Better Than Dead

A completely original story, engaging characters, and lovely smexy writing. What’s not to like?

Gwen Carroway is a water elemental with the ability to pick up any language instantly, and she’s using that talent to help the family business become a global power. When she’s accidentally thrown into the company of the hunky mercenary, Reed, their attraction sparks as instantaneously as Gwen’s language ability. As fate would have it, Reed soon learns Gwen is his next target: he’s been hired to kidnap her. And he’s a man who takes pride in doing a good job… Together, Reed and Gwen must unravel the dirty secret behind Gwen’s family business–and in the process, they unravel each other.

Split loyalties abound in Liquid Lies, as Reed and Gwen try to negotiate the path of love and the path of doing what’s right. Ms. Martine handles these conflicts well. One of the reasons I liked this book so much was because it wasn’t just another “pretty face.” It was a paranormal romance with a very solid plot and characters. This is a great read.

This journey is actually split into two parts: the first, a short discussion of this book:

and maybe a little bit about this one, as well:

Kathleen Bartholomew, the sister of sff writer Kage Baker, has been carrying on Kage’s legacy since Ms. Baker’s untimely death. She has put together collections of Kage’s stories, done the finishing touches on manuscripts left behind, and has been completing books begun by Kage. Subterranean Press has been publishing them. Kathleen’s wonderful blog chronicles in touching and lively detail the life she and her sister lived together, but also talks about the writers’ life, life in general, the Faire circuit, and spooky travels on California’s I-5. It’s a great loving stew of many flavors and exotic ingredients. Kathleen is a talented writer, often lyrical and moving, and her blog really is a delicious treat. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Now, as to the second part of this journey. Not quite as lyrical and moving, but I never promised these posts about journeying around my room would be. In fact, one might even call the next part of our story a sordid journey into family politics. If one was a Drama Queen. I’ll leave it to you as to how to label it.

(more…)

Two of my friends released ebooks at virtually the same time and I’ve been meaning to do a signal boost ever since. Here they are (listed alphabetically!):

From Marshall’s Amazon page:

Six science fiction stories, including “Bullet” from End of an Aeon and “Sausages” from Talebones, which received an Honorable Mention from Gardner Dozois in his Year’s Best Science Fiction #27.

From Lila’s Amazon page:

Taken … and no one knows where…

Oh, and did I mention the ex-husband?

This is both joyful and heartbreaking. A friend helps a dying young man find out what happens next in his favorite Harry Turtledove series (The War That Came Early):

You can read the whole story here.

The books I’m reading (I pick these up and put them down, but all of these are currently inching forward):

1. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
2. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (the book du jour)
3. Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung
4. Trickster: An Anthropological Memoir by Eileen Kane
5. Legends of the Fire Spirits by Robert W. Lebling
6. Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch by Henry Miller
7. The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture by Walter L. Williams
8. When Ghosts Speak: Understanding the World of Earthbound Spirits by Mary Ann Winkowski
9. and my own book Shivery Bones, doing one last bloody read-through.

Books I’m writing: If you count worldbuilding and creative noodling, then I’m writing Carmina and The Numberless Stars.  If you’re talking about actual words getting written, then I ain’t currently writting nothin’.

The book I love the most: Couldn’t possibly choose.  I usually love the one I’m with.

The last book I received as a gift: I made a killing on book gift certificates.  I’ve included all the books I bought this way—not really to brag, but because I wouldn’t want any of these books to have their feelings hurt because I left them off the list.  (I anthropomorphize everything.) (Hi, Lisa!):

1. Caveat Emptor by Ruth Downie
2. Holy Ghosts: Or, How a (Not So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night by Gary Jansen
3. Spooky California: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore by S. E. Schlosser, Paul G. Hoffman (Illustrator)
4. Lover Unleashed by J. R. Ward
5. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
6. Red-Robed Priestess: A Novel (The Maeve Chronicles) by Elizabeth Cunningham
7. Untie the Strong Woman: Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Love for the Wild Soul by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
8. Meditations with Meister Eckhart by Matthew Fox
9. Tarot for Writers by Corrine Kenner
10. Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
11. Everyday Tarot by Gail Fairfield

The last book I gave as a gift: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

In order to actually vote in this poll, please go here.

What do you think J. K. Rowling’s new adult book will be about?

● About a struggling lower-middle-class British couple & the horrible child under their stairs (johnmcusick tweet).
● About 600 pages, give or take a few hundred.
● A story exploring the angst of a middle-aged author trying to come up with a new and different story after an initial huge success.
● A retelling of the Dracula story from the point of view of his phletbotomist.
● About a group of teachers at a posh British school who suspect their pupils may not be quite ordinary.
● The story of a detective named Phillip, um, Harlowe who finds this mysterious bird statue called the Maltese, um, Goose, and there’s this woman who betrays him and stuff.
● A scholar’s discovery of an earth-shattering secret kept in France for millennia: foie gras is people!
● About a ragtag band of misfits infiltrating Hitler’s Germany in order to do something involving a lot of explosions.
● Some stuff about grown up men and women and working and getting married and having babies and probably sex.
● No, it’s not about any of that. I think it’s about… (please answer in comments).
● Ticky thinks you’re just making all this stuff up.
● Other.

That Jodi Meadows girl has a book coming out today:

From Amazon:

NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.
NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?
HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies–human and creature alike–let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?
Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life.

Pick up the nearest book to you. Turn to page 45. The first sentence describes your sex life in 2012.

The nearest book to me is a blank journal. Page 45 is like every other page in the book. That would be blank.

Reaching slightly further afield I pick up Rapture in Death by J. D. Robb:

Eve awoke with the cat stretched over her chest and the bedside ‘link beeping.

That sums it up nicely also.

How’s your sex life?

Okay, so it isn’t released until January 31 and I preordered it. But it was the very first book that fell into my cart in 2012.

You should pick up/download your own copy.