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Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “eek/eke.” Use one, use both (for bonus points), use ’em however you see fit. Enjoy!
Eek! My stream is rather a tiny creek, this week. But let’s keep eking it out. Or am I just a geek speaking tongue-in-cheek? Ewe, that reek is not fenugreek!
See you midweek!
Well, I reported the finished projects last week, so today I’ll share new projects and progress of others.
Having not found a website to track my November novel, I’ve started to prepare anyway. My friend and I got together today to start finding characters. We’ve done it often this way. In person when we could, but now on Zoom.
It’s always a surprise how quickly the new character becomes nearly flesh and blood. As my first character came through, Ervin Norbert Dorris (the name randomly generated in WriteItNow 6.03c) seems a dirty troll under his homemade bridge with an attitude like Dexter. Well, the antagonist showed up first. That’s different.
My friend found a rather strong pretty punk character I think will be quite fun.
How do you start a book? For us the characters seem to people a world. Hopefully, all that prep gives us a start.
Happy prepping, all my NaNoWriMo friends!
My Grape Village by Laura Bradbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love this series, but I’m not a fan of this book. It’s not horrid, but I felt it didn’t live up to the former books. Part of this is my need for linear storylines. The couple are recently newlyweds, and suddenly they have two girls. We lost a lot of their life. This book is full of real estate, food, and wine, but lacks significant character development. I missed the family unit of grandparents and Mimi. I miss the time we could have seen growth while they were in Canada.
What holds true to the series is the feeling of travel, learning about France, and watching the couple navigate the wine country.
This series is the only one I am taking my time with, reading by sight on my Kindle, bit by bit as my eyes allow. Everything else, I use audiobooks or text-to-speech. I’m already into the next book, My Grape Cellar.
What are you all doing for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) now that we don’t have a website to keep track of our progress?
Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Blood of My Blood has prompted me to read the series once again. I’m finding the series as good as I did the first time, maybe now with more depth than I had before. But this is a fantastic series in books and on television. Blood of My Blood is moving a bit slow, but maybe there’s a reason. I trust Diana Gabaldon and the writers of the television series to write another great watch.
~~~~
I just finished this second read of the fourth book. I wanted to be ready for the new season on television. I didn’t need to read the whole series, although I watched the entire show from season 1. I really love the music by Bear McCreary. I just wanted to refresh my memory of what happens to the Frasers and the rest once they are in America.
I loved the story written, narrated, or acted. Though a little different in each case, it is a fun ride.
Davina Porter narrates with such a varied voice that one always knows whose viewpoint we are hearing. Every now and then, I get confused between Bree and Clair or Roger and Jamie. But it doesn’t take long before a person can know who they are hearing.
I have already started book five, as it has more about the American Revolution through the Frasers’ eyes. I can’t wait to see how they do it on the show. I love all the time travel. I love visiting other countries and hearing the histories brought to life by Diana Gabaldon, whose research and knowledge are portrayed in the books and the show.
***
The following was from my first reading/listening from March 2020.
Oops! I nearly forgot to review this one. I just moved into the next read (a library book).
I really wish I had read this before the series on television. I liked the rhythm of the story better. I like the viewpoints presented here, as Clair’s rather than Bree’s, as the television series has it. It is different not having the information about the daughter making the voyage back in time and back to America.
I think we got into Roger’s head a little more, too. It doesn’t take away from the show. Interestingly, the directors and actors adapted the storyline without losing its essence.
No spoilers here. Just glad I read (listened to the Audible) it and can’t wait to get into the next one!
The Baby Dragon Café by Aamna Qureshi
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
When you find yourself having a sleepless night, it is nice to have a cozy book about baby dragons on hand. This was quite cozy. The amount of tension was just right to help me calm my thoughts.
That said, I was disappointed there weren’t more bits about the baby dragons. It is more of a romance and a career goal that includes dragons. The writing was immature. The author didn’t seem to let go of reality so as to allow the reader to fall into the imaginary world she built.
Ash Raja and Hunter Johns narrated nicely. I did like that they helped the listener separate the characters.
I picked up this audiobook on Libby.
Seven
Seventh Heaven
Seven bells from coffins that must have felt like seven —-
I’ve been running the prompt in my head all night and most of the day.
Seven dwarfs. That’s when I got stuck. Happy, Dopey, Doc– then I got stuck. My stream would quit and get distracted.
Finally, I looked it up.
Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy
Hi, ho. I got no more.
I finished a Kindle book, an actual visually read book. I’ll post the review Sunday.
I love socks!
Look what I found in my piano bench! I’m sight-reading through the book figuring out what songs to concentrate on. Eleanor Rigby I can sing while playing. Most songs are too hard for me to do both.
Darswords 
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