Grading is almost finished at last and NaNo is good! I passed 10,000 words on Wednesday, a miracle considering what else I have been doing. I'm amazed at how I really can find an hour to write at odd times, just because I have this target and don't want to fail by TOO much.
I am now a third of the way through "Icemark" and it still is a struggle. Having read lots of good reviews of it (and then reading the publisher's note which says that the author rang him up and pitched the story and it sounded so terrific that he just had to read the manuscript), I thought What am I missing here? What is the problem?
Maybe I'm just tired? But every time I think about it, it's that the main character is too flat. Yes, she's courageous and headstrong and brilliant at everything she does, but she doesn't feel real to me. And after about 80-90 pages, I think that is a problem. Other comments welcome!
I've bought four new books this week, as rewards for finishing all the school work. Started the Tess Gerritsen book and was very cross when I realised it wasn't new - it's a reprint of an old one with a new cover to match the others. I got sucked in by "branding"!! It's like Tami Hoag's early novels - way too much romance and not enough crime. Hoag changed the balance later in a big way, as did Gerritsen, but the soppy bits in this are too M&B for me.
Bought Marcus Zusak's new book "The Book Thief" and also Michael Connelly's new one. Ah... holiday reading. Nothing like it. Once work is finished I tend to read until my eyes fall out of my head.
But I will still be writing, never fear.