Time Flies...

Oh my, so what have I been up to for so long that I haven't updated my blog in a month?

Well, for one, my boy and I flew back to Jersey to see the families over the holiday. That automatically guarantees my schedule gets completely turned on its head and that I turn into a useless and get nothing done person.

Then I got sick.

I feel like I don't get sick that often, so when I do, it sticks with me, and drags on for what feels like forever. This one lasted two weeks. There were a few days my voice was basically gone. And I was crashing on a couch in my sister's basement for three and half weeks. It wasn't an uncomfortable couch, but it was still a couch. And my sister has a two year old - good kid, good crier, good at running around at 6 in the morning. Which would not have been so bad if I wasn't constantly waking up in the middle of the night needing more tissues, or just getting used to the fact I was in a basement on a couch and not in my bed in my apartment. Needless to say, I was a little sleep deprived on top of being sick.

Hm... I need to stop moaning and groaning now.

Nothing I had on my schedule got completed, even when I had factored in the fact I get less done on my family visits. So I'm scrambling to catch up to the schedule I wanted to have.

One thing I wanted to do was hammer out a better schedule for the blog, haha. And to hammer out a better writing and reading schedule.

Basically, I want to start writing 500 words a day, guaranteed. That I've still failed at, but since I've been doing a lot of editing on The Eternal Queen, so I haven't felt too guilty.

Another thing I wanted to do was read a book a week. This, at least, I have accomplished! In fact, I'm ahead of schedule. I sat down over the last few days and have read two books that have been on my list:

1. Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake
2. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin
(I probably should be linking to their author sites, but I was already on Amazon while writing this.)

I really enjoyed both books. Loved the characters, the writing, and the settings. I loved the way they both described the tense scenes. In Blake's Anna, I thoroughly enjoyed the world she developed and the way any interactions with ghosts felt unsettling and creepy. I loved the way the magic of the world was revealed.

In Unbecoming it was much the same. I loved the wonderfully chilling mental undoing of Mara, where you're never quite sure {just like Mara} what's real and not real. How much is inside this crumbling, strained mind of this young girl? Just what dark memory is waiting to show itself in fractured dreams and hallucinations?

Now, I'm an avid ghost fan. The book/movie/tv show can be terrible, but if it has ghosts in it, I'll probably enjoy it anyway. I know this about myself, so I knew that Anna Dress In Blood was going to be right up my alley. One of my favorite books is Laura Whitcomb's A Certain Slant of Light, a ghost love story. And another thing I really like is weird and dark stories. So a teenage girl struggling with hallucinations and PTSD concerning a dark, forgotten night of terror that killed three of her friends? Yeah, I had some pretty excited expectations about The Unbecoming as well.

And I have to say, I enjoyed both books and would recommend them. I know I'm doing them terrible justice right now, this isn't the most thought out blog post. It's more like, a stream-of-conscious-excuse-to-procrastinate-on-editing post. Shh... don't judge.

However, I will admit, the ending to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was rather a... disappointment. It was... it just wasn't what I was anticipating as I read the book. It was like the book and I were playing chess and then suddenly I realized the game was actually checkers. Yeah, that was a weird comparison... *cough* That being said, I think her subtle build-up to the ending was still amazing, even if it disappointed me. I loved all the subtle building in the book. All the little twists and unraveling plot lines that were actually connecting in ways that hadn't yet been revealed. But yeah... it was... well... it bumped the book down a bit for me.

But I think that's for every reader to decide themselves, and the only way you can decide, is to read it yourself. So go do that, like, right now! Then come back and tell to me your thoughts. I like to hear peoples thoughts, even if sometimes I'm a tad slow at responding.

As for Anna Dressed In Blood, well, it totally met my expectations. It was what I thought it would be. I wasn't really completely convinced by the main romantic plot, but, eh, that's another thing each reader will decide for themselves. I loved the secondary characters, probably more than the main character. That's not too strange, since a) first person puts me on edge, and no I don't know why, and no, I don't immediately dislike a book if it's in first person - I just prefer third person books most of the time; and b) there's a lot more pressure on the main character with first person (in my opinion), because you are literally in that person's head the whole time, so little things I would normally dismiss if they didn't really click with me become almost impossible to ignore.

There wasn't even anything really big with Cas, the main character. I think it was mostly the love plot being, in my opinion, a little rushed.

I guess this is the time to mention that I seriously, seriously prefer love plots to be side plots and not main plots (and yes, I know I just said one of my favorite books is a ghost-love story, shh...). So I knew going in that the love plot was a main thing, from reading the back of the book, and the summary on Amazon, so, like, I had already prepared myself to jump into a "love" story. I mean, I guess the love plot wasn't really the main point of the book, but yeah, it kind of was.

But man, Blake's supernatural elements were so much fun. Anna was a great ghost. And only one of many great ghosts in the book. Blake gives us quite a few to enjoy.

Anyway, yeah, go read those books if you haven't! They're both great fun, and dark, and creepy, and just darn good stories, even with the stuff I didn't dig as much.

As mentioned, I'm still catching up with myself so the blogging might still be slow. But I'm not disappearing, so no worries on that front!

Hope you had a great holiday and that the new year is treating you well!

*I'm sorry if my constant tweaking makes this appear multiple times in RSS update feeds*