Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Between Time and Place


Packing’s been the name of the game this week. Tomorrow I hop on a plane for Texas to attend a friend’s wedding, sans kids. Then on Sunday I hope another flight to Florida to meet up with the kids at in-laws for a week of fun in the sun!

But enough of what I’m doing. 

I’ve finally gotten around to reading The Time Baroness by Georgina Young-Ellis; A book graciously given to me by Mister International Mark for reading and reviewing. He chosen well, yet again (though I have to confess I liked A Thousand Glass Flowers better). But, the cool thing about the time baroness is that it proved to be valuable research for my Phoenixes.

How, you ask? Well it’s simple Cassandra ends up in a similar situation to Sarah. Only Cassandra’s a bit more, okay A LOT more prepared because it’s scheduled time travel and Cassandra has a return date. She’s been studying the time period – that of Jane Austin – she’s had a few pieces of clothing made – she’ll buy the rest when she gets there – and her turn has now come.

Choosing to go three years after Jane Austin passed away, Cassandra embarks on a one year journey into the life style Jane’s books embodied. She’s there to observe and take notes, to write a paper about her experiences. But, just being an observer is hard than she thought, as she’s drawn to the upper, and lower, class circles. Finding herself in her own Austin like tale, Cassandra must face increasingly difficult challenges as her year long stay comes to a close.

In a way Sarah’s jealous, since Cassandra has a way to return home to her family and friends, but I suspect that in some ways Cassandra might be jealous of Sarah – especially if you discount everything that goes on in book 3. Anyway back to how this is research. Well Georgina probably did a lot of research and her portrayal of Cassandra’s acceptance, how she both is and is not, was something for me to take note of.

Looking at those notes I’m thinking Sarah may be disguising herself as a man sooner than I thought. Now won’t that put Jason in a funny pickle. It certainly will put an interesting spin on book 1. I’m kind of looking forward to it.

Now it’s well past my bedtime, so I say 'Adios', and if you all like next Wednesday I’ll post up my, technically Sarah and Jason’s, responses to the 2012 March Beautiful People questions. Unless you want me to regale you with tales of the wedding and Florida.

*giggles and grin*
:} Leigh, Cathryn

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Feeding an Addiction

I have a confession to make. I’m an addict. My drug of choice? Books. And I’m going to feed that addiction buy buying books with my blood money.

Okay, so according to Wikipedia addiction can be a continued involvement with an activity despite the negative consequences. For me those would be:
  • Making meals gets forgotten (made worse when I snack while reading)
  • I stay up way too late, causing exhaustion
  •  My hubby (and kids) tend to feel abandoned

And all because I might as well be inside the book because that’s how hard it can be to take me away from it. Although, given that I’ve stopped reading books, it’s probably not a true addiction. Still it felt that way for a while, but now I think I can moderate my reading so it’s time to start reading all these good books I’ve been hearing about.

And to get those books, I’m going to use my blood money. No, I haven’t turned assassin or anything like that. It’s actually all completely legal and arrives via paycheck (complete with taxes taken out) from my day job. You see, my company uses blood as part of the release testing of product before it can be sold. To obtain the blood they need they set up a blood donation program; which compensates the participants. It’s not much money, but given I’m getting an e-reader for Christmas and the price of e-books, it will be plenty.

I will also be trying to save some of that blood money to fund my publishing costs, when I get to that point. But, since I keep hearing that to be a writer you have to read, I thought I ought to start fitting that into my schedule. The most difficult question?

What will I read first?

:} Cathryn Leigh