Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Bookshelf...

This is just one side of my bookshelf.



One day I plan on either a) getting a real bookshelf to hold all my novels or b) buying a castle in England so that I can actually have an entire room to call a library.

Bonus points if you can name some of my books?

Monday, February 27, 2006

Stamp-tastic review!

Check out my review of Terry Prachett's Going Postal here!

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Yay for libraries!

So I finally made my way over to my town's library, got a card, and perused the "books for sale" racks. 25 cents for a paperback; $1 for hardbacks. I have a weird fascination with old books, ones with yellow pages and the strong, musty smell of time. I'd rather buy old, beat up books than spend $10 on a fresh paperback. Yeah, I'm weird.

My fondest memory is going to the library when I was around 12 or 13, and buying Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park for a quarter. The book's cover was ripped in half, dangling for its life. Some pages had been marked, some passages underlined. Not only was this the book that probably forwarded my yearn for reading/writing, it's the one that gave me my old book fetish.

Anyways, I spent $2 today. Here is what I got:

1. The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (Yay for Hugo Award-winning authors.)
2. A Touch of Frost by R.D. Wingfield (I was intrigued by the plot summary.)
3. Death at Daisy's Folly by Robin Paige (I've only ever read a few murder mystery books and thought to give some more a try.)
4. Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton (Um, it's about vampires. 'Nuff said.)
5. The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz (I might need a horror read in the future so here we go.)
6. Surface Action by David Drake (Military sci-fi is always fun.)
7. The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul by Douglas Adams (The humor god. Must...buy...it...now.)
8. The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (Yeah, he's crap. I've read the first in the series, and thought that for a quarter I'd get book 3. If it sucks like I've heard his later books do, then I only lost a quarter and a few hours of my life.)

Knowing me, I'll go back next weekend and buy more.
I told you I'm addicted.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Shadowy review!

Check out my review of Shadowed Realms, #9 here!

Rant begin...

And, in other news, I got a 157-day rejection from a magazine that I thought had forgotten about me. I queried about the story two months ago with no response, and then yesterday, I get a form rejection in my email. That's fine, whatever. I probably won't submit to said magazine too often now that I know how they handle their submissions.

But here's the thing that bugs me. Not only is it a form rejection, but it's the kind that advertises its new subscription rate. That really bothers me. I understand they want to sell magazines, but the blatantly obvious marketing scheme of putting that crap into rejection letters is just annoying.

Here, we don't like your story and can't take the time to say anything about it, but why don't you purchase two year's worth of our magazine. Thanks!

...rant over.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Warlike review!

Check out my review of Hugh Cook's The Women and the Warlords here!

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Chaotic review!

Check out my review of Brett L. Renwick's Wired for Chaos here!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

I guess an update...

Not much to really update on.

Writing news
~ 150-day rejection from Aberrant Dreams with nice comments and encouragement to submit another story.

~ 23-day rejection from The Sword Review with some love it/hate it remarks.

~ 1-day rejection from The Town Drunk.

Sent out a couple stories last night. Other than that, I've been trying to catch up on my reading. I've got some books to review for FantasyBookSpot, and then on the side for pleasure, both the new issues of Shimmer and F&SF have arrived, tempting my eyes to devour them.

Also, The Girlfriend got me this for our anniversary/Valentine's Day celebration:


It's awesome.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Sword swinging review!

Check out my review of The Sword Review's January 2006 issue here!

Sunday, February 05, 2006

My first interview!

Check out my very first interview here!

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Glorius review!

Check out my review of Alan Dean Foster's Glory Lane here!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Angelic review!

Check out my review of Lisa Silverthorne's The Sound of Angels here!




Next up for Tangent is The Sword Review's current issue...