Author: Marjorie Quinn

Writer/ Aspiring Author/ Reader/ Gamer/ Book Slave. Blogging my writing, travel, and random thoughts.  I blog book reviews, my writing struggles, favorite quotes I come across, and even some random creative prose. The views and opinions expressed on this website are purely my own. Some of the links on this website are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, the owner of this website will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services that will add value to my readers. House Stark/ House Mars/ Allonsy. Feel free to check out and even follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

Then You Come Back From Vacation

I’m back! Didn’t think it was long enough where a reader would believe I abandoned this blog but could understand if you started second guessing my presence here. I was not posting for a bit because I was on vacation traveling. I’ve grown into an untrusting New Yorker and didn’t want to become a silly statistic. For very safe reasons I never posted my far far away-ness on this blog since this is open to anyone and anyone can be mean stealing jerk. I keep a travel journal and though I always fall a day or two behind it’s not because I don’t write everyday. I am the best writer while traveling because I can find scraps of time anywhere on the move to write. I do have some writing material since I’m the most diligent writer away and I hope to use that fire in the future.

Now here is where I beg for patience from you, my reader (if you’re still with me). I have a post I’m working on about a place I visited along my travels but it may take some time to write. Here is my sob story. On the last day of my vacation I hurt my ankle. I don’t know if it’s a sprain. I iced and rested it. It has been five days since the painful klutz move of missing a step and I can walk on it with very little discomfort so I must have lucked out.

The second fun thing to happen back from my trip is I woke up Thursday morning to water dripping from my study’s ceiling. Good news no computers were harmed in the disaster above and the leak (which ended up being little but chaotic) is fixed but computers are disconnected and the apartment is a disaster. Thank invention for laptops. I am sitting in the least crazy room (the bedroom that is stacked high with boardgames, monitors, and desk parts) typing this little blog post. I’m trying not to think about the holes in the next room’s ceiling and the contractors that will need to be contacted so everything can feel less anxious again. I can look on the bright side and say at least I’m writing.

Also, I’m upset because I’m behind on the one classic a month challenge. I have no excuse other than when I travel I write more and read less. I plan on starting my May classic in a few days (still between books) and gracing my reader on my amazing half-ass review. I hope you can forgive the delay. (Is this where I hash-tag my emotions.)

Now, I will enjoy a glass of wine, say good night, and sweet dreams.

Classic Number Four: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

I decided to read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum as my fourth classic after seeing the Supernatural: Slumber Party. While watching the episode and their darker take on this classic I realized I have never read the book. The episode does reference the books as well as the movie. I think it was when the character, Charlie played by Felicia Day, was gushing and defending this childhood classic that I decided I needed to read it.

I was delighted with the differences between the book and movie. The movie will forever be a classic in it’s own right but the book is a bigger adventure with Dorothy meeting and making even more friends. The flying monkeys aren’t as scary but become a companion. All the characters grow and while they are all on the same adventure they grow individually finding they had what they seek all along but needed some encouragement along the way. The difference I loved between the movie and book are the passage of time is in both worlds and that the shoes are silver in the book. Maybe because the movie made red shoes such a set thing in the Oz culture and made it appear in the movie that Dorothy’s adventure was just a dream.

I think what will always make this a classic is the need others will feel to use it in their own work, reinvent, and keep it fresh.  I would recommend this to anyone looking for a book to read to their child or looking to give them something to start their reading love. It wasn’t a difficult read. The writing was straight to the point in any character’s motivation or description. A magical read.

Classic Number Three: Northanger Abbey

I decided to read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen for my March classic. I have mentioned before that I did try to read Austen’s Persuasion last month and felt I wasn’t in the mood, I tried again and again I wasn’t in the mood. I realized I never read Austen’s Abbey and needed a short classic since time was running out. I started reading this classic and was captured. As Austen mentions in the beginning of the novel the main character Catherine is not your normal heroine since she is an impressionable, trusting young woman but she grows and learns. By the end Catherine is a strong, classic, and a lead in the wheel house with others Austen famous heroines.

I must say I liked this novel. This classic novel is Austen’s Gothic parody. Catherine’s love for reading the genre and over active imagination adds humor to the novel. There is a great scene where Catherine is snooping and unlocks a mysterious cabinet expecting to find something horrible, and finds only laundry bills. You feel embarrass for her naivety but she has to fall a few more times before she learns to control her imagination. Northanger Abbey also deals with situations common to teenagers today. Catherine learns lessons about peer pressure, bullying, and reading people. I was angry by the Thorpe’s manipulative, and ambitious ways but, by the end of the novel, Catherine learns to read people and can move on into her happy ending wiser.

Favorite Quote: “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not the pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”

Met A Man On The Train

Heading to the city for my gym class on Monday and the train wasn’t running. I realized after climbing the three flights of stairs that I should have known. When I had gotten off the bus, I could see a huge crowd waiting. According to the MTA the train wasn’t running and the booth attendant would only say the trains weren’t running. I have an app, which told me there was a police investigation at one of the stations so there were limited stops but was this information up to date? Not taking a chance, I ran back down the stairs grateful the bus was still there and trying to figure out how do I get to the city. I wasn’t the only one. I figured out I should stay on the bus and it would take me to another train line. So, that’s what I did. I shared this information with a woman and a man. The man told me he had decided not to drive today. He thought the train would be best since his destination was Chinatown. Now, he was wishing he drove. We laughed and eventually we were seated separately and I started reading articles on my phone.

With the slow bus ride I lost track of time. I felt a tap on the shoulder and it was the gentleman again. He told me this was our stop. I kicked myself for not paying attention and we continued to the train. We started talking more on the platform and on the train. He wasn’t familiar with this train line and I was so I tried my best to help him to his goal. I assured him that it is still a learning process for me since I have moved from one side of the Bronx to the other and wasn’t as confident with these buses to which train. He told me how he has only been taking using the train since he started dating his boyfriend and that he has tried to learn and remember what to use to get where. He told me since the 7 train has been not running on the weekends it has really tested his abilities but he has been succeeding.

He told me how they take the train down to flea markets and walk back over the Brooklyn Bridge. His knees are not happy about it but he has been able to enjoy the sites of the city now that he doesn’t have to watch it from the driver’s window. We talked about Flea Market Flip and the Gotham Market. It wasn’t until I exited the train at 42nd street that I realized we never exchanged names.

I have never has such nice company from a stranger on the train before. New York City’s subway system taught me to be aware, and cautious at all times. I can’t say this experience has changed me to the point where I will open up and converse with anyone but I guess I find it nice to know that the MTA’s out of service train didn’t ruin my mood or day.

He was continuing on to Union Square. I hoped he transfer to the 6 train so he could make it to Canal Street. Maybe someday I’ll see him again, hopefully on a working train and we can laugh about the odds.

Classic Number Two: Little Women

I vaguely remember the basement in the house I grew up in before it was refinished. It was dark gray cinderblock walls with workbenches, boxes, and wooden closets with canned goods. During the clean up I remember one of the boxes had books. I felt awe. I was young and seeing books that thick with tiny print amazed me. I was only allowed to pick one book from the box and I picked, Little Women by Louise May Alcott. I thought it would be about tiny women living in a big world (forgive my naivety, I was really young). I finally decided to read it because this pretty book has sat on my shelf too long. I didn’t read it all the time since the 1922 edition is fragile with a worn binding.

I didn’t love Little Women. It was a very moral based read and could be slow at times. Each chapter could stand on it’s own with a lesson learned. Now days a woman doesn’t need a good marriage to reach true happiness but it was a different time when this story was written and many lessons, like not allowing money to control you, can still apply today. Some chapters I enjoyed more than others. There wasn’t much excitement or enthusiasm behind most life events. Maybe this style or writing is what left me less emotionally attached to the four sisters. If I only read the Little Women portion of the book I may have given it four stars on my Goodreads account but I must say I was surprised when what I expected to happen didn’t.

I learned, when published, part two was a second book, Good Wives, which continues their story and this is where I struggled. The second half is where the story considerably slows downs. I can’t put my finger on what changed. Everything just seemed more mundane. The interesting bits of their lives are farther apart and gets buried. If I was going to rate this portion of the book separately I would give Part two, two stars.

I rated the book three stars out of five stars. If I ever come back to this classic I will not continue past part one.

Little Women 1922 Little, Brown, and Company Edition.

Stacking Reading Goals

I’m worried I created to many reading goals for the new year. I challenged myself to read 50 books with 12 of them being classics. I tried to promise myself I wouldn’t buy anymore books until I read some of the unread ones I already own. Also, I hope to decrease the number on my Goodreads’ to-read list. While, these can all fit nicely into the read 50 books challenge, I’m finding the classics can be dense and daunting. I thought I would read Jane Austen’s Persuasion this month but switch to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. I didn’t feel I had the right mood for Persuasion. I want to complete my one classic novel a month goal but I do want to enjoy what I am reading. I do have many more opportunities to read this year with my hour commute to and from work. Just have to keep reading with the hope I lessen my pile of unread books, to-read titles, and classics collecting dust. I could be overreacting being only the second month and I’m seeing an overwhelming number of goals that seemed to fit together when I first made my list. Worst happens I don’t read 12 classics or reach my 50 books goal. I’ll know to lessen the reading goals next year. Maybe.

Writing At Work

I’ve read other writers give the advice of writing at work. Taking the free time you may have during break time or at the desk and write. I don’t have that sort of time at my job. I am mostly walking around, stocking shelves or ordering. I don’t know if I would say I wish for a desk job in front of a computer just to steal more time writing but there is one position at my job I have found I can thief some time to scribble down a few phrases.

I don’t always have information desk days but I have found I can get some writing done on info days. I write on little scraps of paper since I don’t think my managers would like seeing a notebook in my hand. I didn’t like info days before I found this little exercise. Writing tiny blurbs, feelings, or stories has helped my mood. Sometimes I try to describe the scene past the computer screen. I know my managers would give me a strong talking to if they knew but writing is what calms me against the boredom or suffering of info time.

When I get home I clean out my pockets. Scraps of paper collect on my desk, or end table. Will those words ever see a readers eye again? I may never know but, as the clique goes, practice makes perfect. I just am trying to take some spare time and use it to write.

Classic Number One

The first classic I picked up for the 2015 Classic Challenge was picked with another classic in mind. I read The Time Machine in sixth grade and was thinking how I enjoyed it but how little I remembered of the classic. I decided it would be better to read something I hadn’t read before so instead of a repeat in the classic category I would stay with the author. The War of the World by H.G. Wells is a classic that has created a rememberable radio show and epic movies but as any creative work they are nothing like the book.

I was surprise when I learned this novel is a sharp satire about British Imperialism. There is a comparison Wells makes about not judging the Martians to harshly and remember how ruthless our own species have been. He mentions, “The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants.” It is a theme that never goes away. It will always remain a classic. It is surprising that a novel label Science fiction a hundred years ago now reads stockily realistic. Much of the Martian’s science, Heat Rays and Gas, that destroys Victoria England seem very real reading today.

If you decide to pick up this classic don’t expect an action sequence every few pages. Action is few and far between the narrator questioning the human race and the self.

2015 Classics Challenge

I had thought I would read a classic a month last year but I didn’t succeed only reading one classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, before you think I haven’t read classics in the past, you can check my Goodreads account and see my classics read shelf. Also, if you click on the link, don’t get mad. I have stretched the meaning of classic a bit. I don’t know if I will be able to write reviews but thanks to ThePrettyBooks tips on WordPress I may use the 5 “Ws” suggestion to help.

WHEN I Discovered This Classic
WHAT Makes It A Classic
WHY I Chose to Read It
 WILL It Stay A Classic
WHO I’d Recommend It 

My bookshelf holds a few classics I haven’t read. Plus, let’s not talk about the free e-book copies available now that I have downloaded. So, I am almost angry at myself as I write this, I would love some suggestions on a good edition of Anne Frank’s Diary. Yes, I never read it. Yes, I read many classics in school but I was not in the class that read this one. No worries, I will read it this year. I was going to pick the red cover Mass-Market edition until I find there are three editions available for purchase at my job. I would post links here but there are so many versions when I search. I want an edition which is up-to date, unabridged, and has a good translation. If anyone can give me suggestions on which one I should buy to read I would be grateful.

I hope I can write since I am taking on many reading challenges this year. I have sign up for the 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge with a 50 book pledge. I don’t know if I’ll complete the challenge since I average 39 books a year but here goes a new year with maybe too many goals.

2015 And Beyond

It’s a new year and I want to start off wishing everyone a happy and healthy one. This is the time we set goals, maybe new or we failed at before, and try to achieve them. Before I mention what I hope to improve, I will say I’m disappointed in myself. It has been a month since I wrote anything for this blog. I don’t want to blame my new job but with its always changing schedule I am having trouble finding time to write. Also, I thought I would have more to talk about which, hasn’t happen. Once thing is for sure, I refuse to let this blog die.
With the new year come goals. I will try to keep writing this blog weekly. I don’t think it’s an impossible task. The holidays are over which means work will slow down. I’m thinking less hours, and stress. Plus, I kept up the schedule before I can do it again.
I hope to write with more focus. More story building and novel/short story writing and increase time on editing my children’s book. If all goes well and I feel the book doesn’t need anymore work, I hope to find an agent or publisher.
I’m making these writing goals my primary focus. If I don’t no one else will and nothing will get done. I don’t want to talk about being a writer, instead I want to be one. I am not going to downgrade the goals I accomplished last year. There was a wrench thrown into the gears with this new job and it’s crazy schedule but I will not have a part-time permanent job mess up my forward writing motion.