Thursday, August 1, 2013

Here I am again on a sunny morning, reading Wormwood. This mystery author is not my favorite kind. I like a police story or at least some real action. Hers is a humorous and lightweight leading character, and so far there is no suspense. Her lead character is China Bayley who owns a tea shop and the characters are all the “New Age” sort of personalities – casually well-to-do and into gourmet food. I can't relate very well to them because they have no real problems. China is the narrator of the story. I am going to watch as I read this story to see how to write about a main character narrator in the first person, though. The use of English in this book is very good – very skillful descriptions and conversations. I do find that most of the books that I find in the public library are well-written. Libraries don't pick poorly written books for their shelves. I think I may start choosing British and American classics again soon, though, rather than mysteries. I'm getting tired of mysteries, except for the best of them. For the last ten years or so I have read very little else. Of modern novels, mysteries are the most reliable for interest value, as opposed to romances. I just don't like graphically described sex scenes and the soap opera story lines of most romances make me want to retch. Pardon my language. At any rate, I think I'll go to the classic fiction shelves next time I go to the library.

Back to my novel for now. I have to stay in the apartment today, because the building management is going to be working on the elevators and turning the power on and off. I don't want to go down to the bottom floor and have to walk up 9 stories to get to my apartment. This would be a good day to call Hilda and Gwen and Cookie.

3:19 PM The management announced that there will be repairs on the elevator and power outtages, but so far they haven't followed through. Every now and then they announce that they are going to do something and we who live here disrupt our day to work around them, and they just don't do it. Now I wonder if they will do the elevators tomorrow or the next day, and I'll be in here waiting for them again. I hope not. Tomorrow I need to go to the library to get more novels to read. It will be closed on Saturday.

I did call Hilda. She sounds fine. She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow, but it is just a checkup. We talked about writing and what kinds of writing we like best. This book Wormwood is basically well-written, but so far no excitement, and I'm on page 53. It's supposed to be a murder mystery, so she will have to produce a body sometime soon. The lead character is a little too everyday for suspense. I'll keep reading to see how it develops. Back to it now.

5:57 PM I've had supper and am getting to close things down for the night. They didn't work on the elevators and did leave another flyer on my door saying they will come back and do it on Monday. There was a lively thunderstorm about 4:00 PM. I read some more on my book, and it is moving toward a little suspense now. I don't want everything I read to be suspenseful, but if it's supposed to be a murder mystery, I do. So much for that. Goodbye for now.