Book lover

Dewey The Library Cat

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It’s been quite the year. I survived a wild, whirlwind of a summer followed by an even more wild fall. In September I started my masters program in Library Science, began a new job, and moved across the state. Now it’s November and I don’t know where 2016 went or how it’s already time to pull out my Christmas movie watch list again!

I have been blogging, just not here (I know. Terrible). For library class we each keep a blog of our class reflections and reading take aways. If you’re dying to read some stuff that makes little sense out of context, check it out.

Meanwhile, I’ve been making a Herculean effort to keep up with my personal reading. Hopefully getting back into my blog updates will help with that.

deweydookLast Friday I finished the book Dewey The Library Cat by Vicki Myron absolutely bawling. It’s the true story of a kitten that was abandoned in a library book return in rural Iowa and grew up to become the joy of the small town public library. Dewey was a big, fluffy orange tabby who spent his days snuggling with kids during story hour, sitting in on important meetings, and sleeping on as many laps as he could. Honestly, living in a library has always been a childhood fantasy of mine so I was incredibly jealous as I read about Dewey’s glorious life.

There was also a lot in the book about the changes rural Iowa went through during the 1980’s farming crisis and beyond. It was a part of history I’d never thought about, at all, and having it as part of this heartwarming story of a library cat made the book that much better. I wouldn’t say I loved the writing but I can certainly see why people loved Dewey.

If you don’t have time to read the book (and it’s past time to own up to the fact that most of us don’t), here’s a cute YouTube video from the Iowa Public Access story on Dewey. It’s very 80s and the librarian glasses are a riot.

RT Vegas Top Ten

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In what is now a tradition, here are my top ten moments from this year’s RT Convention!

  1. Meeting up with friends from last year and making new friends. This isn’t a moment, this was the whole five days. I loved seeing my posse again and adding some new members. We’re taking on the world, one romance novel at a time.
  2. Pitching. I pitched my book this time and it was great! Nerve wracking, very scary, and more than a little overwhelming, but great.
  3. Meeting Julia Quinn. A lot! Julia Quinn is on my list of authors to meet during my lifetime and I met her!
  4. The Help! Crazysauce Broke the Interwebz… panel. If I am ever in the middle of a media blitz, these are the ladies I want handling it.
  5. The Smart Bitches Trashy Books reader recommendations party. Basically we went around and recommended books to each other. There’s nothing I love more than hearing someone talk about a book they love. I came away with pages and pages of new books to track down and read.
  6. Lady Jane’s Salon. The above times a thousand because this was authors reading from their books. Nothing makes me want to read a book more than hearing the author of said book talk about it. This particular event led to #7…
  7. Receiving an advanced copy of J. Kenner’s Dirtiest Little Secret. I told her I’d heard her at the salon and desperately needed to read the book she shared so she gave me a copy!
  8. Jennifer Armentrout, who no doubt met hundred of people in those few days, remembered me from one of her panels. Did I feel special? Absolutely.
  9. The romantic comedy panel. Last year’s led me to Wallbanger and everything Alice Clayton. After this year’s I need to read everything by Christina Lauren. It’s on.
  10. Making new friends everywhere. I made a friend while waiting to pitch who I hope to see at Spring Fling in Chicago. I made friends in every line I stood in and waiting for my plane at the airport. Everyone at the convention loves books so we always have something in common.

There are more and the minute I post this I know I’ll think of them. I miss RT already and am looking forward to Atlanta 2017!

Truths

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Here’s the truth – writing a book is hard.

To quote The Princess Bride, “Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

The same can said for writing a book. Writing a book is pain, anyone who says differently is probably trying to sell you a sure fire formula to writing a novel in a week or some other nonsense like that.

But here’s the other truth, writing a novel is one of the most amazing, incredible, fulfilling things you can do. So yeah, I’ll keep writing. Even when I’m pretty sure I’ll delete the whole thing later.

Otherwise how will I get all these characters out of my head?

Thank god for readers and editors, one of whom pointed out that I accidentally renamed one of my characters Bret Michaels instead of Brett Jacobs part way through the manuscript. How embarrassing would that have been? Also definitely the wrong vibe for our lovable hero.

Romantic Notions

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Sometimes I feel closely akin to the Romantic poets and writers of old. The melancholy, the heartbreak, the overwhelming feelings. I could pontificate on the state of the human heart for hours in these moods but, for your sake, I will not. The attention span of audiences is not what it used to be. Including my own.

What has brought on such a state of unmitigated woe? A book. A mere physical piece of paper and ink. I am reaching the end of a trilogy, one that has engaged me heart and soul. I don’t see a happy ending in sight without one or the other character sacrificing all they have worked for. Can I respect a character who has given up their purpose in pursuit of a happy ending? Could you?

There in lies, stems, inhabits the dilemma.

Book Review: Convincing Leopold

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It’s hard to believe that I read my first Ava March book a little over a year ago. Since then I’ve read almost everything else she’s written, including this ARC of the re-release of Convincing Leopold.

Convincing Leopold is the sequel to Convincing Arthur. This is what I love about Ava – she writes the first book about her rakish and uptight men fighting their feelings for each other, a falling in love tale. In the second she shows us what happens after the happy ending. In this book that means challenging her characters to keep the promises they made when they initially got together.

I liked seeing their struggle – the real fears come to life that weren’t just manifestations of jealousy and paranoia. There is a real and present danger that this tenuous relationship may crumble when faced with the inherent incompatibility of the characters’ day to day life. I really enjoyed this book, more than the first one even. Plus it set up the third book in the series (which hasn’t been released yet) and I love a good tie in.

Read more about Ava and her Regency M/M Erotica here.

Ten Best Books I Read This Year

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I made this list for obvious reasons. Obvious to me but since you’re not in my head, here they are:

  1. I love lists.
  2. It’s the end of December* so end of year top ten lists are all the rage.
  3. I read a whole lot of books this year that you should read too.

Ten Best Books I Read in 2015

Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski – have questions about your sexuality? (if you don’t are you sure you’re human?) This book is for you. It’s for all of us.

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari – It makes you think, it makes you laugh, and I loved it.

Wallbanger by Alice Clayton – Oh wow. Just so much love for this one!

The Duff by Kody Keplinger – This is an awesome YA novel to read at any age and the movie absolutely doesn’t do it justice.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman – This one is a life changer for sure.

Sandman Volumes 1-10 by Neil Gaiman – I don’t recommend binge reading these like I did. They are intense.

Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson – I was surprised to find out Jeanette Winterson wrote a book for young readers. Turns out it’s only in the youth section because the heroine is twelve.

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown – If you haven’t read anything by Brene, do so now.

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster – delightful

How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran – Hilarious, insightful, and relevant.

Happy reading!

 

*Note: When I started writing this list, it WAS the end of December.

 

 

Stuff I’ve Done – The Outtakes

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  • I have managed to spill coffee on myself, my couch, my afghan, or my floor every day for the past three months. I’m not even surprised anymore.
  • I finished my NaNoWriMo challenge with 2 days to spare! The last week was tough because what I thought was the midpoint was actually the climax and the whole book needs to be rewritten from that scene onward. So I wrote down how I want to do the rewrite then wrote some fun scenes with the characters. Like fan fic of my own fic. Now the whole thing is simmering until I decide to pick it up again.
  • I got over the half way hurdle with the line edits on my novel. Now that there’s some semblance of an end in sight, the editing is going far more smoothly. One for the win column.
  • The Christmas movie watching obsession has officially begun! I’ve been watching them for weeks already but it wasn’t official until December 1st. Some of these movies I’ve seen a dozen times and watching them is like meeting old friends. And not the ones you’d assume. Oh I watch the classics – It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Elf, Love Actually…but the ones that I most look forward to? The ABC Family Originals. Particularly the ones with the insane plot lines and actors who used to be singers (or models or child TV stars). My end goal here is to some day have a list of the 25 absolute best Christmas movies ever, all defended with brilliant examples and screen shots.
  • I make my bed every morning and tell myself that it’s basically the same thing as having a clean house.
  • Of course I’ve been reading A LOT. I have a stack of books to share and I hope to get caught up before the year is out. I started two new reading challenges for myself – my own personalized 100 Books to Read Before You Die list (all the classics I feel I might not hate) and a list of romance authors to read before the next RT convention. More on these later. Also look for my list of the top books I’ve read this year – that’ll be showing up sometime around December 31st.
  • And now I’ve got another book to plan because why have one book project going when you can have three?

Where Did You Go?

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The simplest answer? NaNoWriMo.

The most complex answer involves me taking on too many activities and jobs and overthinking everything and generally feeling like I’m in over my head.

But really it’s NaNo. I’m dedicating all of my writing hours to putting in words on my new, untitled novel. I just pass 27,000 words today and so far the ideas just keep coming. It’s more personal than my first book. That one I wrote because I wanted to see if I could. This one I’m writing because I can’t get it out of my head.

Some may call it distraction or multi-tasking or being non-committal to have two novels going. I just call it following my creative impulse.

Now You Can’t Stop Thinking About It

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Happy Halloween!

Courtesy of my friend, I have this tidbit for you – How can a vampire get a boner when they don’t have any blood flow?

I’m not talking Buffy vamps here – they bleed still. But what about vamps who’s veins freeze when they die? (We all know what I’m talking about, right?) They clearly cannot get it on, given the rules of their own fantasy world.

Think about this, paranormal writers, if you want your characters to consummate their eternal love, don’t give them frozen parts. Or buy them a penis pump.

Spooky Weird Stuff

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In this edition of “There’s Some Weird Stuff Out There,” I’m getting in the Halloween spirit. Now there are a lot of directions I could go with this – you would not believe the sort of weird, spooky paranormal stuff there is out there. But instead of going zombie or ghosts or vampires, today I’m talking about shapeshifters. Not werewolves – at this point werewolves are a bit blasé, don’t you think? Without further ado I give you…

WerePanther –

Eat Prey Love by Kerrelyn Sparks

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WereTiger –

Here Kitty, Kitty by Shelly Laurenston

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WereBear –

Bear Necessities by Isadora Montrose

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WereWyr –

Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison

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WerePumas –

The Wallflower by Dana Marie Bell

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EVEN WereHoney Badger –

Bite Me by Shelly Laurenston

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And SO many more. Almost all dangerous, predatory creatures are represented. Except for sea creatures. Where are the were-sharks? The were-shark and the mermaid. Just imagine.