Pyromancer by Amanda Young

Christian Ryder is rich and lonely -- and a pyromancer. When the people around him keep dying, he forgoes personal attachments. The thought of his pyromancy hurting anyone else isn't something he's willing to risk.

Tanner O'Bannon is broke and desperate. The recent loss of his father has thrown Tanner into a tailspin of debt he can't afford to pay. Working as a rent boy allows him to pay the mortgage and his college tuition, but it's eroding his soul in the process.

Through the machinations of Male Companions -- the escort agency for which Tanner works -- the men are thrown together. Smoldering embers of desire fan the flames of love, but will it be enough to make Christian overcome his fear of love, or to save Tanner from the fire?

Only one thing is certain; both men will burn.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Male/male sexual practices (anal/oral sex), violence.

Pyromancer is available at Loose Id. Congrats, Amanda!!!

Christmas Vacation...Christmas Vacation...

Your Christmas is Most Like: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Christmas is a big, boisterous event at your place. And no matter what, something hilarious usually happens.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

I Did Sing This Once...Third Grade...

Your Christmas Song Is

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth Gee, if I could only Have my two front teeth, Then I could wish you "Merry Christmas." At Christmas, you are a happy soul who's easy to please. You're biggest concern is making those around you smile.

What Christmas Carol Are You?

S-U-C-C-E-S-S!!

I completed my 50 Book Challenge for 2007. Last year, I read 52 books. The year's still young though so I may end up reading a couple more before the 31st. I also started and stopped about 10 books, which I really hate doing, and this list doesn't include any book I edited and/or read for a submission. Go me! I'm looking forward to reading 50 books in 2008 too!

1 -- Cassandra, Lost

2 -- Haunted

3 -- My Life as a Furry Red Monster

4 -- Lover Revealed

5 -- Take On Me

6 -- The Nymph King

7 -- Coming Undone

8 -- Parallel Seduction

9 -- Poison Study

10 -- On Agate Hill

11 -- Magic Study

12 -- Wild, Wicked and Wanton

13 -- Gentle's Holler

14 -- Bras and Broomsticks

15 -- All Together Dead

16 -- Karma Girl

17 -- The Amber Room

18 -- Undead and Uneasy

19 -- Soul Song

20 -- The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters

21 -- Risking it All

22 -- Once Around the Track

23 -- Under the Rose

24 -- Hog Wild

25 -- The Boys Next Door

26 -- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - reread

27 -- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

28 -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

29 -- She Did a Bad, Bad Thing

30 -- The Raven Prince

31 -- Underneath it All

32 -- Eclipse

33 -- Hard and Fast

24 -- The Leopard Prince

35 -- Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband

36 -- Riding the Storm

37 -- The Off Season

38 -- The Serpent Prince

39 -- The Naked Truth

40 -- For Lust or Money

41 -- An Ice Cold Grave

42 -- Louisiana's Song

43 -- Bloodfever

44 -- Tall, Dark and Filthy Rich

45 -- Hot Mama

46 -- No Holding Back

47 -- No Regrets

48 -- Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow

49 -- All She Really Wants for Christmas

50 -- Troy: Shield of Thunder

My Elf Name

Your Elf Name Is...

Dixie Twinkle Wink

What's Your Elf Name?

Monday Meme

You Should Have a White Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays represent joy and sprituality. The true meaning of Christmas is important to you - even if you're not religious. The holidays are a time of reflection for you. You like to spend time thinking about what's important in life. Your white tree would look great with: Bright, bold ornaments You should spend Christmas Eve watching: The Nativity Story What you should bake for Santa: Sugar cookies - served up with a tall glass of milk

What Color Christmas Tree Should You Have?

Hmmm...

Something about Twilight struck a chord with me. I don't remember what exactly (because I've slept since then) but the notion, the idea, was interesting. Maybe it was the cover that drew me in.

Regardless, I slapped it on my Christmas list.

When my wonderful husband bought it for me, I devoured the book. Up until that point, I hadn't read in a long time. Oh, I'd check out books from the library or buy some occasionally. I didn't catalog or make lists or wait with breathless anticipa...tion for books to be released as I do now. For me to be so obsessed with the book to the point of tears (yes, I cried at several places), well, the book's gotta be a keeper.

Then I read New Moon. Still an emotional journey until Bella went to Rome. I closed the book and shelved it feeling "eh."

Eclipse hit the shelves. I was tentative, naturally. Especially given my OMG-I-cannot-speak-in-logical-sentences-because-I'm-blubbering-due-to-tears-of-something-and-the-baby-is-totally-fine-I'm-the-one-who-is-bawling that was Twilight while feeling "Huh, okay..." about New Moon.

But I read it anyway.

What's brought on this introspection? Well, the Twilight movie has been cast. (I snagged this mock-up poster from one of my friends who snagged it from one of her friends.)



Since I haven't been following the discussions and hypotheses on whom to cast in such-and-such role(s), I'm not overly obsessed. Do these actors look like my mental images of Bella and Edward? Nope.

First of all, Edward (Robert Pattinson aka Cedric Diggory of Harry Potter fame) isn't lithe enough. I always imagined Edward as beautiful yes, but thin and mysterious, wraith-like. The Bella (Kristen Stewart) in my mind was someone who almost faded into the shadows, average, every day looking. Edward would *have* to be prettier than she.

I shouldn't complain. Eric Bana looks nothing like how I imagined Henry from The Time Traveler's Wife. Will that stop me from seeing the moving? Um, no. And I'm sure Cecelia Ahern didn't envision a (mostly) American cast for P. S. I Love You, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Harry Connick, Jr., *and* Gerard Butler (who isn't an American though I did say mostly) -- I'm there!!

Of course, I also wonder if Twilight will begin production in February because of the writers' strike.

Already On My List

Thanks to Publishers Lunch, these two books are already on my To Be Read list, and they're not even published yet!!

Mark Childress's GEORGIA BOTTOMS, about a genteel Southern lady who is sleeping, in rotation, with six of the town's leading citizens; she takes a break on Sundays, to Asya Muchnick at Little, Brown, by Henry Dunow at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (NA).

John Grisham's brother Mark Grisham and David Donaldson's BEDLAM SOUTH, a historical novel of the Civil War and the events at Wingate Asylum (Bedlam South) under the command of a sadistic captain, revealing an often neglected aspect of the War as related to the characters in the plot, to Tom Dwyer at Borders Group, for publication in 2008, by James Schiavone at Schiavone Literary Agency (world).
profschia@aol.com

Thirteen Silver Moons by Lyra Marlowe

Young, pretty, and sexually inexperienced, Joy yearns to know true passion. The prim and proper Ladies who have raised her in their orphanage say that sex is dirty, men are disgusting, and elves are the most sinful creatures in the world. But Joy is eager, over-ripe, and sure they must be wrong.

A handsome, lusty sailor promises to answer Joy's every question with sexual passion. But when they are caught just short of consummation, he abandons her and Joy is driven from her home by the scandal.

Joy is rescued from a frozen death by Aidan Clark, a prosperous silversmith. The craftsman gives her shelter in his spartan home and offers her employment as his housekeeper. He asks nothing more, but Joy -- still curious and still a frustrated virgin -- insists on sharing his bed. The results are shockingly brief and deeply disappointing.

Bek, a breathtaking coal-eyed elf, turns his seductive interest on Joy. She is deeply tempted, but determined not to disgrace Aidan. To her great outrage -- and greater secret delight -- the men come to an arrangement. Joy will meet with Bek on every full moon night for one year, in the hopes that she will bear his child. Aidan will receive a bag of rare elven silver for her 'services'.

Sex with Bek is everything Joy had hoped for -- sensuous, inventive, unrestrained, and deeply fulfilling. Her mundane life as Aidan's servant and companion is equally satisfactory. But when Joy begins to fall in love with kindly Aidan, her heart will no longer let her body be shared. She must learn the dark secrets of Aidan's sexual past to help him overcome his shame. And she must use everything she's learned from her elven lover to turn Aidan into the love and lover she truly desires.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable:. Masturbation, ménage (dream sequence), group sex (orgy), voyeurism.

Thirteen Silver Moons available at Loose Id. Congrats, Lyra!!!

The Phantom Watch

My watch battery died on Thursday. I kept it on because, gosh, I haven't taken that watch off since my husband gave it to me...um...several years ago. I can't remember where we were living at the time which would help me determine what Christmas I received it as a present. Regardless, the watch never leaves my arm.

Until Saturday.

I got tired of it saying 12:20 and being incorrect. Here's where my husband would interject that I keep my watch set some minutes ahead so it's technically always incorrect, then I'd be forced to argue that just because all the clocks in our house say one time doesn't make them any more correct and he'd interrupt me by saying that setting my watch ahead doesn't help me because I *know* the time is incorrect so why can't I just set the damn watch to the correct time, then I'd say...

Where was I? Oh yes, my watch!!

When I noticed on Thursday, I screamed, "You can't be dead!" The battery died a couple of years ago too. So I screamed, "You can't be dead!" Lo and behold -- it started working. Of course, it couldn't be truly dead since I revived it by screaming. Then again, I woke my cat from a heat-induced coma by screaming and I collected a ton of beads at Mardi Gras by screaming.

Wait, that was due to my cleavage. Back to my watch.

Today, I'm shaking my arm every now and then to force my watch back to my wrist. Then I remember it's a phantom watch.

Phantom watches are very irritating, just in case you were curious.

Is it Wrong...

...that I want this t-shirt?

December Already???

This year has flown by! Seems like just yesterday it was August. *sigh* The year never went this fast when I was a kid.

Not much is new with me (except the blog template). My son, mother-in-law and I decorated some Christmas cookies yesterday. We'd never done that before. My son C was in love with the flour. He'd scoop it into his cupped hands then clap. He got more flour on his clothes, hair, and the kitchen floor than on the bread board. That's okay -- he had a good time, which is very important.

I'm four books away from having read 50 books this year. If memory serves, I started and stopped about 8. Of course, the 50 doesn't include any of the books I've edited or manuscripts I've read. I have one-fourth remaining on David Gemmell's Lord of the Silver Bow then I plan to read something romance-y. Hopefully, Santa (or his elves) will bring me all the books on my Christmas list.