After the earthquake (oh, and hurricane)

So, the past two weeks have been a little bonkers for me. First we were hit with an earthquake (well, we felt the tremors of an earthquake that hit some place in Virginia) at the beginning of the week and ended the week with Hurricane Irene, which knocked out our power for 5.5 days. I'm used to blackouts like this (I used to live in New Hampshire where one winter we had an ice storm and lost power for at least 4 days, and the next winter we had a wind storm that knocked out power for 3 days), but by the end of the week I was ready to pull my hair out. Reading by candlelight is very 1800s, but it can get extremely boring. No wonder they sat around and sang to each other! And besides, I can only go so long with out a full hot shower (instead I had the equivalent of cold sponge baths. NOT fun)... not to mention I was running out of clean clothes.

So, I spent the long Labor Day weekend enjoying the splendors of electricity. The most exciting thing I did was watch the 8 episodes of Vampire Diaries that I had saved to our DVR. I don't know why I held off so long! This was a great season (lots of death, betrayal, and cliffhangers). Actually, I'm glad that I saved them up because there's nothing worse than waiting an entire week for the next episode. I'm also glad I stuck with the series because at first I didn't like the actress who plays Elena (I'm used to her now and she's getting better). I'll never get enough of Ian Somerhalder (drooooool!). But here's my question to all VD fans out there. Are the books similar to the show? Are they worth reading? I started with the show and now I'm worried that if I read the books I'll be disappointed one way or the other. Ooo, I just saw that the new season of VD starts next week (even better!).

Needless to say, the last few weeks have been horrible for my editing. I've managed to edit on my Nook (which is progress), but I really need to get these edits into the computer. I need to find a rhythm again. What I really need is a laptop. I did start hand-writing ARABELLE WILD (the short novella that I was working on earlier this year) while the power was out. I may try to finish that one by hand and then type it all up later (again, it's progress). I also read several books: THE SEASON (a YA, regency England novel; it was decent), DIE FOR ME (a YA, zombie/dead immortals novel; it was decent too), and THE GODDESS TEST (a YA, Greek mythology retelling; it was good). I have not finished SUPERNATURALLY and I might not. I made it halfway through and I feel like nothing's really happening--there's not really a plot that I can see. I gave it to my sister to read and she finished it and basically said that it didn't get much better. This is kind of a let down since I liked PARANORMALCY so much. I may give it a chance... I don't know (I'll still read Kirsten White's stuff, but I might have to get it from the library).

I'm currently reading: MISFIT by Jon Skovron. I almost stopped reading this one because the story is told in present tense (Janie says this. Janie takes her socks off) and feels a little awkward. I'm so rooted in past tense writing/reading that I actually really don't like it. But then I skimmed ahead and saw that there are some past tense sections, which is weird, and now, looking at it from a writer's POV, I want to see if Skovron can pull it off. Still... the present tense really bothers me. (Here's one reviewer who thought the same thing about the tense switches). We'll see how far I get in this one. There are a few books (I found them while browsing at Barnes and Noble) that I need to get my hands on: POSSESS and WILDEFIRE. I need to wait until the library has them (or until I have enough money to buy random books). I did buy THE FALLEN: END OF DAYS by Sniegoski. He's one of my favorite authors in the "fallen angels" genre. Side note: the actor who plays "Stefan" on VD also played the lead role in "The Fallen" TV miniseries.

That's all the news from me for now!