Dear Carolyn,

I went a little Kindle crazy myself this weekend and you'll see that there's a number of new titles in the reading list.

I finished A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James which is a retelling of Cinderella. It was enjoyable. Not as brilliant as When Beauty Tamed the Beast but still heads and shoulders above the crowd.

The difficult thing when reading a book you enjoy so much is choosing what comes next. I really wanted to stay in the happy place and so I'd decided to read The Wallflower books by Lisa Kleypas. But then I decided to shop.

So you'll see we have three paranormal, humorous romances, 4 books about food and a Debbie Macomber novel set in Seattle. I guess I'm returning to my comfort zone also.

I started reading Ravenous: A Food Lover's Journey from Obsession to Freedom. It's non-fiction and I'm enjoying it greatly. Not surprising since it's a woman writing about her food obsessions and enjoyments. It's funny to me also because we don't share the same obsessions really.

Then again, you and I don't share all the same obsessions either except for Spaniards and humor. And look how well we get along. I'll be interested to know which books yyou'll choose to read and which you'll ignore.

Well, I'm going back to reading about a stranger's obsession with olives. Yuck. But I like the writing and sentiment so back to her story I'll go.

See what I'll do to avoid my line edits?

Love ya,

Lori

Dear Lori

I must be feeling nostalgic because I've acquired a couple of books written by authors from my past and eyed a third, but decided to pass. Even worse, I'm not even sure they're romances, lol.

The first is The Mulberry Tree by Jude Deveraux. This one is definitely a romance and probably a book that was shot down by feminists in its day. But I loved it, always have and never hesitated about getting the ebook.

Lillian was married at seventeen to billionaire James Manville. It wasn't even love at first sight; I'm not sure what it was. They had a strange marriage. For example, Lillian was fat and James wanted to keep her that way. He refused to let her change anything about herself. Stranger still, when he died, he left her nothing but a rundown farm. James' lawyer Phillip, well aware of the furor about to erupt, hides her away.

The stress of the press coverage, the accusations of the talking heads, the grief and guilt Lillian is feeling plus the fact that her husband can no longer sabotoge her, all lead to weight loss. To disguise her further, she gets a nose job and her name is changed to Baily. (I prefer Lillian)

The book is a combination of a woman finding herself while falling love, with a little mystery thrown in for good measure. Sort of a Cinderella story.

She enjoys cooking - does that entice you? Lol. She wants to start a business selling her gourmet stuff. Anyway, I just reread it and finished with a satisfied sigh.

The second book is a Maeve Binchy that I've never read - Heart and Soul, only five bucks for the ebook. I ♥ Maeve Binchy, I'll read anything she writes. I thought she'd retired though, guess she's just a born storyteller and couldn't stop writing. Lucky for us. *grin* Anyway, her newest is just a tad pricy for the ebook edition, so I'll have to wait on that one. Still - a new to me Binchy! I am happy.

The third book is the last book in the Earth's Children series by Jean Auel. I didn't know she was still putting these out. I enjoyed the first, Clan of the Cave Bear but lost interest in subsequent offerings. I wanted to bitch slap Ayla - no woman is that good! Or lucky. Or smart. Or whatever the hell she was.

I didn't get this one and probably won't. Too pricy even if it is almost 800 pages. There's so much repetition it should probably be 400 pages. Still, it did bring back memories (harder and harder to do these days; they don't call me an Old Fart frivolously) and I might reread Clan of the Cave Bear. Might - I have it in hardback and if I'm remembering correctly, that's a damn heavy book! Oh, btw, this new one is called The Land of the Painted Caves. Nice title, I do like a good title.

Anyway, I see I've almost written a book here myself, so I'll close now. I've just started reading Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold by Ellen O'Connor - bronzed male with cutting cheek bones. Yum. I'll surface sometime this weekend. Hope to see you then, lol.

Carolyn

Dear Carolyn,

I want my 99 cents back!

I bought a terrible book from Amazon called Diary of a Mad, Fat Girl (or was it Lady?) that was part of my chick-lit glom. Oh my gawd. Whoever gave that author permission to type unsupervised needs to be throttled. And Amazon owes me 99 cents!

Besides the fact that the 1st person heroine was a bad tempered, nasty bitch who treated her best friend like shit ... she used the word cooter. Cooter! I think Cooter was the name of one of the characters on the old Andy Griffin show.

"Hey Opie, how's the fishin' at the water hole?"

"Well hey Cooter, caught me an eight incher and he shore do wiggle."

Gah. I'm horrified than anyone would use such a word for the flower of femininity. The lilac of luciousness. The marigold of maidenhood.

Anyway, I was so appalled that I had to wipe that nasty taste from my mouth and eyes and so I returned to Eloisa James. A Kiss at Midnight, to be exact. It's a Cinderella story retold with a lion, an elephant and a lovesick monkey, a Godmother named Henry and fake breasts.

I've decided that I should honor the brilliance that is Ms. James and name my first daughter Eloisa, but my first daughter is aghast at the idea. Why nine, almost ten year olds, refuse to follow the whims of their mothers is just shameful.

I decided to buy a pocket calendar at Barnes and Noble to start forcing myself to keep word counts. But would you believe that B&N went and put their calendars away? The end of February and they did such a thing. I was heartbroken. So heartbroken in fact that I couldn't write a word.

Well anyway, I should be doing something a little more productive than sitting here and being silly. I'm thinking of a nap. Or a little more Eloisa James. Maybe I'll call you and we can brainstorm ideas for stories we're not writing.

Talk to you soon.

Lori

Dear Lori

Thank you for the talk last night. It sure did help get my thoughts straight about Cam's background. You are and always will be, my idea lady. :-)

I forwarded you an email from Amazon; your lusty, trusty Kindle is about to get an upgrade. :-D

I've been so twitchy today, don't know why. Perhaps it isn't important why. The result is I've been windowshopping for books when I can. Found another freebie, but it's a mystery so don't know if you'll want to read it. It sounded like a great character study though, assuming the writing is up to par.

I'm reading Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas. I was curious about Derek Craven when he was briefly mentioned in Sebastian's book, The Devil in Winter and thrilled when I discovered he had a book of his own. Once I started reading, I discovered there was a previous book about a woman named Lilly. All these damn books are intertwined, almost incestuous, lol. Still, they can all stand alone, so I'll continue along, hopping about like a drop of water on a hot griddle. At least it's exercise - sort of. As much as I'll ever get anyway. :-)

Are you allowed near the computer yet? Perhaps you'll never read this. Oh woes ...

Carolyn

Dear Lori

Nothing much has pissed me off lately so I'm sort of in a vacuum as to what to write.

Not that I need to be pissed off to write you! No, no, never think that! But, as you know, I have no life outside writing and the internet, so if nothing is brewing and the muse is AWOL, well ... *shrugs*

I could talk about our individual series. I could, but since I haven't seen yours, I won't. And mine isn't a series. You might could call it a duology, but I wouldn't. I mean, all the two books have in common is an old house. And it's not even a main character!

You reckon I'll ever finish either of them? You reckon you'll finish yours? Since you sold the first one, I bet you will. Me? I pick and prod and occasionally add sentences. I think the whole thing might go faster if I had a plot, lol.

It will be interesting to see which is finished first, the books or me. ;-)

And on another note, I found another blog, you might want to check it out and add to the sidebar. Or not.

Hope you enjoyed your day off. Hope you enjoy your day off tomorrow.

Bitch.

But I love you anyway.

Carolyn

Dear Carolyn,

I seem to be on a contemporary, chick-lit glom right now. I think it matches my current mood and life.

Are we what we read?

The book you got that you said I'd like, Life From Scratch, is pretty good. It's a good choice after The Love Goddess Cooking School. I'm really enjoying these woman driven stories with a touch of cooking and female growth. I think you're right that the difference between chick-lit and romance is that the chicks are about the heroine's journey where romance is a part but not the center and romance has the lurve asthe core of the story.

I like me some romance but I love me the chickies.

I'm really looking frward to either next pay day or deposit of my tax refund check. Our Kindle account is going to have many added books and all will have to do with food somehow. I expect you'll forgive me. You might even read one or two and enjoy them. But I have a list going and it lengthens by the day.

One annoyance though. A book I've been wanting to get: The School of Essential Ingredients is $12.99 for Kindle edition and about $5.00 for paperback. I don't get it. And I haven't gotten it. In either form. This agency pricing is driving me bat-shit.

Well it's cold as a witches tit today (I question that analogy) and my boy Clark is coming over tonight. I'm thinking of my Mother's tuna casserole (comfort food), a fire (comfort) and something chocolate. Doesn't that sound like a perfect menu for loads of conversation, laughter and life changing fun?

Lori

Dear Lori

OMG!!

Antonia is threatening to send The Seduction of Lady Bea to line edits!!

Now that I've had a chance to think about it, I wonder: did we go through so many edits because we were polishing a pearl with potential,or simply because it needed that much more work? Well, it is very definitely polished and I'm very pleased with the changes, as is Antonia, I think. She kept them, anyway, lol.

I gotta tell ya, Lori, this is nerve wracking stuff. You know how I hate rewrites and I've been rewriting my ass off. Actually, that's not true, my ass is still there in all its glory, so we'll just say there's been a lot of rewrites. Makes me wonder why the story was accepted in the first place!

However, I'm not complaining, it just sounds that way. I'm musing - there's a difference, you know. I'm trying to understand. Trying to sound intelligent and like I know what the hell's going on.

I keep checking my email, but so far no word. If she really sends it to the line editor ... should I stock up on chocolate? Maybe vodka?

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks!!

Love

Carolyn