PK the Bookeemonster: The weekend is over, sir

Monday, February 27, 2023

The weekend is over, sir

Monday

I had a mini-reading slump this weekend. The books I had started were feeling stale.

I've been reading how-to-write books and I'm wondering if that is affecting my enjoyment at the moment. Definitely in the Nora Roberts romance I was reading. It was pretty dated/bad. I hate "insta-love" stories. I DNF'd it.

But I'm really liking what I'm learning - or re-learning in some cases. Every day I'm making progress on my 100 Day Project. Today is

My biggest focus is on writing scenes. Those are the building blocks. Characters are coming along.

I did read a short story yesterday to try to get my reading mojo back.

HOME: HABITAT, RANGE, NICHE, TERRITORY by Martha Wells. A part of the Murderbot series.

Occurs just after the fourth novella, Exit Strategy, and told from the point of view of Dr. Mensah. Murderbot is now in the Preservation System with Dr. Ayda Mensah, the closest person to a friend it has, and Murderbot has come a long way to even consider being friends with someone. Mensah is struggling with PTSD in the aftermath of being kidnapped in Exit Strategy, but she's assiduously hiding her personal trauma from everyone around her. The rest of Preservation is struggling with the problem of having a highly dangerous Security Unit on their peaceful planet (the words "killing machine" are thought, if not said).

Published 2020; 20 pages. There are some authors whose writing soothes my brain. These books and Alice Sabo's Haroon fantasies are a couple of them. They get me back on track.

I didn't go to the coffee shop on Saturday. I probably should have because I'm told Patt was there after not attending for several months due to election (she's a tabulator) and a family health situation. But I was very tired.

I won't be going to the coffee shop on Wednesday because the receptionist is having surgery tomorrow and will be recovering again. Maybe this coming Saturday.

I did start to read DOUBT by Jenny Schwartz. 2nd of 5 in the Adventures of a Xeno-Archeologist series, Sci fi.

Nora Devi intended to leave her old life behind. But when a quick detour to acquire the funds for a new identity goes awry, she finds herself plunged ever deeper into the troubles she hoped to avoid. The Human Sector is a stash of fuel cells just waiting for a spark to explode. The Great Game of politics and power has shifted from the inner realm to the border. Captain Liam Kimani of the battlecruiser RC Genghis Khan is the man in position to suppress the explosion - or ride the wave of it. It's been half a millennium since the Stranding. Is the power of the royals still worth supporting, or is it time to risk everything for the chance to rejoin the rest of humanity?

Published 2021; 233 pages. I read the first one last month and it really surprised me with how good it was considering I'd not heard of the author previously. I'd been looking forward to reading this one but I kept putting it off because of scavenger hunts and readathons.