Books and Movies and NO WRITING

Has it REALLY been this long since I blogged last?
See what Twitter has done to me? shame shame... I now have the attention span of a gnat.

So, after a bit of a writing/publishing wake-up call a few weeks ago, I pretty much shut down my computer, going DAYS without so much as hitting the power button. I felt a wee bit of guilt in those first hours, but I gotta say - overall, it's been like shedding shackles. And I do not intend to write again for another few weeks. Maybe after Easter.
(Important note: my iPhone is still my life-line, in case you thought I was shunning technology completely.)

What have I been doing during those writing hours? Aside from entertaining kiddo who had 2 weeks off for March Break (he goes back this afternoon - YAY!), I've been reading. READING. READING!!!
And not feeling guilty for not writing.
What a terrific way to recharge my creative batteries.

In romance: First up was a free Harlequin ebook that I downloaded onto my iPhone. This way I could pull it out for a few minutes while the kids were bowling, or whatever... It was a Blaze by Lesley Kelley and I think the title was Slow Hands. Enjoyable.
Then a Kresley Cole I picked up last year at Nationals. It was the third or fourth in a series so although I enjoyed it, I felt like I was late to the party.
This also happened with the next book (another Nationals freebee) a Kerrilyn Sparks book, The Undead Next Door. Lots of characters that I felt I should have already known...

Next was Kelley Armstrong's 2nd Nadia Stafford (hit woman) book called Made to Be Broken. I thoroughly enjoyed this strong heroine with a damaged past, a hidden life and who still maintains a 'normal' facade as lodge-owner in a touristy area of Ontario. I really must pick up K.A.'s paranormal books... one of these days... because I love her writing style. It's tight and flows beautifully, without the high, OTT drama that makes you feel like you're on a mind-blowing coaster. She has a great way of keeping the suspense up without making the reader exhausted.
And the characters are so interesting that you wish you knew them in real life.

Then I read Harlan Coben's Hold Tight. Coben never disappoints me. Like Armstrong, his style flows beatifully and he hooks you in the first chapter - ALWAYS. His characters are amazingly introspective and I find myself reading certain passages multiple times because his philosophies are enlightening and/or thought provoking. HIGHLY recommend.

Movies - another great way to creatively recharge.
Like many others, I succumbed to the Twilight DVD. Gotta say, it held up better on the small screen than it did on the big. Then I watched it again and it confirmed that yes, indeed, it was shit.
Duplicity, with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, had so much potential... but alas, it was long and convoluted and the sparkling chemistry I expected just wasn't really there. It wasn't a bad movie, just not as good as I had hoped.
But Monsters vs Aliens didn't disappoint! It was in 3D so that in itself was a trip, but it had some amusing lines and subtext. The kids loved it, therefore, so did I.