I'm tossing myself into the creative pool again

I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. Basically, it's the writing equivalent of the 100 yard dash. You get one month (November) to get to 50,000 words. Once you do and your word count is verified, you win. Not money. You get the pride in yourself that you were able to achieve something that most people dream of. Writing The Great American Novel.

Some from Nano have had their novels published. Check out the website www.nanowrimo.org ... it's a great time. It's nuts and you'll make yourself crazy if you decide to participate but completely satisfying.

Maybe this year I'll actually finish. I started it last year and abandoned it as I wound up hating my characters. This year, I'm doing a series of short stories. Either way, I'm determined to make to 50K.

See you all at the finish line!

An Echo in the Bone - Diana Gabaldon (no big spoilers)

Good EFFIN Lord! I have to wait another THREE YEARS to find out what happened? Really? REALLY?

I didn't realize how much I missed Jamie and Claire until I opened this book. I found Roger a bit whiny at first. I know he's been through a lot but I guess I don't really get how a trip back through the stones would be enough to shake the foundation of his faith and make him turn away from being a minister. Maybe I missed that part.

There was so much going on in this book. You can really see how closely Ms. Gabaldon is starting to weave the net that binds them all together. It is like that net is being slowly tightened around the characters and pulling them closer & closer to each other.

I'm not giving away too much except for the fact that I enjoyed it. The roller coaster was in effect for this one as well. I found the Lord John bits a tad boring but then I'm not a fan of his as a whole. I feel sorry for William and can't wait to find out where Jamie went and what they're up to.

OK ... really. I'm not giving away anything else. But MUST you make us wait so long for the next one?

The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

I like Robert Langdon. I really do. But even I'm not sure why he chose to blindly accept that the person on the other end of the phone was his friend's assistant. lol ... Of course, I'm not at that level where one of my friends would HAVE an assistant to make calls. So I think that's the only problem I have with the book.

Langdon is once again thrust into a seemingly impossible situation. Discover the greatest secret of the Masons or die trying. This book takes place in Washington DC and it was nice to read about places I'm more familiar with. Even if it's been a while, I've BEEN to the Capital so I've seen the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Monument and a variety of other places there firsthand.

He also always seems to attract the attention of a strong, intelligent woman in the midst of the trials & tribulations. Katherine Solomon is no different. Together, they unravel the mysteries placed before them.

I'm not going into great detail but I liked this book. Even if it is a bit formulaic. Most books are so that doesn't bother me. I would like to see Langdon stick with one of these women as I think they are more than a match for him intellectually. But then again, "wartime" intimacy never forms a lasting bond, does it?

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

(I listened to this on audiobook rather than reading it so I apologize if I spell any names wrong.)

Katniss is a teenager living in what remains of the United States. After war, disease, starvation, etc., it is decimated and a new country called Panem is formed. There is a Capital district which I believe is near the Rockies and 12 other districts fan out from it. Katniss lives in District 12 or the West Virginia/Appalachian region of the country. The main industry is coal mining and everyone there services that industry & the workers within it.

She lost her father in a coal mining accident several years before and never really got over it. Everything in her life was defined by that accident and it has shaped who she's become. She's 16 and cares for her younger sister and her mother. She hunts, barters, trades, and brings in food to her home.

At the time the novel starts, there is something going on. It's called the Reaping. Let me take a step back here. As part of The Capital rising in dominion over the Districts, they defeated the districts in a war. Each District had to sign something called the Treaty of Treason in which they basically admit they suck and that the Capital has the right to rule them. (OK, I'm blatantly downplaying this a bit but that's the general idea.) As part of that rule, the Capital has determined that each district will send two teenagers (tributes) to the Capital to participate in something called The Hunger Games.

Basically, this is to remind the Districts that the Capital rules all and can dictate the course of their lives forever. They are not in control of their own destinies. The Capital is. The Reaping is the selection process in each of the Districts to provide the tributes for these bloody, violent, cruel games. (Think the Olympics where your only chance to win is to survive & kill everyone around you.) One boy and one girl are chosen. At the time of selection, volunteers may come forward to take the place of someone chosen but they rarely do.

For District 12, the unthinkable happens. Katniss's younger sister, Prim, is chosen. She's 12 and completely unsuited to participating in the Hunger Games. Without thinking, Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place. Along with a townsperson named Peeta, she sets out to the Capital & the arena where she'll meet her destiny.

It's a violent and cruel mindgame that the game makers and the other tributes play with all of the participants. I won't tell you how it ends but I didn't enjoy this at all. I have a difficult time dealing with senseless torture of innocent people. Katniss winds up enmeshed so deeply in the game itself that she's completely at a loss as to who to trust or not. Horrible, horrible book. I'm not going to read the rest of the series.

Thorn Queen, Richelle Mead

I stumbled into the middle of a series unknowlingly. Having said that, I ordered the first book already after reading this one. It's very good. Very sexy too.

Eugenie has apparently become Queen of Thorn Land. Not that she wanted to. But she did when she killed the former king. I think that happened in the last book. She is a shaman who protects the human world from demons, spirits, and faeries and the like. In this book, she starts to refine her power and realize her destiny as the mother of the savior of the Otherworld. As a little backstory, she is the daughter of a tyrannical leader who has the power to summon storms and other elements along with a human. She can travel in both worlds easily.

There's a lot that happens along with some good nookie. :o) Always a good thing in a book. I'm not giving away too much but I definitely think this one is worth the read.

The Secret Life of Josephine, Carolly Erickson

I really didn't know much about Josephine Bonaparte prior to picking this book up at B&N. I did watch the miniseries when I was a teenager and entertained my best friend by shrieking, "I AM THIS REVOLUTION!" over and over again, bad French accent and all. (OK. It was a really bad accent but she had tears rolling down her face from laughing. Hard. Poor Armande Assante. He meant well.)

Since that's really all I remember, I thought there would be more of a love affair aspect to their story. I was really surprised to learn that there wasn't.

Let me start at the beginning. Rose-Joseph (Josephine) moves from her beloved island of Martinique to Paris to marry her distant cousin. On her wedding day, she discovers that he has another family and is in love with another woman. He only married her to claim his inheritance. Not an auspicious beginning. Josephine has left not only her family but two infatuations. At age 15, you'd expect that.

She gives her husband an heir after he brutalizes her one night. His name is Eugene. She is a vicountess and lives as royalty does, spending money lavishly, thinking only of herself and her little family. She also has several affairs, for this is the French way. Apparently the entire aristocracy was sleeping together. She gets glimpses of Marie Antoinette and much admires her. Josephine tries to emulate her grace and elegance.

After the birth of her son, she heals and consents to sharing her husband's bed again. This time, she presents him with a daughter. But all too soon, the winds of change sweep through Paris and the King & Queen are dethroned and beheaded. There is no more monarchy! All those who claimed titles renounce them in the hopes that they will escape the Red Lady, a.k.a. the Guillotine. Being separated from her husband now, she tries to send her children to safety but he denies her. He is one of the agents of change, you see. For him to send his children out of the country would be disaster. They stay. She stays and ends up in jail along with Alexandre for having a brother-in-law who emigrated. Thankfully, she escaped the Terror although her husband did not.

Widowed, with no money or place to go, she is left to make her way as best she knows how. She invests in property, reads tarot cards for money, and works with a financier to get others to borrow money from him. For this she is paid well.

Always, there are lovers. During one of her newest lover's parties, she meets the man who will attempt to change Europe forever. Napoleon Bonaparte. He has big plans for France. And himself. He will rule and he wants Josephine at his side. As she's alone for the most part, she eventually says yes. Even though she does not love him.

Well, I won't go into a lot of details except to say that it wasn't a happy marriage for anyone. Neither of them respected their vows. What I didn't realize was how cruel he became towards her. Belittling her, flaunting his affairs in front her, attempting to hurt her children emotionally. He married her daughter to his brother in order to have the heir to his title. His brother was eventually going to suffer from syphillis. They call it the English disease. (When you read something set in England from that time, it's called the French disease or the French pox.) Yet he wouldn't relinquish his hold on her yet. He felt that Josephine was his good luck charm. He hadn't lost a battle since he'd been with her and was reluctant to let that go for all that came between them.

Needless to say, it was a very odd relationship. Eventually, they divorced and she worked to bring him defeat. It completely shattered what I thought I knew about them. There was a certain ruthlessness about her that I didn't expect. All in all, a well written book through which I learned something new.

Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford - Julia Fox

Whoa. I came into this book expecting to find a greedy, grasping, untrustworthy, slightly mad woman in Jane Boleyn. That's what I'd been led to believe she was. She only cared about what happened to herself. She didn't love her husband or his family. She was constantly eavesdropping. And a lot more.

Instead what I found was a woman who did love her husband. She also admired her sister-in-law and truly tried to make herself a part of the Boleyn family. And did. She had servants and a place in which to serve the queen. We don't need to go into what happened next. We know.

After that, she built herself up again and served three more queens before being put to death for aiding and abetting the queen's affair with Thomas Culpepper. Sad, really. She was able to fend for herself in a world where women were forced to rely on men for just about everything including the food on the table and the clothes on their back.

In this day and age, she would have run her own company and been very successful.