General musings

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    To read me …

    1 Comment

    Karen Mahoney left a comment this week wanting to know how she could add my blog to her Google reader. I’ve had a couple other folks ask me about this, so here’s the answer.

    According to my Web site guy, the supercool Justin Knupp, if you want to add me to your Google reader (or whatever), here’s the link you need: https://www.jenniferestep.com/blog/?feed=rss2.

    Karen (and whoever else might be interested), please try this and see if it works. If it doesn’t, let me know.

    Happy reading! :ww:

    Update: According to Tia, this link will also work: https://jenniferestep.com/blog.

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    For a good cause …

    Author Brenda Novak’s annual diabetes auction kicked off on May 1. The event runs through May 31.

    There’s lots of cool stuff to bid on again this year. Trips, editor and agent critiques, autographed books, etc. Just about everything book-related you could ever want — and then some. Even better, the money raised goes to a good cause — diabetes research.

    Yours truly has donated some items up for bid — an autographed copy of Karma Girl and a matching T-shirt; and an autographed copy of Hot Mama and a matching T-shirt. Plus bookmarks, of course. Because you can never have too many bookmarks. :cool: 

    You can find my stuff under the paranormal section for readers. Here’s a link (scroll down to view my stuff.)

    Happy bidding!

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    Turn, turn, turn …

    5 Comments

    Is it just me or has this year flown by so far? It seems like I get up in the morning … and then I’m getting up the next morning … and then I’m getting up the morning after that. Almost like I’m stuck in a time loop like in Groundhog Day or something. Or this one episode of Xena: Warrior Princess that I remember was pretty cool.

    When I was a kid, the days (especially school days) seemed to drag on and on. Now, I blink, and I’m a week in the future — and not quite sure how I got there to start with. And the previous week? Well, it’s pretty much a blur.

    It’s mid-April — already. And I’ve accomplished very little of what I set out to do this year. I’ve only finished one book — and I wanted to finish at least four.

    I did get the Web site updated (finally), and I’ve been on a pretty good reading clip recently. But still … ack! Too much to do, not enough time. Must be more productive.

    What about everyone else? Are the days flying by for you too?

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    Librarians make the best friends …

    2 Comments

    So I’m going to Romantic Tmes convention in a couple weeks’ time. My friend Amy happens to live up that way. And she happens to be a librarian. Author … librarian … librarian … author … instant event! 😎

    So the plan is for me to sign books and chat with folks at the Corry Public Library in Corry, Pa. from 6 or 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 15. If anyone’s going to be up that way, we’d love to see you there.

    And if there are any western Pennsylvania authors out there, Amy would love to have you come by her library some time, too.

    Anybody else gearing up for RT yet? I’ve got a ton of stuff to do. Finish my workshop and print out 100 copies of it, practice said workshop, drag out my suitcase, pack up some bookmarks. Oh yeah, I need to finish a book and send it to my agent before I leave too.

    No pressure or anything … :rolleyes:

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    Bookish guilty pleasures …

    4 Comments

    I’ve talked about television, movies, and music. Now, let’s look at books and guilty pleasures.

    Probably my main guilty pleasure when it comes to books is westerns. I. Love. Westerns! In my younger years, I read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books too many times to count. (Although for some reason, Alonzo’s book was always my favorite).

    I also discovered the Wagons West series by Dana Fuller Ross at my library. These books are part historical fiction, part action, and part soap opera about the settling of the American West. Most of the titles are state names, like Oregon, Oklahoma, Tennessee, etc. There’s something like 24 books in this series, and I read them all — again and again and again. In order. Ross also wrote a couple of spin-off series, but I never read those. Maybe I will now …

    And I used to read historical romances set in the American West like crazy. I’d go to the library and get as many as I could find. Cowboys! Cattle rustlers! Epic love stories! Sigh …

    Then, there’s fantasy. Another love of mine (as if you couldn’t guess). I’ll read just about any fantasy book if there’s a) magic, b) swords, or c) dwarves it in. When I discovered fantasy, I started with folks like Tolkien, Terry Brooks, and David Eddings. Now, most of my TBR pile is fantasy, paranormal romance, or some combination of the two. I’m especially digging the surge of urban fantasy books and folks like Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison.

    I don’t really care for sci-fi, though. I know it’s really just a different kind of fantasy, but spaceships and aliens have never appealed to me. I’ve read some of the Star Wars sci-fi books, but that’s about it.

    I also like cozy murder mysteries. You know the kind I’m talking about. The ones that take place in a quaint, charming small town that just happens to have the highest murder rate in America — where the same person stumbles over a dead body every other week or so. M.C. Beaton writes a couple of murder mystery series set in England, and I’ve read most of those books, along with all the old Agatha Christies.

    Then, there are folks like Robert B. Parker, who writes the Spenser private investigator series, among others. I’ve read every single one of those, even though the characters don’t really change or grow that much and it’s really easy to figure out who the bad guy is (Spenser almost always knows by chapter 10). But the books have great dialogue and one-liners. So whenever there’s a new one, I always get it from the library.

    What about you? What are some of your bookish guilty pleasures?