I spend too much time in fictional worlds...

...or not enough, depending on how you look at it, I suppose. I did learn, though, that one needs to treat bookstores like grocery stores - NEVER go shopping when you're hungry. I had planned on getting two books - Son of Stitch-n-Bitch, which contains a pattern I need for the Christmas projects (while I do understand and appreciate the idea behind copyright laws, I would REALLY have preferred to just copy the pattern out of the book and not bought the entire thing. Alas.), and Cast in Fury, the latest in Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series (aka the Cast In... series). I did leave with both of those. Plus...um...A Killer Stitch by Maggie Sefton (author of some incredibly fluff knitting mysteries, but the characters are fun), Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (the start of a new series for me, assuming this one is any good), Haunted Heartland by Beth Scott and Michael Norman (which I'm now not exactly sure why I bought, as it will probably scare me half to death, but it was on sale, go figure), and The Harmony Guide's Cables & Arans stitch dictionary edited by Erika Knight, which also figures into my Christmas plot. I guess I felt the need to have some good new stories near at hand for some reason.

True to form, though, as soon as I got my greedy little hands on Cast in Fury, it was all over. (I've been waiting a year for this book!) I paid for the books and got all the way out to the bench outside the front door of Barnes & Noble before pulling it out of the bag and starting to read (about 2:00p-ish). It was quite pleasant there in the sunshine. I probably wouldn't have resurfaced in time for class at all if Mom hadn't called. There was no way I was going to make it to kickboxing, but I already had all my stuff with me anyway (I do know myself well enough to plan ahead for such events), and got back into Santa Maria with not enough time to go home and read, so I went to the park instead. I did make to the dojahng in time for tkd and instructor class, though, and I finished the book about an hour ago.

I really liked it, but it followed a totally different storyline than I thought it was going to. It explains a lot about certain comments that were made in the first book, Cast in Shadow, though, which is really kinda cool. And it involves a playwright, and there is really great passage about what theater does that I might have to type out and quote. I also really like the fact that, despite the long wait (okay, so it's actually relatively short, in publishing terms) between books, only about six weeks have passed since the beginning of the first book. (This book is the second one that has mentioned the full moons, so we know it has to have been at least a month. Where month literally means moon-cycle.) It's nice to know there isn't any backstory to have to get caught up on. I want to know exactly what Erenne means, though, and how it pertains to Kaylin in relation to both Nightshade and Severn! I was under the impression from the first few books that she was Nightshade's Erenne, but in this book, he refers to her (and he, sadly, is not very present at all in this book) as the Erenne. Like, maybe, there's only one. Maybe he just meant there is only one Erenne in Nightshade. But we do know that he claims her, and she is growing slightly more comfortable with him. So satisfy a girl's curiosity, lady! If I was a fiefling, I'd bet that she ends up with Nightshade, or at least living with him in the Castle, with Severn as her protector. (It is implied very early on that Erenne has a vaguely similar meaning to "consort," if far more specific - what that specification IS is what we don't know - and that it is a relationship that must be consumated in some fashion to be fully claimed. As Nightshade is the only character that has expressed any kind of physical attraction to Kaylin, I'm going on that basis. It can also somehow give the two of them more power, not that either of them really need it, or, in Kaylin's case, want it.) And why IS Nightshade Outcaste? He is still very much on top of things that happen in the Barrani Court, and is obviously not entirely hated there even now, based on Cast in Courtlight (the second book). The next book, Cast in Silence, is slated to come out sometime in late 2009, and it can't come fast enough!

In other news, I've now officially learned the first half of my weapons form and now have the lovely challenge of figuring out the reverse and repeat of it - the second half of the form is the same as the first half, just with the bahng mahng ee in the opposite hand. It's a LOT harder with the left hand than the right! White Christmas starts rehearsals tomorrow, and while I'm fond of the cast and the show actually seems pretty fun and fluff and we're already in FAR better shape than we were this time last year, I'm still very much resenting how much time I will be out of class due to it. Which is ridiculous, because it's not like I'm still a color belt with a new test to worry about every few weeks (and come close to failing, like I did this time last year). I just got my belt two months ago; I won't even be eligible to test for rank again for another ten months. So I don't know what my problem is. I do know that I may break down and pay for a Gold's Gym membership, though - they are open 24/7, and I've found the time I am best able to work out is after I get off work, no matter what time of day that is. While I did pretty decently on my PT last time, I want it to be easy next time. Or at least, I want to still have a lot more energy for the sparring part of the tests next time. So I might as well start training now.