Got A Castle In Brooklyn That's Where I Dwell*

Like the great Oracle of Gaelic Gumbo said yesterday, "Real life is... getting in my grill." Between the kids, school, sickness, life and all the closing shifts I do at the new job I'm miles behind on my blog reader and answering comments. My blog has been suffering too... heh heh, I was going to say something about slipping quality but I couldn't do it with a straight face. Ya, so this is the usual "sorry I haven't been by your blog lately blah blah blah" excuse that we all throw out occasionally. Does it feel sincere? Well it was meant to be! You suck too!

But seriously, I feel bad. You take the time to stop by and I'm all "boo hoo, I'm tired." Not only that, but I've been a member of Hot Dads for a month or so now and I haven't written anything for it except for a couple of Q & A's. I'm falling behind on the Zombie News Network I do with Middle Aged Woman (though I am working on a new piece) and I told Matt from DC Urban Dad I'd do a meme he tagged me with and I still haven't. Instead of doing his meme I think I'll steal his Christmas list post from Monday, 'cause it was pretty good. I'm not even getting any story writing done and that's really annoying.

Ok, this isn't all bitching and whining. It's also about books! One cool perk about my new job, besides the employee discount, is being able to take books home to read just like from the library. The first book I took out is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It won the Man Booker prize back in October, but more importantly it's received the Bleary Eyed Dumbass Award from yours truly and I haven't even finished it yet. The story revolves around Thomas Cromwell who was a chief minister to Henry VIII. Mantel doesn't portray Cromell as the bad guy he has been historically made out to be and uses an interesting style in her writing of it. Anyway, if you're looking for a new read I highly recommend it.


Next up is Stephen King's On Writing. This was actually a library book, but I just finished it as well and thought I'd include it. Whether you like King or not or haven't even read any of his books, this is a good one. It follows his own writing career and gives a lot of excellent advice to would be writers. If you're a long time Stephen King reader it is really interesting to see what was happening in his real life while he was writing some of his books. If you've ever read The Tommyknockers it will probably answer some questions for you.



So that's my spiel for today. Get off the computer, go read a book.


*This title has nothing to do with this post, I just heard Brass Monkey today and thought that line would make a good post title.