Knickknackery

Dictatorial duck billed diplodocus!

-- Captain Haddock in Tintin and the Picarros Hergé

For more classic Haddockisms, try David's favourite Captain Haddock Curses. This should appeal to historical romance author and fellow blogger Kate Rothwell who once was in love with the idea of pirates talking gibberish. Got to the office, did a bit of work, left the office, made a quick detour to Borders, bought Sandra Hill's The Cajun Cowboy because its book cover is canary yellow. I read The Love Potion years ago, and I found it funny and insanely stupid [in a good way. Honestly. It involves jelly beans]. I'm hoping that I'll have the same luck with this one. :D Ack! Hill's web site has frames! Bring me Holy water and a crucifix! *sigh* The main reason why I hate frames-set sites is I can't print anything. I have to do the reliable right button when clicking on a link to break out of its frames. This has been circulated at work: Blog Overkill. Beware: it has loads of links. So make sure that you have a mug of coffee at your side when you go over there. Two days later ... Ach, work and real life got in the way. So, I'm back to natter away. :D Cranky Writer has a blog entry about Cathy Yardley's up-and-coming book, Turning Japanese. Went over to Yardley's web site to check out the Coming Soon book page and got spooked. Book 1: surfer Book 2: manga & Japan I grew up on a surfboard in Scotland [yes, many do surf in Scotland, where in some parts there ARE palm trees, golden beaches, dolphins and, thanks to the Gulf, warm water; I'll blog about this another day] and I'm mad for manga/anime and Japan. Also, we did similar stories about female DJs - mine: Charlotte Sometimes and her: Couch World [out now, btw]. Maybe there is something to a theory about people sharing same birthdays. A friend used to say that those who were born on same days tend to be similar and la la, and I used to laugh at her face. But now? I'm not so sure. I'm refusing to eat a slice of humble pie, though, because the jury is still out. I'll be convinced if the author is mad for jacket/baked potatoes. :D Either way, I'm getting my mitts on those books. Especially Turning Japanese. Larissa Ione has written my post! She's said almost everything I'd say: Trips Through Time. I generally avoid time travel romances for similar reasons. Number one reason is what the h/h do in the past rarely affects the future, which drives me nuts. I liked Jude Deveraux's A Knight in Shining Armour, but when the heroine administrated a certain something to people of the hero's time, I blinked twice and moved on. I can say, truthfully, that I read only five time travel romances in my entire romance reading career: that JD book as well as Amy J. Fetzer's Dangerous Waters, Linda Howard's Son of the Morning, Lisa Cach's George and the Virgin, and Jasmine Cresswell's Midnight Fantasy [from the future, though]. Oh, and one of Anne Stuart's category romances. I can't remember the title, though. Hm, having had a look at Anne Stuart's bibliography, it is The Right Man *and* One More Valentine [to be reissued, incidentally, this February]. That makes it six, then. :D But I'm still not that wild about reading time travel romances. It'd take a lot of trusted recommendations to get me to read one nowadays. Yesterday I bought a print copy of a Ellora's Cave book. It's a 'romantica' anthology of three stories with paranormal and Cajun themes : Cajun Nights, featuring stories by Samantha Winston, Patrice Michelle, & Annie Windsor. I read two last night and plan to read the third one later tonight. Patrice Michelle's story is quite unusual, interesting enough to make me check out her web site to see what else she's written. I also bought Susan Grant's The Scarlet Empress [finally!!], Teresa Bodwell's Loving Mercy [I thought it was a contemporary romance, but it seems to be a Western historical?], Meg Cabot's Every Boy's Got One, and Anna Jeffrey's The Love of a Lawman [AJ is one of those authors whose voices I love and their stories I loathe], and Eileen Wilks's Tempting Danger. Non romances: Simon Napier-Bell's Black Vinyl White Powder and Nick Hornby's Polysyllabic Spree. BTW, there is a title of a new Avon romance that amuses me: How To Marry a Millionaire Vampire. Kerrelyn Sparks is the author, apparently. According to her web site:

Some vampires are just too sexy to kill … Roman Draganesti is a vampire—a vampire with a problem. He’s lost one of his fangs, biting something he shouldn’t have. He has one night to find a dentist and get his fang fixed before his natural healing abilities close the wound forever, leaving him a lop-sided eater for all eternity. Shanna Whelan is a human—a human with a problem. After witnessing a gruesome murder by the Russian mafia, she’s next on their hit list. And her career as a dentist appears to be over because now, she faints at the sight of blood. When Roman rescues her from an assassination attempt, she wonders if she’s found the one man who can keep her alive. And boy, does he make her feel alive. The attraction between them is immediate and hot. How shocking to discover the love of her life is dead! Can she conquer her fear of blood in order to fix Roman’s fang? And if she does, will he use his fangs on her?

I haven't read the excerpt, though, so judging by the summary above, the book may appeal to readers of MaryJanice Davidson's books. Then again, I may be way off the track. Other interesting looking romances coming up this year: Seabird of Sanematu - Kei Swanson. Her first romance - The Words of the Pitcher - caused a wave in the online romance community, IIRC, because the hero of TWOTP is a baseball player and Japanese. I remember years ago she announced on a romance readers' mailing list that she's going to make Japanese men as romantic heroes the subject of her mission/crusade. This caused a mini flame war. :D Her second book is, according to her web site, the first volume of a three-volume series set in 15th century feudal Japan, which features a samurai as the hero. Definitely intriguing. If it doesn't feature a heavy romantic storyline, I'm getting a copy for my stepfather who's a specialist in military history of Japan. When we were mites, he managed to brainwash us all siblings into remembering that his speciality is the Muromachi period. So, a novel that takes place in 15th century Japan? Get a copy. He's a good dad, indeed(!) The Spy Wore Red - Wendy Rosnau. A Silhouette Bombshell. Although I can't stand spy stories, The Spy Wore Red is interesting because of the fact it's Wendy Rosnau. Hm. Maybe not. I have just read the summary, which contains three of my 'wow, not so' buttons: spy stuff, 'secret' child and reunion. Hm. You might like it, though. My Heart May Be Broken, But My Hair Still Looks Great - Dixie Cash. Another great title. The other one is Since You're Leaving Anyway, Take Out the Trash. :D Black Ice - Anne Stuart. It looks to be a romantic suspense novel. I'm practically on my knees, praying that her heroine is not going to be anything like those heroines of her last three or four contemporary romances. I'm still waiting for the day she'll bring back the Maggie Bennett type. [Maggie Bennett is the "kick-ass" heroine of her romantic suspense trilogy: Escape Out of Darkness, At the Edge of the Sun, and Darkness Before Dawn.] There is a bit of an interest in Cindy Dees's upcoming Bombshell book, The Medusa Project. Why?

When LtCol Jack Scatalone offers Major Vanessa Blake a chance to lead the first-ever, all-female Special Forces team in the U.S. Armed Forces, it's a dream come true for her. But will it turn into a nightmare as world events and high-powered politics intervene to sabotage the Medusa Project?

The Dirty Dozen, anyone? There is an interesting latest coming from Jennifer Crusie: Don't Look Down, which seems to be similar to Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees's Come Together, which features a dual POV. Rees tells one side of a story from male POV and Josie tells another side of the story from female POV. This seems to be the case with Don't Look Down by partnering Jennifer Crusie with some author who goes by the name of Bob Myers. Here is the blurb of Don't Look Down:

A Special Forces captain ends up on a movie set to advice the lead actor how to be a manly man. Then he gets a call from the CIA. Then he meets the film's director, Lucy Armstrong. Things are getting very deep for J. T. Wilder and he doesn't know where it's all going to end up.

According to Bob Myers, the hardback will be released in late autumn by St. Martin's. *sigh* Why am I the last to know this? A friend has completely flipped for the bloke on the cover of Alice Valdal's upcoming American western historical romance, The Man For Her. According to the author, it's her first historical romance. Nice one. The cover is nice, too. No, that's a lie. It's veddy nice. I'd not mind jumping on his bones. The said friend insists that I should mention Amy Yurk's new book The Language of Sisters. Amy Yurk won a lot of attention for her first novel The Kind of Love That Saves You. Neither is a romance, but apparently, it's the life-affirming kind. Hey, Jilly, maybe it's time you should get your own blog, eh? :D The wall does need another reader's blog. :) Be good, be bad & be safe.