Sunday, August 17, 2014

My New Rant

So, I've been on a kick reading books about women in the military.  I'm looking for three good ones to write a paper about - probably centering on PTSD.  I've definitely got one - The Road Home by Ellen Emerson, which is about a nurse who served in Vietnam.  I will also probably use Home Front by Kristin Hannah.  That one is set during the Iraq/Afghan war and will make a good choice.  IT's that third one that's becoming elusive. 

I've read two by Kim Ponders, The Last Blue Mile and The Art of Uncontrolled Flight.  Both talk about the ostracism of women pilots, but neither really addresses PTSD at all.  My biggest issue, however, is that Uncontrolled Flight had a typo - which may not seem like much, but it's one of those you just can't let go of.  It read, "You're father's an amazing man."  Seriously?  How many times does this have to be beaten into people for them to get it?  It's really not rocket science, folks, and for a writer, it's an inexcusable error. 

Okay - rant finished.  Off to start Sand Queen by Helen Benedict - hopefully this will be my third novel, but if not, I've got a couple others waiting in the wings that sound promising.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Such a slacker!

Well, it's been a while.  Guess I thought I deserved some time off after all that strenuous reading.  I have still been reading, but now I've been reading novels about women in the military.  I am going to write a paper about them, so I need a few to choose from.  I've read three so far, and only one seems like it's not going to work.  There was another one I started yesterday, but it is very poorly written, so I only got a few pages into it.  I have three others to go through - and then I will narrow it down to three to write about the trials and tribulations of being a woman in a traditionally man's world. 

After that, I need to focus in on what my other two papers will be on - well, the exact works I will use.  I pretty much know one will be about the Iraqi short story writer Daisy Al-Amir and the other will be be on means of human reproduction in utopian and dystopian fiction.  Sounds like a lot of work, right?  Well, it is, but it's got to be done if I'm ever going to finish this third Master's ('cuz everyone needs three Master's degrees, don't they?).  I'm such an over achiever!