Finished Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas. It’s the third book in her “Wallflower” series. This read brings me within striking distance of reading my 800th book by the end of the year. Yeah!

It’s about Evie, a shy, stammering heiress who’s so desperate to get away from her abusive family that she approaches Sebastian, a roguish lord who’s fallen on hard times, with an offer of marraige. Evie gets Sebastian’s protection, while he gets her considerable fortune. It’s a marriage of convenience, but turns into much more than that …

I have to say that it’s the best of the bunch so far, which surprises me. Sometimes, I find that the more books an author writes in a series, the worse they get. The characters don’t grow and change, the plots mirror each other, and you get the same jokes over and over again.

There is one very popular author in particular who is guilty of all three of these things, and it drives me crazy. Her last four books have all been carbon copies of each other, and I no longer feel a pressing urge to read them as soon as they come out.

As an author of a series of books (who also hopes to write more than one series), I’m concerned about falling into this trap. 

It’s a delicate balance between keeping your writing fresh and interesting, and hitting all the high points that your readers come to expect. I think it helps to write about different characters, like I’m doing in my Bigtime series. But, there are some authors who write about different characters in their series, and their books are pretty much interchangeable.

It’s a slippery slope that I hope I don’t ever start down.

What about you? Do you think series get better or worse with age? Inquiring minds want to know …

I’ve heard horror stories about authors who get snarky comments about writing romance novels, but I’d never actually seen it happen.

Until today.

I’m sitting at a long table with a couple of other authors at the women’s expo I attended. Two women walk up and start talking to one of the authors about her books. The conversation goes something like this:

“What do you write?” one of the women asks.

“Romance,” the author replies, smiling proudly.

The woman stares at her. “Do they have all that sex in them?”

“Yes, my books are pretty steamy,” the author replies, still smiling.

“God will get you for that,” the other woman chimes in, nodding her head.

The two women put their names in the drawing for the goodie basket that the author is giving away and walk on.

Evidently, God’s going to get us for writing about sex, but they can register for all the goodie baskets that they want to from us heathens.

Oh my.

These were not young women. They were probably married with grandkids by now. Odds are that they’ve probably had sex at some point in their lives.

But they don’t want to read about it.

That’s alright. That’s their choice.

But don’t tell me I’m going to hell for it. 

Why do some people think that writing about sex is evil? Why is that somehow worse than writing about serial killers and murderers and nuclear explosions that kill millions? I don’t understand how people can be so narrow-minded and judgmental.

On the flip side, there were also two lovely women at the expo who were very enthusiastic romance fans. We all chatted about our favorite authors, and they got some pictures with the other authors.

I hope to see those ladies again next year. I will gladly sign books and smile and chat with them. As for the other two, well, they won’t ever be getting a goodie basket from me — no matter how many times they register.

What about you? Have you ever had someone make a rude comment about romance novels to you? Inquiring minds want to know …

So, I went to my very first event as a bona fide author today — a local women’s expo.

It was a real eye-opening experience for me, and I thought I would share some of the things that I learned. This is probably all old hat for established authors, but maybe it can help some other newbies like me.

1) People love free goodies. I made over 100 goodie bags full of candy for this event. They lasted about 15 minutes. I could have made 1,000, and I still don’t think I would have had enough.

2) People are more interested in your freebies than they are in hearing about your book. They tend to grab the bags and move on, avoiding eye contact at all times.

3) People are more interested in freebies than buying anything at the expo — including your book.

4) People think because you are sitting behind a table that you are somehow know what time they’re handing out door prizes in another booth.

5) If you leave your booth for a few minutes, no one’s going to notice or complain. They’ve already gotten your goodies and moved on.

So, these are the top 5 things I learned today. Despite the lack of goodies on my part, I still had a good time. It was a lot of fun talking to folks and the other authors there.

See ya there next year …

Finished The Queen’s Knight by Deborah Chester. It’s part of a fantasy series called “The Sword, the Ring, and the Chalice.”

It’s about a queen named Pheresa, a secondary character in the original series, who’s now facing her own problems — including the fact that she’s in love with a man that she can’t marry.

It’s an entertaining enough read if you like epic fantasy, although the plot is very similiar to the previous book, The Queen’s Gambit. Lots of people try to control or kill Pheresa, while Talmor, her true love, comes to her rescue time and time again. That’s pretty much the premise of both books.

The book isn’t really a continuation of the original “Sword, Ring, Chalice” series so much as it is a spin-off — which can be a risky thing to do if you’re an author.

I find that I don’t like most spin-offs as much as I do the original series. The best example of this would be the Star Wars films. The original trilogy — particularly The Empire Strikes Back – is one of the best series. Ever. End of discussion.

But the last three films — or really the first three, depending on your point of view — were disappointing to say the least. Most of the acting was bad, the dialogue was very wooden, and several of the actors seemed miscast for their roles.

In short, they lacked everything that made the originals so great. So much so, that I’m now wary of anything that’s a spin-off.

What about you? Do you like spin-off books or movies with different characters? Inquiring minds want to know ..

I can’t believe they gave it to Jeff. He should have been kicked off the show half a dozen times. The very first outfit … the Mom challenge … the cocktail dress …

Uli was totally robbed. ‘Nuff said.