In Which I Have Rants and an Internet Connection

Yay! My always wonky internet connection is temporarily up! (Never get DSL. I say this as someone who spent years on the front lines of tech support. Cable is the best choice for high speed from a reliability stand point, IMHO. Sadly, we live in a black hole and can't get cable here, so we have DSL.)

And now for my rant. There are a few things I hate with the intensity of a blinding sun.
1. Characters that describe themselves to themselves, especially while looking in a mirror. I hate it, and who does that in real life? No one!
2. A story where if the main characters talked to each for 30 seconds, most (if not all) of the plot problems would be resolved. Argh! This is not a plot point, this is lazy writing!
3. Careless attention to details.

Ok, maybe I don't hate that last one as much as the other two. I think I've ranted about the first one before, but I read a couple of books recently that violated at least two of my pet peeves. In keeping with my policy of not giving negative reviews, I won't mention the titles of the books or the names of the authors, but gack!

One I couldn't finish. I mean seriously, if you have X, and it's a Very Bad Thing, and you know that someone can help you, but you're "too proud" to ask for help, even though you know it means the destruction of everyone and everything you care about, how is that a workable plot point? If it lasts for more than 30 seconds, it just isn't believable to me.

This same book also had a problem with detail continuity. In one scene she put on an article of clothing, and later in that same scene, she had a problem caused by not wearing that article of clothing. Now, I can totally see how a writer, in the midst of rewrites and editing, can miss that. You are sure you've written it. You can see it in your head. You made changes and that one scene got missed. (Gods, I understand all too well how that can happen.) But where was the support team? Asleep, I think.

In better reviews, I read and enjoyed Paranormalcy very much. Just for the record, if kids are hiding Bad Things from adults because they're afraid of the adults' reactions, that makes sense and is a workable plot point for me.

I also reread The Enchantment Emporium and enjoyed just as much this time as I have the times before. I was also very happy to learn that there is a sequel coming out "soon".