for his books and much admire him as a writer.

(The other awesome adaptation of one of his books was The Shawshank Redemption.)

and last, but not least

4. Zee Reads.

I’m not in such a hurry right now to complete a list. I’m trying for 50 books. So we’ll see…  4 books so far this month. There is still 2 more days left and if I finish the one I’m currently reading, I might bring it back and edit it in here. I might just put it in March’s list.

First up…

I told you, I managed to obtain pretty much everything Lexi Blake wrote under this name. Several HUGE series. Nights in Bliss is first up… Menage. Every one.

It’s interesting to go back to these early novels and appreciate how much she’s grown as a writer. The story is good, the plot… her plot structure has definitely grown the most. I love that she writes strong characters of both sexes and she writes them well. This set of books are obviously sex-based, with some plot thrown in. I have a preference for plot based with sex thrown in.

But I digress. You should be seeing a lot of her from me this year. A new Masters and Mercenaries is out (Yes I have it) There appears to be a Topped installment I’ve missed that I need to go look for, and there are more coming out in April, June, and a new side-show from M&M world (Lawless) beginning in August. Between the 9 she’s co-written with Shayla Black, with another coming out in May, her Urban fantasy series Thieves – 7 of them with another coming later this year, no date, And then the Bliss series, the Siren Series and the Fairytale series – close to 20 I think – like I said, y’all should see a lot of BDSM from me this year.

ahem.

ONWARD!

Did. Not. Like.

Really. I suppose this is supposed to be an 1800’s version of the aforementioned Bliss series. Nope. It’s a Wannabe. These 2 guys scare me. She scares me. She scares me because after running around from an arranged marriage to a douchebag, she runs in a winter storm, gets lost, falls, bangs her head and is found by these two guys… who immediately decide she is their true destined mate and that’s that. She wakes up naked between them and to be sooooo sheltered, she just isn’t that upset by it. She should be shocked, horrified, terrified!!!! She’s not. She’s completely cool with it. UN FUCKING BELIEVABLE! The seduction isn’t pretty. The way they treat her is unbelievable, the writing is disjointed, the sex… the word of choice is fuck. Now granted, we see that word a LOT in bdsm, but it upset me that their wedding night – and she was a virgin on their wedding night – they never once used the word LOVE! I need that word, okay? I need that word. She is a virgin. She needs tenderness and caring and little bit of realism. None of that was there. They did things you don’t do with a virgin! k? The word LOVE isn’t used until the very last page. This appears to be the 2nd in the series. There was a scene involving the threesome from I guess the first book that just…. sickened me. Not the act that took place, but… the act that took place. It was not necessary to this book. I’m supposing it was set up to show the little in the middle idiot in THIS book that this was how a menage works – her men are tending to her needs.

Tending to her needs. That’s what they do. I mean I GUESS they love her, but the word is used once at the END of the book. Otherwise, they tend to her, like she’s… I dunno… the farm. The farm needs tending to, guess we better go cultivate the fields.

Did. Not. Like. There is a series. It will collect dust.

This book made me completely rethink William Edward with the woman who will become his mistress…really!

FINALLY!!!! My wait (of 2 months???) is over!!! I was NOT disappointed! And now I have to wait until August for the next segment, baring no delays.

I am almost in love with Crispin Guest. No, he is not my darling Guy, but he’s damn close. I love that Jeri is growing this character, that he is not one dimensional, that he is changing, adapting with his life changes and surroundings. He doesn’t just accept his lot and his mistakes and sits and wallows in the mud. He learned from it, he’s changed by it. He’s more aware of things that he didn’t think about before. He appreciates what little he has. He doesn’t drink so much anymore and his relationship with Jack is obviously very important, as are his friendships. Crispin is a changed man and Jack is growing up as well.

I had budgeted the book for next month. I couldn’t wait. Couldn’t wait. The last book I read (the Wayward bride one) was soooo awful, I needed a good book, so I bought Crispin, knowing it would be a good book!!! Means no book buying for me until April, maybe May, probably May, as the book was MUCH more than I normally pay for an ebook. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY much more.

and last…

Eyebrows went up at this one.

Reincarnation. Robin Hood. Surely that would be enough to capture my interest. Hmmm?

Did. Not. Like.

At all.

The reincarnation of Marian is a wimp. An immature woman who doesn’t get life, who runs from her problems and to her best friend, who is currently in London. The bestie is all about settling for less, accepting the unacceptable, just deciding, this is your lot in life. There are things I found unbelievable. Is Nottingham an hour’s train ride from London? I mean, can you make a day trip of it? Leave in the morning, sight-see and be back in London in time for tea? Is Sherwood really still a forest??? It’s my understanding that all that is left is a copse of trees…  or that you can spit from one end to the other and is THAT done in a day trip as well? If you’re a guy and your fiance’s bestie arrives out of the blue, running from her boyfriend, has left him, she’s sporting a bruise on her cheek (it WAS an accident) with a rucksack, she’s obviously left him, she’s quit her dead end job and she wants to cry on the shoulder of HER bestie, who is your fiance, who followed you to London when your company moved you and said fiance doesn’t work and is failing at fitting in with the society wives of your company… would you REALLY call the girl’s live in boyfriend – WHO SHE LEFT – and bring him over on the sly to try to fix them???

Really?

If you were the girl running, would you eavesdrop on said Bestie, her fiance who just stabbed you in the back, and your former live in boyfriend talk about you and then two men leave, ordering the bestie to ‘talk some sense into you’, would you really stick around? Would you REALLY???? Why is this person your bestie???

Would you kiss a bartender the day after you met him? Would you?

Wretched character development, choppy writing, shitty plot. No. Just say no.

As we should all know, Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, died this past week. A second novel, Go Set a Watchman, was released last fall. It’s been on my to-read list since then and I moved it up and am currently reading it.  So far, I’m enjoying it. I might finish it this weekend, I might not. After Bride and Hood’s Heart, again I needed a good, well-written book. Glad I have some M&M coming up… I believe I have several series I started and liked and didn’t finish because of a certain challenge I did last year. I need to go into the To Read Folder and start shuffling. At least I’m able to get the computer now to read the Kindle Fire… what a mess.

All of my muses are talking. The next chapter of The Shepherd will go up this weekend. Gary is talking and talking lots. I think the set chapter I’m working on will become two. Maybe. Or it just might be one big one. I’ll write all of it and then decide. William Edward is stewing. He’s sitting in an ugly place, a busy place and thanks to the painful research I did for the last chapter, the next chapter should write itself. William Edward is not a nice man. But neither was Guy. Both need some softness in their lives.

Of course, my Doom fic Muse has woken up. Not said much but has woken up. And I received notification that Big Bang signups are in 2 weeks. At first I thought – I have nothing… and then Dwalin raised his ax, slammed it down and said – oh aye, ye dew, lassie.

Sigh.

Sorry this was so long. I hope I didn’t bore you.