Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects, or My poor, overflowing bookshelf!

Jesse Cox of OMFG Cata received an early copy of Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects from a fan and was eager to discuss the book, without spoilers even! (Unless you really hate even discussing basic plot setup and elements, go ahead and click on it to learn a bit about the book and what it covers.)

I really became interested in Thrall's story after a fellow guildie took me through one part of the Caverns of Time, and I have to say this sounds like something I'm going to really enjoy reading since it takes place between the events of The Shattering and Patch 4.2. I mean, come on, there's the dragon aspects in there too, and I for one love the idea of Alexstraza and Ysera. And there's hints we could gain a little more insight on Jaina Proudmore/Thrall and what happened there. And then write copious amounts of fanfic where things turn out differently.

Anyway, I thought this was neat and am possibly going to go ahead and order the book today and read it.

Annnnd, I totally need to find some WoW icons I actually like.

That's sort of eerie.

I just now realized Ghost Story, the next book in the Dresden Files series, is being released on the anniversary of Dad's death. As much as I've been thinking about him in the last couple of weeks (and so much so that it's disrupting my sleep and putting me into a funk even), it's only now that I'm noticing this really strange coincidence. Considering the entire premise of Ghost Story, I'm kind of laughing a little.

Yeah, I know, it's been three years, but it doesn't feel that long to me, and sometimes I still dream about him. He may not have ever understood me or really knew the real me, but that doesn't change the fact that I loved him in spite of our differences and the way we could fight. He was only 59 years old, two months away from turning 60, and I was only 27 when he passed. The kiddo was only four years old, and he never got to see him go to school and see how he excelled. He never got to meet Sam.

Sorry, I'm going to be thinking about him for the next week or so.

Okay, I promise I won't be spamming today. I'm contemplating a silly post about sex tropes in books I hate. Heh.

Writing: The Clueless Virgin

I don't really read a lot of romance (the exception being Keri Arthur who deals with paranormal romance, and I hated her stand alone book Destiny Kills), at least not in the vein of the Happily Ever After (HEA) sort, but I do read many books with romantic themes mixed in with the plot. I also read fanfiction and erotic stories online (sometimes both at once, heh), and one particular theme I'm occasionally drawn to is "the first time." I don't necessarily mean the first time a character ever kisses or has sex, in fact usually it's more a couple's first time sharing a kiss or making love.

But I have to say when I do read about a character's first time, there is one thing I absolutely hate and it's The Clueless Virgin.

( Cut for sex talk. )