Note the Changes

They say change is good.

Hopefully, this change will better reflect what I'm trying to do here.

What I'm Reading:  Finally bit the bullet and started James D. Doss' Spider Dreams, one of his Ute reservation mysteries featuring his detective Charlie Moon.  [ I know.  The number of mysteries I read may seem out of line, but I like my fantasies to solve some puzzle or other ... usually that means a murder or two. ] One of the problems, I've been having with Doss' more recent books is the omniscient, often first person, view point.  Yeah, it's just as annoying to me to read as many of the comments at AW say it is.

But.  And it's a big But.  For years, Daisy Perika, Charlie Moon's aged aunt, shaman, and general grump, has been my main lady.  Who else, while shopping for Campbell's chicken noodle soup in a supermarket, would ask a ghost with a slashed throat if she was looking for the Band Aids?  

Doss does carry the absurd a little further when the ghost then appears to Daisy's apprentice as a face on a piece of ginger root to ask for help.  Sarah is so shocked she throws the ginger root away, knocking over a stack of Vidalia onions.  Yeah, I chuckled, but I had to wade through a lot of unfunny pages to get there.

Doss' writing is often funny but often flakes off into "dear reader" territory.  Again, while sometimes snide or funny, he is just as often rambling and pompous.  Pat Stoltey's cozy mysteries have more excitement than I've found in the first half of the book.  Think I'll be skimming for Daisy's scenes before the book goes on the trade pile.

Not that I've been tempted, but guess I'll stick to either first or third person viewpoint.  Wish I could write humor though.

Progress:  Not.  Oh, I've been revising my fingers off enough to make my back complain.  Still, Emma is stuck at chapter 26.  I've been slipping in various sentences here and there to supposedly heighten the excitement.  Also, have been looking for the scene that my main critiquers objected to.  Couldn't find it on my first run through of the chapter before I gave up and went down to read.  Maybe, I had already revised it.  I hope.

Thought I'd be done with this revision by the end of January.  Now I'm beginning to doubt it.

Trivia:  Nothing going on worth mentioning.