Cirque du Freak

A couple of weeks ago I watched The Vampires Assistant.  When the movie was reviewed on At The Movies, the TV show, the reviewer thought was watchable.  Overall I share his opinion but I was dissatisfied with the ending: there wasn’t one.  There was no resolution.

The day after I watched The Vampires Assistant I heard that it had been based on a series of books by Darren Shan.  More to find out what the ending was than for any other reason I started reading the series and am very glad I did.  C. S. Lewis once said that, "A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."  These are good children's stories.

Here is the reading order for the series:

Cirque Du Freak: A living nightmare
The Vampire’s Assistant
Tunnels of Blood
Vampire Mountain
Trials of Death
The Vampire Prince
Hunters of the Dusk
Allies of the Night
Killers of the Dawn
The Lake of Souls
Lord of the Shadows
Sons of Destiny

Enjoy!

Darkly Dream Dexter, a novel by Jeff Lindsay

A couple of weeks ago I was prowling through my local bookstore looking for something interesting to read, and I found it: Dexter is Delicious by Jeff Lindsay. 

Have you ever been bored while reading a book?  I'm not talking about cardboard characters or a plot that makes no sense or an action, such as looking out the window, that seems to take up an entire chapter.  I'm talking about prose that is flat.  Lackluster.  Jeff Lindsay's prose is perky.  It jumps and pirouettes. 

I haven't read Dexter is Delicious, just the first chapter, but that was enough to make me feel that I absolutely had to read the first book in the series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter.  I did and I loved it. 

If any of you watch Dexter on HBO, I thought the first book stayed very close to the TV show, but I have been told that isn't the case for the rest of the series.

I am delighted to have found a new favorite author.

LibraryThing

I made a great new discover today: LibraryThing.  What an awesome idea!

Writer Beware

Plagiarism is rare but it happens.  Click here for the story of David Boyer, 'writer' and publisher and how he published other authors' work under his own name.  Thankfully he didn't get away with it.

The dreaded synopsis

I just finished the synopsis for my book, "Until Death".  Putting it together was almost harder than writing the book!  Not only did it have to accurately reflect the book but it had to be sprightly and engaging.  Argh!  (I'm not saying that it _is_ sprightly and engaging, just that that was what I was aiming for.)

It feels good to be done, now I can catch up on some of the blogs I've been following. :)

Surrey International Writers' Conference

This past weekend I attended the Surrey International Writers' Conference.  I had never gone before and had no idea what to expect.  It was amazing!  It was great spending the weekend with other people who loved to both read and write.  I enjoyed discussing plot lines and characterization, the writing market today, the pros and cons of independent publishing, etc., with other writers.  I especially loved the workshops and feel that I learned much that can I can use to improve my writing in the coming year. 

I'm looking forward to attending the conference next year, if I can come up with the money.
 

My new blogging home

My first post on blogger!  For the last couple of months I have been blogging on my site but noticed the great doodads Blogger provided and was seduced.

I'll see if I can copy my old posts over here and post-date them.  If I can't, oh well.

Cheers