Witch and Wizard

I finished Witch and Wizard by James Patterson yesterday. It was pretty good.

When I first started reading the book, I thought it might be some kind of Harry Potter rip off. Other than the children being witches and wizards and maybe some similarities in spells that were cast, the stories didn't have too much in common. Oh, wait, the antagonist is an all powerful adult, sort of like Voldemort too. Other than THAT, the stories were different.

There were parts of the book that reminded me of another book. The 'adult' society in Witch and Wizard reminded me of Camazotz in A Wrinkle in Time. It was that same institutional, grayscale conformity kind of environment in which creativity is frowned upon.

This book was geared more toward kids than Patterson's usual YA fiction. Most of the adults acted as enemies. The same is true of the Maximum Ride series, but I thought it was more noticable in Witch and Wizard.

The story was pretty fast-paced, and there is some decent imagery. I wouldn't call Witch and Wizard brilliant but it's a decent read. It gets B+.

_________________________________

Other places to find me:
www.LeaRyan.com
Twitter: @LeaRyan1

My debut novel was released today! She Who is Vengeance is available for order through www.lulu.com

She Who is Vengeance is finally out!

The official release date isn't until tomorrow, but I can't contain myself that long.

She Who is Vengeance is now available through these links.

print version - http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/she-who-is-vengeance/11061667

ebook version - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/15516

For the totally awesome readers of my blog, there is a handy little code that, as I understand it, should enable you to download a free copy of the ebook on the Smashwords. If you love it, I hope you will give it a good rating. If you hate it, keep your opinion to yourself. LOL! I am totally kidding. The code expires June 1st, 2010.

smashwords code - WT92X

Have an awesome holiday weekend and remember the people who fought and fight for us!

Lost Finale Thoughts and Feelings

Yes, yes, I know I'm late with my two cents. I just finished watching the Lost finale on the DV-R last night. The thing was on past my bedtime.

Anyway, I was a little disappointed, not devastated, but I thought the writers could have done more with the end. I've watched Lost from the very beginning. I love that show. I can't really say what I expected, but I know that wasn't it.

I take issue with the unresolved. For instance, Kate was on the run from various law men throughout the series. At the end of the series, she's flying back to that world. I think I would rather take my chances on a sinking island than go to prison.

And what ever happened to Walt? Remember the black kid from the first couple of seasons? He was supposedly special or meant for something great. Then he left and when he visited, he never really did anything spectacular. Apparently he wasn't that special, after all.

I know there are people out there who think Lost can do no wrong. Judging by some of those verizon text message thingies they showed at the beginning of the finale, the Lost show was the absolute center of the universe. But, the writers could have done better.

I thought the finale really lacked fireworks. It felt like the writers just got tired of writing and then stopped.

Ah well. Such is life. Good tv show. We move on.

_____________

Other places to find me:
www.LeaRyan.com
Twitter: @LeaRyan1

Also be sure to check out the free e-book download of Part One of She Who is Vengeance at www.LeaRyan.com. The full print version of the novel goes on sale May 28th!

Mondayness

As of today, 100 people have either viewed Part One of She Who is Vengeance on Scribd.com or downloaded it from Smashwords.com! Oh yeah, superstar! woo, me. That's not counting anyone who may have read it through my regular website.

I looked at the prologue for the next book, the one due out this fall, and decided to trash 90% of it. I'm feeling a little frustrated. The information in the prologue is integral to the very beginning of the story, so I can't just axe it completely. I am busting out a spiral notebook to rewrite the thing from scratch. We'll see how that goes. I need to move significantly faster with this project.

I have not yet watched the Lost finale in its entirety. I watched it last night, but the show ran too late for me to finish watching it. Therefore, I spent my day NOT clicking links with the word Lost in them. I think we are watching the rest today.

I finally finished Fox and Willows over the weekend. Here it is.

Random Friday Updates

Listening to: The END, Black Eyed Peas
Reading: Witch and Wizard, James Patterson, also rereading the College Handbook for Creative Writing, Third Edition

This week has been crazy. I posted downloads of Part One of She Who is Vengeance in several places online, which involved a lot of reformatting and converting, etc. It was worth the effort. As of right now, Part One has been downloaded from smashwords 44 times! Hopefully people will like it well enough to want to read the rest of it. Part One is also available as a free ebook download on my website (www.LeaRyan.com) and on Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/doc/31752531).

What else? I haven't had quite as much time to draw this week, which makes me a little sad. I still work a day job, so once dinner is over, the kids are taken care of, the workout is done (on workout days) and whatever book working is done, I don't have much time left for the illustrations. Most of the illustrations take around 8 hours from sketch to finished product. I can probably make up some time on that this weekend.

Here's one that I finished last week that I just haven't posted yet. This one is called The Seamstress. Click the pic if you would like to order a print or see the rest of my gallery.

Hmmm, oh, the girl got yet another piece of braces related hardware this week. I'm feeling bad for her. My braces weren't all that much fun. Hers are far worse by comparison. She now has the regular braces, a palatal expander and arms (like hinges) at the back of her mouth that train her bottom jaw forward. It's pretty nuts. Hopefully, she doesn't have to wear all of that stuff for the full two years. Bright side is, she should have flawless teeth by the end of the ordeal. That ortho means business!

I think that's all I have for now. Next week, I'll post the Fox and Willows illustration if I finish it this weekend. I will probably have some sort of comment on the Lost finale too.

Oh, my novel comes out officially on Friday if all goes as planned! That gets the stomach butterflies in a tizzy, but I'll be alright, I suppose. Have a good weekend!

________________________
Other places to find me:
http://www.learyan.com/
Twitter: @LeaRyan1

Poor J. Love

I read that Ghost Whisperer was canceled. Awwwww, I know. I watched that show and liked most of it, despite some of the cheesiness. I always loved J. Love's outfits and the guy that played her husband brought his hotness to my TV every Friday night.

The part of the show that cracked me up was near the end of every episode. It was the heart to heart talk between the ghost and his/her loved ones, during which the ghost would attempt to make amends with whoever they had harrassed throughout the episode. The ghost would say what they needed to say and then Jennifer Love Hewitt's character would convey the message to the living, non-ghost whispering types. The problem was, she never accurately conveyed the message to the living. The ghost could go through this whole spiel about why they were acting a fool and how sorry they were, then J. Love would be like, "He says he's sorry."
HA!

Apparently, when you're dead, the bottom line is all that matters.

__________________________

Also be sure to check out the free e-book download of Part One of She Who is Vengeance at www.LeaRyan.com. The full print version of the novel goes on sale May 28th!

Dolan's Cadillac

We watched Dolan's Cadillac this weekend. The movie is based on a short story from Stephen King's collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes. I think I probably read that novel years ago, but really, I didn't remember that particular story at all.

Christian Slater plays an excellent bad guy, Dolan. He really seemed to take delight in the role. The good guy is played by Wes Bentley (also played weird kid with the camera in American Beauty), who does an equally amazing job.

The plot is pretty much a straight forward revenge story. The only complaint I had was the lack of twists and turns. While there was the usual Stephen King grit, the story lacked that weirdness of his that I love so much. The movie is enjoyable to watch, regardless of the slight lack of strange. My favorite scenes involved the protagonist's aquisition and use of a hand cannon and the eleborate trap used by one of the guys to catch the other. I give it an A-.

_________________________

Also be sure to check out the free e-book download of Part One of She Who is Vengeance at www.LeaRyan.com. The full print version of the novel goes on sale May 28th!

grasshopper girl

Here is another illustration. Prints are available in ye olde Zazzle gallery. WOOOOO!!!

http://www.zazzle.com/learyan7791

__________________________

Also be sure to check out the free e-book download of Part One of She Who is Vengeance at www.LeaRyan.com . The full print veresion of the novel goes on sale May 28th!

Part One is up and running!

The free html e-book of Part One of my debut novel is officially ON THE WEBSITE! I apologize to anyone who visited my website within the last two days and noticed that my event dates were so very incorrect. I think they are now correct. Anywayz, read it, love it, order a full copy on or after May 28th.

www.LeaRyan.com

art stuff

Ok, I put up some artsy type things on Zazzle. The gallery isn't up quite all of the way yet. I thought I would post some illustrations on the old blog as I slap them up in the store. A couple of prints on card stock and canvas are on sale as of this morning. I might post another one here for your viewing enjoyment this weekend. This one (below) is called Wine Therapy.








http://www.zazzle.com/LeaRyan7791

___________________

Other places to find me: www.LeaRyan.com or on Twitter: @LeaRyan1

Why the Kindle app for Blackberry rules and why it sucks.

I downloaded the blackberry kindle app from amazon a couple of weeks ago. It is very cool, and free, which makes it even better.

My only other experience with ebooks is my ipaq, an HP pda. The ebooks I read on that were usually freebies from the project gutenberg website. The ipaq served that purpose pretty well, but getting the files on it was a bit of a pain. The screen is a nice size for ebook reading but there was a lot of scrolling involved.

Kindle for blackberry is an easier process. I can connect to amazon and download what I want in a minute or so. The instant delivery thing is quite nice. And I can page down with the space bar button instead of having to scroll.

Now for the suck part. If you download books and you have to exchange your phone like I did (bluetooth was defective), you lose your whole library.

When I received my exchange phone, I went through the whole blackberry desktop backup procedure. It transferred almost everything to the new phone and cleared off the old blackberry.

I was in the middle of reading an ebook when I requested an exchange for the phone. So I checked the kindle app to see if the book transferred. It appeared so. Joy! Only, not. When I tried to open the book, it wouldn't let me. I downloaded another book, and it let me open that one.

I thought maybe if I deleted the kindle app and reinstalled, it would work. Nope. Then it didn't let me open either book. My theory is that the kindle software thinks I'm trying to open pirated files, which I assure you, I'm not.

These two books were offered for free when I first downloaded them. They are no longer free. If I want to read the rest of Bite Me, I will have to pay for it.

My biggest concern, though, is what if I had paid for a bunch of books? I would have lost them. I didn't consult amazon customer support, so I can't really tell you if there was some resolution they would have offered. For me, the problem just isn't that deep. It's not like I paid for the books in the first place.

Free is free though, so I guess I can't whine too much.

longish blog entry

Let’s see.

I dyed my hair too dark accidentally…again. Apparently in Revlon Colorsilk world, medium brown is actually super dark espresso brown. This fact only leads me to the conclusion that their version of dark brown is actually black and their black is probably somewhere between the color of the deepest reaches of the universe and negative space.

I tried to kill my pretty new (to me) mustang by gently rolling over a giant median. I was turning into Wendys to get my badunkadunk on and hopped two wheels on the driver’s side up onto curb and into some mud. Never fear. Baby is fine, with the exception of a couple of dings on the Pirellis. I apologized to my car several times and have promised never to do such a thing again. It is my understanding that the car has accepted my apology.

I wrote nothing this weekend, which is completely out of the ordinary for me. Instead, worked on converting my pencil sketches to digital format. I will post one or two on the blog this week.

Long weekend movie rundown.

Where the Wild Things Are – We actually bought this for the kids on DVD before we watched it. Big mistake. The movie is all style and no substance. The plot is almost an afterthought, it seems. Much of the movie is just random action and odd conversation. The kids liked it though, so I guess that’s what really matters.

The Lovely Bones – So awesome. I really loved this movie. It’s about a young girl who is murdered. From a limbo state of existence, she watches her family deal with her death, her father investigate, and she watches her murderer. The parts of the movie that showed her in limbo really reminded me of What Dreams May Come. The special effects are amazing. The acting and the story were very good.

The Offspring – This was a horror movie. Wild cave person cannibals attack civilized folk. It was over the top gory and sort of felt like the director was trying to emulate Rob Zombie. The filming was too dark. The dialog was quite cheesy in places. However, the absolute worst part of the movie was this sound effect they kept using. It began in the theme music and carried on throughout. I’m not even really sure how to describe the sound. It was a high-pitched, nails on a chalkboard, but more like a synthesizer noise. It made me want to throw the remote at my television.

Sherlock Holmes – Yes! I finally got to see this movie. Was I the last? I am thinking probably yes. Sherlock Holmes was totally awesome. There was a ton of action, a lot of parts that cracked me up, stuff blowing up, and Robert Downey Jr. looking sexy as hell. Loved it!!!

That’s all I have for now. But really, isn’t it enough?
_______________________
Other places to find me:
www.LeaRyan.com
Twitter: @LeaRyan1

longish blog entry

Let’s see.

I dyed my hair too dark accidentally…again. Apparently in Revlon Colorsilk world, medium brown is actually super dark espresso brown. This fact only leads me to the conclusion that their version of dark brown is actually black and their black is probably somewhere between the color of the deepest reaches of the universe and negative space.

I tried to kill my pretty new (to me) mustang by gently rolling over a giant median. I was turning into Wendys to get my badunkadunk on and hopped two wheels on the driver’s side up onto curb and into some mud. Never fear. Baby is fine, with the exception of a couple of dings on the Pirellis. I apologized to my car several times and have promised never to do such a thing again. It is my understanding that the car has accepted my apology.

I wrote nothing this weekend, which is completely out of the ordinary for me. Instead, worked on converting my pencil sketches to digital format. I will post one or two on the blog this week.

Long weekend movie rundown.

Where the Wild Things Are – We actually bought this for the kids on DVD before we watched it. Big mistake. The movie is all style and no substance. The plot is almost an afterthought, it seems. Much of the movie is just random action and odd conversation. The kids liked it though, so I guess that’s what really matters.

The Lovely Bones – So awesome. I really loved this movie. It’s about a young girl who is murdered. From a limbo state of existence, she watches her family deal with her death, her father investigate, and she watches her murderer. The parts of the movie that showed her in limbo really reminded me of What Dreams May Come. The special effects are amazing. The acting and the story were very good.

The Offspring – This was a horror movie. Wild cave person cannibals attack civilized folk. It was over the top gory and sort of felt like the director was trying to emulate Rob Zombie. The filming was too dark. The dialog was quite cheesy in places. However, the absolute worst part of the movie was this sound effect they kept using. It began in the theme music and carried on throughout. I’m not even really sure how to describe the sound. It was a high-pitched, nails on a chalkboard, but more like a synthesizer noise. It made me want to throw the remote at my television.

Sherlock Holmes – Yes! I finally got to see this movie. Was I the last? I am thinking probably yes. Sherlock Holmes was totally awesome. There was a ton of action, a lot of parts that cracked me up, stuff blowing up, and Robert Downey Jr. looking sexy as hell. Loved it!!!

That’s all I have for now. But really, isn’t it enough?

100th post!!!

Aw, special day.

I know. I haven't been around much lately. I've been busy putting some final touches on the book. If all goes as planned, the book will be released on 5/28. It will first be available through lulu and will later be on amazon.

Shortly after the book is released, some totally awesome extra content for the novel will go live on the website. WOO! yes: book history, character descriptions, a bit about the cover art, part one as a free pdf download, many fun things.

Also, there will be e-books, probably on Kindle and SmashWords. I haven't formatted anything for those yet. That's on the todo list.

I have a long weekend planned. But there will be no writing, interestingly enough. I was thinking of working on some illustrations.

That's all for now. Probably more this weekend.