I Am The Best

Romancing The Blog has been rerunning previous columns this month under the header of "Best of RTB."

Guess who's the best today?

In case you missed it the first time around, my soulmates column is up once again for your comments, approval and general criticism.

Pimpin' Book News

Picked up this tidbit from NovelTalk's newsletter:

Charlotte Hubbard (writing as "Melissa MacNeal") has just accepted an invitation to write a novella for an anthology of historical erotica with a harem theme! Kensington will publish this in 2006. Check her website for more details.

I'm quite pleased that Hubbard has not abandoned her down and dirty MacNeal pseudonym! Given that her new series under her Hubbard name has strong inspirational overtones, I wondered if she had left erotica behind. Not so!

I have to admit, this tickles me. Some authors who have gone the inspirational route have not only abandoned writing "non-inspirationals," they've also denounced their earlier heathen books. Call me wacky, but the fact that Hubbard continues to write in a different sub genre, especially steamy, "dirty" erotica pretty much makes my week.

You go girl!

In other news - my parents are coming to visit. I pick them up at the airport tomorrow and they'll be here over the long weekend (for you non-Americans, Monday is our Labor Day). What does this mean? Well besides some of the touristy stuff I'll finally get a chance to do, it also means my cyper-presence will be nonexistent until Tuesday.

My apologies to the blog junkies.

Accentuate The Positive

As the tone of my last several bloggings may indicate - I've been cantankerous lately. I'm not even PMSing, so it's not like I can use that as an excuse. No, I've just been generally pissed off with the universe as a whole - which in the wake of Hurricane Katrina makes me look like a spiteful, ungrateful bitch.

So in an effort to be a better person (Ha!), I'm going to bask in what I call "simple pleasures." Really, most of the joy I take out of my life can be deemed simple. I'm an easy girl to please. So instead of bitching about library patrons I want to strangle, I'm going to focus on the positive.

When I was at RWA in Reno they had some editors speak at the Librarians Day event. My memory is shot to hell at the moment, but I distinctly remember reps from Warner and Tor being there. They said that if we had business cards to give them, they'd put us on the list to receive Advanced Reading Copies.

OK, I'll admit it - I'm a book whore. That, and I rarely have the opportunity to throw my business cards around. So I tossed them each one.

Guess what I got today? An ARC of The Snow White Bride by Claire Delacroix, release date November 2005. Like how cool is that?

In other happy news, I just had a library patron gush all over me about how wonderful, fantastic I am and how my library is the friendliest library she's ever been too. God, I love dealing with nice, pleasant people. I wonder if she could be cloned.....

Postscript: I just had to tell a library patron to put his shoes back on. Yes, he was walking around barefoot in a public building. Sigh

Vanish

In a concerted effort to not whine about my job today, I've decided it's high time I get back to discussing reading.

I wrapped up Vanish by Tess Gerritsen last night. Final verdict? Pretty good.

Just pretty good? Well let's be honest here - it's a little hard to top the last couple of books in this series. The Sinner featured a pregnant nun and Body Double had a ready-to-pop-at-any-moment pregnant woman who spent the whole novel being buried alive.

Vanish features a corpse who wakes up in the morgue. So that's what they mean by "undead."

After medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles discovers the undead corpse, they rush Jane Doe to the hospital across the street. The woman is clearly aggitated and impossible to control. Meanwhile, in a different part of the hospital, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli has been admitted. Her water has finally broke and her husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean has gone home to get her packed hospital bag.

Chaos ensues when Jane Doe escapes her hosptial bed, kills a security guard and takes all of the Diagnostic Imaging department hostage - including Rizzoli.

Turf wars erupt. The Feds show up unannounced, while Boston PD is on the scene with their hostage negotiator. Only he and Gabriel Dean are acting rationally, wanting to end the scene in a calm manner. Everyone else wants to act like stormtroopers.

One thing I really like about this series is that Gerritsen doesn't follow just one character. Early books focussed one Rizzoli, the last couple shifted to Dr. Isles, and this time out? Gabriel Dean is the focus for a large chunk of the story. I especially enjoyed some insight into his relationship to Rizzoli. Readers will better understand how Mr. Gray Suit FBI feel in love with fire and brimstone Rizzoli.

The rest of this might constitute a spoiler - so consider this your warning.

I also really liked how Jane was after the baby was born. I'm not a mother, but I know enough to know that the whole Madonna and child myth is a big bunch of hooey. Women feel like maternal failures if they can't breastfeed and/or they are completely overwhelmed by the bundle of screaming, squalling joy that has dropped into their laps. Jane is at that spot. She feels completely ill-prepared for motherhood, and feels guilty about the fact that she misses having her own life and career away from baby. It's the big stinky elephant in the room that no woman wants to acknowledge, and Gerritsen does. Brava!

That said, I found Vanish a little uneven where Dr. Isles was concerned. There is a revelation during the climactic finish that I really wanted her reaction too, and didn't get. Also, the book ends rather abruptly. I wanted fall-out dagnabit, but suspect that Gerritsen will touch on these issues in later installments.

All in all a very good read.

Wendy's Making Up Wacky Rules Again

OK, is it really too much to ask someone to use their own library card? Honestly?

I had this little old lady come in a couple of weeks ago who used her sister's card to get on the computer. That's a no-no. So my children's librarian told her, "You need to get your own card." Which the lady did.

Well being as I'm not stupid, and have little faith in my fellow man, I put a stop on dear old sis's card rendering it useless for logging on to the Internet.

Sure enough, the little old lady tried to use the card again and just couldn't understand why I wouldn't reactivate the card.

Now honestly, am I the bad guy? It's her sister's card - it's sister's responsibility - so sister needs to haul her scrawny ass down here and get it fixed herself.

God I'm such a bitch. I'm surprised the Library Police don't revoke my license.

Well, that's if librarians had licenses. Which we don't.

Anywho, I'm on my lunch break when my children's librarian asks me if my ears are burning. Turns out the little old lady was chatting it up with the guy on the computer next to her and every other word was "manager this" or "manager that."

Ah, sweet, sweet validation. All this time I just thought I was an irrational bitch. Now I have proof.

And yes, I know I haven't been talking about books lately. I should be able to report on Vanish by Tess Gerritsen tomorrow. Hopefully. Barring anymore run-ins with senior citizens.

Crazy Fangirl

I'm such a little hypocrit.

I've mentioned on this blog a few times how crazy fangirls scare the hell out of me. I stand by that.

Even if....

I'm a Tess Gerritsen fangirl.

There, I said it.

Here's how Wendy's day went:

Boyfriend took day off work. We decide to hit the mall. Boyfriend needs new underwear. Wendy decides it would be a good idea to go to Waldenbooks and spend some recently acquired gift certificates on the new Tess Gerritsen novel, Vanish. Laydown date was August 23. No problem.

Go to Waldens. No Vanish. Not anywhere. So I ask. Clerk says to me: "We don't have it in stock yet. It's listed as an August release, but it might not come out until the end of the month."

Wendy manages to not jump across the counter and strangle the clerk.

Chooses instead to console herself with a pizza for lunch. It was good.

We come back home. I'm starting to foam at the mouth. I think of the gift certificates burning a hole in my purse. Tell Boyfriend I'm going to Borders, which is around the corner.

He says, "OK, preseason football is on. Could you get me some cookies while you're out?"

Sure.

I get to Borders. I'm perusing the new books section. Nothing. I'm getting frantic. So I take another look at the new books table. I look closer. Closer....

Viola!

There it is!

3 measly copies and one of them is mine! All mine!

So guess what I'm reading right now?

And yes, The Boyfriend got his cookies.

The Sweet Smell Of Success

My children's librarian is on vacation this week, and given that I'm clinically insane, I decided to surprise her.

Last week I finished weeding our nasty, horribly out of date reference collection. How horrible was it? Well one gem I found was a "Current Events" book from 1990. It talked about the Soviet Union of cripes sake.

This week I've:

• Finished shifting the reference collection
• Relocated all the adult biographies over to the end of the reference collection
• Miscalculated how many shelves I would need - had to have a strong, young able-bodied volunteer shift oversize collection (think "coffee table books")
• Took all the oversized Chilton automative repair manuals and had volunteer shelve them in their own special area.
• Weeded mystery paperbacks and found 2 empty shelves.
• Cataloged a butt-load of romance paperbacks from Reno, as well as from the library patron who decided to get rid of her entire Nora Roberts, Debbie Macomber, and Jayne Ann Krentz collection.

This means I have a whole new bank of empty shelves next to the children's area. My children's librarian should be quite pleased. But she's on her own with shifting that nonsense. I'm toast.

In other news, I did a "school visit" yesterday (again, children's librarian on vacation!) to a local school. The kindergarten teacher was having an orientation for incoming students and she wanted me to talk about how wonderful the library is to their parents. I also read a story to the kiddies. It went well. Again, I think my youth threw them. I'm 30 - but a young looking 30, so when I introduce myself as the "branch manager" most people do a double take.

It's a good problem to have. Trust me, I'm not complaining.

The kids seemed to like the story, but they were a shy bunch. I think it had more to do with being at school then having the strange library lady read to them - but you never know.

Scary Stuff

First, I'd love to thank all of you Blogger users that have been talking about spam lately.

You jinxed me.

I was doing so good too! The only spam I ever got in my comments field was about "hot young girls" in a post about an erotica novel I read.

I went to Blogger and changed my profile, so I hope that fixes it. If not, I'll have to stop allowing anonymous comments. Sorry folks!

In other news - I saw some scary (and ignorant) tattoos today on a library patron.

This guy comes in quite a bit - and here's a shock (again library sarcasm) - he solely uses the library for Internet access.

He was wearing short sleeves today and I got a real good look at two of his tats. One was of a swastika. The other? A hooded figure - as in the kind of a hood a KKK member would wear.

Nice.

While I do not work in a large African-American community, I'd say 80% of my library patrons are Asian (mostly Vietnamese). I love the fact that this guy is wandering around my building sporting racist tattoos. Frankly, I find this more disturbing than the homeless guy who likes to wash his feet in my public restroom.

Poor Form

As much as I love the online world, I do think the Internet as a tendency to temporarily overload peoples' good sense.

I was causally surfing author sites this morning when I came upon a certain author's bulletin board. As a general rule, I do not even read such boards because they are often populated by rabid fangirls.

So imagine my surprise when, while looking through the folders on this board, I saw several posts from readers who were "disappointed" in this author's last book.

Yes, this board was on said author's web site!

I'm sorry, I don't understand this.

Now I know what you're thinking. "Wendy, you review books, sometimes harshly. How is that not the same thing?"

Yes, I do review books. Yes, I've given bad reviews to books. But I do not take that bad review and e-mail it to the author or post it on her bulletin board. If the author chooses to Google for the review, well that I can't help. But I don't knock on her door and leave a flaming pile of dog shit there for her to discover.

I'm sorry - but it takes some serious balls to e-mail an author and tell her you hated/was disappointed in her book. How can people think this is normal behavior? It just smacks of rudeness.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be vocal in your opinions. By all means - rant on, rant long and rant hard. I do. But don't slap the author upside the head for it. If they come across my rant while surfing around cyberspace that's one thing. They've gone looking for it. They shouldn't have the rant thrust upon their doorstep.

Seriously, am I totally off base here? Anyone out there think it's "OK" to e-mail an author and say, "Your last book sucked big monkey balls!" Really, curious minds want to know.

Or has PMS, lack of sleep and general malaise about my job finally fried my brain?

It's On A T-Shirt So It Must Be True!

I came home from work on Monday to discover The Boyfriend bought us both Yankees Suck T-shirts. His is red, mine is navy blue. How sweet is that? My parents will be in town Labor Day weekend and on the agenda is the Anaheim Angels vs. Seattle Mariners game. We plan to unveil the T-shirts then.

My mother will very likely be horrified.

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

First, my latest column is up over at Romancing The Blog. Go forth and read! Leave comments!

In reading news, I'm working on a new book called A Patchwork Family by Charlotte Hubbard. This is a July western that flew under my radar because Leisure is marketing it as an "Inspirational Romance." Sure it's a western and inspirational - but romance? Not yet anyway. It's more of what I would call a "saga."

The hero and heroine are married. They run a way station in Kansas that serves folks traveling west on the stage coach. It is a good marriage, but the Lord hasn't seen fit to bless them with children. Then two orphans show up and the couple agrees to take them in. Their mother ran off with a dandy while the children were using the privy along the stage coach route. The young boy is naturally sweet as pie, while the older sister is a shrew in training.

This isn't a romance. It's not even a marriage in trouble book. It reminds me a lot of those multi-part sagas that were so popular during the 1970s and 1980s. Hubbard plans more books in the series following the lives of the various children (yes, more are on the way) - which I suspect might read more like romances.

That isn't to say this book isn't pleasant. It is. I should have no problem zipping through it in a couple of days. Will I follow the other books in the series though? Jury is still out.

Now for the shock - Charlotte Hubbard is also Melissa MacNeal! Melissa MacNeal, she who wrote a few books for Black Lace. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that they are the same writer. The MacNeal book I read was smut-er-ific complete with over-the-top sex and soap opera plot. The Hubbard book is sweet, wholesome stuff complete with characters who have a strong sense of Faith.

It would be like finding out that Janette Oke and Thea Devine are the same person. Which, for the record, they're not. But the comparison is a good one.

Fiction = Make Believe

I just had the most interesting - albeit pathetic - conversation with a library patron.

He asked me if I had read The Da Vinci Code yet. Well of course I haven't. I've been meaning to listen to it on audio, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Then he started talking about how Dan Brown puts so-called "facts" into the story that aren't true.

I stupidly responded, "It's fiction."

He continues to talk and I continue to stupidly say, "But it's fiction."

So in short, my patron said that Brown shouldn't have written the book as "fact."

Uh, he didn't - it's FICTION!

That's the beauty of fiction - you can have talking pigs, yellow skies and tap dancing daisies. Why? Because it's FICTION!

And here I thought that too-stupid-to-live only referred to some romance novel heroines.

Wendy Gets Maudlin

My mother called me at work today. My mother, who lives in Michigan, called me while I was at work in California.

Why?

Barbara Bel Geddes died. Miss Ellie!

Bel Geddes had one hell of a career before Dallas. However, as many actors will attest, TV has a way of changing your whole career. Sure, she was the original Maggie in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and starred in Vertigo - but every Friday night she came into people's living rooms as Miss Ellie. The very definition of steel magnolia, she loved her husbands, doted on her grandsons, and was the only character on the entire show that could tell J.R. he was being an ass, and get away with it.

My mother called Miss Ellie my"surrogate grandmother," and in many ways she was. Every Friday night I would watch Dallas with her mother. To this day I can't believe my mother let me watch it - but she did. It's a shame my own grandmother passed away before the first seasons of Dallas were released on DVD. I think she would have gotten a kick out of that.

My favorite part of the article I linked to on Bel Geddes passing is the mention that RKO dropped her contract because she wasn't sexy enough. Oh sure, Bel Geddes was more of a girl next door type - but damn, check out some of her old publicity photos here. She could do glamour with the best of 'em.

Carpe Demon

I was finally able to wrap up Carpe Demon: Adventures Of A Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner this morning.

The verdict? Pretty good.

Kate Connor looks like your typical suburban housewife. She left behind her job, got married and is now a stay-at-home mom to her two kids. However Kate is anything but typical. That job she left behind was with the Vatican. She used to hunt demons for a living.

Her first husband was also a Hunter and they retired to San Diablo, California thinking it would be demon-free (the mission in town has a ton of religious relics). They have a baby girl they name Allie. Then the husband dies. Years later, Kate marries husband #2, a lawyer with political ambitions, Stuart. Allie is 14 and 2-year-old Timmy has arrived on the scene.

Kate's life is hectic. Allie is getting ready to start high school, Timmy is running her ragged, and Stuart keeps announcing impromptu dinner party plans. So it's not wonder that Kate misses the demon standing in the pet food aisle of the San Diablo Wal-Mart.

When Kate calls her former teacher, a priest, for help, he informs her there are no available non-retired Hunters to send. Kate's just going to have to handle the problem on her own. Out of shape, having let her demon hunting skills slide, Kate then learns that not only is San Diablo not demon free - it's been invaded by the biggest, baddest demon of all.

Sure no problem.

I liked this story a lot. It's quite imaginative, and while I'm not a stay-at-home mom (or mother period for that matter) I found it very funny in parts. It's a bit slow in places, but the last half picks up considerably and Kenner writes interesting characters.

My only problem with the story is the lack of exploration into Kate's past. You don't even find out how or why her first husband died. Also, Kate was an orphan raised by the Vatican. Sounds terribly interesting right? Well too bad, because Kenner doesn't explore this at all.

The good news is that the ending is very open-ended. Sure the conflict is resolved, but one gets the impression that it might not stay resolved indefinitely. Kenner turning this book into a series seems a likely possibility - but we'll see if it happens.

All in all, quite fun.

Glamorous Life

I'm still working on Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner. I'll admit it, I got lazy towards the end of last week and didn't get much reading done. That, and I'm now officially sucked into Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on audio book. So my lunch break was spent listening to that instead of reading. Bad Wendy, bad.

The good news is, I should be able finish Carpe Demon sometime tomorrow - so a full report will be forthcoming.

And for the record - I'm on CD #8 out of #17 with Harry.

I came into work this morning to find garbage spilling out around my dumpster. What does this mean exactly? It means Wendy has to go pick it up. Why? Well besides my grossly over-inflated salary (in the library world we call that sarcasm) but also because the garbage men will not haul anything away that isn't firmly in the dumpster.

I put this off. I even resorted to shifting part of my reference collection - which is essentially hauling books from one shelf to the next. Never glamorous work, and I got sweaty (and not in a fun way either). Still it's infinitely better than garbage detail.

However, it had to be done. And being the totally kick-ass superhero babe that I am, I knew it was up to me to make my parking lot clean and garbage free! So I dug out a pair of gloves and headed for the back door.

What greeted me? Lo and behold - no more garbage! Someone beat me too it and picked it up for me! I wish I knew who - although I suspect it was the landscape guys who were here mowing the lawn.

Bless their hearts.

Rinse And Repeat

Regular visitors to my blog will know that Wendy whines a lot about the current state of American-set (including western) historical romances.

While the book is still in my TBR, I was quite hopeful when I learned that Susan Kay Law won a RITA this year for A Wanted Man. Surely publishers (specifically Avon) would take the hint, right?

Wrong.

Susie is guest blogging over at Squawk Radio - and while she's awfully nice about it - it appears she is with Avon no more.

In fact, she's currently with no one.

But good for her for not caving to Avon's "Why not write English-set historicals" nonsense. I'm still unhappy about Lorraine Heath. OK, I'm bitter - but I'm trying to work through it.

So who does this leave at Avon? The only author who has managed to get a western published in recent memory (in this case, May)? Beverly Jenkins. And even she has begun to branch out to romantic suspense. How long will it be before there is no one with a contract at Avon writing American-set historicals?

Heck, that time may have already come....

New Linkage And Good Book Alert

Just found out that Cheryl St. John has joined the Wide World Of Blogging. Check out her new home.

Also, I just finished my first RWA conference book. The author wasn't there to sign it, but they were giving out free copies and I'm glad I picked it up. It was very good!

Deadly Double by Adrianne Byrd is a romantic suspense featuring everyone's favorite cliche - The Evil Twin. But ya know, it was entertaining as all get out.

Josephine Ferrell finds herself in a mental hospital on more drugs than Keith Richards. Everyone is calling her "Michelle" and denying it only lands her on the wrong side of a hypodermic needle. There is someone who believes her though, even if she's too dopey to talk to him.

Dr. William Hayes is the guy she loved and lost one memorable summer in Paris. When Will sees "Michelle" he knows it's his long, lost love Josie. Unfortunately, the doctor in charge of "Michelle" swears it's "Michelle." Will must be mistaken.

So what does our boy do? He kidnaps a patient of course! Can they sort out this mess, and clear Josie's name before the real "Michelle" puts a bullet in them? Dead bodies are piling up.

I really liked the way Byrd wrote this story, because it took some guts. She drops the reader right in the middle of the action (Will spiriting Josie away from the hospital), and reveals her characters and story through real time action and flashbacks. This is a tricky technique to pull off, as it is easy to "lose" the reader.

I also loved all of the characters. Sure Josie, Will and the villain are great - but I was most struck by police detective Ming Delaney. Byrd makes her "human" by revealing glimpses into her marriage and how her work schedule and professional drive effect it.

The only problem this story has is the sex. I haven't read purple prose this bad in a while. A shame, since the love scenes are really well done. However every time I ran up against phrases like "moist cave" and "vortex of euphoria," it yanked me right out of the story.

Still, a very good read. It would make a great vacation book or beach read as it really zips along at a good clip. I easily would have polished it off in one sitting if I didn't have to work for a living. Drat that anyway.

WTF?!

I left Reno on Friday - and it turns out I missed a train wreck moment on Saturday.

Not that it would have mattered, since I technically wasn't registered for the conference. That meant - Wendy goes to no luncheons and no award ceremonies. Dang, maybe I should have shelled out the extra cash?

Instead of rehashing it here, others have already covered the Rita/Golden Heart awards ceremony. Opinions do differ, but the majority of comment-leavers are aghast. Check out:

La Nora
Monica Jackson
The Smart Bitches

Sometimes I think the recent blog explosion provides me with a little too much information. It wasn't until very recently that I "gave up" on authors strictly for their attitudes and online presence. However the recent (and ever ongoing) brouhaha over erotica/romantica vs. romance has led me to dismiss several books and authors from my TBR.

Is this fair? Probably not. But let me clarify -

Authors are people. They are "allowed" to have strong opinions. There are many author's blogs I read that feature strong opinions (Alison Kent and Monica Jackson immediately leap to mind) - and while I don't always agree with them, I haven't banished them to my "Under No Circumstances" List. Why? Because they aren't stupid. Put more bluntly, I don't think they're talking out of their asses.

If you're going to go off half-cocked on a subject, at least be intelligent about it. That's just me though.

It's almost sad really. Author "bad behavior" never used to effect me, maybe because I had had nothing but good experiences. There are countless (I'm talking countless) authors I buy because they are so dang nice. Authors that landed on my "I Give Up" List after a couple of books failed me, end up back on the "Buy" List because I make the mistake of meeting them in person.

Heck, meeting a nice author in person even has me questioning my sanity. I heard Linda Howard speak at RWA this year, and I began questioning why I don't read her. Well, I don't read her because she generally "doesn't work" for me - but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't give her another chance.

Now before anyone slams me here - I will say that my "Never Buy Again" List does not effect my purchases for my library. Heck, if that were the case I wouldn't be buying Danielle Steel. How long do you think my patrons would put up with that? The answer? Not very long.

These are my personal opinions. The library should be an open market of sorts. And while there are certain authors I will never view through naive rose-colored glasses again - that doesn't mean I should go around raining on the parade of my library patrons.

But I probably should have just kept my mouth shut....

Viagra Boy And Back To Work

So Rafael Palmeiro has been suspended for using steroids.

I'm reminded of a famous line from the movie Gone With The Wind when Rhett Butler says to Scarlett, "You're like the thief who isn't the least bit sorry he stole, but he's terribly, terribly sorry he's going to jail."

I'm also reminded of my reaction to the news that Jason Giambi was a juicin' fool. Well duh. No wonder Palmeiro was so willing to endorse Viagra in a national ad campaign. Those 'roids effected more than his power hitting numbers me thinks.

There I go being snide again.

In library news, nothing blew up while I was in Reno last week. I always worry about that. Turns out nothing exciting happened outside of what has become "normal."

• Patrons bitching about fines
• Patrons with multiple cards
• Our regular crack pot patrons who don't realize they are completely insane just being themselves.

I did come back to find that someone had abandoned an old couch back by our dumpster - but that's par for the course. I have one of those at least once a month.

In other news, Alyssa posted my picture over on her blog. And here I was hoping to fool people into thinking I actually looked like Barbara Gordon. Damn. But do go read Alyssa's blog because she's been doing a very nice recap of her RWA conference experience.