Wednesday Reads & News (Good and Not so Good)

First the GOOD news. J Even with still 2500 words to chop (well, maybe 2400, I’m still chopping), my editor is willing to read BITE ME!! Yay! J I’m saving the not so good news for the end.

Here’s what I finished reading this week:

Jul 24: “Seeing Ghosts” by James Garcia, Jr. This is a paranormal/horror book. Blurb from Goodreads: Paul Herrera finds himself bequeathed a mysterious old house near the California central coast by a deceased aunt he never knew. The woman who shows it to him is the spitting image of his wife, taken from him three years before in a senseless car accident which also took his unborn son. While he deals with the ghosts of a past he cannot let go, there are new ghosts Paul must deal with - alone for the week in the expansive two-story house that he will soon discover holds many secrets. Eventually, he will see that he is surrounded by ghosts as he struggles to hold onto the only thing that he has left in this world - his sanity. I enjoyed this story. Some scenes were a little slow, but for the most part, it was a good creepy ghost story. Parts of it kind of reminded me of Joe Hill’s “Heart Shaped Box” (a book I also enjoyed). I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Jul 26: “Stolen” by Allison Brennan. This is a suspense (with some romantic elements), the sixth book of the Lucy Kincaid series. Blurb on back: Nothing is more important to private investigator Sean Rogan than his relationship with FBI trainee Lucy Kincaid. But when his past catches up with him, Sean faces an ultimatum: clear his name and help the FBI take down a rogue agent, or go to prison and lose everything he holds dear. With only Agent Noah Armstrong as his back-up and forced to keep Lucy in the dark, Sean steps back into his old world. But the longer he’s undercover, the more dangerous the game becomes. More than Sean’s future with Lucy is at stake--so is his life. Lucy can’t imagine Sean would keep secrets from her--until an FBI agent casts doubt about who he really is…and who he used to be. Why did Sean quit his job with his brother and move to New York? Why hasn’t he told her anything about his new job? With more questions than answers, Lucy doesn’t know who to believe or who she can trust. All she knows is that Sean is in grave danger, and this time, it’s personal. I zipped through this book (actually read it in two days); it was so hard to put down. I love this series and learned more about Sean (and his family). A great suspenseful read! I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads.

Now for the not so good news. L You know I love riding the bike trails, but apparently they aren’t always safe. On Monday, my daughter and her friend were walking on a bike trail (doing some geocaching) and were robbed at gun point. Luckily the only things the thugs took were their iPhones. When I first heard about the incident, I blamed it on geocaching -- I mean, anyone could lurk around a spot and wait for some unsuspecting person -- but these were kids who had just stolen some bikes and my daughter and her friend just happened to pass them on the path. A scary event in any case. I’m just so glad they’re okay!! It could have been so much worse.

Happy reading, and take care!

 

Stacy

 

Computers, Movies, and Geocaching

We recently upgraded out cable to a whole-house system, which also upgraded our internet speed by trillions. Okay, maybe not trillions, but it more than doubled. Well, it doubled if…

my laptop’s wireless card could be upgraded. It cannot (since it is part of my motherboard).

Oh, but does the cable company tell you that? Heck, no!

So, while my husband is able to enjoy the speedy internet connection via wireless, I have to “plug in” if I wish to have the same service; otherwise, I’m stuck with the same ol’ slow internet. Guess it’s the price I pay for keeping my laptop, huh? And I really don’t want to give it up.

J J J

How far would you travel to see a movie?

On June 7, “Much Ado About Nothing” was reported to be released. I checked our local listings. Nothing. I checked Fandango, MovieTicket.com, and Rotten Tomatoes. Nothing. Found out via a comment on one of those sites that it was released in only FOUR theatres. The big release was scheduled for June 21. Okay, guess I have to wait.

On June 21, I checked our local listings. Nothing. My daughter came over and told me that the only Ohio cities showing the movie were Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland. How is THAT a big release? Guess I should be lucky it’s in Ohio at all, huh?

So yesterday, my daughter and I drove aaalll the way to Columbus (that would be 120 miles round trip) to see the movie. Was it worth it? Yes, it was. Now, I’m not a huge Shakespeare fan, and the fact his words are basically used in a modern-day setting kind of threw me (you really have to pay attention to what the characters are saying), but it was funny and I liked the people who starred in it. My daughter is a huge Joss Whedon fan AND she likes Shakespeare, so it was doubly good for her. If I were to rate this movie on something like Goodreads, I’d give it four stars!

J J J

Have you ever heard of geocaching? Saturday, my daughter discovered this newfangled adventure using your smart phone and now she’s hooked. It’s like a scavenger hunt, but it’s not like you win anything. It’s just something to do so you can say you did it. At least, that’s what I take it for. It does require a lot of driving around and searching, searching, searching. Then, when you find the object, you write your name down and then replace it.

Sometimes I see things and think: Gee, I wish they had something like that when I was young. Like I do with iPods or even CD players. I would have LOVED to carry my music everywhere back in the 70s.

But I don’t think I would have gone geocaching if it existed all those years ago. Not because I was lazy (I was and still am, thank you very much), but because I just wasn’t (and am still not) very adventurous.

I’ll leave the adventures to my characters (which gives me an idea… See, they come at the strangest times!).

So… Do you think you’ll check out “Much Ado About Nothing”? And if you saw it, what did you think?

Stacy