I'm back!

First, let me apologize to any readers of this post who may be from the Houston area because, one: you live in the Houston area; two: I have nothing good to say about the Houston area and three: see number one.

*sigh*

This was my second time to Houston, my first being the RT Convention held there in April 2007. At the convention, I stayed right in downtown and hardly left the hotel. That experience was fine. This time, we stayed outside downtown and explored quite a bit. The people are nice...mostly. But wow, I'm not a fan of the city. And the fact that it's in Texas, the birthplace of Bush's political career, and houses several Halliburton buildings (is that where it's headquartered?) really does nothing at all to put it in my favor. But, as you can see, I'm quite biased.

Anyhoo... the work trip is behind me now. I got zero writing done (rock on!) because I was so busy with other work. So that's unfortunate. Now that I'm back, I'll be focusing on goal setting for March and getting back on track with the manuscript. I'm a bit stalled, which speaks to larger issues with my plot. I think I need to just rearrange the scene I have upcoming. I've also got to find ways to layer in a couple of the characters more through the middle of the book -- which is difficult because they reside in NY and the middle of the book takes place in Nicaragua -- and last, I need to reassess my MC's motivations. All things I can fix, I just need to put in the time and effort. I was originally thinking they could wait for the rewrite but the fact that I'm stalled now makes me think the book would be better served by fixing them now.

I'd like to spend a few minutes chatting about two great pieces of writing I've recently read.

The first is RAINY SEASON, a short story by Chandra Rooney which can be found in the Fall 2007 of ON SPEC magazine. I was lucky enough to win a copy of the issue from Chandra but it would have been well worth buying and I encourage any fans of short fiction to pick it up. Rainy Season is quite short -- 5 printed pages -- but it tells its tale perfectly within those few pages. Chandra does a masterful job of acquainting the reader with the main character through the character's strong, colorful voice. Though we only know the character for a handful of pages, we feel we know the character intimately by the time the story has finished. The bitter regret, the anguish, the despair, the aggression twined with vulnerability all seeps through the story's narration seemingly effortlessly. Chandra also makes clever use of the umbrellas in the story as symbols of the characters ragged, end-of-the-rope emotional state.

I've always thought short fiction the most challenging of mediums because to accomplish the storytelling successfully, the writer has to select only the most pertinent details, describe the settings just so and capture the story's voice flawlessly -- there simply isn't space for anything else. I found Rainy Season to accomplish all these things. In short, I thought it was brilliant. Chandra's definitely a writer to keep your eye on!

Oh, and it's littered with profanity which, for me, is a bonus. I have a love-love relationship with curse words. ;)

I also recently read Ilona Andrews' MAGIC BITES. I know, I know. It seems like I'm always telling you to run out and buy every damn book I read. But the fact is, I won't review a book unless I really liked it. So if I'm telling you I loved a book and you should read it, I really mean it. Even if it's the thirtieth book I've said it about. Hey, I can't be held responsible for a market full of great writing!!

So, back to Magic Bites. I loved this book. Truly. From the first page to the last. I liked her writing style, I loved the characters, her world building and the pacing was great. The book had just the right blend of mystery, action and worldbuilding. I will say, I would have preferred a stronger romance element, but that's just me. Here's the description from the book cover:

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren't for the magic...

When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.

Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate's guardian is murdered, her quest for jusice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta's magic circles.

The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings -- and the death of Kate's guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she's way out of her league -- but she wouldn't have it any other way...

MAGIC BURNS, the sequel to Magic Bites comes out this spring (Amazon is showing a release date of April 1st) and I, personally, can't wait for the next window into this fascinating world of intriguing characters!

Okay, I'm off to do some writing of my own and then (yuck) some work. I hope everyone's had a wonderful weekend!