The Last Days of a Rake
The Last Days of a Rake by Donna Lea Simpson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Or rather, the last night before he carks it.
Not quite the romance novel really, because it deals with the regrets of a reformed rake on his deathbed and how he was a rather scummy scoundrel. A little like Peter O’Toole’s Casanova in the Casanova miniseries, starring David Tennant.
The book itself was quite well written – almost lyrical in places, though short. In the end, I came away feeling quite sad for all the characters. I do like the idea of the book within the book, however. Rather like The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey. Hmm!
Try it out. It’s free after all, in Carina Press. And it only took me two 20-minute bus trips to finish it.
First deadline: decent effort
So my first deadline came and went, and how did I fare? Better than expected in some ways, although I still have a few more characters to go before I finish off the planning stage proper.
But it’s close!
This evening, I finished off 3 middle-to-major characters, and was planning to polish off the last two but I’m just too knackered. Also doesn’t help that I’ve been scouring the net for free ebooks this evening (downloaded Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island! Haven’t read them in years!)
Also figured out how to place books that I’m reading on my WordPress blog. And even did some very basic coding to make the books appear as they do! And then because I was working on my bitchy character today, I spied a book delightfully titled, “Bullies, Bastards & Bullies” through Writer’s Digest’s tweet, and promptly bought it online.
So all in all, a good day. I’ve got 2 other characters to flesh out, and then the rest are really quite minor. Also have to work out which scenes form my chapters and in what sequence, but that can be worked out by the end of the week as well.
So here’s what I intend to do.
- Wednesday (today) – no good. Choir practice, and I will be home past 10pm, so my brain will be quite fried and useless…
- Thursday – Remaining 2 characters and polish off the rest of the very minor characters (and who they were inspired by.)
- Friday – Scenes assigned to chapters, and sequencing
- Saturday – Choir performance (and I’m doing a solo!)
- Sunday – Possible movie with person from writing group. And grocery shopping. And hanging out with my much-neglected real-life romantic hero…
Monday next week, perhaps about 5 days late but what the hey, I will finally start writing proper. And I can hardly wait, to be honest. I have had dialogue swimming around my brain for weeks, and am just dying to sink in and start typing like the demon.
But until then… I have to finish these characters. *nod*
This idiot’s guide to the Kobo ereader
This is a lesson on how to do better research, because I did brilliant research on the actual reader, but made a bunch of assumptions regarding the library management side of things, and now I’m less enchanted. I also feel a little foolish for jumping in so quick (if >3 months is considered jumping in quick).
If you ever want to do research on a product, remember this: check out the product’s online customer support. If the product comes with any web-based DIY management tool, don’t assume everything’s going to sync like how it does now with Windows and Macs. I made huge assumptions I didn’t realise I was even making, and now I’m poking around trying to find workarounds. I did find some good software out there that will make life better, though. More later.
After tussling with this baby for about 4 hours, I’ve come up with an initial list of likes and dislikes.
Kobo Cabana!
I got me a Kobo! I’ve been reading up about them for a while, ever since Borders announced that they were selling them. Every time I’ve mentioned getting an electronic reader, I’ve just been told to get an iPad, but from what I’ve been reading,
- it’s actually more difficult to read with iBook (although there is Kobo and Kindle for iPad, ironically)
- trawling through your library of books gets hellish after a certain point
- the only ooh-aah factor is the page turning effect (“Just like a real book!”) and the backlight.
Which, for AUD1,200, is a rather extravagant spend for realistic page turns and a backlight.
Yes, yes… I know iPads can do so much more. But between the husband and I, we now have 1 netbook (17 months old), 1 duo-core laptop (3 years old) and 1 very new, very souped-up bespoke quod-core desktop, with a solid state drive that would make any teen gamer writhe in pimply envy. We have an iTouch but we’re still dragging our feet with iPhones. I’m not quite sure why. I suspect part of it stems from a general aversion to bandwagons, and casting our lot so readily with Apple – whom I’m sure harbour evil Microsoft-like plans for world domination underneath all that slick I’m-so-friendly packaging.
But I also like that you’re not just tied to Borders’ books, because it reads ePUB and PDF files. And that I can load electronic books from the library. Kindle doesn’t read PDF. That’s quite the deal breaker for me, frankly. Plus, Australia’s WiFi coverage is laughable, so getting anything WiFi-y at this stage would just be a waste of money better spent on books.
So it’s a Kobo for me. Cheap, does the job, comes with 100 free books. It’s like buying a cheap second car that comes with paid registration and a full tank of petrol. Sweet.
