Summer’s more than halfway gone and I feel like I’ve accomplished so little, but it’s hard on a hot afternoon today, when you’ve not gotten enough sleep the night before because certain people on the other side of the globe insist on having interesting conversations about writing even though it’s midnight in your part of the world and you ought to go to bed…

Where was I? Oh yes, it’s hard to concentrate on stuff sometimes, when you’re tired. Even something as seemingly simple as a blog entry.

So while I have a partially written post all about “Story Values” waiting in the wings, and I ought to be filling your ears with all sorts of happy glee about how fabulous my magazine looks all printed and bound, all I’ve got for you right now is a couple of links and, yes…yes, I think I can manage to list a few recent books I’ve read.

We’ll start with the books, in fact, before I sending you off around the internet following my links. In reverse order:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling. (spoiler free, I promise!) While I did not attend any midnight parties, I did collect my copy (Target: $17.99) before noon on Saturday and spent the next 14 hours or so reading (counting interruptions to take care of those pesky kids and dogs). I finished at 2:08 in the morning, which is proof that Rowling has en enviable talent of being to drag a reader in and keep them engrossed in the story despite it’s length (759 pages — big type though). While I was totally caught up in the story while reading, and enjoyed a lot of moments on an individual basis, as a whole I have to say that it doesn’t bear a lot of close examination after the fact. It’s not a great piece of fiction, but it’s fun and ultimately that’s all that really matters.

I have to admit that my need to read the book the first weekend was for all the wrong reasons. I’m not an avid Harry Potter fan, and I’ve read fantasy fiction for so long that I can be infinitely patient when it comes to finding out what happens in the next book (Dance of Dragons, anyone?). I simply couldn’t stand not knowing what happens when sooooo many other people would know. Part of it was fear that I would inadvertently have the ending revealed before I got to read it for myself, but mostly it was a simple case of wanting to be on the inside of the circle of knowledge. Ending Envy, I suppose?

Title, by Someone. I mentioned previously a duology I was reading that sucked the creativity right out of my brain. I’m still protecting my karma by not mentioning that book by name in my blog, but if you want to know what it is I’ll be happy to share with you via email or IM. I’ll say this much — the first book was bad, the second was just boring.

The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner. Now, THAT is a piece of writing. My only complaint about this book is that it is too short — the ending comes a little abruptly, and I would have liked to see the main character have more to do with the resolution. But seriously, one doesn’t read Kushner’s books for the plots; it’s all about character and dialog. Tasty stuff here (and no, I don’t just mean Alec and Richard!). This fired my writing mind like crazy, and I should probably go read it again just to shake the last vestiges of cobwebs caused by the previously unnamed book from my brain.

The Hallowed Hunt, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Set in the same world as her previous two fantasies (The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls) which I just love, love, love, but unfortunately this is not quite of the same caliber. Mind you, it’s a good book, just not quite as good as the other two. Still looking forward to the next in The Sharing Knife series, which I’ll buy on the next trip to the bookstore if I don’t opt to replace my copy of Kay’s A Song for Arbonne first.

Now, links. Really nothing spectacular here. First, a post from Storytellers Unplugged, which is titled Syllogistic Vs. Situational and while I thought it was interesting enough to save the link I honestly don’t remember (thanks to my week of brain fog) what it was about. I’ll have to go reread it myself.

Also, my new favorite castle. An awesome place — I’m not sure if I’d rather live there myself or just make up stories about the people who live here. Heck, why not both? Chris….?

That is about all I’ve got for you tonight. Which is probably enough because I can go on and on even when I don’t have much to say. Thank you for not complaining about that! And yes, an early bed is in the cards for tonight, so that I will be clear-headed enough on the morrow to polish up the draft of the 10Q post I’ve been working on, and maybe even smoosh together the poem that I stupidly put into the scene. You can bet that if the post doesn’t show up in the next two or three days, it’s that poem that’s holding me up…

And that, folks, is really all for right now.