Curl Up With A Good Book

What are you reading? I’ve read two romances recently. Anna Jeffrey’s SALVATION, TEXAS from Signet Eclipse is a great contemporary read. If you’ve read her SWEETWATER and LOVE OF A LAWMAN, you know Anna’s writing is consistently excellent. Lorraine Heath’s A DUKE OF HER OWN from Avon is an historical set in England, but with a little Texas flavor thrown in. Lorraine always produces a fine read.

Other than those, I’ve been immersing myself in cozy mysteries because that’s what my current work in progress is. I’ve loved Ellen Byerrum’s wonderful heroine, Lacey Smithsonian, in the Crime of Fashion series from Signet. I also loved Leann Sweeney’s heroine, Abby Rose, in the Yellow Rose Mysteries from Signet. Now, I’m reading Maggie Sefton’s knitting series with heroine Kelly Flynn from Berkley Prime Crime. I don’t knit, but this makes me wish I did. We’re having wintry weather in the form of ice and snow here in rural North Central Texas—perfect for curling up with a good book. An author can always claim reading is market research, right?

New Year's thoughts

Recently, my husband and I were discussing the furor preceding the year 2000. We know a couple who withdrew their money from the bank, convinced rolling over to the new year would cause computers to fail and banking to become chaos. Another couple stocked up on food and filled a storm shelter, certain there would be anarchy and chaos. Thankfully, both couples were very wrong. As my husband predicted, that change of year caused no upheavals other than those of any year passing.

Unless you're a saint, you've made mistakes in the past year. That's what I like about a fresh, new year, though. We have a clean slate. We're looking at an untarnished canvas ready for us to bring our fears and hopes and dreams to paint in the year. I'm not a big fan of resolutions in general--too easy to set myself up for disappointment. I do have one for this year, and that's to be more productive in my writing.

Writing is both profession and therapy. It takes discipline, perseverance, and committment. But a writer gets to create worlds, build characters from nothing. Maybe we can't solve our own problems, but by golly we can make certain our characters solve their problems. So, this cominbg year, I'm going to spend more time creating stories and less on mundane tasks.

As Annette Blair says in a recent article, "Writing is worth the struggle." This doesn't mean I'll give up reading. In fact, I'll start with Annette's THE SCOT, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE to see if it's as wonderful as her MY FAVORITE WITCH.