Baby, it's hot outside!

In my neck of the woods, it's starting to get a little warm; about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  For the first time in about a year or so, we turned on our A/C.  While I do live 30 minutes away from San Diego, CA and its wonderful weather, I live in the inland area where it can climb up to the triple digits in the middle of July and August.  Fortunately, I live 30 minutes from the beach and there's a pool in our complex.

The first chapter of my Jane and Edward zombie series is up.  I decided to change the premise from zombies to include monsters like banshees, liches, dragons, vampires, etc.  The first chapter isn't very good but it's a start.  Check it out here.  I will be working on Chapter 2 very soon.  I secretly hope that I can find an illustrator and turn it into a graphic novel series someday.

After I got tired of the popular smart phone app, Angry Birds, I am now hooked on the gaming app, "Words with Friends," which is basically Scrabble in app format.  If you got a phone and the app, my username is Writer4god.  Just let me know that you found me from The Shannifesto blog.

That's all for now.  I'm off to work on Chapter 2 of Jane and Edward: Zombie and Monster Hunters.  Fin.

Jane Austen: Detective.....and other stuff.

I'm now a fan of this awesome book series by author Stephanie Barron.  Basically, the series features Jane Austen as a detective!  Well, not in the Sherlock Holmes sense, but more as an amateur sleuth, per se.  I've read three books in the series and I'm currently reading a fourth Jane Austen mystery book (not in any particular order).  It's really neat to see how Jane would've acted as a detective/writer.  In the series, the reader is introduced to Jane Austen's family, namely her brother Henry and his wife, Eliza de Feuillude and her other brother Frank Austen, a naval captain.  I haven't read further into the series yet so I haven't "met" Jane's other siblings.  Jane's own mother seems to be similar to that of Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth Bennet's mother in Pride and Prejudice.  If you loved Jane Austen's books, I highly recommend this mystery/detective series.  Right now, I'm reading Jane and the Ghosts of Netley.  After I'm finished, I will move from Regency to Victorian literature with Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.

I'm still thinking about my ideas for my own Victorian era novel.  I still haven't drafted an outline just yet.  I usually like to write a short story version of the novel first and then compose an outline from that.  I'm excited and nervous at the same time.  I may not be on the New York Times bestseller list but it doesn't hurt to dream.

On an unrelated note, I started to gain some of the weight that I had lost years ago.  So, I've been exercising again and changing my habits...again.  It's frustrating but I think I might consider getting help from a nutritionist or dietician.  If I have a strict, structured diet, I can stick with it and lose more weight.  After church, I spent my afternoon going on a 5 mile walk.  At the four mile mark, I contemplated going seven or eight more miles but at the five mile mark, I was tired and I didn't want to push myself.

Tomorrow, I may go for a bike ride along the boardwalk of Mission Beach to Pacific Beach and back.  It's a lot quicker than simply walking from MB to PB and back and a lot more fun.

Fin.