The To-Be List, And How It Can Sometimes Surprise You

By Z(Aasiyah/Nolwynn)

As I checked the sked for the blog posts earlier this morning, I had no idea I was supposed to be blogging today. I mean, I know it was somewhere close to the 20th, but not today today, you know what I mean? Suddenly I'm at a loss, and though that's strange for me, the one who's always got a grip on things, lately I'm finding it less and less strange not to be on top of my game. Why I can say this - the staggering amount of To-Be Lists around me.

I have the To-Be-Read list of books I bought on impulsive raids of the bookstores, not to mention lists of books I chose for reviewing. I have the To-Be-Watched list of movies I got from the movie store but which are gathering dust on the shelf. Speaking of dust, I also have the To-Be-Done list of stuff needed around the house. Looking at work, I have the To-Be-Undertaken list of works requiring my attention. Checking my email, there's the To-Be-Answered list of emails. Does it ever end? No, unless you tackle those lists, and I frankly dunno where to begin.

I'll admit I got a head start on the To-Be-Done one, because my vacuum cleaner and I got reacquainted yesterday when we chased a family of dust bunnies outside the house. So at least some cleaning done. The next one up on that dreaded list is the antiseptic cleaning liquid pistol and its soft cloth (run for cover!!). At least the thing smells nice...

I then decided to tackle the To-Be-Watched list of DVDs. And the strange thing, I stumbled upon a movie my husband had chosen but which completely blew me away. It's Wanted, starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. The story starts slowly, almost like an omniscient read. You're in the main protagonist's head, Wesley Gibson (played by McAvoy)and you see what's happening around him, how boring and mundane his life is. Until someone tries to kill him, and there steps in this woman who tells him she knew his late father. Wesley thus finds he shares his dead father's unusual abilities, which would make him, like his dad before him, a terrific killer when trained as an assassin. Starts then the quest for him to bring down the man who killed his father. But, all's not as it seems... I was surprised by the twist they brought to the story, and here comes the spoiler, the rogue assassin he thought had killed his father, is in fact not a rogue agent at all but the one who was really in the right, and it's he who's Wesley's father! But Wesley learns this after he has shot the man, Cross (played by the delightully sexy Thomas Kretschmann) down, and his father dies in his arms. In another twist I had not seen coming, Wesley thus goes for the organization that just trained him, but which sent a young man to kill his father, because the father would kill every other assassin but never his own son!

That's the kind of thing that always uplifts me - when something I had completely not expected grips me from my seat and turns a hum-drum, boring, mundane experience into something from completely out of this world! I love those stories, both in written and in visual form, that manage to take me by surprise and strike me. The problem with being a writer is that you think every story you come across through almost automatically. It sort of takes the fun out of things, because you already 'know' what's gonna happen and you simply wait to see if you'll be proven right or wrong.

But when you are proven wrong - wow! The rush, the elation! Have you ever experienced this?

Another one that surprised me, book form this time, is the novel Night Whispers by Judith McNaught. I had never read her before, and since I was toying with the idea of an intrigue story, I thought I better read some intrigue stories for research, to see how they are penned. That's why I chose this book, that otherwise I'd have passed upon seeing as it's not, at first glance of the blurb, a romance the likes of which I enjoy reading.

So there I start the story, off the To-Be-Read list/pile, on a Friday afternoon while my kids are watching TV. I can frankly tell you I only put that book down because otherwise my husband and children would kill me for not bothering with anything else! I went to bed close to 2 AM because I was reading, and I woke up on Saturday, got the chore of breakfast out of the way, and read some more. Finished the book on the dot of noon, 18 hours after I'd started it, and I'd have finished it sooner were it not for life and its To-Be-Done list bumping in there. If there's one book I'd recommend a lover of intrigue and romance to read, it's this one! You go from surprise to surprise, and the romance (yes, there's one of the best, strongest romances I've ever read in there!) takes you into its storm of conflicting and powerful emotions and simply does not let you go! Some might say Judith McNaught writes 'strange' as her POV is in Omniscient, but I've never seen an author write head hops and POV switches so effortlessly and so masterfully! Really, read this book, it's more than worth it!

So there you go, some of my experiences with the To-Be Lists, and how they have at times managed to rock my world. Tell me now - has anything like this ever happened to you, when something completely unexpected takes over you in an experience you thought would be mundane at best?

Photos: Wanted poster courtesy of http://www.wantedmovie.com/

Night Whispers cover courtesy Simon and Schuster website

Aasiyah Qamar - Cultural Romantic Fiction, With a Twist

Coming out October 2 - Light My World - Eirelander Publishing

Nolwynn Ardennes - The Promise of Fulfilment

Coming out in January 8, 2010 - Storms in a Shot Glass - Eirelander Publishing

Aasiyah Qamar/Nolwynn Ardennes - Romance the world over

http://www.aasiyah-nolwynn.webs.com/