The end of the road

So I finished Memory Of Light.
It took a lot longer than I had expected, because I only read a little bit at a time to make it last longer. I must admit to reading the ending fairly early on and was happy that Rand survived even if I wished he had just taken Min with him like I wanted him to. Lol.
There was a lot of battle scenes, being The Last Battle between good and evil, and sometimes I found it a little bit tedious. I also found the battle between Rand and The Dark One a bit weird, but then again how would it have played out any different really? I mean it's a man fighting a spiritual being outside of the world (kind of), and it ended up being a battle of wills/talk fest about who was the strongest.

Highlights!
Egwene's death. Not because she was my least favourite character and I was happy to see her die, but rather because she died being really kick-ass like she's never been before.
Olver blowing the horn. So well written. And Brigitte came back, yay.
Perrin fighting Slayer. Brandon Sanderson writes Perrin better than Jordan ever did.
Logain. Enough said.
Androl and Pevara. For two characters who just came into the story super late, they achieved some incredible things.
Demandred and the Sharans. Very cool, although I wish Galad had killed him.
Talmanes. Yeah!
The Red Veils. The moment that the Wise Ones realised what had happened to all their channeling males... That was a huge moment.

Lowlights!
Mat and Tuon. Just weird and I do not understand why he is so keen on her. Not believable at all.
Survivals. Maybe reading GRRM has damaged me, but I did expect more people to die. For example Lan and Faile. Almost annoying. It was the Last Battle after all...
Elayne. What a stupid little girl! She is such a frustrating character, running around the battlefield whilst 6 months pregnant. Oh my goodness.
The stupidity of the Forsaken. For a bunch of people meant to be super-bad and smart and evil, they're really stupid...

So yeah, the end of that era of my life. Feels good, overall I was very satisfied with the end. Now it's a waiting game until March 11th when the last book in the Rain Wilds Chronicles come out.

Look! Look! LOOOOK!

I won it! I did it! Hooray for me!

First time I have ever won anything online, and it's such a cool thing. Only 500 of them exist :-)

Ashaman Kill!

I stumbled onto this on twitter. It's the making of the e-book cover for Lord of Chaos; the sixth book of WOT. The first time we all get to see the Ashaman in action; killing the Shaido Aiel at Dumai's Wells. Most certainly one of the most confronting scenes from the whole series, and the best battle.
The artwork is amazing, it captures it so well. Anyone could appreciate this, so even if you don't like/read WOT, please spend 5 minutes to watch this painting grow. Beautiful.

The lovely Rand

Great day at work, great day after work. Still can't hear with my left ear but energy levels much higher. Started second lot of antibiotics.

I have nothing much to talk about, and I am going to hit the sack early tonight which means no more computer.

Anyways, I only logged in because I really wanted to share this picture of Rand. I found it not long ago, and it's my new favourite. Yay.

Good night!!!

Saturday morning

I'm getting better, although as always antibiotics work slowly. H went out for drinks with work friends last night so I stayed up until midnight to finish the book! Then my blessed 3-year old slept until 9.30am this morning!!!! That has like NEVER happened before. H is currently working on Jolene, M is busy with his new Ben10 toy and I'm just relaxing. Tomorrow is archery, and I intend to go! So, Towers of Midnight... yes, it was slow to begin with. But it made up for all of that in the end. From lurking around the forums it seems a lot of people were disappointed with the rescue of Moiraine. I thought it was great. Just perfect actually. And who cares that everyone knew exactly what was going to happen, from all the prophecies surrounding it? It was still awesome. And now all the forces of the world are gathering in one place to prevent Rand from breaking the seals... whilst at the same time Trollocs attack Caemlyn. Not good. I loved it when Egwene looked up at the clouded skies and then clouds parted to reveal a blue sky and that was enough for her to know that Rand had arrived. Go Rand! I don't mind the whole Jesus-thing that's going on with him. It's cool. On the other hand I really do not like the Mierin/Lanfear drama at the end. I mean really, is he going there again? Please don't. Well, obviously there is sooo much I can comment on, but I won't. Now I just got to wait until 2012 for the last book, and the Last Battle. And find something else to read in the meantime.

Poor me

Went to doctor today. He was quite shocked at the state of my ear. Gave me very strong antibiotics. Seems that even though the pain is gone, the infection is still raging and I have a temperature and everything. Well, being the superwoman I am I still managed to take M to swim school and then McDonalds and a walk around Target whilst we waited for the doctors appointment. He's being well-behaved though, because he knows mummy is sick.
Well, Towers of Midnight is improving towards the end. I can almost forgive Perrin for all of his stuffing around because he is doing some awesome stuff. Elayne though... GAH! I can't stand her. Looking around the forums it's funny how nobody is even bothering commenting on her, like nobody wants to talk about her. She is such an idiot. There are a lot of reunions in the book, which of course is totally satisfying. I would have liked more of Rand and Min, but perhaps they'll be in the last few chapters. And of course, Mat and Thom and Noal rescuing Moiraine has yet to happen; awaiting that with great anticipation.

Halfway through...

... Towers of Midnight. Not sure what I think. Might have to re-read it after I'm finished. I mean, Rand is awesome and there are some great battle scenes from the Borderlands, but Perrin is doing my head in! Nothing is happening, except for running with the wolves again and again and again. Gah. I know he's supposed to do something amazing later on in the book, but right now I almost feel like skimming through the bits about him.
Mat is entertaining enough, although he's still not quite right. Elayne is just as dumb and stupid and annoying and idiotic as she has always been. Egwene and Aes Sedai politics is getting tiresome, there was too much of that in the previous book.
Best scene so far though, and perhaps the best scene in the whole series must be Rand walking up to his dad, embracing him, apologizing and crying in front of everyone. Then to turn around and introduce Min to his father. Wow. That was amazing... sooooo amazing. Well, I am a girl. We girls like that stuff. I am enjoying the battle scenes too though! Ha ha ha...

Less than a week to go...

... until Towers of Midnight!!!
Strange day today, for some reason. H went to Rockhampton, just overnight. I worked a short day, then went home and did a thousand and one chores before picking M up at kindy. We've had a relaxing evening, watching The Secret of NIMH and some Ben10.
Reading through The Gathering Storm, in anticipation of next Tuesday. Reminding myself of all those Aes Sedai names I had forgotten. All the Black Ajah, and so on. The spoiler sections of Dragonmount is in full swing because some people have managed to get a copy early.
I don't want to spoil it this time. I want to read on Tuesday, and be surprised at what happens.
I'm hoping for goodness for Rand, Mat and Perrin. Goodness for Nynaeve and Lan. Goodness for Min. And I really, really want to know who Demandred is.

"Apples First"

Woke up really early to read Leigh Butler's re-read post as I always do on Saturday mornings. But there was no re-read. There was something much better! The first chapter of TofM called "Apples First" has been released on Tor's website.
And we got to see Rand, I'm so happy. I do love Mat and Perrin too, but Rand is definitely my favourite ta'veren. And now he's all positive energy and geared up for all he must do.
It's a month to go now. I have never waited for a book in this way before, it is so exciting.
The boys are still sleeping, of course, and so they can for a while longer. We got AOS's birthday party at 11am, so it'll be a lazy morning I believe.
Might go read that chapter again...

Lan, Perrin and Graendal.

YES YES YES! I have obtained the prologue for Towers of Midnight (perfectly legally too)... on audiobook! Yes, very random but it seems it was the one and only way to access it for people outside North America. Can't say I'm enjoying the audiobook experience though, it's a bit frustrating, but hey! Yay!!!! So listened to Lan, Perrin and Graendals POVs today, might do the others tonight or tomorrow. Lan was good, Perrin was a bit boring, but obviously Graendal was awesome. What a sneaky little Forsaken she is. Today has been the first time in a very, very long time we had nothing planned or organised to do. So we went crazy at Chermside! It was great. I got new work shoes, perfume from Body Shop, a cookbook about chocolate (originally I was going to look for diet-books but the chocolate book was the one that caught my eye, figure that) and contacts. H bought wallet and M got a new poster for his room and a really nice yellow T-shirt with giraffes on it. I got his shirt at Myer, where they always have good quality kids clothes that look quite different from the stuff at Target/Big W/K-Mart. So I think this will be his new party-shirt (he ain't wearing it to kindy!). Also finalised AOS's birthday present for next weekend. We also had some lunch (I finally had my sushi) and of course... coffee. Now M is sleeping, H is having a rest as he's still not feeling 100% and I've been listening to DISTINCTIONS!!! Good day. Good good good! And tomorrow it's archery time again.

There was a huntsman spider on my arm

I just screamed!!! It must have jumped on me whilst I was downstairs doing washing and then started casually walking along my arm. I noticed it once it left my sleeve and moved onto my naked arm. I screamed in fright, spider jumped in fright and landed on wall. We both took a moment to calm our nerves. Hey, lucky it didn't bite me. It was a huge one too, one of the biggest I've ever seen.
That's probably the most exciting thing to have happened today. Oh wait, no! We got approval from body corp to put solar panels up! Yay. H will most likely get on to that on the weekend, if I know him. So superkeen. He's a solar panel installer. Bye bye $300 electricity bills...
Still no luck with Distinctions. Illegal-download-savvy work colleague spent heaps of time trying to find it last night, but with no luck. She reckons it might be up in a couple of days. She has been great trying so hard. Even if she doesn't end up finding it, she most definitely deserves present. I love tea-presents myself, both to give and to receive.
Anyways so I did what I had promised myself not to do. I went in to the spoiler section of my favourite WOT-forum. And now I sort of know what happens, and I actually feel less anxious. Ahhh.
H is back. He is cooking dinner tonight. Life is great.

Distinctions (TofM prologue)

Was released today as an ebook and is freaking not available to people outside the US. Like, I tried to buy it from Barnes&Noble... but no can do. Then checked Dragonmount, and yeah. Everyone is having the same issue, it seems. I really, really wanted to buy it properly to support Jordan/Sanderson but now I might just have to turn to illegal-download-savvy work colleague. And perhaps pay her like $20 for the bother. Yes, I am happy to pay that much! But nobody else wants my money...
Anyways, I finally went to bed last night without even having the energy to look at my book. Just totally depressed all day. And today at work was only slightly better, because it was very quiet and I had very little to do which left me with too much time to think. Fortunately a big family with four young boys came in to see the dentist and entertained me for a while.
Got home and we had no electricity. It came back on after like an hour and now there are Energex-people fixing stuff around the corner from our unit.
Picked M up early from kindy because I missed him so much, and then we went and had coffee and some food at Coffee Club. Now home, he's watching Ben10 and I'm on computer. H home very late tonight...
Good thing! My mummy got her present, the jumper I bought for her from UnderCoverWear. And she likes it... well, she says she does. Either way, I'm stoked!!!

The Great Hunt is over

Yes, this morning got up and there it was. Readable first chapter of TofM, about Mat. It's good, although I still don't quite think he gets Mat perfectly right. I can't pinpoint it though, perhaps he just isn't sarcastic enough? Like it's a bit too flat. Anyways! Whatever! It's almost here and I am so excited I could squeek! Chapter was a bit of an introduction really, and ended in a cliffhanger as to be expected, but I must say I loved the bit about Teslyn. That just made the wait worth it.
So spoke to P&E this morning, they were back from trip to Helsingfors (Helsinki, that is). Good chat, as always. M has watched Ben 10 Alien Force this morning, and once the load of washing is ready, we might wander over to the shops. There are actually a few things I want to do at the shops, all depending on M's cooperation of course. New clothes, perhaps might finally get some make-up, see if I can get a hold of another one of those cookbooks, a few groceries to last until Sunday and then coffee and cinnamon toast at Coffee Club.
Did some good writing last night, this new POV I'm working on is shaping up nicely. It's pleasant to write about someone who is calm and collected, after the chaotic state of mind of my previous POV. Gives a better idea of what is really going on too, because he is standing back watching it all observing quite accurately. It's needed, an accurate and not too emotional depiction. The biggest challenge really is remembering how little he knows about what has happened in the past.
H home this afternoon! Yay!

Change Of Plans

M has sore tummy, a bit of diarrhoea and he doesn't want to go to swim class today. Fair enough. He said he didn't want to do yucky poos in the pool.
We still got to go there though, to pay the fees because next Friday we have too much other things to do. That's okay, we also have to go to the bank and the post office.
So yeah, taking it easy today then.
There has been massive progress with the Great Hunt! Soooooo exciting!
Check it out! www.brandonsanderson.com/thegreathunt
The Seven-Striped Lass, hey. Well, could that possibly be Egwene?

In spite of hangover, this has been a good day. We went to Redcliffe for lunch and the markets were on too. It's raining lots. H bought me a beautiful flower, I'll put a pic up of it tomorrow. It's got a smiley face on it!

Well, this Great Hunt is driving me crazy! Every hour I try to submit five new phrases but haven't gotten anything. Apparently on one of the WOT-forums they have collected all tried and failed attempts; there are like thousands. Obviously there are lots of us trying! The phrases we're trying to guess are the chapter titles for TofM and there's this secret text on Brandon Sandersons website (probably the first chapter of the book) that is slowly being deciphered every time there is a correct guess. Also, Brandon is leaving hints and clues around where he goes, to move it all along. Such fun, but awfully frustrating too! I need to read!!!

The TofM trailer was released too, but it's a bit lame. I like the new e-book cover for The Gathering Storm though. Not as great as previous one, but not bad! Egwene fighting the Seanchan. She is very much not my favourite character.

So yeah, massive WOT-weekend! It's getting close now, November 2nd. What do I look forward to the most... well, definitely Mat and Thom and Noal (and perhaps Olver) saving Moiraine, and then hopefully Rand and everyone else finding out Mat is married to the Empress. Then, what else? The Black Tower, Morgase and Galad, Lan too. And I really, really hope Min (who is like one of my favourites) will redeem herself and finally get to save Rands life. I think she deserves it.

Missing my monkey

Halfway through my me-day. So I dropped off M just after 7am, then went home to do some writing waiting for the shops to open. Went to Chermside at 9am, had coffee and breakfast at Zarraffas, bought Wheel of Time Facts book and a keyring for myself (keyring is of little geisha who signifies harmony, thought that was appropriate) and of course I had to buy something for M so I got him a new card game, called the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Wandered around aimlessly at Chermside, noticing how many kids were there, thinking it'd be nice to have M with me...

Come home. House is empty, no M. I am having my me-day finally after like 8-9 months and I miss my monkey so much!!! How typical. Not used to being all alone. Will move on to chores now, not terribly exciting but satisfying still.

The biggest most amazing news of the day is of course the new cover for the Knife of Dreams e-book. It's beautiful! One of my favourite scenes in the whole series; Semirhage attacking Rand who can't jump out of the way because Min is standing behind him. Ends with him loosing his hand, but Semirhage gets what she deserves later on. The only thing I'm not too sure about is Min, she isn't supposed to be so doll-like pretty. At least not how I imagined her. Either way, isn't it beautiful?

40 minutes on a train with my 3-year old

Train rides alone are awesome. With a book. Some music. It's relaxing.

With a crazy hyperactive 3-year old it's quite different. Kind of like trying to eat lunch at a restaurant with friends with a crazy hyperactive 3-year old. And that pretty much sums up my day.

So yeah, I'm freaking exhausted. And so is M so he's sleeping. I'm making lasagna for tonight because it's much easier to cook without him screaming for attention.

Well, the important papers left Australia at midnight. They should arrive in Europe perhaps even on Thursday morning/midday there. That seems like a good start to me.

Attaching amazing cover art for Winters Heart e-book. It's Rand cleansing saidin with the Choedan Kal. I love it, although I thought he kept his eyes closed and his hands on his knees? Anyways... stop being such a nerd, Annie!

Trying to find something to do

So it's still morning and I am totally lost as to what M and I are going to do today. We have no playdates booked for today and I have no credit on my phone to organise one, it's raining so can't go to the park and have no money to go for coffee or anything like that.
Am thinking library. Free, dry and maybe M will like it. Maybe... well, it's worth a try! Just hope he won't start scaling the shelves in his Spidey outfit.
Googled for ideas for free kids activities in our area and found a Ben10 show tomorrow at midday just a fifteen minute drive from here! Awesome!
So Swedish Demons wrote back this morning. It was not a pleasant email, but I expected that since I had questioned why they had posted a certain letter to me which I thought was utterly unnecessary. And apparently I earn too much money... bah! I work 15 hours a week. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. Hey, it ain't worth crying over so I will laugh. Ha ha ha! Whatever you Swedish Demons.
Trying to finish Clash of Kings by GRRM right now. But it's a struggle. Not that it's not a good read, it's an amazing one really, but I already have an idea of what will happen (because I looked it up on wikipedia after a few drinks a while back) and also because I know the series will most likely never be finished.
Oh, can't wait for Towers of Midnight. Now THERE is an epic where there is an end in sight! Go Rand! Go the Dragon Reborn! I mean, look at him! How cool is he!
Yes, I am a fantasy nerd.