Seven Things: Some little rants

I'm not complaining, I just have things to say...

01 - I don't know why I keep procrastinating. I just keep putting things off. My brain tells me go ahead and do that thing I need to do but then my other brain (or part of it) tells me to put it off, I have plenty of time and maybe sometimes that's true but most of the time, I end up doing everything at the last minute. I don't know, there is no solution.

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02 - Slightly new blog header -  I have changed my header again because the previous felt a bit gloomy so I changed to this lighter one - not a lot of difference, just slightly newish elements added/altered.

03 - My blog's feed or whatever is called isn't working as usual. I subscribe to my blog through the Blogger dashboard so I can see how blog posts looks in the Reading list dashboard. Usually when I published a post, it would show up right away but now it seems to take awhile or sometimes a day to show up - what's up with that? I can see the post is posted because it's there on my blog but not the reading list. No idea why it suddenly become buggy.

04 - Stupid or Not? For years, I have been using the three Affinity apps (Publisher, Designer, Photo) and I've been liking them. I had decided to use the apps because they didn't require a subscription just a one-time payment and because the apps are similar to Adobe's apps (subscription-based Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop). (I still use adobe apps for work pay for by employer but never for any personal work.)
    The Affinity apps were created/owned by Serif but Canva brought them out in 2024. The Serif people claimed they won't change anything with the new ownership. Then came this October, they began offering their app (now a combination of the three apps into one) simply called Affinity or Affinity Studio (supposedly version 3) for free. I was all ready to upgrade but I didn't. To download and use the Affinity app, you have to sign up for a Canva account which I am not willing to do. 
    I paid for the apps but now I can't use the new version because I refuse to open a Canva account [insert all the cursing here.] I'm actually willing to pay NOT to be involved with Canva. It might be stupid to refuse to use an app for this reason but I just couldn't do it.
    So signing up for a Canva account didn't mean you have to use Canva but that's exactly what it means, doesn't it? You become a customer of Canva the moment you sign up for an account and even if they don't force you to use Canva or make you pay to use the Affinity app, things will not be that way because no big company swallows up a smaller company and that let everything be. I won't speculate how things will change but companies don't give out things for free for nothing. Affinity is free but you pay for it by being involved with Canva.   
    Canva is meant for non-designers, offering pre-made templates and other tools like fonts and images. I'm not saying Canva is bad but I simply prefer to never use them.
    In conclusion, there is no conclusion because one day, I'll probably sign up for Canva account just to use Affinity when I could no longer use the old apps (Serif people aren't going to update the old versions anymore) because technology kept being upgraded and sometimes you are forced to upgrade even when you are reluctant to do so. (Here's the link to Affinity if you want to check it out: https://www.affinity.studio/get-affinity)

05 - Why are so many reviews with hidden spoilers at Goodreads are cut off and sometimes in mid-sentence? Where are the rest of it? This is rather disappointing when I wanted to find out the ending. All these cut-off reviews keep appearing or maybe I keep finding them and they are seemed to be one-star reviews. Do they get cut off because they are spoilers, too long or because they are one-star, two-star reviews? There seems to be an option to blur spoiler text so this hidden spoiler box method is not even needed unless it's super long.
    And also, those hidden because of spoilers didn't have spoilers - why? I don't use Goodreads anymore so I don't know how it's done but I guess people could accidentally mark their review as hidden but so many people did this it must be too easy to do it.
    Goodreads still have no translations for reviews in foreign languages even though it's owned by amazon who had their foreign language reviews with the option to translate them. Goodreads have tons of foreign languages reviews so it didn't make sense not to have the translation option.
    I used to read amazon reviews but then they changed it so all you can read are top reviews and if you want to read the other reviews such as the one-star reviews, you have to sign into your amazon account or create one. I don't get this change. Why do you have to sign in to see all the reviews?

06 - My iphone (an old model) kept giving out notifications to finish setting it up but the thing is I don't want to set up those stupid features that are useless to me. Why should I waste time setting up things that I'm not going to use? It used to be you get to choose but now they just bug you to death until you do things their way. Well, I'm going to keeping ignoring all the notifications until I feel like finish setting up which should be in about ten years or when the phone dies.

07 - I don't like subscriptions - streaming tv/movies, streaming music, apps by subscription, etc. So I don't have any subscription, at least for now. Recently, I found that you have to pay by subscription to read the BBC News articles which had been free to read with advertisements for years. (And during those times, it kept asking you to sign up for an account which I never did.) I think you are allowed to read two articles for free and when you tried to read a third article, a popup screen would show up and ask you to sign up for a subscription to read the rest.
    As a freeloader (which I loath to admit but it's true) of most internet websites, this is extremely disappointing. I know they and almost everybody who runs such websites needs to make a living but I just thought online news should be free. There are other places for news that are free (with advertisements - they all have advertisements) but I'm a creature of habit, so it's hard to change. So now I just read headlines.

What's on your mind these days?

Fiction: Ghosts in Need

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Sean Jeating and posted at River's blog over here. This week's prompts are: squad, cemetery, flowers, painted, cross and/or barely, money, eat, freedom, courage. Last week's prompts were: technique, think, taught, way, completely and/or learn, write, exist, reading, lost. The week before, the prompts were: dog, night, bed, knowledge, move and/or years, stupid, help, craftsmanship, lost. I couldn't fit craftsmanship in there.

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Fiction: Ghosts in Need
01 - It wasn't that Chrysanthemum 'Chris' Woo was afraid of ghosts but on the rare occasion a ghost might ask her to do them a favor since she could see them. 
    Working at the Dish Mat, an automat that offered pre-made food from vending machines, was as stress-free as she could get. The quiet atmosphere and little interactions with strangers made things easy but left her with too much free time to think about her divorce, her ex-best friend, her failed career, her missing niece or her dead father.
    For the first two days of each week, Chris was the lone worker in the automat and on Wednesdays, she shared duties with Paula Gregson who worked the other days. The overlapping day was Chris's mother's idea. She believed Chris needed a friend. 
    On an early Wednesday afternoon, Chris sat behind the counter in the back of the store and trying to read a novel but her concentration kept swaying. Paula was four hours late. Something in her guts told Chris something was wrong but she didn't know what to do.
    The bell above the door tinkled. She looked up but it wasn't Paula. Chris closed the book and took out a notepad and pen from the drawers. Doodling was a technique that often helped her think.

Cover Stickers! The Horror!

I'm sure most readers know about stickers on book covers. It used to be these stickers are actual stickers that you can peel and remove for good (sometimes leaving glue residues that will never come off) but now publishers are printing them directly on the cover so the only way to remove them is to physically take a scissor and cut them out or stick some other sticker over it or block them out with black markers. Whatever you do, those stickers are there forever. 
    The stickers are mostly to encourage sales, promote books, brag about what the book/author had garnered but basically are advertisements shoved into readers' faces. So what's the point of creating beautiful covers only to have them ruined by these stickers that never come off? 
    Often when I look for book covers for my book posts, I look for covers without these stickers or if it looks like I can remove them (digitally), I would. The ones I hate the most is the one announcing 'made into a movie or a show' and 'Some famous person's book club picks'. 
    There is a point to these stickers but at the same time, they are mostly offering stale information or information readers didn't care about, at least, I don't. But it's not as rampant as I made it sound but they are around and probably will never go away. Do they really work? They don't seem to work for me but maybe they work on other people.
    Here are some samples covers that covered most type of print-on stickers:

#1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Book Club Picks
01 - Read With Jenna - No idea who Jenna is until I looked her up. Jenna Bush Hager, is a co-host on the Today show and daughter of former President George W. Bush - it makes perfect sense not to read her recommendations.

02 - The Good Morning America Book Club Pick! (with exclamation point) - Good Morning America is a morning tv show that I have never watched and I don't see why I would read their picks.

03 - Oprah's Book Club 2025 - I had seen Oprah Winfrey's show and she had some wisdom but that didn't mean I care for her book selections.

04 - Reese's Book Club - I had seen some of Reese Witherspoons' movies but they don't inspire me to read any of her book picks.

05 - Zibby's Book Club - A book club hosted monthly by Zibby Owens who owns a bookshop but I've never heard of her until today when I searched for book covers so no reason to read her picks.

IWSG Nov 2025: Some quirks that might be mad

More about the
Insecure Writer’s
Support Group here

I'm skipping the November Insecure Writer's Support Group question and go straight to reading quirks that are also writing quirks. I can only dismiss so many reading/writing quirks but I'm seem to struck on some more than others. But I'm listing just three today.

01 - Sometimes a singular word used often in one book can drive me nuts for no reason other than their repetition. Usually it's the more obvious repetition (such a phrase a character might keep saying) that get noticed but for me, single words getting used repeatedly always kind of annoys me. I don't know why that is or why I see them more often now. But I guess it's one of those reading quirks that some readers have to deal with.

02 - Whenever I read my name or names of people I know, sometimes I feel this certain unease. In a book I previously read, one of the character had the same name as me so I somehow read that name into some other version or else I skim over it. Why should it be weird characters have your name? Unless you have one of those unique names that never gets used in books, which I do not have, you will come across it. But somehow it's just odd reading it.

03 - Fair Enough (or sometimes Fair Point) - this expression (according to the Oxford dictionary) is "used to admit that something is reasonable or acceptable." Something about this sounds like some throwaway or useless phrase people say when they have nothing to say or when they agree to disagree or sometimes it seems it is used as some sarcasm or slight irritations. I don't know why I just get annoyed by this phrase. I don't think there is any good synonym to this other than 'I agree' which is quite simple. I'm wondering if that's why people use such phrases as 'Fair enough' to replaced simpler phrase which might sound bland.

What reading quirks do you think is maybe a bit mad to be mad about?

Messages from the universe or something like it

I spend way too much time browsing youtube or what people are calling 'doom scrolling.' So this means I often come across a lot of thumbnails with different words than the title of the video. Since images are more attractive to the eye than texts, they attracted me. But the question is, is youtube trying to tell me something or am I'm just reading into things for no reason? 
    Anyway, here are some very accurate, mostly true, sometimes too honest, messages found on thumbnails (out of context) at youtube that may or may not apply to me or to you.

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Have you seen any messages lately?

Fiction: Ghosts and Psychics in the Laundromat

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Sean Jeating and posted at River's blog over here. This week's prompts are: cudgeling, remember, language, translated, coined and/or dead, heirs, between, existing, episode.

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Fiction: Ghosts and psychics in the Laundromat
"Today, you will get shot but some fool will save you but you'll still feel some pain," said Carl Simon a few feet away in his Psy Booth in the Quick Mat, one of two laundromats with that name. People called it the Ghost Mat because of laundry being done by invisible hands as it was documented on Youtube. The Mat mostly ran itself with anyone following wall signs in many translated languages.
   

Book Rants: Oct 2025

Time just sped by so quickly. Already the year is almost over and it seems like I haven't really done anything. But at least I read some books. Here are all the books I read in and a movie I watched in October.

01 - There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, translated by Polly Barton
What's it about: jobs, work, work relationships
This read like short stories (book is divided by jobs) as told by a nameless, thirty-something woman testing temp jobs to get an easy one because she was burnout from her previous job. She gets very involved with whatever job she was doing and is very competent at it which might make you hate her and yet, you don't. She cares about people and yet, she seems a bit aloof about relationships. But somehow she made us care about the people she cares about. Some of these jobs had a bit of paranormal to them, like a touch of whimsy.
    There was a scene where someone left a threatening message 'Die alone' and she interpreted as someone saying, 'I rather die than die alone!' and I don't know why, I just laughed at this and it's like funniest thing to me but it probably isn't funny at all.
    This is under the category of 'cozy Japanese reads' but I wish they wouldn't use the F word because that somehow took away the cozy. I enjoyed this book very much and the translation is wonderfully un-American.

Books I Unfinished - Oct 2025

I want to say these books aren't bad but I would be lying. But these are my opinions and you know what to do with opinions,right? Some of these books aren't bad, they are just bad to me as a reader. These are the books I stopped reading because I either lost interest or I simply didn't like it enough to continue. Sometimes I do finish a book even if I didn't like it because my brain sometimes refused to listen to the rest of me. Here are the books I unfinished lately. 

01 - Meet Me in the Moon Room by Ray Vukcevich
What's it about: short stories, fantasy, science fiction
Quit at: 17%
Why I quit: I was enticed by the cover art but the oddity, craziness, weirdness was too much for me but mostly because there are no resolutions to these short stories. I know short stories usually don't have resolutions but these were so short, they wouldn't have fit in a resolution. I didn't read them all so I couldn't say if they get longer.

Scribtober 2025

Somehow I dedicated October as a month to draw something but I seemed to have skipped last year. The year before last, I had done Inktober. Inktober takes place every October in which artists try to draw with ink and also there was a theme list. This year, I started very late and not going to ink anything so I'm calling it Scribtober as in scribbling in October.  
    When I did Inktober, I had a theme. So this year I'm going with a theme - Accidently Here - but it might as well be multiplicity because there are a lot of multiples but I'm still coming up with ideas. There's only a few days left in October so I'll probably continue this to November. Some of these I added in color background to get them to show more as they are done in pencil which doesn't show well. I will maybe color them later when I have the time, right now is really all about drawing. Here are just a few that I had done. (Click on image for closeup.)

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Have you been drawing or doing some creative endeavor?

Fiction: Ghosts in the Machines

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Sean Jeating and posted at River's blog over here. This week's prompts are: innocent, evil, face, expanding, born and/or come, surprise, planet, minor, follow. Last week's prompts are: instruction, stupidity, ignorant, disregards, joined and/or shy, not, means, from, destruction.

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Fiction: Ghosts in the Machines
Jennifer Woo liked the peaceful atmosphere of the Dish Mat. Movements were slow and conversations were held in subdued voices. Most days, she sat and read novels behind the counter in the back. The Dish Mat was an automat that mostly ran itself. Anyone could get a quick meal from the multiple vending machines that lined the walls. During the week days, Jenny was there before 8am and closed a few minutes after 10pm. Despite the many instructions on the walls and the tent cards in various languages on the tables, people still asked Jenny questions. She had learned to disregard the minor irritation answering the same questions.

Fiction: Ghosts in the Laundromat

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Sean Jeating and posted at River's blog over here. This week's prompts are: visited, chewing, nudging, saw, point and/or side, honey, companion, silent, loudly.

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Fiction: Ghosts in the Laundromat
The Quick Mat on the corner street was rumored to have ghosts but Gabrielle Woo knew it wasn't true as it was her second sister who started the rumor to get people interested in the place. Their mother thought it was a great idea as she made Jenny their publicist although Gabby didn't think they need a publicist for a laundromat.
    During the week days, Gabby, the fourth sister of five, was behind the counter in the back of the store where she sat for twelve hours until closing time. Most she was there to answer questions such as how much for a cup of detergent even though it said so on the machines. Everything was in the two vending machines at the front so Gabby rarely had to do anything. But if you want her to keep an eye on your stuff, she would refuse. It wasn't her job or so she claimed.

Book series I've only read one book of (Vol. 2)

Maybe my reasons for not continuing a series a bit lame but that's that. I don't think it matters because we can read whatever we want or don't want and it's perfectly okay to put down a book or a series when you're not enjoying it. I like to read books I enjoy rather than try to like books I'm not enjoying. And just because I put it on this list didn't mean I might not continue later on. Here are more book series that I read one book of and will not likely continue. (Most of these I read before 2025.)(My previous list is here.) 

01 - A Wrinkle in Time (#1) by Madeleine L'Engle
What's it about: time, space, another planet
What I think: I should love this because it's the kind of book I do like reading but I can't seem to get into it. Perhaps if I had read this as a child, I might have loved it and even devour the series but it was dull to me.
Reasons to quit series: It was kind of dull

02 - The Case of the Missing Marquess (Enola Holmes #1) by Nancy Springer
What's it about: missing mother, amateur sleuthing
What I think: Being Sherlock Holmes' younger sister, there is some expectation that really wouldn't have been there if that's not the case. For some odd reason, I keep thinking Holmes is going to come and solve the mystery but nope. Apparently Enola backwards spells Alone and that's somehow described her well. At times, she seems awfully mature and at others, she is essentially a child playing a game. I don't dislike her but I also don't like her. The mysteries (there seems to be two here) is a bit bland to me.
Reasons to quit series: If she is her own original character with no relations to Sherlock Holmes, I might like her but mostly the mysteries was dull.

Fiction: How to save 127 people with a lot of trying

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Sean Jeating and posted at River's blog over here. This week's prompts are: hear, modern, influenza, physical, organs, original, pea, human, rather, size. 

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Fiction: How to save 127 people with a lot of trying [The first part is here]

01 - "Cordelia Elizabeth Anne Allbright, get your arse up." Tabby's voice sank into Cody's mind. It was quiet, firm with plenty of bossiness that reminded Cody of her granny, Gerty, who whisper-yelled all her names whenever Cody was in trouble. 
    "We agreed I only have to do this once a month not whenever you feel like it!"  Cody responded. There was still one day before September ended. She was exhausted from two hours of cleaning bathrooms at the Groovy Diner. She deserved her rest.
    Tabby kneaded Cody's back. "Do you wish to let 127 innocents die?" 
    Guilt, Gerty was an expert on making Cody feel it with a few words. Somehow Tabby knew the same trick. Growing up with Gerty, Cody had learned never to do anything stupidly immoral because 'karma doesn't just bite you, it obliterate your soul' as she relished in reminding Cody.
    "You have no time to linger. Get up and get to JFK airport ASAP."
    It was jarring to have Tabby's voice in Cody's head. Tabby said transferring thoughts was faster and a talking cat led to all kinds of trouble.
    "No, I—!" Cody's voice dropped. It was vexing how Tabby turned on and off her voice like a radio. It made arguing with her maddening. All her life, Cody either write down what she wanted to say or not say them at all. She knew sign language but rarely used it. But there was an advantage in not speaking - you don't have to answer questions you don't want. Such as why you have men's clothes in your closet when you're a single woman. Mrs. Roman, Cody's landlady, knew why. A year ago, Cody was sleeping in her room when she heard screams. Without a thought, she changed into Male Cody (MC), charged down the stairs and knocked out Mrs. Roman's ex-husband before he could kill her. In fear, MC had changed back to Cody. As easily as she was to accept Cody's ability, Mrs. Roman still snooped around Cody's room now and then.
    When Cody first realized her ability to change forms, she thought she was a genetic freak. Gerty assured her at least she wasn't a cockroach. Gerty evoked all small animals had tougher lives than humans.       
    Over the years, Cody had changed into many different faces and body shapes but no matter who she changed into, they would always be the same age as her. MC had been her go-to disguise since her teens. If there had been an original MC, Cody didn't remember. As she reached eighteen, she made MC's physical size to six feet six inches and then was unable to change it. Gerty said it was fate.
    Perhaps meeting Tabby was fate. At least, Gerty would say so. Tabby, like Gerty, had a sense of righteousness and an abundance of bossiness. As she walked toward the bathroom, Cody reminded herself Tabby was only trying to save lives. Everything else, including Cody, was minor stuff.

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IWSG Oct 2025: Love what you create?

More about the
Insecure Writer’s
Support Group here

The October question at Insecure Writer's Support Group is What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?
    There a lot of things I really loved that I had written but somehow I can't think of them today. Maybe it's the ideas I loved more than the actual writing. My mind at the moment is more focused on what I'm working on now rather on what I had written. 
    Before with only a few writing experiences, I thought most of what I wrote was pretty decent but now with more years of writing, I have different opinions. It's pretty easy to fall in love with your creations even when you don't realize it. So I have learned to be more brutal (probably too strong a word) on what projects (writing or otherwise) to give up once I realized I'll never get them to the way I want. Some of my stories do stayed with me even when I had decided not to continue finishing them. 
    I've redo a lot of my artworks because I thought I could do better so with my writings, I do the same thing - rework them into better versions of what I want them to be or abandon them if necessary. Although I am a habitual procrastinator so what I abandoned doesn't always stayed abandoned

Do you always love what you created (writings or other creative endeavors)?

Book Rants: Sept 2025

I would like to have more varieties in the books I read but I always seem to end up reading murder mysteries. I had tried a couple of none murder mysteries but I barely got past the first chapter but at least I did finish one science fiction. The more I dislike a book (or anything), the more I have to complain about so some of these rants are pretty long. It wasn't a great reading month but I did enjoy a couple of books. 
   I put in the spoiler alert text in red but is it useful? It's difficult to decide sometimes what is spoiler and what isn't. I think you cannot write your thoughts on certain books without some spoilers so yes, spoilers for all the books I mentioned here.
    Here are all the books I read in September and other stuff I finished.

Books I Read:

01 - The Night Singer (The Island Murders #1) by Johanna Mo
What's it about: death of a teenage boy, investigation, teenagers, family, old crimes
This is like two books in one but the same story told twice - one in the victim's point of view (Joel, which was told in the present tense which is odd but acceptable) and the other is the investigation with various point of views, mostly Hanna's (a cop). It seemed like one of the views is redundant. I don't like going back and forth, it cuts off the continuation of the story each time.
    I'm annoyed by how much useless information and how many detours the book made before getting to the end. Also, Hanna's father's crime/case hung over the entire book as it was constantly mentioned, constantly thought about by Hanna but of course no resolution but will probably be the last case of the series. But I do find that case more interesting than Joel's case.
    Also, they kept mentioning Hanna's height (over 6 feet) and that annoys me because she really had no personality other than her height, her father's crime and also being awkward around everybody. This is a socially, awkward woman who got a bit too emotional when she shouldn't and her so-call great cop skills were mentioned but never utilized. Basically throughout the book, she was trying not to break down and sob. I don't think she's fit to be a cop, at least, she shouldn't be working Joel's case.
    I wouldn't call this is a murder mystery or even a thriller, it's mostly about people and their emotions and thoughts. I guess titling this as The Night Singer seemed almost meaningless considering that was barely referenced twice but I guess in a way, it gives a certain mystery. I honestly expected something vile or ultra-violent or something unexpectedly better than this ending with that large knife shape on the cover. What actually happened was underwhelming and dumb and I wouldn't call it murder. I don't like this two viewpoints format so I'm not continuing this series.

Fiction: Until Next Month

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by River at her blog over here. This week's prompts are: olympian, support, tabby cat, mountain, fireplace, clothesline.

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Fiction: Until Next Month
Cody was no olympian god but he had the strength of one. He lifted the end of the station wagon and pulled until its front wheels were on solid ground then he dropped it. Hasty, he pulled the car door open and pressed the driver's neck. Assured that there was a pulse, he took out his phone and called for an ambulance. After he tucked the phone away, he looked around. It was nearly dawn and the sky was still dark. He veered his eyes toward the water. If he had been one second later, the car would have gone into the lake and he would have to swim. Cody hated swimming especially in winter.
    A giggle sounded. Cody bended to peek in the backseat. The toddler was grinning with drool down his chin. Cody waved at the boy. The boy waved his pacifier. Cody heard a moan and peered at the driver. He opened his eyes and started to speak but no words came out. 
    "Hey, what are you doing?"

Some Rants on Book Series

Almost every book is a series so it's harder to find standalones and even if you found one, there might be a chance the author will write another book to change that status. Even books published a while back gets sequels or prequels so there's really no escape from book series so you might as well enjoy them. Here's some of my thoughts and rants on book series.

01 - The first book will always cement the verdict for me whether to continue the series or not — If the first book is bad, then the rest of the series is bad but that kind of mentality is wrong but what the heck. There are so many book series out there that there's no reason to slog through two or three books to get to the good ones. I know not every book in a series will be great but I think if you want readers to read your series, you should put all the best stuff (or at least something that makes me want to stick around) in book one - don't wait until book two to put it in because I'll never read book two if I dislike book one.

02 - Maybe publish series all at once — I don't go about trying to pick series that are already finished being published before deciding to read them. I just decide when I see the first book. So it's frustrating to have to read a book or two and find the series is incomplete because of various reasons. One reason is the series not being successful enough that no new books will be published. Another is that the author has not finished writing them or worse, the author has died. So why not only publish a series after all the books in the series are finished being written? Maybe it's a waste of paper and money to publish a series all at once, maybe a whole series may be a bigger failure (financially speaking) than a single book but incomplete series are annoying. Of course I'm not saying if the series is 20 books long to published all 20 books at once but maybe half of it or have some sort of completion with the story to the first three books.
    I dislike how some books are released as standalones but only turns into a series because that book is successful and not because it needs a sequel. I have seen this and I have say, the sequel or the next book in that so-called series is never good.

03 - Make book series as standalone series — It's a bit crazy to have a series with sub series or even sub-sub series and so forth. Just make them all separate so people won't go crazy trying to decided which order to read. I'm all for book sequels using new characters in the same universe but maybe not put in things to connect to the original series. Authors should stop connecting all their books into a singular universe. Why can't book series be standalone series or does everything have to be part of a series?
     
04 - Shorter number of books is better — Three, four, seven or even ten books in a series I can tolerate but after ten, it's just too long. I do not have patience for long series mostly because I can't fast-forward a book like a tv show. I've seen series that are 40 books long and just recently I saw one that was 60+ books. I think the longer a series the less likely the stories will get better. You can only expand so much with the same characters. 
    But if a series has each book as a sort of standalone, I don't mind this as much. For instance, for murder mysteries (which I mainly read), each book has a case so that it can be self-contained so you can read them in any order. But sadly, even with this kind of setup, there are still storylines that are continuous (like character relationships changes or characters dying, etc.) but at least, you don't have to try to figure the order too much.
  
05 - Shorter books are better — As in length - 400 pages or less, not 800 or 1,000 pages. I have low patience for book series with books the size of dictionaries - they're too much and especially way too long if the series is 5 or more  books. If one or two books are long, it's fine but if all the books are long - who has the patience? I think long books are for standalones, not series. 

06 - Put numbers on the book or after the title so we know the order of the book — I know some book series are, as stated above, self-contained so you can read them in any order but I'm an orderly reader and I prefer to read a series in order so I need to know the sequence. So yes, any reader can go search online the order of any book series but why do readers have to do that? They should be able to tell by looking at the book cover or spine (in paper formats) or inside the book (ebook format). 

07 - Reprints of parts of a series in those so-called special editions have to stop — You might have seen one or two beautiful editions of the first or second book of a series that you love and thought hey, maybe they will print the other books in the series in that same beautiful edition but nope. This pisses me off. Not only because I spent money on them but that I have half of a series which I then have to get rid of because I don't like owning half series. 
    
08 - End the larger plot quicker — I don't like book series with larger plots for the entire series that doesn't get wrap up until the last book of the series but especially for long series. For instance, for murder mysteries, I would prefer the larger plot (or a certain case that involves the main character that is constantly mentioned in every book) to get a resolution in book 2 or 3 so that if we don't read the rest of the series, we get a resolution. I don't want to read 10 books to get that resolution. 

09 - Authors shouldn't continue a series of another (usually deceased) author's completed series — They made it sound like it's a continuation but it's really a redo or remake. These new books will never have the same flavor as the original so why do it? 

10 - No more new books (such as sequels or prequels) to already finished series — When a series is completed, that's it, don't go back and release a sequel or a prequel. It's harder to accept the new additions when you've read the original. More so when the sequels comes a decade or longer after the original was finished. Like I said in #9, they will never have the same flavor even with the original writer because it's written at a different time, different mind-set, almost like a completely different series so why do it?

What do you like or dislike about book series?

Seven Things: Thoughts & Complaints

Greetings From Brooklyn

Today is September 7th so I thought it is appropriate to post another Seven Things which I haven't done in awhile. Basically, these are just random thoughts, complaints, rants – stuff that annoys me enough to think about them a bit longer. (I created this new art (above) as a digital postcard for a pal so I thought I shared it. It said Free Cupcake on the little poster on the right.)

01 - A recent author was maybe considered a scammer because her book turned out to be crappy. She hyped up her book so readers were expecting something amazing and they didn't get it. Any book no matter how well is written or how great the author is, still have a chance to be crappy so why are people complaining? I can understand the disappointment of spending money on a book and then getting something crappy. But she is not completely to blame. I think it's your fault if you believe in the hype, right? I mean, a lot of books were hyped/marketed to be amazing and never delivered so why focus on this particular author? 

02 - Technology is a bit problematic if you can't get online. For example, once when I searched my computer for why I can't get online, the answer my computer showed me is to tell me I have to be online to see the answers - why is the help on your computer not on your computer but online? The problem is everything is online so if you can't get online, than you're screwed. But I suppose you can call someone instead...

03 - Some bloggers have made their blog to allow only members of the blog to leave comments which I thought is a form of exclusivity. This is saying 'you can only participate if you're a member' which irks me but it shouldn't because everyone have the rights to have their blog read only by the people they want. 
    When new readers comes along, how are they to comment? Supposedly, would-be readers can email the blogger but for me, I'm a bit of a shy reader when it comes to new blogs (or even blogs I have read for years) so I don't go about asking permissions to comment on blogs. A while back, when some bloggers closed a blog and started a new one, they left a post about sending them emails to get their new blog's url but I never did that either. I don't know why but I feel a bit awkward asking for permission or their new url when I didn't need it before. I guess on a personal level, I'm not good at asking such things when I don't know if those bloggers even remember me as one of their readers. 

04 - Recently, I saw a video about tips to living a better life and the first thing is to clean your toilet - does it sound like your life would be better if you clean your toilet? It might be true but it's not the kind of advice I care for. I think if you're a clean freak, that might actually be your first choice but I don't know. I think they probably should have listed it lower on the list because I didn't want to watch the rest after that advice.

05 - Last month, I had to sign out of my kobo ereader and then when I signed back in, all my preferences are gone. What happened was I accidentally removed a library book while trying to remove a different book and somehow hit on the wrong book. Then I tried to retrieve it but it wouldn't work. Even when I returned and re-borrowed the book, it wouldn't re-upload when I synced the device. So I signed out of Kobo and then re-signed in but damm, all my preferences (text sizes, margin width, brightness settings, words I saved when I looked up their definition, etc.) are all gone. I have to reset every preference I had ever changed. I used the same kobo account and everything but it was as it was treating me like a new user. Why aren't my preferences saved to my device or account? It didn't make sense. Supposedly signing out of something can fix problems because when there is no other option and I wasn't going to reset the whole device but I might as well have done it since I had to reset every preference anyway.
    I was dumb not to try to sign out of Overdrive first which might have saved me some headaches which hadn't occurred to me. Maybe my brain isn't working too well these days but not being able to have your saved preferences when you signed out of the device is just  stupid. 

06 - Sadly, I have exceeded my holds at the library because some of the books I had placed are taking a really long time. The longest one will take 20 weeks until it is my turn to borrow it which makes me wonder how I have the patience to wait for books. The longest time I had waited for a library book is a little over half a year and that book was such a disappointment but I still continue to wait. I don't know where I get the patience but I have plenty of it when it comes to waiting for library books. (Note: I read only borrowed library ebooks.)

07 - Do you ever hit the wrong keys on your computer and your screen or app or window that are opened does some crazy or inexplicable things you can't undo or fix? That's me most daily now. It's especially annoying when I'm using Firefox because they added features I didn't want and can't turn off because some of them have no turn off option and some makes no sense to me. 
    I hate it when users have to adapt to do things in new ways instead of doing it their way. Sometimes I think app creators or technology-related creators likes to annoy users by forcing them to do things their way or how else to explain why updates and upgrades are always so annoyingly dumber or worst?

What's on your mind these days? 

Fiction: Dinner on a Cloud

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by River at her blog over here. This week's prompts are: conviviality, adoration, willpower, mellow, gentle, guitar.

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Fiction: Dinner on a Cloud
Vida's annual dinners were famous for their well-planned, delicious menus as well as their quirky and sometimes perilous locations. Always, Vida was a convivial host who never failed to delight her guests' tastebuds. For ten years, Vida's dinners had long been the neighborhood's most anticipated fall event.
    This year, Vida sent out invitations months before September but told no one of what she will be serving or where it will occur. People who had previously attended her dinners had such adoration for her cooking that no matter what, they would always show up. Rumors had it one of the guests missed out on the birth of his first child just to attend Vida's dinner. 

IWSG Sept 2025: Motivation, Procrastination

More about the
Insecure Writer’s
Support Group here

Supposedly I lied to myself because I thought I would be submitting some of my stories to literary online journals but all I managed to do is submitted one story and that's was it. So now I'm thinking I'm too cowardly or something. I don't think it's rejection that's stopping me.
    It would be nice if someone would take my stories and do the editing and the submitting because I certainly don't seem to be doing it. And I have a hard time deciding which stories to submit considering most of them I can't submit. (Sadly, most online journals do not accept stories that had been posted on your blog - that is considered published. And some have so much requirements that I'm not qualified.)
    In terms of writing and pretty much all my projects, I am constantly putting off what I can finish right away. For some odd reason, I seem to be waiting for something but I don't know what.
    I think it's due to lack of motivation that I haven't submitted more stories or finish writing them. I'm not as motivated as before. I keep  procrastinating thinking I'll get back to it. But of course if you keep procrastinating you'll probably never get to finish anything. But I think finish/do what you can and worry about the rest later but maybe that's another form of procrastination - you think later but there seems to be no later. I don't know where the motivation went. But hopefully, motivation will find me again or I'll find it somehow.
        
What do you do when you can't find that motivation? Do you like procrastinating?

Book Rants: August 2025

I didn't do much blogging this month, same as last month. I have very little motivations even though I did write a couple of posts. I suppose if I get pay to blog, I might just muster the will to post more. Also, I find most things too boring to blog about aside from books. I didn't even post any fiction this month or last month. I like to get back to doing that and also participating in Words for Wednesday more even though I'm always late. For the colder season, I had changed the header to a warmer hue. Sadly, I didn't save the colors hex from the months when I had same warmer hue so I couldn't get back whatever it was.
    This month, I read a lot of murder mysterious or perhaps I should say historical murder mysteries. I don't quite like contemporary murder mysteries much but maybe that will change if I read more of those. Here are the books I read in August.

01 - The Perry Mason Mysteries, Volume One by Erle Stanley Gardner
(The Case of the Lazy Lover, The Case of the Lonely Heiress, and The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom)
What's it about: law, lawyers, murder, deaths, investigations
I like these three books well enough and they were kind of fun cases but I don't think they make me want to read more however short they are. I like Perry Mason and his secretary Miss Della Street (why is she always being referred to as Della Street, not Della or Miss Street but always Della Street?) but not enough to continue the series and there are many books. 

02 - Gaslight Mystery series by Victoria Thompson
What's it about: murders, slums, high society, corruption, poverty, policemen, midwives
So far, I have read 13 of 27 books. (I'm not showing all the covers). Each book is self-contained with a different mystery but if you care about the two main characters (Frank Malloy and Sarah Brandt)'s relationships and those around them, then I suggest reading them in order.
    I like how changes to that period, such as inventions like the motorcars, progress along with the characters and the time period. I enjoy having knowledge of future inventions and events and reading how these people in that time period are adjusting to them.
    The mysteries are good but I enjoy the characters more - they are a cheerful bunch. The characters, mainly, Malloy and Sarah (Sarah rarely calls him Frank), are ones readers enjoy knowing. It's not too much focus on Malloy and Sarah romance even though I had a feeling even in the beginning, they would end up together but you can feel their joy working together to solve cases. Gino and Maeve are also good characters. In a way, these books a bit tame and kind of cozy if you take out the crimes.
    Overall, I liked and enjoyed this series a lot but it would have been nice to be able to read all the books but my library don't have them and half of them are in audiobook format which I don't read. Maybe if I get an urge to complete the series, I might purchase the books I didn't get to read.

Unfinished
03 - The Wintringham Mystery (aka Cicely Disappears) by Anthony Berkeley
What's it about: rich people, servants, maybe a murder, maybe a romance
Quit at: 17%
So what if Agatha Christine couldn't even solve this mystery? The main characters are too boring and it just seemed like I'm reading a lot of dull things that I just don't care about. I didn't get to anywhere toward the death of one of the characters. I was too bored to continue. 

Have you read any good books this August? I hope September will be good to you.

Less things to say

I seem to be posting less and less these days. Even though I am constantly writing posts, I keep not posting anything because I find nothing worth sharing, that is, nothing that I don't find boring. So I silently keep things to myself and post only what I thought aren't boring but I guess everything I post these days are boring. There is none of the excitement when I have a post ready or perhaps the excitement die down too quickly. I could spend a month on a post and finish writing it and creating the art/image but then not post it and I had done that a lot. It's easier not to post than to post and regret it. Of course it's easy to hit that revert to draft button but I don't want to use it.
    When I started blogging years ago, I have tons of things to say. And I guess I might been vomiting anything that came to my head without too much thought if anyone find them boring or not. I was so inspired that I had to post everything. Somehow it's just easier back then because everything seemed new and I might have thought sharing whatever I want is better than not sharing anything at all. There's a different mentality then, I suppose.
   These days there are still things I want to share but I guess not as much as before so I mostly don't share them. Plus, I forget easily. One moment I have an idea and then I lost it the next because I didn't write it down. So less posts, less blogging, pretty much less of everything. I'm okay with it but I guess I'm losing readers for lack of new posts. But at least I have seven or so readers so I'm not talking to myself or so I think.

If you're a long-time blogger, do you find you have less things to post now compare to when you first started blogging?

Some thoughts on reading library ebooks

Here are some thoughts on reading only books borrowed from my local public library and reading them on my kobo ereader (I have the Clara BW model.)

01 - No longer purchasing ebooks - I no longer see value in purchasing ebooks since I rarely re-read books and they would only sit in my ereader or in my accounts. As far as I can understand, when you purchase an ebook, you're buying the rights to read it and that's it. You can't re-sell them because that would require transferring digital rights which frankly, I don't quite know how. But if I really love a book, I might purchase a paper version but I haven't read any books that I love lately. 

02 - Library availability - I have to consider availability from my library when I choose what books to borrow and read. I can request my library to purchase certain books but I rather not since it takes so long for them to fulfill the request and most likely, they wouldn't make the purchase for tons of reason which most likely budgets.
    Public libraries have to purchase rights to ebooks (for a period of time) to loan them out so that right can expired so availability is not a permanent thing for ebooks. I'm wondering why libraries aren't given the privilege to purchase ebooks for indefinite use. It's not like they are making profits loaning them out. But I suppose publishers/authors wants to make money too.
    Also format availability - For example, for a series, book 1 may be available in ebook and audiobook formats but book 2 may be only available in audiobook format. I don't understand this but this hadn't changed in years. I think if you're an audiobook reader, you are likely to have more books available than if you're an ebook reader.

03 - I now waste more time searching for books to read than actually reading them - I don't know why I'm so picky. I usually read a sample of the book to decide if I want to read it. But sometimes I depend on the synopsis or even just by the cover itself. I don't have a definite way to decide, I guess it depends on my mood.
    A lot of times I find books that are in the middle of a series and then when I look for the first book, it's unavailable at the library which is a shame as I do prefer to read from the beginning of a series. I don't get why some book series have no book 1 available but others in the series are available - shouldn't book 1 be the one available?

04 - The more popular a book, the longer the wait time at your library - For example, if you place a hold on a book, you might get to read it in a week or in a few months or even a whole year. Even if it sometimes says the wait time is 2 weeks, that time can extend or shorten depending on readers. I don't mind waiting except when I'm reading a series. 
    And also, the more popular books, the more copies are available which seems unfair. Most ebooks from the library have one or two copies which I guess is the norm. So why are some books have more than 10 copies available? There should be a standard number of copies for all books for equality and besides that, popular authors don't even need their books in the library as much as much as less popular authors but I guess popularity wins out.

05 - Reading on a kobo and sometimes on a kindle - Even though I use mainly my kobo, I sometimes have to use my kindle because not all books available from the library can be read on a kobo since if a book is not listed on the kobo store, you can't get it onto your ereaders unless you sideload them. (Note: Sideload books means you plug your ereader into your computer and download books (from the library's website) and load them into your ereader like you would a file but there are things you have to do before you can even do that because you cannot just load a library book onto your ereader and read it - there are permission issues which I have not been successful in solving so I cannot tell you how to do it.)
    So my option when a book is not available through kobo but is available for kindle, then I read that on my kindle ereader. 
    But if I can't get that book on either devices, then I don't read that book at all which happens a lot but I don't mind it. I guess if I'm desperate to read a certain book, I might purchase it but it's unlikely.

06 - Please don't monopolize books - Having more than one library cards (which is legal somewhat) so you can borrow more books and have more holds is just dumb and disrespecting other library patrons. Since you can borrow more books from so many libraries and have so many holds, you will probably end up borrowing a lot of books at once and probably won't get to read many of them unless you're a speed reader. I just think respecting others by not monopolizing book is the proper thing to do.

07 - No back cover for ebooks - Some ebooks just ends where the story ends, there's not even an The End - it just stops. Then there are books ending with list of books that author had written or some copyright info or even the content list (which is just odd being at the end) but no back cover like paperbacks or hardcovers. I've only seen maybe two back covers of two ebooks and not have encountered another one since.
    You know how there's these notices that tells you not to purchase books without covers (front and back) because they might be stolen goods – ebooks without back covers is like stolen goods because the back cover is not there. How hard it is to put a back cover to the end an ebook? I know this isn't much an issue because most people wouldn't care about it but I think a back cover makes a book more complete and it gives you a feeling of having  finished reading the book when you see the back cover or am I mad to think this way?

Do you read library books? How is your experience on reading books from your library (digital or otherwise)?

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Some useful links:
• Find your library at Overdrive's website 
• Overdrive help 
• How to borrow kindle books from your library
• How to borrow kobo books from your library