Those of you following this blog already know I've been writing up short reviews of the books I've read this year. I started this more as a way to keep track of them. As a writer, several of the questions I'm often asked are, "What books do you read?" and "How often do you read?" My answer to the first has always been some variant of "an eclectic mix" but the truth is, I have no idea what genre I read let alone how many I read in a year.

So I've been keeping a record via the blog. Counting the book I just finished (see below), I'm up to 29 full-length works this year. On top of all this reading, I've released two new short works (Love in the Afternoon, a Quick Quickie from Ellora's Cave and Remembered Love, a free Naughty Nooner available on October 18th. Hey! That's this coming Monday!). I'd say this has been a productive year for me and the written word!

It took me the better part of three weeks to read Sharon Kay Penman's Here Be Dragons because it's so rich with history and names that I'd have to put it aside every once in a while just to think about it. That's a good thing. I like books that make me consider different ideas or look at historical figures in a new light. Here Be Dragons uses Joanna as the central character to explore the reign of King John of England. (her father) and Llewellyn the Great of Wales (her husband). To help you set the historical time period, this is the King John of Robin Hood fame -- or infamy.

The editing on this book was better than the last one I read of hers (Sunne in Splendor) although parts of it still read like a textbook. The characters were so compelling in this one, however, that I barely noticed the awkwardness of some chapters. Last year I read When Christ and the Saints Slept and found the same textbook-y quality to some sections of her stories. She is dealing with true historical events, though and I can see how easily that can happen. Heck! I have a Civil War historical sitting in my computer files unsold for exactly the same reason.

I've still so much to tell you about Romanticon yet...but will save for a future post since this one's long enough already.

Play safe!
Diana

Okay...a surprise for everyone, including me! This week Ellora's Cave released Stress Relief in print -- yay!!!

This is a novel that really isn't for the faint-of-heart. I know I've said that about others, but this one deals with some of the darker issues in BDSM. It's gotten my worst reviews, mostly because there are a lot of readers who prefer romances to follow a fairly strict path, even when a little kink is thrown in. Stress Relief actually follows that path, but widens it to include several activities most wouldn't in a romantic meandering.

Plainly said? There are incidents of group sex and humiliation in Stress Relief that have offended some readers and critics.

If you haven't gotten it yet, now you have an option between ebook and print delivery systems. I wanted to give you a juice excerpt not available anywhere else, but in my computer crash, I've lost a bunch of files. To add insult to injury, I can't find the backup disk I made just a few months ago. I'm afraid you're stuck with either the excerpt at EC or the one on my website for now, but I promise an extra-special one when I get my data back (keep good thoughts flowing to my old hard drive!).

Play safe!
Diana

During the early weeks of September, I read not one, not two, but three books. And since the 10th, I haven't read any :(. But here are my impressions of the three that started the month off right!

First up was Nora Roberts' Black Hills. This is a stand-alone, full-length work from Nora...my favorite kind of hers. In this one she combines a little of JD Robb in that it's a romance inside a mystery. Or a mystery inside a romance. The hero is alpha, the heroine is too -- and all's right with the world by the end of the book. It was a fun read and at 439 pages gave me more than just a few hours' pleasure.

The second one I read more quickly, that was Nicholas Sparks' The Lucky One. He has cool characters and again, all's right with the world at the end although, true to Sparks' style, he does pull at your heartstrings and messes with your head along the way. Good suspense along with the romance!

And then of course, there's The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling. I've read all the Harry Potter books, reading them with my daughter when she was in 4th grade and right on up through (she's now a junior in college and we still swap them back and forth). We've watched the movies, lamented over the parts they left out while still enjoying the imagery and characters they captured. This past summer we even made a trek to the new Harry Potter section of Universal Studios in Florida (and I have to say, butterbeer is WONDERFUL!).

I wanted to re--read Deathly Hallows before the movie came out (haven't seen the trailer? You can see it here) and it lived up to my memories of it. I read it first three years ago when it came out and hadn't revisited it since then. Good suspense, wonderful ride of emotions and a very satisfying ending to Harry's battles over the years. She done good!

That's all for now. I'm currently reading another non-fiction (Coming of Age in Second Life) that's really a textbookish ethnographic study of the virtual world called Second Life (disclaimer: I'm active in SL and so have a vested interest in how he portrays the culture). I'll post more about it later when I've finished it.

Till then, Play Safe!

Diana
PS. I always provide links not only to the books but also to the authors in case my readers (all five of you) want to go to the author's official sites. Enjoy!

Some of you have written to ask why I haven't released a full-length novel in a while and I figured if a few have written, more are thinking the question. The quick answer is, I have - or at least, have started to.
Diamond Studs and Winter Studs are two anthologies that contain stories from Ruby Storm, Ruth Kerce and me. We've had great fun working on them together and I have the emails to prove it. :) We toyed around with writing an anthology called Service Studs -- but we just couldn't quite get our timing right. Ruth published (with our blessing) her contribution as an independent, stand-alone book. If you haven't read Hot on her Tail yet...you should!

Ruby and I have yet to finish our stories. My work-in-progress, tentatively entitled Services, has been giving me grief for the past year. The characters talk - and then they don't talk. I figure out a section of the plot and then they don't like it. I'm a pantser (meaning I don't work from an outline) but this one has even driven me to try writing the synopsis first and STILL the characters won't cooperate. I managed to get nearly fifty pages of the story written in the early part of this summer but then they stopped talking once again and I'm ready to abandon them.

In fact, I got so ticked off at the silence of these characters I DID abandon them for a while and wrote Love in the Afternoon (my newest release - do you have it yet? Why not??? It's a Quick Quickie and the price is certainly right!). Normally I come up with the title after the story's written, but for this one I started with a title in my head: Naked in the Afternoon. By the time the story was on paper, however, I realized it needed a one-word change and Ellora's Cave is publishing it as Love in the Afternoon. Sweet!

Anyway, Services is still sitting here, nearly half done, giving me fits and not cooperating. I started a brand-new story day before yesterday and it's very possible I will chase that one down for a while. I'd like to give my readers another full-length (although watch for Remembered Love, a Naughty Nooner free read coming from me shortly), but it looks like I'm back to the drawing board!

In the meantime, play safe!
Diana

Need a short little pick-me-up...or perhaps a little love story to set the mood? Love in the Afternoon, my newest Quick Quickie from Ellora's Cave releases today and is perfect for those of you who are looking for a hot, sexy, inexpensive read.

She meditates, finding the quiet within. Quiet she knows he will disturb in his own seductive manner. When he calls her into the bedroom, she follows, trusting him to lead her to a place where all things are possible.

Read the blurb here and an excerpt here -- and then purchase this short piece, sit back, and enjoy Love in the Afternoon.

Play safe!
Diana

Since I last posted I've driven to Florida and stayed for a week's vacation with my family, taken my 18-year-old son off to college (he's the youngest -- sniff!) and watched my nearly 20-year-old daughter drive her own car off for her junior year in college. It's been an emotional rollercoaster since August 1st! Walt Disney World for the final family vacation, watching the younglings fly the nest -- and then staring at their rooms half sad that they're gone, half planning what can be done with them now.

In reality, I won't change their rooms up -- yet. They still come home for vacations and summers. Even though they're spending the majority of the year away, they each still need to feel that this is home. And it will be for a little while yet. With any luck, my daughter will get an internship this coming summer as a stage manager (anyone have connections with a theatre? Calling all internships!). When she does, she'll live away more than here for the first time. It's an adjustment, that's for sure!

While doing all of the above I managed to read only one book, The Sunne in Splendor by Sharon Kay Penman. Someone really needs to edit her books for style. This is the second one I've read and she has a fondness for passive voice that drives me nuts. But she writes historical novels and I find myself getting immersed in the history. Since I know little about 12th and 13th century England, reading her books has certainly helped me out.

The Sunne in Splendor ostensibly is about Richard III, who, according to her research (and mine when I looked to verify her overall take on him), isn't such a bad guy after all. Shakespeare wrote from the winner's perspective and since the Tudors overthrew the Plantagenets and Elizabeth I was a Tudor, I can understand him wanting to make Richard III a terrible, evil man.

But like all history, there are two sides. This book tells the story of Edward (Richard's brother and king before him) and Richard. A family tree at the start of the book would be helpful (note to publisher to add that in future editions) because there are so many of them named the same names. Originality wasn't a strong suit; family ties were prominent.

Overall, I recommend it as an easy way to learn about the people and the time period. She intersperses customs (those newfangled forks make an appearance) with historical events, family squabbles and everyday happenings. Along the way you come to care about Richard and want to know what happened to him. I had to slap my hand more than once when I got impatient and wanted to skip to Wikipedia and get the bare facts. It was worth the wait, although I would've liked a first-person account of Richard's ending rather than the second-hand information she presented after the fact.

The book takes some time to get through. It's 931 pages in paperback. If you like historical fiction, it's a good one.

Okay, off to figure out what to do with my days now that I only have two social calendars to keep track of (my husband's and mine)...

Play safe!
Diana

Just finished reading The Shakespeare Riots; Revenge, Drama and Death in Nineteeth-Century America by Nigel Cliff. May I say...WONDERFUL!!!?!!

In brief, the book explores the Astor Place Riot of 1849. The riot took place in New York City ostensibly over two different approaches to Shakespeare's plays. On one side, American Tragedian Edwin Forrest; on the other the English Tragedian William Charles Macready. Note the nationalities -- one of the real reasons the riots took place.

I know several of you are rolling your eyes at what you percieve to be a non-fiction history book. Yes, it is that...and so much more. Nigel Cliff has crafted a story out of all the diverse motivations that went into that culminating event. His knowledge of not only nineteenth-century theater but of the everyday lives of all the participants makes you forget you're not reading a novel. By the end of the book, you care about the two great actors and get genuinely angry at the mob and the nobility-wannabees that push events to the brink of disaster and then over it.

The only negative comment I have has to do with the actual riots themselves. After so many chapters, so many pages dedicated to the rising action and the events that lead to that fateful night, I wanted more description, more time dwelling on the riot itself. While Cliff does a good job, the rest of the book made me want a great job. As a result, the climax was...well...anticlimactic in my eyes.

Love, revenge, national pride, friendship and politics all get their due in this book. I heartily recommend
The Shakespeare Riots!
Hey...you can't say my tastes in reading aren't eclectic!

Play safe,
Diana

I spent yesterday at the cabin, normally a great place for peace and quiet. Over the past two years I've gotten a lot of writing done there. Not so yesterday. My husband and a friend of the family spent the day finishing the last of the bedrooms. Remember, when we bought this place not a single room was finished. Now three of the four bedrooms upstairs are completed and the fourth nearly so. The kitchen and the dining rooms were first done, but the plank floor went in this past spring, so those rooms are complete as well. The downstairs bedroom needed the least fixing, so that one was done first, followed by the bathroom. I think this bedroom is the first room he's done that he didn't need to buy a new tool for! :)

Anyway, they made it far too noisy to write -- so I read instead! Started and finished Judith McNaught's Remember When in one day, which should tell you something about the depth of thought needed to read it. Have to admit, I'm a sucker for books I can read all in one sitting. Not only are they entertaining, but I feel like I accomplished something at the end of the day!

Remember When is set in the contemporary world of corporate America, specifically, corporate Houston, Texas. She drew her characters well and even though I figured out some of the motivations before the hero and heroine did, the reveals were all well-done. I never felt cheated; the characters were true to themselves all throughout the book.

Play safe!
Diana (who needs to stop and do a count-up of the number of books she's read this year!)

BLOG IS UP AT THE SIZZLIN' SCRIBES!

Was my turn this week and I wrote about RENT, inspiration and other philosophical ideologies! :)

Play safe,
Diana

I couldn't resist playing with this. I typed in a selection from Submission Revealed and, voila! One of my favorite authors popped up. Don't see it myself, but can't say I'm displeased! :) 

I write like
Jane Austen

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Although the prologue to Stress Relief gets me this:

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

And a page from Cabin Fever compares me to:

I write like
Ray Bradbury

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

 
All authors I love. Can you see the influences?

I've been asked to give a series of writing workshops at Book Island in Second Life. These are really just a chance for writers to set aside an hour of time to devote to working on a particular skill. I give a few tips, turn them loose to write for a while, then we share what we've written and the hour is up too fast! But it's fun and a great way to meet others.

Below is the blurb and the schedule (I know, I should've posted it last week. Sorry. I keep saying I need a secretary/publicist/peon/gopher. Know anyone who would work for free books?) I sent out to my group in SL:

Sun block is expected in the summertime, writer’s block isn’t so welcome. Join author Diana Allendale (Diana Hunter in RL) for a series of writing workshops throughout the month of July designed to get your Muse out of the sun and back to work.


NOTE: All workshops are held at the Beach Area of Book Island (why should our Muses be the only ones getting a tan?) at 2:30 pm SLT.


You'll be writing and sharing at each workshop, although no formal critique will be given. This is really an opportunity to get some new ideas, play with some ideas and just have fun writing!

July 6th -- Developing strong characters

July 13th -- Doing more than just seeing the scene

July 20th -- Writing like we speak -- or -- Authenticity in dialogue -- or -- Say what?

July 27th -- Playing with characters

The above dates are scheduled but if something unforeseen should arise, a note will go out to both Diana’s Passionate Books group and to the Book Island events and discussion group, so be sure you're a member of one or both of those!

Hope to see you there! And if you're not in Second Life...why not? You know I do readings from my books there, don't you?

Play safe,
Diana

I've been trying to write this post for a week and for some reason Blogger and my computer don't like each other. Today I managed to get the darn window to accept a cursor by saving the blank document, then going back and editing it. I love technology -- except when I don't!

I've read four books in the past week. Being at the cabin with no Internet or TV helps. All of them romances, none of them really noteworthy. Fair warning: these are easy reads. I read one a day for four days straight!

Kat Martin's The Handmaiden's Necklace is really misnamed. All throughout the book the jewelry in question is referred to as "The Bride's Necklace" -- and it isn't even the handmaiden that wears it! In fact, the necklace doesn't come to play an important role till the very end, and then it's pretty predictable. An okay story, but the plot wasn't particularly gripping, nor were the characters really memorable.

Shannon Drake's Reckless was next. Book made me want to throw it across the room more than once. Typos, plot jumps...and I swear there were missing sentences throughout the entire thing. Don't know if it was bad editing or bad writing -- or both. I'd re-read whole pages trying to figure out where a response came from. Person A would make a comment; Person B would make a response that had nothing to do with what Person A said. Drove me nuts. And it's too bad, because the storyline was actually pretty good. I had no idea, btw, that Shannon Drake is Heather Graham's pen name. I've never read Ms. Graham, but based on Reckless, I'm not inclined to now.

Next up came Donna Fletcher's The Irish Devil. I liked the storyline with this one, but found her repetitive use of several descriptive phrases to be tiresome. The hero "growled" a lot (what is he, a dog?) and was referred to far too often as "the Irish devil". Okay, I got the point. He's rough, tough, and not always a nice guy. Please stop beating me over the head with this phrase!

And finally, just finished yesterday, Josie Litton's Dream Island. This was the best of the bunch, even though it threw me for a loop when it started as a Regency and introduced a fantastical island that "everybody" knew about -- except this reader who spent the first third of the book trying to figure out what kind of book I was reading. Once I accepted it as fantasy, it moved right along. Good characters, steady plot...a day well spent!

Now it's back to the real world...and my own writing! I'll post about that tomorrow...because, yes, I do have some new stories for you!

Play safe,
Diana

Did you all know my books are all available on the Kindle now? While EC offers ebooks in several formats, the Kindle is gaining in popularity. Check out the list of my titles to see what you don't have yet and add to your collection today!

Quick poll...what format do you like best for your ebook reading? Those of you reading this via a reader will need to click through to vote.

What format do you prefer for your ebook reading?
	pdf
	Kindle
	Mobipocket
	Microsoft Reader
	html
	other
pollcode.com free polls

As always, play safe!

Diana

Two weeks, two more books. Seems that's all I do lately, but really, I do a LOT of other stuff besides read. Honest! I have a new Quick Quickie coming out at EC probably at the end of summer or early fall, I've not one, but TWO other novels started (writing them, not reading this time!). Plus my son just graduated from high school, my daughter's home for the summer and I hear a cabin in the woods just a' callin' my name...

So really it's amazing that I get ANY reading done. Of course, these two books were both easy reads (at least for me). Both are in the Young Adult category and both are older books. In fact, the first one seems to be currently out of print, although I did manage to find some used copies available online.

Crossroads for Chela by Dorothy Witton is the first of the two. It tells the story of Chela, a Terascan Indian living in the high Sierras of South America. Chela chafes at the life her family and traditions have laid out for her and when "outsiders" come to her village, the new ideas they bring threaten her way of life.

The story was first published in the 1950's, but the events of the story are timely even today. I truly enjoyed this book and would love it if some publisher picked it up again to make available. In fact, I might even teach this book with a class of 9th or 10th graders!

The second book, Jackaroo by Cynthia Voight, is the first in her Kingdom series of books. While the plot was interesting and the characters intriguing, I have to say I didn't much care for this book. I love the fantasy genre and this would fall into that category. But when writing fantasy, the author has to spend time building up the world so it's understandable to the reader. Too often I found myself going, "What? Where did that come from? Did I miss something?" because either the action skipped ahead or the characters referenced something that hadn't yet come into play...and not in a good way that would pique one's interest, but rather in a way that had this reader, anyway, shaking her head and feeling lost.

So, two young adult novels, one no longer available and I wish it were; one still around and I'm not planning to read any more of the series.

Hmmm...I really should be putting all these books in at Library Thing...

Play safe!
Diana

Okay, trying out some code I just installed on the blog. But nothing can be easy, so I'm not sure it works. If it did, when you hover over the title for Secret Submission, an Amazon link should pop up. Did it?

edited: Whee! It did! I am such an HTML illiterate, I'm always surprised when it works like it's supposed to.

Now, next question. Do you find the pop-up helpful or annoying?

BecauseI haven't posted any reviews of the books I've been reading, you might be tempted to think I haven't been reading. Sorry, but nothing keeps me from reading! The book that took me all of May to read was Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and the first half of June was dedicated to The Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris.

I picked up Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell at Borders in early May. Let me warn you now, the print in the paperback is exceedingly small and even with my glasses on I had trouble at times. The book is 1006 pages long and there are a lot of words the publisher has tried to cram onto the pages to keep it to that length. If you can find it in hardcover, it might be an easier read on the eyes. In fact, the small print size is one of the reasons it took so long to finish. I kept putting it down because my eyes hurt after an hour or so.

The book reads like a non-fiction, telling the story of these two men from viewpoint of a never-named narrator. This device is furthered by the use of footnotes that, ostensibly, explain the references to other (fictional) works. While I found some of the footnotes entertaining in their own right (many read like little short stories), after a while, they became tiresome. Especially when they ran for several pages and I lost track of the story proper. Still, an interesting way to tell the little side-stories that often crop up when one is writing a novel of this length.

Overall I found the story mildly entertaining -- I did, after all, keep coming back after resting my eyes. But the non-fiction approach to the storytelling made it quite dry reading at times. For instance, it seemed that the beginning stretched forever before the story got out of the exposition and the main conflict was introduced. And if you're looking for a lot of action, this book is not it. If you like scholarly discussions of magic and power struggles between two opposing magicians, then this is definitely up your alley.

The second book, The Yellow Raft in Blue Water, has been taught in high schools for years so I figured it was high time I actually read it as well. I had no introduction to it, I just picked it up off the shelf and started. I didn't mind it too much, although, again, I found the storytelling a little to dry for my tastes. Raymona's story moved along and I found myself just sort of skimming along the story much as she skimmed through telling it.

But then the book shift's point of view and I found that unsettling, if not surprising. I figured it had to as Ray's story didn't have too many more places to go and there was a whole lot of book left. I found Christine's story even less compelling that Ray's and it sat on my desk gathering dust for several days before I was bored enough to pick it up again.

One of the English teachers told me she loved the book because it was like peeling an onion. That each person's story peeled away another layer until you got to the last point of view (I won't reveal the spoiler, although you'll probably figure it out halfway through the book). Only when you reached the core story did you find the truth. Of course, that assumes I'm still interested in finding out the truth when I finally get there. Overall, I'd give this one a bye unless you're a fan of the Contemporary American Novel. Which, apparently, I ain't.

So two more books to add to my list for this year's tally! Till later, Play safe,
Diana

This week was my turn on the Scribblin' Scribes blog. Come on over and take a gander!

With this story I'm officially out of stories for a while. Tales from the Ramayana: Homecoming follows Ram and Laksman back home to Ayodhya with their brides-to-be, only for them to find their father is none too pleased at their extended absence!

Okay, readers...what's next? Should I get back to work on a full-length novel for you? Write a few more adventures of Ram, Sita and Laksman? Stop writing altogether? I will tell you EC just accepting a Quick Quickie I wrote called "Love in the Afternoon." It's currently in edits, but you know I'll post here as soon as I have a release date.

In the meantime, enjoy Homecoming!

(removed. Now in Tales from the Ramayana, a collection of four short stories from The Ramayana as told by Diana Hunter)

Free story finally posted. This one is not part of the Tales from the Ramayana (although a new episode is coming soon). Gorilla Love was written as a part of the Love's Stories collection. Since it's very short (less than 600 words) it really should be classified as flash fiction. But it's a cute piece I had fun with. And because its so short, I'm offering this one for free.

(removed. Now a part of TIMELESS LOVE, a collection of short, romantic stories by Diana Hunter)

Didn't post new story yesterday because of neice's wedding rehearsal. Today is the wedding. New story coming soon...I promise!

Just bringing my log of books read so far this year up to date.

To April's list I need to add Last Words by George Carlin and 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal. Two bios by two very different comedians. Carlin's book is more a retrospective of his life and the things he's learned along the way. Sprinkled in among the memories are some great stories of the people he met and worked with as well as excerpts from some of his more famous routines (remember the Hippy Dippy Weatherman? With your hippy dippy weather, man!). Crystal's book is more a tribute to his dad and to other family members. He tells tales about his aunts and uncles and, of course, his love of baseball comes through as well (I'd include a link to his website, but it appears he doesn't have one).

Of the two, Carlin's was a much better read. Although Crystal's book is shorter (by nearly a hundred pages), Carlin's is more insightful about the human condition. As always, he has wonderful plays on words and a cutting cynicism of pomposity. Crystal's is a book of stories. Period. If you're looking to read one or the other, I'd definitely recommend George Carlin's last book. In pace requiscat.

I also read a biography of William Shakespeare (okay, so I'm a closet bio fan. Sue me!). Written by Bill Bryson and entitled Shakespeare; The World as Stage, this is as unpretentious and delightful biographer of the English language's best writer (yes, I said best and I'm sticking with it!). Bryson's incredible research exposes many of the wilder theories regarding our old friend Will while giving fun explanations of the big holes we have in the playwright's life. It's a short read (less than 200 pages) filled with humor and an obvious love and respect for the man who gave so much to English literature.

I think that catches me up! Look for another short story this Thursday. Till then,

Play safe!
Diana

It's Thursday, so it must mean a new story from Diana! This one is available for a small fee ($1.25). I'm still looking for input regarding the price.

Today's short story is called "One Last Dance". It's one of my favorite short pieces and tells the story of an elderly couple's last dance together. Get your hankies ready!

(removed. Story now available in TIMELESS LOVE, an anthology of four short, romantic stories from Diana)

As you may have guessed, I've started publishing some short stories to Scribd. The Tales from the Ramayana are free stories, the others cost a nominal fee (I had to charge $1.25 in order to cover the cost that goes to Scribd for each purchase. Do you think that's too much? Not enough? Leave me some feedback so I can adjust as needed!). I have enough of these written to publish a new work each Thursday for the next four weeks. And since today is Thursday...

Below you'll find "Laksman Falls in Love" and it's free. Since this is going to be part of a series of stories, I actually gave it a cover. I hope you enjoy it!

(Removed. This story is now a part of the Tales from the Ramayana, a series of short stories from the ancient epic as retold by Diana)

Play safe,
Diana

You can vote now for the Bondage Awards. Please cast your vote for me for Best Writer!


You can vote once a day till the voting ends...so you know I'll be pestering! The person with the most votes wins. :)

Play safe,

Diana

The Diana Hunter Scribd store is now open with the launch of Love at Third Sight -- a personal tale of love and romance. I will be publishing several of these short stories over the next few months and am charging a nominal fee ($1.25) for them. Rest assured, the episodes of Tales from the Ramayana will remain free, however.


(removed. This story is now part of TIMELESS LOVE, a collection of short, romantic stories from Diana)

I've been laid up the past few days, recovering from arthroscopic surgery on Wednesday. While I'm getting around much better than I thought I would, I still spend HUGE amounts of time sitting still. And what better activity to do when sitting still but reading and writing books?

To that end, I've begun writing a Quick Quickie. I'm stuck with this enforced non-activity for a week and I'm thinking I can write one hot, short, sexy story in that time. Aiming for 8-10K in length...and 2K are already done.

I also read an entire book yesterday. Well, that's not fair. I started it the day before but only ready about 40 pages before the drugs knocked me out and I slept through the night. So yesterday I finished Laurie R. King's book, Locked Rooms. Mary Russell is the protagonist of the book, helped along by her husband, Sherlock Holmes. Yes, that Sherlock Holmes.

This book is obviously part of a series of Mary Russell novels and refers back to those other adventures several times, much the same way A.C. Doyle did with the Holmes mysteries. In fact, she employs several of Doyle's techniques in telling the story, sometimes to great effect. Although I found the start of the story somewhat long to get through, once the hunt was on the story sped right along.

That said, I doubt I'll read any of the others in her series. I really like Sherlock Holmes and all his oddities. Messing around with a beloved character just isn't my cup of tea. He's a perennial bachelor in my head and will remain that way. Ms. King's stories would work just as well without the Holmes connection.

Oh! I forgot to mention I read Dangerously Funny 'way back in January. Written by David Biancully of NPR fame, it's a great look at how the Smothers Brothers changed, and were changed by, television. WONDERFUL book! A must-read if you care about censorship...and if you think it's not still going on today, you definitely need to read this book!

That's all...be sure to check here for a free read from me in the post below. Just something fun :)

Play safe,
Diana

To all you travelers who are stuck in places you don't want to be, I offer a free story to take you away from your troubles for a while. Feel free to download and read at your leisure!

The Ramayana is an ancient tale from India and one I've enjoyed expounding on for many years. I never tire of telling the story to a group of students and watching their faces as they become enthralled with the adventure, the feats of derring-do and the romance of the hero and heroine. Two years ago I was asked to write a series of short stories for a Valentine's presentation in Second Life and naturally I turned to this beautiful epic for inspiration. The story attached tells my version of the very first meeting between Ram and Sita as told through Sita's eyes.


Tales From the Ramayana; Ram and Sita Meet by Diana Hunter

My mom is a long-time romance reader. She loves Debbie McComber and Nora Roberts, Sarah Brown and Jude Devereux among others and she’s always passing books onto me that I then pass to my mother-in-law who is also an avid romance reader. My mom reads about 15 books a month; my m-i-l reads an average of 25. They expect me to keep up.

I don’t, obviously. And while I enjoy the occasional romance novel, I like to vary the genre I read. I tend to be a news junkie, so I read a lot of non-fiction. I also enjoy fantasy (have I mentioned lately I’ve been a Tolkien geek long before it was fashionable?), science fiction, and historical novels that may or may not be romantic in nature (love Michael Sharra’s books!).

All that said, this year I’m keeping track of the books I read. The most recent additions to the list are two books by Judith Devereux: The Summerhouse and The Duchess.

I enjoyed The Summerhouse very much. The plot had a cool hook that fed into the fantasy lover I am and, of course, her characters are wonderfully drawn as always. The story follows a group of women who are given a chance at a “do over” in life. Watching them analyze their respective pasts and make decisions about their futures made for a good two-day’s reading. And it’s thought-provoking, too. Makes you think what parts of your own life you might like to have an opportunity to do over.

So The Summerhouse had qualities I look for in good books: characters I can believe, a good plot hook, and it stuck with me after I read it. I didn’t want to jump right into another book, I wanted to carry this one around in my head for a few days after I was done reading.

I can’t say the same about The Duchess. Oh, it was a good story, if a bit traditional in the historical nature genre. I found only one anachronism when the female protagonist walks into a room and “flips on a light.” In 1883. Both the action and the phrasing were too modern for the story and I had to flip back to the start of the book to make sure I had the right period.

Other than that, I really did enjoy the story…right up to the ending. Won’t give spoilers, but I felt cheated. It was almost as if she’d gotten tired of writing the book, so she wrapped up all the loose ends in an epilogue and closed the file. But some of those “loose ends” were actually subplots that deserved their own climaxes. Such a let down at the end of the book. I wanted to throw the darn thing across the room and yell at her for being a lazy writer.

So, two Jude Devereux stories, two Diana Gabaldon, one Debbie McComber and a Neil Gaiman. Three and half months into the year and I’ve read six books. Not a bad start to the year!

Shameless begging alert!

The Bondage Awards nominations are now open. Please use this link and nominate me for Best Writer; don't forget, my website is http://www.dianahunter.net/.

This is for nominations only so far, NOT voting. You only need to nominate me once. When the voting starts, THEN I'll be pestering you every day :)

Play safe!

The time is almost here...get ready to vote in this year's awards for Best Bondage sites. Please click on the banner below starting on Sunday, April 4th and nominate http://www.dianahunter.net/ as the Best Writer!

Wrote the following to my newsletter and thought I'd post it here, too. This makes for an easier forum for replies -- and I do want to know what you think!

My apologies. I've been writing to the blog on a semi-regular basis, but haven't sent out a newsletter in FAR too long. I hope everyone's holidays and new year went well?

I've been busy on a new story that has had several false starts. Last night I finally had a breakthrough, but I'm not sure my fans are going to like it. The story (tentatively entitled "Services") follows Lauren and John as they meet, date, and fall in love. The problem is, neither of them seem to like their sex kinky!

I've been trying to force them into a scene that neither one of them wants to go. As a result, I haven't written a word on the piece in three weeks. Last night, in mulling over the problem, I realized I'm trying to control the characters too much. They're not interested in going where I want them to go...they have their own minds and want to go slower, to take their time in getting to know each other more, and then -- when they do have sex -- they want it to be slow and passionate with few (if any) toys.

So at the risk of alienating my readers who enjoy the hardcore BDSM, I think this one's going to be on the softer side. Tamer, quieter -- a sweet romance. Will you still love me if the next book I release isn't what you're used to? I really want to know what you think, so leave a comment!

I've a new blog post at the Scribe's, stop by and take a look. As always,

Play safe!

Diana

I'm up over at the Sizzlin' Scribes. Come on over and leave a comment...what do YOU do?

Have read two books this month and they couldn't be further apart in style and substance. First up came 92 Pacific Blvd. by Debbie Macomber. This book is part of her Cedar Cove series. My mom and my mother-in-law are both big fans of Debbie's work; I've read several in the past and have enjoyed them as an afternoon's fun (to be fair, I read fast. Really fast).

This was my first Cedar Cove book, however, and probably will be my last. As an author, I love the hook she's come up with. She's created a mythical town and populated it with all sorts of wonderful people who enter and exit each other's books on a semi-regular basis. As a market tie-in, Ms. Macomber has published a cookbook of recipes, each one containing a little story about the person from Cedar Cove who donated it to the book. I bought the cookbook for my mom for Christmas and loved leafing through it before I wrapped it up and gave it to her. Brilliant concept brilliantly executed!

So why would it be my last Cedar Cove book? Because I just can't keep that many characters straight no matter how hard I try. There's a character list at the start of the book, but to be honest, I hate having to stop the reading and go back to look things up. I can keep the twenty-seven plus characters of the Lord of the Rings straight because some are dwarves, some are Rivendale elves, some are Lothlorian elves, some are human. But even the humans are divided between Rohirrim and Gondorians with Westfold men thrown in for good measure. Those divisions help. When everyone is pretty much a normal person from a normal town, I start to get Faith mixed up with Megan mixed up with Tanni.

The second book I read was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Now this author has a reputation as an Internet Wonder Boy (I even followed him for a while on Twitter to see what the fuss was about). He's definitely got Internet saavy I'll never have, I'll give him that. I picked up this book at the bookstore on a whim more or less because I wanted to see if he was as good as his hype. In short? He is.

The plot was an interesting twist on the "do gods exist" question, uniquely answered. I found myself dusting off all my knowledge of mythology to try and guess who some of the gods were before they were revealed. I was right on several of them. A few (only a few) I'd never heard of. Some of them I teach when I tell the Ramayana. And I know who Louise Brooks is. I didn't know where she was born, but I can tell you where she died.

That said, I really don't care for books that are as gritty as this one is. I'm the wrong demographic for this kind of book. This is more a book written for men or boys who are on the cusp of being men. The language is coarse in a bathroom sort of way and I can take that only in small doses. To be fair, there are only a few characters whose minds are perpetually (literally) in the gutter and Gaiman does a good job of creating individual characters who stand out from one another. This book, however, suffers from the same problem I had with Macomber's Cedar Cove book: too many characters. A cheat sheet would've been helpful since several people I met at the start come back again two hundred pages later and I found myself scrambling to remember just which person Whiskey Jack was (among others).

So, two books inside two weeks. Not a bad start to the new year. And yes, I am still writing my own, too! Am working on a new one that just crossed the line from novella to novel. Darn hero and heroine want more of their story told! :)

Play safe!
Diana

New post's up at the Sizzin' Scribes. My turn this week!

I probably should've written my reactions to Diana Gabaldon's Breath of Snow and Ashes before I read Echo in the Bone. The story so captivated me, however, I just kept reading from one book straight into the next. This is the Diana Gabaldon we've all come to know and love. The place-marker pace of The Fiery Cross is gone and Jamie, Claire, Brianna, Roger and everyone else are off at breakneck speeds once more. Both books keep up the energetic pace and...wait. I'm getting ahead of myself.

One of the hallmarks is a good story is evident when the reader can't get the story out of his/her head, even when doing mundane tasks like laundry or grocery shopping or teaching a class. Okay, the last isn't mundane, but shows the depth to which these characters and the events that happen to them (or they cause to happen, which is more often the case with Jamie) stick with the reader. Breath of Snow and Ashes has a scene that made me put down the book and sit and think about it for a good, long time.

I need to put in a small spoiler here, so if you haven't read the book and don't want any spoilers, stop reading at this point and go here to read something on a completely different topic.

(I'm putting my badge here as a way of helping to put space before the spoiler. You've been warned!)

SPOILER ALERT:

Claire is abducted; Jamie comes to her rescue (he darn well better!). But when she's given the opportunity to take justice on the men, Jamie steps forward and says, "I kill for her."

The entire incident really made me stop and think about my relationship with my husband. Would he kill for me? Would I want him to? The question is, perhaps, moot in 21st century America, but the question still lingers. Just how far would you go for your spouse? What are the limits of what love should do?

END SPOILER ALERT

A more appropriate question for today is "Would you fight for me?" since today's courts of law would not take vigilante justice kindly. And "fighting" doesn't mean with fisticuffs either anymore. When I was poorly treated by a medical so-called professional and came home in tears because of it, my husband immediately went to the phone, called the office and laid them out in lavendar. He got me an apology from the office manager (poor woman, she wasn't the one at fault, but I applaud her stepping up), a new appointment with a different doctor and most importantly, made me feel like I was the most important person in the world to him.

And at the heart of it all, isn't that truly the kernal of truth Diana Gabaldon has illustrated in this book? That marriage isn't just flowers and candy and nights of hot sex (although none of those should be discounted, by any means!), but that marriage means going to bat for one another no matter how much needs to be done. When you get right down to it, marriage is holding one's spouse as more important than oneself.

Thank you, Diana G, for reminding me of that.

Play safe,

Diana H.

Putting down Breath of Snow and Ashes when I'm only 150 pages from the end was very, very hard to do last night. I won't write a full review yet, but let me say...she's back! I was afeared, after The Fiery Cross, that maybe the steam had run out on this engine. It has not! This book has all the action, angst, passion and detail I fell in love with in the first two books.

So why am I writing instead of finishing it off? I'm about to give this book the highest compliment a reader can give an author: I don't want the book to end!!!

When I mentioned to a friend recently that I'm re-reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series in preparation for reading Echo in the Bone, she grinned and said (I paraphrase), "I'm Claire, you know."

I grinned back and said, "Of course you are. So am I."

And there, in two sentences, is the magic of the series. Diana Gabaldon has created a heroine we all can identify with -- her foibles and passions, her talents and desires -- but most of all, her incredible love for Jamie Fraser. Claire is who we all want to be. An independent woman, intelligent and educated, who has a love so deep it withstands the travails of time itself.

The Fiery Cross is the fifth book in the Outlander series. In it we follow Jaime and Claire Randall as they build a life together in the wildnerness of North Carolina. The year is 1771 and the task is no small feat. There's a forest to tame, a community to build and a war looming on the horizon. Our hero and heroine are assisted in these endeavors by their daughter, Brianna, and her husband Roger as well as a host of minor characters who keep the action moving.

Hmmm, on the surface, that doesn't sound like much, does it? What keeps this from being a mundane historical read is the twist Diana Gabaldon brings: Clare, Brianna and Roger were all born in the 20th Century and have travelled back in time. They're often torn between acting on the knowledge they've brought back with them or letting events unfold as history will have it. This sets up some wonderful internal conflicts in the characters that adds depth to their lives and brings them into focus.

That said, I found this book to be, in places, skimmable. The first four books I read every word, slowing down as I got towards the end because I didn't want to finish too quickly. Those books balanced plot action with character development so each got their fair share.

But with The Fiery Cross, there were sections I found that were over-long and my eyes skipped over the page looking for the next bit of action or character development. Most of those sections had to do with the description of the scenery. While I appreciate a beautiful sunrise or scenic view, to have entire sections of chapters dedicated solely to description of the scene made my eyes wander along the page till I found the action again.

To be honest, description has always been something I've skimmed. Taylor Caldwell was one of my favorite authors when I was in my teens, yet I found her pages and pages of description unnessary for my imagination. I painted in the picture as I saw it...give me the broad brush strokes and I was ready to go. The same with JRR Tolkien. I love The Lord of the Rings and appreciate the descriptions of the Shire and of Ithelien, but tend to skip over them from time to time.

Which is probably why I tend to use such broad strokes of description in my own writing. I don't really want to know every detail of the dungeon, or the car, or the house, or the hero and heroine for that matter. I want general shapes and that way my imagination can paint in the details the way I want them to be. Don't confine me with your vision -- let me have my own. And so, I skim over the descriptions when I find them going on too long as I did in The Fiery Cross.

I'd consider this the weakest of the five so far based solely on that drawback. The characters of Claire and Jaime are fun to watch as they move into middle age; Roger and Brianna take center stage several times and acquit themselves admirably. All in all, a good read rather than a great one.

NOTE to publisher (that would be Dell): consider including "Who's Who" appendix. There were several characters who made a reappearance in this book (Sergeant Murchison comes to mind) that made me stop and have to think, "Now who is that again?" A listing in the back with a one or two-line description would be most helpful!

Feel free to comment whether you've read the book or no! Oh dear -- now I'm sounding Scottish!

Diana

A few months back I decided to read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series again. I'd been introduced to the series years ago when a student of mine wrote a book report on Outlander. She and her mother had loved it and were anxiously awaiting Dragonfly in Amber. She loaned me the book...and I was hooked. I've followed the adventures of Jamie and Claire ever since, getting my own mother hooked on the series as well. I'm now working on my 19-year-old daughter and she's informed me she's in love with Jamie and wishes he were real. Don't we all!

Why do I bring this up? For two reasons.

First off, I've been searching for a way to make myself blog more often and thought maybe if I kept a running tally of the books I read throughout the year, I'd keep that New Year's resolution. Inspired a little by Julie and Julia, I thought about the conversations we could have about those books. Since I just finished The Fiery Cross, that'll be the first one on my list and will be in a separate post momentarily.

Second off, I just found this very cool site (thank you, Leontine!) that has thrown down a gauntlet worthy of Claire Randall Fraser herself: to read the entire Outlander series throughout the 2010 calendar year. Since I'd already started, I joined the challenge just for fun. I've not yet read Breath of Snow and Ashes for the first time -- that's coming up next. And Echo in the Bone just came out in hardcover. But I'll wait for paperback to purchase it. Much easier to handle -- and cheaper!

I throw down the gauntlet to all of you now...whether you've read the series before or are discovering it for the first time, come join in the discussion! I tend to lurk, but love reading what other people think. Watch for my post on The Fiery Cross on this site soon! Till then,

Play safe!

Diana

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The second decade of the second millenium I've been alive has begun. Wait. That didn't come out right. I'm older, but not THAT much older. I mean I've lived in two millenium and we're starting the second decade of the second one. Okay, maybe I'd better quit while I'm ahead... :)

Like everyone else, I've begun the new year with a host of resolutions (lose 20 pounds, get rid of the extra stress in my life, write more on my blog...nothing new and exciting). Some I'll keep, some I won't. The exciting part about today is I have no idea which resolutions are which. Next December 31st will tell what I managed to actually do.

Obviously write more books is top on the list. I'm working on one at the moment (I always have one in progress) that I hope to have out by late summer. I was aiming at the 4th of July, but I think I've missed that deadline already. The last few stories I've written have really pushed the extreme limits of the BDSM genre and I have to wonder if these characters are the backlash. So far their very tame -- and this is turning out to be a sweet romance. Nothing wrong with that, just different from anything I've written so far.

But its good to break out and do something odd...something unexpected...something strange every once in a while, right? Shake things up again and then come back fresh. So I'm going to finish the book and then decide what to do with it. We'll see if they stay sweet or if these two have a hidden streak I don't know about yet :).

Hmmm...on my reading list this year is a host of books to go with my host of resolutions. Started Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series all over again last October and read my way through the first four fairly quickly. Had to wait a few weeks to get The Fiery Cross from my mom; she also has Breath of Snow and Ashes, which I haven't read yet at all. I'd stopped after The Fiery Cross because I'd lost the train of the story, in fact, that's one reason I started at the beginning and am going all the way through. I'm figuring by the time I get to An Echo in the Bone it'll be out in paperback and I can afford it. Still have to read Lord John, too!

Admission of guilt here: although I write erotic romance in the BDSM genre, what I really like to read are fantasy and historical fiction. My TBR pile is filled with books in those genres! If you have any suggestions for me, leave 'em below! I'm always looking for good reads :).

Happy New Year!

Diana

I've a new blog post over at the Sizzlin' Scribes blog. Go on over and take a look!

Too good not to share:

I've kept a list entitled "10 Things I Want to Do Before I Die" long before The Bucket List (a good movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman -- what's not to like) made such an idea popular. Recently I've made mention of the list on another blog and several people wondered where the idea came from.

I have to give credit to Sister Joanna of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was my religion teacher Junior year at Bishop Kearney High School. Creating the list was something she assigned us. We had to have it completed and turned in by the end of the period. The items didn't have to be school-related, in fact, she encouraged us to Think Big. "If you don't envision yourself doing it, you'll never even try," she told us. A woman ahead of her time.

Now, I was a pretty concientious student (honest! It said so on my second grade report card!), and I bent to the task, concentrating hard and thinking about all the things I wanted to do with the decades that stretched before me. One has all the time in the world when one is seventeen. The first items came quickly: write and publish a book (yes, have had that dream for many, many years), go so far out to sea I couldn't see land (I'd just finished reading Moby Dick, can you tell?); fly in an airplane; go to Europe.

The next tasks required a little more thought. Fly in a hot air balloon, go so far north I could see the sun not set. A few girls giggled as they exchanged papers, sharing their silliness. They wanted husbands and children and a house in the suburbs. Didn't need to look at their paper to know that's what they'd written.

But I wanted more. With the exception of writing and publishing a book, the others all had to do with travel. Places to go, things to see, life to experience. Would I ever actually do any of them? Who knew back then?

The minutes slipped by and still I had only six things on my list. What other things did I want to do? Fun things...not involving work. I had a sudden thought and scribbled two ideas down quickly: canoe the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo and to walk the Appalacian Trail from Maine to Georgia.

I sat grinning at those two for a good five minutes. I didn't even know if the entire Erie Canal still existed. So much of it had been redug and rerouted in the early 20th century that the canal even had a different name now -- the unpoetically named Barge Canal. But both these ideas appealed to the romantic in me, since I could do neither one alone. I didn't need to write down "get married" on my list...it was a given in my mind.

But that still left two more dreams to come up with. Ten things I wanted to do before I died...smiling mischiveously I wrote down, "Go into outer space." Why not? I had to envision it before I could make it happen...well, I could see myself sitting comfortably in a Saturn V rocket being hurled upward, making a space walk with a thick tether to the command module. Yeah. Definitely going into outer space had to be on the list.

One more. Less than five minutes to the end of the period. I shrugged and let whimsy take over. None of this was serious anyway. She would read the lists, slap a grade on them and hand them back. And Sister had specified ten things, so ten there must be. Shaking my head I wrote, "ride in the engine of a steam locomotive and shovel coal."

Done. Bemused by the entire exercise, I went on about my life, throwing away the paper at the end of the year along with all the other accumulated notes, labs, and worksheets.

I didn't give it another thought until a month into summer vacation when I went to visit a friend who had a cottage on Coneseus Lake. Her sister knew someone who worked on the tourist railroad that ran between Lakeville and Livonia, NY. We wandered down to the train barn to see him and he was just taking the engine out and hooking it up for the night's run. The three of us (my girlfriend, me, and the train engineer) fell to talking and he asked us if we wanted a ride over to the station.

We didn't have anything better to do, so we said sure, thinking he meant for us to get in one of the passenger cars. But he gestured to the engine and said, "Hop on, then!" And there I was, riding in the engine of a steam locomotive, the hot boiler just a foot away, the huge beast thundering under my feet. I couldn't stop grinning.

By the time we pulled into the station, I had begun to wonder. If such an unimportant thing on my list could come true without my even trying...what about the other things on my list? Would it be possible to go so far out to sea I couldn't see land? What about actually walking the Appalacian trail? I still didn't think going into outer space was realistic, but the others...

When we got home that night I borrowed a sheet of notebook paper from my friend and rewrote my list. Looking it over, I made my decision: I WOULD do all the things on the list and what's more, every time I did one, I needed to add another. The list would always be at ten items. That way, I'd always have something to look forward to and wouldn't get bored.

I know other people prefer to cross things off and feel a great accomplishment in saying things like, "Three down, seven to go." They feel as if they're headed toward a finish line and life's a race to get things done. I'm afraid I'm not like that. For me, these are end goals in and of themselves, so when one's done, it gets crossed off. There is a great satisfaction in crossing it off, too. But another gets added because I never want to become complacent. There are always new horizons, new activities to do.

So, what have I crossed off? I've flown in an airplane and a hot air balloon. I've written and published a book (14 so far!), I've ridden in the engine of a steam locomotive and I've learned to weave on my very own loom. That last was the one I added since I'd ridden on the train. I've also gone so far north that I saw the sun not set and I've shot a shotgun (another later addition to the list).

Still to do? Walk the Appalacian Trail, canoe the Erie Canal, go so far out to see I can't see land, go into outer space and parasail from the back of a boat (another added item), go to Europe. Yes, I know. That's only six. I need to come up with four more, especially since I crossed three of this summer.

I'm open for ideas! Let 'em rip...what four things should I add to my list so I still have 10 Things To Do Before I Die?

For some reason I couldn't cut and paste into the blog over the weekend, so I ended up sending both these posts as newsletters. This, however, was the original place for this post and I included the one from earlier...well, just because. :)


Romanticon 2009 is over and, my glory, did I have a WONDERFUL time. This has been a truly relaxing, professional…marvelous weekend. Between the EC staff, the readers, the models and the authors I doubt there were many more than two hundred people here and it was the perfect size.

The Author Mania sessions gave us a great chance to chat with readers…and have entire conversations with them. No one felt rushed and the convention books EC provided with that held the schedules, handouts and places for signatures was a stroke of genius. Everything all together in one book…and more than one reader (and author!) made the attempt to get every single author's autograph.

I presented at two sessions: Using Second Life and the How to Write BDSM panel. The Second Life presentation was Saturday morning and had about fifteen people in attendance, over triple the number that came when I gave a similar presentation at RT a few years back. Several authors downloaded the program right here at the hotel and are inworld already. I can't wait to meet them again in SL. Their questions and enthusiasm is catching!

For the panel discussion, Joey Hill , Tawny Taylor and I all gave tips on how to write good BDSM novels and I have to say, I was truly impressed with the level of discussion between and among those in attendance. There were about 25-30 people who came and the questions and comments were terrific. We only stopped because we were out of time, but several of us continued the discussion out in the hall afterward.

Are you seeing the trend here? The level of professional discussion about writing blew me away. It's the first time I've ever had such wonderful talks with authors (and readers) about the craft of writing. Sometimes we talked about the tools (got a great tip on using the comment feature in Word to keep track of details, but I don't remember who gave me the tip. If you're reading this and it's you…let me know so I can give you credit!), and sometimes we talked about the content.

In fact, I'd have to say that was the best part of the entire weekend: the ability to talk openly about subjects that are often step-children at other conferences. Ebook publishing, erotic love scenes, werewolves, vampires, using online tools to promote – all these topics and more were spoken of seriously and with great passion and knowledge. Definitely the best part of the conference had to be the opportunity for quiet, scholarly discussion.

Because the number of attendees was small, it was possible to see everyone. I know I've been to larger conferences and found out after the fact that someone I knew was there and yet we never crossed paths the entire time. That wasn't the case here. I think I spoke to nearly everyone at least once. Ruby Storm said it felt more like family and she's right. So many of the authors I'd seen before and had brief conversations with…but this time we sat down and really talked. Truly a wonderful opportunity!

And so a huge THANK YOU to the EC staff who made it possible and allowed us to realize that our niche genres have just as much scholarship, just as much craft, just as much planning and thought as books published by bigger houses. THANK YOU for bringing the authors and readers together to renew friendships and forge new ones. We may be the step-children of the romance world, but we are not alone. THANK YOU for showing us that.

Play safe!
Diana

It may seem like I've disappeared from the universe, but let me assure you, I have not. For the past three months, I've been pretty silent on every venue: my newsletter, my blog, even Second Life. I walked away from the Internet, from promotion...and unfortunately, from you, my loyal readers.

Why? I had to. I've spoken before of finding the balances in life, whether between promoting my works and actually writing the stories or between home and work, family and everything else. Since publishing my first novel in September of 2003, I've managed to maintain that balance. Everyone and everything got an equal share of my time and energy.

But earlier this year, I got out of whack. I was spending hours in Second Life doing readings (sometimes as many as a dozen a month!) and nothing else was getting done. I wasn't writing, I wasn't keeping up with my blog or newsletter, and worst of all, I was losing touch with my family.

In May, I took stock of what was going on and realized I needed to change up what had become a habit. I slowed down my readings considerably and wrote a newsletter and several blog posts. But it wasn't enough. I needed what amounted to a refresh. I needed to walk away, get my priorities back in order and set forth once more.

And so this summer I did just that. I unplugged totally. I went into Second Life only to pay my rents and nothing else, spending no more than five minutes inworld about every two weeks. I didn't post to the blog, didn't post to the newsletter -- I only went to work and, more importantly, rediscovered my family. They're actually wonderful folks with a huge well of patience and I love them very much.

During those months I spent a great deal of time at our cabin (it still feels very new to me, especially since there are still rooms not touched. But that's another post for another day. Which is coming, I promise. But I digress...) and my husband and I spent two weeks on vacation - without the kids (another whole post in and of itself). Because I teach, I had the time to renew and reflect -- something I'm always preaching is important, but forgot to practice myself.
But every catepiller eventually has to emerge from its self-inflicted cocoon, and I hope, as I emerge from mine, that I can be as beautiful as a Monarch, although at this point, even a cabbage-white will do. Expect more posts from me (although I'm sure they'll be as irregular as always) and look for me again in Second Life. I have some new ideas and am writing a new Studs story (Ruth Kerce , Ruby Storm and I are at it again!), so watch this space for announcements.
Thank you, my dear readers, for your patience and understanding. My sincerest hope is that you have found the balances in your life. Until later,

Play safe,
Diana

I've been hacked! If you try to access my website right now, you'll get nothing but some !@#$ boast. I'm pissed as so far one reader has written -- she was trying to order a book but couldn't because of the $%^& idiot. How many lost sales will this mean?

And why me? Why my site? GRRRRR

I orginally wrote this as a reply to Kassia's post at Booksquare, but got on my soapbox and decided it belonged here rather than taking up space in her comments section.

What got me started was this quote from her post: "The competition for books isn’t necessarily other books as much as everything else in life."

I remember the day after my daughter was born, I reclined in my hospital bed leisurely reading the Sunday paper. My doctor walked in, laughed and said, "Enjoy that paper. It's the last reading you'll do for a while." I laughed too, not realizing how prophetic his words were to be.

In the space of one birth I went from a reader who read several books a week to one who read NO books for the next ten years (unless Golden Books count). I just didn't have the time and when I did, I was too exhausted to do more than plop in front of the mindless TV and let it wash over me. Only in the past two years have my old habits crept back into my life -- my daughter is in college and my son graduates high school in one more year.

Do the math. That's SEVENTEEN YEARS of not buying books, not having time to read. Seventeen years of not supporting the publishing industry (well, except to write my own books and hope others weren't in the same predicament as I was).

And what happened to books in the seventeen years I was gone? The price skyrocketed! Talk about sticker shock! I was buying new books at $2 - $3 before. Now I have to troll the bargain bins to find new books under $10 and those are paperbacks that have been out a while. With one kid in college and another heading there soon...the price for a brand-new, fresh off the shelf book is too much money.

So where do I turn? Ebooks, of course. I can afford those, even if I can't afford a pricey reader. And that, in turn, limits my reading time to when I can get the computer. But computers have so many other cool things to do (like read Booksquare :) )...

No, the world isn't making it easy to read books anymore. And publishers aren't making it any easier.

"The competition for books isn’t necessarily other books as much as everything else in life." That sums it up pretty well. Thanks, Kassia!

Diana

One week to go! I cannot believe how many times I've repacked my suitcase in my head. I don't do this much advance planning when going with the family in the car, but being limited to one suitcase, one carryon and a purse (which I normally don't carry) is driving me insane!

Why am I expending all this mental energy? Because next Tuesday my husband and I leave on a thirteen-day tour of Alaska! You should be proud of me, by the way -- I didn't put that last sentence all in capitals. Yes, I'm that excited!!!!! (I'll make it up in exclamation points)

The trip has a sad beginning. Last summer, my sister-in-law was killed while riding her bicycle. She wore a new helmet and had gone for just a couple of miles in a leisurely spin around some country roads. At one point a small truck passed her going in the opposite direction and she made a U-turn after it to head for home. Unfortunately, she had her headphones in and the music on and didn't hear the Harley coming up behind her. They collided and she was killed instantly.

She and my mother-in-law had long talked of taking a trip to Alaska. Always it was, "One of these days..." But with my sister-in-law's death, it was "never." My mother-in-law had lost her husband of over 50 years just a year and a half earlier and losing her only daughter so suddenly was really, really hard.

But she's stubborn, my MIL, and we love her for it. She beat leukemia and she beat this the same way -- with determination and prayer. As the beneficiary of her daughter's insurance policy, she felt terrible about taking the money, then realized she could make their trip come true in a very real way. So in one week, my MIL is taking her remaining two sons and their wives (of which I am one) and a niece to Alaska to commemorate her daughter's life and desire to see Denali.

So there's some bittersweetness to this trip. On the down side are our memories of a life cut too short (she was just 40 when she died). On the up side are our memories of a vibrant life that played hard, laughed often and gave more than she asked for. It is the latter that we celebrate on this trip.

And so I will go back to agonizing over whether I really need that third pair of shoes and which blouse goes best with that skirt (which one will roll up smallest!!). And with every item I pack I'll think of Michele and smile with tears in my eyes.

Play safe everyone. Please.

Diana

If the price of the IRISH ENCHANTMENT anthology put you off getting your hands on a copy of this novella, now you can buy it all by itself. That's right, STITCHES IN TIME , featuring Seamus O'Brien, my very favorite character of all (shhh...don't tell the others!) is now available as a solo download from Ellora's Cave. And whoooeee! Wait till you get a look at this cover! I'm pretty sure you don't need much imagination to figure out what those two are up to!

I'm including a short excerpt below, but there is another on my website (look under IRISH ENCHANTMENT till I get the pages updated!) plus reviews of the story's original release here . So, with no further ado, from STITCHES IN TIME:

Liam didn’t answer, since Maggie opened the door at that precise moment. His reaction was immediate. Dressed in lacy, navy blue baby doll lingerie, Maggie’s shapely body was revealed in all her glory. Liam’s eye traveled from the graceful curve of her neck over her alabaster shoulders to two beautifully shaped breasts just hidden by the dark, silky material. In the coolness of the room, little buds blossomed at the tips and Liam’s cock stirred. His eyes continued downward toward her narrow waist and well-formed thighs—and that was as far as he got.

Blushing to the roots of her hair, Maggie rushed across the room and scrambled into the bed, pulling the blankets up to cover herself. She had paced for several minutes in the bathroom, trying to gather the nerve to make the dash. Now she glared at him from the safety of the bed. “Believe me, Mr. Finnerty, had I known I would be sharing a room with you, I would have packed differently.”

He grinned and the devil was in his eyes. “No doubt you would have, Ms. Andrews, no doubt you would have. But now I have visual proof that there’s a passionate heart that beats behind those tailored suits.” His grin grew wider. “I, however, do not have to worry about what to wear to bed…” Liam stripped off his shirt and tossed it on the floor. His naked chest glimmered just as Maggie always thought it would; a gorgeous, muscular torso faintly covered with soft dark hair that glimmered in the soft light of the hotel room. Her sudden intake of breath was audible in the quiet room.

To cover her reaction, Maggie feigned shock. “Well, you’re not sleeping in the nude tonight! I’m tempted to make you sleep in the tub.” She had been, too, but had discarded the idea as childish and immature. They were two grown adults stuck in an uncomfortable situation, and she didn’t need to get all melodramatic about it. But she had known she wouldn’t make it to the bed without some comment from him about her sleepwear. What she hadn’t been ready for was his complete appreciation for her appearance. Despite her intent to keep her distance from him, his obvious enjoyment of her teddy gave her a very warm feeling inside. A feeling that resided way too low for her own comfort.

Mmmmm...how's that for a teaser? And Seamus isn't even in that little piece! You'll have to read the except on my website for his introduction. :)

I'll have an update with the doings and goings on for August in a few days. Till then, check out STITCHES IN TIME and play safe!
Diana

(reposted from my newsletter)