Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? [Dec.]

It's the last Coffeehouse book club meeting for the year! I want to thank the Squid himself for hosting this great little event each month - I sure hope it continues into 2014 and beyond. Anyway, onto December's read!

I read 3 books this month and rated them all 4 out of 5 stars. Since I can't choose a fave, I decided to just randomly stab a dart at one and make that December's book choice. :)


The story:
Nick wakes up in his room hungover and confused. He sees a pair of women's underwear on his floor and knows something must've happened but he has no recollection what. He struggles to learn the truth of what happened, following the few clues he has along a twisty trail.

From the GoodReads blurb:

"Nick Thorneycroft is a British headhunter working in Luxembourg. His company asks him to recruit a high-flying executive for the company's Russian business. The best candidate turns out to be smart, beautiful... and mysterious. Soon the effects of Russia’s political upheaval, and the arrival of an ex-girlfriend who won’t leave him alone, make Nick’s Luxembourg life increasingly perilous; worlds collide in this gripping, atmospheric tale."

My thoughts:
First off, I was intrigued by the description of Luxembourg. I have actually visited that country, but only briefly to step across the border so I could say I'd been there. I haven't seen nearly enough of the country, so it was interesting reading about it in this novella. Secondly, I really liked the pacing of this story - it was fast-paced but also tense and the plot turns kept me guessing until the end. I wasn't expecting it to end how it did, but it sure added to the "interest" factor.

All in all I'm happy I got to read this story thanks to NetGalley and Daniel Pembrey!

Since joining Misha Gericke and Beth Fred's Do You Have Goals? monthly blog hop (and thank you ladies for hosting such a great hop!), my chosen goal has changed quite frequently. And I have not yet achieved any of the variations of it as yet.

"publish something by the end of 2013"

(that was my goal)

So how have I gone this year? Well, I haven't published yet (except for a little poem featured in Vine Leaves, which I am quite proud of, but still wasn't what I had in mind in terms of publishing "something"). This is largely due to my own slackness. Actually, it's entirely due to that. I just haven't put in the required hours for rewriting/revision.

In 2014, I'm determined not only to focus on rewriting and revision, but I am also determined to actually get into line with what this blog hop's all about - setting big, ridiculous goals for yourself and striving toward them.

So stay tuned, folks!

Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals?

Cephalopod Coffeehouse time! This monthly blog hop is hosted by The Armchair Squid, and is a fair bit of fun. :) The idea is to post about your favourite book read in the last month.

So far this month I've only finished reading two books (yep, I'm having flashbacks to approx. a month ago). But of those I read, the one I preferred was The Trial of Dr. Kate, which I received from Netgalley. Here is a little review (less little than last month's):

Story: This book is set in the early 1950s. Shenandoah Coleman, an ex-fighter pilot who has become a successful reporter in Memphis, returns to the town where she grew up in poverty. She's there to do research for a book she's writing, but also to speak with an old friend, Dr. Kate, who has been arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of murder. After talking to Kate, Shenandoah becomes convinced the doctor isn't guilty. Determined to help clear Kate's name, she starts investigating. At the same time, she's being stalked by the driver of a Dodge Pickup who is apparently set on running her off the road - and killing her. And she's fending off the advances of sweet-talker Bobby who gives her plenty of butterflies.

My thoughts: I quite enjoyed this book for the setting, because I don't really know anything about American history or Tennessee (I'm Australian and when I was at school we really didn't learn any American history except as it related to the World Wars, etc.). Sometimes I found that problems were resolved a little too quickly, like when we finally learned the identity of the Dodge driver. This character harboured hatred toward Shenandoah that had built up over many years (like, fifteen years), but in a matter of minutes Shenandoah managed to diffuse the situation and make everything "okay" again. There was also the fact that at one point, a fair few people died on the same day for unrelated reasons, and some of the deaths were really ... unexpected. :) Not that that doesn't happen in reality. It just seemed a bit strange in this case.

The truth that came out in the end about the murder victim was quite a surprise to me, as was the trial verdict. All in all, I found this a slightly strange read, but I did enjoy "visiting" that part of America (I have in fact visited Tennessee, but only to drive through it). And I was glad when the book ended so I could go back to the cooler weather we were enjoying here in Western Australia at that time. (Sadly, it's starting to heat up now)

I've been participating in this monthly blog hop hosted by Misha Gericke and, as I've neglected to mention before purely because I didn't even realise it, Beth Fred. :) It's a hop where participants reporton how their "big dream" goals are coming along. My goal isn't really the biggest I could have gone for, nor the biggest that I have in my head, but it's the one I really, desperately want to achieve for right now, so that's why I chose it. Anyway, my goal is to:

publish something by the end of 2013

And how have I gone with it since last month?

Back then, I'd received great feedback from my awesome CP Damyanti, but hadn't done anything about it yet. Since then I've managed a rewrite of chapter 1, and now I've received feedback from Damyanti on the rewrite. It was encouraging feedback, as it gave me the impression I'm headed in the right direction. For now I'm going to let the feedback settle, and move onto rewriting the next few chapters.

I don't know that I'll have all this done before year's end, given that November will be NaNo month. I honestly can't see publishing my novella by year's end. But I'm not giving up hope yet. The above will be my goal until the year is over and done.