Catherynne M. Valente

The State of the Writer: 3/10/19

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 14 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 2/24/18         The State of the Writer: 3/24/19–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction (FFVII) Novel
Current Word Count: 254,713
Prior Word Count: 255,002
Word Difference: -289
Status: Editing
Progress: Chapter 15 Second Edit

 

 

Well that picture took me a while to decide on.   It’s not that I don’t have a lot of pictures to choose from (my FFVII Pinterest board alone has over 3k pins…most of them Sephiroth…don’t judge me); it’s more the issue of finding the right one for the right situation and not duplicating.  I keep a folder of all the ones I’ve used for this post so I don’t do that, and not only the first but the alternative I wanted have already been used.  Oh well.

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The State of the Writer: 2/24/19

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 12 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 2/10/18         The State of the Writer: 3/10/19–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction (FFVII) Novel
Current Word Count: 255,002
Prior Word Count: 255,229
Word Difference: -227
Status: Editing
Progress: Chapters 14 & 15 Second Edit

Pink diamond ring with smaller pink stones at cardinal points and diamond like stones aroundI went ahead and split the chapter.  That’s why the Progress description is so wonky.  I was able to think up a name for Chapter 15, too.  The original title is staying with 14.  The overarching idea of Chapter 14’s title is in both chapters, but I feel like there are too many ideas/events for it to just stay under one chapter umbrella.  I’m editing them as one chapter though, because I’m still going to post them at the same time, as I promised.

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The State of the Reader: 5/23/18

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<–The State of the Reader: 5/9/18          The State of the Reader: 6/6/18–>

A weekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 1

Books DNF: 1

Title: The Shadow Soul
Series Title: A Dance of Dragons
Author: Kaitlyn Davis
Date Added: June 15, 2016
Date Started: May 14, 2018
Date DNF: May 15, 2018

The Shadow Soul coverMedia: eBook/Kindle

The opening of this book was pretty meh.  It’s your typical Destroyed Hometown (haha, the picture they use XD) followed by vengeance seeking fare, and no I’m not a hypocrite for not falling in love with every story that has that paradigm (see the picture they used), because this novel didn’t do anything remotely new with it.  Even having the female protagonist disguise herself as a boy is pretty cliched.  I didn’t feel any deep emotion towards the destruction of Jinji’s village, which is disappointing as it’s clear the author attempted to make it that way with her best friend braiding her hair in the style it be would for the rest of her life.  I think it’s because there wasn’t much to really distinguish these characters from ones I’ve read a thousand times before.

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The State of the Reader: 5/9/18

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 7 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 4/25/18          The State of the Reader: 5/23/18–>

A weekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 3

Books Finished: 1

Title: The Bone Doll’s Twin
Series Title: The Tamir Triad
Author: Lynn Flewelling
Date Added: June 9, 2016
Date Started: March 22, 2018
Date Finished: April 30, 2018

The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn FlewellingMedia: eBook/Kindle

This book was fantastic.  I put the next one on my to read list.

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The State of the Reader: 4/25/18

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 13 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 4/11/18          The State of the Reader: 5/9/18–>

A weekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 0

Books DNF: 1

Title: Preludes &Nocturnes
Series Title: The Sandman
Author: Neil Gaiman
Date Added: August 24, 2014
Date Started: April 5. 2018

The Sandman: Preludes & NocturnesMedia: Paperback (Library)

Declared it DNF on 4/15.  The story jumps all over the place, nor am I fond of the art style.  Also, Morpheus is such a blatant author avatar to the point of looking like Gaiman that it’s a turn off.  I don’t have an issue with creators doing that, but he made a clearly awesome and powerful character look like just him.  It comes off as arrogant and pretentious. I’m still going to read his other novels, but as I always say, I have too many books on my TBR list to spend too much time on something that doesn’t hold my interest.

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The State of the Reader: 4/11/18

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 20 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 3/28/18          The State of the Reader: 4/25/18–>

A weekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 2

Books Finished: 0

Currently Reading: 4

Title: Preludes &Nocturnes
Series Title: The Sandman
Author: Neil Gaiman
Date Added: August 24, 2014
Date Started: April 5. 2018

The Sandman: Preludes & NocturnesMedia: Paperback (Library)
Progress: 23%

A bunch of mystics attempt to summon and trap Death, but wind up with his younger brother Sleep or rather the titular Sandman.  In caging him for 70 or so years, they screw up numerous peoples’ lives as well as endangering their own.  It’s really hard to ignore that the Sandman looks a hell of a lot like the author.  I don’t know if he’s supposed to be an Author Avatar or self-insert.  Either way, I’m enjoying it so far.  The character I most sympathize with is one of the ones affected by the occultists’ actions, a woman who’s been asleep the entire time.  She was raped and impregnated without even knowing about it (so a Sleeping Beauty motif), giving birth to a daughter (so a Kill Bill motif).  Really curious to find out what happens to her.

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The State of the Reader: 3/28/18

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 20 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 3/14/18          The State of the Reader: 4/11/18–>

A weekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 0

Books DNF: 2

Title: Strange Luck
Series Title: Strange Luck
Author: Amie Irene Winters
Date Added: February 26, 2016
Date Started: March 13, 2018
Date DNF: March 21, 2018
Reading Duration: 8 days

Strange Luck by Amie Irene WintersMedia: eBook/Kindle

I had such high hopes for this book, and I remained pretty engaged throughout the beginning, but I have little time for stories where female protagonists put up with dickish male characters who act entitled to her time and affections just because they’ve liked her since their first meeting.  Then he throws a goddamn hissy fit about it *rolls eyes* fucking please.  Roger also makes her feel guilty for needing empirical evidence before she believes in fantasy worlds.  It was one of the many traits I liked about Daisy: her need for evidence/proof despite the fact she works in a “magic” shop.  Her dreams were to move to London to be a writer, but her father’s selfish need for her to take over the shop so he can search for Utopia overrides his daughter’s life wishes.  She has zero interest in doing this, but he doesn’t give a shit, and yeah, I feel bad that he’s sick, but she doesn’t want that life.

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