Why I (Probably) Won't Read 50 Shades of Grey

I know, I'm a little behind - 50 Shades of Grey was like, sooooo last month, right? Well, anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I'm always behind the latest craze. Trendsetter is not a word anyone who knows me would use to describe me.

The other day, the Hubs and I were sitting out on the deck, while the kidlets played in the pool. He was reading Stacia Kane's Sacrificial Magic and I had my nose buried in my Kindle, reading A Night Like This. I don't know how it came up, but he asked me if I was going to buy 50 Shades (okay, that's it, I'm not typing it out any more. It will heretofore be known as FSOG.)

No. I don't plan on it. I have no desire to read it. Ever. I've heard the writing is awful and the oh-so-steamy love scenes? Yeah, not so much. Vanilla at best is what I've heard. And I'm not about to part with my hard-earned buckage to read something that I've yet to hear anything good about. I have nothing against erotic romance, or even straight up erotica. I've got quite a few really good ero-rom books on my Kindle. I'm not much into Erotica itself, but if someone recommended something, I'd probably read it. Just to see.

But FSOG is not on any TBR pile in my house. Not in paper. Not in digital. I have no plans whatsoever to rethink that. My TBR pile is big enough (you should see my Amazon wishlist. My husband goes pale when he sees the number of books on it. :D) and I'm not about to add something I really don't care about reading.


Then there's the whole "It began as Twilight fan fiction." I have nothing against fan fiction. Hell, I wrote it before I even knew what fan fiction was. But I'm not paying for glorified fan fiction (not to mention, the author's whole diss of the fan fiction writers and readers kind of burned me a little. You shouldn't really forget where you come from and you certainly should never dismiss the people who read your work, loved your work, and helped you go from self-published fan fiction writer to commercially-published novelist.) when I've yet to read anything positive about it. And I've never read Twilight, nor do I ever plan to read it, either. I don't care about Bella and Edward, nor do I care about Christian and Anastasia. I do care about my free time, though, and I'm not going to waste it on this book.

So maybe I'm missing out on some great literary treasure. I don't think I am, but if it turns out otherwise, that's okay. Somehow, I don't think I'll mind all that much,

Summer Reading

Last November, as many of you know, I broke down and got a Kindle and promptly fell in love. Since then, I've read something in the neighborhood of 30 books. I don't know if I'd read 30 books in the five years preceding my Kindle. Back before I had kids, I would read about a book a week, but since then? Maybe a book a year. I didn't realize how much I missed reading until I bought that Kindle and I've been making up for lost time since.

Over the winter, I tackled Sabrina Jeffries 'Hellions of Halstead Hall' series. I'm current on Stacia Kane's Downside Series. And now it's time to restock the Kindle with a new series.

A few years ago (okay, about 6-maybe even 7) I bought Julia Quinn's It's in His Kiss. And to be honest, I never finished it. I'm not even sure I made it five chapters before tossing it aside. That summer (and I know it was summer. I just can't remember if I was pregnant with the Boy or if he was a baby) no matter which author it was, I just couldn't get into the book. I tried to read A Loving Scoundrel by Johanna Lindsey, two or three Eloisa James books, and the Julia Quinn. I don't think I finished one of them and I don't know why.

Fast forward to last summer. I was in CVS and saw Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn and, on impulse, grabbed it. While the kids played in the pool later that afternoon, I devoured that book. It was awesome! But it was, I'm ashamed to admit, the only book I read last summer. Bad me.

Then I got my Kindle and you know the rest...

Two weeks ago, after finishing the last Hellions book (A Lady Never Surrenders, which was pretty good, by the way. Sabrina Jeffries was one I hadn't read and ended up with the first Hellions book on impulse), I needed something else for the shore. You have to have a book at the shore. And I found A Night Like This, by Julia Quinn. It's the second of the Smythe-Smith series. Devoured that in the two days I was at the shore. The next one won't be out until next spring, though. Wah. :(

But now I'm hooked on Julia Quinn and that's good because I plan to read her entire Bridgerton series (I believe this is the series that introduces us to the Smythe-Smiths) which is 8 books long. I started The Duke and I last night and I'm already a third of the way into it. And that's how I plan to spend my summer - reading Julia Quinn. Oh, and outlining a book I plan to write come fall. And that's pretty much it.

So, what's on your reading list for this summer?

Hard to Believe

Another school year is drawing to a close already. Yikes, how is that possible? It seems like just yesterday we were recovering from Hurricane Irene (was that storm downgraded? I think it might have been, but I'm still calling it a hurricane. So there.) and had no power, intermittent water outages, a refrigerator full of spoiling food and a little boy terrified of the dark. The week before school started, I took the kids to stay with my in-laws until civilization was restored. It seems like just yesterday. Was it really almost an entire school year ago?

In just a little over a week, I'll have a sixth grader and a first grader under my roof. A sixth grader. Holy carp... How does the time go by so fast? It's insane, how it speeds by.

We had the pool opened last week and little by little, it's coming together. Thanks to a very mild winter, there wasn't too much ick in it, although there is a lot of sediment. It can only be vacuumed a bit at a time. Then it gets doused with chemicals (the part I really don't like all that much. Not big on chemicals) and the next day, second verse, same as the first. Hopefully we'll get a good summer out of it. In the last few years, we've had to replace the pump, have it relined, have the lining fixed after Irene, and have had a bunch of little things go wrong. Anything having to do with the liner is a complete headache, because it usually requires draining and refilling the entire pool. It's a 35,000 gallon pool. It takes five days of nonstop hose-running to refill. Blech.

My spring planting is just about done. I have two flower boxes on the pool fence that are bursting with color - red, white and purple pansies this year. The purple ones are beautiful - they look all velvety and the color is amazing. Last year I waited too long and all the pansies were gone, so I ended up with snapdragons, which just really didn't work too well in the boxes. Lesson learned.

My tomato plant is producing - there are four tomatoes growing, with about half a dozen flowers to go. Yay! Fresh tomatoes all summer. And once the basil is ready - fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil all around. I also planted two other herbs, but I can't remember what they are and the packages disappeared. I think it's parsley and rosemary, but I can't swear to it. Hopefully, I'll recognize them when (if) they sprout. What I think is parsley has come up, but it isn't quite recognizable yet. As for what I think is rosemary, that hasn't come up yet, but if I remember correctly, it takes a while. Guess we'll see.

So we're gearing up for the change in pace. I've got a bunch of books loaded on my Kindle for summer reading while the kids splash in the pool. Our vacation is planned, and now it's just time to wait. We're doing a Caribbean cruise this summer, which I'm totally looking forward to. And I'm sure we'll hit the Jersey shore a few times as well. The Boy's been asking about going to the Boardwalk, so that's somewhere in the cards as well. It should (hopefully) be a fun summer.

Bring it on. I'm soooo ready for it. :D

RIP, Kindle Fire

I'm never the first one on the block to own the latest (and coolest) technology. My laptop's 4 years old and missing keys, I finally broke down and bought a Kindle (the basic, least expensive one. And I LOVE it!), my BlackBerry's a POS. (Can't WAIT to get an iPhone. July, get here already, will you??) I finally broke down and bought a classic iPod last summer. I don't own an iPad. See how uncool I am?

Well, after Christmas, I treated myself and bought a Kindle Fire. Love it almost as much as I do my ordinary little Kindle reader. I play Angry Birds on it. All the Angry Birds. I read the USA today every day. I have subscriptions to magazines. Wait, I might love it more than my regular ol' Kindle.

My Kindle Fire went up to that big Amazon cloud in the sky.

Okay, that's not entirely accurate. It works. I just can't use the power button. I have to plug it in as if I'm going to charge it. Then I can use it.

This is not good.

I don't know what happened to it. It worked fine this morning. I came home from getting my hair colored (I LOVE being a brunette, btw) and went to read the USA Today and when I pushed the power button... nothing.

Well, say what you want about Amazon, but when I called them, their response was to send me a new one to replace this one. That's it. None of this "Ship it to us and we'll fix it and it'll take six months" nonsense. They're just sending me a new one and I'll sendI back the dead one.

This is so sad, but I'm really hoping my Angry Birds games don't get wiped out in the transfer, but I have a feeling they will. If they do, oh well. I did them once (twice, really, as I pulled a bonehead move that resulted in my uninstalling the game and reinstalling it, thus wiping out what I'd already done. And two of the levels I'd actually completed. Rats) and I'll do them again.

Holy Carp, Batman!!

Has it really been a month since my last post???

Really?!?!?

Really?!?!?1111??

Well, that's certainly not good, is it?

To begin, happy 2012 everyone! Judging by what I've seen around teh interwebz, few are sorry to see the end of 2011. I'm one of them. What a sucky year (personally, that is. Professionally, it was pretty good, actually.)

But even with the professional goods, I'm glad to see the new year finally roll around. How's everyone doing with their resolutions? Do you even bother to make resolutions. I do, but I know I'll only keep about 1/3rd of them. Oh well. One-third's better than nothing, right?

So, my 2011 ended with some good news - Tiger Eyes was nominated by The Romance Studio for their 2011 CAPA Award in Best Historical Romance category. Yay! Keep your fingers crossed on that. This is the first book I've ever had nominated for anything, so even if it doesn't win, I'm still happy about that. :D

The good news aside, this last month has been a hectic one - what with the holidays and all, but I'm also happy to say I've rediscovered how much I love to read, thanks to my Kindle. I've been blazing through Sabrina Jeffries Hellions of Halstead Hall series over the last two weeks. In the six weeks since getting my Kindle, I've read something in the neighborhood of fifteen books. Yay reading! And earlier this week, I got myself a Kindle Fire as well, which I'm slowly falling in love with. I don't think I'll like reading books on it, but I do like reading magazines, checking my email, and playing Angry Birds, so it all evens out in the end.

I've also been working on revisions on several WIP that I hope to have out in the next month or two. So hopefully 2012 will turn out to be as professionally good as 2011 was. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

A New Toy!

Ah... when it comes to technology, I'm usually about five years behind the rest of the world. By the time I got around to getting a cell phone, they did a LOT more than just make telephone calls (you mean, I can take pictures??? What's this internet thing I keep hearing so much about?) I finally got around to getting an iPod just this past summer (okay, I did have a Shuffle, but did you know they make one that holds every song ever recorded???? See? That's what I mean.)

I've been writing for epublishers for almost 4 years now. I did have MSReader on my very first laptop, but even then, I only had five or six ebooks on it. I spend so much time on the computer that the last thing I want to do is read for leisure on one as well. Can we say eyestrain?

So while I write for epubs, my heart was firmly in the paperback book corner. I love books. Always have, always will. I love bookstores - the smell of ink and paper and coffee... Love. It. Blindfold me and take me into any store, and I will know when I've set foot inside a Barnes and Noble, just like I'd know if I stepped into my mother's house.

It wasn't that I disliked ebooks, but reading something from a screen? No. Thanks.

But then last year, we got my mom a Kindle for Christmas. We bought one for my father in law as well. And for the first time, I saw what a book on a Kindle screen looks like. It's not like reading from a computer at all. Hmmm...

I wanted.

But I'm cheap... er, that is frugal . So I waited, figuring prices would come down eventually. I was already behind the times (my brother was amazed - no aghast - when he and I were talking about Kindles and I confessed I didn't have one.) And finally, I caved and ordered a basic Kindle (the one with the free offers, because I heard so many people talk about how awesome some of those offers were. Besides, who cares what the screen saver looks like? Special offers. Dead authors. What's the diff???)

It came yesterday and within five minutes of opening it, I had it up and running, and bought three books. I don't think I've bought three books in the last year, which is really sad, considering how much I used to love to read. I used to read 1-2 books a week. This summer, I read one book. One. Book.

And that is going to change now. I think I'm in love with this Kindle. It's awesome. Absolutely awesome. It's not like reading on a computer at all, so there's very little eyestrain, and it's the perfect size. The main deciding factor in finally breaking down and buying a Kindle was when I spent three hours at the car dealership a few weeks ago. I finished my book about halfway into my car's service and had nothing else to read. Ended up restarting the book I'd just finished. And although it was a good book (Stacia Kane's City of Ghosts if you're interested) I really didn't want to reread it right away.

The only drawback is my wallet is going to suffer for this. :D Oh, and I could use any recommendations. In any genre. So, if you have any suggestions, let me have 'em!

I'll be curled up on the sofa, Kindle in hand. :D

Win a Kindle!!!

Now that I have your attention...


Seriously, though, if you'd like to be entered to win an Amazon Kindle, pop on over to Samhain editor Tera Kleinfelter's blog for your chance to enter. It's very easy - all you need to do is leave a comment pertaining to one of the Kindle contest blog posts. Each day features a different Samhain author (all edited by Tera, who really does a kick ass job) and it's my turn today!

So take a look and who knows? You could win a Kindle!

Good luck!