It has just occurred to me that I have slowly been easing over into the dark side of fiction. Okay, not exactly dark maybe, but definitely supernatural. I just re-read most of the Rivers of London series, I have the sequel to A Deadly Education on deck, and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival in mid-October of the next Time Police novel. This may explain how I ended up writing The Devil in Nita Dodd.. I also have a lot of plain contemporary novels started, but even some of them have ghosts (good old Alice). Since we’re heading into October and Halloween territory tomorrow, this may just be the universe sending me a sign.

So what have you been reading?

Today I am reinforcing my mail box, painting a sign for my house numbers, and doing another medical appointment. Oh, yeah, and working on a book. Just one damn thing after another.

What did you do this week?

Argh’s own Nancy Yeager has a new book out: Five Ways to Seduce a Duke (Harrow’s Finest Five Book #5) And right now, it’s at a reduced price of $2.99 because of BookBub:

She’s hiding secrets, including her desire for the duke next door. Unfortunately she’s already engaged…to his brother.

When Simon, the Duke of Wrexham, assigns his brother Robert to settle a land dispute with the lady artist next door, he doesn’t foresee Robert proposing to the woman. Nor does he anticipate his own ardent attraction that makes him share his secret passions with her. Now Simon can’t stop coveting his brother’s fiancée. Continue reading →

Or dog. Rescue dogs are excellent, too. But right now, Emily is making me extremely happy. She’d been a stray for two years (I hadn’t noticed her) when my neighbor said, “You don’t want a cat, do you?” and I said, “You know, that would be a good idea.” So she told me about this stray cat that was spending a lot of time in my garage, and it turned out to be a three-pawed Maine Coon who might let you pet hero nce (so not feral) but mostly ran like hell any time I got close. Kathleen had been feeding her, but the neighborhood was a full of foxes and Kathleen worried . . .
Continue reading →

I can categorize my reading into roughly three types: wallbangers/DNFs, pleasant one-offs, and re-reads. I know why the first category happens, but it just this week occurred to me to wonder why there two other categories. If I finish a book, doesn’t that mean it was good? Isn’t that enough? Continue reading →

This week my preorder of The Antiquarian Sticker Book: Bibliophilia arrived, and OMG it’s just as excellent as the first Antiquarian Sticker Book. Highly recommend.

What book(s) do you recommend this week?

So I read this article that said the best way to redo a room was to take everything out of it so it was empty and then just put back in what you need, which I though was brilliant until I did it and realized that I now I had acres of stuff piled in all the other rooms. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

What did you work on this week?

Thank you all for the birthday wishes, especially since I wasn’t expecting it since I didn’t yell, “Hey, it’s Constitution Day, I’m a year older!” Very nice surprise. I had a lovely quiet day during which I did anything I wanted to. One of the many great things about old age is that you reset to toddler wisdom and live your life according to “Fuck it, I can do anything I want.” Which this year included buying a curtain of stars to go on my bedroom window, counting my blessings, and once again not dying. All in all, a full and very happy day.

What made you happy this week?

I read new books this week, but nothing I’d recommend. Too many romances that are too much alike. I realize in part that’s a big ask since you know what’s going to happen in almost every romance, the way you get to that HEA matters, so nope, not recommending anything this week.

So help me out here: what did you read that was good this week?