Decisions made

[neadods]

I just resigned from Reviewing the Evidence. When you have to spend that much time forcing yourself to even look at the books, much less read and review them, it's time to admit that you've got massive burnout and to let it go. At this point, I have no plans on even any pleasure mystery reading outside of Julia Spencer-Fleming and Mary Stanton's angel series. There's little pleasure left in the genre for me.

I'd already resigned from Firefox News a couple of months ago (which explains the dearth of articles about the regeneration, if anyone had wondered).

This leaves Unreality SF as my last opinion job. The good news is, it takes less of my time than RtE did (the audios are only a couple of hours long apiece) and after all these years in fandom, I'm hardly going to burn out on Who now.

The bad news is, the main part of it is reviewing the back Big Finish monthly catalog, and I'll have caught that up by the end of the year. Well, by then, Dan & I will have hopefully worked something out so I can carry on into 2011. And I'll have had a nice year off before I look to branch out into other areas.

In other decisions being made, I'm not going to Gally, although I'm making tentative plans to get there next year. (The whole point of this year is to spend it dead for tax purposes pulling finances, house, and life together so that next year I can think about other things than the mess in this place.)

I'm also not doing Media*West (for the first time in 20+ years; that's still stinging) or Malice Domestic. I keep flip-flopping on NY TARDIS. On the "go" side, I'll be seeing people that I don't often get to see and more attendees mean more likelihood of a regular Who convention that won't require my hauling ass across five states on a major holiday weekend. (It's run by the same competent concomm as ChicagoTARDIS and that means it'll be a good time with good guests.)

On the "don't go" side, I've got to worry about my finances before the concomm's, and while I have already bought a membership for next year's ChiTARDIS, I haven't put down a dime for NYTARDIS. And a year without conventions would mean both time off and money for other purposes... and I'm starting to preliminarily kick around a return to England around New Year 2011.

Comments

Good for you!

[flaviarassen.livejournal.com]

I'm actually glad to hear this.
I could feel your growing irritation/dissatisfaction
with reviewing so many horrible books.

As for the rest - dropping back & regrouping is
never a bad idea.

Re: Good for you!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I spread myself too thin for too long... and ye Gods, are cozy mysteries stamped out with a cookie cutter!

I need a year off for good behavior, and then I'll see.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for mentioning NYTardis; have not been reading the Who comms and was unaware.

Of course, it is the weekend after Steampunk World's Fair, which is the one convention in years I have had any interest in, but as I'm doing a daytrip to that one, perhaps I'll do a daytrip to this one too.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It was being advertised at ChiTARDIS... but according to the comment below, it's going to be put on hold. That'll give everyone time to prepare for it, including the attendees.

[renn.livejournal.com]

*psst* looks like NY TARDIS is going to be delayed until 2011, so don't factor it in to 2010 plans. Official announcements will be coming officially soon on that topic.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Really? I'm sorry for the concom, because I love the idea of a NY TARDIS. On the other hand... wow, that would make my life *so much* easier! (The carrot at the end of the stick is that if I'm a good girl and get my life in gear *this* year, I can travel to my heart's content *next* year.)

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

Ahh so it was you who recommended Spencer-fleming! I've been wondering why I bought In the Bleak Midwinter. :)

... which I totally enjoyed and am now hell-bent on purchasing the lot. Sadly I can't buy it on Kindle in Australia yet, but I'm hoping soon. Or I'll just keep buying the paperbacks (which are cheaper anyway, ironically).

I'll reveal my ignorance and ask what it is that you actually do/did with these books?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Probably me, yes. A couple of them aren't 100% win, but the series is excellent overall.

what it is that you actually do/did with these books?

With the physical book or why I was reading them? For about 5 years I was an online mystery critic - one year for I Love a Mystery Newsletter.com and the entire time for Reviewing the Evidence. I also attended Malice Domestic (a local convention for mystery writers and fans) and - when I could - Bouchercon (a bigger convention for mystery writers and fans).

Between the reviewing and the convention swap tables, a LOT of mystery books have been passing through my hands! (I think my first Spencer-Fleming was from a swap table.)

It's a year off from all conventions, so no Malice and no Boucher in 2010, and I've *seriously* burned out on the cozy mysteries that Reviewing the Evidence specializes in. (To steal an old Carol Burnett joke, I've seen every [book] and I know all three plots by heart.)

Physically, I keep the ones I like - hey! Free book! - and either swapped the ones I didn't at the next convention or took them to The Book Thing.

One golden once, I'd tossed in an unscheduled review to RtE for a book I'd bought and really liked, the author read the review, and he sent me the next two in the series for free. *That* I miss!

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

I guess I meant why were you reading them - I should make myself clearer. I had wondered if you worked for some publishing house or something like that. I don't read many mysteries, but lately I've been reading more and more. I do find it amusing that you refer to them as "cosy" mysteries though. :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Cozy is an actual genre - it means any mystery solved by an amateur, usually with little to no contact with the police and often in a small town or otherwise associated group (within a business, subculture, etc.) Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher - they're the embodiments of cozies. These tend to be much more interested in personality and shove aside long details about death or pain, unlike hardboileds (anything dealing with professional detectives or police).

RtE does hardboileds, but it started out as an almost cozy-only site. Malice bills itself as a cozy mystery con, while Bouchercon considers itself far more hardboiled.

There is slopover; Lord Peter and Sherlock Holmes are both arguably professional detectives, but the tone of the stories is cozy all the way. There's also a surprisingly successful blend of the two genres in the Haunted Bookstore mysteries, although only the first one is really recommendable: The Ghost and Mrs. McClure.

Theme mysteries - tea, knitting, cooking, whatever - are inevitably cozies (which are, I think, THE most popular lit genre after romance. It's just that they're also really, really predictable after a while. And these days, there's so much focus on the heroine's love life that it's hard to tell if there's a line between them at all.)

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

Wow I didn't know any of this. I have never really read much in the way of mysteries up until a couple of years ago. I surprised myself by liking them as much as I do. But then when I think about about it, a lot of the scifi and fantasy I like to read also has an element of mystery to it.

[shawan-7.livejournal.com]

Did you make your 200?