on books and sad stories

I finally found the book!! After so many months I found Lewis Perdue's masterpiece. I absolutely loved it. Read it!!

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To read through my stack of books, I've started my Book of the Month project. Basically, it takes me through my book list, choosing one and committing to finish it by month's end. The object is to read everything and find new treasures. I will not allow myself to buy a new book unless I am able to read 2-3 more by the 30th or 31st. For this month, I've read through Daughter of God, Twisted 13, Between dinners and the morning after, Wandergirl and World's Greatest Serial Killers. I'm reading Patter Recognition by William Gibson right now. Yes, the man who in 1982, coined the term cyberspace and popularized the concept in his debut novel, Neuromancer (read that one too! It gave me a psychedelic headache!). This time he travels the present under the premise that nothing is ever new, only patterns emerge. I'm excited!

What I'm really looking for are the Alfred Hitchcock anthologies. It's so hard to find one at Booksale. I wonder how I can start scrouging for it online. Any ideas?

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So my birthday has come and gone. Indeed it is a sad month because one, I was broke and two, my beloved cat Dexter passed away this afternoon. I was with him till the end. He gave one last stretch and then his chest no longer moved. I'm just so distraught! My familiar, my baby, my bestfriend..

To my pretty kitty, hunny baby pretty baby...I love you so much! I'm sure you are in cat heaven right now having the time of your life and watching over me. Forgive me if I wallow in sadness because of your passing. Let my eyes swell to nothing but slits as I cry a river. Rest assured that I will be strong for you again.

marking the end of another year

How time flies when you have so much to do and think about! Another year has ended and I am still writing my novel. Haven't quite ironed out the kinks (and there are a few) but I will get it out first quarter of this new year. I hope you like it boss!

As for my personal literary endeavours, I believe after this major project I'm humbly going back to my roots. That means short stories, essays and maybe one novel again. But I wouldn't hold my breath. At this point, I'm writing a series of short shorts tentatively titled, "Coffeeshop Love." Here's an excerpt:

"...And so I sit and watch him go through his routine every single day. Always a hot mug of cappuccino with extra cinnamon powder on top of the white froth, always two donuts and always by that lone table at the far end corner of the coffeeshop. The way he blows the steaming hot coffee to cool the searing liquid for a sip somehow excites me. And how the white froth clings to his upper lip forming a moustache! I fight hard to suppress a giggle. His lovely amber eyes, two orbs holding the secrets of unknown universes pierce through my soul as if he knew everything about me and is challenging me to say that he's wrong. But I can't tell him anything because that meant actually meeting him and being in his presence.

No. I dare not break his spell over me.."

Good stuff, huh? And I'm just getting started.

As for reading, well I've accumulated a lot of books this past year and here's what I've already devoured (2006-2007):

1. Dark Masques ed. J.N. Wiliamson
2. Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King
3. The Changed Man by Orson Scott Card
4. Immortality, Inc. by Robert Sheckley
5. The Orange Girl by Josh Gardner
6. Prime Evil ed. Douglas E. Winter
7. Shadows ed. by Charles L. Grant
8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
9. Virgin by Mary Elizabeth Murphy
10. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Stevenson
11. Long after midnight by Ray Bradbury
12. Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
13. Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
14. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
15. Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe (1-5)
16. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Ann Rice
17. The Rule of Four by Iam Caldwelland Dustin Thomason
18. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: I am curious (Bloody)
19. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Witch’s Brew
20. Stranger by Night ed. by Jeffs Gelb and Michael Garrett
21. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
22. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
23. Dangerous Women ed. Otto Penzler
24. The DaVinci Legacy by Lewis Perdue
25. The Moor by Laurie King
26. Twisted Travels by Jessica Zafra
27. Pugad Baboy 19 by PM Junior
28. True Phil. Ghost Stories 19 by Psicom Publishing
29. Deadly After Dark edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett
30. Pugar Baboy 18 by PM Junior
31. The Nine Billion Names of God-The best short Stories of Arthur Clarke (Signet)
32. Violin by Anne Rice
33. Heartbreak ed. by Cel Coscolluela
34. Phil. True Ghost Stories vol. 2
35. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bardbury
36. Expanded Universe by Robert Heinlin

I still have quite a few books to read but with my appetite for knowledge and stories I have no doubt that I will be reading through them in no time. I still have a couple of projects to finish but I am looking forward to submitting them so I can more on to more wonderful assignments!

Here's to a great year ahead!!