Scattered Thoughts

I mentioned earlier that I've had the cold from hell. Seriously, I feel like I've been sick for months, and not just a little sniffly. It's been distracting and tiring and unfortunately the blog is behind kids and job in priorities, and there hasn't been much left over. Fortunately, I'm finally starting to cautiously think that maybe I'm almost better. Almost. I mean, I am much better, but not quite all the way better. You know?

As I look over my last few posts, I keep thinking of things I meant to talk about but forgot while I was actually writing. Rather than go back and do a lot of editing, I thought I'd do a little round up.

Giveaway Deadline
First order of business is my giveaway. I uh, forgot to put a deadline on it. How about, midnight Friday (the Thirteenth!) and I'll announce winners over the weekend. Sound good? OK.

Linkages
I really wanted to get some posts up but I was lazy about linking in the last several posts (as they say in the scrapbooking world, "Done is better than perfect" -- and I got them done!). I've got nothing to Amazon, nothing to the author sites, nuthin' to nowhere. I'll go ahead and add in links to reviews around the blogworld, and as always, if you have also reviewed the book, please feel free to leave your perma-link in comments.

More Thoughts on Demon Forged
Next up, I wanted to go back to the Demon Forged review for a minute. I meant to point out a couple things about Irena's names. So first of all: Irena... Iron... get it? I got it. <grin> . And while I was reading about her talent for metalworking, my mind did wander over for a moment to the Dirk & Steele story about another heroine with a psychic metalworking ability -- Dela Reese, from Tiger Eye. Short snip, pulled from Marjorie Liu's webpage :

Those weapons offered her nothing. She knew quality when she saw it, age and history when she felt it. A simple thing, when one worked with steel as much as she did. When it sang its secrets inside her head.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Ms. Brook one evening recently, and one of the things we talked about was Liu's writing and worldbuilding, so I know she's a fan. And you know how sometimes rockstars give each other little nods in their songwriting? Like how the line in Hotel California that goes "they stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast" is supposed to be a tribute to Steely Dan? Anyhow, it made me wonder if Irena's fake FBI identity -- Irena Steele -- was a little shout-out to Marjorie Liu. It made me smile, anyway, to think it might be.

More Thoughts on Just One of the Guys
You may have noticed that that particular review is a bit of a stylistic departure for me. I asked a couple of friends to look it over for me and tell me if my faux grouchiness was obviously faux or if it just seemed kind of asshole-ish, cuz I can be a little insecure about my attempts at humor (it cracked ME up, but, you know. I can hear my tone in my head, and it's not always a sure thing that you all can, too). Anyhow, I was reassured on that front, but one of them mentioned, um, Nicola? What the hell is the story about?

As a rule I don't spend a lot of space on synopses, but hell, I didn't even put any links in that one. So here ya go. Jeez--I didn't even get the title quite right. In case you were undecided by my review and would like to know more about the book in my own personal words, this is what I told her:

The protagonist is a woman with 3 older brothers, plus a foster brother. Her dad and all the boys are firefighters. She also rows, faints at the sight of blood, has a huge lazy part bloodhound mutt (I don't know whytf there's a beagle on the cover) and works at their local hometown newspaper.

She's had a longtime crush on the foster brother but neither of them think they should act on it.

The secondary romance is about her mom finding someone other than her dad, who is a workaholic and refuses to retire.

I also meant to say but forgot, that the third wheel in the secondary romance? Bowed out with such grace and fineness of character... well. Again with the tissues.

Bringing It Around
Sunday I was at our local grocery store and wanted a magazine to flip through while sipping at my pre-shopping, fortifying latte. And they were having a 3-for-2 sale on paperbacks. AND they had Tessa Dare, whose first book I finally picked up (and loved) so OF COURSE I need the other two. I noticed that a couple of the Guardian books were on the shelf and I was glad to see they were getting shelf space even though I was already caught up. And then I saw Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh and thought the same thing. It took me two more circuits of the paperback section before it dawned on me that THIS IS THE NEW ONE AND I DON'T HAVE IT YET!! D'oh! Scattered thoughts, people, I'm telling you. Anyway, I started it today and hey! I haven't quite figured out what's going on yet, but there's another psychic metalworking thing going on:

Gritting his teeth, he sought out all the metal in the house. The cool kiss of iron and steel brushed his mind, invaded his limbs. It wouldn't last long, not with Katya's slight form resting trustingly against him--but he'd use the calm while he had it...

I don't know what this means! But I'm intrigued. I'm amusing myself with imagining a reality show where these three characters would get together and have some kind of sculpt-off, or forge-off, or something-- like, one big lump of metal and they have a psychic battle to shape it their way. (Welcome to my brain: it's mostly harmless but mind the gaps). And I'm also wondering if any psychic metalworker could ever possibly top Meljean's scene with Irena's statue. O__O

That's It For Now
There's a strong likelihood that shortly after I post this, I'll think of two or three other Very Important Things I meant to share with the internet. For that moment though, I think that's everything. Thanks for bearing with me!

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photo credit goes to Mary Elizabeth Williams. Isn't she awesome?