Hey everyone!

I’m back. The weekend getaway to Cape Cod was a much needed respite. I’m so thankful that hubby has family up there. It’s always just what my troubled little heart needs. And I had a tough week, so let’s just say I took in every moment.
After we arrived on Friday, we changed and jumped into the pool for a midnight swim. I’m not one to be spontaneous that way. Still, hubby promised me it would help me sleep, since my insomnia reached epic proportions last week. He was right. The water felt nice and warm. His cousins have an outdoor, inground salt pool. It’s relatively small, but they built it when they found it cheaper than paving their driveway. It goes to about 8ft, which is pretty neat. You can do some real swimming/diving in there. Either way, it was a warm, humid night for it. I splashed around, swam, lounged. I saw a bat for the first time in my life. I was both terrified and fascinated. It swept down about 3 times before our splashing scared it away.

Saturday we spent the entire day lounging by the pool. I got a decent suntan, for the first time this year! LOL Kinda, late, but hey, not complaining. Managed to catchup on a book too. My goal to read a few books a month has failed miserably this year. C’est la vie. But… I’m not giving up on at least one a month. This month’s I didn’t even have to buy.
See, I’d bought Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey a while ago. A LONG while ago. I started to read it and stopped. I was so lost for a while amidst the thick tapestry of characters and cultures she set up, I couldn’t get past it. I resolved to leave it. Some part of me convinced myself that I didn’t like the book. But that wasn’t it. I just didn’t understand it. My mission this weekend was to pick it up again.

I’m so glad I did. It’s one of those books you have to push through at first, to really get a sense of how everything works. It’s a long book to begin with (about 900 pages), and if put in retrospect, only the first of a series. Which means she’s doing A LOT of setup. World, character, etc. Now, 3/4 of the way through, I can say I genuinely enjoy it, and am considering getting the next.
This really taught me an important lesson as well. Some books don’t just grab your attention right away. It happens. Sometimes there’s too much that needs to be explained. Her plot is so full of deception and lies that if she hadn’t set it up that way, we’d be lost throughout the entire length of the story. But she was wise in how she planted clues throughout, and in the end, it has worked to her advantage. Bravo, Miss Carey!

What books have you all read recently? Anything good?

As for myself, I’m still working on my own little gem. Zerah and I have a love/hate relationship. Some days I love it, some days I hate it. Today, was a love/hate day. This morning, while forcing myself to sit at the comp due to DAYS of inactivity (how I miss my laptop… *wails*) I typed out some really awful crap. I said it. Crap. It was bad. I was trying so hard and each word only made me hate it more. It got to the point where I had to just let it go. It wasn’t worth the headache it was causing me.
In the end, I found myself drawn back to it. At about 2am. Yea, I know. I should be sleeping. I’m going, I swear. As soon as I finish with you guys. Either way, I skipped the troublesome/rebellious scene and went for the next one, in my heroine’s POV. *waves wand* Magic. She was ready to tell the story again, even if my stubborn hero wasn’t. And what she gave me to work with really got my blood pumping again. So, in a span of about 12 hours I went from pure loathing to giddy love all over again. This sort of bipolar relationship with my book can’t be healthy, but, you know, in the end, I got work done. So hey, whateva, right?
Wordcount: 46,132