• A few good books …

    For those of you who don’t know, I send out an electronic newsletter every month, with my latest news, a recipe, and more. (If you want to sign up for the newsletter, go to the home page. The form is on the bottom right-hand side.) 

    One of my features is a couple of short book recommendations. I also ask folks to write in and share their own recommendations, which I post here on the blog.

    Purple Ranger offers up these recommendations for February: The Unhandsome Prince and Heroics for Beginners, both by John Moore. Thanks Purple Ranger!

    I’ve read Moore before (A Fate Worse Than Dragons), and his books are funny, tongue-in-cheek fantasy and fairy-tale spoofs, sort of like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series or Terry Brooks’ Magic Kingdom of Landover series. Anyway, if you like funny, you might like Moore’s books.

    What about you? Got any good books to share?

  • One super game …

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    So, I’m assuming just about everybody watched the Super Bowl last night. One of the best games I’ve seen in a long time. Congrats to the Giants, who just flat out-played the Patriots. The Giants wanted it more, and they earned it. How about that play in the fourth quarter where Eli avoids getting sacked and throws that big pass down the field? That’ll be on the highlight reels for a while.

    Now, on to what really mattered — the commercials.

    Overall, I was pretty underwhelmed by the commercials this year. It seemed to be the usual mix of car and beer commercials I’d already seen with nothing really funny or spectacular. But there were a few gems. Here are my favorites:

    1) The Clydesdales. They always, always have the best commercials. This time, a horse who was passed over for the team got a dalmatian trainer and started working out for next year — all to the theme song from Rocky. Funny stuff.

    2) The balloons. The commercial where Underdog and the other balloon chase the Coke through the New York skyline during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade was very sweet — especially since Charlie Brown finally gets the Coke at the end. :joe:

    3) Iron Man. Among the movie commercials, this one looked the coolest (although the ones with Will Ferrell were funny, in a train-wreck sort of way).

    And that’s about it. The commercial where the guys bring beer to the wine and cheese party was amusing enough. My significant other liked the Doritos commercial where the mouse busts out of the wall and starts beating on the guy with the Doritos. (Then again, my SO is fond of commercials where people get their ass kicked).

    The car commercials were either boring or weird (like the one with the guy getting his head shrunk). And the rest of the beer commercials just sort of blurred together.

    What about you? Which commercial was your favorite?

  • Like sand through the hourglass …

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    Where the heck did January go?

    Seems like just yesterday, we were ringing in the new year and making resolutions and stuff. Now, I’m already turning the page on my calendar over to February. And realizing I need to get into high gear and get some things done before March. Sigh.

    Here’s what I’d like to get done in February:

    1) Write a rough draft of Spy 2.

    2) Update the Web site and add some info for Jinx.

    3) Finish looking at the page proofs for the mass market versions of Karma Girl and Hot Mama (coming in July and August!).

    4) Think about what I want to write in Assassin 2. I’m kicking around a couple of different story ideas right now. I need to pick one.

    5) Write something new. There’s a new fantasy book I want to write this year (with a working title of Charm Queen). But I think I’m also going to try and write a romantic suspense next. Again, I have ideas for that — I just need to pick one.

    We’ll see how many of these I mark off my to-do list … :wood:

    What about you? What do you want to accomplish this month?

  • Fun with photos …

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    It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s an Internet sensation. It’s … I Can Has Cheezburger?

    This site has fun with animal pictures (mostly cats) and photo captions. My significant other is totally addicted to the site. He’s a huge cat person. The folks over at Dear Author also use lots of pictures from the site to great effect.

    Anyway, go check it out. Enjoy. Laugh. :ww:

  • ·

    It is done … again …

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    So, this weekend I buckled down and finished revisions on my assassin book, Gin on the Rocks.

    It’s about an assassin who can control the elements of ice and stone (the other two are fire and air in my world). My assassin, Gin, goes to do a job and gets double-crossed and almost dead. Soon, she’s on the run from the cops, a Fire elemental who wants her dead, and lots of other people.

    This book is a little grittier than what I usually write, and there’s lots of blood. Seriously. Gin kills something like ten guys in the first ten chapters. The girl is really handy with knives. 😉

    It’s also set in the South and has a nice regional flavor to it. There are barbecue restaurants and fried chicken and Southern movie references. I even mention Dr. Enuf at one point. That’s a soft drink, for all you Yankees out there. Tastes like a weak version of Sprite, but it’s really good.

    I’m always amazed at how right my agent is when it comes to revisions. She sent me some suggestions, and we talked about some other things on the phone. As I went through the book, I saw how much sense her ideas made. I’m really excited about the book now — I think it’s one of the best things I’ve written. And I’m really looking forward to writing Assassin 2, after I do some page proofs and other stuff.

    I got such a high when I finished the revisions last night. I’m still smiling this morning. Good times. :bub:

    Now, we’ll see if the book sells. Fingers crossed!

    What about you? What did you do this weekend?