Yesterday I didn’t go to the bookstore, because the bookstore, Katy Budget Books, came to me, or rather to the West Houston RWA chapter meeting, as they do most months. So I came away from the meeting with four more books to read.
Our guest speaker was Mari Mancusi, who gave an excellent presentation on World Building. She describes her newly released book, Scorched, as “Terminator with Dragons,” in which two time-traveling boys come from the future to prevent a dragon apocalypse. Now I do like a good dragon apocalypse story (just read Lorenda Christenson’s Never Deal With Dragons), but what really tempted me was the image of the last dragon egg in the world turning up in a run-down West Texas roadside attraction.
West Houston member Shana Galen’s new release, True Spies, also came home with me. 
Shana mixes lots of action and a good dollop of humor into her historical romances, great fun to read. This one is a follow up to Lord and Lady Spy; both are set in the Regency Era against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.
The latest installment in West Houston member Kerrelyn Sparks’ wildly popular Love at Stake series is The Vampire with the Dragon Tattoo (goodness, dragons seem to be trending here tonight), and I bought that, too, although I have to confess (Kerry knows this) that I’m way behind on this series. Some of my friends write faster than I can read. Kerry started this series with a handsome vampire who broke a fang one night and had to kidnap a lady dentist from an all-night dental clinic to get it fixed before sunrise (How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire, published in 2005), and the current one is number fourteen.
Kerry also has a new historical novel out, Less Than a Gentleman, a belated sequel to The Forbidden Lady (which was originally published as For Love or Country in 2002). These books are set in Revolutionary period America, an uncommon setting in the current market but one which I enjoy.
Now my only problem is to pick what to read next–after I judge some more contest entries, drag a completed manuscript out of Scrivener (I’ll let you know how that goes), and get back to work on my current manuscript.
Kay Hudson 