Enduring Romance

I wanted to let all my blog buddies know that I'm now contributing to the Enduring Romance blog! It's a brainchild of Kimber - a fantastic book review blog and I'm now up the third Thursday of every month. Look for YA and mystery reviews by yours truly. :)


This Thursday... Grape Thief by Kristine Franklin.

YA Mysteries


Does anyone have recommendations for their favorite young adult mystery novels?


Thanks in advance!

Kiss me I'm...


Scottish. Not quite the same thing, but I think the Scots and Irish intermixed a lot, so who knows! St. Paddy's Day still holds a special place in my heart because it's the anniversary of my first date with DH. (who's traveling today - not that I'm at all bothered by that...) In fact, it's 10 years today!


My parents had told me that they wanted to take me out to dinner to show me the super cute waiter who waited on them last week. I thought, 'hey, it's a free dinner' and said ok. Little did I know how super cute he turned out to be! My dad was all sly about requesting his table and I made sure to order a refillable drink to get him back to the table many times. There was a slightly blush inducing moment of my dad asking him what his plans in life were.... a week later, I took my fun and engaging (but married, that's key) aunt back with me and left my number with the check. Yes, that's me, Super Bold Mystery Robin!


Two days later (he had just seen Swingers) he called and invited me to coffee, and on the 17th we met at a Starbucks and stayed till it closed and they kicked us out. It would be the first of many trips to Starbucks and now we have a running dialogue about how to reduce our Starbucks bill without robbing life of all joy. ;)


Happy Anniversary Mystery DH!

Random bits...

Thanks for the kind comments - little mystery man is back on his feet, so to speak. I'm not getting the uber pout all day and he only cries when I try to put him down or give him to someone else which is par for the course.

In other news... I've decided that my work in progress works better as a young adult novel, so I've been throwing myself into young adult literature.

Here are somethings I've learned:

There are a LOT of books told from the first person POV of a young girl in high school. I do enjoy these, even though I didn't really enjoy being a young girl in high school. Go figure! Also, each one of these builds it's world a bit, just like a fantasy novel might. Typically we see the girl deal with boys, alcohol, her parents, and school, and each book sets a "danger zone" differently. For instance, I read one where the girls were deeply traumatized by doing more with the opposite sex than they felt good about. Then, I pick up the next one and the girl gets a date with the basketball star and she's making out with him and I get nervous for her, but nope, in this book, she's totally fine. It's her stepmom that's the problem. I just think it's interesting how the walls shift based on the author's perspective and the character in question. And it's a good reason to talk to your girls about this stuff early, because if they try to figure it out from books, they're going to get really confused!

I also find that YA is a really broad field. I've read some historical fiction, some fantasy (both urban and traditional) and I like the straightforward way the story is told. Anyway, here's hoping that it's the right medium for the story I'm trying to tell. I think it is. I just don't have the stomach for the gritty noir that I was trying to write. I kept finding that I didn't want to let my mind go there, and it really does need to be able to live in the story world for a while.

Also - I just saw the opening for Top Chef season four. Ah, I've missed Tom and Padma!

My favorite guy right now is probably Andrew for sheer entertainment value. He's no Sam, but he'll be fun to watch for entirely different reasons!

Sad little mystery man

My little mystery man had his shots today. He is miserable. I am therefore miserable. I've never seen him this sad, and I only llet them give him half hat he's due for (we space them out). So, so sad. :(

Missive from the House of the Plague

Seriously. We've all been sick for a month, at least. I can identify three distinct viruses/illnesses that have worked their way through every member of the house - first an upper respiratory flu thing, then a stomach bug, then another upper respiratory thing with a bad cough. All of these had us LAID OUT. We'd take turns taking care of the sick ones. It's the Flu Epidemic of 2008 here, for sure.

So, not much to update you on wordcount wise - but I've written a lot of the next book in my head - just have to get it down on paper! Or, uh, screen. I was going to tackle a writing session tonight, but I'm opting for an early bedtime and hopefully to knock out this last bug once and for all! Tomorrow, I burn the sheets, or at least wash them in really, REALLY hot water and spray Lysol on every surface.

I'm hoping to be all well for St. Paddy's Day - it's the 10 year anniversary of my first date with DH. Awwww!!!!!