The State of Stuckiness

Where am I at with my New Year’s Goals? Well, I’m stuck, mired, and not making much progress. Except for the webcomic. Twitter pal Patrick and I finally got that off the ground. Which makes me happy, because for too long I didn’t have any real outlet for my visual art. And cats are always fun...when they’re not annoying. But that goes true for any pet.

Good dog, good dog. Oh...that stinks. Oh, geesh, that’s a lot of... Aw crap.

Yep, there’s always a downside to pets, but something makes them worthwhile—despite.

So, yes, the writing is at a standstill, but I’m slowly slogging back through it and trying to get myself back on track.

I also finished reading The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Despite some initial misgivings I gave it a full try and got through it. I’ll be writing up a review on that soon. I learned some things from it, I think.

Looking over my New Year’s goals, it seems like I am running at a snail’s pace. Did I aim too high? Or am I achieving too low? Certainly trying to figure that out and move forward.

So, have you abandoned your New Year’s Resolutions? Have you made any new ones? Have you decided you resolve to just enjoy the year and dump the rest out the window into the middle of a speeding four-lane freeway, where it is pummeled into oblivion by an 18-wheeler?

No? Me neither.

Battlestar Galactica: Fighting advanced robots with sticks and stones.

(Great sci-fi wallpapers)

While BSG is not new (circa 2004) it's new to me. Yeah, I know, I'm behind. But I'm loving it!

Still, some of the sci-fi about this popular show, seems a bit...off.

Boredom with Broken Springs and a Hint of Steam, Part 2

         vs.     

Onto Part 2...The Steampunk that hints at greatness, but has yet to grab me by the ass and send me flying down a road of adventure.

Vampire Empire by Clay and Susan Griffith seems plagued with an oddly detached perspective. I don't know what yet to make of it. I'm only 60 pages in, but the POV seems to distance me from attachment to the characters, killing any sense of mystery and the prose is so spartan as to read like a comic book. Which would be fine, if it were—with compelling pictures to back up the action—but it isn't.

Boredom with Broken Springs and a Hint of Steam, Part 1

         vs.     

Two books. Both failing for me in vastly different ways and all I can wonder is if they will get better.

Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi suffers (in my mind) from trying to be too intelligent. As far as I know this is a book written for a Western audience and yet the terms are incredibly Eastern in origin. I might look upon this as a good thing, with a book and author taking the language of their fiction in a different direction than what I'm used to. It might even be a refreshing change of course, however it ultimately just confuses me.

This reviewer is out to lunch.

Annoyances and aberrations! Bah! As we all know, life does not always cooperate with what we want. I, for one, would like to turn out a book review every month. Hmm...while I'm at it, I'd also like to finish my book edits, drop The Veil of a Warrior on a publisher's desk to be snagged up, run out the door and sell millions of copies, pay off my mortgage with the massive advance and have oodles of spare money and time.

But, uh, getting back to reality (NOOOOO!), my reviews are lacking. I've been trying, but my luck in choosing has been out to lunch.