Life, such as it is, has been as non-stop busy as usual, except the weather is getting nicer (and I *know* I am getting older, since the weather figures more and more in my conversation).
BUT I have been reading a lot, which is cool, but not found time to write, which is not cool. I have this little problem called ‘getting distracted,’ usually by ‘the shiny,’ which could be a new book, a friend, or the time-suckage of the internet.
That said, however, I have dug deep to find a renewed fervor to finish revising this ridiculous story I’ve been working on forever. That STILL isn’t done. But I just registered to attend this year’s RWA National Conference in July, so I need to finish it by then, or I will personally cut off my own head.
One friend pointed out recently that perhaps I can only do things under pressure of deadlines, and I know I always notice time deadlines in books and movies–because, after all, what’s the point of staying up another hour to read if the hero and heroine have all the time in the world to sort out their problems and fall in love? I want them to feel as much urgency as I do when reading.
For example, I’m reading a book a Twitter friend recommended, The Guards by Ken Bruen. Very dark, very intriguing writing, with a super-dark protagonist (he is NOT a hero). She called it “Irish noir,” and that’s a good descrip. His time deadline is if he doesn’t figure out how to stop the person he knows is doing bad things, bad things will continue to happen to innocent people. But in order to stop the person, he has to do something bad himself, or convince corrupt purportedly good people to stop it. All while dealing with his personal demons, which make Satan seem like Mr. Rogers.
None of this is Regency-related, but it is life-related, which is a universal truth we all deal with. And time is something we all never have enough of.
This week it seems I am babbling more than usual, which is pretty darn remarkable.
So–have you been reading any new-to-you authors? Do you read noir? Who are your favorites (I could go on and on about mine, but will spare you)? Do you like ambiguously dark characters, or do you want them redeemed by the end of the book (I do not think that is going to happen in this book)? Anything else you want to talk about this fine warm Friday?
What do I want to talk about on a lovely warm Friday? The new Kinsale, o’course!! How amazing is that news?!
I definately ascribe to the saying “If it weren’t for the 11th hour, nothing would get done.”
I find that I like noir movies (ok I’ll be all proper and say “film noir”), but not noir books. I’m intrigued by the dark visual representations in movies, but my imagination with books gets carried away and I get too creeped out and depressed.
I’m with lustyreader. I’m just not fond of noir books. I am definitely always in search of the happy ending.
Haven’t read the new Kinsale, Keira, but that should come as no surprise. My reading has all been research lately.
You posted a pic of Professor Snape, so I’m all good!
In film, I love the combo of noir elements with humor, Pulp Fiction, Shoot Em Up. But I haven’t read any “official” noir. Must change that. I really like David Schickler’s work. He wrote Kissing in Manhattan and Sweet & Vicious. But his work is as lyrical as it can be dark-ish. I don’t think a character necessarily needs to be redeemable, it depends on how s/he’s used by the story. But I definitely demand that such a character be interesting and real or I get bored.
For Fun Friday, here’s a sentence made up of my Risky word verifications from my previous eight postings.
Catelion moledtan heangi, patio sifiling, table notedli. Gratio!
Catelion moledtan heangi, patio sifiling, table notedli. Gratio!A story idea for you, Jane. Aspiring writer happens upon a secret message that appears to her in the word verifications of one of her favorite blogs……
Hey, thanks to all of you for popping in on my nothing day!
Diane, the Kinsale book hasn’t come out yet, was just announced as coming from Sourcebooks in 2010.
JaneGeorge, if you ever want some recs for noir fic, lemme know; I’ve read a lot of it.
I like ambiguous characters, period. And I can’t think of any writer I’d categorize as noir–Walter Mosely, maybe?
I should probably give Kinsale another chance.
I’m afraid I am more in search of a happy ending when it comes to my reading. My life has enough noir in it to last a lifetime, thank you very much. However, I do like dark characters. And I think perhaps for a character like the one you are reading, Megan, if he stops the bad things from happening to innocent people that may be his redemption, even if his character doesn’t change. Sometimes there is such a great evil in the world one can only conquer it with something equally evil. Not often, but it happens. My late DH was a prison psychiatrist and he would tell you in a heartbeat there IS evil, true evil in the world and you cannot be in the same room with it without being changed.
You know, Louisa, I’m really interested in what you said here. It also makes me uncomfortable as heck.I like to believe that there’s no one who’s truly evil; everyone has at least one quality that is positive or at least one reason to explain why he/she did the evil things that he/she did. (I’m talking only of human beings here, of course.) Then again, my experience is certainly vanilla compared with what your R experienced. Is evil that so truly evil even have a birth? It just must be no matter the circumstances, right? This is scary.
It is scary Keira and has made me a very cautious person, especially as I live alone. I too have always wanted to believe in the idea that everyone no matter how horrible has at least one small redeeming characteristic. And yes, many of those people we deem evil were not born that way. Very, very few were, in fact. However, there are some, a very rare few who are born with no conscience. There is something fundamental missing in their makeup. It was never there and never will be. They are usually HIGHLY intelligent and great mimics. They can mimic the rest of us and make us believe they are normal, but at some point in an even smaller percent of the ones born like this the veneer cracks. Then there is true evil. And nothing on this side of heaven can fix it. In all of his years in the prison system my Roger sat in a room with three people (two men, one woman) who were truly evil. Two of them were made that way. At some point something happened early in their lives that flipped the switch from good to evil. The third was born that way. Nothing in his life could explain how truly evil he was. These three people Roger worked very hard to keep in prison. There was no redemption for these people. Ever.
But there were some who had done evil, evil things and still managed to redeem themselves even if just in part. Would Roger recommend these people for parole. Never. But, he felt God would very probably deal kindly with them.
Louisa, what a scary thing!! Gives me shivers thinking about it. (and while I do enjoy darker stories and characters once in a while, I find I can’t read tales of true evil, because it disturbs me too much…)
BTW, I am finally back with full email access and getting caught up with everything that happened at RR this week! I HATE being away from everyone, even when it’s in a good cause. 🙂 I read a lot of YA this week, because none of the bajillion books I took with me appealed once I got there, and the tiny shop at the spa had (surprisingly) a pretty big YA section (along with lots of meditation/spirituality stuff, plus two romances and 3 mysteries!). One was new-to-me book “The Amaranth Enchantmen,” very fairy-tale like (but not long enough!!)
Oh, and of course it goes without saying that I can’t WAIT for the new Kinsale 🙂