What have I read lately?

I've been reading this month [May], lots of it, and can't say any of it has been anything more than done simply for the joy of being able to read what I want, when I want, and where I want.  Okay, the cutie bought a Kindle, and I tried a few on it and others I added to my cyber TBR shelf for later, but I read* a few because I do that - READ!

Selfish, I know, but I've enjoyed myself which is what reading is all about.  So, what have I bought and what have I read?

• Grace Under Fire by Jackie Barbosa*
• A Gentlewoman's Predicament (1) and A Gentlewoman's Ravishment (2) by Portia Da Costa*
• Pleasing Sir by Delilah Devlin*
• Long Hard Ride (1) by Lorelie James*
• The Bosses Pet: The Contract (1) and Office Training Goes Home (2) by Tonya Kinzer*
• Boy Toys by Brynn Paulin
• Glorious Enslavement by Anya Richards*
• Dex's Claim by Mandy M Roth*
• Club Shadowlands (1), Dark Citadel (2) and Breaking Free (3) by Cherise Sinclair
• Feral Cravings by Jenika Snow
• Seducing Jane Porter by Dominique Adair*

Most of these were new to me to read authors [I've read Devlin and Adair before] and I've had varying degrees of enjoyment, either way, it's been a good month to buy ebooks and read!

Time to think about honor

Enjoy your day and take a moment to remember those who served and paid the ultimate price for us to have all the freedoms we have.

Playing Away From Home Today!

I'm over on the fabulous Delilah Devlin's blog talking about a man who inspired me for months and I finally wrote his story - yup, his sexy and hard, but maybe not in the way you're thinking!

Come over and lets talk about who it is :-)

I'm Guilty As Charged!

I'm not someone who is in to lots of self-denial, which means I happily embrace my guilty pleasures and I'm about to indulge myself.

The Hangover passed me by for sometime and I was okay with that.  I heard it was funny, but didn't rush out to find, and then I was cornered.  Actually, I was on an airplane, and thought why not kill a few hours watching it?  Well, I loved it!  It was so wrong and I laughed so hard :-)

This weekend the cutie and I will be seeing The Hangover Part II!  Fingers crossed the release isn't held back because of the tattoo lawsuit pending.

Feeling Blue?

Is the week not going the way you'd hoped it would?

Not to worry, Steve B and photographer Jason T Jaskot have a solution!

Sexy hot blue!

Thank you Oh La La Magazine for brightening this hump day!

Cover Talk - Again!

Not too long ago I mentioned cover art needed to make a Come Back, well, I'm sticking with that and pleading the publishers to do something.

Besides title and authors name, covers need to tell me genre, mood, and a few hints that will tempt my inner-reader to buy.

I've just been shopping on Amazon.co.uk for a family member in England and found a few books that interested me.  I swapped over to the US site and the cover of one made me doubt it was the book for me, and I decided they can wait until I'm in the UK next.  That's bad because, as far as I'm concerned, those were sales lost because of the publisher.  They chose to package the books in two entirely different ways which made me, in turn, doubt they were the right choices for me. 

What do you think?

Colin Cotterill is the author and while I seriously dislike the quote used, I do like the covers for both the hardcover and paperback as they appear in the UK.  Without the unkind comparison, they tell me the series is light and fun, which is the complete opposite of the vibe I get from US paperback cover on the bottom [hardcover was much the same just a slightly muter coloring].

I enjoyed Tarquin Hall's The Case of the Missing Servant: From the Files of Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator [1st book] and plan to get The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing when it comes out in paper on June 21st.  Shamini Flint's 'Inspector Singh Investigates' [1st book is A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder] books looked good as well [same covers in UK and US].  Both these books recommended I check out Colin Cotterill's 'Dr Siri Paiboun Mystery' [as above, the 1st book is The Coroner's Lunch] offerings and they also interested me.  They all see like good summer reads, but I'm holding back on the Cotterill book until I can find out more information.

Covers count publishers!

Weirdly Intriguing

Condoms are used for safe sex and this chainmail condom from the Anevern Artchicks put a twist on its construction - now I can't get it out of my head.

Can I somehow work this into a story?

Probably, but not sure I will.

Like I said, weirdly intriguing.

Thank you Erotic Romance for, um, this.

The Number Game

Sometimes it's two, often it's three, and then there are those times when it's four.  Numbers don't matter, plot matters, right?

There's your hints for what's on my mind and I guess, since it's a day of numbers, I'll let you know I've been dropping hints this week on three different tales, in three different genres.

Space it is!

Not outer space, I'm talking outdoor space of all sorts, and all that can happen in those dark nooks.

Hunk Time!

No surprise that Hump Day is Inspiring Hottie Day for an erotic romance author - um, me - and it also shouldn't be a surprise that such a man would find a place to play in my week of hints.

Beauty of a Plot

Sometimes a physical element of a character dancing around in my head is all I have and am content to let it be.  Then there comes a time when that one thing starts to grow like a tree into a story that needs to be written.

Now that is exciting stuff!

What is and isn't present

Shoes of all sorts are present, but these aren't, although parts play a big part.  These are by Void of Course.

Dropping Some Hints...

There's quite a bit going on right now and I thought I'd share what they are, but make it more fun by dropping hints instead of giving it all at once.  Wicked, I know, but that's the kind of mood I'm in :-)

So, get ready, starting tomorrow it's Hints Week!

It's All About the Hats!

A few weeks ago was a wedding in England - lovely jubbly - and yes, I was up early taking it all in!  Made the cutie and I scones [with strawberry jam and clotted cream of course], and he made a pot of tea.

It was great coverage, but really BBC America nailed it because they actually knew who people were, and made sure to have great shots of those us fashion fans wanted to see - especially the hats!  Yes, hats are big over there.  The English ladies who traveled to So Cal for our wedding at the beach brought their hats with them - yes, it's that kind of a big deal.

So, who was I looking forward to seeing, and who picked fab hats?

Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, Princess Letizia of Spain, and Lady Frederick Windsor looked wonderful from head to toe.  Who I was hoping to see and thought their choices were fabulous was Sophia, Countess of Wessex and Zara Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne.  Those two always do it right!

Okay, I said it was all about hats, but I can't hold back from talking about the dresses worn by the bride.  Sarah Burton [now the designer for Alexander McQueen label and carrying on his vision beautifully] walked the line between being memorable, timeless, and tame very well.  The second reception gown was just as beautiful with it's angora bolero sweater and sparkling belt - loved it as much as the wedding dress!  All that said, I would love to see the pseudo-bustlel at the back of the latter, very oragami-ish - very intriguing.

Missed the Kentucky Derby, but it takes hints from Ascot - the wild hats are released!

Have Flowers on My Mind

Why?

That would be because of Homotography showcasing Jeremy Kost's Flowers for the Land of the Rising Sun photos, which, by the way, he is selling copies to benefit Japan Society's Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.

Love it and makes me want to plant some flowers.

A new trend for me in books/ebooks

Much like illustrators, I've bought many books based on the translator.

Weird, but true.

If the language is dead or not mine, then I need help in reading it, and that's where the translator comes into play. When I was at University, Richmond Lattimore was my go to guy for Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, Robert Fiztgerald for Homer's Illiad and Odyssey, and Allen Mandelbaum for Virgil's The Aeneid. These men translated many other works, but these were the ones I liked by them the most.

Let me bring the translator bit a little more current with JK Rowling's Harry Potter books. Did you know the first three were altered for the US market? They were! Someone went through and took out the strongly English words and rejigged them for Americans to read. An example of this would the title of the first book. In England it's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and in the US it's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. After book 3, the publisher finally realized it wasn't necessary to changes things, and left that Englishness alone.

While not technically translating, this bit of tinker-time helped ease me away from actively seeking who touched a book once first published. The final straw came with Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy as translated by Reg Keeland. No, the translations were far from perfect, but I enjoyed the books all the same, and my need to buy a book by translator was gone.

My current read has been translated and I'm liking it, alot, and will most likely get caught up in and read all of Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole series as translated by Don Bartlett.

Let me qualify all this by stating I would never want to be a translator as there is bound to be someone who picks it apart.  Beautiful or pretty, technically they're the same, but they also aren't.  Can you imagine going through an entire book of 90,000+ words and trying to find the right words and please everyone?  No thank you and I give anyone who takes it on credit and kudos for accepting a very difficult job.

Naughty Thought For Monday

Jewelry can often be used to express a mood and this piece called Tiny Hand by Delfina Delettrez [which I found on Trend de la Creme] does exactly that and maybe gives the wearer a moment to daydream about a handjob.

Now, when I visited Delettrez website, I liked what I saw - a few other frisky pieces, otherwise the macabre jewelry is clean, crisp, and modern with a hint of elegance.  That said, I couldn't find a way to turn off the music so am warning you here:  great pieces and worth looking at, maybe even buying, but be warned about music playing - can be turned off by clicking on moving musical bars in upper left corner.

Friday Funny Goes Naughty and SFW

So S sends me a daily digest from I Can Has a Cheezburger and it always cracks me up, and this one reminded me of what I write - erotic romances.



Under the picture it said but protekshun iz bery importint! and was followed by Faeborit Coment: “iz nawt eben ribbbed fer ur enjoymint!” – bluesfan473

HA!  Thank you S, you made my day again!

Fashion Addicts Rise Up!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted the Costume Institute Gala on Tuesday and I personally can't wait to go into NYC to see the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition [May 4th - July 31].  Meanwhile, there were some gorgeous gowns worn that will tide me over for a bit.

Now to the fashion of the night. I loved Iman, the woman looked like a gorgeous lion in a Stella McCartney sparkling gold jump suit, and her wild hair.  Christina Ricci is the only one who could carry off a gothic spiderweb like number by Zac Posen and look great doing it.  Jennifer Hudson has been fabulous in her body skimming gowns of late, but she wore a beautiful Vera Wang ball gown[ish] and looked wonderful.  Sofia Vergara in Carolina Herrara [one I liked for it's simplicity without being all that simple] looked the best I've seen her look.  Mia Wasikowska wore a Thakoon was my favorite [to the right], maybe because it reminded me of what I had the heroine wear in "Missing" - freaky weird - and maybe because I would choose this one in a heartbeat, along with the hair!

There weren't many who missed the mark, but I have to say, Daphne Guinness was my favorite wearing an Alexander McQueen creation.  The feathers are delightful and whimsical, and the train to die for - love this one!

Thank you Skinny vs Curvy for the Mega Gallery and StyleBistro!

Two For One Time

Often on Wednesdays I'll post something with a hint of hump day connentations and sometimes I'll post movie stuff on Fridays - well, today it's both.

Thor is coming out this Friday and I will be seeing it on Saturday or Sunday, and Chris Hemsworth looks absolutely delightful in the lead.  When I was going to school in England, an afternoon was not complete without watching Home and Away and Neighbours - Aussie soaps, of which Hemsworth was in the former.  Funny how things circle around.

There you go, two for one:  Hump Day Hottie Does Hollywood!

Everchanging Book/eBook Purchase Habits

There are close to 10 authors I automatically purchase their latest books.  What that means is that I don't read the blurb, don't care about the cover, just get it because I know I'll enjoy the read and afterwards will store it on my shelves.

Well, I'm ready to shake things up again.

A few years ago I donated over 3000 books to our local library and promised myself to buy only books I wanted to keep.  However, if I bought one, another had to go.  Space was of the essence.  The result was I'd chopped my auto-buys to 10 and the rest were ebook.  No problem, in fact, my tbr piles thrived.  What I hadn't counted on was the hardcover tbr pile not going down - just sitting there and growing with two years worth of books.

Here's the deal.  I'm cutting that 10 must have authors to 8, possibly 7 and maybe even 6, and I'll add them to my ebook purchases.

The format I read in doesn't matter to me and apparently the must keep to reread stack doesn't care either.

Naughty Thought for Monday

Neatorama recently showcased a courier bike called The Sperm Bike used by a fertility clinic in Copenhagen.  Bullitt are designed cargobikes from Larry vs Harry and they can add a personalized cargo holder [designed by Danish company who specialize in reconstructions 10 Tons] - in this case a freezer of sorts to carry sperm donations to clinics.  A useful billboard of sorts.

There's the details, so what's going on in my head when I see this?

What a hoot!