If I can manage to get some rest from all the overtime at Ye Olde Daye Jobbe and from family obligations, I’ll have reviews for you from:

• Devon Monk’s MAGIC ON THE STORM [link]
• Leanna Renee Hieber’s THE DARKLY LUMINOUS FIGHT FOR PERSEPHONE PARKER [link]
• And I still need to say a bit about Jim Butcher’s CHANGES (I think I’m still recovering from that one! Brutal!) [link]
• As well as the fact that I’ve just received my copy of Peter V Brett’s DESERT SPEAR [link]

So I hope you’re all looking forward to that. I know I’m looking forward to having all that stuff written and the work gone from over my head. Ha!

The short story I promised my writing partner, which is now over a month late, I think (It was an arbitrary deadline, but a deadline nonetheless.), still continues, although slowly. But I’ll take any progress rather than none at all, at this point. I’ve promised myself 15 minutes a day on it. If, at the end of those minutes, I want to quit working, then I can. I usually don’t want to, but must, because I’m typically scribbling furiously in a tiny notebook during a coffee break at work.

Ah, well. A writer does what a writer must. Right?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

May your heart be happy and your soul find what it needs. May your wallet be heavy and your shoulders light. Laugh often and love with joy.

No resolutions on my part. Just a determination that I will stop waiting for my fairy godmother to come along and make my dreams come true.

I want a polished draft of a novel by the end of this year.

What do you want out of 2010? Let me know in the comments; let’s make it happen.

1. 1984 , George Orwell
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , Mark Twain
3. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , Lewis Caroll
4. Analects , Confucious
5. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl , Anne Frank
6. Arabian Nights or 1,001 Nights , Anonymous
7. Beloved , Toni Morrison
8. The Bible
9. Brave New World , Aldous Huxley
10. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee , Dee Brown
11. The Call of the Wild , Jack London
12. Canterbury Tales , Geoffrey Chaucer
13. Catcher in the Rye , JD Salinger
14. The Celluloid Closet , Vito Russo
15. Charlie & The Chocolate Factory , Roald Dahl
16. Clan of the Cave Bear , Jean Auel
17. The Color Purple , Alice Walker
18. The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm , Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
19. Dialogue Concerning The Two Chief World Systems , Galilei Galileo
20. Different Seasons , Stephen King
21. A Doll’s House , Henrik Ibsen
22. Don Quixote , Saavedra Miguel de Cervantes
23. Earth Science
24. The Egypt Game , Zilpha Keatley Snyder
25. Fahrenheit 451 , Ray Bradbury
26. The Figure in the Shadows , John Bellairs
27. Gone With the Wind , Margaret Mitchell
28. Grapes of Wrath , John Steinbeck
29. The Graphic Work of M.C. Escher , M.C. Escher
30. Grendel , John C Gardner
31. Gulliver’s Travels , Jonathan Swift
32. Hamlet , William Shakespeare
33. The Happy Prince & Other Stories , Oscar Wilde
34. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , Maya Angelou
35. It , Stephen King
36. James and the Giant Peach , Roald Dahl
37. King Lear, William Shakespeare
38. The Koran
39. Le Morte D’Arthur , Sir Thomas Malory
40. The Life and Times of Renoir , Janice Anderson
41. A Light in the Attic , Shel Silverstein
42. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe , C.S. Lewis
43. Little House in the Big Woods , Laura Ingalls Wilder
44. Little House on the Prairie , Laura Ingalls Wilder
45. The Lorax , Dr. Seuss
46. The Lords of Discipline , Pat Conroy
47. The Martian Chronicles , Ray Bradbury
48. My Friend Flicka , Mary O’Hara
49. The Odyssey , Homer
50. On the Origin of the Species , Charles Darwin
51. Paradise Lost , John Milton
52. Raisin in the Sun , Lorraine Hansberry
53. The Rolling Stone , Jim Miller
54. The Satanic Verses , Salman Rushdie
55. Slaughterhousep–Five , Kurt Vonnegut
56. Song of Solomon , Toni Morrison
57. The Stand , Stephen King
58. The Talmud
59. To Kill a Mockingbird , Harper Lee
60. Tom Jones , Henry Fielding
61. Twelfth Night , William Shakespeare
62. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
63. Vasilissa the Beautiful: Russian Fairy Tales
64. Welcome to the Monkey House , Kurt Vonnegut
65. Where the Sidewalk Ends , Shel Silverstein
66. Where’s Waldo? , Martin Hanford
67. The Witches of Worm , Zilpha Keatley Snyder
68. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
69. Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings , D.T. Suzuki

So that’s 29 out of 69. 40 more books yet to read. My goal is to read Paradise Lost this year. How many have you read?

1. Reading Lilith Saintcrow’s Dante Valentine novel- volume 4. Which hasn’t arrived from Amazon yet. Damn.
2. Playing Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (Nintendo DS) – My system tells me I’m about 60% done with the game.
3. Watching NCIS or House, MD on DVD. Must… resist… buying… new seasons….
4. Adding things to my Amazon.com wishlist
5. Having cookies n’ cream ice cream. Mmm.
6. Checking the next DVD in my Netflix queue
7. Catching up on LICD (A webcomic. Only for the sarcastic.)
8. Writing inane blog posts of random top 10 lists
9. Creating a database of character stats for the cast of Inferno. (What can I say? I’m a technophile.)
10. Driving home from Dragon*Con. Instead, we missed it this year. Very sad.

Also awesome and related to #10 – Friend of mine, director of the Wheel of Time track at Dragon*Con and chair of JordanCon, Jennifer Liang, has an article on Cracked.com. Go read it. It’s funny.

Favorite author(s)?

Kim Harrison, Faith Hunter, Anne Bishop, James Clemens, Jim Butcher, and childhood favorite David Eddings

Favorite food?

Longhorn’s 8oz. Renegade sirloin, well done, with Texas cheese fries and the deep fried cheesecake for dessert. Mmmmm.

Favorite color?

Purple, black, crimson

Best time of day?

Mid- to- Late morning. I’m useless until I’ve had my caffeine, but if I wait too long to work I let myself get distracted.

Favorite season?

Fall. I’d say spring, but I have terrible allergies.

Most unusual hobby?

American Tribal bellydance

Want to know more? Leave a comment with your questions.