Over the past two weeks, record-breaking storms have killed over 300 people and destroyed countless homes, neighborhoods, and towns. Tornadoes tore across the south, fires raged across Texas and Oklahoma, and flooding continues to affect communities all over the country.

Help Write Now: A Writing Community Auction to Benefit Southern Storm Relief is raising funds to help these storm victims. Auction proceeds will benefit the Red Cross disaster relief fund.

The publisher of the book I wrote about earlier has contacted me, and they’re sending me another copy of the book! The CSR was very sweet and funny, and I should have the book in about a week.

::is very very excited to finish this book::

 I started a new book this afternoon, and all evening I looked forward to reading more of it. I’m quite enjoying it; it’s building up to something, I’m not sure what, but I’m curious to see where it goes, and . . . 

suddenly it jumps from page 120 to page 153. At first I thought it was just a glitch with the page numbering, but no; page 120 ends with one sentence and page 153 picks up mid-sentence and clearly something interesting has happened in the pages I don’t have.

When I reach page 184, the pages begin renumbering from 153, and the book continues to its conclusion. Pages 153-184 are reproduced exactly. The bookstore where I bought the book is now closed, so I can’t take it back and get a different copy. I’ve written to the publisher in the hopes that they’ll replace it (or let me download the ebook, which would actually be preferable now that I’m halfway through it!).

To add insult to injury, this is the first book in a series, and I’ve got the other books all lined up on my TBR shelf. Guess I’ll have to set them aside for another weekend.

I’m finding it hard to believe this is even real.

The short version: reviewer gives an apparently self-published book 2 stars out of a possible 5. Author shows up in the comments and demands that the review be taken down, then starts dropping f-bombs.

Wow. Just . . . wow.

The winners of the 2010 Rainbow Awards for Excellence have been announced by the Rainbow Romance Writers chapter of the Romance Writers of America. 

I’m very excited that Romantic Interludes 2: Secrets, which I co-edited with Radclyffe, finished in first place in the Short/Novella category!

Congratulations to my fellow BSB writer Kim Baldwin, who tied for first in the Contemporary category.

So, apparently there is an e-book out there called The Masseuse.

Only the titular masseuse is a vampire called Terry.

A male vampire called Terry. 

I’m told the book includes this line:

A masseuse would be a great man to have around.

::facepalm::

As most of y’all know, I love to read – and I read a lot. Thanks to a real vacation this year, I read more books than usual; excluding books that I worked on, more than 100 books. Made me feel a lot less guilty about my "to-be-read" bookcases (yes, that’s plural), as I finally put a real dent in them this year!

I don’t want to do a "Best of" list. For one thing, most of the books I read weren’t published in 2010 (only 18 were). I read some Jane Austen; other than that, and one book published in 1949 (Kon-Tiki), everything else was published in the last 50 years.

So rather than a best of list, I’m going to have a list of the books that had the greatest impact on me this year. These are the books that I couldn’t put down, yet put down deliberately so I could savor them and make them last just a little bit longer!

In no particular order:

Room, by Emma Donoghue. This author never fails to amaze me. People seem to either love or hate this book; I’m in the love camp.

Arctic Chill, by Arnaldur Indriðason. I’ve been reading a lot of Scandinavian mysteries / thrillers lately. This one is translated from the Icelandic and features the detective Erlendur Sveinsson. This is the fifth book in the series, and it’s fantastic. There’s a bleakness to the writing, which to me reflects the bleakness of the landscape. Erlendur is obsessed with missing persons cases, in particular people who disappear into the Icelandic interior never to be seen again. I just got Hypothermia, the most recent Erlendur novel to be translated into English, as a Christmas present, and I can’t wait to read it!

Fever of the Bone, by Val McDermid. I love me some Val McDermid, and I love me some Tony Hill. This was another great entry in the Wire in the Blood series.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I’ve always been drawn to postapocalyptic / dystopian settings (The Road, A Canticle for Leibowitz, The City of Ember are others I’ve read–or reread–in the last couple of years). This particular book drew me in and I can’t wait to finish the series.

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. This is the best book I’ve read in years. If you haven’t already, read it.

So there you have it

Happy new year, everyone!

Breathless: Tales of Celebration, edited by Radclyffe and Stacia Seaman, is available from Bold Strokes Books!

Bold Strokes Books romance authors give readers a glimpse into the lives of favorite couples celebrating special moments “after the honeymoon ends.” These short stories from Ali Vali, Clifford Henderson, Lee Lynch, Lisa Girolami, Megan O’Brien, Nell Stark and Trinity Tam, Radclyffe, Winter Pennington, and a dozen others provide touching moments in love stories that need no introduction and also offer a special treat to those who have read the original courtships.

This year, as always, I am so thankful to have a wonderful family filled with people I respect and love; amazing friends, both old and new, who inspire, amaze, and support me; colleagues whose creativity and energy seem to know no bounds; and so many wonderful memories of a year gone by.

Thanks to all of you for being part of my life, and for enriching it in so many ways.