Ann Benjamin's Blog, page 267

A new blog.

Looking ahead to some of the projects I want to develop next year, I’m in the process of launching A to Za’atar, a food blog I hope to get some traction with in the next couple of months.

If you like eating and travel, please follow the link to read more: https://atozaatar.wordpress.com/

Sunday Sentence.

No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful.”

– Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

Book Review: Ready Player One

After the last book worked out so well, another recommendation from Hubs has all but consumed me over the past few days.  Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is simply fun, exceedingly well done and I have a ‘book hangover’ after finishing it.  Like Fangirl celebrates geekiness, Ready Player One takes nerddom to the next level.  The novel is so seamlessly packed with pop culture, gaming and other entertainment references, I’m sure I’ll be revisiting the book again in the future to try and pick up what I missed.  If all of the above wasn’t enough, there’s fantastic world building, great character development, an original plot that doesn’t let up and enough creativity to make me go back to my own work and want to improve.  I don’t want to go into too much further detail, because I think this is a book that is best read with no spoilers or knowledge, but I think it’s definitely worth checking out (especially before Spielberg makes it into a film).

Highly recommend.

Flippy cat.

With the heat index currently at 127F, I am inside enjoying the air conditioning, but my old lady cat *loves* this heat.

How Facebook Demonstrates Your Personality.

Borrowed from this Lifehacker article, the tool (by the University of Cambridge) can be found here.

I like that by Facebook standards, this report thinks I am 28 (which was an awesome year for me), but don’t like that I am only more satisfied with my life than 36% of the population.

I could’ve told you that.

Some other metrics:

I am more liberal and artistic than 74% of the population
I am more spontaneous and impulsive than 76% of the population
I am more easily stressed and emotional than 57% of the population

What did your results say?

Sunday Sentence.

Would you look at that?  I stuck with something.

Veronica may be an avowed atheist, but that Bible is her pride and joy.”

A Brief History of Montmaray (The Montmaray Journals) by Michelle Cooper (a book I wanted to like a lot, but still haven’t finished).

Day 30, Blogging Challenge: Hopes for your Blog

Like many things in my life, I am optimistic.  While annbenjamin.com is not a destination yet for many people (but I sincerely appreciate the followers I do have), I’ve always hoped to gain some success as an author and therefore have this blog be a place to connect with my readers.  Until that day, it is a fun place to collect and share my thoughts.

Additionally, while I have an idea for another blog and some other side projects, the fact that I’ve been faithfully posting to this one since 2011 (!) gives me hope.

~AB

 

 

Day 29, Blogging Challenge: A Confession.

I’m leaving my job to write full time next year (among other projects).  I am ready for this day to be here now.

Book Review: Supernatural Devices (A Steampunk Scarlett Novel: Book 1)

First, I have an confession.

As a reader, I finish almost every book I start.  I think it’s because I’m an author and I know what it takes to write, edit and put a book out into the world.  I feel like I owe it to any author to finish their book.  At the minimum, I will slide through my Kindle and skip to bits that seem interesting.  It’s super rare that I won’t finish a book.

This is especially the case if I pay for a book, and even more so when I intend to read that book as research for a manuscript.  Guys, I finally hit a book I couldn’t read another page of.  Now, I should have been warned – the reviews weren’t exactly inspiring for Supernatural Devices: A Steampunk Scarlett novel.  For the 20% or so I’ve read of the book, I have yet to run across a single steampunk element, but have met – wait for it – Sherlock Holmes!  Of course he would trust a case to a teenage girl.  Of course he would call her back from her parents in Egypt (unescorted).  Why wouldn’t he?  And why wouldn’t this young woman have thoughts like this: “After all, she knew she was beautiful, with an athletic figure and high cheek bones that could hardly be called anything else.”  My level of acceptance for a straight Mary Sue insert reached it’s maximum capacity at the introduction of who I could only assume was the love interest, a young chap who came off as practically too attractive to even gaze upon and, of course, kind of a jerk. 

Sadly, Ms. Gow, I could not go further.

Guys, I tried. I really did. And getting past this cover was one of the more difficult things. #DNF

For anyone who did finish, what did I miss?  Did some steampunk elements ever show up?

Day 28, Blogging Challenge: Most Embarrassing Moment

Due to work, I had no energy yesterday, so today I’ll post twice.  And then we can forget the story I’m about to tell.  Look, when I’m up for a big drinking session, it’s either champagne or rum and coke.  And usually this works for me – I know when I should start drinking water or eat something.  Unfortunately, whether the heat, the expired milk I’d had with my tea earlier in the day, or the amount of alcohol consumed, I found myself in a VERY sick state during a music festival last fall.  I won’t go into the messy details, because I’d much rather forget them.

Three good things: my friends are amazing, caring and very understanding individuals.  Secondly, long story short, I had a super strange dream, which led to an even stranger barely connected series of thoughts, which led to the idea for The Queen of England (which I even remembered the next day)!  And finally, I pulled the magic trick of leaving my purse in the taxi – only to have the taxi driver call and return it to me the following day (yes, he received a healthy tip for his honesty).

Archer knows the truth.