Books Read in Previous Years

2009:

1984 by George Orwell
21 by Patrick O'Brian
A Series of Unfortunate Events 1: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events 2: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events 3: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events 4: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket
All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room by Erma Bombeck
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Alvin Journeyman by Orson Scott Card
America: The Book by Jon Stewart
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen
Beowulf (translated) by Seamus Heaney
Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian
Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs
Brain Droppings by George Carlin
Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold
Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett
Cocktail Time by P. G. Wodehouse
Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game by Shelly Mazzanoble
Dave Barry's Money Secrets by Dave Barry
Day of the Dead By J. A. Jance
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Empire by Orson Scott Card
Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
Frankenstein: Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz
Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer
Heartfire by Orson Scott Card
Hideaway by Dean Koontz
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
I am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert
I am Legend and Other Stories by Richard Matheson
In Odd We Trust by Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan
Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
Jingo by Terry Pratchett
Liberty by Garrison Keillor
Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card
Magic Street by Orson Scott Card
Maskerade by Terry Pratchett
Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
More Napalm and Silly Putty by George Carlin
Napalm and Silly Putty by George Carlin
Nothing to Lose by Lee Child
Octopussy and the Living Daylights by Ian Fleming
Of Mice and Magic by David Farland
On Writing by Stephen King
Oxygen by John B. Olson and Randall Ingermanson
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card
Prentice Alvin by Orson Scott Card
Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card
Relentless by Dean Koontz
Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card
Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James
Song of Susannah by Stephen King
Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen
The Bad Place by Dean Koontz
The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan
The Best of Writers of the Future (edited) by Algis Budrys
The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan
The Callahan Chronicals by Spider Robinson
The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian
The Crystal City by Orson Scott Card
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
The Far Side of the World by Patrick O'Brian
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
The Fifth Man by John B. Olson and Randall Ingermanson
The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth by Richard Paul Evans
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hundred Days by Patrick O'Brian
The Icebound Land by John Flanagan
The Imperium Game by K. D. Wentworth
The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett
The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian
The Murder Room by P. D. James
The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli
The Private Patient by P. D. James
The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling
The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
The Truelove by Patrick O'Brian
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
The Wastelands: The Dark Tower III by Stephen King
The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian
The Wish List by Eoin Colfer
The Wizard of Ooze by David Farland
The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card
The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian
Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Watchers by Dean Koontz
Watchmen by Alan Moore
When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home by Erma Bombeck
White Jazz by James Ellroy
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
Wrath of the Bloodeye by Joseph Delaney
Wyrms by Orson Scott Card
Your Heart Belongs to Me By Dean Koontz

2008:

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
Attack of the Fiend by Joseph Delaney
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz
Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold
Chase by Dean Koontz
Cold Fire by Dean Koontz
Curse of the Bane by Joseph Delaney
Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
Erik by Terry Pratchett
Everyman by Philip Roth
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
False Memory by Dean Koontz
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
HMS Surprise by Patrick O'Brian
Icebound by Dean Koontz
Intensity by Dean Koontz
Killshot by Elmore Leoneard
Lightning by Dean Koontz
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
Mort by Terry Pratchett
Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett
Night of the Soul Stealer by Joseph Delaney
Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
One Door Away from Heaven by Dean Koontz
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Phantoms by Dean Koontz
Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian
Pyramids by Terry Pratchett
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney
Seize the Night by Dean Koontz
Shock by Robin Cook
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Sole Survivor by Dean Koontz
Sourcery by Terry Pratchett
Split Images by Elmore Leonard
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz
The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard
The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian
The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian
The Voice of the Night by Dean Koontz
The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Tick Tock by Dean Koontz
Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard
Treason's Harbor by Patrick O'Brian
Up in Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard
When the Women Come Out to Dance by Elmore Leonard
Whispers by Dean Koontz
Winter Moon by Dean Koontz
Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

2007:

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon *Abandoned*
Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
Blood Music by Greg Bear
Brother Odd by Dean R. Koontz
Crossover by Joel Shepherd
Cyclops by Clive Cussler
Darkfall by Dean R. Koontz
Dragon Tears by Dean R. Koontz
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Eldest by Christopher Paolini
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Fear Nothing by Dean R. Koontz
Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
Forever Odd by Dean R. Koontz
Frankenstein: City of Night by Dean R. Koontz
Frankenstein: Prodigal Son by Dean R. Koontz
From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz
Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury
Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan
Life Expectancy by Dean R. Koontz
Lost City by Clive Cussler
Mars by Ben Bova
Midnight by Dean R. Koontz
Murder at the ABA by Isaac Asimov
New Spring: The Novel by Robert Jordan
Next by Michael Crichton
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Odd Thomas by Dean R. Koontz
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Protector by Larry Niven
Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud
Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven
Shadow Fires by Dean R. Koontz
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Songmaster by Orson Scott Card
Strangers by Dean R. Koontz
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
The Dresden Files: Storm Front by Jim Butcher
The Face by Dean R. Koontz
The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud
The Good Guy by Dean Koontz
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
The Hades Factor by Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds
The House of Thunder by Dean R. Koontz
The Husband by Dean R. Koontz
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
The Lion of Commare and Other Stories, 1937-1949 by Arthur C. Clark
The Minority Report and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Servants of Twilight by Dean R. Koontz
The Taking by Dean R. Koontz
Twilight Eyes by Dean R. Koontz
Velocity by Dean R. Koontz

Book Review: Crossover by Joel Shepherd

This is the first in what I assume to be a series of Cassandra Kresnov books. I received this as a present (and something of an intervention against my then habit of only reading books on writing) and dove into it eagerly. It had won awards in Australia and was a topic of much talk at the 2006 WorldCON.

The blurbs suggested it was the greatest android novel since Philip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It shaped up like any number of ghost-in-the-shell stories as we follow Cassandra's (an android) attempts to show that she is a being worthy of life and freedom despite her mechanical nature.

I found myself disappointed. The first hundred or so pages had little action and all seemed designed to create a sense of ennui (or so I'm told). It didn't work for me. It served to bore me and make reading the book more a chore than an enjoyable pastime. What I noticed most in these first pages was that Cassandra Kresnov spent most of her time naked and seeking sex with human men (and sometimes women). The rest of the story became a string of emotionless gunfights and action sequences, only vaguely connected by plot.

The major failing of this book was that it never actually evoked any emotion other than boredom (and maybe vague distaste) in me. I never related to any of the characters because they never showed any real emotions. At the end of Act 2, for a moment, I thought we would have a scene that made the whole book worthwhile. One of Cassandra's friends dies, and she begins to emote. The emotional tension builds, and just before it reaches a point where it would pierce the most cynical heart Cassandra reminds herself of her mission and launches off into Act 3, leaving me to deal with the emotional fizzle and more angry than anything else.

Book Review: Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

The third installment of the Odd Thomas novels finds Odd living in a monastery attempting to recoup from his previous adventures. It's a good life until Odd begins seeing bodachs, mysterious black figures that always precede tragedy. Now he must figure out the source of the danger before it claims the lives of both the monks and the sick children for whom they care. Along the way, he's helped once again by the ghost of Elvis. This time a canine ghost helps, too.

Part of the villainy in this novel is perpetrated by monsters formed of complexly woven bone-like fragments (explained at the end, but here left with the original descriptions). These monsters are freaky, but after the fairly mundane villains Odd has faced in the past, they seemed a bit much. Sure they were scary, but after satanists and voodoo cultists, the true villain of the story was just too outlandish for me.

Overall, this is a good book, but I'm not sure which of Forever Odd or Brother Odd is my least favorite of the series. I'm leaning toward Brother Odd, though, because while its plot is better than that of Forever Odd, it's not really much more than a rehashing of Odd Thomas.

It ends with a touching and heartfelt scene between Odd and Elvis, and the final page left me awaiting the next Odd Thomas novel.

So I lied.

Current Project: The Adventures of Algernon Oldman, Hero Maker. Chapter 5.

I guess it has been until December before I got around to posting again. Let's see... catching up. I finished my Writers of the Future story on September 29th. It came in at almost exactly 10,000 words. After that, I spent some time decompressing and started rewriting what I had done in before the WotF story. I found it impossible to step back into the novel where I left off, so I'm using ramping back up to speed as an excuse to rewrite.

I've been working on Chapter 5 for a couple of weeks now. I just couldn't get any scene with my character Gareth Tythingman to not suck. I finally realized it was because I only had a caricature of him in my mind. And it wasn't evan a good caricature. Last night I spent plenty of time working on fleshing him out and the scene is starting to work.

There just isn't enough time

Current Project: WoTF short story 2900 words in.

I haven't posted in a while, and I probably won't for a couple more weeks. I'm in the process of working down to a deadline of September 30th, so I need to spend my time writing things that aren't his blog.

I am making progress on my WotF story. It's been taking a long time because I've restarted it 3 times. I just couldn't find the right feeling for it. I think I have it now. It seems the right course was to start it later into the story than where I originally wanted to start. What was bothering me, I now know in hindsight, was that I was putting off the start of action for some 2000 words into the story. I'm sure you can guess why that's a problem.

I've now reached the end of Act 1. So I've got to finish the rest of the story now. That's actually not very hard to do once you have the right start. I've found stories tend to write themselves once you give them enough momentum.

I should say, though, that I probably won't get around to another post until October.

Book Review: Odd Thomas by Dean R. Koontz

Odd Thomas leads an unusual life. He sees the spirits of the dead that linger on in our world. More than that, he sees bodachs, dark spirits that precede catastrophes. When hordes of bodachs appear in the streets of Pico Mundo, Odd's hometown, He embarks on a quest to discover and prevent the looming disaster.

The beginning of this novel is, perhaps, my favorite of all time. Odd's first-person narration engages from the start, and within the first 1000 words, we are propelled into a frenetic chase.

With sparkling characters, constant suspense, and Odd's trademark wit, the novel enthralls from beginning to end. In fact, as I think on it, I honestly can't think of anything I wish Koontz had done differently. And I usually pride myself on being literarily pessimistic.

If you've yet to read this book, get to it. You'll enjoy it, if only for Elvis's cameos.

Book Review: Blood Music By Greg Bear

What can I say about Blood Music? It's enjoyable and keeps attention, but I can't escape the verdict that it was hopelessly predictable. Maybe that's because it was written more than twenty years ago and the same plot and concept have since been done, but nothing that happened caught me the least by surprise.

It is a story of what happens when genetic engineering goes awry. The result is an apocalyptic cataclysm ultimately resulting in a bio-gray goo scenerio.

As I said, it kept my attention and I enjoyed it, which speaks well for the writing, but I think the fact that I felt no lasting connection to a focal character (they kept turning into gray goo and, thus, disappearing) kept me from being more invested in the story. It's amazing how important it is to be grounded in a character. After all, that's how we know, as readers, whom to root for and whom to wish death upon.

As it stood, this book seemed more a collection of short stories united in a common situation than it did a single coherent novel.

You'd think being a writer involved writing...

Current Project: WoTF short story -- Character work. Plus editing for Final Redoubt.

I'm not making the progress I'd like on my story. I have my plot, characters, and world, but it's just not coming together. So tonight I'm working on a technique to get to know my characters a little better. I don't think they've quite come to life in my mind yet. It's amazing how easy writing tends to become once your characters are alive. It becomes a process of chronicling their adventures rather than making it all up.

It's probably for the best that I'm not going to be writing much actualy prose tonight. It's been an exhausting day. I've had the joy of fighting with my insurance company about covering my child's birth. That, and the headphone jack on my mp3 player has decided to go fritzy on its connection. So I'm kinda fried. I really shouldn't let these things bother me, but I tend to be a worrier.

Book Review: Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin

This book is amazing. One would think a book on neuroscience and behavior would be unapproachable, but the prose of this book makes it an easy and enjoyable read.

Temple Grandin is an autistic woman who works designing facilities for the cattle industry. She posits that since she thinks in pictures instead of words, she (and other autistics) think more like animals than other humans do. Her track record would seem to indicate that she's right.

This book gives an excellent insight into the workings of the brain, ranging from inattentional blindness -- why gorillas become invisible at basketball games, through the effects of selective breeding -- frequently psychotic animals, to why we should not consider animals stupid -- they're incredibly smart, just in a different way than humans are. She also gives great advice to pet owners on how they should treat their animals.

One of the key points she makes is regarding hyperspecificity. To animals, and autistics, one red baseball cap is not the same as another. They tend to see the differences when they look at things, whereas normal humans over-generalize.

I was particularly impressed by her description of the "seeking circuit" a portion of the brain that releases dopamine when stimulated that is stimulated by the hint of something we want, but that turns off the moment said thing is seen. Writers should see in this the reason why we don't "show the shark." The hint that something is happening, the unseen danger lurking just out of sight is primally enjoyable, but once we see something in full light, it loses its allure.

Anyone who works or lives with animals should read this book. Likewise people who work with autistics should read it to gain an appreciation for how autistics see the world. Perhaps the overall message is that we should try to see the world through the perspecitves of others.

Anyone else wondering what happened to August?

Current Project: A short story for Writers of the Future -- due to the anonymity of the contest I won't publish the title or plot elements of this story at this time. Currently approx 1000 words.

So it's more than halfway through August, and I've barely gotten a day's worth of writing done in that time. My official excuse is the birth of my daughter, but even that's not a great excuse for missing deadlines. (I give myself a weekly deadline based on when my writing group meets) Keeping deadlines is one of the most important habits for a young writer to cultivate. Writing is a business, and a writer who chronically misses deadlines isn't likely to be an agent or editor's favorite person to work with. And yes, that matters.

Anyway, I'm taking forever to write this story because it's for WoTF and I'm being more critical than normal. I've just started over on it because I realized my narrative voice was wrong. I came to that conclusion after I talked with my wife about characters, and she could relate to all BUT the POV character. Bad sign. I was pulling back from really getting in the character's head because I plan on treating him worse than any character I've previously written, and it's hard to do horrible things to people you like. (Yes, my characters become real people to me) But worse would be to do horrible things to someone and have no one care because they don't like him.

The Journey of a Thousand Steps...

I hijacked this from my previous blog (whereon it was the only post since I didn't like that blog provider's layout). The original post date was April 3rd 2007.

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I've been putting off this, my first blog post, until I had something big, wise, and/or profound to say, but I think that defeats the purpose of a blog. Wisdom comes with time, usually crawling up through the cracks of everyday life.

To start, let's introduce me. I am a writer. Yet to be published, but then I haven't tried to be published all that much yet. Three years ago, I made the unsuccessful rounds with my first completed (some fifth or sixth started), novel--an epic fantasy. Life got in the way for a year, and then I began my study of the craft of writing. In the course of a year I read every book I could find on character, plot, viewpoint, setting, etc (some thirty or so books). The result of which: I learned much. I hope in time to share some of my gleanings here. I also learned that my first novel was terribly hackneyed, poorly plotted (by structure--the plot itself is still salvageable), and filled with awkward language. I plan on rewriting it from a blank page in the future. I think it's probably third or fourth in my novel queue right now.

My study of the craft improved the quality of my writing greatly and moved me into position to get one of my other gigs--line editor for Final Redoubt Press. There, I work with veteren game designer Robert J Defendi to produce a line of role playing modules statted for use in the HERO system, d20 System game, Rolemaster, and HARP. My role is to clean up everything Bob sends me and make it publishable. If I don't think it's publishable, I am the one who kills the project.

Like most writers, I have a day job (in addition to my work with Final Redoubt because editing for a small publisher is not the path to take if you want money right now). I work as a chemist in the quality assurance lab for a multinational company. It's good work with great benefits and decent pay, enough to support myself and my family. It also allows me to increase my skills other than chemistry. I am the safety officer for the lab, run the lab logistically since we lost our receptionist, and I'm the first line of IT. And all of that is in addition to my lab work, which admittedly, I don't usually have that much time for with my other duties.

I am married and have one child (two come August). I would go on about them, but it's usually best to withhold such personal information.That's enough for now. But hey, it the first step to adding content.
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My second child was, in fact, born on July 30th. When I posted this originally, I did so with a mood icon of "sick". That was, sadly enough the beginning of 4+ months of feeling like garbage. I think I'm beginning to recover now, though.