Waiting on My Kindle

06 Dec 2014 3 Comments

by Kay Hudson in Books, Kindle, Reading Tags: , , , , ,

I’ve been pretty good about not buying more paper books lately. Given that I only manage to read about one paper book a week, I’m already four or five years behind. I haven’t been as restrained with my Kindle downloads. The combination of low price and instant availability is often too much to resist, and many of my friends publish electronically these days. I can’t keep up with all of them, either. I can barely keep up with my own writing.

So I have a few unread books waiting on my Kindle. Oh, who do I think I’m kidding? I have dozens of unread books on my Kindle, so many I don’t even know what’s there. (The Kindle app on my computer is great for that, by the way. I can see all the covers spread across my computer monitor any time I’m brave enough to look.)

Of course it doesn’t help that I get daily emails from BookBub and Amazon Daily Deals. At least once or twice a week Auntie Mamesomething pops up that I can’t resist. This morning it was Patrick Dennis’ hilarious Auntie Mame. I have a paperback copy of Auntie Mame on one of the high shelves in the living room (along with most of Dennis’ other books). It’s so old that the spine is brittle, the pages yellow, and the original price was 95 cents. I’d be afraid to try to read it again. Now I can read it on my Kindle.

A day or two ago I downloaded Petticoat Detective, by Margaret Brownley. I read many of Brownley’s books back in the 90s, light-hearted American historical romances. Then she dropped out of the game for awhile, resurfacing in recent years with an inspirational publishing house. Her latest release, about a female Pinkerton agent working undercover in a brothel, looks like fun.

Southern Comforts, by Nan Dixon, is a book I’ve been looking forward to reading ever since I read the first few chapters as a contest judge a few years ago. On the other hand, Ghostly Paws, by Leighann Dobbs, is a mystery with paranormal elements, by an author I’ve never read, but her ad on BookBub was too tempting to resist.

Gunpowder Alchemy is a steampunk novel set in China, by Jeannie Lin, an author whose China-set historical romances I have Gunpowder Alchemyread and enjoyed. This is something different for Lin, and I’m looking forward to reading it. In recent weeks I’ve also added a couple of paranormal romances (Lorenda Christensen’s Til Dragons Do Us Part and Anna Richland’s First To Burn) and a mystery that I first read long ago (and saw dramatized recently on PBS), Agatha Christie’s Halloween Party.

My Kindle app tells me that I have 263 titles on my Kindle, and I’ve only read a fraction of them. I’ll never catch up, but I’ll never run out of reading material, either.

More Book Shopping

15 Sep 2013 Leave a comment

by Kay Hudson in Books, Reading Tags: , , , , ,

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.

ScorchedOur 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.  True SpiesShana 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.

Kerrelyn Sparks

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.

 

I’m Back

28 Jul 2013 6 Comments

by Kay Hudson in Romance Writers of America, Travel Tags: , , , , ,

It’s been at least a couple of weeks since I’ve posted here, but it’s been a busy couple of weeks, with six days in Atlanta for the RWA Conference in the middle.  I’m still recovering.  The Scorekeeper is a three-person office, so it takes some planning beforehand and catching up afterwards for any one of us to be gone for most of a week.

I left on Tuesday the 16th with my friends Cheryl Bolen and Colleen Thompson.  We got to Atlanta mid-afternoon, and walked for what seemed like miles before we figured out that the speedy  little train running along one side of the passage would take us directly to the baggage area, apparently located in the next county.  (And I’m not kidding about speedy–anyone foolish enough to ignore the warnings about holding on to the conveniently-positioned poles was likely to be tossed the length of the car when it started or stopped.)

We arrived at the Marriott Marquis before check-in time, left our bags in the designated area, and began exploring.  The hotel is gorgeous, with a vertigo-inducing fifty-story atrium and those speedy glass elevator cars that make some people nervous (I love them).  (And the Best Ladies’ Rooms Ever–over six days I never once had to wait for a stall.  The perfect amenities for a conference attended by two thousand women.)

Tuesday evening I felt like a real social butterfly, having dinner at a nearby Turkish restaurant with the Firebirds (the Golden Heart finalists of 2012) and dessert at a Latin-Pacific fusion place with the Lucky 13s (this year’s GH finalists).  The annual RWA conference is as much about renewing long distance friendships as it is about workshops and industry networking.

On Wednesday I attended the Golden Network retreat, the annual meeting of the on-line chapter for Golden Heart finalists.  This year the planners went straight for the top.  Our opening speaker was Susan Elizabeth Phillips, a fabulously warm and funny lady, followed by Courtney Milan, an extremely successful and knowledgeable pioneer in the field of self-publishing.

Our keynote speaker was the incomparable Nora Roberts.  Yes, that Nora.  Her advice to us, a mixed crowd of published and unpublished writers, was “Just Keep Writing,” a motto she clearly follows: her typical yearly output, she told us, is one hardback suspense novel, two J.D. Robb books, and a paperback trilogy.  Exhilarating and terrifying at once.

After lunch we had a panel of agents and editors, followed by a group of multi-published authors, all answering our questions and letting us pick their brains.  Between speakers our talented emcees, Susan Boyer and Lorenda Christensen, kept us entertained with their rap intros and commentary, sometimes even in sync with their prerecorded accompaniment.  We’re writers–technology is not always our strong point.

Wednesday evening was the annual “Readers for Life” Literacy Booksigning, as crowded and noisy as always, with hundreds of authors singing their books.  The event is open to the public, and this year raised more than $50,000 for RWA’s continuing support of literacy programs.  I managed to restrain myself–after all, I had to get back to Houston with one suitcase and a carry on–but I visited with friends around the room.

WordPress is not being its usual cooperative self tonight, won’t even let me upload a photo, so I think I’ll save the rest of the conference for a day or two.  I had a wonderful time in Atlanta, but I’m still trying to catch up with my ordinary world.