The Girdle of Melian

he generally accepted benchmark of success for an indie author seems to be 1,000 books or more sold per month. And as of this morning, Kait Nolan was at 988 copies for January 2011 alone ! Eastern Standard Time gives you... checks computer clock... five and a half hours to click on over to amazon.com or smashwords or wherever you prefer, and get yourself a copy of Forsaken by Shadow and/or Devil's Eye (purchasing options are on the linked pages). Shamelessly honest plug - I'm always wary of self-published books. So many of them are so badly edited they pierce little arrows like misplaced apostrophes into my copy editor's heart. I love Kait's work not only because the romance and characters are so compelling, but because I can read her work for pleasure, without reaching for my favourite brown pen . Also, Zan Marie Steadham , author of An Easter Walk and A Christmas Walk , has a contemporary story in the works called Friendly Fire . She's just been declare...

ow. My eyes are burning. I've finally caught up on Alex Cavanaugh's Top Ten Countdown Music Blogfest , commenting on all the participants. There's so much great music out there! I was impressed with how many people were actually able to narrow down their choices to the required ten songs. And while I was commenting, I got no edits done whatsoever on Out of the Water . The last few days have really been slacking off days, unfortunately. The story's constantly in my mind, and I know where it's going, but... Well, I did spend a little time yesterday researching medieval Spanish nobility and deciding whether one character should be a Duchess or a Countess. Today I'm empathising with Carolyn. After agonizing over perfecting my pitch for Kate's critique , I know how hard it is to get the words and the tone just right. Help Carolyn out on the Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment . Her story idea is just fantastic! The last installment of Kait Nolan...

ots of books are available this week, including Terry Lynn Johnson's middle grade novel, Dogsled Dreams - check out Susan Kaye Quinn's lovely review - and Kate Kaynak's Legacy - my review of Legacy is here . Here's a little snip from Out of the Water (still in editing stage, of course), in which Rosa, on her way to Genoa with her aunts and uncles, and cousin Joseph, has just discovered that a number of officers of the Inquisition are coming to inspect their ship. The deadline for leaving Spain has passed, and if they are questioned and captured now, there's no telling what may happen. Yet, suddenly, she has something more to fear, of a slightly personal nature... Joseph was pacing in the companionway below decks. "Rosa!" He cried, then rushed on in a whisper. "Where have you been? I heard you up there – what's going on?" "Oh, Joseph, it's the worst that could have happened. I’m sorry, it's all my fault." She shook...

usic to inspire, music to get your feet moving, music to lull you to sleep... Alex Cavanaugh had a great idea for a blogfest - the Top Ten Countdown Music Blogfest , which took place on Monday. Now, I know it's supposed to be top ten songs... But since I'm coming late to this anyhow, I'm going to fudge a little (sorry Alex!) and do bands. I promise I have playlists to back me up! Here goes, in no particular order... Runrig ! The Divine Comedy ! (I prefer their earlier albums, and have playlists for all of them, but let's go with album number three) Crowded House ! (No playlist for these guys, unfortunately (I really ought to make one for Neil Finn 's Try Whistling This ), but here's my favourite song.) Gyllene Tider ! (Here's what Per Gessle was doing before Roxette . Again, no playlist, I'm afraid, and I couldn't find a video with English subtitles. The title of this song translates as Love Is Not Blind, But Very Nearsighted .) Supe...

urns Day, today! Is there a Burns supper taking place at a pub or Scottish association club near you? If not, in the tradition of the Tolkien birthday toast , you can simply raise a dram of whisky (my current favourite is The Glenlivet) in toast to the bard. Recitals optional, but you could always go for A Red, Red Rose (which I once memorised for a school assignment), Tam O'Shanter , My Wife's A Winsome Wee Thing , A Man's A Man For A' That , or one of my favourite songs (which I believe was written by him; it's listed among the complete songs on Robert Burns Country ), Sir John Cope: Of course, I always think of Jamie Fraser. Ye Jacobites By Name , indeed. If you're like me and can't choose a favourite, here's a list of all of Burns' poetry . In other news, Roni of the awesome Fiction Groupie blog is hosting a query contest !

ne thousand words typed up this morning, but since then... I seem to be falling into the pattern of taking at least one day off per week, but outside of that have been editing, writing, or at least plotting, every day of the week. For the most part, then, I've been meeting my Round of Words in 80 Days goals. Yay! Suddenly, this afternoon, I have other things to do, though, that are all fighting to take me away from the novel: a copy edit, another editing job for work, and homework for Spanish class. Technically, the latter might count as research, as the only reason I've taken up Spanish to begin with is so that I can get further inside Rosa's head. Well, there are also the editing exams to be taken at United Nations headquarters, eventually... Our assignment is to summarise an article from the news, and I found the perfect article yesterday: The Westmount Children's Library is celebrating its 100th year ! This was the first library that I ever went to outsid...

y thanks to Amanda for the Stylish Blogger Award ! Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award Share things about yourself Award recently discovered great bloggers Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award 1. I'm wondering if I should participate in Alex Cavanaugh's upcoming blogfest Top Ten Countdown - Music . My ten favourite songs of all time? Could I really narrow it down to ten? Ten bands , maybe... Many of them I've made YouTube playlists for. 2. My current favourite tea is Lord John Grey tea, inspired by Diana Gabaldon's books and available at the Old Wilmington Tea Company . 3. I took a week off at the start of the month to buckle down on research, but got distracted by a trip to New Brunswick and Maine, where we drove and walked along roads like these: 4. Have I ever mentioned that I can't drive? I've driven a car exactly twice in my life and that was for maybe five minutes each time, driving up a straight road...