What's Up Wednesdays #07.

[misslj_author]

WHAT I'M READING.

I'm 3/4 of the way through Red Phoenix by Kylie Chan. I really liked the first book in this series, White Tiger, but I find the MFC incredibly annoying and I frequently want to apologise to readers and say that not all Australians are like this. That's usually when I put the book down for a while. When I pick it up again, I enjoy it until once more, MFC with her magical perfect perfection that astounds even gods and goddesses that she insults and shouts at like unruly children, makes me want to hurl it at the wall. So I have a love/hate relationship with this series. Love, because all the secondary characters and the villains are fabulous and modern Hong Kong is beautifully written, but hate because of the MFC. And now there's all these hints the size of anvils that MFC is going to end up being part or entirely goddess of an ancient culture, and that goddess form will be a serpent. I'm not laying bets on how "astonishing" everyone else in the book will find this, because I don't like losing money.

But other than that, I'm enjoying it!

WHAT I'M WRITING (+ A WRITING GOAL).

Nearly finished the vampire novel that I started writing for NaNoWriMo, but I'm not sure I'm going to go on and finish it with a gazillion edits and chops and changes or not because I'm not entirely convinced it's not crap, so there's that.

Still working with Cate Ashwood on our second collaboration, set in Australia.

Song of Song will be out on the 18th January 2016 and Book, Line and Sinker will be out in March/April 2016, both with Dreamspinner Press.

WHAT WORKS FOR ME.

Sleep. Quiet. The sound of rain on the roof. The internet not being down, because it's hard to research something when your ISP suddenly drops out. My cat cuddling up beside me. <-- Same as last time.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW.

I've had the first batch of work done for the exhibition I'm involved with for next year's Fringe. The Fringe runs through February and March. So John and I have been driving around and I've been taking a million photos. I'm lucky to have a brother who doesn't mind driving me hither and yon for this. We ended up in the town of Sedan a few weeks ago, Sedan is 110km north-east from Adelaide and is tiny, but for me as a photographer, it was a gold mine.

And the year's coming to an end, it's gone by so quickly! It'll be Christmas in 23 days, argh!




1. Ruin on the way to Myponga Beach, some 80kms south of Adelaide. 2. The beautiful 18 meter tall statue of Kwan Yin at the Nan Hai Pu Tuo Buddhist temple in Sellicks Hill, also down the south coast of SA. 3.Ruins of Arthur's Seat in the Adelaide Hills. 4. The center of town in Sedan, 110km north-east of Adelaide. 5. Castiel. Because he's adorable.

Comments

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

I've read all eight of those Kylie Chan books (there's two more trilogies following on from the one you're currently reading, with the last (maybe) one due out next year. I don't recommend them if you're already getting annoyed at the second book - they only get worse. I really enjoyed the first one, but the story is really starting to drag (mild spoiler - eight books in and we still haven't found out what Emma really is)

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

I had seen she'd done a set of three trilogies. I bought the first one bc I enjoyed the first book so much. Thing is, her research, her world building and the secondary characters are all so good and so much fun, that it makes me a bit sad the books are so let down by Emma.

I figured Emma was going to be either half snake mother or ouroborous type serpent. A Celtic serpent deity because of her being a white Australian.

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

I have seen comments to the effect that Emma is a bit of a Mary Sue, but for some reason that's never really bothered me much in a character. But it does get a bit samey after a while - go somewhere, get attacked by demons, all seems lost then Emma does something unexpected, Emma bosses around some Chinese deities, everything seems like it's wrappung up, but oh noes something terrible happens at the last minute, rinse, repeat for eight chunky books...I'm not in any great hurry to read the last, if only because I am worried it won't be the last!

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

I didn't want to say it. :) It doesn't usually bother me either, but here... I don't know. Definitely the whole doing better at all the things than ancient beings and gods and demons and all of the planet grates. I've heard that the last one is out and is definitely the last one, so there's that at least.