Molasses

Don't know why things are so slow going the past two days, but it could be that I'm not 100%. Still feeling achy and tired, but I got my butt up and went grocery shopping, which was desperately necessary. I also managed to do some painting today. I'm working on tiny paintings of vampire librarians. It's a niche market, but I'm taking a chance! Lately, I've decided to make things I would want, rather than trying to create what I think people would like. We'll see how that goes. I bought an ad in Bust Magazine for their Oct/Nov issue. Just a tiny image in their product showcase, but hopefully it will drive people to the shop. I have got to get back to blogging about that kind of stuff on the SLS blog...Slow as molasses, I swear. At least I've made time for reading this summer.

I finished a series of vampire books, the Undead series by MaryJanice Davidson. Yes, I read all the books, even though I disliked the central character intensely. I wanted to see where she took the story (hoping Betsy would get better), and to read a chick-lit vampire story. She started a genre, or at least mixed two together that hadn't really been mixed before.

Summary of the plotline:

Elizabeth "Betsy" Taylor,  has a very bad birthday. She gets laid off from her administrative assistant job, then promptly gets hit by a car and wakes up undead. After a few attempts to make herself dead-dead, she realizes she's a vampire and finds herself embroiled in vampire politics immediately. It seems that she isn't like other vamps, she can handle sunlight, doesn't get burned by holy water, and is much stronger and in control of her hunger than a young vamp should be. In fact, according to a couple of vampires she just met, she's not just a weirdo, she's the prophesied Queen of the Vampires. This, not surprisingly, pisses a lot of vamps in power off to an alarming degree.

With the help of her two vampire friends (Sinclair and Tina), her human friend (and billionaire) Jessica, and a guy she saved from suicide (Marc), she navigates her new situation. Oh, and she's obsessed with shoes. Like Carrie Bradshaw obsessed. It's a sickness.

Pros:

• Betsy is a ballsy lady, who won't take no for an answer. 
• I like that it's set in Minnesota, and has a midwestern sensibility
• Vampires are blood drinkers, with fangs, who grow more powerful with time and can't go out in the sun. Like they should. 
• Even when Betsy gets involved with a romantic partner, she doesn't do the googly-eyed romance stuff. In fact, she saves that for shoes and wedding stuff (see cons).
• Her love interest is not as powerful as she is and never will be!
• Betsy's best friend Jessica is an African American billionaire who rules in many ways. 
• Vampire Tina is really amazing.
  The devil (Lucifer, the Morningstar, Baal, etc) makes good appearances, and looks like Lena Olin, which I kind of expected. 
• Betsy's speaking style is really fun sometimes, she talks like Busy Phillips talked in Dawson's Creek. Super sarcasticy. In fact, in my brain, she's totally Busy Phillips.
• Her stepmom is awful and a great character.

Cons:

• For someone who's existence is prophesied and constantly in danger, Betsy doesn't ask good questions. Sometimes she doesn't ask any questions. It's a failure that is pointed out to her all the time. ALL. THE. TIME.
• Betsy is a narcissistic a-hole and it actually made me want to quit the series in book one. 
• Seriously, so many characters could have good, elaborate stories, but since it's in first person from Betsy's perspective, and she doesn't give a shit about her friends until they are almost dead, we never find out their cool histories.  Not a cool gal. Not at all.
• The shoe thing is stupid and goes on and on in each book. Sometimes to the detriment of story lines, which are summed up in severely short sentences

A much better series (in my humble opinion) is the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, but that's really about werewolves more than vampires. I wasn't really super into weres of any kind, but Mercy is a really amazing character. A definite contribution to the list of great warrior women characters, Mercy is a Volkswagen auto mechanic who happens to turn into a coyote. She was raised by werewolves and makes fun of them a great deal, which I love, but also has good relationships and does encounter vampires from time to time. Her vampire friend is actually an interesting guy. If you are looking for a relatively short series that isn't finished yet, I'd definitely check it out. Oh, and don't mind the covers, they suck big time.

What's with her constantly changing tattoos? The character does have a paw print tattoo and I think some tribal arm bands (she's part Native-American), but not on the scale of these images, which are all different! Also, she is never described as working on her cars in this way. She's always wearing coveralls and all grubby. Arg! Do publishers believe they are selling these books to men? Boys? The heretofore uncornered lesbian fantasy reader? I don't understand.