♥ In stark contrast to last week, my reading experience this week was fantastic. I read six books with grades ranging from ‘A-’ to ‘C’, but most were in the ‘B’ range. My favourite was the second book in P.B. Ryan’s Nell Sweeney mystery series, Murder in a Mill Town.

♥ Frankly, my writing for the Book in 3 Months Challenge sucked. I have no tolerance for the Muse theory. If I waited for inspiration to hit, I’d never finish a book. The only thing which works for me is the old butt-in-chair routine. However, there are days when my writing flows, and days when meeting my word count goal is a struggle. I had four bad writing days in a row this week. I’m now at 32K, which is 3K less than I should have written. Here’s hoping next week is better in terms of quantity and quality.

♥ Keishon’s Yet Another Crime Fiction Blog is going from strength to strength. If you’re a fan of mystery novels, be sure to check it out.

♥ Once again, I’m updating my blog roll. I’ve added two that I was convinced I already had on there but obviously did not. Book Chick City specialises in reviews of speculative fiction but she’s slowly being brought over to the Dark Side of romance reading. Lynette’s Two Cents cracks me up, especially her notes on reading J.R. Ward’s Lover Mine.

♥ My reading progress was painfully slow this week. I read just two books. My favourite was Aftershock by Jill Shalvis, which offers an entertaining twist on the dreaded ‘secret baby’ storyline.

♥ My writing for the Book in 3 Months Challenge was slow this week. Despite my best efforts, I still haven’t reached the 30K halfway mark. With 2,000 words left until my goal, it’s unlikely that I’ll manage it today. While my writing output wasn’t prolific over the past few days, I’m very pleased with what I did write. If I get my butt out of bed early every morning next week, I still stand a good chance of getting up to 40K by the end of July. This would put me well on track to finish my book by the end of August.

♥ I managed to squeeze in some blog hopping this week. Over at The Good, The Bad, and The Unread, I loved Limecello’s post on RomCon: A Reader’s Impression.

♥ Author Julie James has an interesting post on “Perfect” Heroines.

♥ Imogen Howson’s post at Samhain Publishing on Five Ways to Get Rejected is spit-your-coffee-all-over-your-keyboard funny. I speak from bitter experience.

♥ Finally, this post was supposed to go live yesterday, but I was busy doing touristy things at Schloss Hallwyl:

Enjoy your Monday!

♥ I didn’t get as much reading done this week as I would have liked, but I still managed to read two category romances and two single-title books. The best of the bunch was Libertine’s Kiss by Judith James, which is set during the Restoration. My review will be up on Monday. The Heat is On by Jill Shalvis also deserves a mention. If you like Harlequin Blazes, this is a good one.

♥ I have several ARCs I’m excited to read. They include My Lord Jack by Hope Tarr, an historical romance featuring a courtesan heroine and a hangman hero; All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins; and White Heat by Brenda Novak, which is the start of her new Romantic Suspense trilogy, Dept. 6 Hired Guns. If you’re a reviewer, they’re currently available for request at NetGalley.

♥ My writing for the Book in 3 Months Challenge went well this week, but the weekend has not been as productive as I would have liked. I polished my first four chapters. I’ve also managed just under 5,000 new words so far, bringing my total up to 23,232. I was hoping to hit the 25K mark today, but I’m dragging.

♥ In a rare show of good fashion sense, Iran has officially banned the mullet. I laughed myself silly when I read this. Yes, I know; I have a weird sense of humour.

♥ I didn’t get much blog hopping done this week, so I’m afraid I don’t have any posts to recommend. If my writing continues to suck today, I might use it as an excuse to catch up on what my favourite bloggers have been up to.

Enjoy your Sunday!

♥ I read four books this week. One was a ‘C’ and the others were all in the ‘B’ range. It was hard to decide which was my favourite, but the one which left the deepest impression on me was Home by Morning by Alexis Harrington. My review will be up on Tuesday. Edited to Add: Home by Morning is available as an ebook at Smashwords.

♥ I’m pleased to say that my progress for the Book in 3 Months challenge was very good this week. I’ve written just over 7,000 words so far, and I hope to squeeze in another 1,000 this afternoon. My current total word count is 17, 253. I still have two months in which to meet my 60-65K goal. Unfortunately, I also had to cut about 2,500 words from my WIP. Some of the progress I made this week involved rewriting parts of earlier chapters to reflect some changes I made to the plot. I hate shedding text, but the plot changes definitely make the story stronger.

♥ I spent/wasted a lot of time setting up my author website. When it’s got content – and looks better – I’ll link to it.

♥ Rike Horstmann has a timely (for me) post at the All About Romance blog. She asks: Has the Ebook Reader Changed My Reading Habits? My answer in brief: “Yes!” I read more and I tend to have more than one book on the go at any given time. I never used to do that.

♥ Keishon has a great post on female mystery authors at Just Another Crime Fiction Blog.

♥ In response to Magdalen’s guest post on her first love, Pandle, Katiebabs wrote about her first love, Toni the Cabbage Patch Kid.

♥ OK, that’s all folks. If you’re American, have a Happy 4th of July. If you’re not, I hope you’re having as nice weather as we are. This is where I’ll be spending my Sunday afternoon:

Enjoy your Sunday!

♥ I’ve finally updated my About page. I’ve also added an extra page to my menu bar called Faves.

♥ My progress for the Book in 3 Months Challenge was pathetic. My excuse: I was sick. But if I don’t make some serious headway next week, it will be more like the Book in 3 Years Challenge.

♥ I read four books so far this week, plus three novellas. The winner of the week was Marie Force’s Fatal Affair, which I’ve already reviewed. I also enjoyed Jill Shalvis’ steamy novella, Friendly Fire, which is in the Harlequin Blaze anthology, Born on the 4th of July.

♥ I laughed out loud at Wendy the Super Librarian’s post, Booktastic Bus for Sale. If Wendy and the SoCal Bloggers buy that bus, I’m going to show up on their doorsteps and beg to become an honorary member.

♥ Meljean Brook announced the sale of the final two books in her Guardian series. They will be released in 2011 and 2012 respectively, and the last one will be Michael’s long-awaited story. Yay! I still have three books plus a novella to read in order to be caught up with the series, but I think I should manage that in the next two years.

♥ RRRJessica has a great (as in amusing) review of The Raider by Jude Deveraux, complete with action figures!

♥ Magdalen’s husband, Ross, made good on his promise to read and review a romance novel. Check out his review of Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer. (I need to wrest Christian’s new iPad from him and force him to write up his review of Lord Perfect.)

Enjoy your Sunday!

♥ I spent more time than I care to admit trying to come up with a clever title for this post. In the end, I gave up and opted for alliteration over sense.

♥ My progress for the Book in 3 Months Challenge was painfully slow this week. I was working and had very little time to write. My schedule for next week is less hectic and I have no excuse but to do the butt-in-chair routine and meet my word count goals.

♥ I was able to devote more time to reading as I could squeeze in a couple of chapters over my lunch breaks. As a result, I’ve read five books so far this week. The clear winner in the bunch is The Bikini Car Wash by Pamela Morsi. I’ll be posting my review tomorrow. I also re-read A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh. It’s an enjoyable murder mystery set in an English country house. My review is scheduled for late next week.

♥ After months of procrastination, I’m finally updating my ‘About’ page. I want to add my review ratings system to it. However, as I’m still in the process of deciding what information I should include in my reviews, I’m not sure what to put.

I changed the format of my reviews a while ago to include sensuality and violence ratings. Now that I have an ereader, I also note whether my copy of the book was digital or print.

My current review format is heavily influenced by All About Romance and Jill D. at Romance Rookie. However, I need to sit down and come up with my own explanations for how I rate books and what, exactly, I mean when I describe a book as “Hot”, ”Warm”, “Subtle”, etc.

I’m curious to know what information you like to see in a review. Are sensuality and violence ratings helpful? Would you like me to include publishing details (name of publisher, ISBN, exact date of publication, etc.)? I don’t provide links to online stores from my reviews unless a book is hard to find. Thanks in advance for feedback!

♥ My progress for the Book in 3 Months Challenge has been slow but steady. I’m averaging about 500 words per day. It’s not a lot, but it does add up over time. For the next couple of weeks, it’s about as much as I can hope to achieve. And thanks to a suggestion from my wonderful critique partner, a potential plot hole has been avoided.

♥ I’ve read ten books so far this month. Given my schedule over the next few weeks, I suspect there’ll be a few more mini review posts to look forward to.

♥ I was excited to see that many of Ngaio Marsh’s mysteries have been released digitally. I bought a few I haven’t yet read, including Death in a White Tie and Surfeit of Lampreys.

♥ Leslie Parrish kindly sent me an ARC of her upcoming paranormal romantic suspense, Cold Sight. It’s on my list of books to read next week. It sounds intriguing. Here’s the blurb:

After being made a scapegoat in a botched investigation that led to a child’s death, Aidan McConnell became a recluse. Still, as a favor to an old friend, Aidan will help on the occasional XI case. But under his handsome, rugged facade, he keeps his emotions in check–for fear of being burned again.

Reporter Lexie Nolan has a nose for news–and she believes a serial killer has been targeting teen girls around Savannah. But no one believes her. So she turns to the new paranormal detective agency and the sexy, mysterious Aidan for help.

But just as the two begin forging a relationship, the case turns eerily personal for Lexie–and Aidan discovers that maybe he hasn’t lost the ability to feel after all…

♥ Keishon has a new blog devoted to crime fiction! If you enjoy mysteries, be sure to check out Yet Another Crime Fiction Blog.

♥ I won’t be online much next week, but I have a couple of blog posts scheduled, including a guest post from Keira of Love Passion Romance. Enjoy your week!

Only sadly for me, Cadbury’s Crunchies are hard to come by where I live. No clue if they still run those Friday Crunchie ads on TV, but I’d love one today.

I’m still trying to catch up on my books-to-review backlog. I’m not sure if it’s the novelty factor of digital reading, or if it’s simply that I’m in the mood to read, but I’m flying through books at the moment. If only I were as productive with my writing!

Admittedly, many of my recent reads have been category romances, which are short and lend themselves to being read in one sitting. I’ve taken advantage of some recent special offers at eHarlequin to try new-to-me authors. Some have been winners; others less so. The relatively low cost of the books makes me willing to take a chance on an author I’ve never heard of and not be too bothered if the book proves to be a dud.

Looking over my reading list for this year, I was amazed to see that it didn’t include a single historical romance! Given that the only romance novels I used to read were historicals, this was a surprise. I suppose it reflects my general lack of enthusiasm for the historicals being published today. With a few notable exceptions, I’m sick of books set in Regency and Victorian England. Every time I see the words ‘spy’ or ‘rake’ on a blurb, I feel like reaching for the eye bleach.

However, I was in the mood to read a historical, and I had fond memories of Mary Balogh’s books. I read few of her novels several years ago, but for whatever reason, I hadn’t read any of her more recent books. When I asked JanetW for recommendations, the idea of the Huxtable series appealed to me. So far, I’ve read the first two in the series. I loved First Comes Marriage – my review will be up next week – but Then Comes Seduction fell a little flat. On the other hand, it has to be said that a mediocre Mary Balogh book is still streets ahead of most of the historical romances I’ve read over the past few years.

In addition to playing with my BeBook Neo, I’ve finally set up my Goodreads account. If you’d like to my be Goodreads friend, here’s the link to my profile: http://www.goodreads.com/monkeybear

Crunchie or no Crunchie, I’m looking forward to the weekend. Hope you have a good one!

This is what two people who went to a wine tasting and left with thirty bottles of wine look like. This is also what someone who forgot their hairbrush and had to make do with finger combing for three days looks like. Ahem. Please concentrate on the truly spectacular scenery behind us. That’s the view from my in-laws’ house. Lucky sods.

It was my first trip away with my BeBook. Not having to pack six printed books was a joy. Instead, I had over forty digital ones to choose from! One thing I have noticed in the past week is an increased tendency to read a couple of books at the same time. Perhaps it’s the novelty factor of having so many books at my disposal. Or maybe it’s going to change the way I read. I usually never read more than one book at a time and yet I’m currently reading both Victoria Dahl’s Crazy for Love and Tasha Alexander’s And Only to Deceive.

As indicated above, the highlight of my weekend was visiting a local winery. My father-in-law knows the guy who runs it and arranged a tasting for us. In addition to fabulous wine, the vintner also has an amazing collection of antique corkscrews. To add to the atmosphere, the tasting was held in a converted wine cask. I think we tried eight or nine different wines in total, and they were all good. We went in with the intention of buying a couple of bottles of wine and somehow ended up buying thirty. Fitting children, luggage and wine into the car for the trip home proved something of a challenge.

Tonight is the grand finale of LOST in the US. I’ll be having a media blackout tomorrow to avoid spoilers until we can watch it tomorrow evening. We’re already planning to open one of our new bottles of wine to celebrate the event.

I was going to change the working title of this blog post and make it a little more PC, but on request from Edie, the original remains.

We’ve probably all witnessed online craziness at one time or another. Authorial meltdowns, bloggers going ballistic, the dude from ‘Happy Days’ doing whatever it was that he did to piss everyone off, and so on and so forth.

I am – or was – active online in three areas: books (primarily romance novels and mysteries), board games, and, at one point, birth boards. Of the three, the birth boards tend to attract the real loony tunes. It makes sense, of course. Put several hundred hormonal woman together, plus the odd pervert thrown in for shits and giggles, and you will have meltdowns of epic proportions.

When I was pregnant with my son, I couldn’t wait to join a birth board and interact with other women at the same stage of pregnancy as I was. I envisioned a warm and cozy atmosphere in which the joys of impending motherhood would be shared, and support would be offered to those with questions or problems.

The stick had barely turned blue when I registered at an American site specialising in info and advice for pregnant women and new parents. I lasted five days. I joined at around the same time as one poster was unveiled as a sicko who trolled the boards asking women to describe their vaginal discharge and other intimate details. Apparently, pervs were par for the course and no birth board was complete without at least one. I bailed and found a British site.

My new birth board was much more congenial than the first. (In other words, there were no obvious sexual deviants.) The atmosphere on the board was mostly positive while we were all still pregnant. Inevitably, there were a few sad stories of miscarriages and stillbirths, but no one behaved nastily to another poster for the longest time. Yes, there were a few annoying people who only ever seemed to post when they wanted to bitch about their evil exes, or detail their latest family drama, but I tended to ignore them.

The trouble began the nearer our due dates loomed. There were a couple of militant home birthers who felt the need to criticize anyone not intending to give birth at home. Fights broke out and feelings were hurt. Women whose pregnancies were easy belittled those who had problems. Apparently, they weren’t real women, or were just complainers or drama queens.

A more positive environment returned briefly when everyone started having their babies and posting birth announcements. This happy, clappy atmosphere lasted until war broke out between The Breastfeeding Mafia and The Bottlefeeders. (I was in No Man’s Land as I did mixed feeding with my son.) Then someone had the bright idea to hold a weekly debate. Fun topics such as abortion, religion, working mothers and ‘Traditional Family Values’ were hashed out with vigour. Every week, regular posters announced their intention never to return and flounced off in an indignant huff.

The crowning glory, though, was a poster who was suspected of faking her son’s death and inventing several subsequent tragedies in a bid for attention. Let’s call her Rebecca. Rebecca’s son was born two months premature. He had a number of health issues, and eventually died of meningitis when he was eight months old…or so she claimed. In the meantime, Rebecca had miscarried twins and had a stillbirth. A few months later, she had a baby girl, who also died when she was just a few months old. Rebecca had another stillbirth, followed by a couple more miscarriages. This all happened over a period of eighteen months, or so. Then it transpired that the photos of Rebecca’s supposedly deceased children had been swiped from another birth board. When confronted, Rebecca’s profile mysteriously disappeared and she never posted again.

Romland has had its fair share of dramas but I have yet to experience anything (or anyone) as insane as on birth boards.

Are you active online beyond book blogs and review sites? If so, how high is the drama potential?