Not Bugged

Now Playing -
Crickets in the forest behind my house

Life -

One of these times, I'm going to get to spend my days off doing absolutely nothing and going nowhere. But for now, I'll have to be content spending it creating a nice little oasis for us to spend the evenings.

A

A dragonfly on the inside of the screen

We finally finished the painting on our back porch last night (sort of. We actually have to buy another gallon of white at some point to finish the roof, but that can wait) and this afternoon, I braved the sun and evil ants that live in our bushes to screen it in. I'm really happy with the colors my wife chose. At first, I was kind of hesitant to go with the yellow, but it really does make the porch seem sunny and pleasant.

Our New Porch!

There's still a bit of work to be done, but we pulled out some chairs this evening and as I type this, we're sitting comfortably, a slight breeze stirring the trees, crickets chirping, a hummingbird at the feeder and cinnamon scented Salt City candle flickering beside us. Pretty nice!

Pooka




Reviews Of Unusual Size
 Five Things About...

Books - 

 
GHOST ROAD BLUES
by Jonathan Maberry
2006, 480 pages, ebook
 

1 - I  thought that I'd first discovered Maberry with his zombie novel, Patient Zero, but upon reading this supernatural horror, I realized that I had actually checked out the second novel in the series a few years ago from the library, realized it was the second book, became disappointed and returned it, unread. 

2 - Which means I should have been on the Jonathan Maberry bandwagon from much earlier, and so should you. His novels have great characters and their stories are creepy and well thought out. He has a few other books, including some intriguing-looking non-fiction and a Young Adult zombie novel headed this way too.

3 - The small isolated town of Pine Deep has always been a haunted place. A fact celebrated and taken advantage of every October with haunted hayrides, rubber hands and goulish guest stars. But when a killer arrives in the midst of a rare black harvest, the townsfolk may have their hands full with real horrors. Ones darkly reminiscent of a terrible October thirty years ago...

4 - Sometimes I'm in the mood for a fun, gory, supernatural horror novel and especially with the doses of humor and pop culture references sprinkled through it, Ghost Road Blues hit the spot.

5 - But be warned, this is the first book in the trilogy, and if you don't have book two queued up and ready to dive into, you might be a little haunted yourself until you can track a copy down!

8/10

ALONG CAME A SPIDER
by James Patterson
 1993, 494 pages, ebook

1 - I think this is James Patterson's first novel. I do know that I've seen it with six different covers, watched the movie based off of it, and been amazed at the dozens of books that Patterson has followed it with.

2 - A tightly written, if a bit predictable detective thriller about a high profile kidnapping that begins to overlap with other cases from the past.

3 - Introduces Detective Cross, a tall, handsome, African-American, Psychiatrist Detective. He also loves his kids and his momma, and has a similarly tall, handsome, muscular, wise cracking, African-American partner.Despite the slight cliche overload and the fact that they don't seem as fully developed in this first novel, Patterson has created a great duo.

4 - The villain didn't really do much for me, but the plan and some of the twists were nice.

5 - James Patterson is writing a novel with the Always Stupendous Marshall Karp now, I believe it'll be out in 2011, so mark your calendars. That book is going to be very, very entertaining.

7/10


 

Writing - 

More progress, though it's slow going. I'm at nearly 65,000 words now on my zombie novel!

The Last Sentence - 

I thought campers had toilets!

From - " Graves " (WIP)

Cut, Paste, Kill

REVIEWS OF UNUSUAL SIZE

BOOKS

5 THINGS ABOUT...

CUT, PASTE, KILL

by Marshall Karp

2010, 296 pages, ARC

1 - This is the fourth book featuring the detective duo Lomax and Biggs. This time, they find themselves caught up in the crimes of a serial killer that believes they are righting society's wrongs, killing those that deserve it. At each scene the killer leaves an intricate scrapbook about the victim. A kind of vigilante with a Cricut.

2 - Like all of Karp's work, this book is funny. Sometimes extremely funny, so don't read it in a place that you might be embarrassed by sudden outbursts of the giggles, like church or a bathroom stall.

3 - There were a few great twists in the story. One was maybe a little over the top, but it fit with the story and though I should have, I never saw it coming.

4 - Carefully researched for scrapbooking accuracy and at times dark, CUT, PASTE, KILL still reads like a breeze, light, fast and funny. An excellent addition to Karp's series.

5 - Semi-Perfect! (Inside Joke, read the book!)

5/5

This was a very fun book, written by an author that knows how to make fans- by being smart, witty and honest. If you need further proof, check out his blog, his hilarious Facebook posts or pick up one of his other books. You will be glad you did. 

His last novel, Flipping Out was my favorite book of last year and CUT, Paste, Kill is a strong contender again this year. As always, stupendous!

CUT, PASTE, KILL is out on June 8th, order your copy now!

Book Reviews - Cousin of Recent Reads

Just a few quick reviews. I figured I should get these in more frequently, so that I don't have a dozen at a time to review.

Note - 2 books not pictured, had to return one to the library, the other was in pdf form on the computer.

ORIGIN
by J.A. Konrath
2007, 237 pages

This was the first book that I've read on my computer exclusively. I love Konrath's books and just recently noticed that he'd made some of his earlier, unpublished books available on his website for free, so I downloaded a few to check out. Origin is about a team of researchers who are brought into a long running government program to study something found years before, while excavating the Panama Canal. Only it just woke up. Fun book, I highly recommend checking it out! I don;t think it's quite as smooth as his current stuff, but the plot is over the top, B-Movie horror fun. It was interesting reading it electronically. On my computer, it seemed more like a chore, the thing is heavy and heats me up uncomfortably, but on my wife's little netbook, it was light and easy to read, almost as pleasurable as a real book. I doubt it would ever win me over completely, but I've begun to seriously entertain the idea of a Kindle or similar eventually.

7/10



PATIENT ZERO
by Jonathan Maberry
2009, 421 pages

You can't go wrong with a zombie book, and this is a great one. The main character, Joe Ledger is smart, funny and knows his stuff and Maberry does an excellent job of moving the plot along at a lightning pace. He manages to take the idea of the zombie, add a post-9-11 twist that keeps it fresh and freaky and builds a cast of characters that, while a bit over the top, especially the Bond-esque villains, are a ton of fun to read. He's also written a few horror novels that I'm trying to track down and is working on a young adult book... about zombies. Aww yeah, baby.

9/10


SILVERSWORD
by Charles Knief
2001, 400 pages

What a strange change of pace for this, the fourth of the John Caine detective novels. injured and on trial for being involved in a shooting where an innocent woman was killed, this book is far more introspective and quiet than Knief's previous novels. there's still some butt-kicking, and the cast of characters still amuse, but it doesn't have the whiz-bang speed that the other three had.

What happened to Charles Knief? after his Silversword, he kind of vanished. His site is dead, there's no info on him anywhere that I can find, no wiki, no death date.... come back, Charles!

6/10


WALKING MONEY
by James O. Born
2004, 262 pages

I was pretty disappointed by this book, it starts promisingly, with a bank robbery and murder on the cusp of rioting in Florida, but there's soon so many double crosses and goofy coincidences that things get a little groany quick. Still, Born writes well and his main character was pretty appealing. I don't get why every book that is written about Florida has to have a cast of immoral, zany, idiotic characters. Is Florida really like that exclusively?

5/10