It’s been a puzzle for a while – when does a trope turn into one person’s intellectual property? A judgment in Texas has recently come closer to the answer.

Yesterday I made one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make, as a lot of you pet owners will attest to, I’m sure. My 18-year-old cat, Winter, had been sick for a while, but he was holding his own for a number of months. And then the last two weeks, I could begin [...]

Last year I made the resolution to find a new-to-me historical romance author to love. I signed up with NetGalley for the Avon historical releases and let rip. I read them. Remembering that in the past, covers were no indication of the book inside (anyone remember the original Fabio cover for “Flowers From The Storm”?) [...]

It was 9 a.m. and I’d just got back from the school run. I booted up my computer – the house computer – which was in the hall and logged on. Because of the time difference, my friend Kathy was online and I contacted her via yahoo messenger. Kathy lives in Florida. I had the [...]

You can get angry and upset without leaving the comfort of your own armchair these days. And listen to a lot of tinkly music while you’re doing it. At the end of August, I took delivery of a new PC. An Acer X3950, to be precise. A terabyte of hard drive and Windows 7. A [...]

Involuntary idleness leaves one with a LOT of time to think.  You know what they say: “In works of labour, or of skill, I would be busy too; For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do.” Isaac Watts (1674-1748) Here’s what’s been on my mind lately…

When I am reading a book for review, I don’t usually read others’ reviews because I don’t want to be influenced. Also, because time has a way of getting away from me for one reason or another, I don’t have a lot of time to check other blogs or sites and leisurely scroll through reviews. [...]

You ever have a really good time one day, then wake up the next morning and feel like a truck hit you? Yeah? 

Warning – this is a bit of a rant. I read Harlequin books, more these days than before. I just seem to be on a Harlequin jag right now. Anyway, pick up a book from the Presents line (Modern Romance in the UK) and you’ll find a reference to “designer” clothes. It is really beginning [...]

C2 and limecello have had their slumps, as have other duckies.  I wouldn’t say I’m in a slump – I’m reading less, certainly, but I’ve been enjoying what I’ve read as opposed to slogging through it in some desperate attempt to rediscover the joy.  (I’m knocking on wood now, to prevent the slump from seeking [...]

I’ve been thinking about the sudden surge to self-publishing and vanity publishing and the interest I’ve recently seen in various blogs and other places. Being a suspicious soul, I started to think about why this should be. Not all improvements come because the time has come and it’s right for them. Sometimes the situation is [...]

Just so you know, I’m writing this as a reader and a writer. Both halves, stuck together to make a whole. Not that that happens very often. It’s hard to keep the two parts separate when you read so much, hard to not let what you read bleed into what you write. I try to [...]

I’ve been incognito of late.  I haven’t talked to you good folks in a while so I crawled out of my hole to have a whine and whinge, and to see how many of you are in the same situation. It’s the start of a new year – a year I know will have a [...]

We’ve all been there, haven’t we?  We want to read. We need to read.  But nothing catches our attention.  We start one book and put it aside and then start a different book, thinking maybe a genre change might help, and put it aside.  Repeat as necessary until there is a stack of books, each [...]

It’s the time of year and this is short, because I could go on and on, but I don’t need to. I live in Britain, in a small, unremarkable town. When I go into town to do some shopping I pass a cottage where Oliver Cromwell lodged on his way to one of the Civil [...]