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Top Ten Ways to Tell if a Story was Written by nightwalker

10) It will start off as a short one-shot based on a missing scene or an interesting piece of character interaction, and almost immediately turn into a multi-chapter epic involving death, mayhem and possibly the End of the World As We Know It.

9) Kuwabara will be involved.

8) Someone will die. Probably Kuwabara.

7) There will either be no subplots or there will be several subplots.

6) Characters that don't have to work for their victories are boring. Thus, my characters tend to find themselves grossly overwhelmed.

5) The society involved will usually be a dystopia of freakish proportions.

4) The female main characters actually do something. And falling in love with the main male character does not count.

3) There will be an overabundance of dialogue which I will desperately try to keep under control.

2) Original stories will feature politics, corruption and warfare, because that's the best part.

1) Happy endings are never guaranteed.

In other news, I spent yesterday rereading The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, which is one of my favorite children's books. There are two sequels, which I only recently discovered. I spent most of yesterday reading those as well. The second one is fantastic - dark, suspenseful. Lots of politics, and the beginning just about killed me. The third one is less intense than the previous two, less of a journey, more static, but still enjoyable. Very good YA books if anyone would like a quick read.

Speaking of Children's books, I read Avalon High by Meg Cabot over Christmas break. Believe it or not it was pretty good. I've read several of her other books, back when I was a lead in the Kid's Department, because they were so popular and I figured I should know what they were about. The Princess Diaries did not appeal to me, though the Mediator and the 1-800 series weren't bad. Unfortunately every single one of her main characters is basically the same girl with a different name, but I guess it's made her rich. Anyway, Avalon High wasn't half bad. I liked the idea, and even though it was blatantly obvious where she was going with it from the first page, there were one or two things she managed to surprise me on.

I still haven't read Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin yet, because I've been planning on waiting for my vacation. (Next weekend!) In the meantime I've been rereading the earlier books, but I keep getting distracted by other things. I'm only about halfway through A Game of Thrones, but I'm already finding little things I'd forgotten about.

sidara desperately needs to read The Dresden Files.

And now I am going to stop babbling about books. at least for the moment.