Is this regularly enough?

For someone who's trying to get in a real habit of writing regularly, even if it's just a blog, I'm not doing the best of jobs. I'm awful and I know it. Anyway, since last post, I've read four books? Yeah.

So, first up! The Prophecy Con, by Patrick Weekes. 10/10

If Firefly was a book series, with magic, and elves and dragons and more WTF-ery, it'd be Rogues of the Republic. You've got a cast of characters as diverse and crazy as a sack of alley cats. Such a mix of personalities and motivations inclined for hilarity, drama, and non stop action that I can't imagine anything to make it better. You've got Loch and Kail, two ex-militaries with lots of sass and plenty of skill to back it up. Loch's arguably the brains of the operation, though is very much capable of being her own brawn. Kail is pretty much around to look good, make jokes about people's mothers, and pick locks/fights. And I adore nearly everything about him as a character. You've got a priestess with a talking war hammer, a ludicrously agile and strong monk with a vow of non violence, a unicorn with a creepy preference and persistence for virgins, an alchemist archer, a wizard that flunked out of school, and a lawman, all involved in trying to prevent a war they accidentally set the match for. By stealing a book of elf porn poems. While they all seem to find almost bull crap means of getting out of things, it all seems a bit too coincidental and Loch's apparently Wolverine, but hey. It works for the world and the characters. They're all each other's own personal deus ex, and while that sounds like a cop out, Weekes manages to keep enough suspense, intrigue, and questions regarding their survival and success that you forgive it. It's a brilliant series. Read it. I'll buy it for you. It's glorious in every way, and you won't be disappointed.

Or Kail will. 

(Not pictured. That's Mr. T. Probably someone Kail wishes he could be.)

BTW; (Killing Pretty, Sandman Slim #7, has already been preordered, in both hardcover, and eBook. Now I'm just waiting on my ARC.... /fingers crossed!)

Next... Being THAT guy, I read books when I hear there's a movie coming out. And I decided to read Seventh Son, a collection of books 1 and 2 of The Last Apprentice series. 5/10

I did a Goodreads review and I don't feel like elaborating or copy pasting. So flesfjskafj. There. TL;DR, mildly sexist, very juvenile while trying to sound hardcore, I doubt the movie will be anything like the packaged books. Well, actually, that's pretty much my entire review. LOL.

It was alright, I guess. Kept me busy for four days.

I just finished reading The Clockwork Dagger, 7/10, by Beth Cato, (received as a RC from Harper Voyager) and I adore the main heroine, but the rest of the book is kinda... mediocre. Light, easy reading, also steampunky with a touch of magic and war, so if you're into that sort of thing, with a touch of seemingly forced romance angles, then go for it. The character twists were great, though, and I'm currently reading the sequel, The Clockwork Crown (Obtained as a digital ARC from Harper Voyager.) I know, the legalities annoy me, too.

Characters are less bad ass than they appear. But still pretty neat.

As for my writing, I haven't really done anything since NaNoWriMo. I've had a couple of whacked dream ideas, and I wish I remembered more details of them, because they could totally make interesting books. I need that Japanese dream machine. I just hope that they wash it, and clear the memory banks, before I give it a go. I don't even want to think of what middle-aged Japanese men dream about. I've studied their culture and language for almost ten years, I don't need any more trauma. @_@;

- RaRa out.

Yay, 2015. Let's get this rolling.

ALRIGHT WELL.

So, I bet the one person that reads this blog aside from me will want an official update on NaNoWriMo2014. Well, I did it. My official total was 50,235 words.

Sort of.

The story I attempted was only moderately planned out ahead of time, and was written strictly chronologically, in an allotted two hours per night, from 11 pm to approximately 2:30 am. As most ideas tend to do, it flourished, changed, and warped as I went, and I had a serious main character crisis. So I decided to make this story a duology, in that it will be the same plot, from two different perspectives, in two separate books. Similarly, I've decided to crisscross timelines with my other main series and it's planned spin off, as some events happen simultaneously and are as relevant as any other plot points. Confused? Yeah, imagine having 15+ separate, defined personalities inside your head at all times that occasionally break through into real life.

But anyway. The main body of the NaNo story (the chronological, planned, and slightly polished final word count,) was approximately 18,000 words. BUT, here's where the "winner!" part comes in. I learned, from other WriMos, that at the end, when it comes to tally the counts, they add in random but related non sequential scenes, outlines, and bits of dialogue or character bios. So, technically, it's kind of cheating. BUT. It's all directly involved with the main story, so I'll consider my first attempt at NaNoWriMo a success. A cheap, cheating success, BUT DAMMIT I WANTED A DISCOUNT ON SCRIVENER.

The struggle is real.

I love this project. It's two female main characters. One, a gender fuck/fluid but biologically assigned female, the other, a strong, independent and resourceful yet definitely feminine biological and identifying female. It's a challenge for me to not write a male main character, as society has conditioned even me to lean toward masculine protagonists and more defined male characters as selling points or engaging story driving characters. And dammit, that needs to change. I think writing one strictly female, more passive character, and one who is more androgynous simultaneously in the same arc will help me figure out what works and what doesn't, because dammit, it's hard to write from a perspective with which you don't necessarily easily identify. BUT. Women are people too, and I want to join the authors that are trying to facilitate the expansion of valid, interesting, marketable characters.

Kameron Hurley pretty much nails it. Also, her book is totes on my TBR list. ... Which is a million books long. Dammit. I should work on that...

BTW. READING THIS:

YOU SHOULD TOO.
Or Kail won't bring your mother out for a nice dinner the next time he booty calls her.

Review to come. :3

- RaRa out.