One of the things I often do as I'm reading a novel or short story is keep track of words whose definitions I do not know or that I find interesting. Either way, these interesting words are ones I feel might be of use in my own writing. That, and it's good to expand one's vocabulary every once in a while.

Read my review of The Alchemist's Pursuit.

altruistic: showing unselfish concern for the welfare of others

aquiline: curved down like an eagle's beak

ascetic: practices self denial as spiritual discipline

avaricious: immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth

condottiere: A military adventurer of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, who sold his services, and those of his followers, to any party in any contest.

connivance: tacit approval of someone's wrongdoing

damask: a fabric of linen or cotton or silk or wool with a reversible pattern woven into it

demimonde: a class of woman not considered respectable because of indiscreet or promiscuous behavior

dyspepsia: a disorder of digestive function characterized by discomfort or heartburn or nausea

ephemeris: an annual publication containing astronomical tables that give the positions of the celestial bodies throughout the year

escritoire: a desk used for writing

fatuity: a ludicrous folly

gematria: a cabbalistic system of interpretation of the Scriptures by substituting for a particular word another word whose letters give the same numerical sum

harridan: a scolding (even vicious) old woman

hematemesis: vomiting blood

insouciant: marked by blithe unconcern

isopsephy: the Greek word for the practice of adding up the number values of the letters in a word to form a single number

licentious: lacking moral discipline; especially sexually unrestrained

malmsey: sweet Madeira wine

miniver: trimming on ceremonial robes consisting of white or light gray fur

miter: a liturgical headdress worn by bishops on formal occasions

niggardly: petty in giving or spending

patriciate: The patrician class; the aristocracy; also, the office of patriarch.

perfidy: betrayal of a trust

plinth: an architectural support or base (as for a column or statue)

sausage stands: I know what a sausage stand is, but thought it interesting that Renaissance Venice had them (or at least Duncan's rendition did).

scuttle: container for coal; shaped to permit pouring the coal onto the fire

sortilege: The act or practice of drawing lots; divination by drawing lots.

succinct: briefly giving the gist of something

tonsure: the shaved crown of a monk's or priest's head

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Other books in Duncan's Venetian fantasy/mystery series:

1. The Alchemist's Apprentice
2. The Alchemist's Code
3. The Alchemist's Pursuit

I'm taking LibraryThing's 50 Book Reading Challenge for 2010. This is my 11th read of the 50.

The Alchemist's Pursuit by Dave Duncan is the third of his tales involving Nostradamus and his resourceful and daring apprentice, Alfeo Zeno. This time the Maestro is called upon by Violetta, courtesan and friend to Alfeo, who informs the pair that a dear friend of hers has been murdered. An impossible case—the woman was killed weeks ago, there are no witnesses, and the body spent considerable time in the water—turns into something much larger as the murders of other courtesans come to light and soon intersect with the guilty party in an eight year old patricide long thought solved.

So begins the latest installment in Duncan's Venetian fantasy/mystery series. While the story follows the basic path set in the previous two novels, with Nostradamus being called on to solve an unsolvable crime and Alfeo, our narrator as always, charged with the elder Maestro's legwork, in this novel Alfeo begins to mature as a character, a worker of magic, in society, and even in politics. Descended from nobility, Alfeo's name is written in the Golden Book, though the family fortune long dried up and so he employs himself as an apprentice and assistant to Nostradamus.

Trained in the "dark arts", it is a fine line master and apprentice walk, for Venice is a Christian city, and so witchcraft is outlawed and punishable by death. Yet the magic in Duncan's Alchemist novels is very subtle. In The Alchemist's Pursuit, besides for the usual divinations for which Nostradamus is famous, much of it culminates in the presence of a cat which assists Alfeo at times, though Alfeo suspects he may have attracted the attention of a demon who is helping him only to gain his confidence. It is a sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous unfolding in which we finally learn the true purpose of this feline spirit.

As for the murders themselves, we soon learn that not one but three courtesans have been slain. A divination by Nostradamus shows that they are only the beginning, and so Alfeo must track down witnesses, avoid the law which has expressly prohibited Alfeo from investigating the crimes, and protect the woman he loves, Violetta, before she becomes the next victim.

All in all, this is yet another gripping tale set in the (mostly) historically accurate Venice of yesteryear from Dave Duncan. Duncan's style is top-notch and his prose worthy of study (not in the literary sense so much, but more in the 'this is how modern fantasy tales should be written' sense). While I've had limited exposure to Duncan up to this point, it's books like The Alchemist's Pursuit that make me want to seek out other novels by the author. Also, I hope this is not the last we've seen of Alfeo and his irritable master. With such a marvelous setting and intriguing characters, I think Duncan has many more tales to tell in this world.

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It's been a long while since I've posted anything that only focused on my writing progress. For a while there, I had committed to posting every week. I was using this as a way to hold myself accountable for getting some writing in on a regular basis. The reason I stopped was exactly what I worried about from the start: just doing the weekly posts became a chore unto itself. No reason I can't make a post every once in a while, though, and so here we go.

I'm still working on my second novel. Most of it is done, but I need to go back and smooth out some rough edges and consolidate the ending as I think it's too long right now. I actually set it aside for a little bit about a month ago while I shift gears to some shorter work. From that effort, I posted Fine Wine, a short story about an assassin who makes a deal, in my short fiction section. From that story emerged another, longer tale, about the same assassin who is hired for a particularly unusual job. It's called Killing the Dead, and is out to Realms of Fantasy right now. If that doesn't work, there are other top level magazines (top level being defined as those that have the highest pay rates) it will go to next and then to the lower paying markets and then possibly to the free markets. Worst case, I'll post it here.

There's something satisfying about working on a piece that is small and finite. Novels take a long time to write, with little or no reward waiting at the end. Short stories have the potential to bring satisfaction much quicker and with greater frequency. So, I'm exploring those markets now with the intention of getting a credit or two.

It's a little known fact that I do actually have one publishing credit to my name. It was so long ago I sometimes forget about it myself. I was about twenty (I'm 39 now), it was the first piece I'd ever submitted, and I made a very small amount of money off it. I actually still have the check; I never cashed it. The story itself is bad, bad, bad. I have a hard time even looking at it now, but there are few writers who don't look back on their early work and shudder.

So, that's it. I have another idea brewing for my "assassin with no name" character, as well as some initial background information that may leak little by little into each subsequent tale I spin about him. I'm having fun writing about him, especially with the shorter form; it has none of the "drudgery" of the longer one.

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One of the things I often do as I'm reading a novel or short story is keep track of words whose definitions I do not know or that I find interesting. Either way, these interesting words are ones I feel might be of use in my own writing. That, and it's good to expand one's vocabulary every once in a while.

Read my review of Blood Engines.

consigliere: An adviser or counselor, especially to a capo or leader of an organized crime syndicate.

self-aggrandizement: an act undertaken to increase your own power and influence or to draw attention to your own importance

sarong: a loose skirt consisting of brightly colored fabric wrapped around the body; worn by both women and men in the South Pacific

diurnal: having a daily cycle or occurring every day; belonging to or active during the day

pagoda: a tall religious building in Asia with many levels, each of which has a curved roof 

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I'm taking LibraryThing's 50 Book Reading Challenge for 2010. This is my 10th read of the 50.

Blood Engines is the first of the Marla Mason urban fantasy novels by author Tim Pratt. While urban fantasy isn't my usual thing, I'd previously read The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and liked it, though what got me to try Blood Engines was the fact that Pratt is serializing a new Mason novel called Broken Mirrors. I wanted to support that effort, but since I wasn't familiar with the main character or her exploits I thought I'd start with the first book and see how I liked it.

While I can't say I didn't enjoy the book, there were parts I could have done without, and what really bothered me the most is that for all Mason's purported and often spoken of ability to kick butt, she never really does.

Blood Engines begins in San Francisco (Pratt makes his home in Oakland, just on the other side of the bay; I grew up in the Bay Area, so I'm more than a little familiar with the lay of the land) where Marla Mason has come in search of a Cornerstone, an ancient magical device whose power is to enhance and make permanent the effects of any spell. Mason hopes to work some magic to defeat a rival back in her own city of Felport. A wrench is thrown into her plans when the contact she'd come to connect with, and who also knew the location of the Cornerstone, is murdered. Feeling obligated to seek out the murderer, and because that path also intersects with her own immediate goal, Mason sets out to bring the perpetrator to her sort of justice.

Pratt is a deft storyteller. The writing is crisp and doesn't waste the reader's time with loads of info dumps. There are, however, parts that go off on tangents. The worst of them is a long scene where Mason is looking for her first lead concerning the Cornerstone's whereabouts which leads her into the den of a "pornomancer", a sorcerer whose power stems from the sexual energy around him. What ensues is an elaborate, drawn out orgy scene the like of which I'd never been invited to while living in San Francisco. ;-)

That aside, I had a similar issue with this book that I had with The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl: the main character simply doesn't do enough. Pratt goes to great length to tell us how much of a bad ass Mason is, yet we never see that reflected in the unfolding story. There is plenty of magic, though it is not always cast by Mason. In fact, little of it is. In the final scene, while Mason has set up the pieces to confront one another, she doesn't take part in it herself.

I'm on the fence if I'll pick up the next book in the series. I may give it a try. You'll know if it gets added to my reading list and subsequently reviewed.

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I was driving home last night contemplating my schedule, where and how I spend my time, and, most importantly, where it all goes. That got me thinking… while I know how and where I spend my time in a general sense, I was curious as to how much time in any given week I devote to the major items in my life. Who knows? Maybe by analyzing this I might be able to make some adjustments and improve my overall time management.

For me, major items include:

1. Work (my primary, day-time job)
2. Going to/from work (4 days/week since I usually work at home at least 1 day/week)
3. Exercise (cycling, running, weight-lifting; this goes up in the warmer months as I'm out on the bike more)
4. Writing (my current novel, short stories, this blog)
5. Reading (books, blogs, etc.)
6. Breaks (TV watching, playing with the dogs, hanging out with my wife; everyone needs some down time)
7. Outside work (mowing the lawn, etc.; less now but more as it gets warmer)
8. Personal Technical Projects (various side projects I work on to stay up on programming and technology)
9. Sleep (almost forgot this one…)

I'm not going to include some things, like listening to podcasts, which I do all the time but which I always do whilst engaged in something else. Which brings up another point: I don't consider the time I spend driving to and from work as wasted because I'm always listening to podcasts or sometimes audio fiction. I'm a fanatic about maximizing every minute.

Given the above items, here's how much time I spend on each per week (my first attempt at this I was 5 hours short; since I'm not working off a super-accurate log here, I just spread those hours out to get to 168):

Work	45	27%
Commuting	8	5%
Exercise	8	5%
Writing	16	10%
Reading	18	11%
Breaks	10	6%
Outside work	6	4%
Technical Projects	8	5%
Sleep	49	29%
TOTAL	168	100%

And, in pie chart format:

Some of these items are immovable: work, sleep (I only get 7 hours/night as it is), commuting. Others could be changed, such as exercise or reading (sometimes I think I spend too much reading blogs). Breaks… I'd have to take a closer look at what I do in those 14 hours. Writing and Technical Projects… if anything, I want to spend more time, not less, in those areas.

Of course, this is a somewhat rough idea where I spend my time as some of the figures are pure estimates. If I wanted to really perform a close analysis I should probably carry a small notepad around with me for a week and write down each activity and time spent on it. Maybe I'll do that at some point, but for now I just wanted to get a general sense where all the time is going.

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One of the things I often do as I'm reading a novel or short story is keep track of words whose definitions I do not know or that I find interesting. Either way, these interesting words are ones I feel might be of use in my own writing. That, and it's good to expand one's vocabulary every once in a while.

Read my review of The Outstretched Shadow.

Even though I didn't complete The Outstretched Shadow, I still found a few interesting words.

vulpine: resembling or characteristic of a fox

convocation: a group gathered in response to a summons

vintner: someone who makes or sells wine

sennight: the space of seven nights and days; a week

finial: a relatively small, ornamental, terminal feature at the top of a gable, pinnacle, etc.; an ornamental termination to the top of a piece of furniture, or of one part of such a piece

ostentatious: intended to attract notice and impress others

plinth: a square block, especially of stone, on which a column or a statue stands

perfidious: tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans

piquant: engagingly stimulating or provocative; having an agreeably pungent taste

slatternly: slovenly, untidy

epistle: a formal or elegant letter

tureen: large deep serving dish with a cover; for serving soups and stews

roached: hair combed up from the forehead or temples in a roll or high curve

double-milled: twice milled or fulled, as cloth, to make it finer

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