"The Quickie"

I try not to buy hard cover books anymore. They take up a lot of shelf space, and they cost a lot more than paperbacks, so most of the time I just wait another six months and save the $14.00, give or take.

Yesterday we were in Borders and James Patterson's new book, "The Quickie," was front and center. I'd actually seen a commercial for it on TV earlier in the day, which surprised me. I don't know if I've ever seen a TV commercial for a book. I guess when one has been writing stories for thirty years, publishers go the extra mile for advertising. In my case, James Patterson could write the alphabet and I'd probably buy it. I just love his style.

In any case, I had my copy by the time we left the store, and I had two chapters read before we got home. Last night about 10:30 I realized I had two choices: put it down and go to bed, or fall asleep in my chair and risk drooling on the pages. It wasn't a difficult decision; even at 30% off, I paid too much for the book to ruin it the first night. I had it done before noon today anyway.

I can't get into the plot much without spoilers. Basically, a woman discovers her husband is cheating on her and decides to get even, and it goes terribly wrong. The plot has more twists and turns than a North Carolina back road, and somehow, inexplicably and in a fashion on James Patterson can manage, it comes out right in the end. That's really all I can say.

Borders has it 30% off--I mentioned that, right? Go get the book and take it when you go on vacation. If you can wait that long to crack the cover. I couldn't.

Happy (early) birthday!

Eric's birthday is the end of this month, two days after Alex's. Consequently, he's had less than stellar birthdays some years because of tight finances and his wish for Alex's birthdays to be good.

Tight finances are less of an issue now, so while The Boys were here, we went shopping. Chadwick is a technophile extraordinare and was just the consultant* we needed to buy these:


Yes, the TV and the stand are new, but so is the tuner in the inside upper right corner of the cabinet. Our old tuner finally gave up the ghost after more than a decade, and we found one reasonably priced when we got the TV.

The Boys spent a whole afternoon moving the old cabinet and TV upstairs and putting the new set-up together. I've written down the directions on how to get all the components to talk to each other. Hopefully I won't have to make any tech support calls to Chadwick!








*Why, yes, I did need a consultant to buy them! I know nothing about Man Toys and I was scared to spend that much money on something that might not be right. That trumps surprises every time.

Happy Fourth!

Done.

Now for the news you've all been waiting for. I've typed The End on "Sword and Scabbard". The first draft stinks, as they all do, but the writing part is finished.

The Boys are here until Saturday so it's unlikely that I'll get any more work done on it before then. I'll be editing soon, thought.