• The whole shebang …

    2 Comments

    My Publishers Weekly review for Karma Girl has been posted to Amazon.com, so I guess I can put the whole thing up here too. This is what they wrote in its entirety:

    Chick lit meets comics lit in Estep’s fresh debut. Carmen Cole, “reporter extraordinaire” for the Exposé in Bigtime, N.Y., is on a mission — to unmask all superheroes and über villains — after catching her fiancé, Matt Marion (aka the Machinator), in bed with her best friend, Karen Crush (aka Crusher), on Carmen’s wedding day.

    But after Carmen outs a member of the Fearless Five, Travis Teague (aka Tornado), and Travis kills himself, she’s not only devastated, she’s demoted to society reporter. When the Terrible Triad nabs Carmen, their snarky Malefica insists she unmask the Fearless Five’s Striker or suffer dire consequences.

    By the time Carmen knows who Striker is, they’re in love, and turning him over to a superbitch isn’t an option. A zippy prose style helps lift this zany caper far above the usual run of paranormal romances. (May) 
    Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

    I know it’s mostly plot summary, but this still makes me insanely happy. Two whole sentences of like isn’t too shabby for a newbie like me. 😀

  • Growing older … and losing so much in the process

    8 Comments

    Today is my friend Keri’s 29th birthday — also known as the last one she’ll ever have.

    Because, of course, next year is the big 3-0. And the age I think when most folks finally realize that their 20s are gone and they are officially moving into middle age.

    And that getting old can really suck. Wrinkles. Gray hair. Creaky knees. It certainly ain’t no picnic. 

    But mainly, I think it sucks because we lose so much of the silly, goofy joy we had as kids. There was a time when I was insanely proud of the fact that I had eight pieces of pizza for dinner. Now, it’s more like Hey! Guess what? I only consumed 127 calories the entire day! Do I really want to be proud of self-starvation?

    When I was a kid, I didn’t mind getting sweaty and dirty if it meant I could go play in the creek and look for crawdads. Now, I don’t even swim, except maybe once a year. Part of this is lack of opportunity. But part of it is the fact that it seems like it’s just so much trouble, and there’s so much stuff to drag around. Bathing suit, towels, sunscreen, flip-flops, cover-ups … It just doesn’t seem worth the effort anymore.

    When I was a kid, I’d spend hours in the woods behind my house just wandering around and looking at trees and rocks and leaves. Now, just about every single minute of my day is already planned out. Day job. Exercise time. Dinner. Book work. Maybe watch a little TV. Maybe read — if I have time. I never just sit around and relax or do whatever pops into my head. I always feel like I need to be productive. To be doing something important. 

    Yeah, getting old can really suck.

    What about you? Does the march of time bother you? Inquiring minds want to know …

  • ·

    Publishers Weekly review time …

    17 Comments

    karma-girl-cover.jpgOMG! Karma Girl got reviewed in Publishers Weekly! And they liked it!

    Who-hoo!

    Here’s some of what they said: 

    Chick lit meets comics lit in Estep’s fresh debut … A zippy prose style helps lift this zany caper far above the usual run of paranormal romances.

    I can’t believe they liked it! I can’t quit typing in exclamation points!

    Who-hoo!

  • ·

    Putting on the buzz …

    2 Comments

    I’ve heard so much about J.R. Ward and her Black Dagger Brotherhood books that I finally reached into my to-be-read pile this weekend and started the first one, Dark Lover. More to come when I finish it.

    But it got me to thinking about how much I’ve heard about her — and how cool her books are supposed to be. And I was wondering how that happens. What makes buzz? Is it one reader telling another? A good review on a popular site like All About Romance? A feature in Romantic Times? Luck of the draw?

    Other authors I’ve noticed getting a lot of attention recently are Marjorie M. Liu, who’s been mentioned in RT a couple of times recently. Lora Leigh too. And, of course, there’s Nora Roberts, who’s always on everybody’s radar screen.

    What about you? Who’s the hot author you’ve been hearing about? What book do you want to read right now? How did you hear about it? What are your friends reading/recommending? Inquiring minds want to know …

  • On second thought …

    Maybe Megaphone would be a better ubervillain name when I’m in spread-the-word mode. Or Loudmouth. Or Obnoxious Girl. Or Broadcast Babe. Hmmm … the possiblities are endless …