Excerpt from this morning’s email from my sister:
“By the way, I saw a nipple in Walmart.”

Now this could mean anything, but it just so happens, I have some context for this odd insert. Last week while on the phone, I casually mentioned that I’d heard from a source of unconfirmed reliability that Walmart doesn’t stock romance novels that feature a male nipple on their covers. I can only assume my sister, ever the efficient curiosity-seeker, took it upon herself to test this supposition.

Evidently, the claim is bogus. A bit of quick-thinking and sure-footing sleuthing cracked The Case of Walmart vs. The Exposed Man Nipple.

Brava, sister!

And from my mother, a very interesting link on Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day…

It’s not that I haven’t had time in the past few days to blog. I have just had an impossible time trying to think of something to blog about. I have no funny anecdotes to share, no Mother’s Day Out nightmares, no social/political commentary, and nothing going on with the writing except that: I’m writing, steadily and as much as possible. So…no news is either good news or boring news, depending on how you look at it.

I have been reading though, somewhat. I’ve fallen in love with Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey series that I discovered via Stephanie’s blog several weeks ago. It reminds me, sort of, of Tasha Alexander’s Lady Emily Ashton series, and I love them both. Both are set in late nineteenth century England, and have widowed women protagonists solving mysteries and living by their own rules. Tasha’s next one, A Fatal Waltz is out later this year.

Two nights ago, I also finished An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Veeerrry interesting. I liked it, I really did, and it was different. About a child prodigy who wants to be a genius, it was the story of his post-high school road trip with an Arab friend (“I’m not a terrorist.”) during which he tries to work out a mathematical equation to explain the nature of his nineteen failed relationships with girls named Katherine. Your curiosity is piqued, isn’t it? There’s an Appendix as well, explaining the actual math behind the equation, but I admit, I didn’t read it.

Alas, that’s all I have to offer…

Happy Leap Day! Look what I found:

On the Writers’ Road Less Traveled has been critiqued and found somewhat deserving…



I popped over to blogged.com and discovered a bunch of virgin blog territory (for me at least)

I’ve decided to take up the gauntlet thrown down by Melissa (for fun and because nothing else occurred to me) and participate in yet another meme. Although…this is the ‘six things you may not know about me’ meme, and I’m not sure I’ve got six things left to reveal. We shall see…

From Melissa, here are the rule:
1/ you link back to the person who tagged you.
2/ post these rules on your blog.
3/ share six unimportant things about yourself.
4/ tag six random people at the end of your entry.
5/ let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Here goes…

1. I dislike eating wet bread. Intensely. That’s everything from french toast to au jus sandwiches, to bread pudding. Yuck.

2. I’ve never had a brussel sprout, nor the inclination to try one.

3. I have a fondness for certain words, and I like sneaking them into conversation whenever possible. For instance…preposterous, shellac, shimmy, etc. There aren’t too many opportunities for, say, shellac, but I do my darnedest.

4. I hold a mean grudge–I can forgive (mostly), but I don’t forget.

5. My favorite colors, for as long as I can remember, have been red and turquoise.

6. This might be a tad controversial, but I don’t consider football to be a true sport. If it’s necesasry to switch out half the players for offense vs. defense, that seems like a pretty big cop out. *Whistle* ‘Okay send in the muscle!’…*whistle* ‘Muscle out. Send in the nimble, wiry guys!’

Whew! All done. Now I’m just going to go for the gold here and tag some people whom I have no certainty will play along. For all I know, they may have already played and I missed it.

Kate Diamond
Barrie Summy
Sally Lawton
Joanne Rendell
Sarakastic
Travis Erwin