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The mail was a wonderful thing yesterday.

I got a box from zora113 - Z, how cruel of you to actually, you know, wrap my gifts, so now I have to wait until Friday to find out what they are!

I got a card from an old friend, Peggy, who is long overdue for a letter from me. I do email better than physical letters. LOTS better.

I got a card from theteaqueen, a beautiful card. L, I you're as good a friend to me as I am to you, and I hope your holidays are as good as you deserve.

And I got a card from Steph, creative and fun as always. S, I am in Facebook! I just got there.

Actually, I was there for a while but got sorta lost, so I went back, and now I'm almost keeping up with it. I'm not sure how Facebook works, exactly, but I think that anyone who wants to friend me there can find me with a search for "Kathy Trueman". Let me know!

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I just finished Under the Dome and started Angels and Demons. Truly, it isn't fair to Dan Brown to make him follow Stephen King. It wouldn't be fair to most authors! But there is a particular contrast when the author is one like Brown, who isn't a skilled writer. Like Michael Crichton, he manages an interesting story/plot, but his characters are shallow and he uses too much exposition. (We don't need to have alllll the facts of your research given to us, guys. Especially not in one big chunk, like a history lecture. At least Brown doesn't go on for entire chapters, like Crichton does...)

The problem with audiobooks is that faults in the nuts-and-bolts writing really stand out. I want to start self-recording my own stories for that reason, listening to them in the car with a recorder handy to make "notes". King has few faults as a writer, whatever you might think of his subject matter. There are plenty of good authors who do have faults - Funke and Rowling, to name two - but who I enjoy anyway, because their faults are minimal, not like a thumb in your eye. I might mutter something now and then, but usually I'm OK. With Brown, I'm continually saying, "Show, don't tell," or "We don't need all that right now," or "Of course she's sexy and gorgeous and brainy, uh huh uh huh." But I've just started the book, so I am hoping it improves.

I won't say that King doesn't ever put a foot wrong. There are several of his books that actually bored me. But damn, even when he's at his worst, the man can write. If I were rich, I'd pay anything just to sit with him and watch him work, or listen to him talk about how he works, how he picks his words and decides when to go from narrative to thoughts to action. I've read his book On Writing, but that was like a Hershey's Kiss when I wanted a giant Special Dark bar.

I have to say, however, that I've been reading some stylistically terrific books lately. The Thirteenth Tale, the Gemma Doyle stories, and In the Woods come instantly to mind. I can't figure out if there is simply a better level of writer being published in the past few years, or if I'm just lucky to have more friends and coworkers who are recommending good books to me. Anyone got an opinion on that?

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More joy in the mail today - a Christmas card from trellia_chan with a lovely sentiment and eye-popping purple envelope.

OK, next year, I will send cards. I will I will I will.