Monday Musings: Mythologies, More NaNo, and other assorted ramblings

It is day 14 of NaNoWrimo and I feel the month wearing me down.  I'm sure my fellow writers are experiencing the same feeling - a certain thin-ness to their thoughts, a certain dullness to the plots. I spew random descriptors and various snippets of phrases into conversations with friends and family, all the while despairing as I fall farther and farther behind on my word-count.

I have already made it farther this year than last, in terms of words - and I genuinely like my story.  The characters that have peopled it amuse me greatly and the plot keeps building itself - even if it chooses to do so slowly and painfully.  So for now, I trudge onward through the sludge of words.

I'm still reading.  It's essential - though I have to say my participation in NaNo is beginning to creep in on my perception of the stories I read, as you'll see.

The Iron Druid Chronicles: Hounded, Hexed, Hammered by Kevin Hearne

Though a friend recommended the Iron Druid Chronicles in passing, it wasn't until I was well into the first book that I remembered she had recommended them.  I was browsing through the library - as I am wont to do - and happened on all three of the books.  In order.  This - for those of you who may not experience the frustration of incomplete library series - is something of an Event. 

I started reading Hounded and although I wasn't instantaneously drawn in by the premise, being the stubborn reader that I am, I continued on.  And I'm glad that I did.  I found myself laughing, and re-reading 3 or 4 page sections out loud, for full effect.  My husband can attest to this - although when he wasn't available to read to, I read aloud to myself.

Kevin Hearne mixes mythologies and pantheons and religious figures unashamedly and the result is violent, chaotic, and frequently hilarious as seen through the eyes of the druid, who is the narrator as well as the main character.  A warning, however. In the third book there are a number of places where I, as one of the masochistic NaNo writers, felt that he was just padding the story.  I remember thinking "hmm, I bet I could add to my wordcount by adding a bit like this . . ."  Also, Kevin does integrate modern religions and holy figures into his cast of supernatural figures, and if you find this offensive, you may want to avoid these books, especially the third one.

Random ponderings for the week/weekend past: 

1. The original HALO game has been digitally/graphically remastered and re-released in an Anniversary edition.  Rather like the classic movie flicks that are being brought to Blu-Ray.  While there are schools of thought that argue that remastering the game should be placed under a similar (admittedly lesser) category of nerd loathing as the "improved" release of the original Star Wars trilogy, articles that I've read online lead me to believe that the story and gameplay haven't changed, it's simply been given better graphics.  And as someone who is rather in love with the graphics of games . . .its a powerful lure.  Not powerful enough to spend the $40, though.  Maybe in a week or two, when used copies start hitting the GameStop shelves. 
2. The exteriors of houses are, by and large, rather boring.  I will grant you that that statement is very much a generalization.  I'm sure that there are interesting-looking houses out there.  Interesting-looking, in this case, not necessarily being a good thing. 

3. I'm already looking forward to the end of NaNo, the end of November. I've a whole slew of ideas for projects.  A reading goal (30 books in 30 days), and a few gaming goals, including filling my Hall of Monuments in GuildWars and maybe actually getting through an entire FABLE game. I love to game, but I have a tendency to get stuck in a comfortable rut.  For example:  In League of Legends there are a whole slew of heroes to choose from. I can only play 3 of them with any acceptable level of decency.  I should learn how to use a different play style, but it's difficult when I know I can do so much better on characters that are tried and true for me.

4. Speaking of the Hall of Monuments, and the beautifully-graphic game that is GuildWars . . . I applaud the development team that's working on GuildWars 2, as well as the company as a whole, for not being willing to set a release date, or get our hopes up, until they've tested everything and are sure they can release the game without also letting loose a swarm of game-bugs and inconsistencies.  But I'm finally ready to add my voice to the thousands of GuildWars players who want to say: we're happy that you keep releasing new quests and storyline - but in all reality, you're not adding much to the original game that is worth more than a few hours of time, so maybe just focus on GW2 instead?  The playable beta at PAX was TWO YEARS ago, I'm starting to get a bit impatient! *sigh*