Bits and Bytes

Today I'm blogging with my fellow Soul Mate authors over at our blog. Stop by and share your thoughts about what writing sounds like to you:
http://smpauthors.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/what-does-writing-sound-like/

Also today, over on my website I'm encouraging all readers to come over to Goodreads. Its a great place to share what you're reading and see recommendations from others. Send me a friend request! I love getting a peek into everyone else's bookshelves. 

Or join the Goodreads 2012 writing challenge.  I'm attempting to read 25 books this year. Shameful admission: Last year I said I'd read 50. I didn't claim half that many, although I think I forgot to mark a bunch. But I also packed and purged during the great house move, so I cannot prove my claim. This year, I pledge to do better. (And I installed their android app on my phone--scanning book bar codes can keep me amused for a good long time...)

Review: Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As the daughter of an impoverished Earl, Emma was born with the title of Lady but not the wealth. Orphaned young by her globe-trotting anthropologist parents, she has made St. Gerts, the boarding school that she attended and now heads, into the center of her professional and personal life.



Texan Kenny Traveler is, according to the media, a lazy spoiled rich-kid turned professional golfer. When he gets suspended from the PGA tour, he agrees to escort Lady E, a friend of the commissioner’s wife, around Texas as she does research for an academic paper, in exchange for his re-instatement on the tour.



The future of Emma’s school is in jeopardy and the only way she can think of saving it is by sacrificing her own reputation to shake the advances of the lecherous Duke who is blackmailing her into marrying him. Creating a scandal with the sexy sports hero seems like the perfect opportunity. But if Kenny gives in to his cravings for the bossy Brit, will he lose his chance to play in the Masters, or ever again?



The plot set up is nuts, the characters are off-the-wall, but the conflicts at the heart of this contemporary romance sound all too realistic. Kenny has to not only face the demons of his spoiled youth but to prove to himself and everyone around him that he has truly changed. Emma is wonderfully unaware of herself as a woman and her hilarious attempts at “scandalous” behavior had me laughing out loud. Their romance is sweet and believeable and right up until the happily ever after, I was biting my nails, afraid that the characters pride and tempers would get in their way.







View all my reviews

Un-news and other ramblings

My great announcement for the day is that I wrote the words "The End" on a manuscript! Yes, actually at the end of it. And yes, I'm actually done. For today. With the first draft.

This is a (PG-rated) fantasy romance novella that I intended to write as a short story. 10,000 words "blossomed" into 31,000, and the side project that I thought would be done in December ended in May. Assuming that what is written down resembles the story in my head, I'm quite happy with it. I think I'll wait a week or two before I read through it to see what I really wrote.

In other, more exciting happenings, I have read two more books. The latest Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson, Towers of Midnight, was excellent. At one point my husband actually pouted at me for reading. "You like it more than me," he said. Not quite. But I think I met Rand, Mat and Perrin about the same time I met my husband, and I see hubby a lot more often...

I also plowed through Julia Quinn's What Happens in London in about 2 days, laughing outloud at the dialogue and the situations and sighing like a lovesick schoolgirl at the requisite HEA. Well done, Julia, as always. (See how I say that like I know the woman? Yeah, just because I stood in a really long line at RWA nationals last year for a signed copy of it...)

Review: Hearts and Minds by JC Hay

Space pirate Syna Davout takes a commission for a basic smash-and-grab to pay for much-needed repairs on her ship. But when a second ship appears on the scene, she realizes that she was the diversion in an assassination attempt. Psi-talent Galen Fash is a leader of the rebellion against the Tse who exploit and demonize all Psi’s. When Syna rescues Galen from his wrecked ship, she is drawn into his plot to avert a Tse invasion and save his fledgling rebellion from being crushed.

Galen’s Psi-talent won’t let him ignore Syna’s passionate nature and soon the pair are exchanging more than just banter. Even hand-to-hand combat training burns more than just pent up energy. But is Syna willing to trade her precious freedom for Galen’s cause, and risk losing another lover to the hands of the Tse?

Hearts and Minds by JC Hay packs an intense one-two punch of fast-paced Sci Fi action layered with emotion as Syna and Galen struggle together through a richly layered galaxy with surprise twists that will leave you begging for more.


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Full Disclosure: JC is a member of my local RWA chapter and I was provided a copy of this awesome novella for free to review. The review was my pleasure and frankly, it was on my TBR list :) It is available stand-alone or as part of the Impulse Power anthology (in print and e) from Samhain Publishing.

Procrastination

Jean M Auel signing at the St. Louis County Public Library

I haven't written a word in 3 weeks. One might think that having 6 work days off in a row would equal mega word counts or at least some serious slash-and-burn editing. One might not be counting on the dual time-sucks that are parenting and home ownership.

In the mean time, I haven't been altogether useless in my writing-related endeavors. I have added to the slush piles of an undisclosed number of agents and/or editors. I have pondered whether, when, and how delicately to nudge other long-standing slush-pile owners about the fate of my mulch fodder. I have done a bit of critiquing for friends. I have finished a couple of books, and started a couple more.

Also, I attended a book signing tonight by Jean M Auel (in the photo) and hauled along my spiffy new hardcover of The Land of Painted Caves and two crummy paperbacks (Clan of the Cave Bear and Valley of the Horses). She is fascinating to listen to and very pleasant, even to tongue-tied fangirls at the end of the line with three mis-matched books. Hey, she's a writer, and she talked about writing. That counts as writing, right?

On the reading front, I have finished:
Impulsive by Helen Kay Dimon. I've seen her name sprinkled through the blogosphere for the past few years, and finally, impulsively, picked up a copy of this contemporary romance from Brava at my local library. It was a fast read (a good thing given my recent history with late fines) and I would definitely read more from her.

Holiday Bound by Beth Kerry. I picked this up as a free read on Amazon and read it entirely on the Kindle app on my Evo. It was...not exactly my style. It was well written, but I think I would have enjoyed it more as a normal contemporary romance without the bondage. But I need to read more shorter pieces to get a feel for the pacing and level of conflict, since I feel like I don't quite "get" how novellas are structured yet.

A book on Wordpress from a Borders that is going out of business, purchased at a hefty discount along with: a book on Flash, a couple of magazines that I typically wouldn't shell out for, and some new CD's of music to write by-- Enigma greatest hits and the sound track to Lord of the Rings. The Wordpress book was eh. Would have been more helpful a year ago, but at least it's a reference that I can flip through fast (yes, all the info is probably online but I skim paper much faster than search engine results...)

And I'm about halfway through the latest Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson. Given how thick the book is, halfway almost counts as a book completion, doesn't it? Not that its difficult reading. The book flows wonderfully and is tying up plot threads left and right in ways that are making me very happy and keeping me reading for more. The end is in sight, though it's not here yet.

Plus, I'm reading a Sci Fi Romance novella for a RWA chapter mate for review (and loving it...will probably post the review here as well as in our newsletter, etc), and have Jean M Auel's latest book recently arrived and sitting at the top of my TBR pile.

Another week, another book

I had completely forgotten that I had a copy of Jennifer Weiner's Best Friends Forever sitting in my TBR pile at home when I saw a copy on the library sale table for $1.  Oops.

It has the lovely voice that I expect from Weiner, and the kind of chick lit (oops, I'm not supposed to use that term, right?) plot that kept me both entertained and flipping pages to find out what crazy mess would happen next.  It was fairly of reminiscent of In Her Shoes in the interactions between the two main characters--one quieter, less confident of her (newly acquired through dieting) looks, the other slim, beautiful, and utterly aware of it.

The book's high school flashbacks were, in places, uncomfortably close to my own history (the main characters graduated in the 92...I was not far after). The one thing that bugged me was that the timeline seemed off. I thought at first that the characters were attending a 10 year reunion, but later there are too many references to Facebook and Twitter, which were not around in 2002. Nor would Facebook and Twitter have been around or used in quite the same way in 2007 for a 15-year reunion, but I'm fairly certain they weren't allready at their 20 year and pushing 40 years old.

Timewarp aside, it was fun. I just hope that next time I pick up one of her books, I don't buy it twice...
 

More Books, and experiments in blogland

For your reading pleasure, two posts in one.

First off, two more books to move to my ABR (Already Been Read) pile from my TBR pile:

Deep Breath
by Alison Kent. I didn't discover Alison Kent until a couple of years ago when I started hunting down writers' blogs. I won a copy of one of her SG-5 (At Risk) books on her blog, and was quickly hooked, despite the fact that neither contemporary romances nor romantic suspense were at the top of my favorite genres at the time. I think I've read 4 or 5 of the books in the series so far.  Deep Breath brings yet another of her hunky spy guys, and was just as good as all the rest. I am beginning to worry that I'm going to run out of hot spy heroes soon...

Make Mine Midnight by Annmarie McKenna. This one is an erotica (M/M/F) novella by one of the talented writers I met through MORWA. I am somewhat embarassed to admit that its the first of her's I've read so far, and I can see why so many people rave about her writing.

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On a completely different note, I've been experimenting with writing things in addition to romance. For years I've maintained a blog about myself as a working mom where I jabber about cooking and housekeeping and work and school and my kids. I've recently added another blog just for the cooking. It's called Year of the Pancake in honor of the hundreds of pancakes I make every year. I'm using that space to document my recipes and adventures in the kitchen.

On that blog, I'm also playing with adding some basic paid ads (going super-basic with Google Adsense and Amazon). I'm not exactly expecting to get rich (I wonder if I'll make enough for an extra mocha by the end of the year). But the cooking blog provides a nice contained little space for me to play around with different options. If you're interested at all in cooking and baking, feel free to wander over, say hi, maybe leave a comment. :)

More Books - a YA this time

When I was in the middle school, I got to work in the school library for a semester in lieu of a study hall. It was really a lot of fun. I spent a lot of time sitting at a desk surrounded by books. I loved it. (And I was annoyed to find out in high school that the local public library wouldn't hire me after school to do the same job-library workers were required to have a graduate degree-hmph).

I discovered bunches of new books that way. Instead of having a scant 10 minutes once or twice a month as part of English class to browse the shelves, I was there every day. It was during this time that I discovered my first paranormal YA series-The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. I think I read all of them in relatively short order.

It has been over 20 years and while the details of the plot have gone extremely fuzzy, I have always remembered the title and the fact that I enjoyed it. So when I found a compilation at Barnes & Noble last fall of the complete series, I bought it. Alas, my TBR pile is still tottering precariously, but I have finally made it down to this one.

Over Sea, Under Stone is the first in the series, or perhaps it's the prequel.

Siblings Simon, Jane, and Barney find a medieval treasure map in the attic of an old house on the Cornwall coast one summer. With help from their mysterious Great Uncle Merry, they follow the clues in the map to find a chalice hidden since the days of King Arthur. Along the way they have to outwit evil enemies who are also hunting the same grail.

To my romance-reading friends, note this is not a romance. And it is a much younger YA than today's brand of sexy teen-angst novels or practically-adult paranormals. I would rank it halfway between Harry Potter and The Magic Treehouse series, alongside CS Lewis for complexity of language and age-appropriateness of storytelling for middle-schoolers.

I have not yet started on The Dark is Rising, which begins the tale of Will Stanton, the protagonist of the rest of the series, but I will certainly be reporting back on my re-read of these.

I'm not sure it counts...

Judging contest entries is not quite the same as reading a book. But when I read 6 55-page entries, I start wondering if maybe it does count.

Woo hoo Golden Heart judging is done, and I'm not even right at the deadline. It is interesting to see how the entries lay out. Last year I had a range that I scored from fairly low to fairly high (though none I judged ended up finalling). This year in a different category they were all fairly close together. All good, but none really jumped out at me. I wish this batch of writers luck though. There are a couple that just might find a publisher, and a few more where the writer shows some serious talent but is obviously a bit of a newbie at writing novel-length fiction.

On other RWA-related things, when I entered the scores into the website this morning, I saw the notice about rooms for the 2011 convention being mostly full.  I am still on the fence about whether I'm going or not--it is a bad time this year for me as as both the change in month and the change in days make it harder to arrange the vacation time. I keep hoping that I will have a reason that I have to go since the last two years it has been a lot of fun and a good learning opportunity, but I'm not banking on it. And now I'm hoping that if I do decide to go, that I will have somewhere to sleep.

2011 Books: In Too Deep

Ok, so I thought I would be reading books from my TBR pile (which is more of a tower than a pile, and a leaning tower at that). Except last Friday my youngest begged to go to the library. I cannot turn down a 3-year old with big blue eyes and a fondness for books.

That same 3-year old with the baby blues did not spend the entire time running in circles and pulling random books off of random shelves. I was able to mostly contain him to the children's section. This time.

And the children's section is right next to the large shelf full of new releases. And there, staring straight at me from the new releases was Jayne Krentz's other newest book.

So, I read another one. In print (sorry little Sony). But it was free this time. Well, technically I spend a lot on late fees (especially for kids books that get mixed up in the wrong shelf at home....)

In Too Deep is a contemporary in her multi-pen-name, multi-time-line, multi-planet Arcane series of novels. This one is Fallon's story, the eternally grumpy head of J&J. Like all of Krentz/Castle/Quick's other Arcane books, this one is half paranormal mystery half romance. I liked it quite a bit better than Midnight Crystal. I think that her characters, especially the hero, Fallon, were better developed in this one. And Fallon has appeared in several of the previous Krentz Arcane novels, either on the page or by cell phone. And he is a dark, brooding type of hero. My favorite type :)

Whatever the reason, this book had all of the usual Krentz/Quick/Castle magic.  I was incredibly happy that my kids actually played quietly today without direct parental supervision, and on day 2 of the great non-blizzard-of-2011-whose-paltry-3-inches-of-snow-still-left-us-housebound.  I could barely put it down.

More Books

So far in 2011, my book reading average is pretty pitiful. This is what, the second? In 3 weeks. Slacker.

Midnight Crystal by Jayne Castle
Print, actually purchased later last year (so I'm still safe on reading only from the TBR pile and/or electronically resolution)
Paranormal/Futuristic Romance

If anyone has not figured it out (and this was news to me until about 2 years ago), Jayne Castle is Jayne Ann Krentz is Amanda Quick. Midnight Crystal is one of her Arcane series of books that have crossed all 3 pen names and all 3 time periods (Victorian England, Contemporary US, and futuristic Harmony).

This one was good. Not as good as some of her other newer releases, but enjoyable. I think the romantic tension was not as high as in some of her books, but this one had a great mystery plot that reminded me of some of her Victorians (the With This Ring series).

And of course, despite her RWA talks about how she keeps trying to kill her career, I love the fact that one of my favorite romance authors writes futuristics. (see, I'm not crazy, just trying to get the career-killing over first, then move on to the NYT lists later...or maybe I won't kill my career either...its certainly working out fine for Ms. Krentz/Castle/Quick)

Books, Books, Books

A few years ago, I tracked my reading habits for the year. I wanted to see what I was actually reading. It was a good activity and gave me something interesting to write about (besides myself), so I'm going to try it again this year.

Like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the very act of writing down my reading changed what I read last time. Actually, the act of writing changed what I read. That year, for the first time ever, I read primarily contemporary romances. That's what I was writing at the time, too. My writing has branched to include contemporaries, sci fi, and fantasy, so who knows what kinds of books will catch my eye this year.

And this time, I'm not going to shy away from mentioning the less family-friendly books that I read. I think before I "forgot" to mention a few of the erotic novellas that I had read because, you know, my mother-in-law might be reading my blog. In the context of this blog at this time, I have admitted to attempting to write hotter books myself. If any of my current blog readers are shocked by my reading habits, then they might want to follow a different aspiring writer :)

To go along with my listing of books, I am also going to track what format of books I'm reading. One of my resolutions in general is to buy more eBooks and fewer paper ones, both to conserve precious shelf space in the house, and to get the best use of my Sony eReader. And to whittle down my TBR pile (some of which hadn't even been unpacked from RWA Nationals until I needed the bag to pack for Christmas vacation).
My first book of the year is one I started over Christmas but didn't finish until last night (I massively overestimated how much free time I would have while on vacation with the family and had packed 4 more novels that are still unopened). This book was a paper book, but it fits my "shorten the TBR pile" criteria nicely.

Also, I won't promise to write this much of a review on every book I read this year. Or maybe I will. I am at least starting out on the right foot.

The Protector by Carla Capshaw
Historical Inspirational Romance
Paperback

I picked this one up at RWA Nationals last summer because I had heard good buzz about her debut novel, The Gladiator. Both were released by Harlequin's Love Inspired Historical line and are set in ancient Rome. I don't typically read inspirational or Christian books, usually because the "inspirational" bits frequently feel like a sermon that has been sledgehammered into the plot.

Because of the historical setting of The Protector, though, I was not quite as bothered by the Christian message. I enjoyed the interplay of the different belief systems and the cultural context around being a Christian (and its dangers) in that time period. I did try very hard to suppress my eyerolling at the requisite "one character must repent and learn to pray the 'right' way" bits, but overall it was a pretty good book. The romance was well done and had more sexual tension than I think I expected (tension that is not actually resolved onscreen, however). The romantic tension was carried through and really worked for me. Overall it was a nice read for the Christmas season, and I will definitely watch for more from Ms. Capshaw.

P.S.  I forgot to actually publish this post about two weeks ago when I wrote it. I only  noticed just now when I went to publish the second iteration.  Oops.