First Book Signing

November 5, 2011 was my RWA chapter's Romance Readers Luncheon. We have it every year for the last seven years. This year's was the best. First because Lisa Dunick was the chairperson. She has a fantastic mind, very creative. Second because we have an energetic president, Heather Leonard, also with a creative mind. Put those two people together and you have magic.

Then, third, we had the marvelous Victoria Dahl! The woman is kind, generous and so funny.  Fourth, the darling of Southern Magic (my RWA chapter), Jennifer Echols. We all love her so much. If you love YA books, you've got to read hers. They're wonderfully funny and filled with YA smoldering sexuality.

And, fifth and the biggy for me, it was my first book signing!  I had the pleasure of sharing a book signing table with another debut author, Deborah Kaufman. So cool. We had a lot of fun.  If you're wondering, I'm on the left.

At my author table (where we listen to the speakers and ate lunch) I had my four sister-in-laws and my two beautiful daughters along with my buddy, JoAnn.

Love That Girl

Last weekend, I read Victoria Dahl's lastest historical. Oh, my goodness! I loved it. How does she do it? Not only great funny, hot stories, but so well written. The woman is a genius.

At the conference last July, I was lucky they gave out free her lastest contemporary. I even got my roommate to wanting to read it because I was laughing so hard and couldn't help myself and read her parts of the books. Vicki is so talented.

Be sure to read them

Being a Fan

I'm a fan of a good many authors. Almost all of them you're heard me mention on my blog. Just for the heck of it, I'll see if I can list those who are automatic buys for me without missing too many: Anne Stuart (Love her bad men heroes. She teeters on that dark edge so well.), Susan Elizabeth Phillips (New author to me I've been going on and on about. I never loved football before, but she's making me reconsider.), Victoria Dahl (My goodness I love her sense of humor and her books are hot! The latest hero has tattoos that just make you melt.), Jenna Black (I don't usually like demons as good guys, but hers are hard to resist.), Kresley Cole (Ditto what I said about Jenna's, plus her books are so fast pace, I have to remember to put the book down to breathe), Shannon McKenna (Hers is like crack sex and her men are so alpha male.), Debra Webb (Her single title books are my favorite. She gets on the gritty side with those and I love that.), and Christy Reece (I love spy/undercover books and she does them right).

There are others but I don't read everything they write, mainly because they write such diverse books, the stories don't alway hit the spot with me. Some of these authors I've read for more than twenty years. Maybe they've changed and I've changed and we've kind of gone our separate ways. I do still keep an eye out for their books but costs of books being what they are, I've learned to look at the story first.

How Much Is Too Much?

I've been enjoying Victoria Dahl's TALK ME DOWN so much. It's funny, sexy, hot, and even more important the characters have heart. There is one scene in the book where the heroine wakes up after having wonderful sex to artfully done pictures of her body parts (no none of the private ones). Vicki did a great job writing that scene. I almost cried from the beauty and sweetness of it.

I have laughed so much and I've enjoyed the way they can't quit thinking about each other in every way. It makes me remember how my husband and I were when we were dating. Heavens, we're still that way and we've been married thirty-five years. So if anyone has a problem with the way the two characters are horny for each other, they need to get some-some because obvious they haven't in a very, very long time.

Buy the book and you'll see what I mean. You won't regret it.

The Dangers of Reading a Regency

I use to love reading Regencies. Barbara Cartland (Please don't comment that you've never heard of her. If you never heard of her, you're too young to read my blog anyway.) and Johanna Lindsey did it wonderfully. And there are a couple authors who write them that are still automatic buys for me (Hey, Lisa Kleypas! Hello, Victoria Dahl!)

Now the market has been flooded with them and there's so few other historical choices (Remember the Middle Ages!!! NO! Not my age, the era!! Sheez, children!), I'm rather tired of the prim and proper ladies and gentlemen.

But another reason I try to avoid most Regencies is I find myself talking like them, Or heaven forbid, if I work on my manuscript minutes after reading one, it leeches into my voice. And I can tell you, my sheriff better not sound like "of Nottingham" or my vampire like "his lordship."