mailman, pullman

i finished mailman's novel the other day and am on to philip pullman. because the movie's coming out on dvd in a few weeks, and it has daniel craig in it. but anyway - the witch's trinity was very good, especially in its historic detail. that was the main thing, as it was with mailman's first one. she does good research and incorporates that research into her fiction very well, and it was more seamless in this one than the last one. best of all, as it's cool as all get-out that someone i went to college with has been published by random house, reading her inspired me to get back into writing after a few months off. i started a new story this past week. i'm not much for research, so i'm setting my story in the here and now.

but reading isn't the sum total of my life these days. neither is writing, not hardly - my writing habits still leave plenty to be desired (note that i'm blogging right now instead of writing in the few minutes i have before starting work). i've also been wrestling with career choices (though for now i'm sticking with medical transcription, i'm considering pursuing another bachelor's degree, etc, to become a medical examiner's assistant [?!]), still eating mostly low-fat and soft foods, irrigating with a syringe the holes in my mouth where my wisdom teeth once were, attending transcription conferences, watching too much tv, exercising a wee bit (my thighs are sore from doing squats, if you can believe that), and chillin' with the spouse.