Not much of a blogger, I'm afraid

It really was last June that I posted my last update. How time flies! I envy those who have the discipline to post regularly. I still have trouble getting through my e-mail quickly enough to respond to queries sent to me!

When I logged in tonight, I noticed that there was a post from a blog I follow, by author Jean Kalogridis about her novel "The Devil's Queen". I read and reviewed it--it was an excellent novel. Recently, I was sent another novel on the same subject, by a different author, and it was interesting to compare the two. I can't tell you yet the name of the more recently book, as it has not yet been released. I'm thinking of going back and picking up a few more novels about Catherine de Medici just for fun to see how other authers have protrayed her.

Currently, I'm reading "The road to Middle-Earth: how JRR Tolkien created a new mythology) by Tom Shippey. Absolutely fascinating, especially if you are a lover of language and revel (as I did) in the philology of Tolkien's books.

I'm also trying to catch up (still) on all my volumes of Persuasions (yearly publication of the Jane Austen Society of North America). That has been a goal for well over two years, but since I'm lucky to have time for one essay at a sitting, rather slow going.

Of course, I've managed a load of fiction throughout the last year. I find that romances of various kinds are perfect for keeping my eyes off the clock when I sit on an exercise bike or stride on an elliptical machine. Better yet, they do not require all my concentration, so I can keep up a good pace! I've even tried reading while using the treadmill, but I found that if I try to increase the incline while reading, I'm in danger of stumbling and flying off the back of the machine! So, for the treadmill I stick to my MP3 player.

My latest guilty pleaseure in those romances are the supernatural ones, mostly vampires and witches. I still enjoy the historicals, but it gets harder and harder to fine good historicals without graphic sex scenes. Not that I'm a prude, I just prefer to use my imagination sometimes rather than read about someone else's! Sometimes it just doesn't add anything to the story. I prefer the tension between a Darcy and Elizabeth, perhaps, or the barely-controlled passion of a Cathy and Heathcliff...

And then there was the Twilight Series. Devoured that in less than a week, saw the movies, put the posters in my daughter's room. It's been years since I've gone through a series like that. I read 9 Camber of Culdi/Deryni books back to back my senior year of college, as preparation for actually writing the research papers I was supposed to be working on and styuding for my finals. Picked one up, couldn't stop reading. And Judith Tarr. And Tolkien, which brings me back to where I began tonight.