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Well, I survived.  There's still about 60 pages left in the book, and I'm going to finish it, if for no other reason than to see if anything actually bloody happens.  A solid two-thirds of this book could have been handled with a single training montage.  There are so many characters floating around that it's hard to keep them straight, or to really care about any of them.  However, considering that it's more of a world-building and intro-to-magic style of book, I can kind of understand why there are so many books in the series - it's easy to keep going that way. At any rate, I feel like my first Readathon was a success.  Thanks to all who stopped by!

Current book - still A Modern Witch Current tea - Honey Ginseng Green Current snack - none (too many M&Ms) Well, I admit to being impressed at the turn the romance angle took.  It's still a little too pat and "love at first sight" (literally) for my taste, but it is interesting to see how love at first sight works for a witch with precognition.  I'm just waiting for things to, you know, HAPPEN- I'm 171 pages into this thing, and other than the initial reveal, there's not much action going on. Onwards!

Current book -  A Modern Witch Current tea - Trader Joe's Spiced Chai Current snack - plain M&Ms The book is almost disappointing in that it's not as awful as I expected it to be.  It's not good, don't get me wrong - there are many ways of blending modern technology with magic, and I don't think this author has hit on any of them in a way that makes a lot of sense - but it's not hilariously horrible.  There is an awful lot of head-hopping, though - nearly every page has a different POV character, and I had to go back a couple of times to determine which person this one was, which takes me out of the story.  Otherwise, it continues apace.

Here's my set up for the several hours of reading ahead.  Pardon the mess - the library isn't quite ready for prime time yet.  Ramses, in the window, is ready to watch any and all action closely - at least, until he falls asleep.  The Kindle is charged up, the laptop is on hand for updates and music, and the current tea (Trader Joe's Spiced Chai) is brewing.  Let's do this.

On Saturday, I will be taking part in the National Book Foundation’s National Readathon Day.  The goal is to raise money for some of the programs run by the National Book Foundation, including programs that help encourage kids to continue reading for fun as they get older.  Seeing as I spent the majority of my childhood buried in a book (or three), I'm hoping to help some other kids learn to ignore the world with a good book. I’m planning to read at least one utterly ridiculous book (current front-runner is A Modern Witch , though I’m open to suggestions) between noon and 4pm PST tomorrow.  If you’d like to donate, my page is here .  I'm also planning to update this blog with the occasional reactions and progress updates, so you can keep it here to see how long I last with the Modern Witch. Thanks, all, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Round two of the Writing Excuses Master Class - now that you have story ideas, what do you do with them?  This week's writing prompt may be a little more difficult for me, because my original ideas weren't all that fleshed out: Using last week's five story ideas (or five new ones): Take two of them and combine them into one story. Take one and change the genre underneath it. Take one and change the ages and genders of everybody you had in mind for it Take the last one and have a character make the opposite choice. Starting from the top: Combining two, we've got the villain press conference and sense-jamming, because who wouldn't be pleased with villains who could jam the heroes' senses?  It's a new technology, and the League of Heroes has to deal with the consequences. Change the genre: the camera shop is a shop of horrors, and the employees are forced to keep the portal open or risk the wrath of their keeper, who maintains the portal in order

One of my favorite podcasts on writing,  Writing Excuses , has decided to do things a little differently this year.  They're treating the year like a big master class in writing, and each week's writing prompt will lead into the next week's, and will help to build different skills over the course of the month.  In the interest of actually doing the exercises (instead of just thinking "That's a good idea, I should do that!"), I'm planning to do these on Friday posts.  This week's  prompt : Write down five different story ideas in 150 words or less. Generate these ideas from these five sources: From an interview or conversation you've had From research you've done (reading science news, military history, etc) From observation (go for a walk!) From a piece of media (watch a movie) From a piece of music (with or without lyrics) Here goes nothing (and for me, 150 words for a story idea is really long, so don't be surprised if these a

Hello, my friends, and welcome to 2015!  Thus far, I have spent the new year fighting off a terrible cold, continuing in my plans to re-read the entirety of the Discworld series (I'm currently on  Sourcery , so I've still got a long way to go), and working on a project for my Ravelry swap.  This project may or may not involve sparkly pink yarn and skulls. This swap, in fact, is based on the Dresden Files, so it seems fair to give them a run-down.  I didn't start reading them until the last few years, but they hooked me pretty well.  My husband's best friend kept insisting I would like them, and curse him if he wasn't right.  (Of course, I got him hooked on the October Daye books, so I think we're about even.)  I'm actually kind of surprised that I like the books as well as I do, because generally, I don't handle books very well where bad things are constantly happening to the protagonist. Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard in Chicago.  In