After my low of the week, and don’t you just hate it when you anticipate a book (or movie for that matter) and then it just doesn’t quite live up to your expectations? It’s an “okay” book or movie, but you were expecting to be blown away? Well, although my one read this week fit the description, I may have had a more open mind about the others I read. CARVED IN STONE by Vickie Taylor was a more than pleasant surprise. Hey, where have I been? Are there other gargoyle stories out there? The only gargoyles I’m acquainted with were in that silly Disney movie with Demi Moore. Oh, and a few hanging out on cathedrals in Paris, or lingering in a over designed garden landscape. Taylor’s book has nothing resembling Disney in any way or sort. Thankfully. Ah, except for the French heritage, and I guess with a gargoyle, you do need the French. We open with a monster under the bed (or not) and then flash forward to a modern Chicago complete with sexy men and women (sizzling with sexual tension, thank you very much) who battle their natures and a nasty bunch of neo-conservatives. You gotta…

Been a couple of days, but with work, daughter home from college, husband on vacation and Star Wars Episode III, it’s been difficult to find time to read much less yak on about it in a journal. But ha, did you think I wasn’t reading? Silly you! Finished EVERY WHICH WAY BUT DEAD on Friday. Sad to say, I thought I could finish in a single setting, but this episode, for me at least, is not as good as the first two. Either, she was rushed to get it out to satisfy her fawning fans or she lost her creative sparkle for a bit. And the front cover blurbette — “Great sex. And an even better plot!” — well, please, one scene of doing the sublime and a bunch of gnawing on a demon scar is NOT great sex. If you don’t have an ongoing amount of sexual tension, it just becomes a formulaic scene — insert some sex here. As for great plot, walking on a character then forgetting him until the last summary chapter, or throwing us a bad guy without motivation rhyme or reason, or whisking away a main character (was the stage too crowded to manage?),…

We had our monthly dinner meeting tonight, and as usual, it was wonderful! I never knew how great it was to meet with friends and discuss books and authors until I started going to tea nine years ago. And the monthly dinners are even better. No chance of being overheard and dinner with friends is always nice. Besides they help cook and bring goodies *g*. We had two guests this month — due to a death in the family in April, we had to cancel our April dinner, so we just doubled our fun in May. Our guests were very different, writing different types of romances and yet both have an avid following within our group. Holly Jacobs can’t help it, she writes funny. And believe me, she is as much fun in person (or on the phone) as she is on the printed page. We got the inside scoop on her dealings with the vendetta the suicidal chipmunks are waging on her, as well as a glimpse into future books after she finishes off two series she’s working on now. It was a wonderful conversation — sorry I kept knocking over the phone, Holly! My only problem is how…

I wrote a quick article on the demise of the Harlequin Temptation and now, I hear the two romance lines from H/S are closing down as well. But talking with G this morning I realized something — it isn’t the death so much as a transformation. The old formula isn’t working so well, they need to go with a new one! Instead of baby books, they need to push the whine of the urban 20/30/40 and 50? something. And in first person as well. ::sigh:: I’m too old for this, that is why fantasy/scifi is so appealing for my current reading. So instead of reading last night, I went awandering through my book cases looking for some old favorite Temptations. Of course, I managed to get trapped by some of my old keepers — mostly the Jayne Ann Krentz’s like GHOST OF A CHANCE which I love! So what do you think of the changes? Always difficult but on a bright note, change of blood means new stories and voices! Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Harry is a local Dallas author with a debut mystery out this month from Minotaur. You’ve got to be at least intrigued by his protagonist name — after all, Oswald is such a “Dallas” name. Still Water has been highly recommended by the local community leader for the Dallas Barnes and Noble and a local mystery readers group. Anyone read it yet? ~sara Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

On a recent “TRASH” trip to St. Louis, I managed to pick up books by two of my childhood — well, young girl in the 60s/70s — favorites: Jane Aiken Hodge and Mary Stewart. Not only did it bring back memories of reading in a sun warmed room, or dusty hideaway, but also memories of adventure outside the farming community I lived. Mary Stewart brought a sophisticated international world into existence for me, especially with her tale of Greek Isles, Corfu and the dangers of the Cold War. Wildfire at Midnight was one of my first tastes of Greece and I wanted so badly to go and stay in a villa, bronze in the warm sun, swim in the blue seas, and eat olives. Surely the Greek olives were better than the ones stuffed with pimentos and hauled out in the relish dish for big Pennsylvania Dutch dinners at our house. And I understand they even used olive oil, which was definitely NOT an ingredient in our Mennonite/Amish cooking! Ah, what Stewart exposed me to dream about! The Spell of Mary Stewart is a book club (Nelson, Doubleday) hardback without dust jacket, published in 1968 with three of Stewart’s classics:…

To be very honest, I’ve never kept a reading journal as I never saw the point. I remember the good of what I’ve read and if a book has me pondering, well, then I might reread it or not. Reading has and I hope always will be entertainment and not a vessel of confounded thinking. But I digress, I think I’m supposed to note books I’ve read since last posting, uh, that would be yesterday’s readings. Yes, the procedure went well and I had the chance to finish three books. Mystic and Rider, Extreme Exposure, and The Veil of Night. Told you I had to have variety when I read 🙂 The Veil of Night is what I’d call an erotic gothic — set in a crumbling Yorkshire manor, filled with dark cold stone rooms, moldering furnishings, and a windswept rainy environment to complete the aura of gothickness (new word by the way). Then the author tossed in more than normal explicit sexual descriptions in a tale of sexual slavery for one week to cover the debts (or at least put repayment off until the parents die) of heroine’s dissolute brother. Yeah, a sorta standard tale for historicals, the twist…

Yup, time to spend the day in the surgery center, waiting for my husband’s treatment to be finished, and nothing much to do except watch a really lame series of programs on the television which I’d normally never be exposed. Now, I can sit in suspension while wondering how people can handle that pap, but I’ve learned over the years that the boob tube does seem to have a mesmerizing hold on millions, something I’ll never understand. So instead, I pack up my bottled water, my sweater — it is always freezing in waiting rooms — and BOOKS. Yes, plural, books. Although the wait should only be about two hours before I’m allowed back into recovery, I always feel the need to take a selection of reading material. I’ve found my mood can dramatically change once I get there. So, I’ve got a scifi, a fantasy, a torrid romance and a historical. If I pack more, I can’t carry it all. So, here’s to hoping he has a safe procedure and my reading progresses nicely.My choices today include: THE COURTESAN by Susan Carroll, HOT ICE by Cherry Adair, MYSTIC AND RIDER by Sharon Shinn, and a David Weber. Also taking…