I’ll get WIPpet Wednesday out of the way first this week, as it is much shorter than the WWW part. WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop wherein writers share an excerpt from the current WIP that somehow relates to the date. The linkup is here.
You may remember last week, I mentioned that I had decided to try my hand at a contemporary romance. It is somewhat based on my experiences in living on campus during my first year of university, though the romance is an addition. And my MC isn’t studying art history. But anyway. That’s what I’m drawing on.
This is part of Bea’s first day at… okay, I’m going to use the word “college” because that’s what we call them on Canberra, but I’m actually referring to the residential hall. Semester starts the following week. Twelve lines from my notebook (my handwriting is rather large) for the 12th of the month.
Feeling the need for a break, she fished a mug out of the box containing her kitchen gear, and a box of teabags out of her supply of groceries. She knew there was a small kitchen at the end of the corridor, though she hadn’t visited it yet. She hoped it at least contained a kettle.
She found not a kettle, but an instant hot water tap at the sink and grinned. Not having to wait for boiling water at 3am when she was working on an essay was okay by her.
She hasn’t even started uni yet and she already knows what she’ll be like.
Onto WWW Wednesday, a reading meme hosted by Sam.Visit her blog and link up with others.
- What are you currently reading?
Erm… more things than I usually let myself read all at once.
The Viper and the Urchin by Celine Jeanjean and it continues to be fun. I really like both main characters, and their uneasy relationship is being well-developed. But the book is quite light-hearted, which is nice. Also, I want to visit Susie’s Coffeehouse. If you like steampunk and/or assassins and/or street urchins, you should read this book.
I’m about 35 pages into Dust Girl and really need to devote some more time to it. The main character, Callie, is the daughter of a white woman and a black man in 1930s Kansas; though her father disappeared before she was born [I’m fairly sure this is a plot point]. As I said, I’m not very far into it, but I do know that the Fey are soon to be involved, in the form of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. I really like the non-traditional setting for this type of story, and I think I’ll enjoy it a lot.
I’m also listening to the audio book of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and… okay, confession time: I really struggle to read classics. I love the stories they tell, and I will happily sit through a BBC adaptation of any of them, but the writing style and I just don’t agree. Even listening to the audio, I am finding this a bit much. Also, my iPod randomly stopped working today, so I might have to take an enforced break either way, depending on whether I get it going again.
And I started Balanced on the Blade’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker today, because I could get the first three books in the series for 99 cents, and then the audio to companion to said three books for another $3. A pretty good deal, you must admit. And it was something to replace Persuasion when my iPod broke. Having said that, I was listening to it while working on reasonably annoying things at work, and I only figured out what was going on when I read the synopsis on GoodReads. I think I’ve got the hang of it, though, now. What I listened to on the way home made more sense.
… Wow, this answer ended up long. I talk too much.
- What did you recently finish reading?
I didn’t exactly finish Throne of Glass, but I did give up on it. The main character was making silly decisions I disagreed with or didn’t feel made much sense, and I read some spoilery reviews and it seemed she was going to keep doing that. So I stopped wasting my time.
- What do you think you will read next?
Still have the library’s copy of Crewel sitting on my bedside chest, so I should get on to that. And then I should get my “Currently Reading” back down to one or two before I pick anything else up.
I worked the late shift tonight (as in, didn’t leave work until 8pm because I was on the desk until then), so I really need to go to bed now. I’ll catch you all soon!
Good luck with Persuasion. I struggle with classics for the same reason. Happy reading and thanks for participating in WWW Wednesday!
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I really do try, but I very rarely get through them!
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I hope you can stick with Persuasion. Even though you can tell Austen had to write it in a hurry (she was already ill with the sickness which killed her), it’s still a great story and more “grown-up” in some ways than her others.
I suspect I might have a similar experience to yours with Throne of Glass. It’s an on-going problem I have reading YA fiction as an increasingly curmudgeonly women in my 30s – the choices of the teenage protagonists make me sigh and want to give them a good talking to! 🙂
Here’s my WWW: http://clairehuston.wordpress.com/2015/08/12/www-wednesday-12th-august-2015/
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My iPod still isn’t turning back on, but a break may actually be good, instead of trying to listen to it all in one hit (or close to that). I’ll keep going for a bit longer.
I think the main issue with Throne of Glass was that this was supposedly the most feared assassin in all the realms, but she does things like stay up late reading the night before a life-or-death competition, and eats a bag of candy that is left at the foot of her bed, despite not knowing where it’s from and the fact that there are people dropping dead around her. I need a smarter heroine than that.
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I really wanted to read Dust Girl a while back and then just completely forgot about it! Definitely want to read Crewel though. Hope you enjoy it!
http://dualreads.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/www-wednesday-12th-august.html
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A friend of mine read Dust Girl over a year ago now and I’ve been meaning to get to it ever since! I am pretty intrigued by Crewel so it’ll be interesting to finally get to it. Thanks for stopping by!
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Ah! I would have been devastated to find no kettle. 😦 I suppose, if you’re living on campus with lots of other people, though, a tap would suffice. Maybe. It still makes me sad for your poor character, though, even if she doesn’t care.
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Boiling water is boiling water, isn’t it, though? Whether it comes from a tap or a kettle? (At least, that’s how I see it, though I do know of people at work who still use a kettle because the boiling water in the tap is apparently still not hot enough)
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I am a kettle person all the way. It must sing a certain note before I’m satisfied. 😛
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Ahh, see, electric kettles are much more the norm over here, so there’s very little singing involved. Just a click of the switch going off when it reaches temperature.
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Yeah. They are here, too. I just love my kettles.
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An instant hot water tap is something I could go for!
I hear you about having problems reading certain classics. Most 19th century American and British literature is hard to read because of the long, flowery descriptions and overall writing style. I got an A++ on the book report I did on The Age of Innocence for my 8th grade social-studies class, and I only read the dialogue and short descriptions. I skipped all the long descriptive passages and backstory which didn’t move the main story along.
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I loved having one when i lived on campus! We’ve got one at work, though it breaks every now snags then and we all sort of look at each other saying, “What’s this kettle business? )”
The long descriptions are my main problem, too! A Christmas Carol Is one of my favorite books, but I’ve never managed to finish anything by Charles Dickens. I know they were written as serials, but that still doesn’t help when you’ve got a 700-page book in front of you!
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Instant hot water tap?! Where do I sign up! Great little character intro for us readers 😀
That sounds like a fun list of books! Happy reading 🙂
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I know right? I would quite happily have one in my house.
Thanks! 🙂
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That instant hot water thing is actually on my “must have” list if I ever buy a house. Those things are a dream come true! lol I remember feeling this way when I first went to college.
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I would have it on my list, too, I think. I waste so much time boiling the kettle, then forgetting about it, then having to boil it again before I can make a drink.
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We have an unintentional hot water tap during the winter because we have hot water heat powered by a wood stove. Which means no regulation of the hotness. That’s fine by me, though. 🙂
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Aw, man, I would be okay with that. Ours takes full minutes to warm up at this time of year.
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Good characterization in this short scene. And I definitely agree — automatic boiling water is a bonus!
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