Thursday Thirteen

1. I do not have a favorite author or book, even though I read about 50 books a year.

2. Instead, I take in new books all the time, like a word vacuum, constantly sucking up new ideas and words.

3. When I was young, I wanted to read and collect every Nancy Drew book. They were written by Carolyn Keene, which was a pseudonym. The books were actually written by a number of people.

4. I ended up with only 25 of the 175 original Nancy Drew books. I still have them. They fill a shelf in the living room and are so dusty I would sneeze if I tried to read them.


5. Every now and then I think about donating them to the library book sale but so far I have not been able to part with them.

6.Nancy Drew has a best girl friend named George. And another whose name I forget. Bess I think but I'm not certain.

7. Her boyfriend's name is Ned.

8. She has a father but no mother. Her dad is an attorney.

9. Nancy also has a car.

10. Her books are mysteries that in hindsight are rather silly but when I was 10 years old they were quite interesting and intriguing.

11. I tried to write my own series of mysteries at the age of 11.

12. I remember I used a red notebook.

13. I have no idea what happened to that little series of stories. I can only imagine how bad they were ...


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

Mother and Child

Book: Fearless Fourteen

Fearless Fourteen
By Janet Evanovich
310 pages
Copyright 2008

Number 14 in the Stephanie Plum series brings about a fast-paced story with little character development.

Stephanie finds herself babysitting a teenager who is her boyfriend Joe's cousin. There are bombs, the return of Mooner, Grandma learning to play video games, Lula chasing after Tank - the usual found in these books.

There was not, however, much growth in the characters.

Maybe I'm just getting tired of this series?

2.5 stars

At 10 p.m.

Around 10 p.m. last night, the house began to shake.

The sounds of a low-flying helicopter forced us to rise from our half-asleep stupor as we lounged on the couch watching Ice Road Truckers.

I figured it was Army choppers flying across to wherever they go. They do that though usually not so low that it makes the dishes dance in the cupboard.

My husband went to the garage and hollered for me to follow.

The helicopter had a search light and was flying all around the farm. We watched as it went down behind the hill in front of the house.

"It either just landed or crashed in the hayfield," I said. We couldn't see exactly what had happened.

Was it a police chopper? My husband thought it might be. He feared a break out at the penitentiary five miles down the road.

So he hurried into his clothes. "Lock all the doors and call Daddy and make sure he's alright," he said as he rushed out.

I roused my father-in-law, who sleepily said he thought something must be going on because he heard a racket.

My husband called just moments later. "It's Lifeguard 10," he said.

This service, Virginia's first helicopter transport, is called only in dire emergencies.

A neighbor was seriously ill and in need of evacuation. The hospital's helicopter had made a landing and was preparing to move the patient.

My husband, the firefighter-EMT, stayed to assist and to offer support to the neighbors. He even drove a mile or so down the road to one of the neighbor's sons' houses and picked him up and brought him back.

Several other neighbors have called this morning to ask what the commotion was all about.

It isn't often we have search lights and helicopters making the rounds in the dark on the farm.

No word on the ill neighbor, unfortunately. I do hope she will be well.

Old Folks Update

My mother-in-law remains in a rehabilitation facility, but she is doing great!

Everyone should be such a good and motivated patient. I have great admiration for her spirit and pluck. I look for her to be home soon, maybe even this week.

She is in her mid-70s.

Meanwhile, a visit to my great aunt, Susie, who is 88, revealed that she has gone downhill in a hurry. I just saw her two weeks ago and she was walking with a walker and animated, etc.

She was asleep when I went in and she's often muddled when I wake her. What really shocked me was the fact that she could hardly stand up to get in a wheel chair when they came to get her for lunch.

She said they had given her a different medication for pain in her legs. I am wondering if this new drug has contributed to her rapid decline.

Four Things

This meme comes from Sweetfluttersbys. She challenged anyone who wanted to follow her in doing this and I was feeling obliging.

So here goes:

Four jobs I’ve had

-sales and purchasing in a machine shop
-legal secretary/receptionist
-small town weekly reporter
-retail clerk in a downtown Roanoke store

Four movies I can watch over and over

- Dirty Dancing
- Steel Magnolias
- Flashdance
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (all three movies)

Four places I’ve lived

- Salem, VA
- On Lee's Gap Road outside of Fincastle, VA
- On Breckinridge Mill Road outside of Fincastle, VA
- On Blacksburg Road outside of Fincastle, VA.

Obviously I have pretty much lived in one place all of my life.


Four TV shows I love

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Xena: Warrior Princess
- Cagney & Lacey
- Six Feet Under

Four places I’ve vacationed

-Myrtle Beach, SC
-Williamsburg, VA
-Gatlinburg, TN
-Virginia Beach, VA

Four of my favorite foods

-chocolate
-root beer
-strawberries
-yeast rolls

Four sites I visit daily

-Blogger/favorite blogs
-Google.com
-AOL
-wherever my work and research takes me

Four places I would rather be right now

-on vacation at Myrtle Beach, SC
-In a cabin in the woods where no one can find me
-Scotland, Ireland or England
-in bed with my husband ;-)

Okay, anybody else wanna play? Have at it.

Me, When I was Young

I would have been three years old in this picture of me with my baby brother.

My doll was what I called my "Grandma" doll. She was made of very hard plastic and looked old to me. She talked when you pulled her string but I do not recall what she said. Her legs were straight but hinged at the hip so you could move her.

I thought it might be a Mrs. Beasley doll but I looked it up and it is not. So I do not know the doll's real name.

My mother kept me in dresses for a very long time. I hated to get dirty and loved to be prissy and girly, I have been told.

By my pre-teens that was certainly gone. I started wearing blue jeans and never looked back. Today I don't even own a dress, although I will wear skirts.

My hair turned from blond to brown (and now to gray) as I moved through the years.

I recall a few things about those early years. I remember a snake curled around a tree while I was playing, getting sand in my eyes and crying for my grandmother or the fire department (it must've burned like h*ll), and eating a wild onion in the back yard. (And it took me very long time to eat onions again.)

I also remember a box kite flight, my mother fainting in the floor, my father playing guitar, washing the dishes while standing in a chair (I must have been five or younger because we were gone from there by then), and learning that the tooth fairy and Santa Claus were myths.

I figured out the latter because I knocked out my tooth and the tooth fairy left me a 50 cent piece. I found a bowl of 50 cent pieces not long after while I was dusting for my mother. I immediately put it together and told her there was no tooth fairy and no Santa and no Easter Bunny.

I promised not to let my brother know the truth and he was nearly 10 before he found out, I think. He was devastated by the news.

I was a very smart and precocious child and a handful, I suppose. I was reading by the time I was four. I began reading newspapers before the age of six, even if I didn't understand what I was looking at.

I don't remember this but my mother said when I was three I began talking about Scotland and living in a castle and walking in the moors and losing my head in a beheading. She told me once it scared her and she thought I must have been reincarnated.

I wish she had written it down.

I also remember falling and hitting my head; I still have a small and unnoticeable ridge in my forehead where I cracked it.

And then there was the ghost that sat on the edge of my bed at night and the man who was playing poker with my father who shot himself in the leg.

We had two Dalmatians and both of them were run over by the milk truck. They were named Prince and Princess.

And I had a little plastic bank in the shape of Dino the Dinosaur and a blue stuffed puppy dog that I carried around until my brother decided it was his.

I received a blue bike with training wheels when I was five and it had a Batgirl doll sitting on the seat when I woke up that Christmas morning.

I loved kindergarten but hated the first grade because the teacher, Mrs. Zircle at East Salem Elementary School, was very mean. I later was told that her husband had died that year and I was able to forgive her for her many unkindnesses because obviously she was very sad.

And then we moved to the country, where my mother's father grew up, and I became a country girl.

Thursday Thirteen

1. I wonder what it says about us as a society that http://civilization.com is about a video game?

2. I like Pop Tarts but I don't eat them very often. Blueberry is my favorite but it can give me heartburn.

3. Today is the day my parents' house burned down in 1989.

4. It was hit by lightning.

5. My wedding gown burned in the fire. My mother was storing it for me.

6. I saw nine turkeys in the field yesterday and was greatly relieved.

7. I was afraid the logging efforts next door had forced them to leave.

8. I haven't had any chocolate to speak of since the middle of June.

9. I haven't had any root beer, either.

10. I have, however, lost nearly 10 pounds.

11. The sun is shining very brightly today.

12. My efforts at Thursday Thirteen today are pretty lame.

13. I give myself an "E" for the effort and a "D" for the results. I haven't played for a few weeks because I've had many other things on my mind. It shows.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

A Quiet Moment

Recommendations?

I am contemplating a week away from home sans work and husband in some nice quite B&B or small cabin. I want a writing retreat, is what I want.

A place to write poetry or short stories or work on my forgotten novel without interruption and worry.

I need a place that is no smoking and no inside pets (cats and dogs) because of my allergies. Preferably a country setting but the beach is good too. Mountains are negotiable.

Also not overly expensive.

It should be within a day's driving distance of Roanoke, which leaves open a very wide range of territory.

If anyone knows of such a place that they recommend, I'd sure like to hear of it.

Shroom

My Trees, Part II

I am happy to report that the loggers pulled out.

They left behind a mess.

My view my window went from this in the spring:



To this in summer:



To this, which is pretty much what it looks like now, except that the leaves on the dead branches are dying.



They left the trees that had no value. The remaining two oaks forked and so were not good sawmill logs. I am thankful they did not cut them for pulp wood like they did so many others. At least I still have a tree to see, although I worry that it will die without its friends to help protect it from the weather.

Though the loggers call this "selective" cutting, by the time more than 250 trees were murdered, the selectiveness of it is pretty much semantics. The loggers left the Paradise trees and small trees. They also left a stand of poplars because bees had built nests in them.

Hooray for the bees.

I have no idea how many animals were displaced, all the squirrels who lost their homes and winter stores, the owls and birds and chipmunks and other creatures.

Not to mention all those mythical gnomes and fairies that I was sure lived in enchanted areas. They are gone too, off to find a new home where the sounds of chainsaws do not make raucous racket.

I am sure the air has grown thicker and more polluted just in recent days. And the sounds around my home are stronger; I can hear neighbors in distant subdivisions. The other night I heard The Star Spangled Banner from the Botetourt Sports Complex waft across as clear as if I were standing in the stadium.

Sounds I had not heard before.

I am glad they left a few trees, but the environmental damage has certainly sickened my soul.

Big Spring Park

Welcome to Big Spring Park in Fincastle.



This little park is the site of many weddings and other events. During the week, it is mostly empty, though.



There are a couple of memorials in the park. The above is for September 11. A few stone benches in the park have the names of Big Spring Garden Club members who have passed on.



When I was in elementary school, which was a long time ago in the 1970s, we'd troop down to Big Spring Park for our end-of-year picnic. The park is within walking distance of Breckinridge Elementary School. I thought then that it was the greatest park in the world.



The park is also next to Fincastle Presbyterian Church. The cemetery holds the remains of a number of Botetourt County Revolutionary War heroes.

It Just Needs a Wind

Three Bucks

On Tuesday morning I looked out the front door to see:



Thankfully we own this and there will be no logging there. Of course deer need a large habitat and without the oak trees and their acorns they probably will have no reason to frequent my field.



They stood up as my husband left for work on his motorcycle. As he ventured down the driveway, they were joined by a buddy:



Four bucks. The last one was the nicest; I think he was an eight-pointer.

MIL Update

Thank you all for the good thoughts and prayers about my mother-in-law and her poor broken hip.

She has been moved to a rehab facility and seems to be resting comfortably. I don't know how long she will be there - as long as it takes, I suppose. Her prognosis is good.

Unless something happens I likely won't post about her again until she comes home. For now she is doing well and hopefully that will continue.

When a Tree Falls...

I last wrote in late June about the logging efforts on the property next to ours.

I could have written about it nearly every day but it was my own personal angst, mine and my husband's. We have watched the forest dwindle as the logger, who initially was only going to cut out trees for lumber, moved to clear cutting.

Despite the fact that this is family land, it's not in our control and we could not stop this.

Below was the view out of my office window. I saw this every morning for the last 21 years.

This morning about 7:10 a.m. as I finished up an email, I glanced up and saw this:



At the very base of one of the trees stands the a*sholes, er, loggers. I immediately began to cry when I saw them. We had been told these trees likely wouldn't be taken away for $50 a tree pulp wood but...















I cried the whole time I shot these pictures, and felt the thump as the tree landed. It felt like my soul had been wrenched from me and I could feel the earth weeping.





This is what it looks like as I write this (with tears in my eyes and my heart just falling from my chest). I guess tomorrow the view will be completely different.

Damn, I loved those trees.

Summer Sunset

Books: Morrigan's Cross

Morrigan's Cross
By Nora Roberts
Audio Book, 6 hours
Read by Dick Hill
Copyright 2006

This is the first book in the Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts. I picked it up not because of the author but because of the reader. Dick Hill always does a fabulous job in his book reads.

The book turned out to be much better than I anticipated and I will get the next in the series.

Hoyt is a sorcerer in 12th century Ireland. His brother, Cian, becomes a vampire. The goddess Morrigan charges Hoyt with the task of stopping the queen vampire, Lilith, from taking over the world on Samhain in the land of Geall.

The kicker? It's in modern day times, not the 12th century, so the goddess sends the sorcerer through time to his brother's house. Cian, a vampire who has decided to forgo drinking the blood of humans and instead focus on commerce, agrees to help.

Glenna Ward is a witch who joins the circle of six that is set to stop this apocalypse. Along the way the others join up, Larkin and Moria, from Geall, a magical land not on any map, and finally Blair Murphy (think Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

The book ended with a major battle, with more to come. Having now decided I like the characters, of course I must finish the trilogy!

And Dick Hill did a fantastic job as a reader, as always.

3.5 stars

MIL Update

My mother-in-law, E., had surgery for her broken hip, finally, around 9 p.m. or so last night.

It went well and she was in recovery by midnight. My sister-in-law stayed with her mother last night and everyone else went home for some much-needed rest.

My nephews spent the night with their grandfather. My husband has taken the boys and his dad to Shoney's for an all-boys breakfast this morning. He then plans to take his father to the hospital.

I have deadlines so I am home working. I likely will go up later today to relieve someone or just to visit or whatever I am asked to do. If they think I am better used elsewhere, like doing the in-laws laundry or something, I will do that too. I think things like that will be sorted out better once they have a firmer grip on what is happening, probably later this morning.

My sister-in-law called around 6:30 a.m. and said E. was resting comfortably and eating a little. They will try to get her up to stand on her leg today.

The doctor said he didn't anticipate she would be in a lot of pain, but I don't know how you can have something like that done and *not* have pain.

They will discuss rehabilitation with her later today. We expect she will have to go into a facility for a while, time unknown at this point.

My mother-in-law has scarcely been sick a day since I've known her, other than an occasional headache or a mild cold. She has always enjoyed good health. She is a very quiet and undemanding sort of person and she will worry herself more about my father-in-law, who has heart issues and carries around oxygen tanks, than her own health. She is an old-fashioned lady who caters to his every whim. He will have to get over that, I guess, at least for several months.

Getting old pretty much sucks. It is certainly not something to look forward to and no reward for a life well-lived.

Bad News Sunday

My mother-in-law, who is about 75, fell and broke her hip this morning. Spent all day waiting on a surgeon and an operating room.

Still waiting. Will update when I know more. Prayers, good thoughts, etc. welcomed.

Procrastination...

I am always on time, usually early. I never miss a deadline on my articles.

If I'm supposed to call someone at a certain hour or meet someone at a certain date, I am there.

But when it comes to doing stuff for myself? Fuhgedaboutid.

Time for my short story? Nope, the house needs cleaning.

Time to write a poem? Sorry, have to make a phone call.

Time to work on my article? Oh yes, the editor wants that!

Time to get serious about dieting? I'll do it tomorrow when I have a moment to research it.

Time to do something for the Board I am on? You name it, I'm your lady.

Time to work on your novel? Later, when the sun sets and its cooler...

Any excuse will do, it seems. Time apparently is my number one nemeses.

I have made any number of efforts to tackle my personal projects. Most that I fail at are long-term initiatives, like losing weight and writing anything longer than an article.

I lack a stick-to-it-ness that evades me.

About four weeks ago I received my weekly Marketing Minute newsletter from Marcia Yudkin. She runs a marketing website and apparently works 24/7 on her business.

I am no marketing genius but figure it's something I ought to know, being a writer and all. I read the newsletter looking for ideas that might apply to what I do, which is write little articles for local publications.

Four week ago, Yudkin offered a 10-week weekly email course in procrastination for $20.

On impulse, I signed up for it at about 6 a.m. one Friday morning.

The result has been a series of emails urging me to examine my work habits and figure out what is holding me back.

It took me nearly six days to open the first email. It sat in my box, pulsing and growing larger and larger in my mind until I finally clicked on it. I was putting it off, you understand...

Subsequent emails have lain in my in-box for several days, although not as long as that first one. This behavior alone tells me something. There is something there I am not dealing with, some fear of doing something for myself that keeps me from moving forward.

Don't know what it is yet, but maybe by Week 10 I'll have figured it out.

The email course also comes with unexpected boosters about the middle of the week. This has been helpful, too. Reminders to think about why I procrastinate.

I have never met Marcia Yudkin, who is sending me these prompts. She wrote a book in 1988 called Freelance Writing for Magazines and Newspapers: Breaking In Without Selling Out which I still have. I found it useful at the time. I daresay it's outdated these days, what with the Internet and all, but the basic tenets remain true.

Later when I ran across her name and website somewhere, I remembered the book. Quite a number of years ago I subscribed to her free marketing newsletter.

She finally snagged me again, I guess.

She's published a number of books and on the surface, anyway, appears to have a thriving business. She's into something I'm not really interested in, which is PR, but it's still writing.

Whatever she does, I bet she doesn't procrastinate.

Invasive Health Insurance

In 2006, I developed a number of health issues, one of of which sent me to the ER with chest pains.

My doctor ordered a stress test, which thankfully came back negative. The ol' ticker wasn't the problem, but I was pretty sure of that anyway.

The event triggered an inquiry by my health insurance company, and they stuck me in a Care Program for people with chronic issues. Even though the results were negative.

I admit I am not the healthiest person. I am overweight and I am chemically sensitive. However, no one treats me for chemical sensitivity except my acupuncturist (thank the Creator for Chinese Medicine at this time in my life).

I am pretty sure all of my issues in 2006 had to do with the installation of new carpeting in the bedroom that January, but I can't convince anyone else of that.

At any rate, now I get these aggravatingly invasive phone calls from my health insurance provider on a regular basis. An RN is on the other end.

This person wants to know how I'm doing, what my blood levels are (as if I go to the doctor every three weeks to get that checked; I think not), and if I managing my stress well.

It's a different nurse every time, and each gives you different advice. Each goes into different types of histrionics over my health care condition, as if I am going to drop over dead in the next 30 seconds because I have moderately high cholesterol. Or because I have mild asthma. Or because I'm overweight. Or whatever they happen to pick up on.

Yesterday it was my blood pressure. What is your blood pressure? the lady wanted to know. I have no idea, I said.

Well what was it the last time you had it checked.

I said I didn't know.

Well, what do you think it was?

I threw out a number. 120/90. (I honestly have no idea what it was.)

Oh, that's high. You need to go to the doctor right away (actually, that is not really a high number. I asked my husband the EMT.).

I told you I was making that up, I said. I have no idea what my blood pressure is, and even if by chance it was that when I saw the doctor in March, I HAD THE FLU and don't consider that a good yardstick.

Well, then you should go to Walmart and get your blood pressure checked right away. You need to keep an eye on that and have it done. We'll call back next week for those numbers.

I'm not going to Walmart by then, I said. I live in a rural area. I don't go to Walmart that frequently.

You can't get your blood pressure checked within the next week? She was incredulous.

No.

Well then we'll call your doctor and get your last numbers, the nurse huffed, obviously unhappy at my unwillingness to get in my car that very moment and go have my blood pressure taken.

That's fine, I said.

To top it off, I have told them since they began calling me that I could only talk on Thursdays, and yesterday was THE FIRST TIME they actually called on a Thursday.

Last week one of them called on Tuesday just as I was headed out the door. I actually hung up on her after I told her I couldn't talk and she just kept right on asking questions.

I guess there are people who welcome this constant intrusion on their personal lives, but not me.

I want out of this horribly invasive program. I didn't ask to be in it in the first place and I find it such an invasion of my privacy that if I so much as think it's one of these nurses calling I don't answer the phone. Yesterday I wasn't paying attention when I picked up. Besides, they hadn't been calling on Thursdays!

What I don't know is if I have to be in the damn program or not in order to keep the insurance.

Thursday Thirteen

1. I'm down to my last vehicle payment on my Toyota! But the final bill from my lender ... was very late.

2. For 59 months, no problem. The very last payment, which I knew would be slightly different, and ... no bill.

3. I wondered briefly if it was a scam to ensure I owed more money by not paying on time. Being old fashioned, I still pay by mail.

4. I foxed them and found my statement online and paid it that way, though.

5. The mail service seems very slow these days, but I still think a letter for 42 cents is a good deal.

6. I relish a letter in the mail more than an email. You can't get your hands around an email.

7. Once my mother mailed me a birthday card from Salem, which is about 25 miles away. It reached me three months later.

8. The card had been to Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to marks on it. I don't know why.

9. I can remember when stamps were about 10 cents. I suspect that makes me rather old.

10. Of course I can also remember when gas was 25 cents a gallon and when my parents thought $1 was too much to pay.

11. The rise in postage and the rise in the cost of gasoline are not compatible, are they?

12. I always thought being a mail delivery person would be a good job, if you didn't mind walking or being on your feet.

13. Rural route carriers get to drive around in a vehicle, and that doesn't seem so bad. I imagine they know all kinds of things about my neighbors, don't you?


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

BZZZZ

Too Sad

I am too sad to write

when the world is bound

by those who chain

the souls of lovers.

Too blue to cry, even,

when the word comes down

that the days grow shorter

and minutes die, tick tock.

To scared to blink

I only stare at the remains

of dreams I used to know

laughter I thought I heard.

Too sad to write

too blue for tears.

Quiet Grace

Independence Day

These photos were taken on July 4, 2007, at the Town of Fincastle festivities at Breckinridge Elementary School. A similiar event will take place tonight.

Thursday Thirteen: The Bucket List

We watched The Bucket List Saturday night. Nice movie.

Of course it brought up two things: my own bucket list and whether or not I want to be buried or cremated.

On the latter point, I don't think I will be cremated because my husband's family does not do that. When I mentioned it as an option to my husband he informed me he could not do that to me.

But as for a bucket list? Well, I thought I'd see if I could come up with a Thursday Thirteen for that. So here you go, in no particular order:

1. Write a novel and have it published.

2. Write a nonfiction book and have it published.

3. Visit my relatives in California.

4. See Niagara Falls.

5. Do something that helps a lot of people.

6. Invent or discover something that has a great impact upon society.

7. Restore a broken relationship in a manner that would not be detrimental to either one of us.

8. Pray and/or meditate more regularly.

9. Find my true passion. Or acknowledge if I already am doing it!

10. Lose my fear.

11. Learn to dance.

12. Inspire other people.

13. Get close to a person who is younger than I.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

I See You

Books: Confessor

Confessor
By Terry Goodkind
Audiobook read by Sam Tsoutsouvas
Copyright 2007
24 hours of listening!

The last of the Sword of Truth series culminated in much preaching from the author through his characters and a great deal of repetition.

Having listened to all of these books, each of which was exceedingly long, I rate this as the weakest.

Goodkind brought back almost all characters of any importance, contriving ways to add them to the plot.

Richard is a slave along with his beloved Kahlan. Kahlan, the last confessor, has lost her memory and doesn't know who she is. Richard, the Lord Rawl, has lost his gift for magic.

The book goes through many twists and turns to reunite the two and get their powers back. And of course the world will end if the Imperial Order continues its march through the New World and into the People's Palace.

Along the way there were many treatises about being left alone to live your life however you want, and many admonishments about how bad it is to have religion and group think, etc. And look for the solution, don't think about the problem.

While I agree with the advice, I tired of hearing it over and over and over and over and over again. I am not the only one to think this - there are a lot of bad reviews about Goodkind and many of the last books of this entire series at Amazon.

The first book, Wizards First Rule, was excellent. I really liked that book. The series began falling apart about midway through the 11 books it took Goodkind to finish this up. The writing worsened considerably. I have decided that once a writer is established, publishing houses stop applying editorial standards and just ship out whatever the author sends because I have seen so many the writing of many authors turn into crud after a number of books. Maybe it is simply burnout on the author's part but the publishers could have fixed a lot of the problems with this book, as well as previous ones, with good editing.

The best thing about this series is that my husband, who does not read much, became very interested from the very first audiobook, and we have listened to all of these books together. We took them on trips and listened to them driving around town. I think each book was over 20 hours long, so we have been listening to these for literally years.

I think my husband liked the final book better than I did, but he doesn't care so much about good writing as the plot. As he put it, at least Richard won in the end and for him that is what counted.

1.5 stars