Big Plans...

[evaine_lj]

Yep, I joined up with 50bookchallenge and have finished my first book of the new year.

Childe Morgan by Katherine Kurtz. My favorite author of all. This is her latest offering in the Deryni series, and it pains me to say it, but it's far from her best. I miss the days of the Camber series. *sigh* Of course, it was nice to visit with some of my favorite characters again, see them in a different era than what we're used to. Wonderbaby Alaric Morgan anyone? But... Katherine's lost something in her narrative. It was only the last three chapters that gave me that charged up feeling of "I can't put this down!". The rest of the book was honestly not much more than a series of 'tellings'.

So, onwards and upwards. What's next on the agenda? I'm not sure... I have a whole bunch of new books to choose from. I'll keep you posted.

50 more books to read this year. There was a time when I could do that in a matter of a few months, but real life has a way of eating into the time I'd usually devote to reading, and writing as well. Reading 50 books will honestly be a challenge for me this year.

On the upside though... I have a few writing bunnies that have been rattling their cages rather emphatically, so hopefully 2007 will be more productive for me on that front. I SO hope to write my novel this year. There are a couple of scenes I keep seeing in my mind's eye and have been for a while, so now it's just to build on them. There are also some shorter fics percolating, something that's been lacking for the last little while.

What I need is to get my life organized better so that I have time for all the fun stuff. Reading, writing, IMing with my much missed friends. Maybe that should be my resolution for '07 - organization. Well, we'll see. *LOL*

Comments

[glammetalkitten.livejournal.com]

I used to zoom through new book after new book....but now it takes me forever to even get through one! I bought 'Kushiel's Scion' in the summer whilst I was in the US.....and didn't get around to reading it unti just before Christmas! Loved it though. To tiny, tiny pieces. And now I want more.

[evaine.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm glad you liked that one, Kate! I really enjoyed it too. I picked up Kushiel's Dart on a whim and was really surprised at how good it was and couldn't stop. I hear that her other books, the ones not set in this world, aren't anywhere near as good as the Kushiel series; hence, I'm reluctant to give them a go.

[glammetalkitten.livejournal.com]

I think I picked up 'Kushiel's Dart' because I thought the cover was pretty! Again I think I was in the US on holiday...and had to rush out and buy the other two before going home because I was waorried I wouldn't be able to get them in the UK!

I did buy the first in the other series she wrote, and didn't get beyond the first couple of chapters. Odd that she can write such an amazing series, follwoed by a duff one, and now another amazing one now she is back to writing about Terre D'Ange.

[feelforfaith.livejournal.com]

I would like to give it a try. I read so little these days, and it takes me forever to finish a book. Plus it's hard for me to find something I find interesting and actually want to read.

[evaine.livejournal.com]

Reading is like writing... like a muscle. It gets out of shape. It needs constant exercise and it gets to the point where you have to make a conscious effort to make the time to read. That's where I'm at right now, so I'm hoping that this challenge will help out. I miss reading voraciously and want to get back to that place.

[tasyfa.livejournal.com]

I gave up on the Deryni novels a really long time ago now. Probably around the Camber series, IIRC - long enough ago that I don't remember much about them except that they started to lose my interest, just like you said. I think that worlds have a finite number of stories and once you're floundering around trying to figure out what else you can do just to keep it within the mythology, it's time to nuke it and build a new one.

*slips carrots into the cages* At least you have a little extra free time, now that you don't have to carve out moments for a mortgage payment. ;-D

[evaine.livejournal.com]

I think that part of Katherine's problem now, is that she's trying to cram all the characters she's ever created into one small book. Make the stories panoramic. I say, screw that. Take a couple of the characters and write their stories. For instance, there's this one character in the latter series - Sé Trelawny, a childhood friend of Morgan's mother. Due to tragedy (of course, it's Katherine) he goes off to become a Knight of the Anvil. I want to know HIS story. Not the events of a fairly run of the mill coronation - not even King Brion Haldane's coronation.

Part of the problem, maybe, is that Katherine has publicised for years, her projected novels. This trilogy and that trilogy and so on. And while her fans have been tickled to try and figure out how they're going to fit into the events of her current (that of the adult Alaric Morgan), it's sort of backed her into a corner. She said she was going to write a book about the young boy Morgan years ago... and this is it. The problem is... Morgan isn't incredibly interesting at 4 years old.

And now I'm babbling. *LOL*

My favortie books were the Camber series and the Children of St. Camber series. They were thick and luscious and the characters were drawn in depth, we saw them grow and change. We saw the events of their lives - those events weren't listed for us, you know? *sigh* I miss those days.

And now that I think of it, the same thing happened to Melanie Rawn's Dragon Scroll series. Her stories became epic in scope, meaning size-wise, and degenerated into a mass muddle of characters and lists of events.

And I'll stop now. *LOL* I can become as tiresome about Katherine's books as I can about Metallica!

*watches the bunnies munch away on the carrots* Good.. good... *grin*

[tasyfa.livejournal.com]

Dude. One of these days I am going to wake up to find my arm tattoo's turned into a dragon b/c I'm actually you, LOL. You are the only person I've met who knows who Melanie Rawn is! I loooooooove that series, but I have to agree, the first trilogy about Rohan and Sioned worked a lot better than the second one focused on Pol, with the additional complications of the sorcerors, etc.. It got a little bogged down in events but I adored it anyway. Damn, now I want to reread them and they're packed up in the garage. Ah well - incentive to *un*pack them like I've been attempting to do for two years now!

Though I can't reread the Ruins of Ambrai series, much as I would love to, because the third book STILL ISN'T OUT and where the second one left off makes me craaaaaazy.