I wrote ten pages of ANGELS today, Woo-hoo! Yesterday, I wrote ZERO pages. So, according to my schedule, this means I have to make up for yesterday by writing twenty pages tomorrow. The goal is to get 100 pages done by the end of the week. The story is moving really well, and I’m really loving my main characters, Taj and Nick. They’re so different from any character I’ve ever written–both of them are SO flawed, and yet so lovable… Anyhoo…

The reason I wasn’t able to write anything yesterday was that I got totally SUCKED IN by a book. You know how that happens, one day, you’re just bobbing along with life, and the next moment – VOOOMPF you’re sucked in the vortex of an awesome book, and that’s it, you’re gone… I can never not know the endings to books, or put down a book I’m reading if it’s really really good, so what usually happens is I read until wee hours of the night, after husband is asleep, forsaking dinner, until I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.

The book that sucked me in was Dodie Smith’s “I Capture the Castle”. If you have not read this book yet, I urge you to run to your nearest bookstore and BUY IT. It is sooo good and sooo funny. I have not laughed out loud since Ignatius J. Reilly tripped over that old lady in “A Confederacy of Dunces.” There is a scene where one of the characters is mistaken for a bear, and, well, you will just have to find out for yourself! But it is HILARIOUS.

I have never heard of this book, but I remember seeing it on other author’s “favorite books” list. It’s a book from the 1950’s. The thing that drew me to the book was a blurb from J. K. Rowling. I have NEVER seen a blurb from J.K. Rowling on anything, so I immediately bought it, knowing it was going to be good.

Some of us authors are blurb-sluts. I know I am, if any of my editors ask me to blurb a book of theirs, I usually say yes, even before I’ve read the book. When I was starting out, it was hard to get blurbs from established authors, and I know there are some authors out there who are all uppity about the whole blurb thing (you know you you are!), and I truly despise that. If a few kind words can help a new author, who am I to withold them?

But that being said, I do pay attention to authors to hardly ever blurb–like the aforementioned Ms. Rowling.

Anyway, my only beef with “I Capture the Castle” is that it doesn’t quite end super-happily. And I love myself a happy ending. Its ending is hopeful, but not happy…which means we have to imagine how the characters turn out in the end. Come to think of it, it’s a little like the ending to Sun-Kissed, but I will say no more on that subject.

Still, it was a diverting, awesome read, and while I felt super-guilty not to have worked yesterday, I was also glad to have spent the time in the narrator’s company.

I bought it at Border’s, where I was happy to find copies of Blue Bloods face-out in the YA Fantasy section next to Cirque du Freak. Yeah! And I’m happy to report that Sun-Kissed is currently #145 on the B&N.com rankings. I still haven’t seen that book in bookstores, but readers are telling me that they have been able to buy it at theirs, so it must be trickling out…

Party pictures are imminent! We finally got them from Patrick’s office, and my webmistresses are busy putting them together…

xoxo
Mel