A reformed calendar

Well, my calendar and I had a good long talk. It seems to mostly be telling the truth now. It's still telling me I shouldn't be watching Doctor Who reruns.

Which is fine. I haven't been. I've been watching other reruns instead. This time though I chose a show that I don't actually have to pay attention to. It's like when I was in grad school and would write papers while watching Harry Potter. I needed some background noise but I know Harry Potter so well that I didn't have to actually pay attention.


Now, if you'll excuse me, I must continue with my mission of spreading joy and light through use of the Oxford comma.

My calendar is frustrating me

According to the calendar here I have almost nothing to do.

Which makes me wonder why my email is full and I have no time to watch Doctor Who reruns on Netflix.  Of course, the Doctor Who thing could be good luck because the next episode is "Doomsday" and I cry like a baby every time. Every damn time.

Quite right, too.


My calendar is lying to you. I'm not sure why. The one on my phone tells the truth. It says there is no room in my life for Doctor Who right now. Or anything else really. I am completely booked up with editing projects. And can I just tell you how much I love that pun? Always makes me smile.

Seriously, I may never have a chance to take my kayak out until July.

I intend to speak harshly to the calendar and remind it of the importance of telling the truth. The lies shall be replaced with the truth.


And now if you'll excuse me, I've got some editing to get back to.

I'm changing things a bit

You may have noticed that I haven't been reviewing as much lately. Do not assume this means I haven't been reading. Trust me, I've been reading. I'm going back and forth between 'real' books and Kindle books. New books and old favorites.

For those of you who don't know, I wear a lot of different hats: Librarian, book reviewer, editor. The funny thing is that I don't actually like hats. I also don't really like the 'hats' metaphor so I don't even know why I used it.

My review blogging has fallen by the wayside. My editing, on the other hand, has really taken off. In the past week or so, I've had about 5 new authors email me about getting their books edited. So I shall be concentrating on that.

I'll still be posting here. The posts are just going to get a bit more random than usual. There will be reviews from time to time. And that's how you'll know they're awesome books. Truly awesome to make me actually sit down and write up a whole post. I'll also post about editorial stuff. If you're one of my clients, don't worry about it. The 'no spoilers' policy is still in effect. I'll leak nothing about a client's book.

But I love Pinterest and there are some sadly pathetic grammar atrocities going on over there. So much to mock.

Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
middle school & up

Maddie & Queenie are best friends involved with the war efforts in 1940s England. Maddie flies transport planes and similar duties in order to free up male pilots for the fighters. Queenie is a wireless operator who gets caught by Nazis while trying to set up a radio network in France.



At the very beginning of the story, I really liked the main narrator and really didn't want to. (You'll see why.) It is just impossible not to like her though. Through her written confession to the Nazi commander we learn the story of how she came to be in France. We also learn a great deal about how girls came be opportunities to fly for England. It wasn't exactly common to see female pilots back then.
I don't want to say too much because you absolutely must read this book. The story isn't strictly true, but the author does point out that it all could have been true. I borrowed this book from my library but I will definitely be buying a copy for my very own.


Verdict: Not only recommended, but damn near required.

Strands of Bronze and Gold

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson
middle school & up

Sophia leaves her family home at 17 to live with her extremely rich godfather. It is hoped that her godfather will appreciate her company enough to offer to provide for the rest of Sophia's family now that their father is dead. Sophia enjoys the spacious mansion and becomes infatuated with her godfather's enigmatic personality. He seems to become fond of her as well but soon Sophia starts to realize that there may be something very wrong with her godfather and his past.


Perhaps it's because I've read more books than Sophia, but I knew her godfather was creepy long before she did. But I cut her some slack because there just weren't that many crime shows featuring, shall we say, not quite mentally balanced? Sophia's just a typical girl of her time (1850s) and she still manages to have backbone. She's even similar to a girl of our times especially when she does exactly the opposite of what she's told to do.
About halfway through the book, the godfather does something that she has been hoping he will (minds out of the gutter please). Unfortunately, it seems to completely backfire. That leads to Sophia really showing her backbone and good sense. From there the tone of the book gets more sinister and more threatening. Until BOOM!

Verdict: recommended

Scifi and Fantasy

Can I just rant for a little while here?


I love sci-fi; I'm a big fan of Heinlein. Any kid I ever have (and my little cousins) will eventually have a complete set of Heinlein juveniles. Science fiction has got a lot going for it: space ships, aliens, different planets, high tech gadgets and lots of sciency fun.








I do also like fantasy. Dragons, wizards, talking lions, gnomes, even tinier people who live under the floors and "borrow" regular people stuff, people who live underground and fly around on big bats. Heck, I enjoyed the Twilight series. (Yes, I know it is cool now to hate Twilight, but come on, it isn't nice to pick on people.) And you know what else? I think I'll write a pro-Twilight post just because I think the internet is being mean. Go ahead and flame me if you want. Just be nice about flaming me. 




The point of my rant is that these two genres are not the same! Yes, neither one is "normal." But they're different kinds of not normal. Cousins maybe.

What bugs me is that too many times these genres are lumped together. I think it does a disservice to both. One of the places where I get many of my ebooks does this. I have to click on the SciFi/Fantasy category. Then when all I'm looking for is a nice space opera I've got to wade through fairies and angels and shape shifting witches from another dimension.

It may seem like a small thing to get all ranty about, but it's everywhere. At my beloved library we have a Science Fiction section with Fantasy thrown in for good measure. Poor Fantasy, it's like the red-headed stepchild.

Am I alone on my bandwagon here? Surely someone must agree with me. To draw an extreme parallel, it would be like throwing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Murder at the Vicarage together simply because they're both mysteries.
I can just see it now:
    After the library sewing circle, a kindly old lady comes up and asks me to recommend a mystery for her to read. So I introduce her to Lisbeth Salander. Horrors! What on earth would the Dowager Duchess say?

Plural of apocalypse?

This graphic was sent to me a while back by a lady named Allison from http://www.onlinepsychologydegree.net/2013/01/07/the-times-the-world-ended/

Like most sci-fi geeks, I love a good apocalypse. So I thought this was amusing and worth sharing.