There's always somethin'

Y'know, the last few days I've been feeling a little under the weather. I think I've got a stomach virus or something because everything I eat makes my gut twist and ache from stabbing pains. Ouch!

I haven't been able to workout properly and feel really weak, too. I hope it's on its way out now...

Anyway.

My daughter's back at school now. It's her second day today but like usual, they won't be put into their proper classes for a few weeks. I think it would be better if they had things pre-organised, but oh well. She's slowly (very slowly) getting back into it. She doesn't like the drama. lol.

That means that I've got a chunk of my days back. With no constant interruptions, I'll finally get a chance to think things through and plan ahead. I've got so many projects--both big & small--that I'd love to tackle during 2010. It's just a matter of fitting everything in. *sigh*

This week I've caught up on some of my review reading. I've crossed two more (excellent) books off the list and will be starting on: LONELY WEREWOLF GIRL today. Love the cover, and the story sounds pretty interesting so far.

Oh yeah, do you remember how I busted-up-slash-broke my pinkie toe last year? Gosh, it was in July sometime. Well, I haven't spoken much about it because I've been wearing shoes for months now. Still, it never really got 100%. Actually, sometimes after I take my shoes off it hurts just a tinge and it's still a little bigger than my other pinkie toe. And for some reason, the nail got all bruised up and yuck. Yesterday it fell off. lol. Looks like I had a new toenail growing underneath. I hope this will be the last of the broken-toe saga.

On that note... have an awesome weekend!

THE RUNAWAY by Angela McAllister

Megan, frightened, guilty, and running from everything she’s ever known. When Megan arrives at what she believes to be a deserted mansion, she encounters the mysterious

Marguerite, blind and despised, with only two silent, watchful owls as her companions. Her eyes. Megan and Marguerite come to depend on one another. Theirs is a strange relationship, but the deserted, almost derelict house, they inhabit is the perfect place for hiding secrets.

But Tom, always watching, waiting, biding his time, is determined to bring this fragile world crashing down…

A haunting tale of loss and revenge, of friendship and the power of forgiveness.

As soon as I read the blurb for this book several months ago, I was fascinated. It said so much, yet didn't say anything at all. I think it was a perfect way to grab the reader's attention because the air of mystery certainly got me interested.

Megan is running from her life, the past, and the devastating event that forced her parents to shut down. She lives with the guilt and is constantly haunted by dreams of her brother. When she comes to a derelict house she thinks is empty but finds there's a blind woman living inside--who offers her a place to stay if she'll help her--Megan decides to stay for a while.

The town of Morne is a strange one. Mostly abandoned, it's obviously hiding a terrible secret that no one wants to talk about. Something horrible enough to blind a woman. Marguerite seems like a cold, isolated and lonely woman taking advantage of Megan's situation and kind intentions, but there's so much more to her. She can't see but she has two owls that act as her eyes.

When a boy call Tom is thrown into the mix, Megan finds herself caught between their friendship. Wanting to help Marguerite, as well as wanting to learn to be free with Tom by her side. Though she doesn't know just how much she'll end up caught in the middle.

The Runaway is a lovely, moving, and very lyrical story about three lost souls with their own personal baggage and memories, who manage to find each other when everything and everyone else has failed or shunned them. It's a beautiful tale about a very damaged and guilt-ridden young girl who believes that the death of her brother is all her fault, when in actuality it wasn't. Still, when she'd lived most of her life not being good enough because she was a daughter instead of a son, it's not hard to understand why she'd jump to such a conclusion.

I absolutely devoured this book. I picked it up this morning and just finished it. Although the book's pretty thin, it's beautifully made and the story so deep and haunting that I know it'll stay with me for years to come. This is one of those books that has to be read to totally understand just how good it is. I loved the complexity of each character, the atmosphere of despair, and the imagery of birds.

The Runaway, September 2009, ISBN 978-1-84255-599-6, Orion Children's Books Paperback

THE DIGITAL PLAGUE by Jeff Somers

'THIS IS AN ASSASSINATION. NOT YOURS. BUT AN ASSASSINATION NONE THE LESS.'

Avery Cates, criminal 'king' of New York, has climbed his way to the top of a heap of trouble. On his knees in the snow, with a gun to his head, Avery thinks this must finally be it. Instead, he is injected with nanotech and left confused but alive. Then everyone around him starts dying.

With every moment bringing humanity closer to extinction, Cates finds he will be either executioner or saviour of an entire world.

I read the first book in the Avery Cates series, The Electric Church, last month. And as soon as I did, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the second one. Let me just say that it didn't disappoint.

Several years have passed since the first book and Avery is still a criminal. A rich criminal with a bad-ass reputation. He lives in New York with his crew and still wears the title: Avery Cates, cop killer. That's a tag that he'll never shake and sure as hell gets him into a lot of trouble in this installment.

When he's taken by someone and forced to his knees in the snow with a gun pointed at his head, Avery's pretty sure that his life is over. Instead, he's injected with a lethal virus that starts killing everyone around him. Anyone who comes in contact with him becomes infected, so the body count starts right away. With his crew. He's killed a lot of people, but knowing that he's killing everyone who gets close, really affects him. Especially the death of his very young crew member, Glee. Which pretty much haunts him the whole way through.

But that's not the worst of it, he soon finds himself taken from one place to another, but eventually ends up in the custody of SSF. Beaten to a pulp, kept alive only when they figure out that to keep him close means the virus is kept at bay, he's carted around. He winds up in Paris. This is where the location of the person who engineered this virus is supposed to be, but it only makes matters worse. As Avery catches up with some old friends--Kieth, Gatz and Belling--he also encounters those freaky Monks, who are still causing havoc. Betrayal has never been this horrible and unexpected.

I love the unpredictability of this series and that no matter how close to death he gets, he still manages to survive another day. In a world where most people don't get old, that he's well into his thirties seems a miracle. And I don't doubt that more hellish and horrible things await Avery in future installments, especially now that New York has fallen. I totally want to be there for the ride.

The Digital Plague is a fast, action-packed story that packs a punch. It's dark, gritty, violent, and has plenty of attitude. This book will get your heart pumping because things never stop. I also need to mention that I love the writing style. It's a very well-written book that's so vivid, it's almost like watching a movie in your head.

This futuristic-cyberpunk-noir series is a winner!

The Digital Plague, July 2008, ISBN 978-184-149704-4, Orbit Paperback

ARK by Stephen Baxter

As the waters rose in FLOOD, high in the Colorado mountains the US government was building an ark. Not an ark to ride the waves but an ark that would take a select few hundred people out into space to start a new future for mankind. Sent out into deep space on an epic journey, generations of crew members carry the hope of a new beginning on a new, incredibly distant, planet.

But as the decades pass, knowledge and purpose is lost and division and madness grows. And back on earth life and man, find a new way. This is the epic sequel to the acclaimed FLOOD; a stirring tale of what mankind will do to survive and the perfect introduction for new readers to one of SF's greatest tropes; the generation ship.

After reading Flood a few weeks ago, I couldn't wait to read this one. The epic story that started while the world was flooded by the rising sea levels, continues in this installment. And becomes so much more than just a disaster story.

The book opens in 2041, when Grace Gray is taken to Colorado so that she can take part in Ark One. Here, the astronaut Gordo Alonzo gives her a test--she'll have to solve a murder. Of course, at the time I had no idea who Harry Smith (the murdered man) was. Or Holle, the young woman who's charged with showing Grace around.

So it was awesome when the story jumped back to 2025. Where we meet Patrick Groundwater and his six-year-old daughter, Holle. They're attending a meeting about the very secret Ark projects. And so begins Holle's life as a potential Candidate for Ark One. We follow her and a group of kids who will be trained from a very young age, intended to be part of the crew that'll be sent on a mission to find the projected Eath II.

The idea of using a warp drive and launching a spaceship using nuclear bombs is both fascinating and frightening. Yet, it works. I love how Stephen Baxter blends the human condition and science in a way that keeps you glued to every page.

The actual ship blasting off correctly is about the only thing that goes according to plan on Launch day, because half of the crew that was supposed to be onboard actually weren't. The mission to the stars doesn't start well, as the Candidates leave a very chaotic world behind. This pretty much sets the mood for the rest of the trip.

What follows is an amazing, negative, drab, and very claustrophobic trip in search of a new planet to live in, so it can become humanity's salvation. A journey that slowly disintegrates. It was one thing to plan and imagine how this mission would go, but what actually happens is a slow deterioration of spirits, hopes, and dreams. A bunch of humans packed into a tin can that keeps them all too close. Their offspring only add to the madness. Not to mention the Split--where one group goes back to Earth, another settles in the hostile Earth II, and the final group decide to spend another 30 years in search of a better possible planet, Earth III.

I was also very excited to go back to Earth and catch up with Thandie Jones, while getting a little taste of Ark Two.

Ark is another fantastic, epic, and at often times, grim adventure. It's a race for human survival after our planet has been engulfed by the sea. It's an amazing story of human endurance and corruption, when the hard decisions have to be made for the future. The cast is also amazing. Not just the characters we met in Flood, like Thandie and Grace, but also the strong Holle, manipulative Kelly, insane and complicated Zane, and headstrong Venus who never gives up on the ultimate quest.

I absolutely LOVED this book. And I have to admit... I'm secretly hoping that Stephen Baxter writes another installment in this world. :)

Ark, October 2009, ISBN 978-057-508059-1, Gollancz Paperback

Thinking out loud...

I've got a lot going on inside my head. Actually, there's been a lot going on in there during the last few days. I've had a few things to think about. A few things that were bugging me.

As a result, I spent most of yesterday just thinking about it and hardly did much of anything. Although I did read the first 41 pages of ARK by Stephen Baxter... which is awesome so far. I can't wait to see where this is going. Looks like FLOOD was an apocalyptic/futuristic story, and this one's going to be post-apocalyptic/Sci-Fi. That's cool with me. :)

Anyway. As I mentioned the other day, plans change. Things pop up out of nowhere and then fade out again. So, that story that I planned to write, I've now decided not to. There's a bit of a story to the reason but I'm not going to go into it. There's no point. I've put that idea aside and will probably never touch it again. But that's okay too. As a writer, this isn't the first time I've shelved a story. Sometimes they can be shelved temporarily and then one day dusted off and fixed, but this won't be one of them. I'm just glad I only wrote 5k of it. :)

So, today I've decided to spend the day updating stuff. I've gone through all of the reviews I've got for FAITHLESS and updated my Word doc, plus passed them on to my publisher. I also happened to find a new one. Check out this very awesome review! Just page down a little and you'll see it. Thanks Colleen, you made me smile.

I'm happy with the small progress I'm making today, so I'm going to go and get some more stuff done. Or some reading. lol. Bye!