Hey All! Hope everyone is doing well. I was wondering something... Do you re-read book series and which ones? Lately, I've been re-reading Shanna Swendson's Enchanted Inc. series, which I absolutely love. There's something so fun about the way she wrote them (in a genre that used to be called Chick-Lit but is now more like contemporary). So many great characters and fun scenes. It's been a while since I read it, so it's nice to pick it back up. I own all the books. I've read C.S. Lewis' Narnia books multiple times. I've also read some of Lynn Kurland's MacLeod/de Piaget family books a few times. What is it about a series that makes you want to go back and read it again and again? For me, it's like seeing old friends. If enough time has passed, I'm getting reacquainted with them, or just enjoying them. I'm remembering how much I enjoyed certain scenes. I've read other books that weren't series more than once, too. Jane Austen'...

Happy Friday All, As those of us who are Christians remember Jesus's death on the cross today, and then on Sunday celebrate His resurrection, a thought occurred to me. I'm a self-described eccentric. At least, some people have thought of me as that way, and to be honest, I like being quirky. Sometimes you gotta have a bit of quirkiness to keep your spirits up. To that end, I believe in trying to spread smiles and sparkles wherever one goes. What do I mean? Well, it's rather simple, really. Either you know someone who is this way, or you're this way yourself, but they can't seem to find anything positive, like, hardly ever. They tell you all the things wrong or they're having a horrible day. You try to point out something positive, even something small, and they find a way to make it negative. I've met people who are this cynical. I don't know if they're aware of it. For me, their cynicism and negativity drags me down. I'm not the sort of pe...

Happy Tuesday All, This once a week blogging seems to be working for me so far. Whether or not I stick to Tuesdays remains to be seen. I might choose to jump around. But for now, it works. For Christmas I received Book 8 of the Enchanted, Inc. series by Shanna Swendson . I've loved this series since I stumbled upon it one day some years ago, and waited and waited for Book 5, and then waited a little while for Books 6 and 7. I thought she had left the series behind after Book 7, but was happily surprised when she announced that in December 2016 there would be another one. I received this new one for Christmas and wanted to write a blog book review to tell you all about it. Katie Chandler and Owen Palmer are back! Freshly engaged, and glowing with that "I'm-in-love-and-narrowly-lost-my-soulmate-due-to-crazy-elves" glow, but unfortunately, their happiness isn't meant to last. Once more evil magic is in the air. People are disappearing and Katie is determined...

Happy Monday All, I apologize most profusely for the lack of attention I've given the blog lately. Two weeks ago this Wednesday one of my dear friends passed away. I've known this person for 15 years and she passed quite suddenly (cause of death is still unknown). Because I've been so close to her and her husband (I've known her husband for 17 years, and introduced them to each other), I had to help with contacting other friends and doing different things to help her husband. The wake and funeral were this past week, so I was pretty busy with that. However, given that I have responsibilities to my husband, my offspring, and my writing, I'm now ready to get back into the swing of things, including posting more on this blog. I've received the first round of edits from my publisher for Surreal . The title will probably be changed, but it hasn't been decided to what. Once that gets ironed out, I'll have an answer. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep the i...

Happy Monday/Tuesday All, Given that I'm writing this after 8pm on Monday night, I figure this post will serve as Monday & Tuesday's posts. I have received a Box Of Awesomeness. Actually 2. The first one is in the form of my younger brother's Christmas present to me, that somehow got detained on its travels from its starting location to my parents' house. You see, originally brother was going to be at parents' house to receive said package. However, given it was detained, he was back at his house (many miles away from parents' location) when it arrived. So my parents, being the Box Of Awesomeness they are, kept it for me. I was able to pick it up on Sunday. My younger brother hit it out of the park in his selection of Christmas present! I received the following THREE books: Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout (book 4 in the Lux series--really good series) Much Ado About Magic by Shanna Swendson (book 5 in the Enchanted Inc. series--fantas...

Happy Tuesday All, I'm re-reading Beth Fantasky's Jessica's Guide To Dating On The Dark Side and gearing up to work on Conjure A Man (my WIP--Work In Progress). The other night I finished reading Tracy Deebs' Tempest Rising . I ended up really liking it. I realize since it was published last year, it's not exactly a new YA novel, but it was new to me because I hadn't known about it or read it. It's chalk full of sea mythical creatures. There's a big battle with a blood-sucking octopus type creature, a power-hungry sea witch, and a mermaid who wants to stick to her human side. I found it a fun read and plan to read the sequel, Tempest Unleashed , which is out. I'm doing all this while I wait for August 15th to arrive. Why August 15th? Well, aside from some real-life things going on, that's the day Shanna Swendson's Much Ado About Magic will be released. I've been waiting at least 2 years or more for this book! It's book 5 i...

Happy Friday All, It's the end of another week and my allergies have decided to act up. So, I'm waiting on a call back from my doc's office to see what they'll recommend I take (I had a question about an over-the-counter med). Hopefully it won't get any worse; I just got over having one thing or another not that long ago. Yesterday I read most of the day. I finished up Joy Preble's YA novel, Haunted (book 2 in her series) and then I went ahead and worked on Katie McGarry's YA novel, Pushing The Limits . Joy Preble's books use some of the Romanov story and Russian folklore. It's set in contemporary times, full of magic, mysteries, and a little bit of something for everyone. The first in the series is Dreaming Anastasia , which I really enjoyed. Haunted is book 2 and Anastasia Forever should be available, soon. (Joy told me it comes out, I think on August 7th). I'm hoping Anne stays with Ethan! Katie McGarry's Pushing The Limits i...

Happy Wednesday All, Today Katie McGarry's Pushing The Limits is available on e-reader! I got mine. I'm looking forward to reading it. Shanna Swendson's book 5, Much Ado About Magic , is available for preorder from Amazon . Right now I don't have any information about it being available for preorder for Nook anytime soon. When I find that out, I'll let you know. It's due to release in e-book form on August 15, 2012. RWA Nationals just ended and several of my chaptermates have gone. They seem to have come back energized and excited. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to attend Nationals. However, there is my chapter's October Conference! All writers welcome. For more information, click here . It should be a lot of fun! Anyway, that's all I have off the top of my head (for now) :-) Have A Wonderful Wenesday!

Happy Monday All, Whew! This summer has proven to be more eventful than I planned. Offspring was supposed to be in swim lessons for 2 weeks (4 days each week). Unfortunately, even the best laid plans go awry at times. The first week, offspring got sick after the second day of lessons (I had my own health problems that week, too). He had to miss 2 days (well, they canceled the second day due to weather issues, but he would've missed anyway due to his health). The second week I started off with a sinus infection (no problem, I got antibiotics), except Tuesday afternoon I felt foul, then in the evening/night ended up sick! I had to go off the antibiotics, and lay in bed for 2 days. Friday I finally started getting my energy back. Then Saturday I started a new antibiotic, which I finally get to finish today. This past week was pretty good, though. We made it to a nephew's birthday party, and I got some writing done on my WIP, and an idea for another story (I've got severa...

Happy Tuesday All, Life doesn't seem to slow down, does it? I was so busy in June that I forgot to send a birthday card out to one of my nieces! So, that's going out within the next day or two (definitely this week we're going to get it mailed; probably put it in the box on Thursday, since I believe, on the 4th mail isn't picked up or delivered). This month has its own set of things going on, but hopefully won't be as hectic as last month. Girls' Night Out was awesome. We had a blast...although, I'm sure the other people in the hotel probably wished we weren't giggling so loud. But, I'm telling you, there was some hailirious moments. One of my friends was making the rest of us laugh so hard that another one of the ladies had to sit down! I read a short story I had written especially for the occasion, and we all took a trip down memory lane. It was a lot of fun, and great to catch up with all of them. We're thinking that some time when we go...

Happy Wendesday All, Wow! I can't believe it's already Wednesday. I know it's been a long time since I had any type of blog post (the weekend post wasn't really much updates, was it? I don't usually post over the weekend, but there was a few things on my mind). Things have been fairly busy on my end. A group of female friends of mine and I get together once a month for Girls' Night Out. This get together is going to be an overnight stay at a hotel nearby, so I've been gearing up for that. It's one of my friend's birthday, so there's been a few more details than normal. Mainly, I took it upon myself to put together some "goodie bags" (I can't say what's in them, because I only told the girls a couple of details and sometimes they read my blog. The rest is a surprise). Another piece of news is that I've "broken" 100 pages on my current WIP--which you can see details of in the margin of this blog under Conjur...

Happy Tuesday All, Monday was super busy. Husband had off, so it was quite a day--but mostly good. Not too long ago I read Josephine Angelini's newest release, Dreamless .  Dreamless is the sequel to Starcrossed (which I have talked about many times).  It was a great read and I can hardly wait for the 3rd book to come out! If you haven't read this series, I highly recommend picking up Starcrossed  and taking the journey with Helen, Lucas, and the others. Shanna Swendson has announced on her website the future release of book 5 in her Enchanted, Inc . series. I can't tell you how long I've waited for this book! I love the Enchanted, Inc. books. I own and have read the other 4 at least twice (if not more times). Book 5, Much Ado About Magic , looks like it's going to be awesome. This is another series I highly recommend. If you haven't read it, don't wait for a fairy to cast a spell on you, go pick up Enchanted, Inc (book 1) and immerse you...

Happy Thursday All, Tuesday I talked about spending time with your favorite heroes and heroines , in keeping with the theme of spending time with favorite novel characters, I thought we'd shake things up and go with villains. Villains come in all shapes and sizes. From not completely evil to downright scary. Some of them have short attention spans, like Idris, in Shanna Swendson's fantasy series (starts with Enchanted, Inc .). Idris is trying shady things with magic that are frowned upon. He'd be a bigger threat if his attention span wasn't so short...which means when people who concentrate longer than 5 minutes join up with him he becomes a formidable foe. I think I could handle meeting Idris...as long as he was by himself. I wouldn't want to be caught in a dark alley facing some of the monsters found in YA author, Tera Lynn Childs' Sweet Venom . Ever get the shivers over the One Ring in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings ? The people who rally b...

Happy Thursday Everyone, We're finally on the mend, for which I'm saying thank you prayers. With Christmas right around the corner, it's a dear wish of mine for us to be well enough to enjoy the festivities, and it looks more of a possibility than earlier this week. I don't know if I'll get to posting on Friday or not, but if I don't, I want to leave you with some new release news: Christie Craig has released a brand new e-book called Murder, Mayhem & Mama . It'll be exclusively available on Barnes & Noble Nook , then sometime in February 2012 will be available on Amazon Kindle. Nina Cordoba has taken her writing in a new direction with her brand new release, Mia Like Crazy .  It's available on Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook . If you're looking for in-prints to read: Syrie James' Nocturne is one of my favorite vampire novels. This poigant, emotional novel will keep you going long after you finish the last page. ...

Happy Tuesday All, Offspring and I are on the mend from this crazy virus that seems to be making rounds. Yes, I still plan to post the November Author interview this week, I just can't say what day because that's a surprise. I just finished RE-reading Josephine Angelini's YA Paranormal, Starcrossed . This was my second time through it (I got a copy of it as a birthday present and wanted to reread it). I am still very much looking forward to the sequel. All I can tell you is that if you like Greek Mythology and you're familiar with the Helen of Troy story (and the Trojan War) this might be something you'll enjoy (You won't know until you read it). I absolutely love this book. There's a few books I love re-reading and I thought that I'd mention a few of them: Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice . I have not read this as much as one of my sisters (who, I think, reads it almost every year). But I have read this novel 3 times. Great story, great ...