"'No more shooting from anyone. Or I am going to get seriously cranky with everyone. Suddenly, and violently and all over the place.'" -John Taylor Simon R. Green's Something from the Nightside "When I started out I had a dream, a dream of helping people who had nowhere else to turn; but dreams don't last. They can't compete with reality." Simon R. Green's Something from the Nightside

I've been feeling like reading some adolescent lit lately. Maybe it has to do with my upcoming birthday and feeling like I am old. Right now, I'm reading Simon R. Green's Something from the Nightside. It's fun, the kind of thing I would have been totally enthralled with as a pre-teen. The main character is John Taylor, a private investigator with a special gift for finding things...even things that don 't want to be found. He takes on a case to find a runaway teen that leads him to the Nightside, a sort of parallel dimension full of horrible, and yet enticing things. The horror is not too scary, at least not what I've read so far, strictly PG stuff. Noticing a trend though, the mix of horror and comedy. There are a lot of witticisms, one liners and sarcasm which I find entertaining. Very similar in that way to the vampire books I was reading recently, and to shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and even most horror movies these days have those laugh moments. Used to be a time when if you were laughing at your horror movie or show, it was a bad thing...now it's sort of expected, that blending...like we're afraid to make things too scary. We inject humor into our nightmares. Weird, huh?

In what has to be one of my more spectacular crafting accidents, I dropped a newly opened bottle of mod podge onto the floor, splattering glue all over my legs, the floor in the hallway, and last, but certainly not least, my bookcase. Cleaning glue from book covers is not a fun activity. I also broke the project I was trying to set on top of the bookcase to dry, because trying to catch both falling objects, I, of course, failed to catch either. Go me. Also, you do not want to walk barefoot in my house right now.

Got to see The Crüxshadows tonight, and it was a lot of fun. 

Finished reading The Laughing Corpse and Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton. Ultimately, it was a nice piece of fluff to occupy my time when my brain was too tired to concentrate on anything more serious. I like the idea and some of the writing was decent, but I just can't get over my dislike of Anita Blake. She never ceased to annoy me, so I doubt that I will be picking up any of the other books in this series anytime soon. I feel kind of inspired to do some writing of my own. One of these days, I really will get some of the stories that live in my brain out onto paper...or at least into the computer.

I recently finished reading Laurell K Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures. Although the writing style was not anything spectacular, there was a nice blend of humor and horror. The concept was interesting, and the story was fast-paced and entertaining, which was all I was really looking for. I have to say that I think I like my vampires a little more evil. It's been a long time since I have found a scary vampire story. I have this problem with this type of novel, and with movies too...not enough people die. I know that sounds bad, but really, it's just that I expect horror in my horror novels. People have to get killed, and they can't just be side characters that you don't care about. Otherwise, your typical bad guy isn't much of a threat. I'm not sure how I feel about the main character. She is annoying at times, but then...I think Buffy is annoying, too, and I still love the show. I want to root for her; it's nice to see strong female characters. The hardcover edition of the book, which a friend lent to me, has two more novels in it, so I guess I will read those next, and see if the character grows on me at all. Anyway, this made for a nice little break from my ongoing reading of Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop.