Monday Musings: Rich Text Editors, Holidays, and Orson Scott Card

The holiday season is descending upon us ever faster - towing food and family merrily towards us.  Nebraska weather is dipping alarmingly towards dark and winter, only without the accompanying white blanket of snow that I feel is all that makes the cold really worthwhile.

Small wonder, then, that I continue to curl myself into my terribly comfortable couch (known by my friends as "the couch that eats people" for its startling ability to pull you from sitting upright, fully awake into sprawled full-length on it and asleep), with a large stash of library books.  Admittedly, were it extremely warm, I'd probably term it perfect weather for lemonade and a book.  I can think of very few situations which seem ideal in my mind in which a good book cannot be added to the infinite betterment of said situation.

On to the book review!

Orson Scott Card's The Lost Gate
Perhaps best-known for his science fiction series which includes Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card none-the-less tells a wonderful fantasy story.

In The Lost Gate, he transports his reader to the universe of the Mithermages, a place which - according to the author - he had mapped out long before he became a name in science fiction. The story focuses on a character named Danny North, who is a drekka - one without apparent magical skill - born into a family who finds its very identity in magic.

Drawing heavily on many mythologies - while at the same time recreating them - The Lost Gate is a wonderful journey of prose and frequent witticism.  I enjoyed it immensely and am looking forward to its inevitable sequels.

Items of Note:
  1. Pumpkin pancakes are delicious. Home-made banana bread is also delicious.  (If perhaps a bit icky to make, since my inspiration was that a hand of bananas had gone slightly over-ripe in the fruit basket).  I find myself wondering about pumpkin-banana bread.  But I must rein in my enthusiasm, there's enough cooking in my future this week, and only so much bread that my husband and I can eat!
  2. I am at roughly half of the word count that I should have with NaNo.  I still stubbornly refuse to say I give up . . . Life just tends to happen and get in my way.  As it does.  But I could catch up.  Maybe.  Possibly.  Tune in next week and see?
  3. Thanksgiving!  Mashed potatoes!  Pie!  Two extra days tacked onto the upcoming weekend!  
  4. Question:  What is it, exactly, that rich text editors have against the paragraph  tag?  Why do they insist on using breaks instead?  It is annoying and un-semantic.  Non-semantic?  Let's try that again.  It is decidedly not correctly semantic and quite annoying.  (Yes, I edit the html of my posts when they don't display correctly.  Doesn't everyone?)  

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