About Books

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    My year in books …

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    With all the best-of, year-end lists floating around the Web, I thought I’d recap my year in books:

    Books read: 67. That’s better than one per week, which isn’t too shabby. I hope to read at least 70 books in 2009. 😎

    Genres read: Fantasy, romance, mysteries, thrillers … just about everything except non-fiction. I’m not a big non-fic fan (probably because I have to read so many news stories for work).

    New authors I read: Stephanie Meyer, C. L. Wilson, HelenKay Dimon, Kresley Cole, Roxanne St. Claire, Linda Lael Miller, Elizabeth Vaughn, Jackie Kesslar, Ilona Andrews, Catlin Kittredge, Rachel Caine, Kelley Armstrong, Patricia Briggs, Austin Grossman, Rick Riordian, Eric VanLustbader … and several others. I’ll read anyone once. I’m happy to report several of these authors made the grade for me, and I’ll be reading more of their books.

    Authors I read again: Jim C. Hines, Lee Child, Robert B. Parker, Stephen Hunter, Marjorie M. Liu, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Elizabeth Vaughn, Lisa Kleypas … and several others.

    Best read: Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. A great contemporary romance and coming-of-age story. Must get my hands on the two sequels …

    Runner-up: Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughn. A great fantasy romance with a very likable heroine.

    Worst read: InterWorld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves. I just didn’t enjoy this young adult book, which is a sci-fi cross between The Matrix and A Wrinkle in Time. Then again, I’m not the world’s biggest sci-fi fan to start with.

    Runner-up: Twilight by Stephanier Meyer. I liked it … until Bella found out Edward was a vampire. After that, the book and its obsessive love story just didn’t work for me.

    Strangest read: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. I know this take on Batman is highly lauded, but I just thought it was weird. Then again, I’ve thought most of the stuff I’ve read by Miller is weird. So maybe it’s just me.

    New series I discovered and enjoyed: The Bullet Catchers series by Roxanne St. Claire and the Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole. I plan on reading and catching up with both of these series in 2009.

    Series I’d read before that left me a little puzzled: The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. I loved the parts of Phury’s book that dealt with John and his two friends, but the romance (what there was of it) with Phury and Cormia just didn’t work for me. Still, Ward is a great writer, and I have high hopes for the next book in the series.  

    Books I wrote this year: 4, which includes Spy 2 and all three of the Assassin books (I had to revise the first Assassin book so much I practically rewrote it).

    Books I plan to write in 2009: I need to revise Spy and Spy 2, do another draft or two to polish Assassin 3, and write Assassin 4. I also want to write my urban fantasy western and maybe try my hand at a young adult novel.

    What about you guys? What were some of your favorite reads (or things you wrote) for 2008? Share in the comments. And happy reading in 2009! :ww:

  • For a good cause …

    Lots of authors (including yours truly), editors, agents, and others have donated books, critiques, and more goodies for the For Jo Leigh auction. The auction will help author Jo Leigh with medical expenses related to her husband’s passing.

    I’m offering Karma Girl and Hot Mama T-shirts and signed copies of all three Bigtime books. Here’s the link to my stuff. Hope you can check it out. :ww:

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    2010: The Year of Gin …

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    So I got some information about the publishing schedule for the Assassin books this week.

    The bad news? The first one isn’t coming out until February 2010. It sucks for you guys that you have to wait so long for it to come out. But publishing is a sloooow business, and it almost always takes a year minimum from the time a book is bought to it hitting store shelves.

    But the good, great, and awesome news is that all three Assassin books will be out in 2010. The first one comes out in February, the second one is slated for June, and the third one will be out in October. I’m excited about this for a couple of reasons:

    1) Waiting until February will give my publisher enough time to come up with just the right cover/packaging/branding/etc. for the books. That stuff is really important.

    2) The first book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and the first three books set up the overall story arc for the rest of the series (hopefully there will be many more books), so it’s good readers won’t have to wait too long in between releases.

    3) Having three releases in a year will hopefully get some traction going for the series and sales numbers.

    4) Maybe the economy will be better by then, and people will actually be buying books again. A girl can hope anyway.

    So it’s official – 2010 will be the year of Gin Blanco. :ww: