Year: 2007

  • 815 and counting …

    Finished Bad Girls Don’t by Cathie Linz. This is a book I got at the Berkley signing at RWA, and I met Cathie at my agency party. She was a really sweet lady. Very funny. Very friendly.

    Bad Girls Don’t focuses on Skye Wright, a free spirit and self-described “bad girl” who teaches yoga and belly-dancing classes to make ends meet. It’s not long before she butts heads with Nathan Thorton, a by-the-book sheriff who has his hands full keeping the kooky characters of Rock Cree, Pa. in line. Sparks fly between the two, and, well, you can imagine what happens next. 😉

    This book is classified as a romantic comedy, but it reminded me a lot of the old screwball comedy movies, like Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday, both with Cary Grant. Lots of funny, slightly absurd situations. Lots of rat-a-tat dialogue. Lots of folks who are little bit off their rockers.

    My only quibble is that the rapid-fire dialogue got a little hard to follow at times. I had to go back up and count down the lines to see who was saying what. But if you like eccentric characters driving each other crazy in a small town, you’ll like this book.

    So, thumbs up.

    Up next: Full Throttle by Wendy Etherington — A NASCAR romance.

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    A review from a reader …

    Liomas Thomas, a reader and writer, was nice enough to write me and tell me about a review he did of Karma Girl. He had some very nice things to say about the book.

    Here’s the link. Thanks, Liomas! 😎

  • ·

    Rough draft blues …

    5 Comments

    So, I had this idea for a contemporary romance on Saturday night. And I started writing a rough draft on Sunday (yes, I’m a panster, not a plotter).

    I’m about 20,000 words into it right now — and it sucks. I mean really, really sucks. There’s no romance. It’s all about a woman trying to make up for past mistakes. It’s just not fun. And, if you’ve read Karma Girl, you know I like fun. 😉

    Of course, I think all my books suck when I’m first writing them. Which is why I usually pound out a 50,000-word draft just to see if there’s a glimmer of hope in my story.

    It’s a tough decision, but I think I’m going to put this contemporary romance aside and work on something else. There are so many books I want to write. I want to write a contemporary romance. A heist book. A romantic suspense. An assassin book. Oh yeah, I need to write some more Bigtime books too. :grin: 

    Up next? Probably finishing up the spy book I’ve had in the works for a while now. And I have a really cool idea for a book about the Greek gods …

    What about you? At what point do you abandon an idea or save it until later? Inquiring minds want to know …

  • · ·

    One hot cover …

    2 Comments

    hot_mama.jpg

    Here’s the final cover art for Hot Mama. Basically, some of the text on the front got tweaked, and they added a cover blurb at the bottom.

    I thought the Karma Girl cover was excellent, but I think I like this one just a tiny bit better. Kudos go out to artist Stanley Chow for his excellent design. Fiona Fine looks just the way I picture her in my head. Once you read the book, I think you’ll agree too.

    Now that I have the cover, you know what’s coming next … bookmarks! Wha-ha-ha! 😈