Finished The False Princess by Eilis O’Neal. This is a young adult fantasy book.

Nalia lives a privileged life as a princess — until the day that the king and queen tell her that she is really a false princess, an imposter who was used to keep the real princess safe until her 16th birthday. Now called Sinda, she leaves the royal court behind and goes to live with her poor, indifferent aunt. Sinda thinks her life is over, but her adventures are just beginning. Sinda soon discovers that she has magic and returns to the capitol city to master her talent. But when she discovers a plot against the real princess, Sinda vows to stop it — and show everyone just how brave she really is.

This is another book I picked up because of the cover, and I’m so glad that I did. This is a lovely, lovely book. I saw one review that compared the book to those by Robin McKinley and Gail Carson Levine, and I think that’s a great description.

This book has everything that I love — a strong heroine, lots of action, a sweet love story, and a little bit of magic. It’s also a cool twist on the traditional fairy tale where a common girl finds out that she’s a princess in disguise. Instead, there’s a princess who’s really a commoner. This is one of those books that makes me wish I’d thought of the story — that’s how much I enjoyed it.

Sinda is a great heroine who tries her best at everything and learns to stand up for herself along the way. I loved her determination and her ability to admit when she was wrong or made a mistake. I also liked Kiernan, the son of a noble lord and Sinda’s easy-going childhood friend who becomes much more to her than that during the course of the book.

The other secondary characters were entertaining as well, especially Sinda’s absent-minded magic teacher. Plus, there was enough magic (wizards in this book) to add that whimsical, fairy tale feel to the story without slowing down the plot.

My only little quibble would be that Sinda does something to Kiernan that I think is a little out of character toward the end of the book. And, once again, I would have loved a map to show me where all the towns, cities, and landmarks were. (Seriously, why don’t they put maps in fantasy books anymore?)

Overall, if you’re looking for a great, fairy tale read, you should definitely check out this book.

My grade: B+

Would I read this author again: Absolutely. I’d love to read another book about Sinda and her adventures.

Memorable quote: “If I thought being kissed by Tyr had been what kissing was all about, I had been wrong. This kiss trampled Tyr’s kiss, threw it to the ground, and danced on its grave. It was like being kissed by sunlight, or joy.”

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Valentine’s Day. Spend some time with your sweetheart or the folks you care about. And definitely eat some chocolate.

Some friends of mine are putting together Romfest, a book conference to be held June 20-24, 2012 in Gatlinburg, Tenn. They’re asking around to see which authors, agents, and editors might be interested in attending.

If you’re interested, contact Sharon Robinson at unikornfairy@embarqmail.com; Lydia Wiley at lcwiley@hotmail.com; or Trista Ann Michaels at tristaannmichaels@yahoo.com for more details. I think they’re looking for all interested authors, agents, and editors, although Romfest will probably be geared a little more toward the romance/fantasy/young adult genres like most of the local RWA conferences are.

I plan on going and giving some sort of media workshop. There will be several other workshops, a Saturday book signing, and several other events like a breakfast with the authors. Everything is still in the planning stages at this point, so I don’t have a lot of firm details.

Since the conference is going to be in 2012, it will have a Mayan, end-of-the-world theme, which I think will be a lot of fun. And if you’ve never been to Gatlinburg before, it’s a nice little town in the Smoky Mountains and home to attractions like Dollywood and Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies. Yeah, Gatlinburg is known as being kind of a tourist trap, but it’s worth going to see one time.

I’ll announce more details here on the blog as I get them …

Well, if you read the title of this post, you know that I no longer have a day job. Unfortunately, this was not my choice. Like so many other folks, I was the victim of job cuts.

I worked as a features page designer at a daily newspaper. Basically, my job involved designing feature pages for publication, editing stories, working with freelancers, posting stories/photos to the newspaper’s website, etc. There had been rumors that there would be job cuts (they called it copy desk consolidation) at my newspaper since the summer of 2009. If there’s an industry you don’t want to be in right now, it’s newspapers/journalism. Newspapers across the country are dying a slow, painful death, which is sad. If newspapers are still being printed in five years, I’ll be very surprised. They’ll either be online — or not exist at all.

But nobody at my newspaper ever really confirmed anything about the job cuts, and all the rumors I heard kept pushing the date back and back. Plus, the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2010. Well, on Nov. 8, 2010, the axe finally fell. I and several other folks (other copy editors/page designers) got called into an office and were each given a letter telling us our last day at work would be Dec. 13.

Happy holidays, huh?

So I am now unemployed as far as the day job goes. I thought a long time about writing this post because my personal life is just that — personal. I don’t talk about it very much, if at all. But there are so many folks who are out of work out there — I thought posting this might help someone, if only to let folks know they are not alone. (And the reason I waited so long to post this is that I was waiting for all the final paperwork to go through.)

I have a lot of mixed feelings about losing my day job. Obviously, losing that steady paycheck and insurance is the most troubling thing. I don’t think the job cuts were handled well either, but I’m not going to get into that here. I’ll also miss a lot of the folks I worked with. People always talk about the stages of grief. I think I’ve been through all of them at this point. LOL.

But part of me is also really excited by this change, and I’ve decided to look at this as my chance to see if I can make it as a full-time author. I have four books coming out in 2011 — Tangled Threads, Touch of Frost, Spider’s Revenge, and Kiss of Frost, plus an Elemental Assassin short story in The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance anthology — so I’ve already got enough work with revisions, copy edits, page proofs, blogging, and promotion to keep me busy for the year.

Honestly, the book stuff had been getting to be more than I could handle and still work full-time too. I was super-busy and super-stressed all the time, so much so that I’d been thinking about trying to cut back and only work part-time at the newspaper. (I asked about working part-time after the job cuts were announced, but that was not an option.)

So one good thing about losing my day job is that I will hopefully have time to do some book stuff that I’ve been wanting to for a while now. For example, I have an idea for a new urban fantasy series that I’d like to write. I also want to do something with the fourth Bigtime book that I’ve written — maybe post it on Amazon or get it published through an e-press. I want to write some more short stories and maybe even try my hand at something new — like writing category romance for Harlequin.

I’m treating writing as a full-time job, and I’ve been working 40 hours a week (and more) ever since I was laid off. There’s always something to do, whether it’s blogging or revisions or looking over page proofs. I’ve been busy, but so far, it’s been a lot of fun. I’m not nearly as stressed as I was before, which I think is a good thing.

Some folks have asked what they can do to help. Well, if you like my books, I hope that you’ll tell your friends or your local libraries about them. Hopefully, I’ll sell enough books that my publishers will want to continue my Elemental Assassin and Mythos Academy series. Fingers crossed.

I’ve been sending out resumes — lots and lots of resumes — in hopes of finding a part-time job. I currently do some freelance book reviews, and I’m thinking about using my writing/design skills to offer a promotions package to authors — a press release, a bookmark design, and a flyer design. Maybe even do some book editing. We’ll see.

So don’t cry for me, Argentina. I’ll be all right. I’d seen the writing on the wall for a while, and I’d been planning accordingly. It’s a brave and scary new world, but I’ll land on my feet.

Who knows? Maybe this time next year, I’ll be glad that I lost my day job because it will have led to an opportunity that I might not have had otherwise. It’s a nice thing to hope for, anyway.

Finished Bloodshot by Cherie Priest. This is the first book in her urban fantasy series about vampire and world-renowned thief Raylene Pendle.

Raylene is a loner, a vampire who keeps to herself and spends her time stealing objects — for the right price. But when a blind vampire named Ian Stott comes to her, Raylene can’t help but get involved in his messy situation. Ian asks Raylene to find and steal some documents relating to vicious experiments that were performed on Ian by the U.S. government. Ian hopes that by retrieving his medical records that he can get his sight restored. Soon, Raylene is caught up in a government conspiracy — and finds that the feds are after her in hopes of making her their next science experiment …

I love books about thieves, and I enjoyed Bloodshot. Raylene is a great snarky, sassy heroine, and her voice is definitely the best thing about the book. She’s tough, vulnerable, and likable at the same time. I also liked Priest’s world building, although we don’t get to see any other vamps besides Raylene and Ian. Plus, the secondary characters are entertaining as well, especially a drag queen that Raylene befriends as she crisscrosses the country, searching for clues as to who is after her and why. I also hope we get to see more of the guy who gives Raylene her assignments in the next book.

Watching Raylene break into various government buildings while trying to stay one step ahead of the feds was also entertaining, and Raylene doesn’t shy away from violence or her vampire nature when she needs to.

The one thing that bugged me about the book was the ending. There’s a nice twist at the end that reveals just how the feds were keeping tabs on Raylene and her friends, but nothing is really resolved. A few of the bad guys get what’s coming to them, but the book definitely leaves several questions unanswered. I know Priest is doing this to set up the next book in the series, but I would have liked just a little bit more closure.

Overall, if you’re looking for an entertaining urban fantasy to try, check this one out. It was a fun read.

My grade: B-

Would I read this author again: Yes. I liked Raylene’s snarky voice a lot.

Memorable quote: “You wouldn’t believe some of the weird shit people pay me to steal. Old things, new things. Expensive things, rare things, gross things. Lately it’s been naughty things.”