Hi! I haven't logged into MySpace in a long while. I do most of my blogging at WordPress. I have a short story a day blog in which I, well, write a short story a day (or parts of longer short stories).

mjtwainstories.wordpress.com/

I'll try to update this a little more often. I have been busy, so no guarantees.

Have a great day!

C'Fix

(I'm rarely up this early, but I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about the story "Crunch" --will be renamed!-- and how it'll end. I've been up since four. I think I'll try to get some sleep now. *YAWN*)

Can it be? I posted a photo! I'm going to get a picture or three of Zoe up into my album, as well.

I planned to get back to book reviewing and updating my site after the holidays. Well, life is fluid. DJ has needed extra attention because of some tummy trouble. Now that we've figured it out, the plan is to, well, still be slow with the reviews. Here's why:

WUAT is completely volunteer-driven. It's my creation, and I'm the numero uno slave to it, and I have some wonderful people who contribute their time as well. Our only "pay" comes in the form of free books and a smidgeon of PR thanks to the "Reviewed by _____" tags on WUAT and the cross-posts to Amazon.com. I proofread every review that comes in and then post it. Reading books, writing the reviews, and getting it all online gets time consuming. I enjoy it, but I don't make any money from it.

Unless I can get sponsored and/or sell ad space (primarily to authors, agents, PR groups, whatever), I'll continue doing this for no profit. And that's okay, because I know, and others who pay attention know, that the reviews that DO get posted are quality reviews. It's kind of like an in-demand preschool: there's a waiting list because everyone knows that once you're in, you're going to get a good service. Of course, that's open to interpretation. I'm sure authors of panned books don't feel it's a good thing.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish I could get more reviews up. People send me more books than I can possibly handle, even with help from other volunteers. So readers won't find as many reviewed titles on my site as elsewhere, but they can feel assured that each review is written by intelligent and knowledgable people who know the value of good books.

As much as I'd love to spend more time on the site, there are other priorities in my life. They are, in this order: Zoe & DJ, actually seeing the husband, eating, sleeping, writing, art, and trying to learn guitar (a whole other subject of some worth). Housework and bill paying fall in there somewhere, too. Theoretically. ;-)

Life is good, if not busy. My New Year's wish for you, Dear Visitor, is that you can be as lucky. Cheers!

Christina

I just finished reading the upcoming Nick Hornby book Slam about a teen boy who finds out his girlfriend is pregnant. You'll have to see the review when I get it posted, but I'd say it was a pretty decent read.

Some of the books I've read lately fall under the "Chick Lit" category. For those who don't know that is, think Bridget Jones's Diary, or The Devil Wears Prada. They came from novels that helped boost the genre to its level of popularity. Chick Lit books tend to be told from a female first person point of view, with many of them in present tense. The women in these books are presented as normal, if quirky, women who get into abnormal situations, or even normal situations exaggerated to new levels.

I find some Chick Lit to be hilarious, but I've read a few that I can't seem to empathize with. In Forget About It, a woman with a stereotypical doormat personality. She fakes amnesia in the name of starting over. It's not a bad theme, but I ended up not liking the main character. She was downright cruel at times and ended up hurting herself and people she cared about. Another book, The Sleeping Beauty Proposal, had a very similar theme of deception with a woman who fakes an engagement. Both books had happy endings for the "heroines," but I was left thinking "What kind of person behaves this way?" Maybe I've seen too many people selfishly hurt each other in real life, but I don't find these situations funny. They're memorable only in the mean spiritedness.

Not all Chick Lit is like this. I really enjoyed Jane Porter's Flirting with Forty, and Odd Mom Out (now available from 5-Spot). They're funny, emotional, and the characters make mistakes, some of them whoppers that hurt other people. So what's the difference between these mistakes and the ones I just griped about? Simple: In the former, the characters deliberately chose hurtful schemes. In the Porter books, the characters didn't mean to hurt people. Granted the characters in Forget About It and The Sleeping Beauty Proposal didn't mean to hurt people, but they were willing to roll with it for their own gains.

Am I missing the mark by giving lower ratings to the books with unsympathetic heroines? Everyone has different tastes, and these books don't bother other people as much as they bother me. I know that there are women who feel like they don't have much control in their lives, and reading these books may be a way to punch up their confidence. But why mean spiritedness? Is this a reflection of our culture that it's okay to revel in such behavior, or is it no more than a segment of entertainment? Maybe it's like the average guy who loves to watch football or pro wrestling.

So I go on, assigning ratings as fair as I can. Maybe my outlook on some of these books could shift if someone in a position of "authority" (whomever that may be), said "Yes, this IS the genre, and its readers EXPECT there to be a mean factor." Until then, I'm not going to give brownie points for unsympathetic characters.

In the meantime, my reading schedule has been uneven, as I'm expecting a baby toward the end of October. Some days are better than others, as the commercial goes. I haven't felt so great throughout this pregnancy (and the first one went so well!), but so far, the baby looks fine on ultrasound and everything.

I just hope site visitors, authors, PR folk, and whoever else uses my site continue to be as patient as they have been so far. I have a handful of faithful volunteer reviewers, but at the end of the day, it's still my baby (well, project, anyway), and if I'm tied up in my daily schedule, then the site gets tied up, too. In the long run (have you been counting the clichés?), this thing will keep getting better.

Bye for now! Reading, reviewing, and writing to do. Artwork if I have time.

Christina Wantz Fixemer

There have been a lot of things happening in my life lately, so I actually FORGOT that I had a MySpace blog. Okay, I didn't forget about it, but close enough! ;-)

I'll try to spend a little more time on this, especially since it's linked from my website.

I think I'll go ask Nick Digilio from WGN 720AM radio to be a "friend." He's on air over the weekend, but he's subbing all week for Steve & Johnnie, who are on vacation. When they get back and other things get settled in, I'm supposed to go on once a month for book review updates.

Until next time!

Christina

Some novels come along and grab you by the heart. REMEMBER ME by Maureen Lang was one of them. Although I'm not currently a churchgoer (and that's all I'm going to say about that), I find that Lang's writing always makes a positive impact on my outlook. If nothing else, I walk away with a warm feeling after the last page.

Here's the link: REMEMBER ME review

Also, check out the update site! My dear, dear husband spent a great deal of his winter break from work to make WUAT a dynamic website, which will be better for visitors AND for me! :-)

One more thing: GO BEARS!

~~Christina~~

I forgot to note that Candlewick Press's new YA dragon fantasy is on my soon-to-read list. For right now, though, I am going to read E.E. Knight's second book in his "The Age of Fire" series, DRAGON AVENGER. If you read DRAGON CHAMPION, you'll recognize Auron's sister, Wistala. I'm going to pick that up the next chance I get to sit down and read.

Have a great weekend (-extended- weekend for those of us in the States!)!

~Christina~

It's Thanksgiving, so this will be short.

I just finished reading DRAGON CHAMPION by E.E. Knight. I am off to bed soon, so I'm not writing the review until tomorrow, but I WILL say that this book was awesome.

Of course, I'm big on any dragon lore that shows Dragons as intelligent beings as capable of compassion as they are of ruthlessness. This book does this, and in a splendid way.

That said, it's been a long day w/a round-trip drive to see relatives three hours away. I'm much better since the car wreck, but I still have unhappy back and neck muscles now. But hey, that's what muscle relaxers are for, with the doc's blessing for this situation. For the record, I use that kind of medication sparingly, as they'd be too easy to get used to having.

Click on the book's icon to get a look! I'll the get the review link up as soon as it's ready. THEN I'm going to read and review the second book in the series, due next week, called DRAGON AVENGER.

Later!
~Christina~