Still not sure

I rarely go down threads where I have to promise something. I just don't have as much time as I used to, although the last two days have been a delirious delight of "doing nothing much" and "reading for pleasure".

I should have known better than to order stuff I wanted to read, but the new Jim Butcher came out and then JR Ward's new book, and shipping is free if you buy over twenty five dollars from Amazon (which gets more of my money than it used to. No time = delivery+good. )Turn Coat was wonderful. I picked it up and only put it down once--when I had to make dinner. Lots of Wardens and Harry blowing stuff up, and even though I read the reviews where they said, "It was too easy. I knew the villain three chapters in", I didn't. Maybe that makes me dense or something, but I don't read Jim Butcher to guess whodunnit. To me, it's an urban fantasy before it's a mystery. I'm just along for the ride.

The JR Ward--Lover Avenged--was different. I dunno. In some ways the reviews were right. It was a great book that was easily thick enough to qualify for dictionary status. Hardback, what can I say? She had to fill it to make it worth the cash, but--I dunno. The jury is still out.

On one hand, I read it straight through in one sitting. On the other, I didn't like the Wrath subplot (it made Wrath look unsympathetic. So that was a downer.) And some of the Brother interaction felt forced, like she was filling word count. The main plot, about Rehvenge and Ehlena, was good. Ward is growing, and it shows in how well she handled what could have been a hackneyed storyline. The end felt rushed, wrapping up too fast to make me happy, and I'm not sure how I feel about John and Xhex.

I hope she's not doing a repeat of her Zsadist story. It was good, but that's doing a Feehan and I hope she's not going there.

But I was over at RD, which is my version of television--a great place to sit and waste time, lol, and I found my fingers typing out, "sure, I'd love to join your summer free read thing." And Lauren Bethany pm'd me this morning, and...er, I pm'd back. Which binds me to a couple of free reads over the course of the next few months.

In all, not a bad thing, since I have things that will never see the light of day. But...now that I'm looking at my stuff I'm wondering what to use. I have some Fallon and Corlis stories I wrote to flesh out backstory. I have three historical regencies (the kind you push under the bed--literally, since I wrote them on a word processor and they're typed) and bits and pieces from the two urban paranormals I've been kicking around for the last decade. Decisions. Whatever I decide, I need to clean this stuff up.

Writing is all rough draft until it's in print. :)