1. My Monday post is waaaay late but I have an excellent excuse.
2. In the continuing saga of Technology Hates C.J., my laptop refuses to turn on.
3. It isn't a virus this time. The hole where I plug the cord in refuses to acknowledge the presence of the cord, no matter how many times I threaten its mother.
4. Hence, the battery refused to charge and now it's dead.
5. I'd blog from my office computer but it recently went on an Internet strike and even though everything says it's online, it really isn't.
6. So, I'm stuck waiting for a chance to borrow my hubby's laptop after he's finished with it.
7. Good times.
8. In other news, Starshine asked me today (apropos of nothing but sheer Starshiney-ness) "Mom, why do some girls go around acting like they're sooo fabulous? They just walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, and walk some more and think they're fabulous."
9. Me: "Well, if they aren't fabulous, what are they?"
10. Starshine: "Annoying."
11. Last night, Starshine decided to style my hair by forcibly inserting a hair clip at angles my scalp would pay good money to never repeat.
12. When he was finished, he announced "Now, let's see how it looks!", walked around to the front of me, took one look and gasped (yes, literally) "You look horrendous!"
13. Good thing he's cute.
14. Last night, I came up with a freakin' brilliant way to teach other writers how to use deep POV.
15. I'd forgotten the idea by morning.
16. THIS is why I usually keep a notepad by my bed. Alas, since I'm not currently working on a manuscript, I didn't think I'd need one.
17. Maybe it'll come to me again tonight.
18. I watched Untraceable today with Paul (I know, I know...finally, right?).
19. It was entertaining, despite the predictable ending and the various incidents of heroine stupidity (An FBI agent knows a serial killer who has already murdered her partner is on the loose but she doesn't bother to lock her car door when she leaves it in a darkened hotel parking lot? Really??) wedged into the plot to get the desired outcome.
20. Which reminds me--don't ever do that in your book. A reader can sense when she's being manipulated for the sake of the plot and, if your reader is anything like me, that's enough to ban you from her must read list for life.
21. Reader Question: What makes an author a "must read" for you?
My must reads:
ReplyDelete1. Make me laugh.
2. Make me cry. (Hate this, but it's really tough to do, so mad props to the author who pulls it off.)
3. Make me care.
4. Surprise me---in a way that makes me marvel at their cleverness, as opposed to the WTFery of "insert convenient and totally random plot device here."
5. Do 1-4 book after book. I'll forgive a lapse because they can't all be winners, but I'll bail if disappointment becomes the new trend.
Makes me feel something(aside from grossed out or bored lol).
ReplyDeleteIt's very simple: hook me with something incredible in the first page and a half, and continue a good pace throughout the book. If I don't understand what's happening in the first page and a half, I'm bored and will set it down. For that matter, if I become bored for a period of longer than three pages, I will set the book down. I am a tough one to hook. I can't even pick up Anne Rice without boredom setting in right away (no offense to Anne Rice readers out there--it's just the way I am). And everything Kerry mentioned MUST be there for me, as well.
ReplyDelete