Where have you been?

Well, life happens.  I've been immersed in STUFF and haven't been blogging.  Now I ready to pick up the pen.  Finally, I've come to terms with my "voice".  I love snark but it doesn't come naturally to me.  I'm more reserved, appearing calm, reasonable, and helpful--or so I'm told. 

That's not the only REAL me but it'll take a while before I overcome my natural southern woman reserve.  I learned it where you learn most everything--at my mother's knee.  She was tall, regal almost, great bones so she was attractive even into her 70s.  She looked a lot like Ann Richards, former Texas governor.  She was always gracious to everyone but behind closed doors she'd let us know how she really felt.  I kind of learned that was what a "lady" was, especially in the south.  Believe me I've loosened up considerably from what my mother would consider "proper southern womany behavior".

So what have I been reading?  I think I'm almost over paranormal romance.  Sherrilyn Kenyon is OVER and Laurell K. Hamilton has strayed so far over the edge I've pretty much given up.  MaryJanice Davidson--sigh--what happened with the last book--reliving time to get it right?? Yikes is there anything lamer.  I still, still will buy the next Charlaine Harris.  That woman can write.  I actually like that she seems to end series.  The Lily Bard/Shakespeare mysteries were good but ended a bit abruptly.  I haven't gotten around to reading all of the Aurora Teagarden  series but the first book is top notch fun.   Harper Connolley series seems to have resolved and I never guessed the end.  I'm still not sure I approve of the romance there.  Sookie Stackhouse and the southern vampires is still going pretty well.  True Blood on HBO has pumped new life into the first books in the series. (Hope she got a TON of money and a good chunk of the new issues of the first books in the series!  Like to see deserving writers make bunches of money after years of good work.)

I promise to do more writing and less reading of other's blogs.  Blogging is harder work that it appears even for those of us used to listservs and professional writing.

What's next for romance?

More and yet more paranormals are being published.  I can't imagine that there are any more vampire lover plots to be had out there.  But like many other bloggers, publishers, authors and booksellers, I can't seem to spot what may replace it.  It usually is one or two breakthrough authors who finally catch everyone's attention.  They are usually preceded by one interesting novel in the new "style" by an author who then goes on to do other things but the romance winds up on a LOT of folks "keeper shelves".  Then another book with that same special something is snapped up by readers.  Finally we get the breakthrough author who seems to seize everyone's attention and a new turn has been taken in romancelandia.

Frankly if I could guess what the next big thing would be (cozy, military, urban sophisticate, back to the earth rural, Edwardian romance, revival of the western romance????) I would urge my author friends to write one and hope to catch the wave.  Publishers pretend they know what will be hot but they fail miserably.  They follow along with the trends like everyone else until a hot new television series or an unexpected best seller jerks them out of their preconceived ideas about what we'll buy.  Meanwhile they turn down some really interesting manuscripts.  Why would anyone buy a non-fiction/reads like fiction book about the peculiar characters of Savanah....DA! Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil hits big.  Psychic waitress meets out- of-the-casket vampire for romance in Louisiana but NOT New Orleans--never will make it....DA!  Dead until Dark with Sookie Stackhouse comes out.  Too bad my crystal ball in on the fritz are I would predict right here and now what the next big thing will be.

Phantom Evil by Heather Graham

  The atmosphere and the New Orleans setting of this mystery is great.  The romance...not so much.  The plot of the FBI spook unit commissioned to investigate paranormal cases has been done and done better.  The characters seem a little like puppets and the minor players are never developed very much.  The house has more personality than most of the investigators.  I expected more from Heather Graham.  Sigh.  Maybe next time.

Cold Weather and Reading

What is it about when the weather gets especially cold, wet and dreary that all us readers want to curl up with a hot drink, a plate of cookies, and a comforting read.  I always seem to want to dip back into things I enjoyed reading before or pick up the first book or two in a series I haven't read before.

So I decided to dip into a heavier mystery series than usual--Barbara Hambly's series set in 1830's New Orleans.  I know a bit about New Orleans history and wanted to read a series from the viewpoint of people of color rather than the Creole or American viewpoint. 

The first A Free Man of Color  is excellent at conveying the mix of cultures and the peculiar relationships between the races of old New Orleans.  While I don't like books that drop huge honking chunks of back story in the first few chapters, I did find it a little hard to figure out the hero's relatives and decrees of relationship.  Ben January is a free man of color, meaning he has never been a slave.  But in the peculiar way we have in America because he is very dark-skinned he can't practice medicine as he was trained to do in France but falls back on his musical training to make a living in his home of New Orleans.  We certainly get a less charming picture of New Orleans from Hambly's historically researched book than we did from the old Francis Parkinson Keyes novels set there or even Edna Ferber's Saratoga Trunk. 

The second in the series Fever Season was extremely dark and fairly graphic about the mistreatment of people of color.  The atmosphere of hot, humid New Orleans exactly matched my memories of the late June week I spent there.  I don't doubt for a moment that her fictionalized account of newspaper rumors and of beatings and mistreatment on plantations could have happened.  But, I whined, this isn't the comforting, charming mystery set in old New Orleans I wanted to read.  Well pull up your big girl pants and settle for accuracy and a well-written mystery instead.

Review: Kitty's House of Horrors (Kitty Norville, Book 7) by Carrie Vaughn

I really loved this series and bought the first ones but stopped around about the time Kitty and Ben went to Las Vegas.  I don't know why.  I guess I burned out on supernatural romances or all the angst in Kitty's life got to me.  I picked up Carrie Vaughn's latest.  Very strange-- Apocalypse meets fantasy but very well written.  That got me back into Kitty's life again.

This is Kitty alone and in the wild and being hunted.  It wasn't too hard to guess the villains and Vaughn drops huge clunking hints all along the way.  BUT, Kitty is still appealing.  She's an alpha not because of super fighting skills or toughness but mostly because she's a caregiver.  She takes people under her wing and naturally stands up to bullying.  She protects.  All too often shifter romances interpret alpha behavior as very macho and take charge when its really about care giving.  The burden that must be in the long haul.  Like parenting teenagers for life!  Anyway, the title is ridiculous, of course.  The house isn't horrible at all--your basic beautiful, remote luxury hunting/fishing lodge in a remote region.  No lurking ghosts, possessions or hidden passages.  The horrors are outside peaking in and disturbing the beauty of the setting.

I've got the next in the series and will see if I like it as well.

ALIVE!! He's ALIVE!

Yes, I'm reanimating my blog!  I wasn't really inspired when I first started this blog but have been reading more blogs lately and decided I don't mind sharing.  I have opinions and freely share them in certain circumstances but, at the time, I had read too many blogs that shared too many personal details. 

Don't expect to hear about too many personal things here.  I'm going to do book reviews--romance, science fiction and some mysteries with a little history and travel thrown in.  I'm going to do library stuff since I've worked in just about every type of library except a school library.  I'm skipping politics.  I'm skipping recipes.  I may, however, moan about the weather. (Psss, we LOVE to moan about the weather in Chicago!) I may share stuff when I travel.  I may remind you of the olden days of the 1960's and '70s, maybe even dip further back in time.

Come along with me on this journey.

Romance writers meeting

I've been reading with envy the reports of the annual RWA meeting. DAMM, it sounds like one fine meeting. I wasn't so atuned last year but I've become a regular reader of Wendy, the Superlibrarian so I got excited about it. (I think it was all the drinking and the swag as I like both--hummm, shiny; hummm, wine!)

I've met lots of authors over the years including some very notable ones--hell, my significant one IS a writer--so I thought I'd gotten over my fangirl but SQUEEE this year it just sounded like a lot of fun. Plus I was really interested in all the gsnuffling about ebooks--are they REAL books or vanity press. It's kind of like pornography, I know it when I see it. The line between erotic and sleazy is a fine line but a very obvious one to a librarian.