So far I like Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall - I was reluctant to start it but so far I'm enjoying it.  Of course I know the he = Cromwell trick.  I can see how it could drive you nuts trying to figure out who he was but still.  Also forgot how good Stella Rimmington is - Dead Line is modern day, spy stuff, mainly set in London and Scotland, a shadowy entity is out to blacken Syria's name and disrupt peace talks taking place in Gleneagles Scotland.  Liz Carlyle and the boys and girls at MI5 are out to stop them with the help - or hindrance - of MI6 and the US embassy in Grosvenor Square.  Rimmington - as I know from her first Carlyle novel - doesn't tell stories with everything neatly tied in a bow at the end so I'm letting this one unfold.

Officially done it

Done it!

Nano is done for another year, I can't verifty my word count until tomorrow but it currently stands at 50,402 and still going up.

Starting Wolf Hall today and then for a treat the new Stella Rimmington.

Thougts on The Dreamseller

Ever read a book that everyone says is fantastic 'you have to read it' and at the end you don't get it, the message doesn't resonate for you.  True story, I read the Alchemist by Coelho many years ago back in England all my girl friends loved it, I thought there must be something wrong with me so I read it again - and still nothing.

I read an excerpt of The Dreamseller by Cury (out in Feb 2011 full review then) in that excerpt which you can read online - just google Dreamseller - an academic is about to throw himself off a skyscraper in Manhattan when this mysterious unkempt stranger talks his way onto the roof and using the sociology professor's training against him picks apart his arguements and saves his life.  When I was reading the arc, key points resonated with me, we - as a society - do worship money and celebrity, we standardize beauty and pigeon hole people by religion, ethnic group or sexual orientation and live our lives at one hundred miles an hour.  Our academic establishments squash critical thinking and turn out predatory machines instead of people capable of rational thought.  I get it, I'm inspired by it. This may be fiction but it is also great social commentary.

Nano = 22310

It was nuts but we coped

Last night was what I'd like to call our official pre Christmas rehearsal.  Two events both well attended at completely different ends of the scale.  One event brought out some extremely hot firefighters, hey I can look, and flirt - a little.  The other was the new Jonathan Stroud, in the kids room.  I had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan, he was charming and happy to chat and just hang out with Rachels 1.0, 2.0, Kim and myself and I think we may have scored him skiing lessons on his next trip to Park City.

I've posted a link to Aimee Bender's nano peptalk - it's about tangents and how going off on them while writing can be good thing.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/3874221

Speaking of nano my score = 18575

Broken - Karin Fossum

Fossum writes dark tales so I knew what I was getting into but this isn't an entry in the Inspector Sejer series.  A female author ( possibly Fossum ) suffers a break-in but the burglar isn't out to steal he's out to persuade for he is a character standing in line waiting for his story to be told.  The author names him and begins to tell  his story but no story moves on without drama and that ingredient comes in the form of a fragile young heroin addict who plants herself in the character's life and may drag him down with her.

I'm still scratching my head, trying to work out if this is Fossum showing us her process and as a writer myself a long line of blank characters waiting patiently in all weathers outside my front door would scare the bejesus out of me.

Nano = 14684

Layover in Dubai

Finished this last night - I have to say, Dubai, the Emirati and the favours that make the world go round for them (wasta) are the reason I kept reading.  Now I'm onto Broken by Karin Fossum the premise being that an author wakes up to find one of her characters - they queue up in her yard - has jumped said queue and broken into her house.  He talks her into naming him and telling his story and that's as far as I've got.

Nano score = 8037

5232

Today's word count from nanowrimo-land.

My strategy this year is to use the laptop - write somewhere for a couple of hours - then come home and do other stuff while the battery recharges and then write for another hour or so.  Reading has slowed a bit though.  Finished the Le Carre over the weekend, one of the characters - Hector - is like an older wilier version of George Smiley.  I also finished The Dead Detective by Heffernan which comes out next year.  I've got a taste for police procedurals at the moment it seems.