Dresden Files, Kindel, and Lighting my Fire

I'm not a reviewer and I don't intend on turning this blog into just another opinion column on books, writing, or anything else for that fact. I don't mind recommending what I thought was a good read, though. Over the weekend I finished Jim Butcher's first Dresden File novel, Storm Front. As a writer of hard-boiled mystery I appreciated his treatment of the genre and his portrayal of the magical world of his protagonist, Harry Dresden, had the right mix of comedy and tragedy for my tastes. I'd recommend it to anyone who's in the mood for mixing mystery with magic.

I also have to say my first experience with the Amazon Kindle turned out to be positive. The device is easy to use, readable, and not too focused on its own tech to be user friendly. I'm using a Kindle I, so I don't have any idea what version II has improved – I hope it adds a backlight for those of us who read in bed.

Reading Butcher's work has put me in the mood to brush the dust off my own keyboard and get back to work. I've given my writing enough of a rest, I guess, and as I said last week: writers write, always. Ideas have been plunking around inside my head and its time to let them flow out through my fingers – that's the only way to shut the characters up, in the end. Let them voice their opinions, prejudices, and foibles on the page so that they'll quiet down inside my head. So it begins.