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    A nice surprise …

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    I got an interesting letter in the mail this week from the Salt Lake County Library System — Karma Girl has been nominated for the system’s semi-annual Reader’s Choice Award! Yeah!

    According to the letter, every year the Reader’s Choice Committee selects twenty or more recently published books that have been recommended by other staff or customers. Books that have previously won the award include The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd; Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder; and His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik.

    Some folks put Karma Girl on their year-end best lists (thanks Tia, Susan, and Jody), but this is the first award I’ve been nominated for. I doubt I’ll win, but it really is an honor just to be nominated. And if I do win, how cool would it be to put award-winning author in my bio? 😎

    I also received a lovely e-mail this morning from Michele R. She writes:

    “Oh – my – gosh! You are an amazing writer! I just finished reading HOT MAMA and the book is fantastic! … I don’t know how you came up with such a good plot but I think your writing is right up there with J.K. Rowling!”

    Thanks so much Michele! This reminds me of another lady who came to one of my book signings and told me she thought Karma Girl was “better than a Nora Roberts book.” I will never forget being compared to Nora — and now J.K. Those kind of compliments are things writers never, ever forget — and what keeps us going in this crazy, often heartbreaking business.

    Let’s recap. I’ve been nominated for an award, Karma Girl is better than a Nora Roberts novel, and my writing is right up there with J.K. Rowling’s. Can world domination be far behind? :ww:

  • 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: