I normally don’t do this: I prefer to look at the positives in life and keep this blog writing and history-oriented. But today I need to complain. Just a little. I spent the entire weekend trying to get my wireless internet back online. There was nothing wrong with my actual internet connection, just the wireless router, which was just more than a year old. So, I call the company’s tech support line, but since it was past the one year warranty, they wouldn’t help me. After seeking help from friends and more tech-savvy people than I, I had done all the troubleshooting I could possibly do. So, I went and...
I can’t rave enough…
Shameless free advertisement for History Channel here. The recent WWII in HD special, a 10-hour series of full-color, restored WWII footage, was simply amazing. The series follows the lives of 12 men and women who served in the 4 years of America’s involvement. Everything is beautfiully interwoven and a master upon master of story telling. I believe as writers we can learn from films and movies because in today’s world, that sort of story telling is what readers expect. This series used each soldier, pilot, nurse and seaman’s story to illustrate the major battles of the war, from Patton’s campaign in North Africa to Iwo Jima and D-Day. Aside from...
NaNoWriMo: Accomplished!
I reached just over 53,000 words in 28 days. Not too shabby! So what does this mean now? Well, aside from officially getting to post the neat little picture to the left, I have a new (mostly completed) manuscript. To pitch this novel to the publishers I’m aiming for, I will end up with around 70,000 words, so I’m going to keep my pace and get the rest finished. Then, polishing and pitching time! What did I learn? I re-learned my love of writing. After spending years writing, rewriting, editing and tweaking In Dawn’s Shadows, I’m a little sick of that process. So letting the creative juices flow for this...
Book Review: The Blind Assassin
A novel within a novel, within a novel…within a novel. Only Margaret Atwood could do this. That’s my conclusion, at least. Published in 200 by Anchor Books, The Blind Assassin, is a book with countless different dynamics and unexpected twists. To be completely honest, I didn’t like the book for a long time and forced myself to continue to the end. By the last few chapters, as all the pieces came to a beautiful fit, I realized the true genius of the book. The characters are well described and very real. So real, they are almost unlikeable. The antagonists of the book are extra unbearable and I found myself actually...
Confessions of a Book-aholic
Goodness, I love the feel of new books. I love the smooth binding, the crisp, fresh off the printer smell, the silky pages and how easily they flip under your fingertips… Walking around a bookstore gives me a high, a sense of wonderment unlike any other. I can’t help it, can’t stop walking down each aisle, even if I would never purchase a book out of that section. Hello, my name is Nicole, and I’m a book-aholic. Seriously. I am. There are three shelves in my home office with books piled high, in somewhat alphabetic order. I’ve got twenty or so I still haven’t read…but I keep buying more! The...