Nothing like a little action to keep you sane

As you all might know, I've had a busy year. I've finished a masters degree, written a book, and got a new day job all in a matter of three months. Its been crazy. I barely had enough time to eat and yet still managed to gain seven pounds (but that's a whole other blog for another time).

After the last paper was turned in, after the last of the copy edits was emailed, my life came to a grinding halt. There wasn't a deadline. My time was my own.

And that's when the crazy set it. See, there was no reason to keep going, and as much as a life on the couch with a free subscription to Netflix sounds good, you can only watch Sherlock  so many times before you start to go a bit mad.


Some people might say I can't relax, can't just be still. Some people might have also said that I should take up a relaxing hobby that has nothing to do with shooting guns or calculating a lion's bite force.

I like to think that I grow restless easily because I am the heroine of my own story. I've just completed a pretty intense journey and am settling back into my ordinary world, which I'm finding was not as fun as when I was plotting demon demises. And yes, that's what I call fun.

Most good stories start out with a character who needs adventure, whether they want to admit it or not. Granted, thanks to the new day job, I can't actually jump on a pirate ship and sail off for foreign lands, I can at least read about it.

And as I fill my ereader with sample chapters from every genre, I'm gearing up for my next adventure- reading, another activity that I haven't been able to do for two years. We all know that if there is no action in a book, it gets boring. This is more than just our need for swash-buckling and espionage. If there is no action, there is no opportunity for growth, for the characters and for us. The mistakes that we learn from do not have to be our own. There is no shame in living vicariously through a character on a page. I did not need to experience Bridget Jones' embarrassment to learn a lesson.

I'm looking for my next lesson in life, and if I have to learn that on an airship with a corset and a crossbow, so be it. I'm ready.

So, my dear adventurers, I offer you a chance to learn through another's mistakes. Tell me about a lesson you learned from a book and I'll send a random commenter a copy of Diaries of an Urban Panther so you too can learn the struggles of a single girl in the big city without all the messy shapeshifting stuff getting in the way of your real life.

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Amanda Arista
Author of Diaries of an Urban Panther, Claws and Effect, Nine Lives of an Urban Panther (out Aug 21st ).
www.amandaarista.com

These Blazing Days of Summer.

At least, here in Michigan, it's blazing! And what better thing to do in the heat than to read a good book by the water...or in the water.

It's a little harder to read in the water with an e-reader, but I put mine in a Ziploc bag and voila! I can read anywhere, even on the boat.

When I read in the summertime, I go through phases. I start by reading good summertime romances--ones with hot nights and scenes by the campfire or under the moon and stars. Then I get so disgruntled by the heat that I move on to wintry stories--Christmas ones in particular. I figure maybe it'll cool me off if I'm reading about blizzards, etc.

Then at that point, I move on to my comfort reads because I realize that summer's nearly over and I haven't read as many books/relaxed as much as I'd wanted to, and I'd better get working on the relaxing part.

Sometimes I go back and read my old standbys from when I was a child--the Little House on the Prairie books, The Three Investigators, even an old YA romance by Phyllis A. Whitney called Step to the Music. Maybe it's the element of summer that makes me want to revisit old childhood reads.

What about you? Do you have a rhythm or a rhyme or reason for your summer reading? Do you find you actually get any summer reading done, or is it filled with schlepping kids, outdoor activities, and vacations?