Who's a Good Boy?

That's my new dog, Maxx.  I was thinking about changing it to something like Percival or Gimpmeister Sir-runs-into-a-lot-of-trees, but I didn't want to confuse him. 

He's maybe the sweetest dog I've ever met.  Of course, I'm biased, just like most parents are of their own ugly, drooly children.  Maxx doesn't drool though.  Seriously, he's awesome.  He snorts when he gets excited (just like dad!) and he's not real keen on carpet yet, but we're getting there.  He woke up this morning and scared himself so bad that he snorted amazingly loud and woke up my neighbor...which is totally payback for all the mornings I had to wake up to Queen's Greatest Hits.  Anyway, say hi to my new crazy writing companion!

The writing goes.  I'm at a point.  I'm not sure what that point is.  I'm either 1/3 or half way through with the book.  I like where it's going, what it says (what it says about me) but something's off with it.  It's like, I like the first part and I like the last part, but I feel like there's a middle part that I'm missing.  It's difficult.  THE DEATHDAY LETTER spanned one day, so charting a path was pretty easy.  This book follows about six months.  I have to choose the moments which best reflect the story.  I guess I'm just questioning whether the moments are cohesive enough to create a whole.  I won't really know that until I finish, which I hope I'll do before I get my edits for DDL, but I highly doubt.  

I got around to reading THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan this weekend.  It was a really fun read.  I like my zombies hungry.  It read like the best kind of slasher, horror flick from my youth.  The kind where the killers never, ever stop tell you why they're going to kill you, and the protagonist (by protag I mean:  Large breasted virgin who runs fast enough in the dark to always stay ahead, but manages to trip and take ten minutes to get back up) keeps going long past the point where she even knows why anymore.  The book was heavy on fantastic description, and the lurve story was touching.  The prose was a little uptight but I think that Ryan will loosen up a little as she goes, and there was a history, a mythology, if you will, that was hinted at but never went anywhere.  Neither of those things detract in any way (and I think that Ryan has stated she's writing a second book, so maybe the mythology of the Sisterhood will be addressed more in that), so I say, go read it, but don't plan on eating at the Rib joint for dinner.