Archive for category fluff

a few random thoughts

Apr 4

Posted by kate in ebooks, fluff, new york, WIP, writing | No Comments

white blossoms -- it is spring!Spring is for sure my favorite season. I like to take walks and I like flowers and I think the first couple of weekends of spring, when everyone is anxious to spend time outside, are like waking up from a long hibernation. This was an especially snowy, unpleasant winter, so it’s kind of nice to see lots of sunny days in the forecast. I took a long walk through the neighborhood this afternoon, admiring all the flowers blooming. I always forget how many cherry trees there are in Brooklyn until they start blooming in April.

I’m finishing up a novella that takes place during the winter, and it’s very hard to write about blizzards when it’s so sunny and warm out!

My Kindle might be developing an inferiority complex now that the iPad is out. I have some reservations about the iPad—I wish it ran OS X, I’m worried reading novels on a backlit screen will give me headaches, I’ve heard the iBooks store (or whatever they’re calling it) is still kind of clunky, though I imagine that will be improved—and have other more essential gadgets to buy first—my ancient iPod is about to kick it—but, golly, it’s pretty.

Speaking of the Kindle, I made a vow a couple of weeks ago that I would not buy any more books for it until I made a serious dent in the backlog of books on it. I did read a number of books that have been sitting on it for months, but ultimately, I’m weak, and I just bought two new books and am eying a third. It’s a disease, my need to buy books!

On the other hand, I’m finding that one of my favorite Sunday-afternoon leisure activities is to sit by the windows in my room and read as the sun sets.

I’m trying to turn my attention to a different work-in-progress right now, which is tough. I’m having trouble writing the end of the first chapter, but know pretty well how the later chapters shake out, so I can’t decide if it’s worth it to skip this and come back to it later, to write what I know will come easier, or to force myself to work out the problems with the first chapter before moving forward. Dilemma!

Well. I hope you all have a lovely spring week. I’ve still got a little bit of sunlight left tonight. I should make the most of it.

state of the kate

Feb 3

Posted by kate in books, fluff, in hot pursuit, m/m, vanity, WIP | No Comments

I called out sick from work today. I feel okay saying this on the internets because I am actually sick. The funny thing about sick days when you are actually sick is that, right after you get off the phone with your boss, you think, “Awesome, I’ve got this whole day off in front of me.” But then you realize you are actually sick and can’t do anything. I, for example, fell asleep in the middle of reading a book and lost the whole afternoon. I was thinking I’d get in some cold-medicine-fueled writing, but no. (Don’t pity me too much, though; I’m feeling a lot better now. And there are worse things than spending a day curled up in bed with a down quilt, a cat, and a Kindle.)

I’ve been reading a lot the last couple of days. I haven’t been reading much lately, mostly because of lack of time, but it turns out my shopping vice of late is ebooks, because I’ve bought, like, 15 of them in the last few weeks.

Here’s what I’ve read since I’ve been sick: After eying it for a couple of weeks, I finally broke down and read The Dark Tide. I knew the book would be good, and it was. I just couldn’t face the end of the Adrien English series. I guess I got a little sentimental. I mean, the series is fantastic, but also, Fatal Shadows has the distinction of being the first ebook I ever bought (and I think also the first m/m romance I ever read, although I’d read plenty of things with gay characters before). And it was a good intro to Loose Id, which, hey, is publishing my book in two weeks.

I also read LA Heat, a pretty solid procedural crime novel featuring a closeted cop who falls for the suspect in his murder investigation. It’s heavy on the police minutiae, but we’ve already talked about that, so you know it’s cool with me. And I’m a sucker for an old-fashioned page turner.

I’ve got a murder-mystery work-in-progress that I plan (hope) to finish this month, and all this cop stuff is making me want to get back to it. I’ve been working on this one for the last few months; I know whodunnit but can’t figure out how the characters figure it out, so I’ve been dragging my feet on the ending. It’s lighter in tone than In Hot Pursuit, though it has a higher body count. And I like these characters a lot, which makes it a joy to work on for the most part, except for the ending. (You appreciate mystery writers more when you try to write a mystery.) The one drawback is that one of the characters is a mystery writer, and after I was 20,000 words into the first draft, I had a conversation with a few members of my writers group who were all, “I hate characters who are writers.” Whoops! I’ll tell you, this character is not too prone to discussing his Craft. He’s more a pop writer, more opportunistic and arrogant than flighty and artistic. Plus, I thought it was funny to have a character who writes gritty crime novels with lots of gruesome details who then loses his shit when confronted with the real thing. It’s possible I have a warped sense of humor.

It occurred to me that my book comes out two days after Valentine’s Day, and it’s a romance, so there should be some celebrating? Stay tuned.

things wot are cool

Sep 30

Posted by kate in books, fluff | No Comments

I’m making a commitment to write something in this blog once a week at minimum, I suppose we’ll see how well I stick to that. I might also stick to writing fluffy things for a while; I have kind of a pathological fear of putting my foot in my mouth.

Speaking of fluff, I have a confession: I kind of love Tom Cruise pre-1995. I know this is not a popular opinion, but, two words: Top Gun. Gayest movie of all time, am I right? (Proof: volleyball scene. “Hrm, we are all shirtless and oiled up. Let me just flex my bicep while I check my watch.”) I also love Risky Business and Cocktail and… oh, hey, A Few Good Men is on my TV. This is one of those movies I almost always watch when I run into it on cable and it never gets old even though I’ve got large swaths of it memorized. I don’t know why. The cast is good, it’s an interesting story, Aaron Sorkin writes snappy dialogue, Tom Cruise does what he does best: playing a dude with assholish tendencies who makes good. Heck, I was still a Tom Cruise fan as late as 2001 or 2002 when he was on the cover of I think Vanity Fair, and I bought the magazine just for him, because, yeah. And Tom Cruise and I have the same birthday! I guess it turned on me around the same time he married Katie Holmes. He hasn’t done a movie I’ve liked in a while, he’s kind of crazy, it’s not cool to find him attractive. But, what can I say? It was like my stepmother said to me once after we’d seen Rain Man: That Tom Cruise is a hunk.

What about you? Any movies you always watch on TV? Secret celebrity crushes you’re kind of ashamed to admit to?

Other things that are cool: I agree with the Smart Bitches that these ads for an event put on my Lorelei James and MaryJanice Davidson are pretty cool. I also love that vintage art, like the covers of great pulp novels. (Incidentally, I’ve read and enjoyed most of Lorelei James’s McKay brothers series. I mean, what’s not to like? There are cowboys. Full stop. Cowboys, people. My favorite of the series, Rough, Raw, and Ready manages to accomplish both being a hot read and having a really interesting emotional arc. It’s a menage, which usually isn’t my thing, but it’s a great book.)