My Week in Review: Living in the Future

Living in the Future

For five months, I have been without an Internet-enabled computer. (Let's just say I had an XP and leave it at that.) This is a long time for me. Between normal social media activity, blogging, booktubing, and a pension for procrastination, some days were downright painful. 

But it is all over now.

A side-by-side of old vs. new

Let me introduce you to Rumple, Internet.

Internet, Rumple.

[I still feel a bit like a traitor for choosing this name. That's not to say I'm not a Rumple fan (I'm a huge Rumple fan) but before now, every computer I've owned has been named Steve, after my favorite life-sucking alien Wraith, but that's another story.]

Rumple is perhaps the biggest, shiniest, coolest toy I've ever bought. It has a webcam. And a built-in microphone. And enough oomph to video chat, once I figure that out. And a giant screen. A giant touch screen. (Though let's be honest; Wi-Fi is a huge bonus right now.)

To quote the irrepressible Charlie Crews*: "It's like living in the future."

Every time I use this smooth and sleek beast I feel like I've been transported to the USS Enterprise. I find excuses just to play around with it. 'Whoosh-whoosh' is the official sound the touch screen makes in my head.

I've already started a list of ways Rumple will make me a better, smarter person.

1. Geography -I love the 'Maps' feature that came pre-loaded. This may sound lame, but I never liked to play around with Google Maps because it made me nauseous. But now I have a touch screen. Since I'm horrible at geography, I intend to look up any place I read about that I don't know off the top of my head. Like Leeds. (Did you know [a] Hyde Park is in Leeds? Apparently there's more than one. Who knew?)
2. ...

Okay, so far geography is the only one I've figured out yet, but I'm working on it.

To Read or Not to Read?

• Of Sorcery and Snow by Shelby Bach. The long-awaited third book in The Ever Afters series. In a nutshell, everything about this series to date has been a perfect bundle of amazing characters, complicated and realistic development, fun and unique fairy tale retellings, and quirky inventions. This latest gem is no exception. It just threw in the most ADORABLE AWKWARD ROMANCE EVER and earned a kajillion more bonus points in my book.
  Here is my full booktube review of it. A definite To Read.
  What do I need to do to get you to read this book?

• Some Wore Blue & Some Wore Gray by Heather Graham. Though not what I was looking for, this slim volume filled with concise bios of various players in the Civil War proved an interesting, quick read. If you're looking for something to whet your Civil War palate, I'd say To Read. If you want something more in-depth, grab something that's more than 75 pages.

• Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. A fun, purely enjoyable read, I had a hard time putting this one down. (Except when EA3 came in. But let's face it, I'd stop mid-read in anything for an Ever Afters.) Kind of a low-key National Treasure for book lovers. Filled with books, type fonts, subterfuge, eccentric characters, an ancient secret society, the secret of life, and a surprising amount of technology for a book about books, all told in the fun and quirky voice of the irresistibly charming lead, Clay Jannon.This is a bookstore where I want to work. (Plus, that awesome yellow cover? Glows in the dark. How many books are fun when the lights go out?)
  Verdict: To Read.

Writing

It's all about characters this week. Following the incredibly helpful Seven Edits of Highly Effective Authors brought to you by Chas Hathaway, I've made it to edit #3 in my novel and I'm straightening out my characters' arcs/progressions/actions/reactions. *phew!*

Th-th-that's all for now, folks!


*If you're not familiar with Charlie Crews, you need to watch Life. Right now. I'm serious.