My Eyes Have Been Busy

After diving into making up my missing words and driving full force forward, my creative juices demanded a little recharge. Not to mention I spent most of the week working out of the office. So it's been a busy week for watching and reading.

We finished the Making a Murderer documentary. And let me just sum this up with: wow. If I tried to write a murder mystery this shoddily, I'd be raked over the coals in critiques, but somehow, this utter farce of a trial flies in real life. Whether the man is guilty or not, and I'm leaning toward not, he shouldn't have been convicted in that trial. And yes, I still fell asleep during every episode, yet managed to keep up with what was going on. Maybe the jury should have taken some naps during the trial.

We blew through the first season of Sense 8. I'd heard good things about this series from a couple friends and was not disappointed. A cluster of eight people all born at the same time who are awakened to each other's minds later in their lives. Hunted by paranoid plain humans who are led by don't-look-him-in-the-eyes-Whispers, they must learn to use each others assets to survive. Yes, there are plot holes and the rules of the whole sense sharing thing are quite sketchy, but the character stories are compelling and binge-watch-worthy.

American Horror Story Hotel wrapped up. After a shaky start wherein I almost didn't start at all for the fact that the cast included Lady Gaga, the plot rose above gore and things that go bump in the night to weave together interesting characters and even threw in a couple twists. The end of the season was my favorite as far as AHS endings go. Yes, everyone dies. They always do, no spoilers there. But I enjoyed how they're plotlines were all pulled together and folded up in a neat pile that would have made the laundress proud.

I read The Red Church by Scott Nicholson. It's been a long time since I've indulged my love for a good scary story. Now that life has calmed down to the point where I can concentrate on written words again, I figured it was high time. And this one was on top of one of my many TBR stacks. If you ever watched the Poltergeist movie and were weirded out by that creepy ass preacher? Yeah, that's the same feeling in this book. Not for the devout Christian, because there's a lot of religious stuff thrown about in these pages. While I enjoyed the interplay between the father and cult-stricken mother, the sheriff who finds love too late and a young boy who had the worst Sunday school teacher ever, the ending felt a little off. The big bad didn't follow through quite enough for my taste, but it was still an enjoyable read.

Yesterday, I stopped by my local bookstore while out picking up bagels, and two books called out to me. Yeah, I read one from my stack and add two more. There might be a problem there... But one was Sherrilyn Kenyon's Son of No One, and if you've been hanging out here, you know this is my book crack. So, uhh, I read that today. I may have gotten up early on a Sunday to read and finished the book by lunch. No, I do not have a paranormal romance reading problem.

And to wrap up the week of distractions, I started watching the Shannara Chronicles. I have not read the books, but my son assured me the series was good. Having reached episode three, I will honestly say I'm really only still there to watch Manu Bennet because: Spartacus. The main characters are probably exciting to younger people, but they're young and keep making stupid mistakes like young people do and they're the chosen ones, and well, that's all I have to say about that.

Not to say I've been neglecting my writing, Book 3 of The Narvan currently sits at 43K and I started reworking a short story for an themed anthology submission. Then to be even more productive, I finally made it to a meeting for the local writing group I joined nearly three months ago.  I can't say that the planets will align often as the timing of the meeting doesn't quite jive with my schedule but it was good to finally meet the gang in person.

Onward into another hopefully productive week!