I read: Night Shift

Night Shift by Charlaine Harris  

(Book 3 in the Midnight Texas series)

I'll admit it - I really just read this book because I wanted to finish the series. I enjoyed a few of the characters, but the story seemed to really drag on this one. Bits and pieces of things caught my interest along the way but there wasn't one main thread to keep me going. Harris is very good at her characterization though, so it was worth the read if only to get to the inevitable end.

I'm not going to go any more in-depth with this at this point - maybe I'll edit later.  3 stars out of five.

#07-2020

I read: Alone in the Wild

Alone in the Wild by Kelley Armstrong

(Book 5 in the Rockton series)

So I know I'm really repetitive lately, but I've been reading Kelley Armstrong stuff, so I have to say it again. I will read anything that she writes. Her characters are so well-developed, and she writes in a way that even if it's not a genre I would normally gravitate to, I still want to know what she's going to do with it.  This is the fifth book in a series, so clearly I'm reading in order to get to the end, but most of the Rockton novels have been very easy to follow, even if you haven't read the rest of the series.

I write: Technology in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Writing Assignment – Technology in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Overview:

We’re back to the workshop again this week, this time thinking about the technology that exists in our created world, how it affects that world, and the people in it. But we’ve got to keep the tension up, so at least some of this technology creates an impending disaster.

A technology allowed to be taken to the extreme threatens to destroy our civilization: socially, politically, or physically.

1. What is the technology?
2. What is it that makes it such a threat?
3. What kind of character would be the most interesting to engage with the technology and save the world?

I read: Day Shift

Day Shift by Charlaine Harris

(Book two in the Midnight, Texas trilogy)

Continuing with this series in the theory that I'd like to get it finished fairly quickly. It is only 3 books after all.

This one moved a bit more slowly, I felt than the first book which is unusual because generally the first book in a series has a lot more info dump and allows the next book to just get on with the story.

Charlaine Harris has a different theory.

I write: Decisions in a tense world: Political and Social Systems

Writing Assignment – Decisions in a tense world: Political and Social Systems

The Set up - Overview

This week I’d like you to write a scene. It can be a standalone story or part of a larger tale that you haven’t yet written. The goal of the scene is to show a character making a decision with life-changing consequences. This decision should be heavily influenced by, or take place in the context of, your fictional world.

Your fictional world, in this case, should take a fundamental value of our current societies on earth and change them in some way. It can take the form of either a science-fiction or fantasy setting, but it has to be different from today. Is it a world where fertile women are forced into child-bearing servitude? Is it a world where magic exists, but is forbidden? Is it a world of mass oppression and class struggle? Think through how those factors would weigh in your characters decision process.

I read: Midnight Crossing

Midnight Crossing by Charlaine Harris
(First in the Midnight, Texas series)

I picked up the trilogy of these books after a discussion in my Sci-Fi/Fantasy writing class.  I enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse series also written by Harris, so I assumed I was in for another fun read here.