February Update

I’ll have to say that February was a much better month than January. At the moment I’m almost completely pain free with my back. I have occasional days with spasms, but I haven’t had any of the spinal compression that made December and January so uncomfortable. And my husband is doing better too. The last time he went to the doctor his blood pressure and oxygen levels were normal. He did his sleep study test and should be getting his sleep apnea machine too.

It was a very busy month though. I didn’t get as much reading done as in January because I’ve been caught up in edits. I finished up the 3rd draft of my ghost story and sent it off for the final beta. I had the pleasure of working with a wonderfully patient police detective who answered my numerous questions about the beginning. Later on this week, I’ll do a blog about Andrei now that I’ve found a picture that kind of reminds me of him. He was a pain to find.

I also picked up an extra project so I could do a little catching up on my electric bill. I’m formatting/editing a 400 page manufacturing manual. *Eyes cross* It’s actually, not that bad, but between that, and work and editing my ghost story, I haven’t had much time. I only have six chapters left to go and three of them aren’t written yet, so I hope to be done with the bulk of it next week, just in time to get my beta back on the ghosts.

I did read two books that stood out to me last month. The first was Wild Within the first book in the Bonded Fantasy series by Mima. It’s available through Liquid Silver books at http://tinyurl.com/6r5po65. The worldbuilding had to be the best part. Mima created a really rich and intricate world, one that I’m eager to dive into with the other books in her series. KarRa and Rylan, grew up together in the Dark slums and had a very unique and strong bond that helped them to survive. When Rylan betrayed that bond, KarRa was devastated. At first I thought Rylan was just an arrogant butthole, but as the story went on, I came to appreciate his reasons for doing what he did and understand his fears more. Like KarRa, I didn’t entirely agree with them, but I understood. I also liked KarRa’s strength and faith in her own destiny. And I really loved her conflict when she came to understand that following her destiny meant having to embrace everything that she was forced to abandon earlier. I thought the emotional conflict was very well written and realistic.

The second I’m actually not finished with because it’s the kind of book I like to savor. The New Death and Others is a collection of short stories and poems by James Hutchings. Some of the stories are whimsical, some serious and I enjoy his commentary on life through them. I love the older, mythic feel to some of them, but the poetry is by far my favorite. He has a wonderful sense of rhythm and structure. So far the poem “Under the Pyramids” was my favorite poem. I had to go back and reread it to my husband because he has a love affair with H.P. Lovecraft that surpasses my own. It’s a really different kind of book and if you enjoy little off the wall stories, I’d highly recommend this book.  It’s available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords,  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/92126.