So what’s on your TBR list?

I usually try to not have too many books on my to be read list, because if I spend all my time reading, when am I going to find any time to write? But the other day I had $40 in Borders gift cards to use and nothing was jumping out at me from my amazon wish list, so I decided to go (online) browsing. I finally used Goodreads for what (I think) it’s intended for – finding book recommendations. I looked at a few SFR lists and wrote down anything that caught my interest. A few of the books I ordered with my gift cards, and a few I added to various wish lists. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• Alien Tango – Gini Koch (sequel to “Touched by an Alien”, which I read a few weeks ago)
• Wanderlust, Doubleblind and Killbox – Ann Aguirre (just read Grimspace a few days ago and really liked it)
• Your Planet or Mine – Susan Grant (oldie, but from what I hear a goodie)
• Song of Scarabaeus – Sara Creasy
• Awaken Me Darkly – Gena Showalter
• Across the Universe – Beth Revis (it’s YA which I don’t read often, but again I’ve heard lots of good things about it)
• Mind Games – Carolyn Crane (more paranormal, less sci-fi, but it got great reviews)
• Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card (another oldie, but a classic I should’ve read a while ago)
• Dragonflight – Anne McCaffrey (ditto my comment on Ender’s Game)
• Sing You Home – Jodi Picoult (not paranormal or sci-fi, but I love everything she writes, and her new book comes out March 1)

Whew! I think there are enough books on that list to keep me busy for quite a while! Reading can become quite a problem for me sometimes, though. If I'm reading a book I really enjoy, I can’t put it down. I ignore everything else going on around me (with the exception of eating LOL) until I finish the book. I read Grimspace on Wednesday night in a little over four hours. (Years ago I read Stephen King’s “It” – which is over 1,000 pages – in less than a week.) So balancing reading and writing is hard for me. Any writer friends have suggestions on how to find a happy medium between the two?

What about you, blog readers? What books are on your TBR lists? Have you read anything on my list and want to offer an opinion? Leave me a comment and let me know!

I’m in love with someone who doesn’t exist

I have this weird and sometimes annoying habit of falling madly in love with fictional characters. If they’re hot, it obviously makes it that much easier. But looks certainly aren’t everything. I couldn’t pick Odd Thomas out of a line up (partly because he’s not a real person, sure), but I’ve had a thing for him since I first got to know him a few years back (in Dean Koontz’s series of “Odd” novels). He’s smart, brave, and chivalrous. And he talks to ghosts! What more could you ask for in a guy?

Over the years I’ve fallen for a number of men who are completely and utterly made up. There was Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, of course. A reformed baddie who came to realize he DID have a heart. Sure he tried to kill Buffy quite a few times in the beginning (but hey, she tried to kill him too!). And yeah, he might’ve tortured a few of her friends and drank some human blood every now and again. The important part, though, was that, despite the whole evil vampire thing, his feelings for the slayer eventually did a 180 - from hatred to love. Once Spike came to grips with this fact, his love for Buffy made him want to change. Made him want be good. Come on, how effing romantic is that?!?

Up until recently, I was totally in love (not to mention lust) with Sawyer from Lost. Yes, he was a con man. Yes, he made some questionable decisions at times. And yes, he was a selfish SOB who had it in for Jack and didn’t bother trying to hide it. But, as you know if you watched the show, Sawyer changed as time went by. He watched over Claire and Aaron. He became good friends with Hurley (I loved watching their friendship blossom). He fell in love with Juliet (though I still to this day think he should’ve ended up with Kate – I’m a “skater” through and through) and it broke his heart into a million pieces when she fell down the well. Sawyer showed that there was much, much more to him than what you first thought.

Now, even though I usually fall for the bad-boy types, there was one good guy that I couldn’t help but give my heart to when I met him. Aidan from Sex and the City. I know the majority of SATC fans think Carrie and Big belong together, yadda yadaa whatever. But I always felt that Carrie could do better. Aidan was practically the perfect guy. Sweet, sensitive, hot, and a dog lover! (So Carrie had to quit smoking for him. NEWS FLASH: SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU!) After dating Aidan for a while, Carrie finally succumbed to temptation and cheated on him with Big… and Aidan (eventually) forgave her!!!! But she still chose Mr. Big in the end. Oh well, hopefully Carrie’s loss is someone else’s gain (in the fictional Manhattan of Candace Bushnell’s imagination, I mean).

At the present moment, my heart belongs to one (fictional) man only. His name is Peter Bishop. Back in the “Dawson’s Creek” days, I never found Joshua Jackson that attractive. And even though I stopped religiously watching the show after two seasons, I did catch a couple of episodes of the final season when it aired (yes, I cried when Jen died from her heart condition). I wanted Joey to end up with Dawson, not Pacey (what the hell kind of name is Pacey anyway?) but, like I said, I didn’t watch much of the show after the second season.

When it was first announced that Joshua Jackson was going to be on a new show, my first thought automatically was “Pacey?!?” I know he’d been in a few other things (The Skulls, Cruel Intentions, Cursed), but he was certainly best known for his role on the Creek. After a few episodes of Fringe, though, I was able to look at JJ and think to myself “Pacey who?” I loved the show from the beginning. And, also from the beginning, I wanted Olivia and Peter to end up together. They had great chemistry right off the bat. They grew closer as time went on, and discovered they had a lot in common, especially when it came to Walter’s role in each of their lives.

And then IT happened. Fauxlivia (a.k.a. Bolivia, or Alternate Olivia) snuck into “our” universe and set her sights on my Olivia’s Peter. I begged for him to see through her. I screamed at him when he finally did the deed with her. But all to no avail. I was pretty pissed at him. But then, when he got the phone call telling him the real Olivia was stuck in the altiverse, I started to forgive him. When Fauxlivia asked Peter if he was going to kill her, and he replied with “No, I'm gonna get answers. And if I find out that you did anything to Olivia, then I'm going to kill you” – THAT was the moment I’d been waiting for! Despite what he'd shared with Fauxlivia, he showed that there was only room in his heart for one woman: the real Olivia.

It’s going to be a long, hard road for Peter and Olivia in the next few months. Poor Olivia, I can’t imagine how it must feel to be in love with a man who thought he was with your when he was actually with your evil twin. Fauxlivia wore her clothes, slept in her bed, ate her food, and stole her man. I, for one, am hoping for a scene by the end of the season where Olivia just beats the ever-loving s%#@!* out of her alternate version. Karma’s a bitch! But until then, I’ll be crossing my fingers and hoping that Peter and Olivia can find a way back to each other. (Sure, I’ll be a bit jealous of her. But since I’ve got a boyfriend that actually does exist, I can’t get too upset over it ;-)

What are words for (when no one listens anymore)?

This awesome (ly bad?) 80s song popped into my head this afternoon after I received a text message from a friend that shall remain nameless (in case she (or any of her friends) reads this LOL). I'd emailed her and asked her to call me (b/c I don't have her work phone number). Instead of calling me, she emailed me back and then followed up with a text message, saying that she was too busy to call me. If you're scratching your head right now, you understand how I felt a few hours ago. In the time it took her to email and text me to tell me she was too busy to talk, she could've called me and answered my one simple question that I needed to ask her.

It's beyond aggravating when you're trying to talk to someone about something, and they ask a question or make a comment that makes it totally obvious that they haven't been listening to a GD thing you were saying (the "friend" I mentioned above is certainly not the only person that I feel doesn't listen to me sometimes!). I swear sometimes I contemplate ripping the hair out of my head. I am not a big talker, so when I do talk, it means the thing I'm talking about is something I deem important enough to formulate words about. I really hate repeating myself.

*takes slow, deep breath*

I often feel this way about this blog, too. That no one's listening. Some of my recent posts have garnered enough comments to make me feel like maybe I do have a few readers. My last post only got one (comment). Was it the topic? Was the topic boring, or unrelatable? Too many links? Did my writing take a sudden nose dive into suckiness? Were my "followers" just too busy to leave me a comment this past week? (Or are they all alien haters?  ;-)

Whatever the case, it goes back to a few posts I wrote last year wondering if this blogging before you have a book published (or even written in my case) is really a worthwhile way to spend time. I'm not going to rehash the arguement again. Many bloggers and agents have already weighed in on the subject, and so have I. I don't think it's worth it... but for some reason I continue doing it. Strange, huh?

This weekend I'm going to spend some time thinking about ways to make my blog more interesting, to readers and to myself as well. Because I don't think blogging should feel like a chore, and right now that's sorta how it feels to me. Maybe it's partly b/c I'm in a rut right now, with writing and with life. Maybe starting school next week will snap me out of it. (I can't wait for spring to come to snap me out of it cuz that's way too far away!) If anyone has some suggestions on how to make my blog more exciting, feel free to share with me. If there are any topics you'd like to see me write about, I can certainly do that.

For now, though, I'll leave you with the wacky video for the song that inspired this wacky (and sorta whiny - sorry about that) post...

Do you hear me?
Do you care?
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
What are words for
When noone listens anymore
What are words for
When noone listens what are words for
When noone listens
There’s no use talking at all

aliens invading our television sets

I'm working on a cool, two-part post about ten movies/tv shows/books (ten total, not ten of each  ;-) that are similiar to the genre I write in (namely sci-fi - or alien to get specific - romance). But in the meantime, I wanted to write a quick post on a few things happening in sci-fi land (on TV) at the moment.

First, check out the comments on this post by Charlie at Smart Girls Love Sci -Fi and Paranormal Romance. Her post is about the return of "V" this past Tuesday night (more about that in a minute). The comments debate the watchability (is that a word, or did I just make that up?) of "V" and a few other sci-fi shows on tv at the moment. "Dr. Who" (I've personally never seen it, but my friend Teresa, another sci-fi geek girl, is a big fan), "The Event" (I like it for the most part, but it does have it's flaws), and what I consider to be one of the best shows on tv right now - "Fringe."

(Yes I know "Fringe" deals with alternate universes, not aliens. But it's an awesome show so I still wanted to give it a plug!!!!) Fringe was recently moved to television's infamous "Friday night death-slot." This caused an uproar among fans, and a lot of viewers wondered if this might be the end of the show. A new sci-fi blog out there, Contact - Infinite Futures, posted about this very subject here. Personally, I think (and hope) this is far from the end of "Fringe." And according to this awesome video from producers, "Fringe" is going to rock Friday nights come Jan 21! Lets cross our fingers! :)

But, back to "V". According to io9, one of my favorite sites for sci-fi news, it's highly illogical that aliens would grapple with humanity. In my humble opinion, how can you say anything is illogical about creatures that don't even exist? If there are aliens out there, who are we to try to figure out what the hell they are like? Many humanity would infect them like the chicken pox or something! On the other hand, according to this article from tv guide, we're going to be seeing more of the Vs green, scaly side. And, possibly even some rodent eating. Ewwwwwww.

One last show mention before I go. Have any of you heard of Falling Skies, a new show to air on TNT this summer? I hadn't until my boyfriend told me he saw a trailer for it when he went to see "True Grit" the other day. It's about a group of people trying to get back on their feet after an alien attack. (Plus it stars Noah Wylie and Moon Bloodgood.) The aliens are still on Earth, and humans are trying to form a Resistance to fight them. It looks like it could be a great show if given the chance. I'm interested to see where it goes.

So,what do you all think of these shows? Are you a fan of any of them? Am I missing a show that simply I must put on my TBW (to be watched) list right away? Let me know!

Jumping on the 'Goals for 2011' bandwagon (better late than never)!

2010 was a rough year for many people. My year wasn’t all that bad, but it wasn’t that great either. I lost my job in July, which has definitely put a financial strain on me. But I’m a whole lot happier now than I was while I was working at that job I hated with a boss that I couldn’t stand. And being out of work for five months helped me realize that I need to go back to school. While I do still hope to write and publish novels in the near future, I’ve discovered (mostly from reading blogs and websites online) that making a living from writing novels is difficult, and it can take years to make enough money from your writing to be able to quit your day job and still be financially secure.

I also discovered a lot about writing and publishing this year. Last January, I had no idea what getting a novel published would entail. Now I know all about agents and queries and synopsises. I participated in a ton of workshops to help me hone my craft. I read a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction (the latter were mainly writing instruction). I joined a few writing organizations and attended two writers’ workshops (Pennwriters in May and RWA Nationals in July). Although I am proud of what I did accomplish in 2010, I am disappointed that I didn’t accomplish my goal of completing a (90,000 or so words) manuscript.

So that is my #1 goal for 2011. To finish, edit/revise and eventually query a sci-fi romance manuscript by the end of the year. I’d like to have my first draft finished by my birthday (May 12). It would be great if I could have it revised and 95% ready-to-go by RWA Nationals in June. But I don't want to push myself, especially since I will also be going to school full-time all year. It's going to be quite a change of pace for me.

Along with my goal of a completed manuscript in 2011, I also have the usual new year goals - lose weight (I'd like to lose 25 pounds by June, which is only a pound or so a week) and get control over my spending. I also want to set and stick to a blogging schedule (I'm thinking a Mon, Wed, Fri schedule should work), and come up with more interesting topics to post about (not that my fabulous life isn't exciting enough - HAH!). And I need to get my website operational. I'm paying hosting fees but I'm not updating the site. I even paid to have someone design the backgrounds etc. for me, but since I couldn't afford to have someone handle the whole 9 yards, it's just gathering (rehetorical) dust in cyberspace at the moment.

Oh, and for those of you (like myself) who like to be part of a group that reaches for goals together,  check out Kelly Stone's 90 Day Writing Challenge. You make your own goal of how much you want to write each day. If 1000 words a day is too much for you, vow you'll at least get to 500 (which is what I did). Whatever works for you. I love one-size-fits-all challenges like this.

On that note, I have a few hundred more words I need to get written. Until next time...   :)