Mary Ann Dimand
Features & Posts
144 comments posted.
Re: Let Me Love You (7:32pm February 27, 2019):
Is there an imperfect place to fall in love. Oops, scared myself....
Re: A Family Under the Christmas Tree (1:17pm November 3, 2016):
My favorite holiday food memory is probably pretending to like the potica my
father made, because I adored him. The potica was too rich and complex for me as
a child, but I like it and make it now. My son doesn't pretend to like it, even though
we love each other very much. :D
Re: Christmas Tsar (8:32pm November 2, 2016):
Now, I'm a hockey fan-- definitely concealed midriffs. :D But this sounds like a
great series.
Re: Fire Danger (11:47pm July 26, 2016):
I like that kelpie idea!
Re: In The Line Of Fire (10:30pm July 21, 2016):
I love many places, in the US and abroad. Right now I particularly want to visit
somerset, England-- and I am very fortunate, because it looks as if I will be able to
go next June.
Re: Miss Darcy's New Companion (7:32pm July 3, 2016):
I particularly want to read your novella about Miss Darcy's new companion. (I kind
of wanted to write "Georgianna," but propriety overcame me.)
Re: The Seduction of Kinley Foster (10:39am May 15, 2016):
I have managed to abandon guilt over my enjoyments. Guilt over not having
got things done? A whole different matter!
BT, I don't understand Coronaritas. Are you supposed to attempt to preserve
the beer till the rita's mostly done, or lift up the bottle and boldly combine
the two?
Re: Close To You (7:33pm May 4, 2016):
Nice slang! I grew up in the wop-wops, myself.
Re: Best Friends with Benefits (10:04am March 27, 2016):
I'll join the not-me crowd-- I-- oh, wait. My last year of high school I went to
an arts academy, and I did go to one of its multi-year reunions. It was
strange to encounter legends of the academy who'd become stockbrokers,
movie techs, and one somewhat busted star.
Re: Romancing the Ranger (7:27pm March 22, 2016):
I've found that using the right *sort* of music makes a difference to ow good
my production is-- the music needs to be appropriate to the material I'm
writing.
Re: Miriam (6:00pm March 22, 2016):
When I was a child I was taugt ballet and modern dance by Toni Intravaia.
Now, in her 90s, she continues to edit the Sacred Dance Guild Journal and
to teach dance.
Re: How Willa Got Her Groove Back (5:36pm March 13, 2016):
There's nothing like a good palimpsest.
Re: Justified (10:48am December 24, 2015):
My favourite Christmas treat is the Slovenian nut roll called potica-- though I
generally make the year's six-to-eighteen loaves between the last week of
November and the first couple weeks of December. I use the recipe my
father did, back when I found the taste of potica too rich and complex for my
child tongue, but pretended to adore it because I adored my father. (Now, my
son finds potica too rich and complex and adores me, but knows there's no
need to pretend.)
Re: Welcome to Hickville High (9:57pm October 19, 2015):
I've spent very little time in Texas, and I find the two-lane 60 mph highways
fairly terrifying, but there's also something about the countryside of central
(north and south) Texas that leaves me feeling very American, in a good way.
There's not much that does that. We stopped at the McIlhenny site on the
way back from New Orleans this last spring, and we loved it.
Re: A Different Side (7:04pm October 6, 2015):
*fans you gently*
Re: Food Baby (1:36pm August 31, 2015):
I am excruciatingly fond of Concord grapes.
Re: Moments of Truth (7:31pm August 24, 2015):
I rely on friends and prayer.
Re: The Bones Will Speak (4:54pm August 17, 2015):
(Wow, lots of junk comments today.)
What a fascinating career path! I've read more non-fiction crime novels in
which forensics played a part, than I have fiction-- but I'm very interested in
forensic technologies and reasoning. Thanks for writing about these!
Re: Fudging the Books (8:54pm August 6, 2015):
Oh, I love going to all sorts of places. We spent ten days in Spain in June,
and it was amazing. I love tracking the progress of seasons as I travel locally,
in Colorado.And you make me miss the Salinas-Monterey area, where I lived
from 1999-2001.
Re: Murder.com (7:03am July 14, 2015):
Albert Campion and Amanda Fitton. Alternatively, Albert Campion and
Magersfontein Lugg. :D
Re: Murder Under the Desert Moon (4:34pm July 1, 2015):
I'll double-guess Rijeka or Ljubllana, Slovenia-- talk about underexploited
locales that are naturals for an Italian!
Re: Girl Spoken For (5:40pm June 29, 2015):
Maybe Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes....
Re: Reunion of Souls (5:12pm June 5, 2015):
Oh, and I definitely read both fiction and non-fiction, and of radically differing
sorts on both sides. But all my reading is for both edification and
entertainment.
Re: Reunion of Souls (5:10pm June 5, 2015):
Don't you think that differences across individuals swamp differences across
gender? As long, that is, if one's talking about actual individuals of male and
female genders, rather than talking about stereotypes.
Re: A Horse for Kate (7:57am April 13, 2015):
My ten-year-old son reads, though his school's requirement of 150 minutes a
week is useful for him and us in the face of iPad, Xbox and hockey. And
given that we live in a very White, fairly prosperous part of the world, it's
valuable that he reads about all sorts of kids. I've been particularly pleased
that he reads about girls as readily as he does about boys.
Re: Meet Me At The Beach (11:59am February 26, 2015):
Well, maybe not. :D
I used to do writing and editing work with my first husband. This included
finishing up writing a substantial introduction to a collection of articles when we
were in the process of getting divorced.
I'm glad that's over. But having accomplished it successfully is one of my
proudest achievements.
Re: A Killer Retreat (1:15pm February 18, 2015):
I like your locations-- as Dorothy L. Sayers introduced me to the world of 1930s
English advertising agencies, so you introduce me to interesting sites in the
Pacific Northwest.
Re: As Gouda as Dead (12:38pm February 7, 2015):
I like a lot of events-- kite festivals, hockey games, plays, baseball games, street
fairs, what-have-you. But it is a particular pleasure to me that my origami-
making, hockey-playing son, now ten, loves to go to plays, including Boulder's
Summer Shakespeare Festival. We missed that when he was too small for it!
Re: Ashwood Falls Box Set (8:39pm January 10, 2015):
Hmmm. I'll have to read your books-- from the synopses they
remind me a bit of Octavia Butler's Kindred.
Re: Once Upon a Grind (3:20pm December 10, 2014):
I love a great many fairy tales, but my favorite is
probably East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
Re: Jesus Daily (10:13am December 7, 2014):
My deepest desire is to do God's work, as God's co-creator
of a world where everyone has traction, now and into the
future. Figuring out how I might better do that amid my
constraints is the tricky part.
Re: Geared For The Grave (3:01pm December 2, 2014):
I like Rudy's advice! I do ride a bike, though not much
here in the Rocky Mountains-- I'm too much of a wuss.
Re: Hard to Come By (12:09pm November 27, 2014):
I am really impressed by your research, and by what you
reveal of its fruits-- and I look forward to reading the
book.
I know I've read some novels with amputee heroes, but I
don't really think of books in lists, nor of amputation
as a category-- offhand the title that comes to mind is
Gene Stratton Porter's _Freckles_. A very vintage-
flavored novel.
Re: Her Best Shot (11:29am October 5, 2014):
I vote Daniel. I don't want to buy Phin a beer when I have
just $20!
Re: Stirring The Plot (9:35pm October 1, 2014):
Sounds like you've been cooking up another sweet one!
Re: Reforming the Rock Star (7:00pm October 1, 2014):
You know, when I was a kid I sometimes thought about
occasions to reinvent myself, but I invariably got
distracted by things that interested me-- fortunately!
Re: Charming (6:13am September 16, 2014):
Ah, a celebration of family life.
:/
Lots of families like that.
But the title _Charming_ scawes me....
Re: Dirty Deal (5:56am August 29, 2014):
I'm not actually that fond of sarcasm, though I like honesty
and smarts. My friend Lisa keeps me sane.
Re: Billionaire Blend (9:17pm August 26, 2014):
And a little extra cream in my cup, as I get to enjoy the
Coffeehouse Newsletter along with your mysteries. :)
Re: Breathing Room (8:37am August 26, 2014):
I love how smart romance writers and readers are. If only the
world-in-general knew!
Re: Billionaire Blend (8:25am August 26, 2014):
Now I really have to read Billionaire Blend. Sub-fusc
billionaire sugardaddies add a creepy frisson to anything.
Re: Saving Gracie (11:58am August 24, 2014):
Oh, we all need more grace.
Re: Somebody Like You (7:55am May 18, 2014):
Thank you for acknowledging and celebrating the plumbing of
relationships, so to speak. :D
Re: How to Handle a Cowboy (1:38pm April 4, 2014):
I got to live in Wyoming-- though in the big city of Rock
Springs-- for two years, and I love Wyoming and its cultures.
I look forward to reading your series!
Re: A Promise In Pieces (1:35pm April 4, 2014):
That is a very powerful story. I applaud your strength and
your boldness-- and the rewards I hope they bring you more
and more of.
Re: Dash of Peril (7:05pm April 3, 2014):
I think that at least some pantsterness is vitally important-
- otherwise it's like reading a scaffold.
Re: Dyed and Gone (8:01pm March 30, 2014):
My life is changed forever.
Re: An Accidental Life (9:40pm March 29, 2014):
Challenging themes in your series as a whole, and in this
novel. Bold!
Re: Her Summer with the Marine (6:09pm March 20, 2014):
Th same plotline with different people is a different
plotline. :)
Re: What The Groom Wants (8:21pm March 6, 2014):
Must. Obey. Squidge....
Re: Hot Rock (3:32pm February 26, 2014):
Dunno. Nor do I know when it comes to the classical and
romantic musicians who made folks juicy. Maybe it's just that
music, uh, unseals our secret springs.
Re: Mint Juleps and Justice (12:15pm February 22, 2014):
I am so terribly sorry about your husband's death, and can
only wish you a good mourning, with the right companionship
on it. Mourning being one of the best and hardest gifts we
have, as humans.
As for heroes, what I really like are complex but
straightforward-- or wanting to be straightforward-- people
with interests in life.
Re: The Cowboy's Mail Order Bride (8:54pm February 20, 2014):
What an incredible story-- thanks for sharing it!
Re: Miss Molly Robbins Designs A Seduction (6:11pm February 6, 2014):
(What on earth is flour-butter?)
This sounds like a really interesting Bildungsroman!
Re: The MacGregor's Lady (6:08pm February 6, 2014):
So do you address Highlands Clearances past? It sounds like
it! Which makes me wonder whether you've considered doing a
Victorian Scots-Canadian. :)
Re: Wishing On Buttercups (7:08pm January 24, 2014):
I think most women have been ridiculed for something or
other. In fact, I think probably most women have been called
ugly and called a good-looking snob. I've heard women as a
class dismissed as unintellectual, and I've been rejected as
too smart/educated.
Re: Poison Town (7:00pm January 24, 2014):
What a background to help you with setting, characters and
plot! This sounds excellent.
Re: If Wishes Were Earls (12:08pm December 30, 2013):
Huh, I look forward to reading interesting interplay between
literature and life-- in literature. :)
Re: Freezer I'll Shoot (10:28pm December 28, 2013):
I used to try to make resolutions when I was a child, out of a
sense that it was what I should do. Now I pull crackers and
make Korean New Year's soup, instead.
Re: Thrown (9:39pm December 16, 2013):
Looks like a must-read for me. Say, have you read Elsie Lee's
Second Season? Some similarities, though that's quite old, and
a regency....
Re: Billionaire Blend (10:46pm December 9, 2013):
I have a feeling that that most expensive blend has to involve
civets....
Re: Reign (5:12pm November 24, 2013):
I have wanted to try a Basque meal for thirty years-- but I'd
need to kind of train for the massiveness of it all!
Your novel sounds sumptuous, and a real feast for Bible fans--
I'm one. No training required. I've got to get it.
Re: The Bitches of Brooklyn (12:38pm November 19, 2013):
A profound metaphorical question. For me, most of the roles
I've been asked to assume, not as jobs, but as identity. I'm
not into being a stereotype.
Re: Bikers and Pearls (7:55pm November 11, 2013):
I also come from a storytelling culture, and story has been a
lifelong passion for me.
Re: Christmas Quilt (9:06am October 20, 2013):
Sounds like good shelter against the chills of life.
Re: The Training (8:23am October 10, 2013):
Ah the tension between submission, rule following and rule
breaking. Now I'm picturing you cuffed to your desk chair.
Re: Paige Rewritten (12:43pm October 9, 2013):
This sounds like a book that will resonate with a lot of
readers.
Re: Jude (12:41pm October 9, 2013):
Hmmmmm. Has Jude read Macchiavelli's The Prince? And does his
borrowed juju exempt him from the self-restraint necessary to
keep one's power?
Re: Gideon's Call (8:17am September 22, 2013):
There's nothing sweeter than when marital partners are in
harmony. :)
Re: Dark Road Home (8:15am September 22, 2013):
I hope you encountered and read Ronald Takaki's _A Different
Mirror: A History of Multicultural America_?
Re: Severed Trust (8:12am September 22, 2013):
(Boy, oh boy, the dichotomy between "people" and "Indians" is
painful.)
Re: When Mountains Move (7:46am September 12, 2013):
Sounds mysterious and interesting. I look forward to reading
it!
Re: Shades Of Mercy (7:43am September 12, 2013):
Bold balancing to you!
Re: Traces Of Mercy (7:41am September 12, 2013):
I'll not only have to read this, but tell a friend who is
particularly interested in stories involving amnesia. Thanks!
Re: The Good Wife (11:19am September 3, 2013):
Sounds like a winner. There aren't nearly enough books about
marriages, which are so idiosyncratic and mysterious.
Re: Last Chance Reunion (2:37pm August 21, 2013):
I like romantic suspense-- it works well with the mystery of
human relationships!
Re: Three Days on Mimosa Lane (10:31pm August 20, 2013):
I am so glad that you are writing about the love and
reconciliation of a community. That seems to be a theme many
are hungry for, in these individualistic times. (And I'm so
grateful for the hunger.)
Re: Three Days on Mimosa Lane (2:24pm August 18, 2013):
Now that I'm a parent, I realize how pervasively my parents
put aside their personal desires and freedoms to make
themselves and their helps available to us, their children.
Re: Beneath the Dover Sky (2:13pm August 18, 2013):
And we don't only need those touched and healing lives. We
need to acknowledge that that new effectiveness is not
invulnerability, but vulnerability used well.
Re: The Amish Seamstress (2:08pm August 18, 2013):
I gain energy in quiet and solitude. At the end of a
school's-out summer, I'm very much aware how much more
solitude I need than I get. My beloved eight-year-old son is
an extrovert-- in a pronounced enough way that we knew that
about him from his sixth month, when we met him. And I am
his favorite person in the world. Lucky-- and accursed. :D
Re: Once Upon A Tartan (7:33am August 15, 2013):
Well, and people used to talk about being enamored of someone
as "having a case on" him or her....
I can really see your day job in the plot of this novel, of
course!
Re: Reckless (5:42pm July 24, 2013):
I've always liked earlier Jackie Chan movies-- he was such a
pretty climber. And it's a sort of horribly amusing thing that
there used, at least, to be a website detailing all of his
breakages due to his stunt work....
Re: Rugged Hearts (5:38pm July 24, 2013):
Where I grew up, a man named Hans Hartung was first a
mechanic in the shop of a grumpy guy, when that was the only
auto shop in town that serviced Volkswagens. Later, he
opened his own shop. My father got to know Hand and both
shops because of our lemon of a VW bus, and he told me about
Hans. He said that when Hans opened his own shop, the grumpy
guy lost nearly all his customers. Hans was pleasant,
honest, and a skilled workman. Sadly, Hans died about ten
years later when his tractor turned over on him, when he was
working on his farm.
My father's story about Hans and respect for him resonated
with me, and definitely contributed to my understanding of
what makes for a good life, and what "success" means.
Re: Pennsylvania Patchwork (8:18am July 11, 2013):
I applaud your research and your research methods.
I suspect that what may be the most reliable way of being an
authorial part of a new trend is to tap a quirky part of
one's own experience. Of course, that's not likely to be
what agents or publishing houses are looking for right now.
But what's better than to found what they're looking for
after your work?
Re: Jungle Fire (8:13am July 11, 2013):
As for settings, what I prefer is settings with some traction
to them-- where references to the setting are important to the
story, and don't smell of copying from reference works.
Re: Pieces Of The Heart (8:10am July 11, 2013):
And I hope that we become more reluctant to wound warriors,
ours and those of other nations and peoples.
Re: The Medic's Homecoming (7:15am July 8, 2013):
Thanks for your post-- that movie sounds like an excellent
social commentary.
I have not been fond of zombies, werewolves, or mummies, and
I dislike vampires. Ghosts tend to be ineffectual. I don't
even fancy mediums. But I like a lot of extraterrestrials in
SF-- though I don't suppose that counts.
Re: Wish You Were Here (8:39am June 28, 2013):
I grew up in a family of readers, so I worked hard to teach
myself how to read ASAP! We lived further than a child'swalk
from the public library, so that wasn't a major feature of
reading life for me, early one. And I find that whenever I
think of children going to the library, I think of Edward
Eager's _Seven-Day Magic_-- which I did originally read in a
library copy.
Re: Lighten Up (10:00am May 27, 2013):
You know, thanks. I'm a Christian pastor who was raised and
live in liberal Protestantism, and I worry about how often
more conservative Protestantisms seem to be about excluding
things and people, rather than embracing people and
creation. Your approach sounds like something that's much-
needed. I'm with Peggy Roberson: I think that living with
other human beings is hard.
Re: Paige Torn (9:45am May 27, 2013):
We bought a house with beautiful, smart, functional
landscaping: curved lawn area, curved side planting areas,
mulched neutral space. It was so smart and functional that
it took me a few years to figure out how to add anything
without ripping out what was there. But now we have curved
raised beds siding the other curves of the garden, I have
the bindweed at a standoff, and I'm adding columbines,
foxgloves, and lots of bulbs, and we grow lots of vegetables
and herbs in those new beds. I'm eyeing replacing hybrid tea
roses at the front with old roses, gradually.
Re: When The Morning Glory Blooms (9:22am May 23, 2013):
Thanks-- there aren't enough novels that really address or
explore friendship. And I've lost friends And I've left
friends when they are adamant about putting me in a little
box. Not shutting me out of portions of their lives-- that's
their business-- but insisting that I have a certain limited
role to fill in my life.
Re: A Healing Heart (9:19am May 23, 2013):
Quilting is a pretty good metaphor for the healing of a life,
after all.
Re: Flora's Wish (7:51am May 23, 2013):
Perhaps there's something wrong with the categories of hero
and villain, in fact.
Re: The Practice Proposal (7:45pm May 11, 2013):
John Stockton, I think....
Re: Night Demon (7:14pm April 14, 2013):
I require brain-- and compassion. An orgasm is for a moment.
Conversation is for a lifetime.
Re: Identity Crisis (3:51pm March 27, 2013):
It's a funny thing, isn't it, that the authentication is more
valuable than the object-- otherwise "forgery" would have no
meaning!
Re: A Risk Worth Taking (9:17am March 10, 2013):
But-- but-- what'sore glamourous than crumbs and apple juice stains?
Re: The Survivor (8:14am March 5, 2013):
My crime prevention tip may sound odd: It is to treat those one encounters as valid human beings.
Re: Into the Spotlight (5:52pm March 2, 2013):
You're right-- Vegas is sui generis....
Re: Cupid?s Shaft (10:03pm January 25, 2013):
Got to say, Cupid's Shaft is a delectably lewd title.
Re: Beeline To Trouble (8:58am January 19, 2013):
I agree with Silvana: juicy rules. :D
Re: Finding Home (8:43am January 14, 2013):
I don't know about favourite memories. But for decades all my dreams were set in my parents' large Southern Illinois yard. (A Hogan's Heroes dream was admittedly rather strange there.) And some still are.
Re: South Of Surrender (9:18am January 9, 2013):
Now I'm wondering what processes you went through in deciding on your god's powers. (You know, in the context of romances any of the possible theistic -potent terms sound really lewd. :D )
Re: The Missing Manuscript Of Jane Austen (7:07pm January 6, 2013):
That kind of overlapping process sound like one that would be efficient for me, so thanks! And the premise of this sounds delectable. :)
Re: Love Thy Sister (8:10pm December 12, 2012):
I am so glad to read of your multiple homecomings-- to new languages, to writing, and in prospect, to Italy and Italian publication.
Re: Jane's Gift (7:58am December 8, 2012):
You know, I don't make lists much. Jane's Gift sounds unusual and interesting from several angles, though, so I'd better give it a try.
Re: Holiday Buzz (7:37am December 4, 2012):
New York City makes encounter with a wide variety of people nearly unavoidable, in a country that's become tremendously niched-out demographically, economically, and stylstically. I salute you taking advantage of that as a writer!
Re: How I Came To Sparkle Again (7:16am November 29, 2012):
I had never thought of directions that way, and now my life has a new delight-- thank you!
Directions to our less-accessible house: Go west on Harmony. You'll pass Shields, then Taft Hill, then you'll go up the first ridge, and down past the first lobe of the reservoir. On your left you'll see a sign welcoming you to the town of Stout, population 47 1/2. Stou's actually under the reservoir now, but they saved the sign. Then you'll go up the second ridge, and down past the second lobe of the reservoir. On your left you'll pass the Canyon Grill-- yeah, but it's not quite as much of a biker bar now, which is kind of a shame. Two right turns come up right after that. You want the second, the one that's going uphill. Yes, it's a gravel road. You'll wind around to the left as you climb, and then you'll reach a fork: keep left, and keep going uphill. Just about at the top of the hill , on the right, is our house. There's a wooden post with the number on it beside the pink cement driveway, and the house has a green metal roof and sort of pinky-tan walls. Yes, the driveway's long and steep. Don't go down if there's ice or snow: you might easily not get up again. You can park on the left, just past the driveway. Cuddle up against the side, though, so you don't obstruct what traffic there is. There's not much. You might well see deer. Fox aren't unlikely. A mountain lion is possible-- they've been seen out our way. Elk have happened by. Unfortunately rattelsnakes, while rare, are commoner than elk or mountain lions, so do please watch you step, and try not to sneak up on anything.
Re: Christmas On Mimosa Lane (2:17pm November 8, 2012):
Tinker Bell.
Oddly, one of my favourite Christmas memories is of something that happened with my first husband at a time when I was moving toward a very happy divorce from him. I had been making beef stock over Christmas Eve, leaving the kettle overnight on a stove I didn't know well enough, and we woke to the appalling smoke of burned beef bone and cartilage. I put the kettle outside in the snow and opened some windows. And while the bullk of the snoke left the house, we went for a walk in the slow-falling snow that was so light we barely felt it. We could see it under street lights, though-- the flakes were the big, broad, shiny sort, and twinkled as they spiraled down. It was cold but beautiful.
Re: Kissed By A Vampire (7:16am October 29, 2012):
I think suspense and paranormal is a match made in, well, someplace-appropriate. :D
Re: Iced Chiffon (3:20pm October 28, 2012):
I think cozies allow for more nuanced character exposition than harder boiled sorts of mystery-- in fact, I think that's typically a thematic element. I've always liked them. :)
Re: Blood Therapy (8:02am October 23, 2012):
Wow. Great to hear about the series rising from the dead-- and its vigorous new life isn't at all unnatural or cold!
Re: A Home For Nobody's Princess (7:36am September 25, 2012):
Definitely more about people-- people who act as if you make sense and belong there. We humans make that a terribly rare thing, in the United States. :/
Re: Deadly Little Lies (3:27pm September 18, 2012):
Nothing beats Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess when you're feeling ill-used. Aside from A Little Princess, tomato soup, and hot buttered toast.
Re: Blame It On Texas (6:03pm August 26, 2012):
Married four time and divorced three, with the same person, may be a record. And is that an extreme form of negotiation? Sounds like a fun and gallant aunt. :)
Re: A Brew To A Kill (12:02pm August 7, 2012):
I suppose that, having well established the "country" of your books in the coffee shop, immigrants and visitors from the provinces are important for just-roasted freshness....
Re: The Last Victim (8:38am August 6, 2012):
Yes, writing in an assumed accent can be funny for a short paragraph of a humor piece, but that's it. Mary Ann
Re: Wicked At Heart (12:53pm July 28, 2012):
Huh. That's an interesting idea, and I'll have to ponder it. I don't think I care for books with weak heroines, nor for those with thin heroes. Offhand, I think that interesting protagonists with strong interaction is what's important. But I'll be shewing on this one for some time. Probably decades.
Re: Creating Fate (4:07pm July 23, 2012):
That's nice. I couldn't agree more than romance is in working together to make mud into consensual sculptures. My husband and I did two years apart when I was appointed to a church 375 miles from him-- and getting back to living together was hard, hard, hard.
Re: The Princess and the Outlaw (8:47am July 1, 2012):
I plant butterfly bushes and enjoy the action around them, for one thing!
Re: The Zen Man (7:59am April 18, 2012):
Hey, what about Kinsey Milhone? I'd rather hang out with her than with most male detectives, who tend to be mighty peculiar about women, from my wild-eyed feminist point of view.
Re: Duty And Desire (7:05am April 15, 2012):
What human minds create, human minds can create!
Re: Texas Baby Sanctuary (9:35am March 28, 2012):
I haven't read a lot of books set in Texas. But I am fascinated by the landscapes and spaces of Texas, and would really like to read more novels that make good use of Texas anvironments and cultures. And foodways!
Re: The Chase (9:28am March 28, 2012):
Interesting what good non-fan-fic writing can come from a fan-fic kind of place. :)
Since my seven-year-old son and my beautiful husband typically maek our TV choices, I see a lot of Curious George, cooking shows (that's my son, interestingly), stuff about dinosaurs, and sports. We all like Community, The Office, and 30 Rock. And luckily for me, I do enjoy Phineas and Ferb, aside from the weird misogynistic stereotyping of girls and women.
(And I know an awful lot about torosaurs for a 51-year-old woman.)
Re: Cassie's Grand Plan (12:25pm March 20, 2012):
The part of my town that I live in still shows its
agricultural roots, with horses and an alfalfa meadow across
the street from us.
Re: A Scandalous Countess (8:00pm February 12, 2012):
I've recently been reading a Regency-set romance by Carolyn Jewel that I find startling because of its dark feel. And that's led me to think about the advantages of making darker, murker Regencies and emerging-gentility Georgians....
Re: Chosen By Sin (2:01pm January 31, 2012):
Love with an edge-- whether a tooth edg or not!
Re: Dreamers (7:47am January 21, 2012):
At the risk of sounding like Rene Descartes, I'm a thinker.
Re: The Storm That Is Sterling (11:00am November 22, 2011):
Ah, back in the day, Athos from Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After was definitely a leading tormented hero in my affections....
Re: Always a Temptress (1:50pm November 3, 2011):
I'll always have a soft spot for Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades, Devil's Cub, An Infamous Army. Other series I'm particularly fond of are Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series, Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey books and Margery Allingham's Albert Campion books.
Re: A Maverick For Christmas (9:49am October 30, 2011):
Small towns are homes to broad knowledge of people unlike oneself. A caring knowledge of each other is the best support there is-- fundamentally the only good support there is. Small towns make that, as well as destructive attention or dismissal, more possible than many places. I grew up in a small town where-- I hope-- I learned to give that attention to others.
Re: Chosen By Fate (7:28am October 9, 2011):
Yes, I'm like you-- I like my books to break genre if genre's relevant. Life does, after all....
Re: The Last Rising (12:25pm September 17, 2011):
I'll have to try that behind-the-knee thing with my husband. :)
Actually, any blow-by-blows (as such) tend to sound pretty funny to me. It's the conversation and the relationship that are turn-ons-- or not.
Re: Diaries Of An Urban Panther (10:26am August 31, 2011):
Oh, I'd probably feign death.
Re: Night Veil (11:50am June 27, 2011):
As they've been presented I prefer Superman, though I generally prefer flawed to unflawed (whatever that means) characters. The problem for me is that Batman isn't typically a very nice guy, and seems to me to be presented as if ~~~Darkness~~~ were a fine and wave-worthy substitue for niceness. It's not, for me.
Re: Under a Desert Sky (8:51am June 18, 2011):
For me, happily ever after means making the world together-- and that does require continuing, pretty much continual, negotiation. But good negotiation is conversation and refreshment and epiphany....
Re: The Lost Summer Of Louisa May Alcott (11:21am June 15, 2011):
Good on you, preparing to tell readers about the very different mise-en-place Alcott lived. I was puzzled for about twenty years by Professor Bhaer's pronouncement that people should "sweep mud in the streets" before makign a trade of writing sensation fiction-- despite reading Black Beauty and At the Back of the North Wind well before that period was over!
Re: Hard Bitten (5:03pm June 14, 2011):
I'm not crazy about The Know-It-All-- Jacobs's persona in it kind of aggravates me. But I like The Year of Living Biblically a lot.
Re: Forced to Kill (9:40pm June 4, 2011):
Thaks so much for discussing the importance and vitality of research!
Re: The Alchemy of Desire (6:33am April 25, 2011):
I don't really class people as alpha or beta. I'm considerably more interested in male ccharacters who can converse and like to, who are interested in women as people and not just body parts. So I guess that, in terms of stereotypes, I prefer beta humans-- conquest bores me.
Re: Deadly Ties (1:59pm April 10, 2011):
Beyond the issue of each step-by-step choice of slide or grapple, I think it's vitally important when we've made a bad choice to acknowledge that we made it. You start explaining to yourself that you really had no choice, you go selectively amnesiac, and you farm a future of rotten choices.
Re: Love Me If You Dare (8:47am February 14, 2011):
We celebrated Valentines Day by letting oiur six-year-old son sleep with us last night. Very cuddly, maybe not stereotypically romantic. :D
Re: Breaking the Rules (10:25pm February 12, 2011):
Speaking as a former bartender from a bygone era: I was surprised that "Sloe Comfortable Screw" wasn't on your list.
Re: Deadly Ties (1:53pm February 7, 2011):
I think that a lot of it comes down to a question of what values people feel women *should* hold-- that of absolute dedication to their family (and if so, is it to support their Whatever or for their true welfare?), that of maintaining vows regardless what their effects are, that of being an individual with the right to grow, even if it costs others something (that last being where I am)? I know people with all these motivations. Your novel sounds excellent, and I'll have to read it.
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