January's Reading Round-Up

Erin - I'm reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, also more YA-ish, but b/c of my daughter. She's read and re-read this series and talks about it all the time so decided to check it out. Really enjoying so far! http://www.cassandraclare.com/

Juniper - I'm on a YA fantasy kick. I just finished Kresley Cole's Poison Princess, first in the Arcana Chronicles, and am now reading Bitterblue, part of Kristin Cashore's Graceling series. I'm addicted to both these series because they're so inventive and go to some pretty dark places. I also recently finished Sherry Thomas' first YA, The Burning Sky, also very ingenious and intricately plotted. http://www.kresleycole.com

Kelly - I just finished two Anne Calhoun books - Uncommon Pleasure and Uncommon Passion. I love her writing. Her books are deeply emotional and very sexy. http://www.annecalhoun.com/

Kinsey -  I've gotten hooked on a teenanger series; the first book was published in 99. The books are all party of the diary of 14-year-old Georgia Nicholson who lives in England with her crazy little sister, her extremely embarrassing parents, and her friends. It's very funny - don't know if Diva will like them yet b/c there's a lot of snogging and musings about nunga-nungas (i.e., tits.) 

Bout to start the latest in Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series, about a guy w/magic ability who figured out a few books back that he's a Nephilim (half-angel) and is the only living person to go to Hell and come back. All the books are written in 1st person present tense, but it works.

And I bought a Kristen Ashley motorcycle book - Mystery Man - because it was .99 - we'll see if it's crack for me. http://www.kristenashley.net/

Meg - I love Grace Burrowes historical series--she's got a couple that I'm reading simultaneously, the Lonely Lords and The Windham series. They're all sort of interconnected (and there are a *lot* of books), but she's really good at working out motivations and complicated characters. http://graceburrowes.com/

PG - Well after reading A Catherine Noon's post (she was our guest author this week), I realized I hadn't read the second book in her Chicagoland Shifters series (co-authored with Rachel Wilder), so I quickly rectified that. I really like series in which magick and shifters coexist but as two distinct systems that may or may not overlap. As to what author I would compare her to, I guess I'd have to say that her shifters remind me a lot of Kinsey's. Enough that I think they'd all fit very nicely into the same universe. Which would be fucking awesome, btw. http://www.acatherinenoon.com

Sydney - I'm almost finished with the third Game of Thrones book, a Storm of Swords. After watching the 3rd season of the show, I had to find out what came next. It's easy reading aside from trying to keep track of the dozens of characters, especially the minor ones. And man these books are long. http://www.georgerrmartin.com/

What are you guys reading?

9 Things...we're doing to stay warm!

To be fair, not all of us are stuck in this winter storm (or Alaska or Canada) but hey--California and Texas can get chilly!

Still, we all have coping mechanisms for those frigid days. This is how we keep warm:

Juniper Bell: Go to Hawaii?
Meg Benjamin: Fire plus hot alcohol (mulled wine works).
Pg Forte: I have a little portable sauna that gets a lot of use in cold weather. I also keep a set of Himalayan salt crystal foot blocks on the floor under my desk. Just a few minutes in the oven, and those babies are all nice and toasty.
Sydney Somers: Stay in bed ;) Kinsey Holley: I'm post-menopausal and I live in Houston, so 90% of the time all I have to do is throw on a sweatshirt.
Kate Davies: Hot chocolate with either peppermint schnapps or Bailey's.
Kelly Jamieson: I'm stay in bed too. Electric blanket and a book.
Erin Nicholas: fuzzy socks and hot baths-- not at the same time ;)
Skylar Kade: My recipe is thick socks, down comforter, and two space heating dogs

What's your favorite way to stay cozy during winter?

Do You Want To Build A Snowman?

I know, I know, if you’re somewhere in the eastern three-quarters of the US and Canada, you’re probably sick of the whole idea of snow. And cold. And wind chill. And silly people throwing boiling water *over their heads*, then being surprised when it doesn’t all freeze immediately and ends up giving them painful burns.

That said, regardless of your personal love (or lack thereof) for all things winter, if you haven’t seen Frozen yet, go do it.

Now. Seriously. I’ll wait.

I almost didn’t see it, at least in the theater. My kids are getting older, on the outer range of “seeing Disney movies with mom is cool”. In fact, the youngest went to see it with Grandpa and the two of them reported back that it was “boring”.

That was that, I thought. I was no longer parent to Disney-going progeny. I’d have to catch it on cable or something down the road.

Then Midkid kept bringing it up. “Mom. It stars IDINA MENZEL. We have to go.”

So last weekend, we went, bringing along FutureStar and Grandma, who was still a little irritated that Grandpa had seen it without her, too.

And for the next hour and whatever minutes, the four of us sat, enthralled, as Disney wove that magic I remembered from when I was a kid.

The main characters were complicated, strong, and interesting. The songs were catchy and emotional. The art was spellbinding. And the story – let’s just say it turned the easy tropes and expectations sideways, but never in a way that felt cheap or manipulative (at least to me).

I don’t want to give too much away. I went in with very few expectations and little knowledge of the story, and really enjoyed watching the movie unfold. I don’t want to take that opportunity away from anyone.

But once you’ve seen it? Man, I could talk about it for hours with you!

So go ahead. Find a matinee. Take a day off work. I’ll write you a note. Then let me know what you think. 

Guest Blogger A. Catherine Noon - A Cold Winter’s Storm Made Warmer With Dwarven Romance

It’s winter, and much of the Midwest and North are frozen or in the process of freezing. In honor of the cold, frigid weather, I figured I’d warm us up with some thoughts on movie-making, dwarves, and romance.

Peter Jackson’s second Hobbit movie is now out in theaters, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. If you managed to miss all the hype, the story follows one Bilbo Baggins as he joins a band of merry men – well, dwarves – on an adventure to retake the dwarves ancestral homeland from a fire-breathing dragon. In the process of making the movie, Jackson decided to highlight the romance between one of the dwarves, named Kili, and an Elven captain of the guard, Tauriel.

Now, in the book by J.R.R. Tolkien, no such romance exists. Nor does the potential love triangle between the elf Legolas, whom you may remember from the Lord of the Rings saga. (And in an ironic twist, the actor that plays Legolas’ father, King Thranduil, is actually two years YOUNGER than the actor playing Legolas.) In the movie, Legolas fancies Tauriel and follows her as she sets out to rescue Kili, who has been shot by a poisoned arrow.

Purists would argue that such apocryphal storytelling is anathema. To that I say, hogwash! The romance adds a spice and zest to the movie and I found myself rooting for Kili and hoping that he got to at least have a date with Tauriel (no such luck, he has to satisfy himself with merely letting her save his life from the poison – maybe in the third movie?). It added something special to the movie that I really enjoyed.

I remember once sitting at a roundtable where two of the participants got into a wrangle over literature vs. genre romance. The book the literature person espoused was Doctor Zhivago. My friend the romance author smiled sweetly and said, “Ah, but Doctor Zhivago is a romance.”

Case closed.

And for the record? Kili would make any woman consider a Dwarf. Happy moviegoing!

When you grab a tiger by the tail, sometimes he bites back.

Tiger, Tiger

Chicagoland Shifters, Book 2

Veterinary trauma surgeon and animal empath Sasha Soskoff has found everything he ever wanted with his new partners Neal, Steve and Carlos. Life feels as safe and secure as it can be among a group of ex-Marine tiger shifters. Until a homeless man is found, gruesomely mauled and murdered, near Neal’s BDSM club.

When it’s determined a rogue tiger did the deed, the jaguars’ accusing eyes turn toward Sasha’s lovers. The precarious balance of peace tips dangerously toward war.

Neal knows damned well none of his tigers committed the crime. Someone must be in Chicago without his knowledge or permission, and they’d better find him fast before uncertainty and conflict rip the tight-knit band apart from the inside.

As Sasha struggles to heal the stress fractures forming among his tiger family, he begins to wonder if his dreams of a home, and love, were too good to be true. And it’s precisely that moment the killer strikes at the heart of the tiger clan—Sasha himself

Warning: This continuing story contains more hot man-on-man and men-on-more-men ménage action than you can shake a cat at.

Birthdays and New Beginnings

Today is my birthday!  I love birthdays! Not surprising to anyone close to me, I love the idea of a day all about ME! :D 

But I also love celebrating others' birthdays too.  Everyone deserves a day all about them (more than once a year in my opinion!)

I've never been a big one for New Year's resolutions, but I do consider my birthday a new start. A time to reflect and make new plans. It’s simply a coincidence that mine falls close to the new year J

2013 was a great year, personally and professionally.  Here’s how I know—if someone said, “you’re going to relive this year over again", I’d say “great!”

I think that’s the most important thing I do every year—I vow to make the year ahead the best I can.  There are lots of things out of my control that can and will affect the year. All I can do is my best.

And that’s the sum of my plan—to look back 365 days from now and ask “did I do everything I could to make this year the best one yet?”

In 2013...

I published four books and one novella, wrote five full-length novels and two short stories.

I got to go some amazing places!

I got to spend time with friends and family, read, write, travel, see movies and live stage shows, laugh, eat, drink, dream!  And now I have an opportunity that we ALL have at New Year's, or on our birthdays... or TODAY! To start fresh and making something new and great out of what we have!

I can't wait to see what 2014 will bring!

Let's Hear it for New Year's Resolutions!

Every year I spend part of New Year's Eve writing up a list of what I want to accomplish in the new year--resolutions, if you will. At midnight (give or take a few minutes) I burn the list, then go outside and scatter the ashes to the wind. When we lived across the street from a creek, I sometimes mixed it up and scattered the ashes into the stream. Every year, it's the same routine. And, every year, I start off January feeling pretty optimistic about achieving my goals.

But, here's the thing. The list is pretty much the same each year and, as you've probably already deduced, my resolutions tend to get side-tracked within the first few months. Doesn't matter though. I still believe in the process and, come next December 31st, I know I'll likely be performing the same ritual all over again.

See, what's most important to me is setting an intention. Maybe it's because I like to plot and plan anyway, but it seems to me that making that plan is the necessary first step to accomplishing anything. If you don't start out with a goal, not only are you far less likely to achieve it, but you're also less likely to achieve anything at all. 

It's like with travel. I have no problem at all with  veering from an established plan and heading off on a spontaneous adventure--that's where a lot of the fun happens. Once you're on the road, it doesn't matter if you change your destination, but if you don't start with a destination in mind...well, too often you never start at all.

So, here's my number one resolution for this year: I resolve to get out there and make 2014 my best year ever...until next year rolls around.

January Pick Your Pleasure: Are you an arm gal or a butt gal?

We all love men with brains. A sense of humor goes a long way too. But if we're being shallow...what's sexier, strong arms, or tight buns?

Erin: But that's so HARD!!!! (pun intended ;)) Arms. No, butt. No, arms.
Skylar: I find strong arms much sexier. Though there is something to be said for a tush so tight you can bounce a quarter off it.
PG: I'm with Erin. This is an impossible choice (see how I avoided using the word HARD?) But, I am an absolute sucker for nice arms.
Meg: Ah geez...arms?
Kelly: Oooh that IS a tough choice. But I'll probably go with nice arms too. Nice biceps in a snug T-shirt are very sexy. Forearms can be very sexy too, especially in a dress shirt with the cuffs rolled up...
Sydney: I'm all for the arms too. Biceps are far sexier to me than a tight butt.
Kate: I'll have to go with arms. If only because they're safer to point out in mixed company.
Juniper: Arms, because the hands are attached to them, and I love me some big, callused hands.

Are you an arm gal or a butt gal?
	Give me a man with strong, sexy arms!
	I prefer a man with a tight tush!
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