Setting Goals
Hello, all. It's been forever since I've even looked at LJ -- just too overwhelmed with the world at large -- and I've been doing a lot of planning and thinking and trying to figure out how to get control of everything: not letting real-world things get overwhelming, to do enough work (I am doing freelance transcription) to pay the bills without having to work all.the.time, how to fit in free time and writing and reading, how to stay on track with just everything. I've managed to structure my days (ie. get up at a reasonable hour) since I set that original goal, and goal-setting usually works for me.
So. I have started a 600 word a day writing goal. That's about a page without dialogue. It certainly sounds doable. Today was day 1 and I wrote 609 words.
I have a Post To LJ twice a week goal. Because I tend to start to feel isolated and alone, especially since I live alone and haven't seen any family since March. (Yes, my friend lives downstairs but she has her husband and a life so we really don't interact more than a couple of times a week, and then just briefly.)
Anyway. Hopefully I'll be 'seeing' you guys more often. Hope everyone is weathering the storms.
I haven't done much reading, I am so far behind on all my goals, but I buckled down in the last little while and got three books read.
21. No Dominion by Louise Welsh
Final book in the 'Plague Times' trilogy, in which Magnus and Stevie team up on a rescue mission to find some kids who probably do not want to be found.
It's seven years after "the sweats" have swept through the world, killing most of the population. Stevie Flint, former journalist turned home-shopping-channel shill whom we met in the first book, is now the Mayor of a small island community in Scotland. Magnus McFall, the second book's rising stand-up comic, lives there with his adopted son Shug. The island stays safe by keeping a watch and strictly quarantining anyone who happens upon them - though visitors are few and far between - but the latest visitors break quarantine and plant visions of a shining future in Glasgow in the heads of the island's teenagers. It's up to Stevie and Magnus to find them when they take off with the visitors.
Perhaps reading about 99% of the world's population being wiped out by a new virus during, oh, a worldwide pandemic was not the best idea.
I liked the way that Welsh tried to show the many variations of what might happen with the total breakdown of society. The children are given far more leeway, abuse doesn't just go away, some people work together and others reinforce each other's racist and misogynist beliefs, and the craziest ideas gain traction when communities are isolated. I also loved that there was no great love story here. Stevie is strong and independent and a romance would, I think, have diluted her story.
There are some compelling action scenes and effective character beats, but the overall theme is bleak and rather depressing. Perhaps not so surprising for a post-apocalyptic novel, but I could have done with a more hopeful ending.
4/5 stars
Goodreads Challenge 43 - related to the 4 horsemen (plague)
Popsugar Challenge - does not meet criteria
384 pages
22. Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
Shana thinks that her sister Nessie is sleepwalking, but Nessie is just the first of many trance-like walkers who cannot be stopped.
When Shana discovers her sister walking barefoot down the road, she assumes Nessie is sleepwalking and tries to stop her. This causes Nessie's internal temperature to rise and she begins to shake uncontrollably. Instinctively knowing that Nessie will be hurt, Shana releases her and starts to follow her - the start of what will be a month's long journey as Nessie and more walkers, joined often by a family member like Shana, continue their relentless quest across America. They don't blink, eat or defecate. Their skin can't be pierced by needles or knives. And they won't stop. As the walkers continue, there's also a new disease that's begun to spread across America and the world - a disease that crosses from bats to humans. A disease that is deadly. A disease for which the world has no vaccine.
Maybe I shouldn't have read this book during a pandemic. It's the second one like this I've read in the last month. What am I thinking?
Right-wing extremists, religious zealots, pseudo-military survivalists and white supremacists blame the walkers for the virus and use the chaos of the virus's spread to wreak havoc.
Perhaps the scariest part of Wendig's novel is that it feels so prescient.
There are some good guys trying to figure out just what the hell is going on. There are some bad guys doing their best to remake the world in their image. There are some people running away from their lives who find an unexpected grace with the walkers (the rock star was my favourite). There are people that get caught up in something bigger than themselves, both for better and for worse. And there are those like Shana, who are just determined to stand up, stand by, and do the right thing for as long as possible.
Absolutely brilliant writing. The characterizations are spot-on, and the plot points rarely feel forced. And the ending! I have to say that I laid awake in bed afterwards thinking long and hard about that ending.
5/5 stars
Goodreads Challenge 26 - from 2019 Goodreads Awards (sci-fi nominee)
Popsugar Challenge - does not meet criteria
775 pages
23. Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence
Three generations of a family in the aftermath of nuclear war.
This is a story in three parts. In the first section, nuclear war begins. Teenager Sarah and her stepmother Veronica follow the instructions on the radio and seal off a room in their house, but when they are unable to shield themselves or Sarah's younger brother from the fallout, Sarah makes it her mission to save her sister Catherine. It is Catherine's descendants that then make up the main characters of the remaining two sections of the book, which take place 20 years and then 50-some years post-war.
I can't find much to recommend about this. The writing is simplistic (and I am judging by YA standards) and there is a lot of telling, instead of showing. And while I'm sure that there would be genetic mutations for any living thing that managed to survive nuclear fallout, I'm also equally sure that there would not be any positive mutations that would help survivors to adapt to the environment in the first generation. Or the second. Or probably the tenth. Anything like what is described in this book as a first generation mutation would take eons to actually happen. Change is s-l-o-w.
1/5 stars
Goodreads Challenge 46 - from an era/event/person from Billy Joe's "We Didn't Start The Fire" (h-bomb)
Popsugar Challenge 10 - recced by a blog
178 pages
Books Read: 23/85
Goodreads Challenge: 23/52
Popsugar Challenge: 18/40
Total Pages Read: 7542 pages
.
So. I have started a 600 word a day writing goal. That's about a page without dialogue. It certainly sounds doable. Today was day 1 and I wrote 609 words.
I have a Post To LJ twice a week goal. Because I tend to start to feel isolated and alone, especially since I live alone and haven't seen any family since March. (Yes, my friend lives downstairs but she has her husband and a life so we really don't interact more than a couple of times a week, and then just briefly.)
Anyway. Hopefully I'll be 'seeing' you guys more often. Hope everyone is weathering the storms.
I haven't done much reading, I am so far behind on all my goals, but I buckled down in the last little while and got three books read.
21. No Dominion by Louise Welsh
Final book in the 'Plague Times' trilogy, in which Magnus and Stevie team up on a rescue mission to find some kids who probably do not want to be found.
It's seven years after "the sweats" have swept through the world, killing most of the population. Stevie Flint, former journalist turned home-shopping-channel shill whom we met in the first book, is now the Mayor of a small island community in Scotland. Magnus McFall, the second book's rising stand-up comic, lives there with his adopted son Shug. The island stays safe by keeping a watch and strictly quarantining anyone who happens upon them - though visitors are few and far between - but the latest visitors break quarantine and plant visions of a shining future in Glasgow in the heads of the island's teenagers. It's up to Stevie and Magnus to find them when they take off with the visitors.
Perhaps reading about 99% of the world's population being wiped out by a new virus during, oh, a worldwide pandemic was not the best idea.
I liked the way that Welsh tried to show the many variations of what might happen with the total breakdown of society. The children are given far more leeway, abuse doesn't just go away, some people work together and others reinforce each other's racist and misogynist beliefs, and the craziest ideas gain traction when communities are isolated. I also loved that there was no great love story here. Stevie is strong and independent and a romance would, I think, have diluted her story.
There are some compelling action scenes and effective character beats, but the overall theme is bleak and rather depressing. Perhaps not so surprising for a post-apocalyptic novel, but I could have done with a more hopeful ending.
4/5 stars
Goodreads Challenge 43 - related to the 4 horsemen (plague)
Popsugar Challenge - does not meet criteria
384 pages
22. Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
Shana thinks that her sister Nessie is sleepwalking, but Nessie is just the first of many trance-like walkers who cannot be stopped.
When Shana discovers her sister walking barefoot down the road, she assumes Nessie is sleepwalking and tries to stop her. This causes Nessie's internal temperature to rise and she begins to shake uncontrollably. Instinctively knowing that Nessie will be hurt, Shana releases her and starts to follow her - the start of what will be a month's long journey as Nessie and more walkers, joined often by a family member like Shana, continue their relentless quest across America. They don't blink, eat or defecate. Their skin can't be pierced by needles or knives. And they won't stop. As the walkers continue, there's also a new disease that's begun to spread across America and the world - a disease that crosses from bats to humans. A disease that is deadly. A disease for which the world has no vaccine.
Maybe I shouldn't have read this book during a pandemic. It's the second one like this I've read in the last month. What am I thinking?
Right-wing extremists, religious zealots, pseudo-military survivalists and white supremacists blame the walkers for the virus and use the chaos of the virus's spread to wreak havoc.
Perhaps the scariest part of Wendig's novel is that it feels so prescient.
There are some good guys trying to figure out just what the hell is going on. There are some bad guys doing their best to remake the world in their image. There are some people running away from their lives who find an unexpected grace with the walkers (the rock star was my favourite). There are people that get caught up in something bigger than themselves, both for better and for worse. And there are those like Shana, who are just determined to stand up, stand by, and do the right thing for as long as possible.
Absolutely brilliant writing. The characterizations are spot-on, and the plot points rarely feel forced. And the ending! I have to say that I laid awake in bed afterwards thinking long and hard about that ending.
5/5 stars
Goodreads Challenge 26 - from 2019 Goodreads Awards (sci-fi nominee)
Popsugar Challenge - does not meet criteria
775 pages
23. Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence
Three generations of a family in the aftermath of nuclear war.
This is a story in three parts. In the first section, nuclear war begins. Teenager Sarah and her stepmother Veronica follow the instructions on the radio and seal off a room in their house, but when they are unable to shield themselves or Sarah's younger brother from the fallout, Sarah makes it her mission to save her sister Catherine. It is Catherine's descendants that then make up the main characters of the remaining two sections of the book, which take place 20 years and then 50-some years post-war.
I can't find much to recommend about this. The writing is simplistic (and I am judging by YA standards) and there is a lot of telling, instead of showing. And while I'm sure that there would be genetic mutations for any living thing that managed to survive nuclear fallout, I'm also equally sure that there would not be any positive mutations that would help survivors to adapt to the environment in the first generation. Or the second. Or probably the tenth. Anything like what is described in this book as a first generation mutation would take eons to actually happen. Change is s-l-o-w.
1/5 stars
Goodreads Challenge 46 - from an era/event/person from Billy Joe's "We Didn't Start The Fire" (h-bomb)
Popsugar Challenge 10 - recced by a blog
178 pages
Books Read: 23/85
Goodreads Challenge: 23/52
Popsugar Challenge: 18/40
Total Pages Read: 7542 pages
.