Meradeth Houston's Blog, page 8

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone who is celebrating this year has a wonderful holiday season, and I wish you the very best for a joyous 2018! We're having a very white Christmas here in Montana, but the sun is out today and it's a sparkly white wonderland outside :)
Much love to all my readers, from the House of Snow and Dogs!

After Reading: WATERFALL by Lauren Kate

Eureka’s tears have flooded the earth, and now Atlantis is rising, bringing with it its evil king, Atlas. Eureka is the only one who can stop him, but first she must learn how to fight. She travels across the ocean with Cat, her family, and Ander, the gorgeous and mysterious Seedbearer who promises to help her find Solon, an enigmatic lost Seedbearer who knows how to defeat Atlas.

Once on land, Eureka is taunted by gossipwitches, a group of displaced Atlantean sorceresses, and ambushed by locals struggling to survive amid the destruction her tears have wrought. And she feels no closer to facing Atlas or saving the world when Solon lets slip that love is Ander’s weakness, and that any affection he feels toward her makes him age faster.

Trying to make sense of the dark world her sorrow has created, Eureka receives startling insight from an enchanted pond. Her bewildering reflection reveals a soul-crushing secret: if she’s strong enough, Eureka can draw on this knowledge to defeat Atlas—unless her broken heart is just what he needs to fuel his rising kingdom... (Goodreads)

So the first book in this series, Teardrop , was an okay read. Interesting and unique, with some weird flaws, but still felt grounded enough to keep me engaged. And then there was Waterfall. I'm not sure where to start. I don't like being negative about a book, mainly because I know a ton of effort went into it and it's still an expression of the author. But dang, this book was all over the place, with no logical flow or connection, no character development, and all sorts of details were omitted and made the whole thing confusing. Quite frankly I don't know why I kept reading--perhaps because I thought something would happen to bring it all together? I don't know. It certainly didn't. And it certainly did not wrap up well--well, other than that there's not another book in the series. Yikes. Not to be harsh, but I can't quite help it with this one. Eureka's character went from rather robust in the first book, to paper-thin here. There was magical abilities quite literally popping up everywhere. The dead came back to life in robots that were not really explained. And then there's Atlantis, which was never quite explained, nor the rationale of the evil leaders there. It was, well, a mess. And when put into contrast with the fantastic book I'm reading now, I wish I hadn't wasted my time.

Anyone ever just feel like they have to finish a book, even if they're not enjoying it terribly?

Final Exam Season is Upon Us #picturepost

So, most people this time of year are thinking about the upcoming holidays, purchasing gifts, enjoying the lights and songs and food. If you're a student or a professor, however, this time of year means one thing: end of semester exams and grading. Woot! :) I have a veritable mountain of exams and essays to grade. And because of this, and the review sessions I end up running for my students, I often end up hunting for amusing memes to make me laugh. Hope you enjoy (or enjoy knowing this isn't you!).
As is the caffeine consumption in epic proportions.  Yes. I must conquer the mountain of papers to grade or die trying. Although dying trying actually sounds like winning...so yeah, there's that.  (AKA how to REALLY PISS OFF YOUR PROFESSOR and ensure they talk shit about you. Just FYI.) In a 1:5:20 ratio. Being able to wear jeans and a flannel to work is the only redeeming quality of this time of year.  Okay, MAYBE this makes me evil. But I've done it before. Because I really love watching the student's reactions :)

#InkRippes: End of the year & already thinking about 2018 #goals

#InkRipples  is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on this page, and link back to their three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

Okay, so I'll admit it: I'm terrible with resolutions/goals/whatever that often start to creep into the world as one year edges toward the end and a new one starts. I've tried it before. Made lists, checked in monthly, tried to make lists that were more broken into manageable bits and pieces, blah blah blah. I've tried many different things. And so as I scramble through the rest of this year and try to plan ahead, honestly, I feel more like I'm just trying to keep my head above water more than anything else. Actually, not even my head; my nose above water--just enough to breathe :) (Not that I'm trying to bitch or anything, just the honest truth. It's been a pretty brutal year in academia...or at least the university I work for...)
But, this isn't to say that I don't have things I'd like to see happen next year. Some of which are out of my control: I'd love to see my employer get its shit together and no longer live under the cloud of fear that I won't have a job next year (god, I can't not complain about this--I'm sorry to my readers, but GAH it kills me!). I'd also love to see some major changes in politics. But, for the most part, there's nothing I can do about these things, other than vote and be active in doing my part for change. 
On a more personal note, there are plenty of things I'd like to see happen that I do have more of a hand in: get tenure or find employment elsewhere (the latter being the option that is honestly more of an option, because, well, I'd love to work somewhere that heated my office--hell, at this point I'm surprised I have tp in the bathroom...). Apply for more funding, and work like hell to secure something. Publish more, both personally and academically. Make more time for my personal life (said the woman who has worked most of the weekend...), and tied in with this is be more active. These are the kinds of things that I'm thinking about for 2018. I probably won't write them down. I'm already striving toward them. Because goals are things that need to be met, lived, breathed. And as 2018 ushers its way into the world, I look forward to meeting it head on and working my ass off to make it mine.
Also, writing posts Sunday evening whilst in the midst of pre-Monday freak-outs is probably not the best. Well, at least I hope you find this post amusing on some level ;)

New Release: AGAIN, FOR LOVE by LA Dragoni

I totally love a good time-travel romance (*ahem* Travelers, anyone?), and am super stoked to read LA's new release! Check out that first chapter!

Would you sacrifice everything for love?


A life must be lost. Who will make the ultimate sacrifice? 

Lawson lives a simple life: a job at a brewery, and his basketball and hockey leagues. Even his eccentric lifelong friend and roommate—who is intent on discovering time travel—doesn’t complicate things. Then Jory appears. Lawson feels an immediate attraction to her, yet their attempts at dating end with him thinking it just isn’t meant to be. But Jory refuses to give up. 
When one date ends tragically, Lawson turns to his best friend and the experimental time travel program he’s invented. But, no matter what he does, each time the reset ends with a loss. 
It’s clear…a life must be lost, and Lawson is prepared to give his for Jory. But he isn’t the only one playing with time. 
Will he spare Jory by forfeiting his own life? Or will someone else make the ultimate sacrifice?
Buy now:Amazon| Barnes & Noble| iTunes| Goodreads
Excerpt:
Chapter 1 “So you’re going for the stalker approach, I see.” Lawson sighed and shifted his gaze to the table. Der- rick was a jerk, but he was also right. “She just moved here from Washington.” Despite himself, Lawson raised an eyebrow and prompted for more information from his boss. Their boss. “State or DC?” “State. Some small town east of the Cascades. I don’t remember the name.” Derrick took a big bite of his ham- burger and only half chewed it before continuing. “She at- tended Central Washington University, but didn’t graduate. She was going for a B.S. in Craft Brewing. That’s the main reason she got the job. She’s qualified. The fact that she’s smoking hot is just a bonus.” Lawson cringed. “Pretty sure admitting that you find her attractive is verging on illegal, dude.” Derrick shrugged. “Probably. Hell, not finding you at- tractive could probably get me in trouble these days.” Lawson snorted. His gaze wandered to Jory one more time. He’d barely said three words to her in the few days she’d worked at the brewery. Her beauty intimidated him, making him stammer like a pubescent teen. He seemed to be the only one having that problem. She sat at a table with three guys from bottling and a girl from the office. The guys looked like total vultures, with beady eyes and hunching postures as if ready to pounce. But Jory appeared oblivious. She laughed at their stories and seemed to share her own. Why the hell was he sitting with Derrick instead of at that table? He should have sat down with them when he came into the break room. It would’ve been natural. Instead, he slumped his big, bulky body into the corner like the stalker Derrick accused him of being. The light that glinted off her auburn waves when she tossed her head back to laugh made his fingers itch. The long line of her neck taunt- ed him: I know you want to taste me. Curling his hands into fists, he tipped his head forward so that his chin length hair made a curtain between them and focused on his plate of food, deciding to finish his lunch fast and get the hell back to work. Derrick took a healthy swig of his beer and slammed the pint down on the table with determination. “I’m gonna ask her out.” Lawson’s throat went dry, and he almost choked. He forced his bite of food down before replying. “You can’t, dude. You’re her boss. You can’t date her.” “We just won’t tell anyone.”
“You just told me.”
“Are you gonna run to the big wigs and tell them?” “Well, no. But...” He wanted to come up with a compelling argument against Derrick asking Jory out. Derrick was good looking and made more money, and he had some weird charm that girls seemed to fall for all the time. If the risk of losing his job wasn’t threat enough, Lawson was screwed. “Dude, I’d hate to see you go.”Derrick laughed. “I guess it would be pretty stupid of me to put my job in jeopardy. It’s a sweet gig.” Lawson nodded, hopeful.
“Maybe I’ll fire her.”
Buy now:Amazon| Barnes & Noble| iTunes| Goodreads
About the author:


***Straight to the heart***
LA Dragoni isn’t too particular about who falls in love or where they fall in love. She simply considers it her job to capture the story about their love. Whether it’s paranormal, mythical, or time travel, LA will be there to divine their story for you. She lives in Central Oregon with her husband and children, but haunts ghost towns and cemeteries up and down the west, in search of the next adventure to sift through her storytelling brain. Learn more about LA and her work at ladragoni.comp.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545; min-height: 14.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 23.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545}

Thanksgiving and Thanks Giving

It's Thanksgiving week here in the US and as I gear up for family to arrive (and stay with me and my boyfriend for a few days...gulp!), I'm trying to find a few moments to remember what I am most thankful for. There are many things, and yet they seem to get so easily lost in the crazy day-to-day that I need to be better about remembering them. A few things stick out to me most:

One of the ones that lately has felt incredibly frustrating is my job. My university is doing some stupid crap because we're out of money (thank you to state governments that don't value education at all, grrrr!). This has honestly set a pall over the whole campus. Faculty are upset, staff are leaving, and generally everyone's just angry and scared. I hate it. The thing is, I adore my job. My students are fantastic! The photo on the left is from one of my grad seminars, right before my students busted out a game of Clue they'd completely revamped to be all about forensic genetics and how to solve a crime (I swear they're missing their calling as board game creators!). Anyhow, I love teaching, and my research is awesome. I wish I could focus on being better at those things, and doing what I do best instead of the stupid stuff the University of Montana seems to think they need to do to us all, but alas... But, in the end, I'm grateful for the opportunity to teach and be an educator and scientist. There is no other job I'd rather have and it really is the best one on the planet!

I am also incredibly grateful for my two little fur-children :) They are a handful at times, but waking up in the morning with the two of them nestled into me and just wanting loves is the best thing ever. And they're just adorable!

I am also super grateful for my wonderful writing buddies. The ones who I can chat with via email, or in person, for ages about books and other worlds, and how to craft the perfect character. They're also there for me when I struggle with rejections and other aspects of writing that can be less fun, and help set me back up on my feet. Thanks, ladies--you are the BEST! (And hopefully all know who you are ;)

Last, but most certainly not least, I'm incredibly grateful for my boyfriend. The past year has taught me so many things about being in a kind and loving relationship that's about being your best self. I feel rather old to be learning these lessons, but am so grateful for finding the kind of person who stands by me and helps me to see the world in a much brighter light.

And of course, I am grateful for my readers! So, what about you? What are you grateful for? And what are your plans for Thanksgiving?

After Reading: TEARDROP by Lauren Kate

Never, ever cry...
Seventeen-year-old Eureka won't let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean. And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother's death and Ander's appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don't make sense. Can everything you love be washed away? (Goodreads)

So, I really enjoyed most of the Fallen series, so I picked up a copy of this to read. There are some similarities in Kate's writing that carry over, which helped me get through this novel. However, a lot of the world felt poorly fleshed out--or done so haphazardly--and I found myself frustrated with certain elements of how it all fit together. Eureka is depressed, deeply and understandably so, but it makes a lot of the book difficult to view through the lens of Eureka's pain. I often felt like I couldn't trust her experiences because I didn't know if it was her depression speaking. Also, insta-love between her and Ander, and let's be real, I *hate* that. Hmm, as an example of things that bothered me: she meets up with this fortune teller to get a book left to her by her mother translated. The woman is murdered and Eureka gushes about the motherly connection she had with her after meeting her twice. Really? It certainly didn't read that way. Anyhow, the setting is pretty typical high school for most of it, which helped ground the story, and I did like the host of supporting characters. I'm in the middle of the second book and quite honestly not sure I'll finish it, but this first is interesting enough, though I don't recommend it for anyone struggling with depression as I'd imagine it could be a trigger.

Anyone read any of Kate's work? Thoughts?

#InkRipples: Hitting the Finish Line #amwriting

#InkRipples  is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on this page, and link back to their three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

Soooo, how did it get to be November? Yikes! It feels like 2017 just started. Really. But, it's been a good year on the whole. Lots of craziness with work and generally all kinds of stress, but what else is new? That's life in academia these days everywhere.
Anyhow, this month's Ink Ripples topic feels pretty appropriate for a variety of reasons: finishing that novel. Because it's NaNoWriMo and I know so many awesome people who are participating, it's all about hitting those 50k words, or actually finishing a novel. I love watching people manage this feat, and am always a little jealous of those who get to participate :) November is one of those months that's always insane with work and my mountain of grading, exams to give, and grants to submit don't allow for it to be a month that I can buckle down and get in so many words. But there's a lot to finishing a novel, no matter what, whether that be in NaNo, or just on your own.
Here's the thing, they are both going to require dedication and a whole lot of dedication. For many, that means writing every single day. I don't subscribe to that because, let's get real, not every day allows for that--life happens, and my life is downright BUSY, which I know many of you deal with too. But I do try to prioritize getting in some writing time as often as possible. Because, let's get real, if I don't, it's not gonna happen. I can write in my head all I want, but getting words on the page is all that counts. Even if they're crappy words, haha! I've written quite a lot of those lately, that's for damn sure. But, at least they're there, and I look forward to going back and getting them whipped into shape.
Often, getting to that finish line means that I give up watching a whole lot of TV (no big loss there, except for Stranger Things, because that show was incredible). It also means that I often don't get a ton of sleep, and I take time to myself maybe more than it good. But, if I want to get in words, if I want to show dedication to my craft, I have to do it. And I don't regret it. Because I love writing, even when it makes me frustrated, even when my characters defy me, and even when I'm so exhausted that all I can manage for a day is edit a single paragraph. It's still a part of me and I like working on it.
I know in a lot of ways I'm preaching to choir here with this post. So, tell me, what does it take for you to get to the end of a book? 

After Reading: PLAYING WITH FIRE by Sherry D. Ficklin

One brilliant young hacker. One experimental government aircraft. One chance to keep it all from going up in flames.

Still recovering from her troubled past, Farris is no stranger to change. But when the military transfers her father across the country to an experimental aircraft squadron, settling in to a new life is the least of her problems. As a series of apparent computer glitches threaten the security of the fleet and the blame falls on her father, she decides to put her computer skills to use digging up the truth. Soon she's drawn into the perilous world of a hacker who is determined to ground the fleet--at any cost.

When all signs lead to someone close to her as the mastermind, Farris will have to burn more than bridges to get to the truth. She will have to risk her fragile new life to uncover the identity of the cyber criminal before they can escalate from harmless tampering... to all out murder.  (Goodreads)

So, this was one of those books that I enjoyed, but it really didn't capture me. You know, the ones that you just don't quite connect with the MC, and the pacing just doesn't quite work for you. I'm more than a little certain this is just me, as I can imagine any kid who grew up on base would enjoy this quite a lot. Just, for me, it didn't hit the right points to make me engrossed. Plus, there was a love triangle and some almost insta-crushing that made me a little less interested. But, Farris was well drawn and I particularly liked her relationship with her dad, which felt comfortable and protective. In the end, this wasn't exactly my type of novel, but I can definitely see others enjoying it.

Have you read this one? Thoughts?

And it's *almost* Halloween!! Any fun plans??

#InkRiples: Writing as a career or hobby

#InkRipples  is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on this page, and link back to their three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

Okay, so it may be almost the last Monday of October (ummm, where has this month gone??), but I'm still managing to get this post in. There's a good reason for that: this is a topic that's been on my mind quite a bit lately. Is my writing a hobby? Is it more than that? Could it be more than that? See, here's the thing, I have a career. One that's been blossoming lately and really taking over my life (often in a way that I am exhausted by--I struggle deeply with a work-life balance, especially as I work for a university that keeps demanding more and giving less). In a nutshell, I sequence dead people's DNA from dead people that are really, really dead, often for hundreds or thousands of years. And I love what I do. I absolutely adore my labs and my teaching, and my students. My university...well it could Me, in the lab :)go find itself a steep cliff, but oh wait, it's already doing that by strangling any hope and happiness amongst its faculty and employees...
Off topic. Sorry. I could rant about work frustrations for hours, but won't bore you.
So, yeah, I have an awesome career, one I've worked incredible hard for. One I love. But writing is a part of me, too. I've been writing for nearly my whole life and it's a part of my soul. And yet, yet...sigh. It's one that I often let slip by. I eek out time for words on the weekends, on evenings when I'm not too exhausted (which lately have been fewer and farther between), and when I just can't ignore the characters any longer. But I wish for more; I wish I could make a career out of writing. But, I'm nothing if not practical. I know that I couldn't afford to live off my writing. If I hit the NYT bestseller list, maybe, but I know that's not in the cards for me. I'm not that good, and I don't have the time now to devote to getting better. 
So, yeah, writing has become a hobby. And a little piece of my soul dies when I think of it that way. But, I can't magically get more hours in the day, nor can I clone myself yet, and I certainly can't expect my university to fund a few more graduate students to help ease my load a little. So, I'll write when I can. I'll make the most of my hobby. And enjoy what I do of it so that someday, I'll be able to have a little more time and maybe be able to say that at the very least, I have two thriving careers.
A girl can dream, can't she?
What about you? Career or hobby? Or maybe a bit of both?