October 22th
Well the Rugby World Cup is proving less of a distraction than it might. Having moved house a couple of months back we are still a week or two away from having Satellite Television available having needed to get some extra telephone points to support the system. The result is that with a high proportion of the matches only on Satellite Channels I am not able to watch them all. Probably a good thing as I need to get other things done as well.
Mind you being an Englishman I was very happy this weekend past to see England beat South Africa in their group match. Hopefully this should mean that England win their group and avoid playing Australia or New Zealand in the Quarter Finals and Semi-Finals.
Received the latest batch of review titles form PS Publishing this past weekend. Four beautifully presented books - two pictured below (the other two being ed. Stephen Jones - By Moonlight Only and Elizabeth Hand's Bibliomancy.
Having just finished a couple of books I need some new reading so I'll be moving on to the latest Walter Jon Williams book The Sundering and one of these four.
Have received one or two CD's from recent eBay auction wins but not had too much of a good time with them. Today I received Helloween's Metal Jukebox. This was a band that I rather liked back in the late 1980's and so when I saw the CD on eBay I thought this might be a good time to see what they'd done since I stopped buying their stuff - my fault at the time not theirs, I sort of drifted off from CD buying for a while. The only problem between then and now is that the singer I liked (Michael Kiske) left a while ago and I'm not too sure about the new singer.
The other two new CD's are Type O Negative's 1993 album Bloody Kisses and a Renaissance collection. The Type O Negative I bought as we have their last album (Life is Killing Me) and botht think it is brilliant. But this album is nowhere near as intense and I found it disappointing. Hopefully a few more listens might elevate it a little - that happened with the Rush album Vapor Trails - I wasn't a fan at all when I first bought it, but now think it's great.
The Renaissance I bought because I like the track Ocean Gypsy. And I still do. The problem is that most of the rest of the tracks are a little insipid and I'm not sure I'll even bother giving this album the few more listens the Type O Negative will get. So it's back to The Who to keep me going whilst I work on the site tonight
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October 11th
The Rugby World Cup has started. Oh, dear! Another thing going on that serves as a distraction. This is an event that happens once every four years and England have a chance of winning it. Okay, a good chance but there is a lot of rugby to play over the next weeks and the English team will have to play at their best to win this trophy.
They start tomorrow with the first of their pool games against Georgia. So there goes part of tomorrow.
The serious business of bibliophilia is back on now the move has been completed and the house is getting sorted. I very pleasant little package arrived from Amazon the other day containing four books. These were Paul Collins - The Earthborn; Harry Turtledove - Ruled Britannia; Christopher Golden - The Gathering Dark; Scott Nicholson - The Harvest.
The first of these has instantly had me in trouble. I picked up the books when they arrived to inspect them as I always do. Opened the book at page one and started reading. Normally I do this to get a feel for the writing and then I put it down to be read at a later date - usually quite a lot later as we have so much to read. This book however hooked me. I am reading it now in a short break from the other book on the go.
This is not entirely fair to the other book, and I don't want to give the wrong impression that I am not enjoying the book that is now on hiatus - quite the opposite in fact, it's a good read. But something about Paul's book just intrigued me and I want to find out what happens. I should have it finished shortly and will be posting a review in good time.
Then there's the Harry Turtledove. That's threatening to do the same. The first sentence grabbed me and instantly made me want to read the remainder of the 570 pages. That sentence by the way is "Two Spanish soldiers swaggered up Tower Street toward William Shakespeare." Given that this is a book in which England was conquered by the Spanish in Elizabethan times and is an alternate history, a genre I am particularly fond of I may have to read this soon.
I am going to have to be good to some extent as I do have one or two books I need to read first but then I may just rewards myself with this title.
Today saw a trip in to Burton on Trent. Since moving into this village I am for the first time in my life not living in suburbia. The nearest town of any size is Burton (well okay, Ashby is not a small place but there is only really one shopping street in Ashby and we needed to hit the department stores for winter woollens etc).
Whilst in Burton my book-detector seemed on full power and I located one or two real gems and one or two that just looked like fun. I had to buy M. John Harrison's Light as he is an author I like a good deal and it was sitting there on the shelf so invitingly. And I finally bought the final part of Tad Williams series Otherland, Sea of Silver Light to complete the set.
Then I ventured into a charity shop (for translation I believe these are also known as Goodwill Shops). In the UK these places can be a wonderful place to locate some out of print titles which you can add to your collection whilst giving to a good cause - so everyone wins. Today bounty was Richard Calder - Dead Things; Robert Doherty - Area 51: The Grail; Joe R. Lonsdale - Writer of the Purple Rage; Elizabeth Ann Scarborough - The Godmother; Catherine Wells - The Earth Saver; and J.H. Brennan - Marcus Mustard.
Now all I have to do is get around to reading some of them.
Work on the site continues. Posted another sample chapter from Tony Ruggiero (for his vampire novel Team of Darkness), started in earnest on the next Chronicle as I'm determined to return it to a monthly schedule, answered various emails in an attempt to not slip further behind and added a bibliography for Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
October 7th
Finally managed to finish a Chronicle on Sunday. The 28th issue is now online, a line has been drawn - excepting corrections - and I've started on isue 29. The only problem with doing a monthly Chronicle is that I'm never happy that it is complete and always want to tinker a little more. Anyway I have forced myself to add the last links and call time on 28.
October seems to be going the way of September. Work is its usual busy state, and away from it things don't seem to slow down any. I have just returned from one of the more unusual Stag Nights I've ever been to. One of my closest friends is getting married this week. He's moslem and doesn't drink. I am teetotal also so we have toasted his upcoming wedding with Diet Coke. And managed to get one or two of pool on a hexagonal pool table into the bargain - against an Aussie and a Kiwi we met in the pub in question in Ashby de la Zouch. Might not be the traditional stag night entertainement but it'll do for me.
This is not the only blog on the site now. Sunday also saw the debut of Jessica Rydill's Writer's Blog. If you want to check hers out just click here.
Have increased the book collection again of late after a hiatus from buying around the house move. Recent additions are G.P. Taylor - Shadowmancer, Jean M. Auel - The Shelter of Stone, Silver Ravenwolf - Witches' Night Out/Witches' Night of Fear/Witches' Key to Terror, Brian Herbet/Kevin J. Anderson - House Corrino, Ian Irvine - Geomancer, Lincoln Child - Utopia, Terry Pratchett - Night Watch, and my recent eBay win Jean Fiedler & Jim Mele - Isaac Asimov (biography). Not a bad haul, although until I have a few more shelves around the house I am going to be back on the not-buying of books. I have too many piles of them around at the moment.
Been trying out Papa Roach tonight (Infest), not totally sure about it. I'm mainly a prog fan so this is not my usual brand of listening. It's not horrendous though, just that the vocal style will take getting used to.