Reading, but not a lot of writing
Posted by mcummings
Let me start off by saying my wife has the patience of a saint. A frazzled, worn out, overwhelmed saint, but a saint nonetheless (hey, we have 3 girls 6 and under, not all of that is my doing!).
This past weekend (let's not say its Father's Day related, but in a lot of ways it was), I made it out to Borders with the kids and finally got Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. Allow me to just say *wow* - I'm hooked, even realizing this is just book one of a long series. I've been reading a lot lately, so its not that I'm unused to the occasional surprise spellbinder, but even so, I wasn't expecting something so rich and deep. I think my only complaint, knowing that this is the first book, is that it took wikipedia for me to understand some of the underlying rules of the world this takes place in, chiefly the whole warren thing (it wasn't clear reading, and there was no explanation). I understand the literary technique of not explaining anything and letting your audience learn through exposure, but at least a little hint would have been nice 
I also picked up Feast For Crows by Martin, and a book that caught my eye by accident, Eyes of God by John Marco. I'm trying not to rip through an entire series in one fell swoop, but break it out across multiple books at a time, mostly so I don't get so involved that I get bored (which can happen if you've ever tried playing catch up on a 4+ book series - you just get to a point where that lack of breaks in between segments makes the whole work drag a little).
Unfortunately, this plethora of reading has not translated into my writing much lately. I've been inspired, to be sure, and I write down little snippets of plot and dialogue as they come to me, if only that weren't usually on the drive home, but I have yet to sit down and write anything substantial. I'm kidding myself by saying that I'm letting the story mature, but mostly I think it's just festering in my brain.
week-ender
Posted by mcummings
Went to Md. this weekend - not a bad drive, if you discount my fear of heights and conviction that we would tumble off the side of this bridge. Before you scoff - there are no siderails, just this flimsy looking jersey wall, and me in a minivan that I'm not great at driving to begin with, making this vertical ascent that feels like the start to a bad roller coaster. The party we went to made up for it, though, even if we did have to cross it again on the way back 
Sadly, one of the coolest parts of the party was getting a chance to hang out with Dan, who lives 10 minutes from my house. Yeah, only I can drive 2 hours to hang out with someone that lives 10 minutes away. It's a gift, really.
Almost done reading book 3 of George R.R.Martin's Ice and Fire books, "A Storm of Swords." If you take my recommendation for it, let me give you this heads up: This isn't the kind of series you can just pick up arbitrarily, you have to make a commitment to start at book one and go forward in order (otherwise, even if the story makes sense, you'll miss the significance of the lies the characters tell each other later). It's true, its a fantasy series, but I found the first book to start off a bit dry. Why? I was thinking fantasy, high magic galore, wizards and warlocks and the whole nine yards, but it isn't that kind of fantasy (ok, there's a little of the magic in the later books, but it isn't one of those kinds of series). What am I going to do when I finish book three? Take a breather with a lighter (<900 page) book, and dive into the next one of course!