As you can tell by my lack of postings on this blog, I’ve suffered a bit of blogger ennui lately. It’s not that I haven’t been reading, but much of what I’ve been reading isn’t really worth talking about. I even tried writing up a massive post o’ mini reviews, and I just don’t have a lot to say about a lot of the stuff I’ve read lately, especially since a lot of it has been creative nonfiction and humor collections, which I find difficult to review, because you either think the humor/creative exercise works or you don’t, and I haven’t figured out a way to say things about those books in a way that is compelling to read.

That being said, there are a few reviews I want to post, and I hope once I get into a posting habit again, I will do better about keeping up with them.

So I hope I have not lost all my readers. And I hope you all are reading books about which you are enthusiastic!
In less bookish news, my nephew, Logan Charles, was born this morning. I have already been blessed with one niece, who is an adorable four-year-old, but it’s always nice to have another addition to the family. He weighs in at 9 pounds, 3 oz. nd is 20.5 inches long. His Auntie Shannon envisions a promising career as a linebacker already. Baby and mother are still in the hospital, and my brother and mother and niece are going to visit them in New Mexico this week. I would have gone as well, but though I’m sure my nephew is the bestest baby evar, I suspect my college professors might not consider his birth a terribly good excuse for missing a week of class, so instead I will be here, glued to my phone in hopes of news.

RPGs: I had this awesome meta-y thread idea that I started playing with on Saturday, and now the idea has spawned three distinct and different threads. Two of them are full of angst and great plot and character torture. But one of the players involved decided to introduce Legolas. Yes, that Legolas. And so I decided that I would keep introducing characters stolen liberally from deleterius who would keep popping up inconveniently and then getting killed. Only the serious writer and I are trying to figure out how we’re going to separate our serious story from Legolas because Legolas really isn’t fitting our grand plans. That being said, I still like the comic plot development of the random Mary Sues. The first one we killed was a half-elf, half-fairy. I’m thinking the second might be a modern-day girl who was bound for Middle Earth but wound up in that thread instead. I also have plans to introduce Saphira Potter-Snape, (the really bad crossover Sue) and the daughter of Lord Voldemort and Sauron (the even worse crossover Sue that involves mpreg.) There should also be an anime-inspired sue, but someone else will have to write that post up for me I’d actually really take any suggestions for that thread.

I had more to say, but I think it’ll wait until morning.

2. Tortured heroes who have a lot of angst and yet do not whine to excess
about same.

3. Hanging out with friends.

So far, the visit with my dad has been pretty cool and mellow. It’s funny
how, as a child, I hated and feared the man. Now, in the absence of all
those emotions, we’re getting along really well. And I talked to a good
family friend tonight. Tomorrow I’ll spend the day with her while Dad and
her husband go do manly things which I kind of glazed over when they
explained them.