Some Thoughts on Fiction

Powell's in Portland, August 2015

Reena's Xplorations Challenge this week gives us some questions to ponder regarding fiction. First, she asks what constitutes fiction in the post-truth era, and I'm probably going to disagree with most of the other responders when I say I don't think our era is less truthful than any other era. Regular people have always lied, or at least insisted upon their version of the truth, as have politicians and their entourages, and whatever media existed at the time. What we see now however is more of a mass production and dissemination of lies because of the way "news" can reach so many of us almost instantly. There is also so much media available in so many forms. Back in the day, we had to wait for some wanderer to wend his way to our village to give his version of a thing that happened months ago at court. Now, within five minutes the whole world knows what a President said at a conference. Or, we think we know, depending on our source and whatever meme we saw on social media.

How thin or distinct are the lines between fact and fiction? 

In writing, as opposed to political "news," the lines are somewhat clearer between fact and fiction. Somewhat. Recently, I read a non-fiction book about bats, and I think it's safe to assume that all the bat information I learned was factual. The author was specific about what was known and what wasn't. (I will have a Thursday Thirteen post on bats coming soon.) Historical books can definitely be biased towards a particular viewpoint. Biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs are in the non-fiction section, but those are all someone's version of what happened. Self-help books are considered non-fiction as are books about food, travel, economics, and religion. Hah! Poetry is its own category. 

My favorite types of books fall into the fiction category, but even here things can get muddled. Some fiction is based on true stories. Some characters are closely based on people the author actually knows. Some writers use real-world locations and events in their fiction, while others create imaginary cities and scenarios. Science fiction and fantasy writers sometimes create whole new worlds and types of creatures in their stories.

Do the disclaimers that all characters are fictional really mean anything?

No. All characters, even the nonhuman ones, come from bits of the author's experience, whether direct or from something s/he read. No one writes in a vacuum. Since most real people aren't that interesting on the page, the best fictional characters are a mix of traits that the author has observed or read about. Even monsters, dragons, aliens, gods, etc., are a mishmash of human qualities. We create them all in our own image because what else is there? Funnily enough, the most fictional of fictional characters are probably the dreaded stock characters that a lazy writer grabs from the cardboard stash: the corrupt cop, the schoolyard bully, the cozy grandmother, etc. Real people are usually more nuanced.

Do you follow a formula when writing fiction, or just let it all flow freely?

For a while, I was writing spicy romantic fiction (novels and short stories), and that was all formulaic. I quit writing it and unpublished what I had when I became the stock cozy grandmother. No one wants to stumble across their nana’s erotica. Yuck. My later fiction is more free flowing. Hell, I didn't even know how Ghosted was going to end when I started it. Generally, I begin with a title or an idea that I think is funny and go from there. Sometimes I get bogged down in banter and have to delete a bunch of it to make room for action. Good short stories and flash fiction are actually harder to write than novels because there's no room to indulge yourself with prolonged banter, physical descriptions, and pointless meandering. The pointless meandering is my favorite.

Speaking of that, I had this enormous post written with my thoughts on various genres blah blah, but I have now scooped all that into a new post because I had actually missed addressing Reena's questions. 

AI Ate My Lunch

 

Meta AI image of a PBJ sandwich and chips 

I’m participating in John Holton's Writer’s Workshop this week by responding to two of his prompts. The first question is about my favorite topic: lunch!

1. Did you bring your lunch to school? What did you usually have?

My mommy always packed my lunch when I was little. I had an inexplicable hatred of peanut butter for several years, so she would make me sandwiches of tuna salad, egg salad, or lunchmeat. She included chips or cookies, and I think I bought milk at school. Around age 12, I decided that I loved peanut butter and jelly (but not grape jelly), so we switched, and I began making my own lunch. Because I can get a bit obsessive, I pretty much had a PB&J sandwich every school day, along with Pringles potato chips. I brought a lot of chips so I could share them, which gave me a smidge more popularity than I would have had otherwise. In high school, my food OCD went out of control, and my lunches changed accordingly (half a PB sandwich, no jelly, no chips, etc.).

2. Do you use Artificial Intelligence for anything? Have you ever used it to write a blog post? What is your opinion of it?

I use Meta AI daily; I find it much more efficient and helpful than Googling because Google now not only gives you AI results anyway, but also it provides a pile of questionable links. I don’t like to click on unknown things, due to all the scams and malware out there. Here are examples of recent “conversations” that I have had with Meta AI: updates on the local Garden Grove toxic event, updates on the California primary election, when is Yesteryear coming out, what is aspiration pneumonia, how did Amazon trick me with this photo of a shirt that appeared to have sequins but didn’t? 

While I have not used AI to write a blog post, I have used it to create images to go with blog posts, such as the one here. Meta AI gives me images in a good size, unlike say Pixabay or even my own photos, which are generally enormous, so I don’t have to reduce them to save on Google storage. It baffles me though how AI is going to “take over the world” when it often flubs the simplest directions, like “make the table blue.” I did not ask for a blue plate! But I stopped there because I have discovered that the more tweaks I ask for the worse it gets. 

If/when I do use Meta AI’s actual words in a post, I will say so, as I would do with any other words that aren’t mine. This will be coming up because we just had a very interesting discussion about first-person POV in novels, and I plan to make (yet another) post about that subject. I find that Meta AI is really good at articulating exactly why a book worked for me or didn’t by doing a deep dive into plot and character.

I think that much like any technology AI has benefits and drawbacks. I go case by case to judge. Asking AI how many levels of Wordscapes I have to play before I get to a challenging level is fine, but using AI to write a book and saying it’s your own work is wrong. Using AI to create fake news or photos of people is wrong. Using AI to stalk an ex is apparently wrong because it actually refused to do this for me. Oops! My bad.

That’s my opinion. Also, I am opposed to data centers gobbling up community resources ~ if that’s the only way we can continue with things such as Meta AI, then it isn’t worth it. 

Challenge Accepted and Completed

Powell's in Portland, August 2015

In December, the leader of our online book club posted a genre challenge. I sort of forgot about it, and she posted a reminder last week. As I perused the list, I realized that I actually had satisfied each one, except for young adult, a genre I generally hate. I browsed the Kindle Unlimited YA offerings the other day until I found a novella that didn't sound too bad. Now, I'm finished with the books and will post a brief review of each. (I read all these and more this year.)

1. Contemporary Fiction. I read (and watched) Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, which I discussed in some detail last week in this post. I gave the book 3 stars on Goodreads.

2. Historical Fiction. I finished up my lengthy Victoria Holt (aka Philippa Carr) binge with Daughters of England. Though this book was last in the series, it wasn't last chronologically, and I still enjoyed it a lot. Holt expertly weaves history with fiction to create believable plots and characters. The stories are inseparable from the history, as political events drive beliefs and behavior (same as now, even if we are unaware in the moment). I am used to Holt's abrupt endings, though I find that they are discordant with her meticulous storytelling otherwise. Four stars. 

3. Fantasy. The Gunslinger by Stephen King satisfied this genre. I found the novel to be ambitious, as it was clearly a setup for the next in series (good example of why I am not fond of series where each book does not stand alone, as Holt's do), but it only works well if you go on with the series, which I did not. I tried ~ I began The Drawing of the Three ~ but it was so gory and gross that I DNF. I gave Gunslinger 3 stars regardless for King's high quality writing. I don't have to enjoy plot and/or characters to appreciate his wordsmithery.

4. Science Fiction. Another Stephen King novel goes here: 11.22.63. I watched the miniseries first and mostly enjoyed it (discussed at the end of this post), and then at Roy's recommendation I read the book. I absolutely loved it! The descriptions were so lush with detail that I really did feel like I was back in the 1950s and early '60s. The butterfly effect was fully in play too, with several iterations of "what if," and I am always up for that sort of thought experiment. I highly recommend this epic novel (800+ pages, so set aside some time). This book received a 5-star rating from me.

5. Mystery/Thriller. I grabbed The Date by T.H. Murdock last week from the Amazon First Reads pile, and I'm glad I did. I gobbled up the whole novel in one day because it was that compelling. Murdock expertly layered in the suspense, shifting suspicion from one character to another, until the reader was completely hooked. I literally couldn't put it down until I knew whodunit. Another 4-star winner.

6. Romance. Love at the Lake by Julie Milo fit this category as well as one in another challenge. I gave it 3 stars for attempting to tackle the weighty subjects of dyslexia and adoption in an otherwise fluffy novel, but it didn't do either all that well because so much time was devoted to the fluff. I'm not one of those who hates "pure" romance novels (without any mystery or other element), but I need more of a plot than high school angst over whether or not a boy/girl likes the other boy/girl. Note: the characters were 23 years old, but still acted like teens.

7. Nonfiction. At a library sale, I found a "coffee table book" titled Love of Goldens by Todd R. Berger and had to get it for my daughter and son-in-law, who have a golden retriever (Rory). I love goldens too now! I gave this book 5 stars for the wonderful photos and adorable vignettes.

8. Biography/Memoir. I finished Peter Gethers' Norton the cat trilogy with his second book (read out of order), titled A Cat Abroad. While this middle section of Norton's life was enjoyable enough to get a 4-star rating from me, it wasn't as compelling as books one and three. The first book was our introduction to baby Norton and how he impacted the author's life, and the third and last one was exquisitely sad as we had to say goodbye to our sweet kitty friend. Abroad was exactly as titled ~ Peter takes his kitty on all sorts of trips, which were fun adventures, with vivid and descriptive writing, but I couldn't appreciate all the French language jokes, and it was not as emotionally gripping overall.

9. Literary Fiction. I read The Correspondent by Virginia Evans for my online book club, and it fits this genre. This book began in the most tedious way by flinging a boatload of characters at the reader (18 in the first 16 pages!) that were impossible to keep track of until later in the story. I kept going however and eventually became intrigued by the threads tying all these people to the main character. I also liked that the MC was cranky and unlikeable, but she was still interesting to read about. Three stars for this.

10. Young Adult. Incantation by Alice Hoffman is categorized as YA, so I chose it because I liked her writing in the past. What can I say about this book? It was about a family of Jews in Spain around the time of the Inquisition. Absolutely awful, yet fabulous writing. I'm glad it had fewer than 100 pages because idk if I could have read more about this terrible time. I gave it 5 stars, and I think it's important to be reminded about how evil humans are to one another, since we can become numb to the news. I haven't created labels for young adult or magical realism, but I think historical fiction plus fantasy will do for this novella.

11. Horror. In general, I avoid horror novels and movies, except when there is a promise of a solid story along with the gore/scariness. The Fourth Wife by Linda Hamilton delivered. I found this story to be fresh and intriguing, and I was fascinated by the relationships among the sister-wives. It was "gothic" in a way and full of creepy ghosts, despite being set in a 19th century house in Utah, not a crumbling old English mansion. Four stars.

12. Poetry or Short Stories. Odd category mix, as these are two very different genres. I read Poems for the Lost Because I'm Lost Too by Exurb1a, and I found the writing highly relatable even though the author is a young guy in Eastern Europe. His themes of existential angst, isolation, and meaninglessness resonated with how I have felt off and on over all the years of my life. He went off into the weeds a bit with his forays into the supernatural, and I skimmed those sections, but overall... yeah. Liked it! Four stars.

As a side note, I am not being hypocritical with my high ratings of most of these challenge books after complaining repeatedly that people rate books too highly ~ I read many books recently that merited 2 or 3 stars, but I focused on the better ones for these mini-reviews. For example, in the poetry category, I gave 2 stars to another book of verse, but why mention it when I can recommend Poems for the Lost?

Saturday Evening Post...

Elvis the turtle eating kale 

I thought I would post the random thoughts that flit through my head as I slog through my Saturday. You're welcome!

1. (Very early Saturday morning) I'm still anxiously checking the news every 15 minutes for updates on the chemical accident/ potential disaster in Garden Grove, CA (around five miles from me). I assume I'm safe because they opened a shelter around a mile from my place. 

2. Everyone on the internet is now a chemical engineer (apparently morphing from constitutional scholars and infectious disease experts) and ready to tell the firemen how best to deal with the overheating tank of methyl methacrylate. Anyone try dropping ice cubes in there? Duh!

3. When I checked Reddit for the latest news on the leak, I got sucked into a rabbit hole about how the Jeffrey Epstein thing is all a big Jewish conspiracy to blackmail world leaders blah de blah, and it made me so angry (at the antisemites) that I forgot about the toxic leak/ explosion for maybe three minutes. 

4. Inky was sleeping on the dining room chair that I like to sit in when working on my laptop, so I very carefully scooted that chair over and switched it with a different one. I thought that was clever of me so as not to disturb her mid-morning nap, but she immediately jumped down and decided she'd be more comfy continuing her snooze atop the fridge. Kitties!

5. Just received word at 10:30 that one of my friends in Anaheim had to evacuate (with her pets).

6. I keep hearing firetrucks/ ambulances, which is freaking me out!

7. Listened to the fire chief's latest update on FB. The temperature inside the MMA tank is higher than they thought. They are implementing plans for various horrible scenarios.

8. OK, it's noon, and I'm taking off for Dana Point.

9. Met my daughter and son-in-law at Harbor House for a delicious lunch. I ordered a veggie quesadilla, which was wonderful, and I brought half home. Portions there are huge! I snagged a crispy onion ring from Diane, and she took my beans and rice side dish home because I hadn't touched it. We had a short walk to the beach afterward, where we gazed at the sparkling ocean and the little boats bobbing about. 

10. Back home, I searched for updates on the potential toxic blast, but no news is good news, right?

11. I felt tired, but I couldn't nap, so I'm back at my laptop doing a little office work at 4:15, ugh.

12. Yay, I reached game 483 on Wordscapes and there are 7 letters now, just like my friend Meta Al told me (except he said it would happen at game 450). Dang, that was annoying to play all those ridiculously easy ones to get to this point! It should be more challenging and fun henceforth. Also, not that anyone cares about any of this, but I received the blue-footed booby icon for my latest prize. I don't understand all the icons and stuff littering up the app, but that's fine. I just want to play the games.

13. Sometimes I feel like I'm going blind, but then I remember I dimmed all my electronics when I had a migraine. Ahh! 

14. Apparently it's World Turtle Day! I like turtles; I had a couple as a little kid (I think I murdered one, so terrible), as that was trendy back then. I did an acrylic painting of sea turtles once, and my friend Joe said I should name it after the Grateful Dead song "Terrapin Station," so I did. Ultimately, I decided I didn't like the painting enough to keep it with my collection (I have limited space). Once, when I went to a stranger's house to play board games, they had a pet turtle named Elvis, and he liked to eat kale. I do not like kale myself. 

15. I had a mango popsicle for dinner, and now I am in a hot debate with me and myself over whether we should work on the panda puzzle, continue reading Remarkably Bright Creatures, or watch Mamma Mia again. Who do you think will win?

It’s now 7:45, so I think I will schedule this to post at 8:00, which will give me a few minutes to decide on the image. Thanks for reading! Hope nothing explodes tonight (they decided that an explosion would be worse than a flood blast).

Quesadilla Hodgepodge

Quesadilla at Mother’s Market, HB

I’m participating in the Wednesday Hodgepodge this week, which is hosted by Joyce @ from this side of the pond. 

1. What’s something you may do this month?

This Saturday I may (hope to) visit my son-in-law who is recuperating from yesterday’s surgery; I will visit with my daughter too, of course. This Sunday I may (plan to) visit my younger daughter, her hubby, and my grands. I miss them. I also may (if I have time) switch my shower curtain for a more turtley one. Love turtles!

2. Hola! Hodgepodge Day lands just after Cinco de Mayo… how do you feel about Mexican food? What’s your favorite dish? Do you make it at home or is it strictly a dine out option?

It’s complicated. I love chips and guacamole, loaded nachos, quesadillas, and margaritas, but all that is terrible, health wise. (I am not judging your choices, only my own.) So, I avoid it. If we have Mexican food for lunch at work, I generally order a salad. Sometimes I order a veggie quesadilla in a restaurant ~ Mother’s, in particular ~ which is a delicious indulgence. I do not make any of that at home.

3. When the children of today grow up what do you think they’ll say about this time period? What do you hope they remember?

When today’s children are adults, they will look back at their childhoods through rose-tinted glasses, as most of us do, and pine for the good old days when we lived on the earth and breathed the air instead of being forced to exist in a space station. Or wherever.

I hope they remember what happens when we fail to do our duty and vote in every election, though it will likely be too late. It may already be too late.

4. What advice would you give a new mother?

Sleep as much as you can, especially when the baby is sleeping! Don’t refuse any offer of help. Easy to say: I refused my in-laws’ generous offer of hiring a mom’s helper because I didn’t want a stranger around. Silly. It would have been nice to have in retrospect.

5. What’s a phrase your mother often said to you? If you’re a mom, do you say it to your own children?

My favorite momism is: “Be more careful, honey,” after something already happened. I feel like my mom said it all the time, but even if she only said it a few times it made a big impact. Yes, I do say it to my girls and to myself, even now, but in a sarcastic tone, after we break something, make a mistake, trip over our own feet, etc. It’s definitely our thing!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Before the April A2Z challenge this year, I followed only a dozen or so blogs, and the Blogger newsreader suited me just fine. Now that I’m following about 50 blogs, however, the Blogger newsreader doesn’t work as well: it constantly skips posts. Since it’s annoying to deal with the missing articles, I looked into separate readers and decided to use Feedly. It’s been working great (for the past 18 hours since I signed up)!

I am still trying not to slip back into my old habit of blogging like a maniac and getting all obsessed with everything. 

Dad's Birthday Today

Dad and me, around 2011

I wrote a birthday post to my dad exactly 10 years ago today on my old WP blog. It's nice that I found it on the Wayback Machine to share again here, lightly edited. He would have been 96 today...

My dad would have been 86 today. He died a little over three years ago, without too much suffering, all things considered. I don’t miss the person he was at the end and rarely think of that person these days. It’s hard to connect the end-person with the man I knew my whole life as my dad. Alzheimer’s is such a horrible disease, shredding the person you know bit by bit into thin strips of nothingness. Even when you occasionally have a somewhat normal conversation with them you know they aren’t really processing it and won’t remember it. And they might not even remember who you are! But we did have a nice visit around Christmas 2012 with my daughters, and he seemed to know them then, so hopefully that was a shining jewel he kept in a locked treasure box somewhere in his tangled mind.

My father was a smart guy. He loved words and crossword puzzles. And he loved the New York Times. When we moved to California in 1983 he gave the LA Times a go for several years, but he eventually returned to the NYT because he missed it so much. Sometimes we attempted to do the toughie Sunday puzzle together, but we were rarely able to finish. He was no slouch at math either ~ he was a numbers guy, an insurance underwriter, manager, VP, and finally EVP. But his greatest strength was his love for people. People liked him and he liked them. They trusted him, and he was trustworthy. He was also a little innocent in some ways, believing that most people were good and they would do good if given the chance.

Dad had a sweet tooth ~ how he loved his desserts! Brownies, ice cream, cookies, cake. I definitely inherited that (as opposed to people who dislike sweets, right). He enjoyed trying new cuisines and new restaurants, but he was totally fine with a burger too. After my mom passed away in 2008 he learned to cook simple things and was very proud of his signature dish ~ shrimp with pasta. We’d usually meet for dinner once a week when he was living on his own.

While Dad loved (loved!) to read, he was not an introvert. He liked to socialize and mingle. He also loved to travel and take long drives to nowhere in particular. Dad was great at reading maps, but he was also fine without a map and didn’t stress about getting lost. He figured everything would sort itself out in due time, no biggie, and he’d see a new town or three in the meantime. Dad was a planner, but definitely not OCD. A big picture guy. Someone else could worry about the deets, and he would go with the flow. Mellow dude. I’m glad he got to go to the UK, his dream trip.

My father was liberal, Jewish, and agnostic. He liked the Doors and Jefferson Airplane and Bette Midler. He’d periodically nag me to read Ulysses, and I still haven’t ever finished more than a third because ugh. He taught me to play chess. (I wish we’d played more chess.) He taught me to love poetry by reading aloud and quoting the greats. He always had a book open and usually more than one. Dad had an intense interest in history and politics. He followed the news religiously. But never sports! We went to a lot of museums. Dad had an eye for art. He was a good photographer, a professional at one point early on while he was thinking about a career in journalism.

He was a good man. He took care of his family. And he was funny.

I love you, Dad.

16 Sentences About 8 Whimsies

The title is a riff on the song “88 Lines About 44 Women,” which is a very weird, dark song, so of course I like it a lot ~ and yes I have a Spotify playlist based on numbers/ math, though some of the tunes I admit are a bit of a stretch. Spotify is a great place for indulging my OCD because I can make playlists themed to any whim and change them whenever I feel like it too (unlike my old themed CD’s).

Whims are my jam: joining Bluesky was a whim, and deactivating was also a whim. When I first signed up, I thought it might be a fun recreation of early lighthearted Twitter days, but it turned toxic right after 10/7 as the antisemites crawled out of their holes.

I don’t put up with antisemitism online, which is why I don’t have as many Facebook friends as I used to. I also refuse to tolerate Tr*mp buttkissers, so that leaves me a very narrow and tricky path to navigate ~ luckily, I have a close circle of local friends (aka meatspace) who feel similarly, or who at least aren’t trying to be deliberately offensive in every interaction. 

One thing I love about blogging (and I am following more bloggers now, though still in the teens, not 500 like I did on WP!) is that bloggers generally have such a wide variety of interests compared to folks on other platforms. I often find it difficult to limit myself to one topic even when I’m writing a book review ~ thoughts about unrelated subjects tend to creep in ~ but in a blog post anything goes, so it’s cool, and I’m glad I restarted this one on a whim back in 2024.

Speaking of books, I have now read six so far this year, and while that may sound like a lot to a normal person, I definitely feel that I have slowed my roll and may be able to recall more of what I have read, which will be helpful during book club meetings. I still don’t go out on work nights (and sometimes not even on weekends) or watch much TV, plus I have lost interest in painting, crafts, and beginning my own novels on a whim, so basically all I do in my free time is gobble up other people’s writing.

I also consume a lot of snacks, though I’m trying to grab healthier ones and not sugary treats, and as I have said before, the less sugar I eat, the less of it I crave, though it’s impossible not to partake in the homemade yummies a coworker brings to the office. In the last couple weeks, I’ve been exercising a little more than last year, like 4x per week instead of 3x, so yay for that.

Sometimes I miss writing, but not the obsession, if that makes sense, and while posting book reviews on Goodreads is fine and I will continue to do so, it’s not scratching my itch. Since I don’t want to begin a novel (not before I retire anyway if even then), I may try to satisfy this longing via blogging, including doing the upcoming April A-Z challenge via John Holton, where my theme would be whatever whimsy pops into my mind that day.

Whimsy is a great name for a cat, and I will try to keep it in mind for a fictional pet, but I suspect it’s another one of those flashes of brilliance that will disappear as soon as this post is published. I’ve had so many… or perhaps I haven’t… how will we ever know?

~*~

Written for John Holton’s Writer’s Workshop.

My Anti-Bucket List

Barbara posted an interesting “anti-bucket” list, and I thought I would write one of my own, which seems like a good idea as 2025 winds down and we begin thinking about those dreaded New Year’s resolutions. Actually, mine will be in two parts: things I have done and never will do again and things I haven’t done and will never do. I may ramble on about some of the items, as is my way.

Never again will I…

1. Join a dating site. I think this one doesn’t need much explanation, given the horrible experiences I’ve regaled you with over the years. 

2. Get married or have a serious romantic relationship. It’s just too much work, and I am super set in my own ways now. I don’t want to compromise on anything.

3. Try to write a novel in a month. I need my sleep!

4. Wear high heels. My aching back has announced that those days are over. And when I say “high,” I mean any over two inches.

5. Go ice or roller skating. I’m way too clumsy and prone to falling. This old lady body does not like crashing to the ground.

6. Become involved in online drama of any kind. Just nope. There are actually plenty of ways to avoid this if you really want to. For example, I deactivated Bluesky instead of arguing with people there. Voila!

I never have and never will…

7. Go skydiving, bungee jumping, zip-lining, skiing (snow or water), hang gliding, surfing, scuba diving, mountain climbing, motorcycling, camping, or any other similar activity because I dislike broken bones, drowning, and being mauled by bears.

8. Take an overnight or longer cruise. Whale-watching for an afternoon is fine, but I am not going to sleep over on one of those dysentery ships.

9. Have a bird as a pet. They’re much too poopy and screechy.

10. Watch Titanic. I like being the only person in the world who hasn’t seen it.

11. Travel outside North America. It’s too expensive, plus long plane trips don’t agree with my migraines. (Note: I probably won’t be traveling much within North America either.)

12. Attend any kind of political rally or march. It’s just not my thing to get out there in rowdy crowds. I give a few bucks as the mood moves me.

There you have it. Please keep all this stuff trapped in a bucket far, far away from me.

Meh

Lately I’ve been feeling that it’s counterproductive to post publicly, even if very few people ever read the words. This is partly because I self-censor, just like I did when I wrote fiction or poetry. I want to be funny or clever, and of course appreciated, so I craft sentences with that in mind. The same goes for social media of all types, except maybe private chat groups where I know that I am surrounded by friendly friends. Despite the low traffic here, this blog is public and could be read by anyone. I consider FB public even though my posts are friends only, since I don’t know all of them that well, and peeps can take screenshots to share with others. 

Paranoid? Not really. In years past, I did become caught up in drama via FB and blogging, and more recently I stepped back from Bluesky, Substack, and Reddit as I saw drama unfold around me. I have done a complete 180 from 1998, when I first came online and was rather trollish. Now, all the hate and anger makes me retreat from the playing field. It’s scary! I can easily be found in meatspace. 

I’m not just talking about obvious political posts, but the expression of any opinion at all. Is it really worth the possible attack of rabid fans if I say that I dislike a particular book or movie? Nah. It hasn’t happened, but it could. Remember the crazy pit bull war way back when on my deleted Ultrablog? I would never have the energy to deal with something like that now. 

My rambling point is that when all this flashes through my mind as I consider posting something such as I am very disappointed in the Freida McFadden Housemaid novels, but I will probably still see the movie because I love Amanda Seyfried, I think… meh, forget it.

Also, and not insignificantly, I utterly abhor the fucking AI prompts everywhere.

Everything Is Exhausting

We're supposed to boycott Chobani yogurt now, along with Amazon, Target, TwiX, Facebook, Disney/ Hulu, etc. Oh, Disney is OK. Too late for me because my Hulu special is over, and I've cancelled before the price quadruples. It's all too exhausting. I admire people who can keep up with all the things and stay motivated/ involved. People who attend marches and volunteer at phone banks. People who are willing to drive out of their way and spend more money to support indie shops. I wish I had the energy to do more and feel good about myself, but I am just too tired after working, chores, family, friends. I also wish I could just accept myself with all my flaws and quit feeling that I am not enough. You would think by this age I'd be over all that sort of angst, but I still struggle with it. 

One thing I have finally accepted is that I am never going to be much of a writer. I have no interest in marketing what I've already written, and I don't have the inspiration to create new work. Also, I don't want to monetize my internet rambles either. Similarly, with a few exceptions, I don't want to pay to read other people's meanderings. There is very little online or in social media that's worth a paying subscription in my opinion, and I'd rather just read free stuff or actual books. I changed my mind and decided to keep my Kindle Unlimited subscription after all because I do read a lot of novels and love always having a bunch of new books to choose from, and a bulky pile of library books is much less convenient.

This morning I had two more vaccines ~ flu and TDAP. I already had the new Covid jab. While reading a friend's FB post, I realized I had the older form of the shingles vaccine in 2020, which only lasts five years, so I will be updating to Shingrix soon, which is given in two doses two to six months apart. So far, my insurance is still paying 100% for vaccines, despite our current HHS's antagonism toward them. 

I've come to the conclusion that I don't like Lucy Hale movies, except for The Hating Game (Netflix), which I absolutely adore. I tried watching Which Brings Me to You on Hulu last night, and it was so horrible I turned it off. There were a couple others I started because I loved her so much in THG, but they were also terrible. Lucy is still adorable and funny; it's the scripts that suck, which is not her fault. I did watch Swiped starring Lily James (Hulu), and that was excellent! I highly recommend it. Tonight I saw The Wrong Paris on Netflix, which was recommended in my romcom subreddit, and it was super cute. I loved how they totally mocked the Bachelor franchise. I'm not even bothering to check out the new Golden Bachelor on Hulu before my subscription expires, as I've lost interest in the entire thing.

Idk how people have the energy to exercise after working all day and doing chores on weekends. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate more physical movement into my day, but by the time I do, I'll probably be retired.

TNT

I refer, of course, to Taylor and Travis and the proposal heard ‘round the world. On cue, a bunch of folks have been grumping that they couldn’t care less and why are these celebs getting so much attention when there are real problems to focus on?

Welp, maybe that is why. Idk about you, but I would rather see a pic of Tay Tay’s enormous ring than be tortured with yet another photo of our disgusting POTUS gloating over his latest grift. Or read that his hideous minions threaten to unleash our own military on us if we don’t praise him. Or see more fake pics of “starving children in Gaza.” Or cry over the gloom and doom economists announcing that we’re not going to have any retirement benefits. Or be sickened by another school shooting, but be cautioned that we mustn’t upset the 2A wackadoos by considering restrictions on gun ownership. 

Whoops, I forgot that I don’t like to mention politics.

I am happy that TNT seem to have found blissful love. More love in the world is a good thing. I was happy to read about Meghan and Harry’s engagement/ wedding way back when too, and I don’t understand the psychos who latch onto every article about them so they can spew hate in the comments. When I come across a story about a celeb I dislike, you know what I do? Move on without reading it. Apparently, Kate is blonde now, so I wanna see pics of her new hair. Strangely, I can enjoy articles about both Kate and Meghan without feeling a need to “take sides.”

I recently posted on FB that I am still amazed at friends who waste time on trolls. People say it amuses them to mock trolls. Others say it’s very important for peeps to read their reasoned response to a troll, for as we all know, our minds are often changed by internet logic. There are those who refuse on principle to block or unfriend anyone, so we get to see all this garbage in their posts. Yada. Social media is such a drag, including Bluesky, Reddit, Substack, etc. All are boring 99% of the time. I’m even bored with the cute pics on IG.

Most tv shows and movies are the SOS, which is why I would rather rewatch something I know I like than sit through some dreck just because it’s new. But I still do that sometimes, and occasionally I experience a good result, such as recently with The Hunting Wives ~ but I only tried that because Malin Anderson is the sister in 27 Dresses, which I love and may have seen 27 times! I put on the Mamma Mia movies for the zillionth time last week and will probably rewatch The Hating Game soon (I did take a chance on that one because I loved the book). I do like to check out new books. Most are mediocre at best, but I try to rate them fairly on Goodreads regardless. Since I already pay for Kindle Unlimited and belong to the local library, I don’t want to pay for books, unless they’re under five bucks. 

If I sound like an old crabby cat lady, it is because I am an old crabby cat lady. 

Off to see if they’ve chosen a wedding venue yet!

Passed My Bloggaversary

Or is it blogiversary? Anyway, I restarted this blog on August 12, 2024 with my review of It Ends With Us (the movie). Next week is my 24th anniversary at my workplace. I think I will bring muffins in on Tuesday when most coworkers show up (many work from home on other days). I've started to finally understand that maintaining and nurturing friendships and connections beyond my immediate family is a good thing and not something to be so wary of. I was repeatedly hurt by friends dipping and dates ghosting in the past and became very guarded. It's normal to go through bad experiences, but it's important to persevere (imo). The more I read about aging and brain health, the more I get that connections are crucial. It's not enough to simply do puzzles alone to keep the mind sharp. People need people ~ even introverts like me ~ for their emotional well being.

To be clear, I am talking about friendship not datingship. That ship has sailed.

I binge-watched The Hunting Wives on Netflix this week and enjoyed it a lot, though it got a bit kooky and farfetched by the end. Still, it was something different, plus I always love Malin Anderson (the sister in 27 Dresses), who had a lead role. The best thing about the show (limited series of 8 episodes) is that it seems at first to be tilted toward making the gun-toting, pro-life, wealthy Republican women appear more sympathetic than the awkwardly liberal Boston newcomer, but just wait... Spoiler: it is an epic takedown! Kudos to Mary Cobb, who wrote the novel, and to Rebecca Perry Cutter, who wrote the series. There's loads of nudity, sex (including graphic FF sex), violence, swearing, drinking, drugs, politics, and SMOKING. So, basically a fun time all around. I'm not sure if I want to deal with a second season however (supposedly on the way). One seems like plenty.

I read Kate White's mystery novel A Body to Die For, which is a fun romp through an upstate New York spa in beautiful autumn. It almost made me long for the change of seasons. Almost! Bailey Weggins, a crime journalist, intends to visit her beloved aunt at the spa she runs, but instead becomes embroiled in a murder investigation. She's also juggling a romance back in the city. We have all kinds of interesting characters to get to know, as well as a very handsome detective, and loads of twisty turns. Four stars. I may read some more books in this series, when I make further progress in getting through my enormous TBR pile.

I gave five stars to William Penrose's A Stranger to Earth. I don't read much science fiction, but this one really hooked me. It wasn't so much about aliens and space travel as it was about our human selves and how inhumanely we often treat each other. It was also frequently hilarious. Bill is a longtime FB friend, and he casually mentioned his book a little bit ago, which made me curious enough to go grab it for my Kindle. I'm glad I did!

Going forward, I think I'm only going to review the books I enjoy a lot, unless there is some particular point of interest to discuss in a book I find mediocre or worse. 

Looking forward to a birthday party tomorrow and some family time on Sunday. 

I'm Too Old For This...

No, I'm not talking about THAT. (OK, that too.) I'm talking about social media. You would think after all these years I'd have a clue, but I don't. Let's take Facebook, which is so impossible. I mostly hang out there for my book club, but the notifications are so screwed up that it's hard to keep track of things, which I have to because I am one of the coordinators. I will be reading a group thread, trying to make sense of it chronologically so I can award points to members for various things, but the fucking site refreshes every 11 seconds so I have to keep starting over. ARGH!

I've mentioned Bluesky before. I like to keep a presence there, though I am not sure why. You can't really get to know anyone via skeets (the new "tweets"), and since I don't want to be super political in public, I avoid most of those posts, which are in fact most of the posts. Even when I agreed with one of my moots last week, some other person swooped in and attacked me out of the blue. FOR NOTHING! We basically are in agreement; she just got all bent because I said I was pausing political donations as they don't seem to do any good. We went back and forth for a while, which was ridiculous. Arguing on the internet is always a giant time sink, but if someone starts with me, well, you know how I am. 

This blog is technically public, but no new peeps seem to find it (so far), so I feel I can say whatever the fuck I want. Not that I do. But I could! In any case, comments are always held for moderation, so even if some troublemaker popped up, I would nuke their comment before it saw the light of day. Bluesky is 100% public however, and if you want to moderate, you have to do it yourself by blocking bunches of folks, which is tedious. I imagine I will spend less and less time there, though in its favor there are still no ads, yay. (Besides all the other issues, FB is insane with ads.)

IG is OK. Cute animal pics but lots of ads.

I recently revved up my Reddit account, but I had been so inactive for so long I didn't realize the site is swarming with fake accounts looking for karma points by posting pics of cats that aren't theirs, etc. Or they spin up some elaborate fictional problem in order to get "advice," which creates churn, and idk what. How does this benefit them? Do the points eventually turn into money? What's going on? Today I deleted a comment I made on a "name my kitty" thread when it was pointed out that the post was a scam, and when I visited the OP's profile, it was all pr0n. Ugh. It makes reading the site unappealing now.

Substack is just as confusing as it was the last time I tried it. I'm not sure what the difference is between following someone and subscribing to them for free, though I do understand that free subscribers might not see everything someone posts if they have monetized themselves. I'm not sure what a "note" is vs an article. I can't figure out how to have my own "publication" there like other people do. I don't see that option when I post a poem or whatever. It just appears under my account name "Lightmotifs," which I changed from Paula Light because Paula Light certainly does not sound like the name of a publication. But other people there have their name showing and the name of their publication/s too. 

Whatever. At least there are some nice, thoughtful articles on Substack as opposed to the dopey memes I see everywhere else.

I still like blogging best, even if I have only a handful of readers. I appreciate you!

I watched a couple of old movies recently. I used to think "old movies" meant black and white film noir or Elvis Presley musicals from the 1960s, but it turns out that the 1990s were a long time ago too. Gah. The first one was Clueless, which is appropriate for this post. It's a 1995 film written and directed by Amy Heckerling, and it supposedly developed a cult following. You know, for a silly romcom, it is a delightful movie. Alicia Silverstone plays her part (Cher) to perfection, and Paul Rudd is great as Josh, Cher's love interest. Wallace Shawn is hilarious as the history/debate teacher who won't change Cher's grade until she makes him happy by coaxing him into a love match with another teacher. Dan Hedaya, who plays Cher's father, has the role of Nixon in the movie Dick, and I love that crazy film so much. Supposedly, this is a modern take on Jane Austen's Emma, which I haven't read, but I did see the movie adaption starring Gwyneth Paltrow. I liked it, but Clueless was more fun.

Next I watched Betsy's Wedding (1990), which was written and directed by Alan Alda, who also stars as Betsy's dad Eddie Hopper. This movie has a fabulous cast! Besides Alda, there's Madeline Khan (RIP) as Betsy's mom, Joe Pesci (RIP) as Eddie's corrupt brother-in-law, Molly Ringwald as Betsy, and Ally Sheedy as Betsy's sister Connie the cop. Anthony LaPaglia is my favorite though ~ he plays Stevie Dee, a mob guy sent to keep an eye on Eddie's construction project, but instead he falls for Connie. I guess this film didn't get such good reviews, and both Molly and Ally were nominated for "raspberry" awards, though idk why. They were fine, and the movie was enjoyable overall. I mean, it is a romcom, so idk what people were expecting.

More book reviews soon, though I have been slacking at reading lately so they won't be coming as fast for a while. 

It's Been a Minute!

Days are flying by, faster all the time (I know it’s my aged perception, and time has not changed in reality). It's hard to believe that I used to post multiple times per day, when now I barely manage twice per week, but I flung out posts like a maniac for years on WordPress. I didn’t have much to say, but I responded to prompts in a compulsive way. I felt that slacking off would let down my readers, who were all doing the same thing, and then we engaged in a frenzy of liking each other's stuff before posting again and again. What's your favorite color? Describe your ideal breakfast. Where did you go on vacation when you were a child? WHO CARES?! I did get a few decent poems out of that mess though.

For a while, I participated in music related prompts on Bluesky, and now I'm utterly bored with everything on that app due to the proliferation of politics on every feed. I have decided that memes are the emptiest form of communication, a way to be at the party but not in the party (that’s a line from Mamma Mia 2). You don't have to take responsibility for the content of a meme, since you didn't write it, but it keeps you in the loop of views. Does it accurately reflect your view? Then why not take a minute or 10 to write out your own opinion in your own words? No, that's too onerous, plus it would take time away from reposting 20 more memes.

There's a reason I gravitate to Facebook when I crave interaction. Sure, there are a lot of memes there too, but friends sometimes post photos from their real lives and give mini updates once in a while. I would rather hear from someone I know about a book or movie or recipe than read reviews from randos on Goodreads or scroll through repetitive memes on Bluesky. It is an entirely different thing when someone in my FB book club posts a meme about books because we engage in the comments; it’s not a contest to accumulate likes. Social media seems to be much less social as people try to build a brand in the hope of monetizing their “content.”

Of course, if I had become "successful" on the internet and could now monetize my own words, I would be championing all this instead of dissing it. These grapes are very sour.

This week I’ve been hosting a prompt on Bluesky, which consists of giving one key word per day for peeps to create a 7-syllable sentence. It's kind of fun to see the variety of responses. But I am utterly sick of politics, and most of my main feeds are political. The poetry and zoo feeds aren't super active, so I get bored quickly there.

As far as Substack, I am giving it a chance ~ trying to ignore the main feed in favor of the accounts I follow and poetry generally. (The main feed is 99% political just like Bluesky.) I think there are good writers there, and I need to have patience to fill my feed with those who enjoy sharing their writing for free (or some of it) as opposed to writers who only post links to purchase. Nothing wrong with trying to sell your books! There are literally hundreds of clever pitches every week that pass through my various feeds though, and my TBR pile is enormous already.

Speaking of... I read The King of the Castle by Victoria Holt and gave it only 3 stars. It was a standalone (not part of the Daughters of England series), and I couldn't relate to the MC Dallas or her love interest Lothair. His actions often felt stuck in for dramatic effect and made no sense. For example, it turned out he really loved his daughter, so why then was he so verbally cruel to her? It seems that Holt wrote him this way in order to make Dallas feel all conflicted about him, but to me that would be enough of a red flag to kill any romantic interest. Since Dallas' attraction flourished despite Lothair’s nastiness, I began to dislike her as well. That all said, the story was solid with an intriguing mystery, told straight up first person without gimmicks except for a few passages from Lothair’s dead wife's diary. It's nice to relax into a well written past tense narrative without being bombarded with constant nah nah I have a secret but won't tell you, plus podcasts and other annoyances that contemporary writers use to pad their wordcounts. Also, the ubiquitous use of present tense irritates me so much!

Here's the thing I love about Victoria Holt's writing: she begins by introducing a woman or girl MC in first person (always past tense), and this MC tells us that there is a problem. She describes what let up to this issue, and we know what she knows within the first chapter. She doesn't tease us by alluding to the "big thing" that won't be revealed until much later, which in my opinion is poor writing but seems to be the way of every new book on the shelf. Holt creates suspense by carrying us along with the MC as she discovers and solves the mystery without keeping secrets from us. If we are in the MC's head, then we should know what she knows. Writing 101! 

Otoh, I awarded five stars to Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier, even though she does tease us with secrets (and uses present tense) because when it's done well, I am more than fine with it. Good stories can overcome broken rules, iff they are excellent! I highly recommend this book: it’s a deliciously addictive psychological suspense novel with several compelling characters.

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Inky continues to be the cutest sweetest cuddliest most loving cat ever (or at least since Gatsby, RIP), and I am beyond happy that we chose each other.

This and That

This week has been busy, with a bunch of ups and downs, which is why I haven't blogged, even though I can't wait to tell you that Inky is now a big cuddler! She is soooo sweet and affectionate and even sleeps on my bed with me during part of the night. She's curled on my lap right now and purring as I'm typing. I haven't forgotten about Gatsby, my soulmate kitty, and I will always love him, but Inky is helping to heal my heart. I love her too and think about her when I'm at work; my condo feels like a home again now that I have a sweet kitty waiting for me.

Today is my divorce anniversary (the second divorce; I don't remember the exact dates my brief first marriage began and ended). Fourteen years ago today, July 11, the dissolution of my 21 year marriage (plus two years of legal separation) was finalized, which was a huge relief. For five years afterward, I tried to find someone new, and I stayed pretty optimistic about my chances until 2016. That's when I started to accept the idea that a new romantic relationship wasn't going to happen and it would be better to stop dating altogether, as the process was increasingly depressing. It took a couple years longer for me to feel fully comfortable being single and not looking.

I have made a new Substack account: lightmotifs.substack.com. Please follow me and I will follow you back. The reason I made an account is because one of my writing friends invited me to contribute to his poetic series on the body, and I wrote a poem about hair. It turned out well, and he is going to publish it on his Substack soon. I didn't have to make my own account to get credited, but why not? Maybe I will be in the mood to write more poetry on my own stack (or whatever you call the pages there). Last time I joined, I found it confusing and way too political, so I deleted my account, but every form of social media is stuffed with politics 24/7, so I have to take responsibility for avoiding it and focusing on what I do enjoy (same with Bluesky). That said, my first comment on the app was about Pete B (love him). LOL!

(I still find the app confusing, btw. When I logged on, it said hey how about these four friends we found for you? I said, OK, I will follow them all, but now they have disappeared. What's up with that?)

I read The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt and gave it four stars. It's a romance mystery novel, and I found both aspects very intriguing. A chunk of the book takes place in Hong Kong, and the local color was fabulous. I have no idea whether it was accurate, but I enjoyed it regardless. 

Earlier in the week I finished The Weight of Blood by Tiffany Jackson, a horror novel and an homage to Carrie by Stephen King. I wasn't sure at first if I would like this book because it's partly told in podcast format (which is apparently a "thing" now), but I did like it ~ I gave it four stars! The story involves a lot of racism and cruelty and some fantasy elements as well. 

Finally, I read The Only One Left by Riley Sager. Shades of Verity abound in this psychological thriller about a caregiver, Kit, who who is "forced" to take a job working for an alleged murderer at the crazy mansion on the edge of the cliff. Everyone in the story is a potential or actual murderer or victim, and though the story is basically well written, I found the pacing tedious at times. I kept wondering why Kit simply didn't walk away from the mess and begin again somewhere else where people didn't know her. The ending was so convoluted that I gave up trying to understand what motivated everyone to do what they did. Three stars.

Miscellaneous Mishmash

I read Dachshund Through the Snow by Rosie A. Point. Two stars. This is another "mystery" where somehow the police in a small town fail to do the basics to investigate a murder, so a random dog walker named Holly (of course her name is Holly!) figures it out. Plot points, including a potential romance between Holly and a cop, glimmer briefly and slip away like tinsel from a Christmas tree. I guess that's supposed to entice me to read the next book in the series. Ha ha ha. At least the story fit an original category on the 2025 Reading Challenge: about an animal. The most interesting thing here is that there are multiple books with this title on Goodreads. 

My friend L and I saw Life of Chuck at the cinema on Sunday. It’s an adaptation of a Stephen King novella, which I hadn't read beforehand (I usually like to read the book before I see the movie). Nevertheless, I loved the film! Highly recommend. It’s not horror ~ it’s more of a psychological/ philosophical drama, with a bit of science fiction and a few ghosts thrown in. So good. I have added the King book with four novellas, including Chuck, to my wishlist.

Unfortunately, even after paying $16 each for our seats, we had to watch ads and previews for over a half hour from the time the movie was scheduled to begin until it actually started. Ridiculous and irritating.

I finished The Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt and gave it three stars. It was a predictable romance and the dialogue/ narrative was at times repetitive, but the characters were interesting (Holt always gives her MCs major flaws, which makes them more relatable), and the twist at the end was fun. I also enjoyed reading about opals and Australia’s history and geography. I created my own reading challenge category for this novel: bird in the title.

I deleted my Bluesky app. Enough is enough. It’s just not fun to read the constant stream of political babble and repetitive memes, which are mostly some version of “I hate him so much.” So boring! And the “real news” is depressing enough without reading people’s fantasies about WW3. I tried to focus on other feeds, but even a lot of the poetry was in a similar vein. What else is there to enjoy on Bluesky? Pictures of cats, food, sunsets? Book and movie reviews? Meh. Pointless. 

It’s true that I am much more tolerant of boring posts and memes from friends I already know. Seeing the same stuff from new folks doesn’t motivate me to attempt friendship with them. Plus I don’t see how you become real friends with someone far away if you’re not willing to exchange private messages, which most on Bluesky don’t want, including me, since that opens you up to the scammers and spammers.

My daughter, son-in-law, and I went to a dim sum place for brunch on Sunday (Seafood Cove in Westminster). It was a delicious treat, though NorCal still has the edge on food, especially Asian food and pizza. I particularly enjoyed the steamed sesame buns with Nutella filling at Seafood Cove (yes, here’s me bypassing the fish for sweets)… and now I think I need to buy Nutella again for a snack on graham crackers because it’s been a long time. 

OK then. Stay safe, everyone.

Friday the Thirteenth

Hopefully it’s not an unlucky day for anyone reading. Today has been OK for me, but since Wednesday I have been fighting a horrible migraine. Same deal as the one that wrecked me last Thursday when I stayed home from work ~ but at least that one disappeared in a day, while I am on day three of this one, though (crossing fingers) it seems to have abated somewhat. It may have been triggered by eating red grapes on Wednesday ~ I didn’t know that they’re a trigger (now I do after googling), but it makes sense given how I react to red wine. Or it could have been something else entirely. It's usually hard to pinpoint a cause precisely, since so many factors make up a given day. Per a coworker's suggestion, I now have an ice gel pack in the office freezer for the next one. Fun times.

I'm still grieving Gatsby, but I have made progress in the emotional process of adopting a new kitty. It will happen in the next few weeks because I am too lonely without a cat at home. It's not "cheating" on him to love another kitty; in fact, it honors his memory. There are so many who need a good home, but I'm only one person and can only help one at a time. Given my age, this next cat could be the last cat I am able to help directly.

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I am officially bored with Bluesky (Bsky) and the repetitive political comments and memes (even if I agree with them). I could make more of an effort to find alternative feeds (I already regularly check poetry and zoos), but I guess I prefer Facebook after all and updates from those folks I have known for years. I don't feel the need for more friends in meatspace or online, so it's true I make minimal effort and then I go blah dullsville. But so what. What's the great loss if I don't spend time on a particular platform? Uh none.

I do enjoy this blogging "lite" life because I don't feel any obligation to post. I write only when I want to, unlike on my WordPress blog where I felt compelled to post constantly and read all the posts in my feed. As far as "real writing," I am finally over it, both the desire to write new fiction or poetry and the nagging sensation of having unfinished WIPs. What a relief! (Same goes for painting/crafting.)

I'm still puzzled at the hatred people have toward Meghan Markle: they lie in wait for articles about her and then spew vicious comments. It's deeply weird. Then again, I never did understand hate-following or doom-scrolling. When I can't stand something or someone, I try to block it out of my life in hopes of never encountering it again. 

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Tonight I went grocery shopping with the idea of staying inside my condo all day tomorrow, June 14, when people are going to take to the streets to protest our horrible POTUS and his birthday celebration as he throws himself a ridiculously wasteful and grotesque military parade in DC. Nothing like trying to dump poor folks off Medicare while spending $100M on an ego-fest. Though I can't stand the POTUS, I don't want to get involved with any political protesting or be anywhere near any kind of drama.

I had just begun exercising again when this migraine hit on Wednesday, so hopefully I will get back to it tomorrow. I'm also prepping for the new kitty and have bought a covered litterbox, a soft fluffy bed, and other necessities as well as a little bit of generic type food until I know what she likes. You know how you can feel a "ghost" when memories float in? Well, I not only feel Gatsby's ghost, but also I sense the presence of my future kitty.

I've started a new show on Netflix called Sirens. It's pretty good. Would be better with more Bacon scenes.

This week I finished two books: No Place Like Home, a mystery by Mary Higgins Clark (three stars), and The Hating Game, a romance novel by Sally Thorne (four stars). The first had an interesting plot and a great twist toward the end, but I couldn’t relate to the MC at all. Plus there were too many POVs and tense flips. The romance novel was different and clever with witty banter and well rounded characters. There were several interesting side characters as well.

Five Year Engagement

I watched The Five-Year Engagement, a 2012 romcom, on Netflix last weekend. It stars Jason Segel and Emily Blunt (I love Emily), and is rather well done for a story without a plot. Couple gets engaged, life happens, wedding gets continually postponed, couple grows apart, breakup occurs, couple realizes they love each other all over again, wedding happens. Not too exciting, but the film does a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of relationships instead of just skimming the surface, so that was interesting. There was a lot of humor too. 

I began reading No Exit ~ not the Sartre play but a 2017 "thriller" by Taylor Adams, which was made into a film by Hulu. Despite the supposedly dramatic premise of a college woman stranded in a blizzard at a rest stop with one or more very bad dudes, the story plodded along at an excruciating slow pace with a ton of inner monologue and repetitive thoughts. The protagonist came across as a total moron too, as did the rest of the characters. In an attempt to move things along, I downloaded the audio and played it at 1.5 while doing some chores and later driving. This was my first real audiobook experience, and I hated it just as I expected to. I kept wishing everyone would die so the book would end... eventually that sort of did happen, but it took way too long to get there. I can't even imagine how horrible the movie version is. Shudder. One star.

Oh, that book fit the 2025 reading challenge category of (you guessed it)... "became a movie," which is the only reason I did not DNF it.

You know that in addition to the "official" 2025 reading challenge, I have also challenged myself to read/reread all the Victoria Holt (aka Philippa Carr) novels I can find. So far, I have located 48 of them and finished reading 22. I'm not super inclined to buy them all new from Amazon, as I don't want a collection and donate any physical books soon after reading, so I've been getting some at the library and some used off eBay. My reading has thus been haphazard ~ late in the game I realized that it would have made sense to start at the beginning of the Daughters of England series (not all Holt's books are part of that series), but I didn't, so that's that. Anyway, this week I read the first novel in the series, The Miracle at St. Bruno's, which was originally published in 1974, and I gave it only two stars. It was pretty dull with loads of droning dialog and narration about English politics during the reign of Henry the VIII. There wasn't much romance, nor was there a happy ending. I wouldn't even call this a romance novel, though many of Holt's other books definitely are. It's historical fiction, I guess. If I'd read this one first, I might not have been motivated to continue! Many of her others contain history, but they are more character driven. I don't actually think I read Bruno back in the 1970s/1980s when I first discovered my fondness for Holt's books ~ I had no vague recollections while reading it like I did some of the others.

Anyway, juxtaposing The Five-Year Engagement with The Miracle at St. Bruno's gives us a good idea how external factors can really screw up a love match, whether it's your drunken sister getting preggo at your engagement party with your fiancé's best friend, or Catholics and Protestants murdering each other to confiscate land. We like to believe "love conquers all," but that's pretty naive. Hell, men living in Los Angeles won't even cross the Orange County line to go on a date, and that's a lot less brutal than having to move to Michigan or being tortured for your religious beliefs. Or maybe it's not. The 405 really does suck. 

OK, only three reviews tonight because my book club leader just gave us an assignment to read 100-150 pages of a book in the next 24 hours. Yikes! I'd better get started...

Peach Nectar Iced Tea

Decades ago I discovered Dean Koontz and gobbled up a bunch of his thriller novels... but I grew tired of his writing style. He was fond of certain clunky words, like obsidian and chitinous, that he reused in every book. It grated on my nerves. He's also politically conservative and can get a bit preachy through his characters/ narration. That being said, I needed a "recommended for you" book for one of the boxes on my 2025 Reading Challenge, and Amazon recommended Koontz's The Mercy of Snakes. I decided to read it because (a) it was short, and (b) it was free with my Kindle Unlimited program.

Reader, I loved it! Four stars. I enjoyed it so much that I decided the heck with my reading challenge... imma just read the rest of the books in the Nameless series (two series, six books each). I proceeded to devour all 12 stories and starred them between two and four depending on the story. I appreciated that each one was a standalone novella, but if you read them in order until the end (which I did, after I dived into the middle with Snakes), there is actually a progression and a satisfying conclusion at the end of book six and a dramatic conclusion in book twelve. The basic premise of each story is that we have a hero called Nameless (among other monikers) who receives assignments via anonymous texts to eliminate various terrible people who have escaped conventional justice. The ways in which the bad people get their just deserts is clever and satisfying. I gave only two stars to Preying Mantis because it didn't have a bad guy anywhere near as bad as the others. All 12 books were "free" with KU, and I guess they should go into the horror category.

One thing though: in several of the Nameless stories, Koontz has different characters drinking iced tea sweetened with peach nectar. It made me laugh. I didn't see any obsidian or chitinous however, so that was good. He again gets on his political soapbox, but what's interesting (and terrifying) is that the current party in power is now doing all the awful things they warned that the other party was going to do, so if you didn't already know Koontz was conservative, you might come away thinking he is very anti-Republican. Tee hee.

I also read Ten Things I Love About You, a Regency romance by Julia Quinn. It was spicier and funnier than the usual fare in that genre, but some of the characters were so cartoonishly ridiculous that I could not in good conscience award the book four stars. We learn at the beginning that the hero Sebastian is writing romance novels himself, under a female nom de plume. This makes for amusing situations, and I enjoyed that motif even though generally I am tired of writers turning their characters into writers. The heroine Annabella basically does absolutely nothing, which isn't unusual for the wealthy set in Regency novels, but it didn't endear her to me either. The love-fall was very well done with alternating POVs between the two main characters. Three stars.

This afternoon I wrapped up Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman, a psychological thriller that fulfilled my reading challenge requirement of having been reviewed by my favorite author. This is actually a lie because I couldn't find books that were reviewed by my favorite authors, but when I received SITW from a book club game, I saw on the back jacket that Riley Sager (Middle of the Night) said it was "thrilling and thought-provoking." Since I gave Riley's book MOTN four stars, I decided that SITW fit the challenge box. Ugh. I didn't find SITW either thrilling or thought-provoking. It was a slog, and pretty much on every page I wanted to scream at the MC: why are you doing this stupid thing?!? For a thriller, the plot and narration were very slow, repetitive, and tedious. Did I mention repetitive? It was yet another one of those British novels, narrated in present tense by an annoying woman in first person (at least it didn't keep breaking to other characters in first person like some stories do), and I am heartily tired of them.

Not only that, but there were massive plot/motivation holes throughout, and I had loads of unanswered questions at the end. I felt that was so unfair after I read the entire annoying novel. Geez, author, just tie things up already!

Hoppy Easter, my peeps!

FOMO Reared Its Head

I confess to having had a bit of blogger FOMO (fear of missing out) recently. I visited a post from one of the WordPress bloggers I follow and saw all the comments, similar to the number I used to receive when I paid for WP. Now, I don't miss the pointless smashing of the like button, but I do sometimes miss getting a half-dozen or so different comments after each post and the ensuing interaction. It was a brief twinge of FOMO, certainly not strong enough to make me want to return to WP, especially after I read the latest pile of complaints (missing notifications, etc.).

OK, I am already over it. A couple weeks ago I heard a song that created a pang of FOMO for my lack of a (romantic) love life. I am also over that. I'm "only" human however, and sometimes even after knowing it was for the best to move on from a thing, I briefly miss it. Or, rather, I miss the illusion of the thing; in reality, the thing sucked, which is why I abandoned it. Dating especially was such a disaster that it plunged me into depression for around a year and a half. 

Today I finished The Drop of the Dice by Victoria Holt (aka Philippa Carr) and gave it five stars. Such a great historical romance! Remember, Holt doesn't write traditional HEA romances, so you can't always expect the heroine to marry her soulmate. That's what makes them a cut above other romance novels, in my opinion. The stories are character driven and not always predictable. History and politics loom large in these Daughters of England series of books, as well they should ~ the whims of kings make a material difference in ordinary people's lives, then and now. This book fit the historical fiction category on my 2025 Reading Challenge.

Speaking of politics, here's a peeve regarding the Bachelor Nation shows: politics are never mentioned. Probably the contestants do discuss politics with the bachelor(ette), but those convos are cut because the producers don't want to potentially offend anyone in the audience. Can you imagine deciding to become engaged to someone without knowing who they voted for in the last election (or indeed if they are one of those folks who don't vote at all) or the issues they care about? I can't!

For the novella category on the reading challenge, I chose The One That Got Away by Mike Gayle. It was a trite and annoying romance; I gave it only one star. If it had been a novel, I would have DNF'd it, but luckily it was only 100 pages.

For the "setting in the title" category, I read The Road to Paradise Island by Victoria Holt. It was a good romance/mystery novel with plenty of drama and adventure, but I personally did not approve of the overly aggressive and super arrogant man who won the protagonist's heart, so I gave it four stars not five. 

I also read Nobody's Perfect by Sally Kilpatrick, and I gave it three stars. Not sure what genre to put it in... contemporary fiction, I guess. The anatomy of a divorce plotline was somewhat interesting yet annoying at the same time. I enjoyed the main character's relationship with her mother, but other times I was cringing at some of the stupid things the MC said or did. The MC's new romance seemed both unnecessary and unrealistic, but I did enjoy the part that social media played in the story's development. This novel fit the 2025 Reading Challenge category of the MC being a parent.

That's all for today. I'm still trying to find something decent to watch on one of the channels I pay for, but so far everything is dreck.