A new year, a new unicorn

A new year in review (I know, already?):

Editing: 15% (way down, struggling)
Reading: 100% (way up)
Reviewing: 82% (up, but could improve)
Actual writing: 0% (ummm...)
Ideas: 100% (ridiculously fertile brain)

So far 2012 has just "been" in the writing/creative direction, but I have been preoccupied with a sick child and ailing hound dog. However, I've played with my daughter more. I've cuddled Lucky Brown more. And I've been mentally planning an arts and crafts corner that will solve many problems. Not "life" problems. Just problems relating to glue and sparkles and random tiny furniture. So I'm not complaining, January.

Anyway, while having fun and shopping with my daughter in a crazy little thrift store today, I wandered through thinking how similar my brain was to the mound of building crap that surrounded us.

And then I look up to see this perched above us:

Artwork by Paula Best

A unicorn on a flippin' bed!

My jaw hung open for about a minute before I leaped onto a wobbly chair -so old I may have been looking at Thomas Jefferson's booty print- and snatched the artwork off the wall. My daughter and I instantaneously fell in love. 

Tomorrow, I will hang it in her bedroom. 

Today, I will accept it as the sign I was unknowingly waiting for.   

My dog has a cancerous tumor. My daughter had chest x-rays last week and a mystery rash this week. (Her x-rays are clear, by the way. The rash... Hives?) And my manuscript "has NOT left the building" on time. But... 

At the end of the day, I just needed a little reminder from a lethargic unicorn that extraordinary things are always within reach. 

In our very homes, even.    

  

Bitten by Dan O'Brien -Review

My synopsis of BITTEN by Dan O'Brien: 

Lauren Westlake, an F.B.I. agent, arrives in a small Minnesota town after opening a cold case file. A killer is on the loose. But Lauren and the local police department must figure out if their killer is human, animal, or…other?

First, the downfalls: 

O’Brien seems to stumble into the stereotypical trap that a woman only has something negative to think upon meeting another woman. This immediately left me questioning the believability of the main heroine, Lauren. As an F.B.I. agent, wouldn’t she notice deeper traits or have gut feelings rather than allow herself to get sidetracked by someone’s heavy makeup or hot-pants? Now, while I kept a sense of humor about it -and could have easily created a drinking game out of it- I can’t help but comment that it is mathematically impossible to have that many hussies and harlots in one small town.

(Although, to be honest, I’ve never been to Minnesota.) 

Also, O’Brien repeats information a lot more than is comfortable. Characters should be used to relay information to the reader. However, I found myself reading the same conversation, only between different characters. Or Lauren would think something and then turn right around and say those exact thoughts to another character. Then why, as the reader, did I need to know she was thinking them right before she said them? (Now, having read that, pretend you have to listen to me tell someone else the exact same thing. Redundant.) O’Brien needs to give his readers more credit to connect the dots. I can do it. I had my mental pencil ready to go and everything.

Now, the goodies:

While there were a few downsides to O’Brien’s work, there were numerous positives and unexpected treats. I was immediately intrigued by his beautiful way with words and wintry landscape. I hate to be cold (I despise it, actually), but he made me long for thigh-high snow and icy tree branches snapping in the darkness as I read. Every major event became a vivid portrait. The atmosphere is cozy yet alarming. It is reminiscent, at times, of the campy early nineties television show ‘Twin Peaks’, as well as ‘Wolf Lake’, a show that focused on small town mysteries and dark werewolf secrets.

O’Brien especially delivers the “cringe” factor. Pushing the reader in all the right ways, the extra bits of gore are definitely appreciated. If a body has been disemboweled, I want to see it go the distance. And O’Brien does just that.     

What really stands out, however, is O’Brien’s incredibly unique and macabre twist on the traditional werewolf story. Through a series of run-ins with key individuals, the main character learns that not one, but two individuals are responsible for the bodies littering the frigid woods. I cannot add more for fear of spoiling it for others. And I would hate to do that.

Bottom line:

Dan O’Brien’s BITTEN adds a fresh twist to the traditional werewolf story. A great read for any horror or supernatural fans. And the ending totally hooked me into the sequel. So get to it, O’Brien. I want more.

(This review is posted at Fantasy Book Review http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/blog/2012/01/16/bitten-by-dan-obrien-reviewed/. Check out the site if your brain hungers for more knowledge concerning literature.)  

The price of Christmas...

I did not go crazy this year with post-Christmas clearance. In fact, other than a few roles of wrapping paper and a greatly reduced ornament, my only real investment was a gingerbread house to build with my three-year-old. We sat down this afternoon and spent about forty-five minutes "gluing" the walls together with frosting and decorating the house with well placed candy and fondant.

(Side note: My daughter ate a large amount of the candy decor, and I ate more lemon fondant than I thought possible.)

I think the final result is not bad for our first gingerbread efforts.

 

From the front view anyway. 

From the back, well...

It turned into a CSI Christmas.

Note the red icing splatters on the left of the house and, of course, the unlucky little gingerbread guy to the right. He obviously never had a chance. Was it one of Santa's reindeer, tired of lugging his "bowl full of jelly" around the world? Could it have been the act of a disgruntled elf who worked one hour too many building toys from scratch when Santa could just buy them from a number of chain stores? Maybe it was the desperate act of a gingerbread man who knew what inevitably happens to all good cookies...

(Or maybe it was the work of a three-year-old who got carried away with the red icing. But where's the fun in that conclusion?) 

The lesson: Magical moments are everywhere...except the backyard. Don't ever go back there.