What's Up Wednesday (5) / RSW (4)

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, so we can check in with each other. To join, just check out Jaime Morrow or Erin Funk's blogs for the link widget and sign up!


WHAT I'M READING
I'm currently reading Siege & Storm, which I'm glad to report I am quite enjoying! It's actually kind of a relief because as some of you might remember I wasn't that enamored of the first book Shadow & Bone (here's Alz and my double-review of Shadow & Bone if you're interested). Nevertheless, I was interested in S&S because I did enjoy the world and thought the story had a lot of potential (even if I didn't love Alina), and no lie, I'm kind of in love with the Darkling. What can I say, at some point in recent years I've become a sucker for pretty villains (I blame Loki).

But yes, I'm enjoying it! I'm liking Alina a lot more this time around; there was Darkling early on in the book (but alas, I think he will be MIA for this next chunk); and I'm starting to come around to this Sturmhond fellow. (But I will never abandon the Darkling ship! Never!)


WHAT I'M WRITING

Still working on that backstory story! I'm going to try to make a Ready.Set.Write twitter session one of these days, but the downside of being on the West Coast is that I'm usually at work or eating dinner or at the gym during the times of the write sessions. BUT ONE DAY!

Goal: Finish this stupid backstory story! Until then, since Tracey suggested it, here's an excerpt:

She was taught to read and write, to sing and dance - footsteps I would follow in my own education. They adorned her with silver hoops, woven shawls, and brightly patterned skirts.

It was no wonder then that my father took notice of her when he and his party arrived at their remote village.

The story is unclear here with accounts varying as to the reason for my father’s presence in such a far flung nook of the empire. What is clear is that he was on his way home when he heard tale of a heartrending beast lurking in the dense forests of the Northern range. Whether he was goaded by his men to pursue it or wished to gain glory for himself is a mystery, but it was this local superstition that sparked the beginning of my father and mother’s own legend.

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

I just picked up this book, and it is kind of awesome. Alz and I have already been fascinated, boggled, and amused by the many strange things found in this book. See that round thing with 4 wings and 6 feet on the cover? Apparently, that is a god.


WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

It was ridiculously hot this past weekend in Southern California. Like it was probably around 100F in my area, but I hear it was 134F in Death Valley. In any case, to stay cool, we went swimming and took Loki (and my cousin's dog Sadie) with us. Loki knows how to swim, but as Alz posted last Friday, Loki is too scared to leave the first step by himself.

But thanks to the heat, he figured out how to do it himself! He will now voluntarily launch himself from the top step and into the pool! He became so confident that he kept showing off to Sadie while we were trying to teach her not to be afraid of the water. (Sadie really hated swimming, haha.)



This weekend was also my cousin-once-removed (is this correct? The daughter of my first cousin?)'s birthday. We ate BBQ, played Just Dance (well, I watched - I am NOT coordinated enough for that game), and made balloon animals.

I made a tiger. Rawr!

Hope the rest of you had cooler weekends than I did!

Q4U: How is your RSW or Camp NaNoWriMo going? What's up with you?

P.S. Our blog/writer friend and awesome blog layout designer Caroline Richmond sold her book - and it sounds like a fantastic read! Definitely go congratulate her if you haven't! Here: It's a Book Deal