This has been a rather eclectic book week for me, spanning a number of genres.
– Elizabeth Peters, The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits
I remembered why this one doesn’t make it back into the re-read rotation very frequently. Not that it’s bad– it’s just not up to the level of her others.
– Patti Callahan Henry, Coming Up for Air
A woman discovers truths about herself by delving into her mother’s past.
– Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
I know, I know, I’m only the last person in the continental U.S. to get around to reading the rest of the Hunger Games trilogy. There was a bit of deja vu in seeing the Games all over again, but it was still a compelling book.
– Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
I liked the way it eventually ended, but had mixed feelings about the way it got there.
– Michelle Moran, Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution
I’ve only just started this one, so more on Madame Tussaud next week.
What have you been reading?
I am so very lucky to be joined on book tour by two of my favorite author friends, Deanna Raybourn and Tasha Alexander.
Come see Deanna at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale on Thursday, February 16th– we’ll have champagne and chocolates and lots of copies of both of our books. (If you can’t be there, you can order signed books here.)
Then Tasha Alexander and I will reprise our “oh my goodness, how caffeinated can two authors get?” routine on Wednesday, February 22nd at the Barrington Area Library in Illinois. There’ll be tea and cookies and two ridiculously perky authors. (Things got a little silly in Houston back in November when Tasha and I took the stage after consuming a few liters of Diet Coke. It took us about thirty minutes to pause for breath. There may have been some discussion of doing an interpretive dance routine on the table.)
Deanna will be signing The Dark Enquiry
Both events are entirely free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!
Thanks so much to everyone for the wonderful “Very Dorrington Valentine’s Day” titles! Miles and Henrietta would have been thrilled.
This wound up being a very tough contest to tally, since almost every title had its partisans, leading to a three way tie for third place. Without further ado, in fourth place we have:
– #30, The Ruse of the Ginger Root, by Robyn.
Tied for third are:
– #10, Honeysuckle & Hijinks, by Ashley.
– #17, After the Tulip, by Angel B.
– #64: Dalliance in the Daffodils, by Melanie.
Pulling ahead for second place, we have:
– #24, The Lure of the Ginger Blossom, by Vanessa.
In first place, with more than double the nearest number of votes…
(drum roll, please)
– #3, Bunny & Biscuits, by Miss Eliza!
The Dorrington Valentine’s Day story will henceforth be known as Bunny & Biscuits: A Very Dorrington Valentine’s Day.
Our winning judge, chosen at random is… Aniko, of Comment #45.
You know the drill, folks. Email me with your snail mail address and I’ll pop your prize in the mail for you.
Huge thanks to everyone who entered and who judged! I was blown away by all of these titles.
Bunny & Biscuits: A Very Dorrington Valentine’s Day will be posted here on the site on Valentine’s Day. (Seems appropriate, no?)
Now I just have to write it!
In addition to the new contest on the Contest page (check it out!), there are some other new features up on the website:
– You can find some of the background works that went into creating The Garden Intrigue on the Bibliography page;
– the Book Club page has been updated with discussion questions for Night Jasmine, Blood Lily, Orchid Affair, and Garden Intrigue, as well as Q&A and some little essays for all those books and Mistletoe (as always, if you’d like me to phone in to your book club meeting, just email and let me know!);
– and reviews have been added to the Reviews section of the Garden Intrigue page.
If there are other things you’d like to see on the website, just let me know!
Inspired by some comments on my Facebook author page, there’s a new contest up on the Contest page.
I’m rather pleased with this one…. It combines both Pink and Jane Austen!
As the publication date of The Garden Intrigue
creeps closer, there have been some lovely reviews popping up around the web, from Sassymonkey, the Girls in the Stacks (Stacy, I heart that you heart Emma!), and Once Upon a Romance.
Thanks, all! And stay tuned for a “Day in the Life” post on Stitch-Read-Cook next Wednesday.
If you like stories based on fairy tales, you’ll probably like….
– Robin McKinley’s fairy tale remakes, in particular her Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
– Some of my favorite novels come out of Tor Books’ long ago Fairy Tale Series, in which contemporary authors were invited to revisit old stories. My two top picks of the series were Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin
– More recently, Eloisa James took on a bunch of familiar fairy tales, revisiting Cinderella in A Kiss at Midnight
– Beauty and the Beast appears to be a popular theme. Elizabeth Hoyt’s To Beguile A Beast
– I’ve always liked the fairy tales less traveled. Kate Holmes’ The Wild Swans
– There was a novel that came out last year or thereabouts based on the Twelve Dancing Princesses– and it’s driving me nuts that I can’t recall the title (especially since I’d meant to read it, then never got around to it). Anyone else remember?
What are your favorite fairy tale based novels?
The official launch for The Garden Intrigue takes place on February 16th at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. There’ll be champagne and chocolates– and Deanna Raybourn!
If you can’t make it to the Poisoned Pen, but would like a signed copy of Garden Intrigue or any of my other books, just contact the folks at the Poisoned Pen– and you can get Deanna’s books signed, too!
This week, I did something I never, ever do. I re-read one of my own books.
I don’t usually like reading my own work once it’s in proper book form. There’s too high a likelihood I’ll stumble across words I should have changed or paragraphs I should have chucked. But I had promised to write a new piece about Miles and Henrietta and it occurred to me that it had been some time since I had written their book. By some time, I mean six years. How did that happen? It didn’t feel like that long. But there it was. I wrote the bulk of The Masque of the Black Tulip
In any event, a long time ago.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Henrietta and Miles still sounded much the same way on the page as they did in my head, although rather amused to find that Turnip Fitzhugh had begun the book as “Reggie” and gradually morphed into “Turnip” by the end of the book. Odd to think of Turnip being called Reggie by anyone other than Sally, isn’t it?
But I digress. This was meant to be Reading Round-Up, not “Memory Lane: Black Tulip Edition”. Now that I’m done with Black Tulip, I’m re-reading a very old Elizabeth Peters novel, The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits
What have you been reading?
Judging is now open on the Name That Bonus Chapter contest!
The rules? Go here to read the entries. Then come back here and post your top three in the comments section by BOTH comment number and title. For example, you might choose: Comment #72, The Delight of the Dorringtons; Comment #521, The Prancing Peony; etc. (This is because some posts contained multiple title suggestions, so, to make sure there’s no confusion, I need both Comment number and title.)
One judge will be chosen at random to receive a shiny new paperback of The Orchid Affair
Let the judging begin!
