I have a confession to make — I love used bookstores.

I know, I know. Used bookstores are the devil. They’re downright evil, according to some published authors. You see, authors don’t get any royalties on sales at used bookstores. Even if a certain book is bought and sold 10 times at the same store, the author will never see a dime of that money. Not a penny.

Authors would much rather you buy their book brand-spanking new at Barnes & Noble so they can get their $1 in royalties and have the sale register with their publishers. I’ll probably feel the same way when my books come out next year. Gotta keep those sales numbers up and make the bean counters happy.

If I ever see someone selling (gasp!) one of my beloved books or see it on the shelf in a used bookstore, I’ll probably sit down in the middle of the floor, have a good cry, beat my breasts, and wail why didn’t they like me???

But for now, I’m totally digging used bookstores. In fact, I went to one of my favorite ones today — Mr. K’s — and picked up some stuff to read. I got five books for $15 — a steal at twice the price.

But it’s not just the cheap prices I like at used bookstores — it’s the atmosphere. The slightly musty odor in the air, the tinkle of the bell over the front door, the low murmur of conversation, finding a hidden treasure among the towering stacks.

It’s a perfect way to spend an afternoon.

What about you? Which do you prefer — new or used? Inquiring minds want to know …

Watched Heroes again this week.

Still loving it, particularly Hiro, who managed to convince his friend that he wasn’t nuts and can actually teleport himself through time and space. Using the comic book as a guide was really cool, too. Whoever does the art for the show deserves a big thumbs-up.

The two of them are so going to meet up with the split-personality stripper. I can’t wait.

The telepathic cop had a little more to do this week, which was cool, and we finally got a glimpse of Sylar, the baddie. Well, not much of a glimpse, but we know that dude is powerful. It’ll be interesting to see how the heroes come together to defeat him. If that, in fact is the plot hook this season.

I sort of hope they do it like Buffy and have one major villain a season. That’s the best way to do a show like this. Have the heroes beat the baddie in May as a reward to the fans and then start fresh again in September. I’m so over shows like Lost that haven’t answered questions they started with two years ago.

And the ending with the cheerleader … I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t seen it, but yikes! It was a total, total shock. Just when I think TV can’t surprise me anymore something like that happens.

Until next week …

So, my agent called me today and said that we had gotten another awesome blurb from a fellow writer. Huzzah! Everything seems to be coming along nicely for Karma Girl.

I’ll be posting the blurbs just as soon as I know which ones we’re officially going to go with. More to come soon …

My significant other and I have this thing that we do — we mispronounce words. On purpose. I like to think of it as mangulating the English language.

It started innocently enough. My grandmother jokingly referred to this afghan that we brought her for Christmas one year as an “afrighan.” Then, I noticed that a coworker says “sammich” instead of sandwich. A coworker of my mom’s claimed that she had ESPN instead of ESP. And, here in the South, lots of folks say things like “Eye-talian” instead of Italian.

And it just snowballed from there. Football is now “fooball.” If we’re going to get Mexican food, we’re really going to get “Mesican.” We “mangulate” and “strangulate” lots of other words.

And we have an eye-rolling, groan-inducing good time doing it.

What about you? What kind of in-jokes do you have with your significant other? Inquiring minds want to know …

I have seen the promised land! Well, not exactly, but I did get my first glimpse of the cover art for Karma Girl this week.

And it rocks!

The final version isn’t quite done yet, but it features a skyline, a big spotlight, and a character in a little black dress. I’ll be posting it just as soon as I get the final version from my editor at Berkley.

Cover art is one thing that a lot of authors fret about. If you’ve been to the bookstore recently, you’ve probably seen lots of good covers … and plenty of bad ones too. I personally hate covers that feature a man or woman’s face. I’d much rather picture the characters in my mind than have a real-life representation of them on the cover.

What about you? What do you like on covers? Bright colors? Sexy guys? Inquiring minds want to know …