Everything in this room is eatable. In fact even I am eatable, but that is called canabalism my dear children and is frowned upon in most civilizations. - Willy Wonka
First off... yesterday's blog was based on the original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", not the new Johnny Depp version. I loved the original -- and it has the distinction of being the very first movie I saw in a sit down theater (Mary Poppins was my first drive-in).
Marty, you must see it. It's wonderful in a psychedelic 70's sort of way.
I working on my mystery yesterday -- added a new character when I realized my villain was probably too obvious. It was interesting threading this new character in and giving this new villain enough motivation to commit the crimes. This is my first mystery, so it's a learning adventure, but I hope to have it finished soon. I'm at 40,000 words (okay, I'll be honest - 39,997), so need to add at least 15,000 but maybe more. I think I need to add a couple scenes at the beginning, and I already have most of the rest of the end plotted out. I, of course, have the ending written. I wasn't certain, this being my first mystery, whether writing the end first in this case would work, but it seems to be working just fine. I will have to change it slightly because of my new villain, but the old villain's place in the story hasn't changed much, so it's good.
That was all pretty ambiguous. For good reason. I hope that, once it's published, y'all are going to read it and I don't want to give away the end.
The coolest part about working on the book yesterday was this: I took my DD swimming at my neighbors house and brought my laptop along to work! It was wonderful...See, taking a notepad wouldn't have done it, because I was working with an existing novel. The only bad thing about having a laptop? It cuts into my reading time, because before, I used to read when I couldn't be in the mushroom pit writing.
I finished a category romance (EDITED TO ADD --FOR DRU: Definition of Category Romance: A story in which the relationship between the hero and heroine is the focus, published as part of line such as Harlequin or Silhouette.) yesterday that I enjoyed quite a bit. I wrote up a review and it'll be posted at LASR as soon as I'm done here. I describe category romance books in my head thusly:
1. Awful. How did it ever get published? *put it in a bag for the library or the USB after throwing it against a wall*I supposed these descriptions could be used to describe most of the books I read, but category -- for me -- is really hit or miss (mostly miss). The good thing about this is, when a story does shine, it shines REALLY brightly because of the dross it's hanging out with.
2. It wasn't awful -- I made it to the end without throwing it against a wall. *pass it on to a friend or relation*
3. Good -- I'll see if her backlist is available at the library. *looks up the catalog at the library*
4. Really good. I'll buy it and read it again. *looks to see if it's still available for purchase*
5. Stupendous! I'll buy it and all her backlist. (I don't know what I'd do here... because I've never had a category romance that I enjoyed to the point of blindly buying the backlist).
What's the best romance you've read lately?
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The neighbors (this time not the ATV/dirt bike neighbors, but the neighbors behind them in the farmhouse) shot of fireworks last night. Loud fireworks. For forty-five minutes. I know this because I had crawled into bed about five minutes before they started, and stared at the clock until they were done.
Um... it's not the Fourth people.
This is the one thing I really hate about this time of year -- folks celebrating Independence Day for three weeks and at all hours. As though, because the kids aren't in school, it's okay to shoot off fireworks on a Tuesday at midnight.
*sigh*
I want to buy a couple hundred acres and plop my house right smack in the middle. In fact, I think I'll build that dream property and house in my mind, so I'll know it when I see it.
No neighbors for miles. It's truly beautiful...
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10 comments:
I'm reading a catagory right now. I've become very cynical of them. I don't think I have high hopes for this one. When the hero has to tell someone who's known him for a decade "Yes, my job as CEO of the company Blahblahblah International is stressful." I tend to form a bad opinion of the hero. Yah, can't we work in your job title in a different way rather than telling someone who obviously knows already? And I tend to get tired of the cookie cutter hero who is gorgeous, successful and can do anything he sets his mind to. Maybe this is why I like to stick to normal everyday guys as my heroes. I can't relate to the other ones.
Maybe your neighbor ran out of fireworks. I know we'll have some, we always do.
I agree that the original Charlie and TCF was great! Except for the part of the boat ride with the chicken beheading. *shudder* Amazing that I never noticed that part until I was MUCH older ... I always remembered the millipede and the eye. LOL
I still sing the Ooompa Loompa song .. actually ALL the songs were more..singable than the new one. Agree?
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RE: Book ratings... I've been reading a lot of 1's and 2's lately. Do #4's really exist? Because the best I've seen is your listed #3 criteria.
I'm curious as to what books make up your fourth category. Have any titles you want to share?
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Best romance lately? Tough one.
I stayed up to 4:30AM reading LKH's new one, The Harlequin, but I don't really consider that romance.
Hmmm, Sight Unseen by Samantha Graves was a ... #3, does that count?
Or New Moon by Stephenie Meyers...That had me tearing up with emotion...I'll say 'New Moon', final answer.
:-)
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AND... You're right about the revel-goers who take it to the max. I heard some snapping and popping in the night too, but only for 15 minutes. After reading your account, I'm not going to complain.
But I agree with you ....except I wouldn't want to move into the middle of nowhere .. instead, I'd have all the neighbors screened for likeminded views...no one could move into the area without passing the exams.
Then again, Utopia could get boring after awhile.
Maybe a simple CORI check would suffice?
*grin*
Sounds like a creepy premise for a book.
:-)
Happy Sunday to you.
Yeah, our neighbors were shooting off fireworks last night too...and it wasn't even July yet!
So far we've been lucky - I haven't heard fireworks yet, but I'm sure it will start soon.
I've seen this phrase, but I don't know exactly what is a "category romance"?
I think I would prefer to soundproof my place from outside environments as my solution.
Thanks Marianne!
Our neighbors here haven't been TOO bad. Thank goodness. MIldly annoying at worst. Not sure how they'll be on the actual 4th, though.
I agree 100 acres with a house at the center of the property sounds heavenly sometimes.
I've never seen the new Willie Wonka movie. Just the old one which I loved!
I loved BOTH WW/TCF, but I'm also gaga over Johnny Depp and I loved what he did with the role. They were different movies; you couldn't expect the same take on the book.
I like your rating scale. I have two books that I need to write up for you... onw ia a definite 3+; very few authors make it to 4 with me. And the other is a 5. Those are really rare.
As to fireworks, we've had a lot going off here, too, which is scary. We had less than 4 inches of rain in the entire year last year, so everything is really dry. Fireworks are against the law, and fire danger is high. And you know it's kids setting them off. Makes me nervous, since our neighborhoods are surrounded by canyons (only because it's too steep/unstable to build). Things could get ugly. Our fire departments are on high alert, and they've done a great job protecting us when there have been fires, but it hasn't been that long since most of the county seemed to be on fire and we were working to evacuate horses all over the place.
I'll be glad when we're past this holiday and no harm has been done.
I rarely read romances (sorry!) But the very best one I EVER read was one I grabbed on a whim from the library several years ago: It was...um...dang! My hormonal benedryl brain can't remember the title or the author even though I've read the book 3 times.
It's about a girl who works for a tv network and a French chef named Claude who has his own tv show. She wrecks the show, injures the chef, and is forced to take his place on the air - and she can't cook.
It was majorly entertaining!
I'll get you the title someday if I can ever recall it.
This is going to drive me crazy now.
Man!
I haven't been reading much category lately, either, but I've read two REALLY good ones this week. One is The Gladiator's Honour (Harlequin Historical) and the other is A Man for Maggie (Harlequin American.)
I buy Karen Templeton and Catherine Mann and Virginia Kantra categories blindly. Never disappointing.
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