Summer: A Preview

So I thought I would take a little time to just decompress and let you all know what's going on with me for the foreseeable future (aka the summer). I'm actually going to be quite busy. I am working full time for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. I'll be working in the Enforcement Division, so I'll be evaluating claims of discrimination (mostly in employment but some in housing as well). It's pretty much what I did last summer for the EEOC, but at the state level. We finished day 2 of training today. It is really intense. At my previous job, I didn't really get much orientation. I just jumped right in. But since we have more responsibilities with MCAD, we have intensive training. Not to mention there's thirty of us in the office. It is really cool because there are people from various law schools and colleges around Mass. as well as a few other states. It's a diverse group so I hope to make some new (and lasting) friendships over the course of the summer.

But that's not all that's happening on the work front this summer. I'm also working at the front desk at my law school's library on weekends. Yep, I'm working seven days a week right now. It may change once I get into full swing at my full time job and see how tired I am. I'm getting paid at the library which is nice but I need time to myself too. Working at school, though, allows me to see friends from school who are taking summer classes or studying for various state exams (either the bar exam or the MPRE). I will be studying for the MPRE (to be taken in August). I'm hoping I do well on the first try as it's a pain to submit everything again to take the test again. I know the law fairly well thanks to my ethics class so I'm currently cautiously optimistic.

I will also be blogging a Summer TV Rewind for More TV, Please!. For those of you who followed me last summer, you'll remember I blogged the first series of BBC's Merlin for MTVP. I enjoyed that experience, as well blogging the occasional episodes of Glee and No Ordinary Family as well as the freshman run of Body of Proof. So I decided I would blog a different show this summer. I thought about doing series 2 of Merlin (to keep it consistent) but then I decided that I would change things up. So I will be blogging the first series of BBC's Robin Hood. Notice a theme? Yes, I love some British TV shows. A lot of them in fact. If it weren't only three episodes, I probably would have seriously considered blogging series 1 of Sherlock (on a side note, they are now filming series 2!). I discovered Robin Hood over the Christmas holidays and fell in love. A few of my writer friends had been talking about it and then I got a Netflix subscription and found all three series were on instant watch. So, naturally, I marathoned. It is a fun retelling of the old story of Robin Hood and his band of Merry men (and a couple women in this case). it also makes it rather adult in that the romances are a little more flirty than would be for a children's show. The fight scenes are really well choreographed as well. So I will likely be posting up a post at some point when a few of the recaps have gone up on MTVP.

In semi-related TV news, I thought I'd share what shows I'll be watching this summer. Most of them are shows I've watched for a while (White Collar, Warehouse 13) but I'm adding a few new shows. This past spring I got in Eureka so that will be joining the schedule. It's a fun and quirky show that is cheesy but kind of interesting an I've come to find I really care about the characters (and it made the crossover episodes with Warehouse 13 make so much more sense). Obviously, I'll be watching Torchwood: Miracle Day (series 4). For recaps of that, you can visit More TV Please! as Jen will be blogging that. The other new show I will be adding this summer is Alphas. It will premiere on SyFy on July 11 at 10pm (with a 90 minute pilot). I hadn't really considered watching this until very recently. I saw some press on it on one of my trusty TV news websites and I realized that one of my favorite interns from Bones is one of the core cast (it so happens his character on Bones died so he could be on this project). It's good sci-fi drama (much like X-Men). I'll give it a shot because it has a lot of great genre people (including producers and writing staff from other shows I've watched).

And lastly, I'm doing a rather intense reading campaign. First, I am re-reading the entire Harry Potter series prior to the July 15 release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I am nearly done with Order of the Phoenix, leaving me only Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows to get through in the next month and a half. I am anticipating success. I am also reading The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series and the latest in Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series (The Jefferson Key) and Kelly Meding's latest in the Dreg City series (Another Kind of Dead). My ultimate goal is to read at least 14 books before I have to start doing homework for the fall semester.

So, that's what I am going to be up to for the summer. I'll be one busy bee but that's not such a bad thing if you ask me. I like to keep busy. So, I hope you join me in some fun TV watching and check out some of the books I'll be reading if they interest you.

2011 and the TV Shows it Brings

So I felt inspired by Jen's blog post about the TV shows she's excited for but won't have time to blog so I thought I would throw together my own list of shows I'm excited about for 2011. This list will include both new and returning shows.

V
Returns: 1/4/11 @ 9pm (ABC)

While V wasn't super strong last season, it was better at plot arcs and character development than FlashForward. And season 1 ended with a huge cliffhanger; an extremely emotional Anna unleashing something that turned the entire sky red. It can't be good and I'm guessing whatever the Visitors plans are will be jumping into gear from the get go of this season. I'm interested to see how the resistance, led by Erica handles having Ryan turning on them. Plus there is the intriguing Anna/Lisa dynamic now that Lisa is helping Fifth Column. And if that all wasn't enough to keep me wanting to see the new season, they resurrected Joshua at the end of last season, too. I liked his character so I'm happy he'll be around, even if he's getting tortured by Anna and her minions.

Merlin
Returns: 1/7/11 @ 10pm (SyFy)

If you’ve followed my rants about my computer at all, you’ll know it’s had some mishaps thanks to trying to watch Merlin series 3 online. So I stopped and am excited that it is coming to SyFy so soon. I can get my fix every week now! I know I’ve seen the first 10 episodes already but I want to rewatch them. This season has been really strong, even if they have moved Morgana’s storyline faster than I would have liked. I am enjoying how they are slowly laying more pieces to the Arthurian puzzle into place. I hope this will tide me over until we get series 4.

The Cape
Premieres: 1/9/11 @ 9pm (NBC)

So back when NBC was originally promoting this show, I wasn't sure it would be any good. The premise seemed a little hokey. But then I heard Summer Glau was involved and I realized I had to at least check it out. It turns out that her role is going to be very big in this show as she's the main character's side-kick of sorts. Plus she gets to be badass and beat people up. River Tam anyone? Then NBC started putting out the promos for the show and it looks really good. Not your typical superhero with no actual superpowers show. It looks dark and gritty and awesome. I may end up blogging it for More TV Please!. If that happens, I will cross-post all the recaps I do for anyone interested in reading.

White Collar
Returns: 1/18/11 @ 10pm (USA)

Okay, so technically right now White Collar isn't a returning show. It's just finishing up its summer 2010 season with 4 final episodes. But they are going to be great episodes. We find out who shot Mozzie (and why) plus who killed Kate. And the damn music box fiasco supposedly gets resolved. I just love Matt Bomer and his chemistry with Tim DeKay is just fantastic. It's a fun twist on the con show that I don't necessarily get with Leverage. So, it will be a welcome addition for a short while to my Tuesday line-up.

Fairly Legal
Premieres: 1/20/11 @ 10pm (USA)

I wasn't originally going to check this new USA legal dramedy out but then Is aw the promos and realized the lead was played by the lovely Sarah Shahi. I first discovered her on the NBC series "Life" where she played a recovering alcoholic detective partnered with a cop who had spent time in prison for being falsely convicted of murder. Then I saw her on "The L Word" which was a completely different role for her. A fun role but different. Now she's playing a lawyer who leaves the legal field in one sense and joins up in another. Fed up with the system she becomes a mediator. Having taken ADR this past semester, I want to see if they actually employ any of the mediation techniques we learned about in class. USA shows are usually pretty good at keeping things real to life but you never know. I did see a clip where a judge sent two parties to mediation and said something along the lines of "this is alternative dispute resolution, also known as mediation". It kind of irked me because generally the "aka" of alternative dispute resolution is ADR. But that could be me just getting nitpicky. We'll see how it fairs.

Body of Proof
Premieres: 3/29/11 @ 10pm (ABC)

I have been talking about this show for ages. And ABC has finally given a release date. So come the end of March, I will be blogging it each week. I will of course post the recaps when I send them over to More TV Please! for Jen to post. I can’t wait to have Jeri Ryan back on my screen every week. I’m rather indifferent to Dana Delaney, though I find her character’s back story interesting (at least what I’ve read of it). I hope the show works out. It’s a different twist on the forensic/crime drama shows out there. Plus, there’s Jeri Ryan. Did I already mention that? I can’t help it!

Doctor Who
Returns: March 2011 (BBC America)

If anyone remembers the blog post I did ages ago for More TV Please comparing the 9th, 10th and 11th Doctors, you know I’m not much of a fan of Matt Smith’s Doctor. Even after series 5, I’m still not thrilled with him. I find his portrayal to be immature and childish. I like my Doctor dark and angsty. But considering Stephen Moffat is now at the helm, I doubt if we’ll see the Doctor go dark any time soon. But there are good things to come in series 6. We get more River Song and some new bad guys. I even enjoyed the Christmas special this year (not as much as The Christmas Invasion but yeah…nothing beats David Tennant’s entrance). I will give series 6 a go and hope for the best.

Torchwood
Returns: Summer 2011 (Starz)

I am a diehard Jack/Ianto fan and am still slightly pissed with Russell T. Davies for killing Ianto. I still can’t watch Children of Earth. Thinking about it makes me sad and cry. I refuse to believe Jack’s encounter with Midshipman Frame (End of Time Part 2) was anything more than a one-night stand. And given that Jack’s rebound relationship once he returns to planet Earth is supposed to be a one-night stand, it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I’m disappointed that Jack has to have flings to get over Ianto. But I do want Jack and Gwen back on my TV screens o I will tolerate it. I want to know what gets Jack to come back to Earth and what kinds of mischief they get up to now.

Being Human
Returns sometime in 2011 (BBC America)

If you’ve been watching SyFy the last few weeks you’ve likely seen their ads for the US remake of Being Human. I urge you to purge those from your memory. Why mess with the original when its coming back to the US airwaves? Plus the SyFy version looks horribly stupid and lame. Though, funny point that they renamed the vampire from Mitchell to Aidan. Funny because Mitchell is played by an actor named Aidan Turner. Anyway, I’m excited for series 3 of Being Human because series 2 ended in a crazy place. Even if series 3 is the final for the series, it should be intense while George and Mitchell attempt to save Annie. Plus, they’re in Cardiff now. Who knows, maybe they’ll run into a rift in space and time? A girl can hope!

Merlin recap round up

As promised, I'm posting a list with links to all of my Merlin blog posts over on More TV, Please! I hope you enjoy them if you take a look.

Merlin 1.01 "The Dragon's Call"

Merlin 1.02 "Valiant"

Merlin 1.03 "The Mark of Nimueh"

Merlin 1.04 "The Poisoned Chalice"

Merlin 1.05 "Lancelot"

Merlin 1.06 "A Remedy to Cure All Ills"

Merlin 1.07 "The Gates of Avalon"

Merlin 1.08 "The Beginning of the End"

Merlin 1.09 "Excalibur"

Merlin 1.10 "The Moment of Truth"

Merlin 1.11 "The Labyrinth of Gedref"

Merlin 1.12 "To Kill the King"

Merlin 1.13 "Le Morte D'Arthur"

I will be back over on MTVP once ABC decides to releaes an air date for their new medical drama starring Dana Delany and Jeri Ryan, Body of Proof.

Novel round-up

So I didn't exactly get that email from my agent. We chatted on the phone a bit. We haven't had any new rejections on EUTERPE since Dial. We've just gone out to Egmont USA and will be going to Candlewick in August and likely Disney/Hyperion in September. So in all, I think we're still out with like 5 or 6 publishers. Summer is a slow time, too. Lots of people go on vacation and the houses have summer hours (often times not open or very limited hours on Fridays). We just have to keep plugging along.

I've been making some little-ish edits to PHARAOH over the last week (as my mom reads, she sends me stuff). The biggest change so far has been the MC's name. He is now Jahi, a far more traditional Egyptian name. I'll be introducing some interesting religous undertones to the manuscript in revisions as well. It's going to actually add to the subplot of Jahi and Nan's relationship.

As for MONTICELLO, I've just gutted it. Lost over half of the word count but it's what was required. I've saved the material in case there is some parts that I can keep. I'm sure there may be a few choice bits of dialog that can be reused. I'm aiming for 13,000 words by the 31st which I'm fairly confident I can accomplish.

I've blogged the first five episodes of Merlin and through episode 4 has been posted over on More TV, Please. I swear once they're all up I'll throw up a post over here with a list of each recap. For now, I have to go do some beta-ing.

A brief update on state of affairs

Hey everyone. This is going to be a short post this week. I wanted to report that PHARAOH'S LINK is now being shipped off to readers before I do another edit and send it to my agent. Hopefully everything I've learned since last September (when I signed with my agent) will mean less revising time before submitting to publishers. I'm expecting a reply to an email from my agent in the next few days so I will probably swing by and give an update on that early next week.

I've now also done three guest blogs on More TV Please for the Summer TV Rewind series. I'll wait to post with a link to the individual entries until most of them are up. However if you go over to More TV Please, you can easily search through the July posts to find the first 2 entries.

I'm really enjoying this rewind. I hadn't watched Merlin series 1 since last summer (even before it aired on NBC). It is reminding me why I really like the show and getting me stoked for series 3 in September. And I'm eagerly waiting for series 2 to be released to region 1 DVD.

I'm That Sort of Man

Hey, everyone. Nothing really new on the writing front other than I've finally hit 20,000 words (halfway) on PHARAOH'S LINK and I'm stedily working through chapter 2 of THE MONTICELLO DIARY.

I wanted to stop by and share with you another guest post I've written for More TV Please! This time, we explore the three Modern faces of Doctor Who.

(Sometimes) Rude and (Still) not Ginger: The Three Faces of the Doctor

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. I have to say I'm so happy I decided to check out Doctor Who. Not only does it shed some serious light on Torchwood but it's just genuinely a fantastic series.

Another smattering of updates

So sorry I haven't been keeping to my weekly posts. Last week was busy with starting work and this week is busy with my boyfriend visiting.

Not a whole lot to report. Nothing new on the EUTERPE front sad to say. But that's the nature of the biz. I have set an absolute deadline for myself for finishing PHARAOH's LINK; Sunday June 20th. Even if it kills me, I'm going to stick to it!

Work has been really interesting so far. I've got several big cases I'm working on for several different investigators. I've been drafting interview questions for a 2-day onsite interview process for one case. I'm quite excited to atually go and participate in the questioning. How cool that they let us just dive in? Been doing some statistical analysis on another case. One thing I've learned fairly quickly is that even if someone seems sympathetic from reading their statement, you have to remain impartial and not take sides.

I sat in Tuesday and yesterday on a hearing for a Dept. of Agriculture case. Very fascinating to see the dynamic between the attorneys (who knew each other for quite some time) and the various witnessses. The judge is probably one of the most awesome people in the office. Got to sit in just by chatting with her at the copy machine on Monday.

As for keeping up with the blog this summer, I think I may work a little something out with Jen over at More TV, Please! about doing a TV rewind series on a show (probably a shorter show...like Merlin season 1). I've got the DVD set but haven't rewatched any of the episodes yet.

Well I need to head off to work...such is the life of the grown up (or summer intern).

Torchwood anybody?

Hey everyone.

As I'm in crunch time for finals, I've put writing on hold. Well, almost. I did take a little time to write up a guest blog on More TV, Please for Torchwood. You can find it at the link below.

TORCHWOOD: Why Brits Do It Better

It recaps my five favorite episodes of the series. I will be back after the 17th with hopefully some writing updates.

My Appearance on More TV, Please!

As promised, I'd give you more details on my guest blog over at More TV, Please! It came a bit earlier than expected but hey that's ok! So go on over and check out my guest blog on my top 5 returning crime dramas for the Fall TV season. You know you want to! Go on, do it!

New TV Critic Blog and some Writing Random bits

So I wanted to let you know about this awesome new blog I had the great fortune to run across (ok so the blogger is a close personal friend of mine). For those who love TV (and I mean really, who doesn't) you MUST go check out More TV, Please. In the coming weeks, I'll be posting a guest blog on MTVP so keep an eye out for that. I'll let you know when I have more exact details.

In writing news, I thought I'd let you know how the process of finding an agent for my middle grade urban fantasy Euterpe's Song is going. Thus far I have sent out 19 queries to agents, with three requesting to see materials. Six agents have declined to consider my work. Ten queries are still pending. I have 8 agents left on my list that I have not contacted yet. So far it has been a very interesting and pretty painless process (knock on wood).

I really feel strongly about this project, and not just because I wrote it...because obviously that should be the case with anything we write. I love this novel because of the story it tells. There isn't a lot of fiction out that that deals with Greek mythology, let alone in a modern setting that younger readers can relate to. It is my hope that with Euterpe's Song, I can bring a little of that history to the forefront and make it intriguing again.