Of Books and TV Shows

Do you ever have one of those creepy weeks where the days just start to mesh one into the other? I could have sworn it was just Friday a minute ago. Then again it works in favor because it doesn’t feel like a whole week has gone by and I’d be dying to see the next episode of True Blood (Sara’s SO gonna make a play for Jason, the question isn’t if anymore but when! What’s Daphne got up her sleeve? And are we going to see Luna from the books? I liked her…).

During these meshes of day filled weeks I’ve been catching up on tons of reading and sorting through my writing. Right now I have a lot of story ideas I’d love to test but the ideas are screaming more so than the actual stories are. I guess I’m the type of writer that needs to really feel close to a story, to commit to it in a way, before I completely dive into it. I guess that’s why I like rewrites and edits better. This especially hits after I’ve finished a particularly large work that I’ve recently committed to. Now I’m in that in between stage where I’m not quite sure what to write next. I do have a suspense noir that’s riding the edge between women’s fiction and romance that I’m dabbling with. A love letter to my home town of LA in a way.

Other than that, I’ve been catching up on my TBR pile. I’m waaay behind on the current PR/UF books and am slowly chipping away at the big series going on now. I usually read tons of small press, epubbed and indie authors because I find such wonderful diverse voices there that I don’t usually find in the big presses lately. So far, I’m hooked on Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and I’m liking the Sookie Stackhouse series although I have to admit True Blood is a little more interesting with it’s suspense (not so much the first season because it was too sex saturated for my blood; second season is more suspenseful and plot driven woo hoo). The book series is interesting with all the different paranormals running around the world. I don’t think the Merry Gentry series is for me because it’s a bit too chatty. I feel like I’m reading an encyclopedia (although I love encyclopedias!) on the sidhe/Seelie/Unseelie entry of faeries and it keeps repeating. A shame because I love faeries (woo hoo Annie’s faerie post from Monday) and the first book held much promise of such an intricate world. I think I was tainted by Butcher’s treatment of the faeries in Summer Knight (Awesome book!) and the recent Unseelie by Meredith Holmes which I plan to give a reread soon.

I have some others that are in the pile like the abundance of vampire books and their series and, of course, the awesome and amazing next entry in the Outlander series Echo in the Bone. Any Outlander fans out there? I know I’m not the only one who, after getting my copy in September, will promptly disappear from the world to read that sucker from front to back cover. I keep hearing delicious hints about what’s going to happen in this book series and we may even get a taste of Scotland again (yay!). 2 more months and yes I’m counting lol. If anyone hasn’t tried this series, do try it! The bulk of it is mainly historical with a dash of romance (those who like the HEA may want to stick with the first book) some time travel and a dash of the paranormal. I loved the first two books the best.

I’m also finding myself leaning toward fantasy romances lately. I don’t know what it is. I think I’m having and overglut (new word!) of PR/UF and I still need my speculative romance fix. So I’m going back to my fantasy/SF roots with some more romance in the mix. One that’s on my keeper list for this year is Life’s Breath by Nancy Wald. Great story that harkens back to medieval with a dash of fantasy setting and some very yummy and funny male heroes. I’m also going through Legend of the Seeker withdrawals and the second season won’t be coming back until October. Grr! I love me some Richard and Kahlen is my she-ro. I may have to revisit Season 1 soon which is like one big epic fantasy film complete with HEA (well until Season 2 hehe).

For those looking for more paranormal shows to add to your list, and if you have BBC America, check out Being Human which is a show featuring a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost living in a Bristol flat. It’s awesome! I did a review for the show here and I gotta say I haven’t seen anything this freshly written and original in a while. I know the tropes are tried and true in the paranormal genre now but the way they are presented here and written is simply great. The US version may be cut a little from the UK version cause there’s a bit of naked bums running around and the language for their shows are little bit more, hmm, freer than US network shows but definitely check it out if you can.

So, if anyone has any fantasy romance recs please drop em in the comments whether you have a recent release, a coming soon one or know of any goodies you’ve read recently. The TBR pile is a full one but yet that monster is always hungry. ;-)