Stuck on Repeat

November 9, 2022November 7, 2022 ~ shawnaborman ~ 20 Comments

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this Wednesday? Things here are about the same as usual. It’s time for all of those yearly meetings, so people know we’re still alive and I’m still cripple and poor (the government has to check, I guess). But half of those are still virtual, so that’s good. Anyway, if you read last week’s post, you know I’m doing one of those pick a number things. This week’s pick is courtesy of the beautiful Roxie with number 7! I’ve done 13 (you can find the prompt list there). And 2, 8, 3, 10, 6, 14, 11, and 1 have all been claimed. Feel free to pick one of the remaining numbers. But let’s get back on topic. The prompt is “Tell me which book you’ve re-read the most times.” That’s a hard one…

The thing is, I don’t re-read things very often. I don’t have comfort books that I keep returning to time and again. When I do re-read something, it’s usually for a reason. Like, if it’s a series and a new book is coming out after a couple of years. But even then, I’ll try reading the new book first and seeing what I remember. If I can’t remember certain things, Google is my friend. If I remember little to nothing, then I will read the other books again. Don’t get me wrong. I have a huge list of books I want to re-read, but there are just so many new books and books that are new to me. There’s not enough time.

I’ve read the Harry Potter books three times all the way through and Lord of the Rings twice that I remember. I believe I read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon three times as well. But I’m a super slow reader (I get through 35 books a year if I push it), so if I do read things repeatedly, it’s usually short stories or poems. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve read “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Gilman) or “A Rose for Emily” (Faulkner). My favorite poetry collections are Cruelty by Ai (which I’ve read at least five times) and The Wild Iris by Louise Glück (also read four or five times). And I won’t list the individual poems I go back to all the time.

Now, if you count manga and the like, I’ve re-read way too much stuff. I go back to Kaori Yuki’s stuff more than I should probably say. Angel Sanctuary and Boy’s Next Door are my favorites. They’re disturbing and entirely fucked up, but I love them. BND was the first story I read that told you from the very beginning what the ending was and still managed to make me an emotional wreck by the time we got to the end. No, I don’t recommend it to everyone because of all of the content warnings it should have, but if you’re already a dark, twisted soul… go find it. Same with Angel Sanctuary, but for very different content warnings. I could also list some more normal things like Sailor Moon and Fullmetal Alchemist, but it probably won’t help you think better of me at this point. I like weird stuff. This is why I don’t include manga and manhwa on my GoodReads profile very often.

There you go. The stuff I re-read. It’s usually weird or would freak people out. Sorry, not sorry. What about you? Do you re-read soft and cuddly comfort books? Or do you prefer re-reading things that rip your heart out and wreak havoc on your soul? Or something in between? As always, feel free to leave your comments or questions here or on my social media pages!

10 Books/Series

October 12, 2022October 11, 2022 ~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this delightful Wednesday? Things here have been weirdly social lately. The Minion and various members of his family have come over a few times to help Dad with stuff. Another family friend is due to drop by tomorrow. And our neighbors have been weirdly neighborly. So that’s been interesting. Anyway, I can’t think of anything to ramble about and Facebook memories have recently reminded me of that trend of listing 10 books that have stuck with you that went around a few years ago. I thought I had done a post like that on here, but I can’t find it (though I didn’t look that hard), so I’m just going to list 10 books/series that have stuck with me. No explanations. Just books.

1. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King.

2. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

3. Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki.

4. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

5. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.

6. Ransom by Lois Duncan. The original version, not the crappy modernized version where they completely ruin the plot with mentions of cell phones and email.

7. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.

8. The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss.

9. Cruelty by Ai.

10. The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck.

What books have stuck with you? As always, feel free to share your thoughts or questions here or on my social media pages!

Top 5 Anime Sorted By Favorite Characters

February 3, 2021February 2, 2021 ~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing now that we’ve entered the second month of the year? I’m doing okay. In one of those hurry up and wait situations, so that’s always fun. But otherwise, things are normal here. Except, I somehow ended up with books to review every week this month after today. I don’t know how it happened, but it makes my blogging life so much easier. Don’t worry. I’d never be able to keep up with a book a week, so that’s not going to happen. I’ll be reverting back to having no clue what to ramble about come March. But today, I’m taking a topic idea from my friend Jenae. She wanted me to list some of my favorite anime/manga by hottest character. I’m just going to call them favorite characters though, because many are under age and if people realize that, I don’t need them thinking I’m creepy. So, here are my top 5 anime (in no particular order) by favorite characters.

1. Angel Sanctuary (Kira Sakuya, Lucifer, Rosiel). So, it’s hard to pick just one character, especially when you love angsty and/or psycho males. This series is chockfull of them. And I know it’s more of a manga, but they did release a three episode OVA, so it counts as anime too. What with the corrupt angels, incestuous love story, and cross-dressing demons, it’s definitely not for everyone, but I love it. It’s one of my favorite end-of-the-world stories.

2. Yuri on Ice (Victor, Yurio). This anime is adorable and fluffy and I’d give it all the cuddles if it were a plushie. Victor is a flaky idiot who seems to do things on a whim. Yurio’s random violent outbursts are hilarious. Plus the animation is lovely. Who doesn’t want to watch something about the lives of figure skaters? It’s just a super fun show with lots of lovable characters. Judge me all you want.

3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Ed, Winry, Hawkeye). Don’t get me wrong, either version of FMA is great and worth watching. I just prefer Brotherhood because it follows the manga and I feel like that’s a better story line. But I adore both the original and the remake. Ed’s hilarious and Winry and Hawkeye are a couple of my favorite female characters in general. If you haven’t watched either version, pick one and watch it! Then watch the other one.

4. Sailor Moon (Saturn, Prince Demande). Unless you’re new to stalking me, this one should be no surprise. It was my introduction to anime, so it will always be a favorite. Saturn is my girl because she’s sickly, but can destroy worlds. And Prince Demande was one of my first favorite psychopaths. Actually, this shows explains a lot about my weirdness. It’s the best.

5. Attack on Titan (Levi, Mikasa). I struggled choosing between this one and a few others, but decided I should include something that’s still on. It’s a bit confusing and I will probably rewatch it all once this season is over just to put together anything I miss/don’t understand. But it’s gory fun and we all know how much I like that. As far as the characters go, I think we’ve established that I have a type. We’ll see if this one stays on the list when it’s over, but I’m enjoying it for now. Also, I’m watching the dub with Dad, so no spoilers from anyone watching the sub or reading the manga.

There you have it. Some of my favorite anime sorted by favorite characters. You can blame Jen for this post. What are some of your favorite anime and which characters do you love? As always, feel free to share your thoughts or comments here or on my social media pages!

Slacking Off…

May 20, 2020May 19, 2020 ~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! I have nothing to ramble about this week and I just can’t find the motivation to force something. Since my last post, I’ve prepared everything I need to start my agent hunt (query letter, a full synopsis, a partial synopsis, and one last round of quick edits). All I need to do to get ready for PitDark is write a couple of Twitter pitches and schedule the posts for Thursday (which I will be doing today). Otherwise, life is the same. Nothing exciting is going on, so I’m going to slack off on today’s post. A friend tagged me on Facebook to post the covers of ten books I love (one book a day with no explanation) to ward off the Covid-19 quarantine boredom with something positive. Or something like that. Anyway, I’ve already forgotten to post for two days, so I figured I’d just post them all here.

So, here are the covers of ten books I love in no particular order.

There you go. Ten books that I love for whatever reasons. I tried to include some I haven’t mentioned before, but a bunch of the ones you know about snuck in anyway. As usual, feel free to comment or post your own lists here or on my social media pages!

Revision Prep: The Initial Read-Through

July 10, 2018July 10, 2018 ~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! I recently started the initial read-through of LR (code name for novel attempt 2, draft 1) in preparation for beginning the editing process. Yes, I know I should’ve done that a couple of months ago, but I didn’t. So, here we are. This is the part of revision where I haven’t looked at the story in a while (about six months for this one), so I’m reading it mostly in reader mode. I have to remind myself that this is not the time for my inner editor to nag at every little thing, it’s time to just enjoy the story and see how it goes. However, there are things I keep on the look out for in the back of my mind while I’m reading. That’s what I want to ramble about today: the five things I look for during this read-through.

The sooner I acknowledge it’s shitty, the easier it is to tune out my inner editor until I need her.

1. Gut reactions. What makes me laugh? What makes me want to cry? What do I glance over? I’m looking to see what parts of the story elicit emotional reactions and which parts are blah. I want to keep the former (if possible) and tweak or get rid of the latter. Also, I want to know if I still enjoy the story as much as I did when I wrote it. I’m only like six chapters into LR as a reader, but I’m actually super surprised at how much I love it. Yeah, it’s a shitty first draft, but the characters and story still really amuse me. It makes me think I’m doing something wrong, because I feel like I’m supposed to hate it at this point.

2. Continuity errors. Have I randomly changed someone’s name? Did I move an entire building somewhere else halfway through? Was someone right handed and suddenly they’re left handed? Stupid things like that. Some are glaringly obvious while others will only be noticed by a really close reading. I already know my main character randomly goes from fourteen to seventeen (because fourteen was too creepily young for this particular story). One of my “bad guys” changes her race halfway through because I originally couldn’t decide what group of shifters she belonged to, but then decided on one that was completely different from how I imagined her in the beginning. And of course there are a bunch of little things as well.

plot-holes-plot-holes-everywhere — I feel like I’ve used this before, but it’s appropriate.

3. Plot holes. Have I left any threads undone? Did I randomly start something in the middle with no lead up to it? Is what the character’s doing feasible in the world I created? Is it something they actually would do? These are definitely things I have to make notes about so I can fix them or change them or remove them entirely. There’s this thing with a fox in the first chapter of LR and by chapter two, it’s been completely forgotten. I have no idea where that was going, but if I don’t figure it out by the end of this read-through, I either need to cut it or make something up. These are important changes for me to consider as I read.

4. Useless characters. Do I have any characters who are just there to do one thing and then they disappear? Can someone more pertinent to the story do the thing? Could that character become someone important? I know most books have at least a couple of superfluous characters, but I like to weed them out if I can. In LR, there’s the principal’s secretary whose sole job seems to be giving my main character his late slips for class. I’m debating whether or not to combine her with another character or just giving her a bigger role in the next book. Then again, I might keep her as she is because that’s life. Someone has to pass out the tardy slips.

Lucifer1 — Went looking for typo demon pictures and got distracted by manga demons. It’s Lucifer from Kaori Yuki’s *Angel Sanctuary*.

5. Blatant typos and grammatical errors. These aren’t things I actually look for in this read-through, but if they pop out at me, I either make a note or fix them. I try to save this stuff for later read-throughs, though.

What about you? Do you have anything you look for when you’re getting reacquainted with stories you want to revise? Feel free to share your thoughts and comments here or on my social media pages!

Ten Books (Or Series) That Have Stuck With Me

October 26, 2016October 25, 2016 ~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! I haven’t been feeling 100% the last couple of days, so I thought I would make today’s post short and simple. We all have books or movies or songs or works of art or whatever that stick with us. You know the ones. Those things that we randomly think of even though we haven’t seen or thought of them in years. The things that pop up in our lives at the most unexpected of moments. They helped shape who we are today, for better or worse. That’s what I’m going to talk about today. Namely, the books or series that have stuck with me.

d6de63e8a6f4d617ee170e163589916a — It’s kind of like that.

1. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. It was the first book I remember reading that I didn’t actually have to read. Pretty much everything by King sticks with me, though.

2. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I don’t think there’s anyone around my age who wasn’t at least exposed to Harry Potter. It’s one of those series that keeps surprising you, even after you’ve read it for the third time.

3. Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki. I know it’s a manga (Japanese graphic novel) series, but it taught me so much growing up. I learned that, sometimes, the cruelest of demons comes packaged as an angel, and vice versa.

4. A Separate Peace by John Knowles. I honestly don’t even remember liking this book, but I find myself thinking about it quite often. It’s one of those books that I’m afraid to read again, in case it ruins the nostalgia.

5. The Seance by Joan Lowery Nixon. This is another of those books that I haven’t read since I was small (it was my first “pick your own book” book report in elementary school). It was my first foray into the whole spooky mystery thing.

6. Ransom by Lois Duncan. Again, this was something I read in elementary school. It was the first book I remember reading that had a disabled kid. He wasn’t in a wheelchair or anything, but he was different from everyone else and it was strange to see someone else deal with that kind of stuff.

7. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I fell in love with Gaiman’s writing because of this book. It will always hold a special place in my heart, even if some of his other stuff was less than impressive.

51io310opcl__sx307_bo1204203200_ — I should read it again.

8. Anne of Green Gables and most of the other Anne Shirley books by L.M. Montgomery. Yes, I went through a stage where reading about the everyday antics of Anne entertained me. I still think of her fondly every once in a while.

9. His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. This is another series that forced me to ask questions. It makes me think. I come back to it a lot when I’m thinking of religion and all that.

10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t been exposed to this title thanks to the movies, but that’s not how I know it. For me, it will always be that short, fun read that opened up the fantasy door.

What about you? What are some of the books that have stayed with you over the years? Feel free to list them here or on my social media accounts.

My Heroes (Part Two)

July 22, 2015July 21, 2015 ~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Konnichiwa (Ohayou? Konbanwa?)! I suppose it all depends on when you’re reading this. Anyway, I’ve decided to continue with my hero chat. You can see the previous installment here if you missed it. This week, I’ll be focusing more on my anime and manga heroes and heroines. Like I said before, most of my favorite female role models came from anime and manga, so I suppose this should be called “My Heroines” instead. Ah well. Too late now.

AlltheSailors4 — Who’s your favorite Sailor Scout?

First up (of course) is Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. Now, my first experience with this show was the horrible dub where they tried change all the things they thought our little brains couldn’t handle (remember when Neptune and Uranus were “cousins?”), but I still fell in love with it. Imagine my delight a few years later when I was first exposed to its pure awesomeness in fansubs, when everything actually started making sense!

Much like with X-Men, I never really had a reason for liking the show beyond the fact that I adored all of the characters and had a huge crush on Prince Demando (Diamond if you prefer). My favorite Scouts were Mercury (super smart and kind of a loner) and Saturn (a sickly girl with the power to destroy the world). Nowadays, I could argue that it was my first experience where an eclectic group of girls kicked monster ass (yeah, Tuxedo Kamen helped, but the girls did the hard part) while working through personal issues and differences. It’s something that I quickly found out wasn’t an unusual thing in the magical girl genre.

Sakura&Gaurdians3 — Sakura is another favorite.

Just look at Cardcaptor Sakura. I admit my love for this show wasn’t solidified until after I read the manga and saw a fansub. The dub tried to give Li a bigger role to appeal to a male audience, plus they tried (and failed miserably) to gloss over the shounen-ai (boy love) aspects of the story. Aside from that, I always liked that Sakura was a major klutz who tried her best at everything she did. Yeah, she got discouraged, but she worked through it. That’s what the whole magical girl thing always seemed to be about and it was something I needed to be exposed to when I was a kid.

As I grew older, I moved away from things like Sailor Moon and Digimon and the like to things like Fullmetal Alchemist (still my favorite dub to this day!) and Neon Genesis Evangelion and Trigun. All of which are favorites in some way or another, but I think my last mention will be Angel Sanctuary. That manga is all kinds of screwed up, which is why I love it. Some of my favorite characters are Alexiel (an angel who is punished for taking actions against the other angels who are slaughtering demons for the fun of it), Kira Sakuya (I can’t tell you much about him unless you like spoilers, but he is greatness), and Kurai (one of the demons Alexiel saved). It’s all about angels who are worse than devils and demons who just want to survive and a bunch of other deeply disturbing things.

I suppose my real attraction to the heroes and heroines of Angel Sanctuary (you can decide which characters you consider heroic for yourself) is because of the fact that they’re all deeply flawed. Whether they’re humans or angels or demons, they are seriously screwed up and they all (even the bad ones) believe what they’re doing is in the best interest of some group of beings.

I mean, yeah, I love a lot of the obvious “heroes,” but sometimes it’s good to see a hero who falls on a spectrum of good to evil, rather than fitting into a specific mold. What about you? Do you like your heroes clear cut or more of a mix?

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