Okay get yourselves recalibrated, people. I’m talking about an agent here. I just got her response back on my full manuscript today, and I’m feeling a little sorry for myself. So you can join me in my pity party!

The bad news is she didn’t have the passion she would need to represent my book. But the good news is that she loved the premise, thought I had a great sense of humor and an ‘enjoyably quirky writing style’. That’s good, right?

She even went so far as to say that she was sure another agent or editor would feel differently–about the passion. How sweet is that?!

I really had high hopes for her (and me!)–I felt a good connection with her based on my online research, and in our coorespondence she has been lovely, responsive, and encouraging. Even in rejecting me, she did it with style.

Sigh.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you are spending it precisely as you wish. My husband doesn’t make too big a deal of V-day, but I do have a lovely crockpot dinner already in the works and I’ve baked his favorite cookies, so all in all, I think I did okay.

I have to admit, I was expecting a cupcake, and I’ve come to discover I will not be receiving one. Last year hubby brought me a little bakery box of half a dozen cupcakes, which I graciously shared with all the boys, and a ‘hey cupcake!’ t-shirt from the little Airstream trailer bakery in Austin where he’d gotten the cupcakes. Loved it. This year I wanted one cupcake from a new cupcake shop here in town (that’s not very close to our house but is definitely accessible to my man-about-town husband). He evidently wasn’t even aware of its existence–or so he says…

I did get a few red gifties and I have my homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and the boxes of chocolates from my Mothers Day Out kids, so I suppose that’s plenty. I was just really hoping for that cupcake…

I was watching Barefoot Contessa the other day, and Ina Garten was celebrating her 39th anniversary with her husband, so the theme for the show was ‘anniversary dinner’. She made coq au vin and garlic mashed potatoes which didn’t interest me very much, and then she announced that she was going to make her husband a mini wedding cake. I thought this sounded like a fabulous idea and settled in to watch (and count the number of sticks of butter that dropped–always room temperature–into the mixer. Well, this was no mini wedding cake–this was a three-tiered beauty, lavishly frosted with chocolate buttercream, piped with icing decorations and garnished with fresh flowers. And it was just for the two of them! Unbelievable! I wonder how I can persuade my husband to make one for my next anniversary–which will be our fifteenth…

And where can I get some of these????

It started with this book. I loved the art deco look of it as well as the premise (an impoverished royal solving crimes in post WWI Britain) and so added it to a free shipping order on Amazon. I discovered I’ve missed reading mysteries! I read tons of them in my teens (including lots of Agatha Christie) but then romance novels took their place for a time and I never really went back. Well I very much enjoyed Her Royal Spyness and so went searching for the sequel, A Royal Pain. I liked it too, so having glommed on to Rhys Bowen, I turned to one of her longer-running series, the Molly Murphy Mysteries.

These books are set in turn-of-the-century New York, where Molly Murphy is an Irish immigrant-turned-private investigator. These books, while enormously entertaining, are also vivid portrayals of life on the seedier side of New York in 1900(ish). They’re fascinating but also rather horrifying. I’ve read two in this series.

And then there’s Envy, the third in The Luxe series. (I LOVE the covers of The Luxe books!) It too is set in turn-of-the-century New York, but is the flip side of the coin, showcasing the moneyed families of the city and all of their frivolous pursuits. Right along with their secrets and deceits. I’m loving it and enjoying the break from the contemporary novels that typically compose my reading fare.

I recommend any and all of these series to any of you discerning readers.