20 Sided Sorceress (review)

The 20 Sided Sorceress series by Annie Bellet. I'm on Pack of Lies right now and it's driving me crazy because I don't have enough time to read! All the books (this is book 3) are quick reads and can be read in a day (or less, if you're a fast reader), if one has time.

Dammit.

So, urban fantasies, and so far we have sorcerers, shape-changers, hedge witches, cults, murder mysteries, a hot guy (were-tiger, yum!) and lots of geeky goodies.

The pov character has a game shop/comic book store. Yay!

There is snark, but not so much that you feel guilty afterward (much) for laughing. Witty internal dialogue, of which there is just the perfect amount.

Plenty of danger. An ongoing serial bad guy ex-boyfriend. Edge-of-your-seat action.

Some romance, mostly in the shape of (an ice bucket! oh, wait, wrong story) on again, off again affair, which is (thank you!) not due to miscommunication or dumb misunderstanding but because they have problems. Does not bog the story down. The female protagonist is totally focused on the problem, and, alas, poor hot guy often comes in second. But a close second, as is correct and proper because of his previously mentioned hotness and because he usually treats her very, very well. When he doesn't, he has a reason. And he says sorry. For those of us who are tired of pointless arguing and contrived reasons for tension in romantic couples in urban fantasies, this will be very refreshing.

Recommended. If you're a fan of urban fantasies, or you want to try one and you don't want to pick badly for your first time, get this. Book one is Justice Calling. Only 99¢ to get you hooked. Enjoy!

Reviews

I love getting reviews, even ones that make me feel about the size of a flea, and about as wanted. That feeling passes after the initial owie. This round, at least so far, has me feeling more around elephant-sized.

Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet recently came out with #28, which includes "Neighbors" written under my actual name, and a few reviews came back about it.

A nice mention here.

This reader also enjoyed "Neighbors," as well as the other fine stories in this issue.

Locus mentioned the issue, and tried to capture the sorts of stories you can find in LCRW, and gave a brief overview of each with a few opinions thrown in.

If Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet sounds like fun, you can get individual issues at their website. Warning. May be addictive.

I'm glad they're offering the ebook versions. Those older issues, as far as the general public are concerned, aren't available unless you happen to find them on ebay or something. These magazines are especially attractive to people who like a boutique feeling to the things they like to have around and with them.

Review: The FURminator: My Hero

Not that long ago I had lunch with a writer friend of mine, and we got to talking about my ten thousand animals.  She suggested that I use a furminator on our dogs to help strip out their winter coats and help prevent mats that might form too close to the skin and eventually cause serious sores.  She used a big one on her horses, and extolled the virtues of the might furminator to me while we had salad.  I was intrigued, but her description of the price tag made me flinch and file it under the category of pipe dream/luxury item.  I was under the impression it was an electric thingy, too, for whatever reason, and decided that I'd just shave the dogs if needed.

Then yesterday I ran into a friend of mine at Petco and she recommended it too (she uses a small one on her cats) so I caved and looked at them.  They're not electric.  I got a medium one for long-haired dogs for my dogs.  I'm glad I didn't get the large one partly because of the extra money, and partly because although it might have been worth it on the big sections, the larger comb would have made it harder to work on their legs and stuff.  And I was happy that it wasn't as expensive as the one my friend used on her horses.  Size makes the difference, it turns out.

Finn had way more undercoat than I realized he had.  Working with the regular undercoat puller I use, I would have cleaned up his hindquarters in a few minutes and considered my work done.  But running the furminator over his supposedly-clean back was enlightening.  Yikes.   I pulled almost as much undercoat off of him as I did Brian, Brian the Fluff Generator, Brian the Puffy Source of Endless Hair, Brian the ... you get the idea.  

For full-time (or in our case, mostly full-time) outdoor animals, pulling out the undercoat isn't just a matter of neatness or appearance.  Those old undercoats hold a lot of dirt, and way too much insulation value for our increasingly warm temperatures.  I'm really glad I helped Finn rid himself of it before August. Heck, if I hadn't pulled it, it might have hung around until his winter coat came in and shoved it off within reach of our normal brushes, and by then the dogs would have been dangerously filthy, even with baths.  It's just too hard to wash that stuff out, even using the awesome rubber brush to help work the suds in down toward the skin.  

Brian had some mats in his fur that I buzzed off so that I could save him some tugging prior to using the tool.  He hates having his mats pulled.  (So far I haven't let them go so long that they end up matted close to the skin but they are clingy ...)  It turns out that I shouldn't have buzzed them after all.  The furminator pulled out the remaining smaller mats very easily and Brian never gave me the 'owie mommy' look he does so often when I'm using a standard undercoat puller.  I ended up not shaving much around his seat and pulled the mats with just the furminator with no trouble at all.  It's kewl, though.  His tail looks a little funny right now, but he'll be fully feathered in no time.

Getting that undercoat out turned out to be especially gratifying in Brian's case.  Both dogs had dirty undercoats, but Brian's hair is a different consistency than Finn's more labrador retriever-like fur.  The dirty undercoat pulled free of his guard hairs and an almost pristine white summer undercoat.  It was almost as good as giving him a bath.  Combing with a nice bath, he'll be in excellent shape to endure the heat we'll most likely experience in August.  These dogs do really well in very cold temperatures, but tend to suffer in anything over 75 degrees F.  The last two years I've taken Brian to get shaved, and this year I planned to shave him myself (after buying a spacer--the one I like to use on him broke) but now I wonder if it might not be unnecessary.  I think just keeping him groomed, and taking him to the river on 90+ degree days, will be sufficient.

The girl sat down and (very gently) furminated Wizard, our big, fat, very happy and formerly feral tiger tabby shorthair cat.  He loved it.  As an experiment I ran a nice cat brush over him.  We didn't get much.  We ran the furminator over it and pulled lots of undercoat and dander along with it.  They have small ones for cats, but I think that we'll use the one for our dogs on the cats as needed, being careful not to push because the teeth on the one we have are sized for long-haired dogs.

Furminators are expensive, but I think they're worth it.  Now that I have one, I don't see any reason to visit a groomer, which will pay back the worth of the comb by next summer, and that's for an ultra-minimalist grooming schedule (once a year.)  

One minor note about the instructions.  They suggest bathing your animal first and letting it fully dry before using the comb.  In our case, I think it makes more sense to use the comb as a kind of dry bath.  And then, when we get around to a big, wet, soapy bath, we won't have to try to clean old, wooly undercoat hair that shouldn't be there in the first place.  And that undercoat really hinders getting the soap down to the skin and makes rinsing that soap out much more difficult.  

Half of Brian's pile.  The rest is outside.  Bear in mind we brushed him last week to get the worst of it off.

Also, because they're pricy, I suggest that folks living within a budget to shop around and maybe investigate getting a used one if possible.  If you do get a used one, be sure to clean it thoroughly and disinfect it in case the animal it was used on had a transmittable disease.  I don't usually recommend a particular vendor, but in this case, Amazon has one of the best prices for new ones available.

I'm happy with the tool.  The dogs enjoyed the attention, and are tons cleaner, lighter, and cooler.  Wins all around.

Update:  Carey is still not home.  We made some calls and put up ads on Craigslist.  We also left some fliers around town.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.  Thanks for your well-wishes.

Review: Tardis Room and DiPrima Dolci

Ate at a couple of spiffy places recently:  The Fish and Chip Shop on N. Killingsworth in Portland, Oregon, known as the Tardis Room, and an italian deli just down the road.  Awesome for lunch, a pleasant walk, and dessert.  Parking is on the street and limited near the Fish and Chips, so be forewarned if you want to meet with a group.  The decor in the Tardis Room was lots of fun, and I loved the fresh, hot fish and chips there.  Bear in mind that the chips (fries) and the batter on the fish has next to no salt--you're expected to be a grownup and salt your own.  I also used lots of vinegar on mine, and the lemons that came with the fish were nice and fresh.  I had the cod, and it was very, very good, fresh fish.

At DiPrima Dolci we sat out on a back patio in the sunshine amid a very nice, romantic garden all overgrown and bountiful.  I bet it looks even better later in the year.  If you love gardening and would like to combine it with fresh cannoli and not-too-sweet but rich and tasty cheesecake, this is the place for you.  I'd also like to thank them profusely for having high quality tea and not pouring boiling hot water over it so that it ended up overcooked.  It was perfect--rare in this day of Stash or Taos tea with hot water meant for espresso searing it so that it tastes muddy and sour.  I recommend going on a day when it would be nice to sit outside, and prepare to relax completely.

Oh, and I have to say that I appreciated the portions at both places.  At DiPrima Dolci I ordered a small cannoli and RL ordered the marbled cheesecake.  I didn't feel guilty snarfing as much as I did--the whole cannoli and half (or more) of the cheesecake.  Much as I adore Rose's giant cake slices, I always mean to take half of them home and end up eating them all in one sitting, which does nothing good for my manly waistline.  At the Tardis Room, the two pieces of cod and the sides were plenty for a heavy lunch, at least for me.  There's a large (probably three pieces) available for folks with bigger appetites than I want to have.  Yes, I would have gladly eaten a third piece of fish, but I'm glad I didn't.

If you're local, plan to check it out and worried about the neighborhood, don't be.  It might be a different story on a hot night, but everyone seemed friendly and nice, and there weren't any people trying to intimidate or conduct questionable business there on a Sunday afternoon.  It's not the prettiest place I've been in Portland, to be sure, but I loved the houses and gardens, and it looks like the locals are dedicated to keeping their area safe, beautiful, and welcoming to visitors.

I hope to visit both places again soon.

Wacom Bamboo Create Tablet Review

I've been producing a lot more art lately, thanks to the Bamboo Create.  It's an awesome tool for creating book covers.  One of the things that I found fascinating was that although this is apparently considered a non-pro art tablet, or as one reviewer put it on Amazon, a 'fun' tablet, the only limitations I ran into were the limitations of my own artistic abilities.  I would not have been able to create the covers for Masks and Confidante without the tablet.

The only features I found lacking related directly to the software I downloaded.  For example, in GIMP, there's no way that I've found to create a virtual group of color dabs that I can then mix and have several different colors on the 'bristles' of the same brush that would then behave like a brush dipped into several colors before it's applied to the canvas.  Oh how I long for that!  I'm sure it's available somewhere or somehow.  I just haven't found it yet.  Also, I haven't figured out a way to tell GIMP or any other software program to, instead of a gradient forming in stripes along a line (so that if I'm making a ribbon, the ribbon is blue then green then yellow then orange then red then violet) to make a ribbon with the gradient running across the surface.  So in my rainbow example, the center would be yellow and the edges would fade out to blue on one side and violet on the other.  I'm sure it's possible.  The way I've gotten around it is to start with a thick line of violet, then a slightly thinner line of blue on a new layer, a thinner one of green on yet another layer, red, and then yellow and carefully using the smudge and erase functions to fudge the colors so that they obliterate what I want to disappear and leave behind only the colors that I need.  Obviously, making a rainbow ribbon this way would be a huge pain.  It's much less so with a tablet then it would be a mouse, but still.  That's a lot of switching between layers, and a lot of pen strokes.

But, back to the tablet.

Whenever I needed more control over an area, I just zoomed in on it.  And I learned to be patient.  My computer isn't the fastest in the universe, and so I had to sometimes wait while the pen figured out where I was and what I was doing.  I wait less now then when I started out, because I learned how close to hold the pen so that it didn't have to reconnect with the tablet.  I also found that by pausing briefly in one place whenever I moved the pen too far away and then back into range again, I recovered more quickly than waving the pen around near the tablet trying to find my spot.  In fact, now that I've had some practice, the vast majority of the time I'm working as fast as I can without having to wait for the tablet at all.  Also, in a matter of a few days, I quickly learned how to switch between mouse, keypad, touch pad and the Bamboo Create which helped me to do things like save files, name files, move between programs and multitask.  Lots of fun.  The tablet was much easier to learn how to use than the software that I interface with when I use it.

It does burn my battery power quickly, so I learned that it's best to have my laptop plugged in while I'm using it.  The pad comes with extra tips.  I bought extra tips in addition to the ones that came-with, under the assumption that I'd burn through them quickly.  So far I haven't had to change tips yet.  When I do, I may experiment with a different kind.

I also ordered a protective cover made for the tablet, but by another company.  Initially I was disappointed.  The cover wasn't big enough to cover the entire tablet area, and it wasn't small enough to fit between the guide corners interior to the 'touch' area, so there was no tidy/pretty way to apply it.  Also, it sticks on rather than being a magnetic-style screen protector like I expected.  Maybe those don't work on tablets.  I don't know.  It bugged me to basically 'tape' it on.  But once I had it positioned I was happy with it.  I had the area on the tablet that used the most protected from the pen tip (which makes little, tiny scratches on the surface that I'm sure would have built up over time) and the cover makes a very yummy surface to work on as far as resistance to the pen tip I'm using.  (It's the one that came originally with the pen.)

Overall I give the tablet a four happy kitty review out of four happy kitties.  I expected a lot less, considering the reasonable price.  I thought I would eventually have to upgrade, but I have no plans to do so.  So far, this tablet does everything I need it to do.  I doubt I'd get more quality work done more quickly with a 'better' tablet.  If I do upgrade, though, I'll let y'all know!

Links in case you're curious ....

The nibs I got don't appear to be available anymore.  I hope there wasn't a problem with them!  Mine had a couple of felt ones in the mix.  I included a link to the 'normal' extra nibs.  Also, the center link to POSRUS is for the Bamboo Create protective cover I mentioned.  I know, it looks like another tablet ....

Extra Nibs

Review: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

I finished reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki today.  Brilliant.  I'd recommend reading The Richest Man in Babylon first, though, if you haven't already or it's been a while.  RD,PD isn't an advanced financial advice book.  It is entry level, but if if someone isn't practicing some of the advice or at least intrigued by the principles in TRMiB then RD,PD is probably going to be advice given too soon.  It focuses on areas that are weak in TRMiB--investing, developing assets, and identifying liabilities.  TRMiB addresses these areas but isn't specific enough--the message is muddled a bit by the setting and it's usually the already financially savvy folks that pick up on it and find it clear.

Best wake up call:  That my house is a liability (seriously!) not an asset (actually, technically about 10% of my house, specifically my office, is an asset) and that I'm developing my assets too slowly.  I didn't even know I was developing assets (except the obvious--we have a small portfolio) until I read this book.  Financial intelligence.  I need to do more reading and get some.  Instead of arguing with me about the house, read the book and then we can discuss.

Information: Very High

Writing quality: Average

My quality ratings:  Struggling, Emerging, Average, High, Very High

For non-fiction I'm separating writing from info.  They don't always go hand in hand.

Still reading:

A Gardening Mystery by Mary Rosenblum (if I can find where I put it down, grr!)

Rating in progress: High

A War for All Oceans by Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins

Rating in progress:  Information: High, Writing quality: High

Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake

Rating in progress: High

Lace and Blade

Lace and Blade, edited by Deborah Ross

Overall:  Highly Recommended

There are some fine reviews on the web about this book so I won't go into too much detail.  Some of fantasy's finest authors are featured in this invitation only anthology that appropriately was released on Valentine's Day, 2008.  The stories vary from exotic to the best satisfying formula romance, from bizarre to wonderfully familiar, from sensual to stark.  There was only one story that I didn't connect with.  That a very high percentage of stories that worked for me, unheard of compared to the other anthologies I've read over the years.  Now, romance and subtle magic and swashbuckling is the norm here, so if you're looking for something edgy or quirky or a challenging read this probably isn't going to be your goblet of wine.  But for those of us who love sailing ships and Don Juan and heroes in disguise and slapped faces, for those of us who want to see pride fall (but not too far) and the woman get her man (or thing) and the hero to win the day, this is the book to read.  The unique, experienced voices of the authors sing and their creativity draw our expectations into new realms in this fabulous collection.  Available online.  I'll be sure to order Lace and Blade II.

What I'm reading:  Devil's Trumpet: A gardening mystery by Mary Freeman

Quality: High

My quality ratings:  Struggling, Emerging, Average, High, Very High