Divergent by Veronica Roth – What was I saying about dystopias? I don’t mind present tense in short stories, but a whole novel? Ugh! 3/5 stars
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare – Some giggles, but it starts to turn into a soap opera and still no Jace. :P 3/5 stars
The Fiction Writer by Nina Munteanu – I found some good advices in it. Still, I wasn’t so keen on the format of the book, it reads more like a doctorate dissertation. 3/5 stars
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino – I love Calvino’s works, so glad I got my hands on this one. 4/5 stars
An Expensive Education by Nick McDonell – I didn’t bother to finish it. *shrug* 2/5 stars
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Dima Bilan - Blind Love
or Ian Somerhalder in a tux, with a mask, and being a total bad ass = perfect holiday fantasy. :)
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
P.S. Yes, there are no presents under the tree. We'll bring them out tonight just before opening them, otherwise they wouldn't stand a chance. :))
And a bonus pic:
And a bonus pic:
Friday, December 23, 2011
2011 Recap
I don’t make New Year's resolutions. Ever. They’re just bound to make you feel like a failure at the end of the next year. Life is unpredictable, you can’t control it. So why bother?
I will, however, list some of the highlights of this past year:
16 short stories written + one longer text
11 stories published (9 on-line, 2 in print)
On-line stories:
• "Camouflage” – one of my favorite stories and very easy to write
• "Navigating Through Fog” – another easy and fun write
• "Colors and Shades” – inspired by the recent trip to Prague
• "Unhinged Reality” - my first sell for the English market. *beams proudly*
• "Hearts of Stone” – an oldie, started two years before being finished and then put on hold.
• "Chasing a Ray of Sunshine” – developed from a two lines story idea.
• "Meet You at the End of the Road” – another oldie from the same time period.
• "Giants” – written while I was working on “Miss Vu’s Morning Ride”.
• "Rustle of Angels” – this story was exactly one year old by the time it was published.
Participation to two printed anthologies:
"Miss Vu’s Morning Ride” in “Steampunk: The Second Revolution”,
editor Adrian Craciun, Millennium Books, March, 2011
"The Truth in Their Sights” in “Venus – Erotic Science Fiction Stories”,
compiler Antuza Genescu, Eagle House Publishing, December, 2011
Fancy cover arts as bonus.
Participation to upcoming anthologies edited by owners of Scifientland and Moshulsf blogs that will appear next year.
For those who keep asking me, yes, I did submit a text for the zombie anthology, but I never heard back from them and it’s been half a year so… *shrug*
Finished the first draft of a fantasy novel, the first book of a trilogy actually. No specific plans for it, but I do know that I will finish it. My fingers are itching to start on the sequel. *grins*
70 books read. I don’t know if that’s little or much, but it’s a nice round number and more than half were worth reading so no regrets there.
Finally had bookshelves built for the above mentioned books. They’re full already, but at least there are no more piles of books laying on the floor anymore. Wondering how long things will stay like this.
Bought Kindle to save on books and bookshelves. If I had waited three more months, I would have gotten it considerably cheaper, but let’s not dwell on that, shall we? After 25 books read on it, I declare myself happy with my purchase, even if the search function could be better.
Three new web sites designed and put online, moving away a little from the skating area, but still sticking with the arts and sport, like painting, sculpture and golf. Working on a personal web site, nearly done, only one important part still missing so it should be ready soon. :)
One wonderful week spent in Prague this summer. The weather was on our side, mostly. Always important!
Huge Mucha poster bought while being there and after two months I managed to have it framed and hung. Hopefully, it will last longer than the cacti bought in Amsterdam two years ago.
Update on the cacti: out of six only four survived, two of which as regular cacti while the other two are still of the mutant type. We tried grafting and it didn’t work. I think I started writing a story about it once, it might be time to finish it.
New flower pots rack. Number of flower pots surrounding my desk still too big.
Five new small trees on the terrace, including two birch trees so far still alive.
The cat surviving a stroke after getting into a fight with a stray male cat. Who needs a dog? :P
Living room furniture changed, currently shuffled around to make room for the Christmas tree.
Big beautiful Christmas tree decorated three full days before Christmas. Victory! :)
I will, however, list some of the highlights of this past year:
16 short stories written + one longer text
11 stories published (9 on-line, 2 in print)
On-line stories:
• "Camouflage” – one of my favorite stories and very easy to write
• "Navigating Through Fog” – another easy and fun write
• "Colors and Shades” – inspired by the recent trip to Prague
• "Unhinged Reality” - my first sell for the English market. *beams proudly*
• "Hearts of Stone” – an oldie, started two years before being finished and then put on hold.
• "Chasing a Ray of Sunshine” – developed from a two lines story idea.
• "Meet You at the End of the Road” – another oldie from the same time period.
• "Giants” – written while I was working on “Miss Vu’s Morning Ride”.
• "Rustle of Angels” – this story was exactly one year old by the time it was published.
Participation to two printed anthologies:
"Miss Vu’s Morning Ride” in “Steampunk: The Second Revolution”,
editor Adrian Craciun, Millennium Books, March, 2011
"The Truth in Their Sights” in “Venus – Erotic Science Fiction Stories”,
compiler Antuza Genescu, Eagle House Publishing, December, 2011
Fancy cover arts as bonus.
Participation to upcoming anthologies edited by owners of Scifientland and Moshulsf blogs that will appear next year.
For those who keep asking me, yes, I did submit a text for the zombie anthology, but I never heard back from them and it’s been half a year so… *shrug*
Finished the first draft of a fantasy novel, the first book of a trilogy actually. No specific plans for it, but I do know that I will finish it. My fingers are itching to start on the sequel. *grins*
70 books read. I don’t know if that’s little or much, but it’s a nice round number and more than half were worth reading so no regrets there.
Finally had bookshelves built for the above mentioned books. They’re full already, but at least there are no more piles of books laying on the floor anymore. Wondering how long things will stay like this.
Bought Kindle to save on books and bookshelves. If I had waited three more months, I would have gotten it considerably cheaper, but let’s not dwell on that, shall we? After 25 books read on it, I declare myself happy with my purchase, even if the search function could be better.
Three new web sites designed and put online, moving away a little from the skating area, but still sticking with the arts and sport, like painting, sculpture and golf. Working on a personal web site, nearly done, only one important part still missing so it should be ready soon. :)
One wonderful week spent in Prague this summer. The weather was on our side, mostly. Always important!
Huge Mucha poster bought while being there and after two months I managed to have it framed and hung. Hopefully, it will last longer than the cacti bought in Amsterdam two years ago.
Update on the cacti: out of six only four survived, two of which as regular cacti while the other two are still of the mutant type. We tried grafting and it didn’t work. I think I started writing a story about it once, it might be time to finish it.
New flower pots rack. Number of flower pots surrounding my desk still too big.
Five new small trees on the terrace, including two birch trees so far still alive.
The cat surviving a stroke after getting into a fight with a stray male cat. Who needs a dog? :P
Living room furniture changed, currently shuffled around to make room for the Christmas tree.
Big beautiful Christmas tree decorated three full days before Christmas. Victory! :)
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Venus Official Launch
The official launch of "Venus - povestiri erotice science fiction" will take place on Friday, December 16, during the Prospect Art meeting at Centrul Calderon in Bucharest.More details here.
Due to conflicting schedules, I won't be able to attend and I'll miss the video conference too.
Update: Photos from the event can be found on Moshul SF's blog.
A rundown of the event is available on BookMag.
Monday, December 12, 2011
2011 Grand Prix Final
7-11.12.2011
Quebec City, Canada
Full Results
Men
Ladies
Pairs
Ice Dance
Quebec City, Canada
Full Results
Men
| FPl. | Name | Nation | Points | SP | FS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick CHAN |
| 260.30 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Daisuke TAKAHASHI |
| 249.12 | 5 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Javier FERNANDEZ |
| 247.55 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 4 | Yuzuru HANYU |
| 245.82 | 4 | 3 | |||
| 5 | Jeremy ABBOTT |
| 238.82 | 2 | 5 | |||
| 6 | Michal BREZINA |
| 218.98 | 6 | 6 |
Ladies
| FPl. | Name | Nation | Points | SP | FS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carolina KOSTNER |
| 187.48 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Akiko SUZUKI |
| 179.76 | 2 | 3 | |||
| 3 | Alena LEONOVA |
| 176.42 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 4 | Elizaveta TUKTAMISHEVA |
| 174.51 | 5 | 2 | |||
| 5 | Alissa CZISNY |
| 156.97 | 4 | 5 | |||
| WD | Mao ASADA |
|
Pairs
| FPl. | Name | Nation | Points | SP | FS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY |
| 212.26 | 2 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Maxim TRANKOV |
| 212.08 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV |
| 187.77 | 4 | 3 | |||
| 4 | Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG |
| 182.54 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD |
| 170.43 | 5 | 5 | |||
| 6 | Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN |
| 164.42 | 6 | 6 |
Ice Dance
| FPl. | Name | Nation | Points | SD | FD | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE |
| 188.55 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR |
| 183.34 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT |
| 169.69 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 4 | Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE |
| 166.07 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 5 | Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI |
| 160.55 | 5 | 5 | |||
| 6 | Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV |
| 157.30 | 6 | 6 |
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Scifientland 2010/2011 Virtual Anthology
On his blog, Scifientland, Mircea Coman proposes us a virtual anthology made of 15 texts published in between March 2010 and February 2011. My little story "In Lack of Time" is included. The other writers in whose company I'm honored to be are Ciprian Mitoceanu, Ladislau Daradici, Cristian Mihail Teodorescu, Aron Biro, Balin Feri, Laura Sorin, Leni Jalabier, Diana Alzner, Ben Ami, Antuza Genescu, Adrian Buzdugan, Lucian Vasile Szabo, Marian Dumitraşcu, Leonard Ancuţa. Now if we could only make this project happen...
10.12.2011 update: Compiler Mircea Coman announced on his blog that Millennium Books has offered to publish Scifientland virtual anthology. :D I couldn't be any happier right now, my baby is in good company and it will be presented to the world by a great cover. *proud smile*
10.12.2011 update: Compiler Mircea Coman announced on his blog that Millennium Books has offered to publish Scifientland virtual anthology. :D I couldn't be any happier right now, my baby is in good company and it will be presented to the world by a great cover. *proud smile*
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Look, Mom, I'm on Facebook!
I've been doing some research on social networking for writers lately, and it appears that the general opinion is that you just have to be well represented on Facebook for people to even know that you exist.
Now I've had a Facebook account for a few years, but my friends can testify that I'm hardly ever there and I mainly use it to post links to my blog posts. With regret I must announce that today I gave in to the social pressure and created a Facebook page dedicated to my writing activities:
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorIoanaVisan
25 people better Like it fast so I can change the URL to something more manageable, because there's no chance in hell anyone will ever remember that link the way it is now!
My usual ramblings will still go here, on the blog, though. The page is strictly reserved for writing related topics. Of course, right now the page looks more organized than the blog, which irks me a little, but well, one can't have it all.
Apparently you also must have a Twitter in your own name so this is where I draw the line. Maybe when my first novel gets published on paper I'll change it, but until then I'm keeping my @weirdvision account. There.
Now I've had a Facebook account for a few years, but my friends can testify that I'm hardly ever there and I mainly use it to post links to my blog posts. With regret I must announce that today I gave in to the social pressure and created a Facebook page dedicated to my writing activities:
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorIoanaVisan
25 people better Like it fast so I can change the URL to something more manageable, because there's no chance in hell anyone will ever remember that link the way it is now!
My usual ramblings will still go here, on the blog, though. The page is strictly reserved for writing related topics. Of course, right now the page looks more organized than the blog, which irks me a little, but well, one can't have it all.
Apparently you also must have a Twitter in your own name so this is where I draw the line. Maybe when my first novel gets published on paper I'll change it, but until then I'm keeping my @weirdvision account. There.
2011 Bolero - Alexei Yagudin - Hallelujah
Nice, fluent moves, but a little too much agitation for such a slow song. And I would have preferred Leonard Cohen's version.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Story: Camouflage
Advanced Christmas feel-good pressie:Camouflage
Enjoy! :)
Update: There's a nice review of the story in Gazeta SF.
And another one on Scifientland.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
2011 November Reading List
Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn – Good conclusion for the trilogy, decent as a whole. 3/5 stars
The Dark Tower: Waste Lands by Stephen King – I liked the second book better. 3/5 stars
Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead – I was down with a bad cold for an entire week and this is what I read. In my defense, it reads better than Twilight. :P 3/5 stars
The Dark Tower: Waste Lands by Stephen King – I liked the second book better. 3/5 stars
Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead – I was down with a bad cold for an entire week and this is what I read. In my defense, it reads better than Twilight. :P 3/5 stars
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Story: Navigating Through Fog
It's time for another story. The action is taking place in Shanghai and... well, you'll see.Navigating Through Fog
This one is part of the SRSFF monthly contest, so please read, comment and vote. Thanks.
Update: Reviews in Nautilus and SRSFF.
Monday, November 28, 2011
2011 Rostelecom Cup
24-27.11.2011
Moscow, Russia
Full Results
Men
Ladies
Pairs
Ice Dance
It was nice to see Hanyu, Fernandez, Brezina, Asada, Leonova, Savchenko/Szolkowi, Davis/White again. And now we get a two weeks break until the Grand Prix Final.
Moscow, Russia
Full Results
Men
| FPl. | Name | Nation | Points | SP | FS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yuzuru HANYU |
| 241.66 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 2 | Javier FERNANDEZ |
| 241.63 | 4 | 1 | |||
| 3 | Jeremy ABBOTT |
| 229.08 | 1 | 5 | |||
| 4 | Michal BREZINA |
| 226.35 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 5 | Artur GACHINSKI |
| 221.43 | 5 | 4 | |||
| 6 | Andrei ROGOZINE |
| 197.85 | 7 | 7 | |||
| 7 | Sergei VORONOV |
| 197.19 | 8 | 6 | |||
| 8 | Konstantin MENSHOV |
| 192.68 | 9 | 8 | |||
| 9 | Brandon MROZ |
| 185.49 | 6 | 9 |
Ladies
| FPl. | Name | Nation | Points | SP | FS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mao ASADA |
| 183.25 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Alena LEONOVA |
| 180.45 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Adelina SOTNIKOVA |
| 169.75 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 4 | Sofia BIRYUKOVA |
| 166.07 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 5 | Kiira KORPI |
| 160.92 | 5 | 5 | |||
| 6 | Haruka IMAI |
| 154.76 | 6 | 6 | |||
| 7 | Agnes ZAWADZKI |
| 149.38 | 7 | 8 | |||
| 8 | Amelie LACOSTE |
| 148.48 | 9 | 7 | |||
| 9 | Rachael FLATT |
| 147.63 | 8 | 9 | |||
| 10 | Christina GAO |
| 117.77 | 10 | 10 |
Pairs
| FPl. | Name | Nation | Points | SP | FS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY |
| 208.69 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV |
| 197.84 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Stefania BERTON / Ondrej HOTAREK |
| 168.02 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 4 | Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV |
| 149.66 | 4 | 5 | |||
| 5 | Katarina GERBOLDT / Alexander ENBERT |
| 148.94 | 7 | 4 | |||
| 6 | Ashley CAIN / Joshua REAGAN |
| 138.02 | 5 | 6 | |||
| 7 | Brittany JONES / Kurtis GASKELL |
| 136.54 | 6 | 7 |
Ice Dance
| FPl. | Name | Nation | Points | SD | FD | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE |
| 179.06 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE |
| 161.18 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV |
| 156.83 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 4 | Ekaterina RIAZANOVA / Ilia TKACHENKO |
| 132.73 | 4 | 5 | |||
| 5 | Isabella TOBIAS / Deividas STAGNIUNAS |
| 130.47 | 5 | 4 | |||
| 6 | Pernelle CARRON / Lloyd JONES |
| 126.04 | 7 | 6 | |||
| 7 | Ekaterina PUSHKASH / Jonathan GUERREIRO |
| 124.53 | 6 | 7 |
It was nice to see Hanyu, Fernandez, Brezina, Asada, Leonova, Savchenko/Szolkowi, Davis/White again. And now we get a two weeks break until the Grand Prix Final.
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