What’s Up Wednesday? Canada Day!

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blogfest to share the answers to a few simple questions… Join us!

What I’m reading:

Still enjoying “Iron Druid: Trapped”, finished “I’ve got your number” and got it back to the library, and getting close to the end of “Skin Game.” Also read another Angel/Faith Season 9 Graphic Novel, “Daddy Issues”, and read another few stories from Analog on my tablet Zinio. Which is frustrating because the Zinio format of these magazines doesn’t seem to reflow as it resizes, you’ve just got a picture of the magazine page that you can zoom in or out on. But hey, it’s free from the library!

What I’m writing:

Finished the first draft of “Magic Milkshake”, and started the Neural Rewiring story for Camp Nanowrimo’s July session!

What inspires me right now:

Well, I’m going to be coy about the spoiler, but there’s a moment in ‘Skin Game’ where a secret code is revealed that bears on a bunch of conversations from earlier in the story, giving them a second meaning. I’m really looking forward to reviewing all those moments and seeing what was really being said in the second layer.

What else I’ve been up to:

Hanging out with the family for Canada Day, trying to keep cool even though my kitchen air conditioner (the big one in the window) has been acting up a bit, and… I guess that’s it. For now. Oh, and more ‘Angry Birds Epic’, including my own systematic attempt to map out the island and figure out where I can earn coins the fastest!

What about you? Click here to join the hop or check in with some other great writers.

What’s Up Wednesday? Summer Solstice edition

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blogfest to share the answers to a few simple questions… Join us! I’m glad to be back after spending a few weeks away at the Young Gunns workshop in Kansas.

What I’m reading:

Well, I finished “Dark Lord of Derkholm”, loved the ending, and I’ve been reading some Iron Druid, starting on “Trapped” and then going back to find “Two Ravens One Crow” because the author was referring to it and I wanted to follow what was going on. I’ve also read a cool story from a January 2013 edition of Analog, courtesy of my local library’s Zinio program, and finished off another Buffy season 9 graphic novel.

For audio books, I think I’m getting close to the end of “I’ve got your number,” and I’ve been able to listen to some more of “Skin Game.”

What I’m writing:

Still making some progress with the new draft for “Magic Milkshake”, and I finished a partial revision of “TimeBubble Blues:” it should be on its way out to the critters.org critiquers any minute now! I’ve also been working on giving critiques; I sent one in to critters.org yesterday because my ratio was slipping dangerously low, and I’ve got a lot of novel excerpts yet to critique for “The Never-Ending Odyssey” workshop.

What inspires me right now:

Stories with strong romantic and adventure plots, especially where the couple are able to work together to beat the bad guy or reach the prize, instead of getting bogged down in angst.

What else I’ve been up to:

Gearing up for Camp Nanowrimo in July! Looks like my local writers will be able to get together for some write-ins in July, and I’ve also got a pretty cool cabin on the Camp Nano website.

What about you? Click here to join the hop or check in with some other great writers.

My local library and Adobe Digital Editions: a decent combination!

I’ve started to get into the habit of checking the Hamilton Public Library catalog when there’s a book I’m interested in that I don’t have a copy of, (and that isn’t in the public domain,) because it’s a good way of trimming the budget for buying books. A few weeks ago, after Storywonk announced Sophie Kinsella’s “The Undomestic Goddess” as their Book Club pick for April, I hit the online catalog and was surprised to find that it was listed as a library ebook.

Now, I’ve wanted for a while to try checking an ebook out of the library, but had never found an ebook listed that I was actually interested in. So I took a closer look. There were two ebook copies in the Hamilton system, both checked out, but no outstanding holds, so I placed a hold of my own, and the website assured me that I’d get an email notification when a copy became available.

And I didn’t hear back for a while, to the point where I was starting to get worried that I was misreading the part where the website said “Library copies: 2” and there weren’t any ebooks at all. In the meantime, Storywonk Sunday went on hiatus and postponed the Book Club discussion to May 26th. Finally, Monday morning, I woke up and found out that there was a notification in my email that it was finally ready to check out, two and a half weeks after I placed the hold. These titles can be checked out for 1 to 3 weeks, (with no early return because there’s no way to make sure that every reading device has deactivated the authorization codes,) and I think it’s a bit odd that both copies were checked out just a few days before I searched, but I’m not complaining.

So far, I’m impressed with the process of borrowing and reading an ebook. The library offered 3 different borrowing option with this title: