Book review

Considering I don't have a lot of fun stuff to say about what's going on, except that I spent several hours on tie dying clothes this afternoon, we're going to do a long expected review today.

I’ve Been Deader, by Adam Sifre



I love this cover, but apparently there is a new one, lemme just...there you go:



On the review system of 1 to 7 (7 being awesome) I rate this a solid 5 with a potential half.

I've been deader: I liked it, but was left…wanting…a bit.
First off, Sifre’s writing style was excellent, very few typos, good sentence structure and the pacing was well done. No boring moments, plenty of action that swept me along. Lots of humor, which, if one does not agree with what appears to be the author’s nicely cynical political views there could be cause for some annoyance, but regardless there was good “take that” writing involved that made this a worthwhile read. Lots of one-liners, posturing and profound thoughts that came out as…well…”Braaaaainsss”. Definitely one of the funniest aspects there, in particular when you start expecting it.

To recap the premise, this story is about zombie Fred, who discovers he can still think, and possesses another rather unique ability you’ll have to discover yourself when you read it.
Though Fred tries to maintain his humanity, his body does not really listen to him anymore, which definitely created a variety of hilarious moments. Excellent comedy in that regard, showing Sifre’s skill as an author.

I am sorry to say that the general plot was a bit vague to me until much later on in the story. A few hints in the beginning would have been nice, but as it was, in the beginning I was left wandering in a post-apocalyptic world without much purpose. It was entertaining, but wandering nonetheless. I like plots to be straight cut and obvious, but that’s just me.

Main characters. I would think that was Fred the thinking zombie. But then there was Jon, average at first, and psycho extraordinaire (to me anyway) later on. Personally I would have liked to see some “hero material” in this story. I am old fashioned that way, and prefer one or two characters that I really like, rather than a whole bunch of characters that each have a few likeable aspects, but aren’t, like, WOW! Which was the case in this particular story. Regretfully, except for Timmy, who wasn’t really a lead until further on in the book, most characters had traits that made me unable to root for any of them. If that was the author’s intention (a possibility, considering his wonderfully whacky sense of humor) he was highly successful.

For a quick, funny zombie read, with good quality writing this is definitely the book for you. If you’re more traditional in your tastes when it concerns a good zombie book, you might want to give this one a pass. I am curious how the rest of the story will go, so the open ending certainly served its purpose

In case you're curious, here's the link : Link

I'm going to see if maybe I can get Mr. Sifre to agree to a blog interview, which should be fun, but I'm just going to have to wait to find out if I can squeeze a good Q & A in somewhere.

That's it. My excuse for not writing a proper blog to boot, is that it's after midnight and I've just spent the majority of the evening putting together packages to send out to publishers. It's a pain. Hah

Healthy as heck

Song of the day: “Perfect 10” by The Beautiful South. Such a funny song, inspired as well.

Yesterday first for a change. I know I’ve been slacking keeping the blog nicely organized, but things have been a little insane, as you undoubtedly noticed. Hah. But anyway, it was another busy day yesterday. First off it started with big brother and I getting up early to take Sally to the Centro Salud in the village. It turned out to be all for nothing. The hospital claimed that she had to go there a week prior to her test (next week) and have her blood checked, but when we got there it turned out to be impossible. So it was for nothing, and by the time we got back the lack of sleep was catching up on me, so rather than crash later in the day I went back to bed for an hour and a half and woke up feeling remotely human, at least. *sigh* Had the weirdest post apocalyptic dreams, sci-fi mixed with fantasy, with somewhat dangerous pursuits going on. I’m thinking of writing it all down for a book, otherwise I would elaborate. Hah.

Did feed the dogs before the nap, and did some laundry, so once I woke up and ate something, it was editing...if only a little because big brother is way behind on proof reading the printed manuscript. So instead grandpa and I worked on putting together mom’s side table. The dratted thing broke down during the course of the last two years, so the paws had to be fortified and even some supports replaced. Since I didn’t want grandpa doing that sort of thing on his own at the moment, I figured that fixing it myself would be the smart thing. That way, he only had to assist. Of course, it isn’t as if he can’t do it himself, but that is the way feelings work, right. We worry.

Had to do a rush pick-up, only to head on back straight away because grandpa had an appointment at the GP in the village. What with all the medical terms we figured that it was a good idea to have a chat with a doctor who spoke grandpa’s language. It was very enlightening, really. Basically the hospital report declared that grandpa is ridiculously healthy for his age, and that his only problem is a slightly faulty heart-valve. That a small blood clod caused all this hassle was something coincidental at most, and according to the GP the best thing grandpa can do is take his medication (to prevent it from happening again) and live on as if nothing ever happened, because he is doing so well. Gawd, I don’t want to know what would have happened if he hadn’t been in this good a condition. *sigh*

Went past the vegetable center to get some veggies for the dog food, which took some time. Arrived home near dusk, cooked supper and then got some serious editing done. Didn’t get to bed until after one, but since there were no pressing matters waiting in the morning I could sleep in ‘til NINE! Yay.

Of course today there was our Spanish lesson, and a pick up in town right after, but what the hey. Time aplenty to get the laundry done, feed the dogs and stuff some breakfast down our throats.
Luckily, what with the good night’s sleep, lessons went a lot better for me this time round. I actually managed some sentences without being corrected all the time, so, phew.

Didn’t get home ‘till after five and by then it was time to start cooking. Since we were early, we decided to get in a nice jog. Seriously, I needed that, even though I didn’t manage all that well after all this time. Ran about half the distance with me falling back to a sturdy pace, but I don’t care, that’ll come again. New sneakers worked well during the run. It didn’t hurt, despite the fact that I’m sore as heck now.

A bit of disconcerting news is that at the moment we are facing a somewhat unusual problem with one of our dogs. Bambi. It would seem that something went wrong in his head, because from being just a bit frightful he shot straight into being aggressive. Today he actually almost attacked big brother when he tried to put an anti-tick collar on him. He’s been getting worse lately, but he’s never done this. We have come to the point that we’re not even allowed to touch him or else he’ll bite. It’s a grave problem for sure. We’ll have to figure something out because at the moment ticks are literally eating him alive. *sigh*

But anyway, after the jog I finished cooking supper (I don’t like eating before running, so I put it all to simmer) and then settled in for the night’s edit. Did a solid batch of pages at least, getting close to the end of the paper edit, meaning that soon we’ll be starting on the last edit. Yay.

In between we’re going to give ourselves a break of a couple of days to start sending out query letters for Saving Nina again. It’ll be a nice breather for sure, in particular since we need a fresh eye to look through the story to make sure that we didn’t make any glaring errors.

Spent some time with tenant to help her practice walking, but she got frightened after the first few steps and wanted to lie down again. Then, later, when we tried again by doing some exercises while she sat in her chair, I noticed a distinct disinterest in her, so then it really didn’t have any use. We’ll try again, see if it works better.

Well, I’m starting to draw blanks, so I’m going to leave it at this and see if I can get to bed before two in the morning…unlikely, but what the hey.

Home again

Song of the day: …I am too sleepy, I can’t remember.

It’s been a friggin’ busy weekend and I, for one, am more than happy it is over.

The good news first. Today we went to hospital (were only ten minutes late. Had to feed the friggin’ dogs, ya know) to visit with grandpa. Just in case, I took him some bread and pumpkin chutney, and we sat there for several hours, waiting endlessly for the doctor who was said to be out and would come at some time up until 3 in the afternoon. Aargh. She did finally arrive after one and informed us that depending on the blood test result she was expecting any minute, he could go home today (going home regardless, but with which medication was the cincher) with three prescriptions. Read his file, and on the overall he is ridiculously healthy. Which is a good thing, or else this little mishap might have ended very differently. In fact, the file said that for his age he is in extraordinary good health. Hah. Go figure. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The doctor:
Were able to follow most of what she said, but then we started talking and we started doubting again, so I went in pursuit…only to find she had disappeared in a matter of thirty seconds. Grrr. Found the interpreter instead, to whom I explained my confusion and she sorted it all out, and told me that we could take him home today. Yay. Since the procedure of being tossed out on yer ear at the hospital takes a while, we left him to get dressed and start to gather his things while we went to the supermarket for some groceries.
We were back within an hour, but clearly the leprechauns had been busy because his paperwork had already been taken care of (did you hear that universal gasp of shock. Paperwork on time, at a state hospital? *shakes head) and he could leave at any time. Yay.
While big brother stayed with him to gather the last few things, I went looking for someone in charge to check if there was anything else necessary, and found the doctor who said we could go, just as soon as I made an appointment at the main information desk for two months from now.
First I got to the wrong desk, where the interpreter from earlier was at as well (thankfully) and they sent me to the right spot. Took about five minutes, at which time grandpa and big brother had fetched the car and came driving up. Were home at four thirty because we had to stop underway for a small donation (almost had to cancel, but we made it) at which time I was more than ready for a nap.

First I had to eat something, though, which I was not appreciative of, but it had to be done. Meat. Grrr. Didn’t manage the whole slab, but since it was slightly bigger than usual anyway that didn’t matter all that much. The nap got cancelled because Empera really wasn’t doing well, so we had to go take her to the vet. It wasn’t good. The vet looked her over, explained her confusion about Empies muscle atrophy and overall skinniness and explained that there was really very little that she could do without doing a whole battery of tests that would cost and arm and a leg. There was some discussion, but in the end we had to make the dreaded decision once more. *sigh* Empera. German shepherd: seven years old. Crazy as a loon. And member of the pack. Never a good feeling to lose one, but it will happen again. *double sigh*

Once we got home I crawled into bed and passed out for about an hour and a half. Had thought that big brother would wake me after an hour, or so, but he didn’t so I got an extra half hour. Yay. Strange dreams. Most of them involved the hospital.

Which brings us to yesterday, doesn’t it? In a rather roundabout way. Had to get up a little early to bake some patties for tasters. Were a little later than usual, and when we got there it was so busy with folks setting up that we had to wait some more before we could start ourselves. No sense in getting annoyed like some folks. This particular market doesn’t get into full swing until after noon anyway.
But anyway, we got set up, and once done I left Cousin Ed to it so I could go visit grandpa at the hospital, only five minutes away. Had to park about a mile off, which I wouldn’t mind so much if the friggin’ foot hadn’t been so bothersome. Arrived at his room sore as heck, but got to sit for a bit, so it didn’t matter. We talked some, him having a hard time of it again, which appears to be the norm at the hospital. I guess it is the long night that makes it harder. He kept his spirits up, though.

Stayed for about an hour, then hurried back to the market to eat a piece of bread with a pattie and lettuce on it, and rushed on through to the restaurant so I could do some writing. Managed to do three pages in the next hour and a half, at which time I quit and returned to our stand. Had some nice chats with folks. There were quite a few who wanted to try it out, and we sold about ten burgers through the course of the day…along with some other stuff that at least covered the expenses.
The nasty bit of news is that we got robbed. Yep, so a-hole stole one of the smaller dog beds. Grrr. We didn’t notice it for real until at the end of the day. I do remember vaguely that I wondered if Cousin Ed maybe sold it before I got back from the hospital, but then it slipped my mind again. Darn it. Luckily we did sell a similar one, later on, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

Got home, unloaded the car and trailer, had some food (big brother made mac & cheese) and took care of my messages, and then spent the last hour of the evening cutting bread for the dogs. Gawd, it’s not until someone’s out of the picture that you realize how much help those things said person does to take off the pressure. We were really scrambling this week.

Luckily mom and the sibs decided to take over the Saturday market, because we might not have been able to make that otherwise. Instead we took Sally and tenant to the hospital to visit with grandpa. A trip both ladies seemed to enjoy, if for no other reason than to repay him for visiting with them when their roles were reversed. All three had fun, I think, so it was a successful afternoon.

Once we got home I started making rice pie (turns out I mixed up dates. Middle sister’s birthday was on the 17th, while I remembered the 19th, darn it. So I was two days late with the pie) and a pumpkin chutney. Took me some odd three hours to make the birthday pie and the one for the market (only got rid of two pieces, by the way, despite the fact that it was tasty as heck). Luckily I did, without realizing it, give her lemon pie on her birthday. Hah.

Well after that there was the car to upload, which we didn’t finish with until dusk. Due to the weather we had to leave it to the last possible moment. There were clouds all over and it seemed as if it might rain. It didn’t…though today we did have some.

Practiced some Spanish, though not as much as I should have. Do have to say that I spoke quite a bit of Spanish this weekend. At the market, at the hospital. Ever since I’m doing these lessons I admit to having several occasions where I think like: Hey, I can say this sentence. I know how to say this! So the lessons are paying off. Hah.

Well, that’s it. Time for me to hit the sheets for some serious horizontal time until 6 and a half hours from now when Sally needs to go to the health center for a blood test. Since caregiver has to take tenant to the hospital in town for her kidney research, I’ll have to go along instead. *sigh* And that while I was planning on sleeping in, darn it!