Took me a while (they are monster huge), but I just finished the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series. If you can get past the first 50 pages of book one, the rest is worth the wait. Books two and three aren't quite as slow to start. I had some issues with the graphic nature of the first book, but realized by book three that is was necessary. LOVE the damaged but feisty main character.

Parents beware. My fifteen year old wanted to read them. Although she is well beyond her years when it comes to reading material, I couldn't bring myself to turn her loose on books containing rape. I do not consider these young adult by any stretch of the imagination. 

If you invest in book one, go the mile and read two and three:)

Just finished "Divergent" by Veronica Roth and its follow-up title "Insurgent." There is a third in the trilogy yet to come.

Deadlines are a necessity when it comes to writing. I've worked on a deadline for most of my adult life - long ago as a marketing guru and occasional news writer, and more recently as a freelance essayist. Now that I'm writing fiction ... on my own time and at my own pace ... I've discovered that sometimes setting deadlines can work FOR you and sometimes AGAINST you.

I set very clear writing goals for myself going into my 5 week "working vacation" up at Lake Erie. The tranquility of the lake has always been a creative nudge for me, and I expected to have a completed manuscript by the end of my stay.

Here I am midway through week 2, and the REALITY is something entirely different. 

I find myself torn between finishing an extremely rough draft, just to get the bones down on paper, and meeting my set "deadline." OR taking my time to write like I always do ... fleshing out my plot and characters as I go and tweaking and fiddling and tweaking and fiddling and moving on to the next chapter to do it all over again. 

The second option certainly takes more time, but, in the end, I think I will be much happier with the product. I guess I need to get over my self-imposed goals and realize this is a marathon and not a sprint:)

Just for fun, here is a favorite character in my current project (working title: Hells of Northgate):

"Candel sat on the table, her skirt hanging like a curtain between her outstretched knees and her boots planted firmly on the bench below her. She hunched forward, as if she might topple off the table in her intensity. The Ancient’s hair, which was free from its usual bun, hung around her shoulders like moss from a tree. The glow from the burning barrel behind her lengthened the old woman’s shadow, which danced and dodged with her slightest movement."