Just a catching-up post tonight. This week I've finished writing (and editing) a new book, I've read a few others and tonight, I made one heck of a batch of tapioca pudding. I think I like warm tapioca just as much as I do a deep, dark, rich chocolate. The first one brings the comfort of hearth and home, the second brings sensual, erotic desires to the surface. Ahh, the wonders a simple taste can provoke!

I won't wax raphsodic over food tonight (can you tell I'm counting calories again?) but I will add to my list of books I read this year. I've totally finished the InkWorld series -- and will go back and re-read sections of Inkdeath just because I enjoyed them. I also read Nora Robert's O'Hurley series (three sisters and a brother). They were quick reads since they're novellas, two to a book. She must have one heck of a research team to get the depth of detail she does with every novel of hers I've ever read. Very cool.

This week I've also thrown some spaghetti on the wall, trying out some stories I'd started in the past and working on them a little more to see if they're ready to progress. One did, quite nicely, in fact. I'm thinking it'll be my next project.

And of course, I've shoveled snow. Again. Always. It's snowing again as I type this. C'mon Puxatawny Phil -- bring that spring here!

Play safe, everyone!
Diana
PS. REMEMBERED LOVE made it to #4 on Amazon's Bestseller list for free Erotic Romances before dropping again to #5, but did you know LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON is also available on the Kindle? It's a quickie and is less than $3.00! If you're looking for something a little longer (and a little more expensive) try DIAMONDS IN THE SNOW, now available on the Kindle :)

Okay, this is seriously exciting. REMEMBERED LOVE has climbed to #4 on the Kindle bestseller list for free erotica. I'm so excited!

Secret Submission and Winter Studs both made to the bestseller list for paid erotica in their lifetimes, but I've never made the top ten, let alone the top five before.

Doin' the happy dance!
Diana

PS. Remembered Love is a free read...if you don't have your copy yet...what are you waiting for?

Six weeks into the new year and my reading list is growing! Figured I'll post once a month just to record the titles, but I won't really "review" each one like I did last year. I'm not a review site, after all. I'm just a writer who happens to like to read :). I'll post links to the books (mostly through Amazon) and the author's official webpages if you want to know more about them.

So far this year I've read two works by Chris Crutcher for my day job as a teacher. I've picked up a new course this term and both his autobiography, entitled King of the Mild Frontier (a reference those of us of a certain age should get) and Deadline, a story about a high school senior who has only one year to live. Crutcher's audience is really young adult males, not slightly-past-middle-age women, but I liked both for what they are and will have fun reading them with my classes.

I've also read Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and am halfway through Inkspell on my way to Inkdeath. If you saw the movie with Brendan Fraser, you've seen only part of the book. I enjoyed both and am very much enjoying the rest of the series.

Add to the list The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and you'll see I've already read four and a half books in six weeks. For some of you, that's pitiful, I know. But don't forget, I'm also writing them! SERVICES RENDERED is now finished and in edits and will be available for you to read before the end of the year (God willin' and the creek don't rise!).

Final note about author's websites: You really should visit them. I found out, for example, that Chris Crutcher is currently in India doing some fascinating things, Cornelia Funke's site has some great fan fiction, and Dan Brown's site is as mysterious as is books (and of the three, is the most beautiful).

Play safe!
Diana

        Fantasy books are my first love. My home library shelves are home to my “keeper” authors – almost all of whom write in the fantasy genre. JRR Tolkien was the first who turned me on to worlds other than our own. I first read the LOTR trilogy when I was in high school and we were taking a trip to Florida. I brought it along as reading material, having already read The Hobbit and not really loving it.


        I might as well not have left my room for all I saw of Florida that vacation. I spent my days with my nose buried in Middle Earth, walking the forest paths with Strider and the Halflings, riding with Eomer over the plains of Rohan, struggling with Sam as he tried to get Frodo up Mount Doom. I was hooked.

        Except there were few fantasies ‘way back then (the early 70’s), so I turned to science fiction for exploration of new ideas and new worlds. I also dove head-first into Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy, eagerly awaiting each new book, loving her exploration of the world of Arthur and his magician.

       By the end of the decade, the genre had ridden to the crest of a wonderful wave. Fred Saberhagen, Piers Anthony, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks followed shortly after by David Eddings, Katherine Kurtz and Anne McCaffery. I read them all, kept them all on my growing bookshelves. Those and more.

      And then came children.

      My obstetrician, upon seeing me comfortable in my hospital bed reading the Sunday paper the day after my daughter was born, laughed at me and said, “Enjoy that paper. It’s the last thing you’re going to read for the next eighteen years.” I laughed with him, thinking he was joking.

      He wasn’t.

      Between holding down a full-time job, raising two children (my son was born 20 months after my daughter) and being a wife, lover and friend to my husband – reading fell way down the list of priorities. Who had time to go to the library, let alone read what you borrowed? Buying new books? Out of the question. We needed diapers, school uniforms, milk money. I read short magazine articles in doctor’s waiting rooms. That was it.

      But children grow and since September my husband and I have an empty nest. Temporarily only – they’re just away at college. But time to remember what we used to do with our lives before they filled it up with wonder.

      A few days ago my daughter and I browsed a bookstore and I came across the Complete Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen – all the Swords books in one volume. I read those books. Twenty years ago. I still have them on my shelves. Today I visited another bookstore, this time I came across a new Piers Anthony book – part of his Xanth series. Another set I read such a long time ago.

      And Katherine Kurtz with a Deryni book published two years ago for a series I once devoured a book at a time, impatiently waiting for the next to be released. Here this one had been out for two years and I didn’t even know it existed. I shook my head, then grinned – and bought it.

      But I’m not going to read it. Not just yet. This year is my year for fantasy. I pulled down the Saberhagen and Anthony books and put them on my TBR pile. I’m debating if I want to re-read the Deryni series in the order in which she wrote them, or the chronological order in which they occur. I’ll decide soon –and I’ll re-read them all, sliding the new book in it’s proper place either at the end, or in the middle where the chronology puts it.

      I’m very excited. A year dedicated to the genre I love. I can’t wait to get started!

     Play safe, everyone...and I hope you enjoy some of these authors, too!

Diana

So I've been one lazy writer the past three weeks. I haven't read any books. Started one, put it down within twenty pages. Contemporary California girl-books just aren't my interest. Never been to Rodeo Drive and that lifestyle holds no allure. Now, give me a mountain, a running brook and a cabin occupied by a fine specimen of the male persuasion and I'm all over it! Put the cabin in the high country of the west, the backwoods of the Ozarks or the clear forests of the Adirondacks -- it doesn't matter. But alone? Forced into the company of said alpha male? Oh, yeah...

I say I read books about people. I like the characters, their foibles, their problems, their solutions. I read biographies and autobiographies because I'm interested in what makes people tick. Mostly I stick to entertainers and writers because the creative process fascinates me. How does one create something from nothing? I do it all the time when I write a story, but that doesn't mean I'm anywhere closer to understanding how it happens or where it comes from.

But apparently setting is important to me as well. Last night my husband asked if I wanted to sit and watch a movie with him. It was his turn to pick but I told him, "nothing urban and gritty". I'm not much of a cops and robbers sort anyway, and some of the movies he and my son like are just too dark for my tastes. He suggested Johnny Mneumonic which is based on a book by William Gibson. I knew it was science fiction, which I do enjoy, and the blurb sounded rather cool, so I agreed.

And what was it? Science fiction set in an urban and gritty setting! Grrrr! I liked the premise of the movie, if some of the details strained credulity (amazing that they could still broadcast at the end of the movie after all the stuff that got blown up) but I didn't like the dark, distopian view of our future. I'm an optimist, people! I DO believe we'll make it as a global society. There will continue to be fits and starts, but we're making progress.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox with this conclusion: after all my posturing on how important characters are to me, setting is equally important. Not so much the time period part of setting, but the location. Apparently the real estate agents are right.

Play safe!
Diana

I blogged this week over at the Sizzlin' Scribes -- come on over and take a look and leave a comment :)

Okay! Here are my totals for 2010:

I read a total of 36 books (I know, a paltry number compared to many of you, but remember, I have to balance my reading with my writing them for YOU to read! :) ).

Of that 36, five were biographies, three were straight fantasies, two were historical, two were historical romances (which moves them more to the fiction side than the historicals which were more factual based), one was Literature (with a capital L and nose in the air), five were young adult and eighteen were romances.


And here's the full list:

Gabaldon Diana           Breath of Snow and Ashes      January       historical romance

Gabaldon Diana           Echo in the Bone                     January       historical romance

Bianculli David             Dangerously Funny                  January       biography

McComber Debbie      92 Pacific Blvd                        February     romance

Gaiman Neil                American Gods                        March         fantasy

Devereux Jude            The Summerhouse                    April            romance

Devereux Jude            The Duchess                            April            romance

King Laurie R              Locked Rooms                       April             mystery/ romance

Carlin George              Last Words                            April             biography

Crystal Billy                 700 Sundays                          April             biography

Sparks Nicholas          Dear John                               April             romance

Bryson Bill                 Shakespeare: The World as Stage    April     biography

Clarke Susanna         Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell   May   fantasy

Dorris Michael          The Yellow Raft and Blue Water   June         literature

Paulsen Gary               Tiltawhirl John                        June              YA

Witton Dorothy           Crossroads for Chela              June             YA

Voigt Cynthia              Jackaroo                                June              YA

Martin Kat                  The Handmaiden's Necklace   June              romance

Drake Shannon           Reckless                                 June              romance

McNaught Judith        Remember When                    July               romance

Fletcher Donna           The Irish Devil                        July               romance

Litton Josie                 Dream Island                          July               romance

Cliff Nigel                   The Shakespeare Riots           July               biography

Penman Sharon Kay   Sunne in Splendor                  August           historical romance

Roberts Nora             Black Hills                              August           romance

Sparks Nicholas         The Lucky One                      August           romance

Rowling JK                The Deathly Hallows              September      fantasy

Penman Sharon Kay   Here Be Dragons                  October          historical romance

Trueman Terry            Cruise Control                      October          YA

Willig Lauren         Secret History of the Pink Carnation  October   mystery/ romance

Willig Lauren         Masque of the Black Tulip          November      mystery/ romance

Michaels Fern            Wild Honey                          November       romance

Coulter Catherine       The Heir                               November       romance

Willig Lauren        Betrayal of the Blood Lily           December        mystery/ romance

Trueman Terry            No Right Turn                      December        YA

Delinski Barbara         Twelve Across                     December        romance


That's the list! Okay -- which ones did you read? Would you recommend them? Or did you read any of these because I brought them to your attention? Put your responses in the comments. I'll put your names in a hat and give a free download of one of my books (your choice) to one lucky commenter.

Play safe!
Diana

PS. I apologize for the lack of decent columns. There really should be a way to put a table into a blog post!