Hangin' at the Courtyard and Writing...in the Chicago Area

Most of you probably know, but my brother and sister joined the Navy back to back. Their boot camp experiences overlapped by nine days. My sister's graduation was in December and my baby brother's graduation was this morning. There were too many of us here today, so I'm waiting in my room at the hotel for them to finish up and give us a call. Depending on the amount of time I have today, I might be able to get a little bit of writing in. I added about a 1k words last night I think. Anyway, here's a pic of where I'm working today. I've got a great view of the snow covered courtyard! I wish one of them could have graduated in mild weather so I could do more than look at the courtyard though! But still, it's nice and relaxing to look out over it. I also overload myself with books when I travel. I never know what I'll be in the mood to read, or how much time I'll have so I'm overly prepared. This time I brought the book Finding the Lost, by Shannon K. Butcher with me. I've been waiting about a month on the library waiting list, and I only have 100 pages or so left. Here's the book with the courtyard behind it. And another view, don't you love the cover? I do! I especially love this book because the main character's name is Paul :) Almost feels like I brought my husband along!

Hope you all have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Loved the Book Burning Alive

and I' m sure that, like most people, I have a genre I'm comfortable in, one that's my favorite, as well as other genres I like, but not quite as much. For me, that genre is paranormal romance...yes...I'm a romance junkie, but I like mine served up with vampires, shifters, and other alpha type males. One of the joys of reading is finding something new in a genre you adore...I found one this weekend. It's a book called Burning Alive by Shannon K. Butcher, it's part of a series called The Sentinel Wars. Basic concept: There's three races guarding and protecting humans from the Synestryn (bad beasties and things that go bump and slurp in the night). One of those races is dying out because no children have been born to them in centuries, and their women were wiped out by the Synestryn. One of these men stumbles across a woman who can help. She helps him. She can help his people. Here's the caveat - she's pretty sure he's going to kill her so she's leery of him. It seems that the one thing all the books I fall for have in common is a beginning where our hero meets his counterpart and decides he's keeping her. I don't know what it is, but I like it! I even remarked to my husband - "he said he's going to keep her, you know this is going to be a good book now!" I wasn't disappointed. It had a great balance of light and dark, scenes that made me laugh, and others that made me cry. A great new world, original ideas but still humming with the basics that have me addicted to reading this genre. If you're looking for something to read, something original, I would recommend this book.