May Reading Wrap up

Right down to the wire.  I just finished the last book in my may birthstone bookology challenge and  managed to clear some dusty books of my shelves this month as well. I discovered 4 new to me authors, read an even amount of physical versus ebooks and continued to delve into my comfort genres  - paranormal and fantasy.  I traveled from 11th Century England to the 21st century imaginary town of  Bitter Bark, North Carolina and into 4 different fantasy worlds.  


E: Blood of the Earth - Faith Hunter (#1 Soulwood,  Paranormal, 384 e)  Nell is an earth mage, but has had to hid it so she wouldn't be accused of being a witch by the cult she escaped from.  Rick from Jane Yellowrock's world, brings PsyLed to her doorstep to help her discover her powers as well as save her from the cult that's hiding a secret. 

M: Mapmakers War - Ronlyn Dominguez (Utopian, 226) Intriguing utopian story written in the 2nd person point of view, written mainly in summary narrative and without quote marks around the dialogue which tends to make difficult to distinguish the character's conversation from the rest of the story. 

E: From the Corner of His Eye - Dean Koontz (paranormal suspense/thriller, 729)  A complex story that managed to weave a disparate group of people together from a blind boy named Bartholomew to a sociopath who is bound and determine to destroy him. Scary good!

R: Cold Reign - Faith Hunter (#11 Jane Yellowrock, paranormal 371) Non stop action in Jane Yellowrock's world as she fights to protect the vampires against revenant vamps.  

A: Aedyn Chronicles: Chosen One - Alister McGrath (YA fantasy, 208) A young adult fantasy story about two kids who fall through a garden pond into a dystopian world where they are expected to free slaves from evil lords.  

L: Lord of Chaos - Robert Jordan (#6 wheel of time, Fantasy, 1011)Continuing saga of Rand and company!

D: Fire Dance - Della Jacobs (historical romance, 344 e)  New to me author and set in England's middle ages.  Involves a wicked lord, a deadly purple cloak, a knight ordered by the king to kill the lord, seize the castle and marry the lord's daughter who seems to have disappeared.  


Blood Kissed - Keri Arthur (#1 Lizzie Grace, Paranormal, 310 e)

Sit, Stay, Beg - Roxanne St. Claire (#1 Dogfather, contemporary romance, 300 e)

New Leash on Life - Roxanne St. Claire (#2 Dogfather, contemporary romance, 316 e)

Storm Watcher - Lilith St. Crow (#2 Watchers, Urban Fantasy,184 e)

Fierce on the Page - Sage Cohen (nonfiction, writing, 229)

Reinventing the wheel - Nah! Fresh Start!

Do you ever feel the need to reinvent yourself, start over with something new?  I've been blogging for ten years now and am ready for a makeover.  Sometimes makeovers are scary, because you end up looking like a stranger.  Every one hoots and hollers and wolf whistles, then the make up comes off and the old clothes get pulled out of the back of the closet and you are still the same.  So maybe I should say I ready to do something different and am in the discovery process.  Or maybe I already know what it is I need to do and just need to stop procrastinating.  

I just finished reading Fierce on the Page by Sage Cohen which totally lit a fire under me.  Wonderful book which I'll be talking more about later as I work through some of the Be Fierce exercises.  One of the things she mentions in the chapter, Art of Incubation,  is procrastination is sometimes confused with incubation..."the process of ruminating and allowing ideas the time they need to take root."  After reading the entire book, underlining multiple ideas that struck a chord and scribbling thoughts in the margins, I realized I've been stuck in the incubation stage and Sage's book has pushed me into the illumination stage.   

She highlights french scientist and polymath, Henri Poincare who said creativity happens in four steps:

• Preparation
• Incubation
• Illumination
• Execution

I've been stuck on editing Eyes in the Ashes and haven't worked on it for many months. The other day I had an epiphany which will help move the story forward.  I also realized I ended up sabotaging myself and my writing.  I've been saying for quite some time that I love the first draft stage but hate editing.  The joy is supposed to be in the journey, the discovery process and editing is all about discovering more about your characters, the setting, the story itself and bringing it to fruition. I've been planting the seeds, but not watering or tending the new shoots, so end up with nothing.  Sage's book has been very illuminating and given me the kick in the butt needed to get back to writing.  

I'm working on goals, getting back into writing habit, both story wise and blog wise and studying the craft as I just signed up for a Short Story workshop on Writer's Digest.  June will be a month of experimenting with schedules, writing times, brainstorming and figuring out a blog schedule. My goal is to write every day ala Julia Cameron's morning pages and Write Brain exercises as well as other resources. 

Time to get the writing party started.