Felicia Day

Of all the Social Networking junk I’m a member of, none feels as functional and “ah, I love having that!” as Goodreads. For those who don’t know, it’s a social network for book readers, where you can tag and review books you’ve read and connect with your friends and other readers. I struggled with other ways to share the books I’ve read and this is the perfect solution. The interface is very easy to use, and adding/reviewing books is so satisfying. I feel like it’s a real, functional catalogue of something that I’ll appreciate having in 5 years, unlike most. And it has great portability, so I can add the widget to my Facebook, Myspace, Bebo and this website. Anyway, if you love books and read a lot of them, I urge you to create an account and friend me!

On to reviews. These are by no means all the books I’ve read the last 2 months, but they’re the ones that stand out as shareworthy.

I reviewed the first book in this series earlier this year, The Blade Itself and the fantastic thing is that the second book, Before They Are Hanged, meets and exceeds what I enjoyed about the first one! The characterization is fascinating and gripping. Joe Abercrombie really masters the “grey area”, where no one is a two-dimensional bad guy, and you’re constantly questioning the motivation of people who you thought were on one side or another. I really enjoyed the “foppish” nobility being made fun of, and there are twists here that make you go “WHOAH! I didn’t see that coming!!” There are some main characters who seem a little underrepresented in this one who were very prominent in the first book, but that only adds to the depth of the whole cast, and I can’t wait to see how these ends are ultimately tied up in the trilogy finale! I sense a very dark path going in unexpected directions. If you enjoy George RR Martin or Stephen Erikson, I would definitely recommend this series. PLUS, the cover art is really top notch! It is very classy, implies a Dumas-like adventure, and doesn’t have badly-oiled pecks or men with shields. Not only that, it has a great textured paper you don’t see very often, nubby and parchment-like, and I really enjoyed holding it, so + 2 to superficial appeal!

“The Blade Itself” epitomizes the more gritty fantasy approach that is emerging as the standard for epic fantasy. I have a theory about this. The emergence of Harry Potter and other “lighter” fantasy, with magic and wizards and more tongue in cheek attitudes, coupled with the more urban “romance” fantasy genre (more angled towards women), has caused the epic fantasy to go towards a more man-appealing direction. Less frou-frou and more blood, hair and guts in the vast sweeping epic-type of series. Tell me what you think about this direction, do you like it? Do you miss the more Robert Jordan approach?

The chest-hair type epic is also the kind of book Winterbirth, by Brian Ruckley is. I have to admit, this was a much harder read for me. It’s very interesting from the world-building angle, Gods abandoning the world after a huge genocidal war. I enjoyed the history and detail in the backstory. Also, it’s SUPER LONG, which never turns me off as I tend to love books thick enough to kill cockroaches with, but I really had a hard time connecting with these characters. It was almost TOO vast in scope, too many points of view going on. I tended to skip whole sections, eager to land back with the characters and plotlines that held my interest. I think it’s a tough balancing act to have so many angles of storytelling going on, and naturally ones will be more interesting than others, but it was still difficult for me to finish the book. I think better editing could have improved this book a lot. If you are a big fan of machismo sword and shield fantasy, I still think you’d enjoy it, (it’s been very well reviewed across the web) but personally, I will be on the fence for the follow up. The cover art is great, very “300″, and the font is nice and simple. See, I’m not a total negative Nancy!!!

Another interesting grey-area book I just finished is
“Empress” by Karen Miller. I haven’t read her first series, the Innocence Mage, but I am going to pick it up based on this one. This is a book told from the angle of the “bad guy”. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s a very interesting character study into the mind of religious zealotry and meglomania, and seeks to explore the question “How does that evil genius become that way?” This is not a book for everyone. I admit, I skimmed the middle quite a bit, but I was definitely invested in seeing where in the world this completely heinous character was headed, lol. I hear the sequel is done from a completely different angle, and I am interested to see how they support each other.
When I picked it up, I was expecting a much different story, a story following a woman who would become leader to a warring nation, faced with challenges. It’s SORT OF starts out like that, but then you realize, “Wow, this character is…not a good guy!” Interesting experience.

Lastly, men and women…it’s Vaginal Fantasy time!!! “Armed and Magical”, by Lisa Shearin (Who has a great blog BTW) is the sequel to the MUCH raved-about-by-me first novel in the series “Magic Lost, Trouble Found”. The adventure starts almost continuous from the ending of the last book, and I’m glad because I don’t want to miss one minute! Guys, this series is like chocolate to me, I just can’t get enough of it. The author strikes a balance of adventure and fun that is the very reason I love reading in the first place, and the second book serves up a dish of enthusiasm and magic and touches of romance I ate up like a little literature-piggy! Nom nom nom! If I had my druthers, I’d have this on Sci-Fi channel with me starring in it. I’ve always wanted to wear a Jerkin. Make no mistake, this series is not deep, it’s not dark, it’s a magical romp with fun characters. It encompasses the best of the urban fantasy genre that is so popular right now, combined with a whimsical sense of humor. I really, really want the love triangle to be fleshed out in the next book, oh and for Raine to kick more ass. Again, if you like Buffy, definitely check out this book!

Sadly, I’m going to have to say it again, this cover art is…not good. If you compare this cover to the last one, besides the much-improved ochre tones instead of blinding pink and purples, it looks like Raine has gained a little weight in the thigh/butt area. I guess the ship voyage over to the island didn’t allow her to exercise or something. Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure the way Raine is described in the book has NOTHING to do how this chick looks! Maybe I’m biased because I worked with someone who looks like this, Sami from Days of Our Lives (first Hollywood job, not the best experience). Anyway, the book rox.

That’s it! Please post any books you guys have enjoyed lately, I’m on the prowl!

I have 42 minutes before I have to leave the house, the only 42 minutes I’ve had to relax all day, and I decided what better usage of time than to write a blog entry! Yay! It’s a little messy and stream of conscious, but I have so much I want to write about and so little time and I’m a bad girl for not posting all week so…whatever.

I know I owe quite a few book reviews, I have them piled next to the computer in anticipation of a big post. In fact, they’re tipping quite precariously. Earlier this week however, I decided to absolve myself of all the guilt I’ve been feeling lately: Of not blogging enough, of not cleaning out my inbox, not exercising, not brushing the dog, not vacuuming (so said dog hair rolls like a huge tumbleweed down my hallway)…blah blah blah. Because I realized that guilt is not a great motivator for me. It makes me sad faced and is not a creative kick starter.

What IS a creative kick starter is segmenting my day sensibly and prioritizing. I was SO GOOD at that earlier last year with to-do lists, and goal sheets and it’s turned back into the haphazard schedule that disallows any focus. I’ve rebooted this morning with old school pen and paper and it’s definitely going to serve me better. Also, I’ve been trying the “thumb screwing” technique for getting a draft of The Guild Season 2 done, and I have to say, it’s not really working! I ended up getting total self-doubt, rewriting the first 25 pages 2 times, only to realize I should have stuck with my first instincts. That was a grody realization, but a good lesson to learn. Had I allowed myself a few more video game breaks, or allotted an hour in the mornings to going to the gym, gone to a few parties that I skipped out on, I probably would have generated more ideas and kept my enthusiasm fresh. Bottom line, I need to not confuse motivation with grim ultimatums. I started today with that attitude and got some great clues as to how I should proceed writing-wise. And I’m going to let me instincts be my guide, because…that’s all I have!

It’s just extremely hard to focus on one thing when there’s no consistency to my day, the curse of the freelancer. Murphy’s Law requires a commercial audition to arise right when I have writing or Yoga class penciled in, or a conference call with a New Media company, or a friend who needs to be picked up a the airport. For the next month or so (until I get this damned script done, lol) I’ve decided to turn down most interviews and meetings unless I feel they are really necessary. In Hollywood, a lot of people’s SOLE JOBS are to “have meetings”, which I had to go to about 100 meetings to learn. Blech. Fun Fact though: When you have a meeting as a writer/producer, they validate parking! As an actor…they have signs saying “No Actor Parking.” LOL!

We’re starting next week working full-steam on the DVD for The Guild. Educating myself about that end of the business, as well as helping translators help translating the show into like 6 different languages, and researching the different web video players out there has been quite a bit of homework these past few weeks. We’ll be going to ComiCon from July 25-27th and we’ve also been busy arranging accommodations passes etc. I’ll be announcing plans soon about that. Thanks so much for the people who answered my Twitter request for Schwag places! Unfortunately our budget will probably not accommodate buying stuff since we just realized that 25,000 people attend ComiCon and we were thinking of getting like, 200 keychains, haha! The scale is enormous and I’m very excited to go, but our little show sans funding won’t be giving out much of anything except our lovely smiles. We will have our DVD with us though, and perhaps a cast picture. Hopefully “Dr. Horrible” will have some presence there too, I will post as details are updated.

Oh, on June 21 I’m participating in an all-day seminar called “Spinning The Web- Writing for the Internet” at the WGA (Ironic since I’m not even WGA, haha). I’m participating on one of the panels called “Let’s Put On A Show” with the guy from Chad Vader, and the guys from PINK, and others so if you’re into making web content, it looks like a pretty nice lineup of guests, and the other panels look good too! Check the bottom of the website for details of location and cost etc.
Lastly, I leave you with a picture of Flog reader Andrew’s Tortillas. Remember he left in a comment that he made them homemade and I was like, “Hey, show me how?!” Well, the probability of my EVER getting around to making them is next to zero, so he was kind and send me a Flickr picture that I now share with you! Yum! Thanks Andrew!!! This is the most random blog post ever. Going to improv!