Summer 2012 Default Read - Marsha Canham

The idea of a summer default read started a couple years back for me, in the midst of yet another reading slump. Despite having enough books, both to read and to re-read (and this was before I had an ereader, mind you) to keep me quite busy during that three month stretch of chasing air conditioning and surrendering the diurnal norm (aka too hot to do anything in the daytime) but once again, water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink (er, read.)

Something had to change. I'd come into posession, thanks to UBS and library sales, of the entirety of Mary Jo Putney's Fallen Angels book and figured reading through those would solve the what do I read next problem, so I dove in. That worked well enough, so I set the same goal of a default read for the next year, choosing Hannah Howell's Murray family historicals. As luck would have it, I didn't need to go to default much, so still have several of those yet to read.

Since it’s always a good idea to have a Plan B, the default read continues. This year’s choice was easy. Last year, when catsitting for two friends who live a longish walk apart when one is sun and heat sensitive, as I am, I was the proud new owner of a Sony ereader and Marsha Canham’s Robin Hood Trilogy. You can see where this is going. I devoured all three books, largely over the course of the walks at sunrise and sunset. Same catsitting gigs happened at the same time of year this year, so of course it was time for the tradition to continue. I inhaled a reread of Pale Moon Rider, and then moved on to begin a reread of Across A Moonlit Sea, the first installment of the Pirate Wolf duet, which is now a trilogy and growing. Only natural that after that, I plan on a reread of The Iron Rose, and then first time read of The Following Sea.

Which reminds me that I've only read the first two of her Scottish trilogy, A Pride of Lions and Blood of Roses...or did I manage to get to Blood of Roses, because it was at one time harder than hard to get? Not to mention her lone western, Under the Desert Moon, or her riverboat book Straight For the Heart and of course rereads of classic favorites like The Wind and The Sea and then there are still more to come. Will this be the year I don't get out of default mode?

Then again, there are so many other good books coming out from Cecilia Grant, Elizabeth Hoyt, and others, maybe the question should be, do I really need sleep?

I Had A Title For This

While my Second Life avatar ponders this majestic garden (click picture to embiggen) I ponder the state of the afteroon. Ninety-two degrees, possible thundershowers according to AOL weather, but the sun is blazing. DH is also home and a day sleeper on days off after a busy shift, so to keep things quiet for him and to keep pale-skinned and heat-sensitive me from roasting, I seek out air conditioned venues on such afternoons.

I had a blog topic all ready to go when I opened this window, and it made sense at the time. It even tied into the choice of picture, but can I remember it now? Not a bit of it. I'm going to blame the heat, or maybe the humidity. Whichever one of them is making my brain wonky, could they please stop? Either way, I'm going to go with what I've got. At the moment, that's A) refreshing the selections on my mp3 player, and B) writing. Also putting away the laundry, but nobody wants to hear about that.

My morning was spent mastering the table function in Word, no mean feat for someone who regularly transposes numbers. I had to, though, because getting all my characters' vital information in one place means I do not have to sift through different drafts of the ms in search of said information when I need to check one thing before moving forward. Also because I am a special, special princess and all the character charts I had seen left me feeling like A) I had never met the characters I know better than my own family, because I couldn't think of a single thing to put in the helpfully labelled blanks and B) they left off important things like the character's theme song.

So, with the help of a more-technically-savvy-than-me writer friend, I set about modifying the modified character study (see what she...um...they, as I don't know who originally used the term "study" instead of "chart" did there?) to a format that would tell me what I needed to know, at a glance. Instead of being a chore, this was -dare I say it?- fun. There aren't blanks to fill in, not as such, but expandable boxes that will adjust their size to contain whatever verbose answers to the questions I've posed. Big surprise, but I get talky even with myself. Creating the tables took me the entire morning, and I only got the chance to fill in a few of them for my hero, but it felt right. Best part? I get to do more of it tomorrow. Or later tonight if I can't resist the urge to slip away from sleeping DH and sneak off to the keyboard.

There's reading to be done as well, as I have both my ereader and a paper book crooking their fingers at me, and trust me, if I hadn't been able to snag a seat near an outlet, my nose would have been deep in a reread of Pale Moon Rider by Marsha Canham (delicious highwayman story.) I already know that her Pirate Wolf duet-that-is-now-a-trilogy will be next, but by the time I reminded myself that I needed to reread the first two books, I was already ten pages into Pale Moon Rider, and queue forms to the left, thanks.

Either that or my first read of The Sinner by Margaret Mallory, the second in her Return of the Highlanders series. I liked the first book, The Guardian, as sixteenth century Highlanders are relevant to my interests. Big plus that the author's website has discussion questions, which means I must now make friends read these books so we can yak.

Only problem with wanting to settle in for a good evening's read (aside from the aforementioned laundry needing to be put away) is that our abode is currently comfy chair-less. The couch and I have reached a state of detente, the bedside lamp is on indefinite hiatus until we can get the wiring checked and as much as I love my ergonomic desk chair, it is not my first choice for reading in at hours at a stretch. I can fake semicomfy by sticking a pillow behind my back on the carpeted landing, especially good if I can aim the standing fan directly at myself, and really, what does it matter, because when I'm in the story, other things take a back seat.

All of which brings me to the fact that I have not chosen a default read option for this summer. Hm. Must let thhat one sort itself out. More on that later. Since this feels long winded even for me, I'm going to wrap for now and say goodnight. Time to rest so I can attack the keyboard anew in the morning. What will you be doing?

On the dissipation of cold brain and the art of tai ming

I still have cold brain. Waning, to be sure, but still cold brain. For those who play any of the Sims games, you'll understand an action dropping out of queue. For those who don't, well, we've all started to do something, forget what it is or why we're doing it. That happens a lot with cold brain. When cold brain starts to wane, it's not uncommon to have an action drop out of queue and then pop back in when one has started an entirely different action (Sims games don't do that - yet.)

The plan for this cold was to snuggle under some blankeys and make a dent in my TBR pile. Pause here for wild, demented laughter. Cold-influenced reading was more along the lines of A) carefully pick out book. B) Settle in for good reading session. C) Fall asleep in the middle of first page, or D) Read same page fifteen times and complain about book being repititious already. E) Give up and play Sims. F) Since laptop is on, open WIP and poke with metaphorical stick. G) Open Photoshop Elements and make inspirational graphics, as above (optional.)

All in all, not a lot of reading, when there are a heckuva lot of books. Paperbacks, both mass market and trade sized. Hardcovers. Ebooks. Novels. Research books. Other stuff. Even petted a fanzine in my search for reading material, but brain refused to latch on. Which is okay. It's a new TV season, as recent Saturday at the Movies posts detail. I caught most of Tristan and Isolde yesterday afternoon, which fulfilled some of my romance fiction yearning, but since things don't end exactly well for anybody in the Tristan/Isolde/Mark triangle, no HEA. Utterly gorgeous to watch, though, and atmosphere gets an A+++.

But reading. Yeah. I do have my default reads at the ready; Hannah Howell's Highland historicals this time. I know I'll like those, as I've read some of the earlier ones already, when they were first released, and likely out of order, so they will be like new to me again. Book three is on my desk, awaiting its call to duty, and that may be soon. Still, next to my bed, there is a small stack of started and put aside novels. Nothing wrong with them, only a brain that wouldn't track. I do believe that there is a right time to read a particular book, and something that's a "nice, but not right now" can, days or weeks (or longer) later, become "why did I wait so long to read this?"

Comedian Steve Martin once did a bit on the ancient art of Tai Ming, and I think he was onto something. Like the stack of books by my bed and the computer file of ideas that still need to simmer a while longer because I don't have all the ingredients yet, there is a right time to read or write a particular story, and forcing it isn't going to work. I've learned to embrace the "not right now" and focus on the now. Which is something that isn't that hard to do...and does not mean checking Twitter and Facebook like a maniac every five minutes. Nope, butt in chair, fingers on keyboard gets the job done.

I'm doing it again.

"It" in this case being the "From Fanfiction to Fantastic Fiction" workshop I presented at Savvy Authors last year. They asked me back this year, and since last year was such a blast, I jumped at the chance. Click on the link for more information.

My past life in the world of fanfic taught me a lot. One of the most important things is that we have to love what we're writing. Readers can tell if the author is invested in the story or phoning it in, and starting from a place of love (especially in romance) is the best possible foundation.

These days, I squeal in fangirlly glee over shippy moments in shows like How I Met Your Mother or Bones, and while it's probably only a coincidence, I prefer to consider that Bones' grad student, Vincent Nigel-Murray is a reference to Hannah Howell's Nigel Murray from Highland Honor, the second installment in her long running Highland historical romance series.

There's absolutely no reason for me to make any connection between the Bones character and the one in Hannah Howell's books, as they're very different characters but I am very fond of both, so the fact that they share a name gives me the happies. Similarly, when someone on Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior refers to Mick and Beth doing something, my brain goes right to Moonlight. My brain fills in that "my" Mick and Beth are off doing something related to the case somewhere in the background and will connect with the rest of the team later. Never mind how long it would take the profilers to figure out "my" Mick was a vampire and any name confusion. Moonlight Beth would fit in quite fine, to my thinking.

Yeeeah, once a fangirl, always a fangirl. What long time loves affect your current writing, reading or viewing?

We have a default read for spring,huzzah

Back when I had my most recent reading slump, the book that broke me out of it was The Immortal Highlander by Hannah Howell and Lynsay Sands. While I'm still not a vampire fan by any means (though Mick St. John, call me. Yes, you can bring Beth. In fact, I insist. Moonlight forever.)I am usually up for a good Highlander (while I'm on the topic, Duncan MacLeod, call me. Yes, you can bring Tessa. In fact, I insist.) story and the novella length means I can get from once upon a time to happily ever after sooner than with a full length novel. My immersion in the world of the MacNachtons and MacAdies began, and as I'm currently on the second to last book in the series to date, my eyes start drifting to the TBR shelves.

Hannah Howell has long been a staple in historical romance, and while I'd started her Highland series back when, well, back when, let's say, I hadn't been keeping current, so there's quite a few titles. Which I don't think is all the books covering the Cameron and Murray clans, and since it's the Highland part more than the vampire part (though I do find that handled well; normal people with a few wee differences) I think working my way though the Camerons and Murrays through the spring will be right up my alley. I really appreciate when linked books go through multiple generations rather than stay in only one, and this definitely applies here.

I'm starting at the beginning, once I'm done with the last Highland vampire installment I have on hand, which will be a trip down memory lane for the first few books. Which will be interesting, because I don't think I read them in order when I started and I'm pretty strict about that these days. Also looking forward to my perspective as a more mature reader and writer. Since Typing With Wet Nails was meant to be primarily a writing and reading blog, I'm planning on this being a step in the right direction.

I've found that picking a default read, be it theme, author, setting or something else goes a long way in staving off reading slumps. Have you ever set a default for those don't-know-what-to-read-next times? How did that work for you? Hannah Howell fans, chime in; which of her historicals (vampire or otherwise) are your favorites?