So, it's the end of the first month of the new year and what have I accomplished? Cue me ranting about my own writing. Feel free to skip below where I tell you what I've been READING. That's the fun stuff.

New writing. Two new books to work on. That's exciting! About 35K written between the two, and I'm enjoying playing with new characters. Love laconic Max, love sociopathic Black Ned, love determined Cachita. And of course, I love letting Sylvie loose to wreak more havoc.

Old writing: Revising the Beasts. STILL. Technically, I started revising this book LAST SUMMER, but you know what? The Beasts book is a Beast. A mean, slavering, mis-shapen hairy monster that refuses to be prettified. I will beat it down, but it's going to be ugly. There will be scars. Thing is, underneath it all, I really love this book. So it may be best served by me setting it aside for a time when I can dedicate all my attention to battling with it. If the two newer books go smoothly, maybe I can dedicate a summer month to it. I'm planning on attending the CSSF writer's retreat and that seems like a perfect time to work through a difficult project.

Plan for next month? More of the same. Sylvie and Max. Moving them forward.

January Reading: My TBR shelf is so out of control I have locked down the book buying. This makes me sad. There are new books out that I want NOW NOW NOW. (Laura Resnick's Doppelgangster for one.) But the books have spilled off the TBR shelf and moved onto the dining room table and that's just bad for everyone.
So this month, I focused on reading Urban Fantasy, a little more ruthlessly than I would normally. I had three DNF books that I gave up on and four that I got through.

Deadtown by Nancy Holzner. Fun to read, with a bratty zombie sidekick. Can she really be considered a sidekick when she hampers more than she helps? I enjoyed it overall, though I had some plot questions when I was done.

Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews. This has been sitting on my shelf forever! And I don't know why. It was a great read. I liked the first book in the series, with some reservations, but this one was a pure pleasure.

Thicker than Water by Mike Carey. Mmmm. One of my favorite series going at the moment, and this book's a game changer. Loved it.

Skin Deep by Mark del Franco. Another one that's been sitting on my shelf for a while for some unaccountable reason. A spin-off from his Connor Grey series with a main character I really liked, no matter what name she used.

Slipped out of the urban fantasy to read the three Criminal Minds novelizations. (Don't judge me! I was having show withdrawal!) Variable in style and strength, but ultimately they gave me what I wanted: let me feel like I'd watched an episode (or three).

I'm still working my way through The Criminal History of Mankind. It's interesting, but I keep making angry notes in the margins where the science--especially the zoology--is just not right. Fascinating anyway.

I've still got three more urban fantasies to read, but they'll have to wait. Next month's reading is going to be SF, which is stacking up pretty fast in the TBR pile.