Late to the Show...*Edit

First of all, I just want to say, I'm never late.  I'm not.  It's impossible for me.  Even with a toddler, I am always 10 min. early.  Late, for me is on time.

So, I meant to post this morning, but I wanted to mop my floor because I FINALLY got my seeds in the ground (just in time, as you'll soon see) and I was so excited that I forgot to take off my muddy shoes when I danced through the house in triumph.  Needless to say, I left yucky tracks everywhere.  Thank goodness we don't have carpet!  Then was church, and then, the mild storm we'd been experiencing became a massive, yucky, hail and thunder and lightning storm.  Aaaaaannnnd, the power went out.

Of course, it was disappointing not to be able to post my word count (more on that in just a sec), but the most irritating part was that I was exactly halfway done with baking my bread.

At this point in time, you might be saying, "Bread??  What the heck, are you Miss Suzy Homemaker?"  After all, I just mentioned mopping, gardening and baking in the same entry.  And it's true, I bake bread.  But it's not like I'm up to my elbows in bread dough wearing a giant ruffled apron.  It's called No Knead Bread, people and it will change your life.  Seriously.  Anyone can make this stuff.  Google it.

I mean, yes, I like to make things.  I can make jam.  Of course, I do it in the crock pot.  It's literally the easiest thing to do in the world.  Dump in a bunch of fruit and sugar and cook it in your crock pot until your house smells yummy.  You can freeze that stuff in a bag and bring it out when you feel like it.  I'm like Modern Suzy Barbie Doll over here.  :)

Anyway, onto the word count.  17,684 for Aeris.  I didn't get more than 300 words written yesterday before my kid woke up, all ready to start the day and today, well, that's supposed to be my day of REST, but I'll probably see if I can get anything written in the hour after kidlet goes to bed before I turn into preggo zombie woman.  As for my goals, well, my original goal was 875 words a day, I think.  I've been hitting almost double that every day that I've written this week, and I'm hoping to keep it up.  Good luck to everyone else!
*Holy Crap!  I just realized I'm supposed to be halfway to 70,000 words by now.  Eeep.  Gotta get going!!

I've been talking for a while now about how I was going to review RUN by Blake Crouch.  After several hangups, I now have the chance to do so.

This book is going to be hard to describe, because there are about 2 still moments in the entire thing.  It is aptly named. :)

So, Run is a really cool mix of sci-fi and thriller.  I think that is what saves it for me.  Thrillers are great, but I've heard Crouch is a bit on the graphic side, so this book was probably the only book of his that I could have read and not put aside with a wrinkled nose.
There are a lucky few authors out there who have a mix of both education and talent, and Crouch is one of them.  His story telling is superb, if jolting at times.  By starting the story with a family on the run from a strange phenomenon that has turned humanity into one big us vs. them fight, he puts the reader on one big run with them to the finish line -which we don't find out until much later.
At first, the book is all about survival, the problem is, the crazies(as I like to call them) are everywhere, they're brutal, and they WILL find you.  The main character and his wife, plus their two kids drive from here to there, never seeming to successfully find a safe haven.
I give this book 5 stars for the following reasons:
-the storyline and pacing are incredibly addictive.  I was up until late in the night finishing this sucker.  That is a good story
-the back story between the husband and wife is carefully interspersed throughout the novel and Crouch does it well.  I love it when characters are given depth over the course of a story.  Let me tell you, as a writer, that is hard to do.
-the ending draws everything up into a neat little bow, with explanation, resolution, and a firm idea of what happens in the end, to all the characters.  Thrillers can a lot of time have abrupt endings, but this didn't, and I appreciated that.
There are a few nit-picky things I do want to mention, just because it's ME.
The first is that I find it REALLY REALLY hard to believe that the crazies found this family everywhere they did.  It's like they were all professional trackers or something.  The odds of that happening are highly unlikely.  And if it's because of the phenomena, then Crouch should have made sure to include that explanation.
The constant action was a bit wearing at times.  I think it would have affected me less if it was the man and wife and their teenage daughter, but the little boy was just 7.  That was pretty harsh and left me wondering if Crouch has kids.  It's pretty tough, as a parent, to read what happens to a KID in this book.  I mean, at one point, he has them literally crossing a MOUNTAIN, after having had nothing to eat or drink for days.  Harsh.

So, if you like a fast-paced RUN (why can't I say that except in all caps??), then this is the book for you.