Worst & Best Books of 2024

I did read a lot this year but mostly mediocre books. Still, it's a good reading year. Here are the books I have chosen to feature as my worst and best reads. (These are not in any particular order.)

~ The Worst ~

01 - Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
What's it about: evil wizard with amnesia, fruitless endeavors, lots of egotistic/evil people, lots of dumb servants
What I think: Gav, the wizard with no memory, is basically an idiot until the plot needs him to be otherwise. I don't know why, I thought he's an a-hole who simply can't function without his memory, not that he tries very hard to get it back. So many unfunny things happened but maybe I don't get the humor because I find every scene that is supposed to be funny just awkward and embarrassing. Too much self-introspection and ramblings for me to enjoy bust mostly Gav is a character too annoying to root for.

Fiction: Therapy for the reformed witch

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Wisewebwoman and is hosted at Elephant's Child's blog over here. This week's prompts are: ravioli, serenity, marble, bridge, soccer and/or foliage, nepotism, lectern, lantern, gorgonzola.

Fiction: Therapy for the reformed witch
Disa Moore doesn't have anger issues but her boss insisted she visits a therapist for a month or else he'll fire her. So what if she sets a couple of people on fire and turns them to toads? You can't have a former witch to work in customer service at the mall and expect her to be nice when the customers are jerks.
    Here in a large white room, Disa sits on a white leather couch facing the therapist. Miss Cuttings sits with one leg crossed over the other and arms on the armrest of the couch. She is probably in her early thirties, a few years younger than Disa. Everything about the woman screams stress and disorder with her short hair in a ponytail with strands loose around her face, wire-thin eyeglasses slightly askew on the bridge of her nose and wrinkled white shirt and gray pants.  

Blog Post Appreciation

I like the idea of highlighting forgotten posts. So I thought I make a post for that. I could have listed a couple of my fiction pieces as those don't get many views but I'm not going to torture people with long reading but if you're interested in some odd stories, just go click on the 'writing' link below the header. Here are two posts that I thought needed some appreciation:

01 - Book Rants - September 2024 – I wrote book rants/semi-resembles to book reviews as how-to books which I thought was a fun idea for a less rambling post.

02 - The sadness of missing back covers for ebooks – I might have talked about this in a later post but I seem to have forgotten about this post as it was an older one. I still miss back covers when reading ebooks. I think they are needed in order for a book to be complete. I don't understand why they just took it off.

Feel free to leave a link to one or two posts from your blog that you think needs some appreciation. Or if you want, make your own blog post appreciation post with a whole list of posts that you want readers to take a second or a third look.

Fiction: New York Moon

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Wisewebwoman and is hosted at Elephant's Child's blog over here. This week's prompts are: arithmetic, daffodils, bicycle, graveyard, sympathy and/or gravy, tugboat, flag, hospital, freedom. Charlotte (MotherOwl) has selected light blue as the colour of the month.

New York Street with Moon by Georgia O'Keeffe

Fiction: New York Moon
It was the view that lured him to buy the place but now all the buildings obscured everything except the moon.
    Drinking hot milk was what he did on weekends. But this Sunday night, he wanted a new habit. He made black tea and sat down on the couch with his hot mug with all the lights off.
    Tonight, the moon was his light. Its light filtered in through the opened light blue curtains. Usually, he would share the view with her - this New York moon with its never fading light. But now he turned his back on it. But he still felt its presence.
    The echo of a train ran through behind him. He took a sip of the tea. The hot liquid warmed him a bit. It was cold walking home from the hospital. Being a doctor was his dream but the job was now arduous and joyless. On the way, he had stopped to watch a tugboat guided a ship toward shore. The ship's flag waved in the wild wind. It had reminded him the only day he had ever sailed. He got seasick but he had never forgotten the freedom he felt being out there while the wind guided him along.

Fiction: You need a dog

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Wisewebwoman and is hosted at Elephant's Child's blog over here. This week's prompts are: jail, bar, dump truck, asphyxiate, herring and/or kiwi, bowling, rifle range, permit, daiquiri.

Fiction: You need a dog
Stanley Storm had been getting messages from god since he was ten. They weren't always direct, wise or useful but they would always give Storm something to think about. And they would always come from unexpected places.
    On the Wednesday morning Storm turned 38, he was making vanilla cake like always when something on the box made the crinkle between his eyes deepened. Ever since he turned 30, the messages had not been coming so he had thought he didn't need them anymore. As it was not his usual brand of ready-made cake mix, he had to read the instructions. At the end, there was this: Ask not why your wife doesn't love you, ask why she wanted your passcode. Storm had a sudden memory of his wife, Joy, asking him for the code to his safe in his home office. She had never bothered with such things as he gave her enough each month to buy three cars.

IWSG Dec 2024: Gender Perspective

When I was writing this story, a query came up: If a man is feeling awkward or in some slight discomfort and is sitting down, does he widen his feet or do the opposite? This story is from a male perspective so I'm wondering if I'm right to make him have his feet moved farther apart. When someone widen their stance, they are trying to stabilize their body, hence, this sort of make them a little more at ease. My thinking is, your body would automatically do what is comfortable to you in certain situations. I'm not assuming all males are like this but when I'm writing, I am making the assumption.    
    Some people might have a different opinion on this because everyone's different. Even if we assume from the conventional male perspective, there would be deviations we might not know of. I think a character's perspective, whether it is male or female, cannot always be correct because different people have different ideas of what makes a male or a female. But I am mostly speaking from a conventional point of view.

As a reader or writer, do you think writers get it right when it comes to gender perspectives?
  
[More about the group over at the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog here]

Fiction: The Solace Cafe

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Alex J. Cavanaugh and are posted at Elephant's Child's blog here. This week's prompts are: staple, symbolic, relic, ebony, flames And/Or moon, general, drums, presto, thrilled. I didn't use presto and general.

Fiction: The Solace Cafe
"It taste like rain," she says as she places the cup back onto the saucer. Picking up the spoon, she spins it around the porcelain cup though she has not added sugar or cream to her tea. The clanking sound rings loudly in the almost empty cafe while in the background, a low, slow tune plays from the speakers.
    I nod. What is a good respond? Rain tastes like stale water, not something to get into the habit of drinking. Tea has been a staple in my house growing up. It is a relic ritual my great-grandmother had started, a symbolic way of celebrating the beginning of a fresh day.
    The two of us, the only customers in the cafe, sit in a booth at the front. Faint, late afternoon daylight shines through the glass storefront into the unlit cafe and lands on the floor by our table. In the back booth, I hear the waitresses counting their tips.
    My companion does not seem to be in a hurry. Her patience is carried by her slow, lingering demeanor. For over two hours, I have listened to this woman talked about random and familiar things. Her soothing voice lulls me into a strange trance of comfort and lethargy.

Books Unfinished: November 2024

Usually I talk about the books I finished reading at the end of the month but I re-read a lot of my favorites and tried new ones but couldn't finish them. Here are some of my unfinished reads.

01 - His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (original title is Northern Lights - book 1) by Philip Pullman
Quit at: over 10%
The title change had confused me. I don't think either title is that good so they could have just stick to one. I had tried reading this series years before so I thought I try again and this time, I got engaged in the beginning and then I didn't. I don't know what happened but I got bored and stopped reading.

02 - Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson with illustrations by Howard Lyon
Quit at: 25% or so (I don't know if this is accurate as I just return the book to the library and didn't take notice of how much I read)
This was my one and only time reading Sanderson and it was not my cup of tea. This started with a girl named after hair, Tress, which right away, made me wonder at the brilliance of Sanderson (some sarcasm here) and then there was a cup she found and then it sort of seemed like it's leaning toward those YA romances (with illustrations which are quite lovely) where the girl supposedly goes on an adventure to save the love of her life, Charlie, or something and yada yada, you know how it goes. Mostly I feel like I'm reading a book about two bland 12-year-olds trying to have a romance though they are supposedly much older. One reviewer said Charlie is a human creampuff and I completely agreed with that. But I quit not only because of the romance but because it was really boring.

03 - The probility of everything by Sarah Everett
Quit at: 30%
This started interesting but then it became depressing so I stopped reading. I don't want to say this is an unreliable narrator type of book but the ending does suggest this. I skimmed to the end and was disappointed that what was true wasn't. I really did want this to be the story about a girl at the end of the world like the synopsis said.

04 - The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda, translated by Alison Watts
Quit at: 30%
This was characters remembering what happened to the murders where a bunch of people drank poisoned drinks. Too many character viewpoints and events were too scattered and I don't know, it just seem like whatever the answer is, it's not important, more like character studies of what they did and thought and remembered. The writing seems kind of dreamy which I sort of like but not enough to continue. I was not invested in the mystery or even care who done it.

Have you unfinished any book lately?

Fiction: The Honest Obituary Writer

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Alex J. Cavanaugh and are posted at Elephant's Child's blog here. This week's prompts are: pyromaniac, midnight, parrot, frozen, razor's edge And/Or  anguish, alligator, taco, predictable, staple. Last week's prompts are: snow, cow, jade, candy, sunglasses and/or oak, refreshed, ornery, music, shells. Charlotte (MotherOwl) has given us Pearl Opal Green as the colour of the month.

Fiction: The Honest Obituary Writer
01
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"It's a rare occasion if I see anybody naked at all." Mary Catherine Hazel did not want to share that. The words escaped her mouth without thinking. They had been chitchatting about a play that had featured an actor naked on stage.
    Sitting on her left, Eddie Mild's eyes widened at her words. "You too?" he said as he stuffed more salad into his already full mouth. They were sitting at a table that held 34 staff of Everyscene News and newspaper owner, Jefferson Mann, his mother Eleanor and brother Remington at Mann's vacation home. Mary didn't want to come but her nana, Amelia, threatened to cook. Like a pyromaniac, whenever Amelia tried to cook, things tended to catch on fire. Growing up with Amelia, Mary had eaten a lot of burnt and frozen meals.
    In her head, Mary couldn't help but write Eddie's obituary: Eddie Mild, 59, had always believed in eating a salad after a full meal because that was how he kept his 310 pound body fit. Before he choked to death on a crouton from his Caesar salad, he had the pleasure of discussing how good the dressing was. Eddie loved eating fried meat, wearing sunglasses in the rain, racing his chihuahua, Jade Cow, to the mailbox and irritating his neighbors by blocking their driveway with his clunker of a car. Eddie is survived by his elderly mother, Edna Mild, and his mother's cat, Jax and his dog Jade Cow. Eddie had turned 30 in January. Mary tried not to laugh at her morbid thoughts.

Some Blogging Thoughts

01 - My occasional thoughts about blogging is why do I still bother blogging? Why not just quit? I do sort of quit about several times a month because I'm a slacker and I don't post often but I just can't make myself quit. And sometimes it just seems like there's no point in blogging anymore. And yet, I like blogging. I like having a place to talk about stuff or show off my art or just to say I'm still around. If I'm not here on my blog, I'm pretty much nowhere else because I don't do social media.

02 - Does a blog have to have variety of content? My blogging habit is still pretty much 'totally aimless blogging' but I guess I got into the habit of posting two things - one, whatever I'm interested in sharing (ie, books, thoughts, my artwork during the rare occasion I actually finished them) and two, is a piece of fiction writing. I don't have a variety of blog posts like I used to and I don't venture out of my comfort zone much and I'm perfectly okay with this most of the time because I'm still blogging.

03 - Even though the artwork/graphic above look pretty simple, it took two whole days to get it that way. Decisions have to be made such as what meaning should the image provoke, what to include, what colors to use, etc. Just like my artworks, I spend a lot of time and effort on making graphics for my blog. I also reuse them because it's convenient. (In case you're interested, I use Affinity apps to make them. I had used Adobe apps before but their subscriptions are way too expensive. With Affinity apps, you a make one-time purchase and that's it.)
    I know not every blogger can make their own graphics. Using graphics/images/animated gifs from the web is perfectly fine. I'm always curious about them as some bloggers find the most amazingly accurate/just the right ones to use. I think any graphic/image/animated gif with a post is good to not only to add interest to a post but also to have something that attracts readers to stop and check out what is posted. If you're a blogger, how much time do you spend working on graphics/images or finding them?
 
04 - I've been a bit lazy in commenting on blogs. I enjoy commenting on blogs but sometimes it just seem like I have to look for things to say. I've written tons of comments over the years and even with all the practice, I still find it a bit hard to write them. I can be a bit impulsive and say a few regrettable things. Foolish thoughts and foolish impulses seems to go together along with the foolish need to sound like I know what I'm talking about. I think the best way to write a comment is to be honest and not to think too much or else what you say can become a bit like you have edited away whatever point you're making.

05 - Is Blogger outdated? I've been a Blogger user for as long as I have been blogging so if ask, I would recommend Blogger but people will probably tell me I should update to Wordpress or some other platform. It's true Blogger is old technology when compared to Wordpress and other platforms. Google who owns Blogger have not been updating Blogger at all. The most recent update was years ago (don't remember the exact year) but it feels quite a long time. And they took away the subscription by email option and a couple of other useful features so it seems like they really don't care to get new users. I haven't come across any new blogger using Blogger in years.
    I guess I want Google to update Blogger but at the same time, I don't. I'm skeptic about changes especially when it comes to technology. Change always means more changes. That's the reality. I'm willing to embrace change if it means Blogger can be better. But the chances of an update is quite slim.

Got any blogging thoughts to share?

Fiction: The Miracle Maker's Revenge

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Alex J. Cavanaugh. This week's prompts are: parachute, reindeer, shark, clay, ruins, and/or telescope, totem pole, black, severed, surf. Charlotte (MotherOwl) has given us Pearl Opal Green as the colour of the month.
    Last month's Words for Wednesday prompts were provided by Sean Jeating. The prompts were: church, hazel, hollow, red, whirlpool and/or cave, Mary, near, rapid, white. I started this story last week so I had used these prompts. I was going to fit in this week's prompts but decided not to but conincidently, I used two of the prompts, black and ruins (although not exactly the same form). Prompts are posted at Elephant's Child's blog here.

Fiction: The Miracle Maker's Revenge

01
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
She used to reconstruct people's facial and body tissue to their natural or nearly natural state. Now Ramona Hue did the same thing but with the dead. Some said Ramona was a miracle maker. It was a title given to her by one of her former patients which somehow stuck to her when she became a mortician. Most thought she used her plastic surgeon's talent to make the dead looked like the living but no one knew it was her natural ability to heal and restore the body that made it so.
    When she was a plastic surgeon, there was a whirlpool of rapid emotions damped by the joy of the patients. As a mortician, Ramona worked in a steady calm atmosphere, as if her workroom in the basement of the Eternal Glory Funeral Parlor was a church filled with other people's last memories of what their bodies had been through.
    It wasn't Ramona's intention to be a mortician. Her colleague, Eugenia Ply, framed Ramona for disfiguring a patient's face and ended her career. Ramona had thought it was rather natural to help the dead look their best before they go into their eternal resting place. She had partnered with her college friend, Mary Hazel, and set up Eternal Glory Funeral Parlor.     
    The family curse that caused Ramona to have strange food craving during a full moon was something Ramona had to deal with ever since she turned forty this year which was also the time she truly left her past behind. There was no cure for the curse but Ramona got a new assistant who was a godsend after so many dubs. Liberty or Libby as she liked to be called, was not only strong and able to carry bodies, she had a healthy relationship with the dead in that she respected them and took her job seriously. Ramona was happy to give her a raise. After a lengthly talk with the young lady, Ramona had her promise she would keep helping Ramona and to keep her secret.

02
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The red banner hanging high with the words Welcome Old Friends! in white made Ramona wanted to throw rocks at it. She entered the opened double doors into the large hall and was struck by the many familiar but aged faces. Everyone was talking about things she didn't have knowledge of. Had she been dwelling too long in her self-exiled cave?

IWSG Nov 2024: Writing Pet Peeves

I'm skipping this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question and list some writing pet peeves.
    Reading is a preference so what I like, other people might not and what I dislike, other people might so feel free to disagree with me. Here are some writings that I dislike.

01 - End a book by reverting everything back to its beginning or make whatever happened in the first 90% of the book invalid — What is the point of this? If the real story is a different one, then why not tell that one instead? I don't encounter this a lot but when I do, I wish I hadn't read the book.

02 - Dumb makeup words for non-magical people — It works in Harry Potter but somehow it doesn't work in other books and mostly because the terms they use are so ridiculous and maybe insulting to human kind. I guess I prefer a little more creativity and less insulting. Normies (which I read in a book), for instance, is particularly annoying to me.

03 - Cliffhangers in a first book in a series — I now expect every book to be a series but I also expect it to finish a certain plot other than the larger plot. It makes no sense to force readers to get the next book to complete a story that should have been completed in the first book.

04 - Book series with different content ratings — Is it wrong to have a whole series in the same general rating content-wise? So for children's book, the audience does change as the characters grow up but I just don't think it is necessary to write more mature content with details that changes the audience. An example: in a young adult book, the first book is considered g-rated but then the second book had explicit sex scenes and probably would be rated R and then the third book is back to being g-rated. Maybe this didn't matter if the reader is an adult but for children's book, the details are probably not necessary.

05 - When a main character finally gets an answer to a secret that they wanted to know but is stopped by something stupid — I'm not saying you can't delay the answer, I'm saying if you want to delay the answer, don't tease the reader and make us think we're getting it when we're not. One tease, fine, two, maybe, but if the delay gets a delay, then it's the most annoying thing in the world.

06 - First person narrative — Somehow I never got to like this all that much. Who exactly is this person (the narrator that is) talking to? I'm especially curious who they were talking to when they have an attitude. An example of this: 'Yep, I love eating donuts with cheese, do you have a problem with that?'  I guess my issue with this is when I'm reading, it's directed at me because I'm reading it. I never assume things about any character other than if they are the murderer in a murder mystery.

07 - Unreliable narrator - I read one book with an unreliable narrator (although told in third-person) once and I didn't like it. If we can't trust the text we are reading about these characters and their actions to be true, then how are we to believe what is going on is actually going on? This is a preference but I just don't get how people can like a story told in this way.

What are some of your writing pet peeves?

[More about the group over at the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog here]

Book Rants - October 2024

I have gotten to like reading contemporary mysteries these days. I really like to read more of Mary Higgins Clark's books but they are not available as ebooks at my library. I also gotten to really like K-9 crime mysteries so I looked for them but strangely, there aren't K-9 mysteries without romances or rather, they are romances with half of it being mysteries. I read some of these and got annoyed by the romances as they are written like romances and it's a shame because the mystery part was really good. I didn't list them below because I'm annoyed by them. But it has been a good reading month. Here are the books I had finished reading in October:

01 - Timber Creek K-9 Mystery series by Margaret Mizushima
What's it about: K-9, handlers, animals, murder, crimes, small town, light romance
So far, I read 8 of the 9 books. I really like the series but I don't love it. It's like reading two types of stories (told in two perspectives) - one is the K-9/crime/mystery side with Deputy Mattie Cobb and her K-9 Robo and the other is the life of a vet extraordinaire, Cole Walker.
    I love Robo and I liked his handler, Mattie, but I really think they didn't have to give her so many tragic history. I like her perspective more than Cole's. Cole's side is a bit boring but he does get involved in the mysteries in later books. Even with one assistant and sometimes his two daughters' help, it seems impossible for him to be working this much. He's like the most hard working vet in the entire country. For a small town, there are sure a lot of animals. I don't think he even sleeps although they do mention him taking a rest here and there. The guy have no time but he squeeze in a romance with Mattie because being busy with his vet work, his daughters, his ex-wife, volunteering for the police, is not enough for this guy. But then again, they also stressed how much work Mattie and everyone in the police station does - these are most hard working folks in the country.
    The mysteries are good and the various descriptions of the landscapes are plenty. The romance with Mattie and Cole is just okay. I don't read this series for the romance so thankfully, there aren't too many romance-like writings. I would recommend this series if you like K-9 dogs and mysteries with bits of romance.

02 - Vanishing Edge (A National Parks Mystery Book 1) by Claire Kells
What's it about: murder, camping, hiking, some investigating, more hiking
Lots of outdoor scenery details as the female lead (Felicity Harland) and male lead (Hux) did a lot of hiking. Harland is so poor physically (she had a broken back that had healed but still not in full physical form) that she kept popping pills. As an FBI agent with experience, she seems to judge rather too easily and quickly. And she walked off a job because she was offended by a male cop who may be a jerk but as a professional, you shouldn't let your feeling rule you. Forget she had any kind of experience because her behaviors clearly speaks rookie. And she brings her dog along with her to work even though he's not a working dog - I don't know why she even have a dog though he was useful once or twice. Her opinion about people who hated dogs: "...any park ranger that hated dogs was probably a sociopath," - is a bit extreme. It's not a nice opinion for a character. I don't hate or like her but when I read this, it unbalanced my opinion which mostly lean on the unlikable side.
    The way Harland's backstory is told (through her memories and thoughts) is a bit much. Frankly, they could have a prologue so that readers aren't bombarded by constant memories of her dead husband. Maybe this should have been a prequel because with all the backstory, the current mystery is minor in comparison and besides that, it's Harland's first case since her injury.
    I really wish the book isn't in Harland's point of view as it is no fun at all to be in her head. Hux is the better, more clear-headed character who did most of the work while Harland seemed to be there maybe to be some decision maker (she is supposed to solve crimes that involves national parks), I don't know, it just seemed like if she wasn't there, Hux would have solve the crime. And the twist at the end about who the murderer was not a twist and the reason for the crime is rather dumb. Harland is mostly unavailable for the final end so we only get a summary which is too bad because that bit (Hux chasing the criminal and catching them) seems to be the only exciting thing in the entire book.

03 - I've got my eyes on you by Mary Higgins Clark
What's it about: murder, witless witness, lots of depressed people
Halfway, I predicted who the murderer might be and I was right. Toward the end, it was a bit predictable but still good. Although it did seem like it took too long to get there.

04 - Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark
What's it about: kidnapping, murder, twins
The thing with twin talks (which was never speficied) and twins experiencing pain for each other is a bit unbelievable and they keep repeating how no one believes this about a million times, as if to assure the reader, we shouldn't believe it either. This was an okay read.

Have you read any good books lately?

Fiction: Miss Never & The Mortician's Craving

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Sean Jeating and is hosted at Elephant's Child's blog over here. Last week's prompts: funeral, moon, splendiferously, sun, coffin, and/or afraid, biased, crows, nutrition, worms. This week's prompts: art, awe, love, moonlit, sleeping and/or beauty, breathless, dreamscape, face, oxygen.

Fiction: Miss Never & The Mortician's Craving
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
01
"You're hired!" was something Liberty Elizabeth Never had heard many times before which often was followed a little later by "You're fired!" When she was fired from Piller and Small Fine Dinning, she shrugged away the slight rejection and simply added the name to a long list of places she was employed. Only through her splendiferously strong will did she survive each letdown, at least, that was what her father used to say.
    It's a been one month since Libby started working as an an assistant to a mortician at Eternal Glory Funeral Parlor. She wouldn't have chose to work there but she didn't want to be homeless and broke.
    Tonight, as Libby opened the back door to the basement of Eternal Glory, came sounds of caw caw from the crows that resided in the tall trees that framed the entrance of the five-story building. She paused and looked up at the sky. The full moon never looked more brilliant. Cold wind swept over her. She shivered in her coat and stepped inside. She hoped it wasn't a bad sign. It was the last week of October and nearing Halloween so it was natural to feel a trickle of disquiet.
    Usually Libby kept the same hour of 7 pm to 11 pm but this week, her employer had asked Libby to work longer hours citing a backlog of bodies to prepare. If she didn't get overtime pay, Libby wouldn't even agree.
    Before coming to work Libby had two sandwiches and a glass of milk. Her father had always said milk was full of nutrition and that Libby should drink more of it. Birds fed their young worms but her father fed Libby words. He had a great love for words and he studied them like art. In all of his fifty-four years, he had never spoke a useless word. She was always in awe of his ability to make you feel you are completely understood with just words.
     Libby yawned as she walked down the hallway toward the workroom. She wished she was sleeping. During the day with the sun out, it was hard to get to sleep. Not that she was much of a beauty but lack of sleep sure made her looked worst than usual. She had good skin and her features were perfectly symmetrical. Her father said symmetry is beauty. He had said Libby's mother was a breathless beauty with perfect symmetry. Libby had no memory of her mother. Some twenty-six years back, she left Libby at a gas station. If she hadn't called Libby's father to come and get her, Libby would have ended up a missing baby.
    

Fiction: Petrify

This months Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Sean Jeating and is hosted at Elephant's Child's blog over here. This week's prompts are: consider, rather, superstitious, paraskevidekatriaphobia, table and/or bigots, different, gender, hyperbolise, teeth. Last week's prompts are: desert, dream, machos, planet, treatment, and/or bags, behind, four, infinity, walk. Charlotte (MotherOwl) has given us Pebble Grey as the colour of the month. I didn't use superstitious, bigots or paraskevidekatriaphobia - just couldn't find them fitting to the story.

Fiction: Petrify
Elma Knox's head started to ache which she knew wasn't a good sign. Across the table, her fiancé, Peter Small, was rambling on. Getting engaged had been a wonderful dream but now happiness was out of her reach. Sometimes she felt as if she was struck in the desert going in circles looking for water while rain fell upward.
    Tonight, the pair sat at their usual corner table with tall plants blocking them from other diners. Through the small gaps between the foliage, Elma watched other couples in their ordinary happiness and it made her wondered what was wrong with her and Peter. She played with the infinity pendant hanging from around her neck. When Peter had given her the pendant, he had seemed so sincere but now she wasn't so sure. Peter might had a bit of macho ego in him but his best talent was to hyperbolise his words.

Seven Things: Some Bookish Queries

01 - Does cursing make characters sound more like real people?
I find cursing to be very distracting in a story but if a character curse in anger, I can easily accept it but to use it just to make a character sound more realistic? No, just no. Excessive use of the F word certainly make me not like a character and also make me think they are not well educated but that's a cliche, right? I guess I'm more use to not cursing in books so it always takes a bit getting used to if there is excessive cursing.
    
02 - Do you read horror and how do you enjoy reading horror without scaring yourself?
I'm too much of a scaredy-cat to read horror. I avoid them because I know I can't handle it plus, having scary imagery in my head makes me an insomniac.

03 - Why do so many mystery/thriller books have prologues?
I have been reading mysteries/thrillers and have come across more prologues than any other genre. In most, the mysteries are almost always related to the past so we get this small past insight before the book starts and I don't know, it just seem unnecessary sometimes because almost every time, we never return to that scene.
    There was one book where the author included the prologue as the first chapter and I thought that was good but I was still reading a prologue in disguise which somehow didn't irk me as much.

04 - Do you read books in a series out of order?
I prefer to read books in a series in order because I'm like things in linear order. I did read a few books series out of order because I didn't know they were part of a series.
    Sometimes I think publishers and authors kind of disguise their books in a series and make readers think they are standalones. If you look at covers, they don't always say it's part of a series and if they do, they don't even bother with book 1 or book 12, something to indicate where that book stands in that series. It's like they don't care if readers read books out of order. I care. But I guess this will never get changed because publishers don't want turn people off who don't like book series.

05 - Should you hate popular books you didn't read?
Popular books are everywhere, shoving into everyone's faces (at least whose who hangs out at youtube a bit too much), it's only natural to grow some sort of emotions toward these books, right? Either that or I'm judgmental and that's allow. Maybe it's wrong to judge books I didn't read but I know them well enough to form opinions and most are negative opinions. So why I am wasting time hating books? I guess if you can't enjoy loving a book, you can you enjoy hating it, right? I also think you can't be a well-rounded reader if you don't hate some books.

06 - Do you get annoyed by Goodreads' reviews where some said  [This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers] and when you click on [Show full review], there's no spoilers?
What's up with that? It's annoying especially when I expect spoilers. Maybe some readers make a mistake and click on the wrong button? I don't use Goodreads so I don't know how this feature works but it would be nice if people don't overuse it.

07 - As a reader, do you think you have bad book taste?
Sometimes I think I must have terrible taste in books because there are so many books people love and I just don't and I don't see why they do. I like to believe I have good taste but I guess it's all depends on what one believes is good taste. But reading is a preference so even if a book is hated by millions, there would be one or two people who loved it so I don't think anyone's book taste is good or bad, just different from everyone else's.

Do you have some bookish thoughts to share?

IWSG Oct 2024: How can you tell if your writing have improved?

I'm going to skip this month's question and talk about improvement. To make my writing better, I read a ton of articles, blog posts, how-to books and watch a lot of youtube tutorial/info videos and continue to do so but it's hard to say whether they help or hinder because every idea or useful info can also make me question my writing and doubt my own skills and ability to judge correctly.
    Upon re-reading my old writings, I can tell I have improved because those old writings were really bad. At least in terms of grammar. But at the same time, I think my writing has gotten a bit less fanciful. Before, I seemed to write with a somewhat poetic style which may be because I had been writing poems but I don't know. I now write in a bit more direct way and I don't try as hard to make every sentence sound good but I still look up tons of words just to see if I am using them correctly. I like to think this change is an improvement but I'm not 100% sure.
    I guess the way to see if you have improved is to ask people to read your stuff and give their opinion but then you have to decide if you trust their opinion more or yours. If you ask an editor about your writing, you might get a more accurate answer but again, this depends on if you trust them or yourself more. In the end, it's your writing so you are the only one who can judge.

What about you? How can you tell if your writing have improved?

[More about the group over at the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog here]

Book Rants- September 2024

Here are the books I read in September formatted as how-to books because why not. Just note the books I listed under The Good are the books I had enjoyed reading.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

THE GOOD

01 - The spindle of fate by Aimee Lim > link
How to get through hell with threads, a clueless guy and lots of luck. What you'll learn:
- how not to scream when you're in a pool of blood
- elevators are very handy when going from different levels of hell
- send text using a piece of cloth, threads and a hair pin
- hell is apparently bilingual
- people in charge of hell aren't always unkind
- no matter how at odds you are with your mother, you still love her
- never trust a talking monkey named Uncle Monk and who crackles like a six-year-old

8 Things I Learned From The Lord of the Rings

Today is the start of the Tolkien Blog Party 2024 celebrating all things Tolkien. It's hosted by Rachel at The Edge of Precipice over here. Here's my contribution to the party - 8 things I learned from reading The Lord of the Rings books.

01 - It's best to go on a long and dangerous journey with a friend – It was good that Frodo had Sam with him or else Frodo would have probably gone mad or died. This is why you should take a friend when you go on a dangerous journey and preferably someone who can fight orcs or giant spiders or is so loyal that they would lay down their lives just to save you.

02 - Friendship can bloom with the unlikeliest people – Like the friendship between Legolas (an elf) and Gimli (a dwarf), who, at one time, competed who could slay more orcs. We should all want friends who we can enjoy doing gruesome things together. Okay, maybe not slaying orcs.

03 - Some journeys can change you – After his journey, Frodo wasn't the same hobbit anymore. His mind, his very being, had been altered. After all, your mind can only endure so much harmful things.

04 - People do not check if you're really dead – If someone is lying unconscious (and maybe among other dead people after a war), they are assumed to be dead which is kind of careless and bad because the dead are burned and if someone's not dead, they would be after they are burned.

05 - Loyalty to your lord or king is absolute — If your lord wanted you to help him kill himself and his son, you will have to do it even if it's madness to do so.

06 - Being hasty isn't always good – I like the Ents who do not rush into anything. They take their time. Like when Treebeard met Merry and Pippin and he said, "I almost feel that I dislike you both, but do not let us be hasty."

07 - Women don't fight in wars, not really – Women don't go to war and if they do, they are mostly healers or cooks, not warriors. Éowyn is maybe an exception because she is close to a king and probably have the privileges to learn to fight and use a sword while other women probably would not have such chances. All the other females are either elves or some powerful beings so they probably don't fight either.

No. 09-ish

08 - Sometimes going forward is the only way to go – The Company (Frodo and the others) barely have a plan to start or even to continue but they carry on and maybe that's enough. Sometimes you only know what to do when something happens during the journey.

Have you read The Lord of the Rings? What did you learn from the books?

Fiction: The dead husbands club

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by River at her blog here. This week's prompts are: charm bracelet, fried chicken, teacup, cage, plastic, adorable.

Fiction: The dead husbands club
"Aren't you tired of burying bodies? I am but I've got to do it." Emer's voice seeped up to my bedroom upstairs as I lay in bed with the flu. Whatever the reply was, I couldn't hear a word of it. To whom she was speaking, I didn't know. Emer had not called her friend by name and I had never met her. Her steps, when she entered the house, was slow and uneven as if she was dragging one of her foot.
    I was renting a room in Emer Burmer's three-story house along with Bella Joel. Bella had lived here for three years while I had just moved in last week. I thought it was not too bad an idea to live with two women who were also widows. Like me, they were in their mid forties.
    Emer didn't charge us much rent which was good because neither Bella nor I had much money. While Bella had a minor legacy from her father's insurance, I had a small inheritance from my parents. When I asked why Emer didn't charge more, she said she was just glad for the company. As the house was right next door to a graveyard, no one wanted to live here. I certainly didn't but due to my lack of finance, it was all that I could afford. At first, it was a bit weird to look out the window at a bunch of tome stones but I got used to it.

How do you decide which book to read first?

I am now only reading ebooks borrowed from my public library. I don't plan on purchasing any ebooks from here on unless I'm so desperate to read a book that I don't want to wait on the library or it's not available at the library.
    As I can only have 5 holds at a time, I find I have to be really choosy when it comes to which book to put on hold first. The wait time varies as it depends on how long each reader keeps a book but a reader can keep a book for 21 days but can extend the time after that. Basically, the more holds on a book, the longer the wait time. Sometimes I'm #102 on a wait list and other times I'm #2 so it can be a surprise which book is available first.
    I always have a problem deciding which books to read because the books I want to read aren't always what I want to read. For some reason, I sometimes loose interest in a book so I would cancel the hold or return it. Sometimes I end up with books just to test them and see if I'll like them. Also, I'm a moody reader. Most of the time I have six or less books on loan so if I'm bored with a book, I will start on a new one. (I can only borrow 10 ebooks at a time.) In general, which book I read first half depends on the library's availability and the other half depends on my mood.

How about you? How do you decide which book to read first?

Fiction: The Sleeping Barista

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by River at her blog here. This week's prompts are: chicanery, wicker, curly, prissy, superb, uncommon.

Fiction: The Sleeping Barista
Time wouldn't be important to Emily if she doesn't have to worry about falling asleep in the middle of catching a bus or being awake for 15 hours for no reason. Around her neck on a chain, hangs a small, two and half inch pocket watch. It is a thing of great beauty if it doesn't has the ability to control the times she is awake and when she is not.
    The watch does not have dials to turn or change the hands but it has a mind of its own. The single silver hand moves clockwise and at the same speed like any watch but when it is on the blue side, it means sleep time. And if it's on the red side, it's awake time. But like any watch, it also tells time but it never needs to be rewinded as it also corrects the time all by itself. Sometimes its ability for chicanery is rather annoying. Just when Emily thinks she have time to do something, she is suddenly on the floor snoring.

Seven Things

01 - I have changed my blog's header and background colors to a warmer palette. It's not a big change but maybe it gives off a different vibe. Before, it was a cool, mostly blue palette. Am I the only one who thinks about colors and feelings when it comes to blog templates? 

02 - For some odd reason, I no longer get email notifications for some readers when they leave comments on my blog even though I had notifications before. I still get notifications for others so this makes no sense. It was like a sudden thing. I didn't change any setting or anything. Recently, pop-up comments now have reply function but I doubt that change anything with email notification functions but who knows. I still get comments marked as spam, even my own comments. There's a glitch somewhere, right? I swear google does not like blogger users at all.

03 - The 12th annual Tolkien Blog Party 2024 starts on September 22. It's hosted by Rachel at The Edge of the Precipice. I only participated once but I had enjoyed it. I admit the only books I read of Tolkien is the three Lord of the Rings books and The Hobbit and I have seen the Lord of the Rings movies. More about this blog party over here.

04 - I don't like it how some videos are now HDR (High Dynamic Range) videos on youtube. They are so bright, probably 40 times brighter than any normal screen, it hurts to watch them and there's no option to turn it off anywhere, not at youtube, not on my computer. Whose brilliant idea that we needed HDR to "make images look more realistic and true-to-life?" HD (high definition) is already far too clear than normal screens so why do we need this HDR? I prefer not to watch anything that is "more realistic and true-to-life" because that takes away the charm of fictional reality. Plus do you really want to see the pores on an actor's face ten times as clearly as before?

05 - Movies I had watched recently on youtube free with ads:

- Scales: Mermaids are real - It was a pretty good movie until the end. I don't want to spoil it but SPOILER: a girl mermaid turns a man into water, basically murders him and everyone's okay with it. So yes, that's a good solution but they could have just turn one of his hands into water, just to show what they could do, scare the bastard or maybe the girl's mother should have done the killing so then a 12-year-old wouldn't be responsible for killing a human. But there seems to be no consequence for what she had done so I don't know what the writers were thinking. Plus, a boy with brittle bones who can barely walk could easy ride a bike with no issues is dumb. Other than the ending, it's a good movie about a girl becoming a mermaid with some minor jokes.

- Persuasion (1995) - I've not watched this version because I didn't like the lead actor and actress but I thought I should give it a try after I saw someone's review of this adaptation. This was okay. I had read the book, seen the other 2007 adaptation, knew what was going to happen so it's sort of like watching a repeat with different actors and a slightly different ending but still kind of the same but I think the 2007 version is better but maybe because it looked more modern somehow even though both of them are period dramas.

- Another man's poison (1951) - SPOILER: I thought they should have ended with Bette Davis' character getting away with it all but no. All the men here seemed so awful even the doctor, he's like a busybody who really should have minded his own business. It's not a movie that solves anything or offer any type of happy ending, just a movie to show how cruel fate could be.

- Taken 3 - It's was fun to watch even though you sort of know it's a bit unbelievable the things Bryan Mills (played by Liam Neeson) did but that's why it's fun and entertaining. Forget logic or loose ends because we want to root for Mills no matter how many men he kills in the process.
 
06 - Do book titles have to keep their promise? There's a book with a boy in the title but the boy turned out to be a girl. Do readers have a right to be mad about this? I would. I think it makes the story harder to accept or like. The author promised a boy character and then it's revealed as some twist and said he's really a girl. If they said the boy had a sex change operation and became a girl, then that's fine with me. To pretend she was a boy right from the start is just wrong. But mostly because she, being a girl, is supposed to be a surprise twist to the story which I don't think it's a surprise or a twist, more like a dumb move to make a book exciting when it's not.

07 - I've been reading epilogues that just ruined books for me. I can accept any ending as long as they makes sense but epilogues is another thing. I had read one too many endings with epilogues that basically ruined the ending that I'm now incline not to read them. Epilogues are to give a farther view of future events instead of trying to alter the thinking of the ending or the story, right? But that's not what authors are doing, at least, in the books I read. When an epilogue alters my thinking of a character or an event, I think it's not an epilogue, it's a story-changing, alternative reality kind of information or message. I'm not even sure what I'm actually trying to say but only that I think it's better not to use epilogues unless you know it won't piss off readers.

What's on your mind these days?

Insecure Writer’s Support Group - Sept. 4, 2024

I decided to join the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I hope being two days late in posting, they won't kick me out. I meant to join but always forget so it's why I'm late.
    Am I an insecure writer? Maybe half yes and half no. I haven't decided if the title of writer belong to me yet. I've been writing fiction for years but I haven't written a piece that I finished and truly proud of but it could happen one day. Assuming I'm not too lazy to finish it because I have a problem finishing my writing (and my artwork but that's not today's discussion).
    This month's Insecure Writer’s Support Group's question is: Since it's back to school time, let's talk English class. What's a writing rule you learned in school that messed you up as a writer?
    I didn't learn any writing rules because they didn't teach any, at least, not that I could remember. I attended public school and have a lot of classmates with English as their second language so there weren't any emphasizes on proper English. I wasn't even sure I had learned English the proper way, only that, I had learned it. It's only after I started writing fiction (and blogging which I started at about the same time) did I realize my grammar wasn't that great. I had used 'of cause' for years (on my blogs) before I realized the correct version is 'of course' since no one corrected me and spellcheck does not check phrases. I do wish I had learned proper grammar as a child or else I wouldn't keep doubting my words so much. [ More about the group over at the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog]

If you're a writer, have you learned any rules or methods that is helpful with your writing? Or what's a writing rule you learned in school that messed you up as a writer?

Fiction: The Bridge of Luck

This month's Words for Wednesday's prompts are provided by River at her blog here. This week's prompts are: on the run, belong, street, breakfast, tent and this image:

photo credit: "Genius" and allowed by Val.

Fiction: The Bridge of Luck
It was about three in the afternoon but the dark sky made it appeared as if night will descend at any moment. We were the only car along the old Golden Chariot Bridge. It was often known as the Hawk because of the hawk cries that were heard on the bridge. Some said if you hear a hawk's cry while on the bridge, you will either get three hours of bad luck or three days of good luck.

How far along would be a good time to give up on a book?

I believe if you're not enjoying a book, it's perfectly fine to give up reading it. There are so many books out there, no need to waste time on books you can't finish or don't want to finish. So how far along would be a good time to give up on a book? 10%? 20%? Or maybe 40%? I had given up on books at 10%, 40% and even at 70% which some would say, you're almost there so why not finish it? My brain won't let me. There are scenes or things that I just can't get mind over it. But just because you give up on a book doesn't mean you can't go and pick up that book again later on. Here are the books I have given up reading so far this year. 

01 - A Death in Door County (Monster Hunter Mysteries #1) by Annelise Ryan > link
I was over 40% in when I decided I just couldn't continue with the endless descriptions and history of a lot places and things that don't seem to be related to the mystery. Mainly, I disliked the female main character - I think her name is Morgan. She seemed arrogant, egotistic, like a spoiled rich girl even if she claimed she wasn't. The would-be romance between her and the cop was subtle, boring and just unnecessary. There was one scene (not the exact wording as I don't have the book to check) where he said, "I'm attracted to you," and she replied, "I'm attracted to you too." As if he said, "I have a nose," and she replied, "Hey, I have a nose too." There is direct and there is this, whatever it is. There's nothing between these two characters except awkwardness. This cop is the so-called other main character/future love interest but he seemed very much like a side character because she basically bossed him around and he go out of his way to do things she wanted. I thought they would be partners in solving the murders but it was mostly her as she chose to do things on her own and even take evidence without telling him.
    [SPOILER: And they layered on the tragedy - she, the main character, had parents who were murdered by her fiancé, and he, the cop, lost his wife and child in an accident. And there's a third, semi-important character who lost his wife and child in childbirth. Three tragedies is a bit much. I skimmed to the end and was disappointed there's no monster, at least, not the one I expected. So this is a first book in a series but still, expectations. SPOILER ENDS]
    Anyway, it was just so boring. I think the bit about the main character's past was really the only interesting bit of this whole book. And the dog was a nice character. I like a dog who can swim and is the best buddy any pet owner can have.

02 - Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey > link
I may have read about 30 or 40% before I decided I just don't care to continue. The writing is really good but I was just bored with how much mundane things can happen with Miss Pym and a college full of ladies. Miss Pym is maybe a little bit easily persuaded and even prideful because she was to stay at the college for a weekend but kept staying on because people kept praising her or making her feel like she's done a great thing even though she just wrote a book. There is a murder but I never got that far or even far enough to hint at a murder even though the book is 300 pages. I skimmed to the end and found out who was killed and who the murderer was and that's it.

03 - Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang > link
This short stories collection was boring and bland or perhaps I'm just too dumb to understand them. I think I had read at least three stories before I gave up.

04 - Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu > link
The stories were too weird for me and confusing. You can't tell where one story begins or ends - they are like fragments or puzzles, they fit together but so loosely that they might not. I remember a character who can stretches his neck for miles and he was filming a couple having sex and I supposed he had the camera in his mouth because it was only his head that was there in the room and I just stopped at that story. It's just so weird. I really liked the cover though.

Have you any books you gave up on? How far along would be a good time to give up on a book?

Book Rants - August 2024

 Here are the books I read in August. (Click on link for book info.)

01 - Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu > link
There was a ghost-like character here so the title is not deceiving but that's not really the main plot. It's mostly about a girl that got sick and didn't know why and that messed up whatever she wanted to do. She's searching for answers but getting none, not until the very end but they didn't really elaborate on it or the ending but it was satisfying enough. The part where the main character drank someone's spit as a dare was gross and kind of inappropriate considering they are in the times after covid and I don't see why it should be an issue if someone wants to be careful about avoiding germs by not sharing things but I guess kids are cruel.