Willpower!

BRRRR! Why is it that 28 degrees here feels so much colder than 0 did last weekend in Chicago? I had to go out to class today, and it was bone-chilling cold. Now I have hot tea and I'm about to crawl under the electric blanket with my laptop to get some work done.

I showed incredible willpower today by NOT hitting the half-off candy sales. Considering I still have chocolate from Christmas, and Halloween, and the previous Valentine's Day, I figured I could last until the post-Easter chocolate sales. I'm running out of places to store chocolate. Besides, there's something kind of sad and pathetic about the picked-over post Valentine's aisles. I don't generally get too sad about Valentine's Day as a single person, since I think it's kind of a made-up holiday, anyway, and certainly not the true measure of a relationship. Not that I'd turn down flowers or chocolate if someone wanted to give them to me, but I doubt I'd throw a huge hissy fit if I didn't get them, so long as there were gestures of affection at other, non-scripted times.

I seem to have missed the wave of being outraged about the New York Times (and then syndicated) column about how (gasp!) chick lit is taking over the bookstores! And keeping women from reading more worthy books, like The Red Badge of Courage! But I can't seem to make myself get too worked up about it, considering that whole topic is so three -- or more -- years ago, and chick lit is actually declining in the market these days. I guess Maureen Dowd is lucky she didn't go to the bookstore in 2004, when there would have been even more pink-covered books, and the covers would have been even more obnoxiously pastel and cartoony. She might have had a fit of the vapors then. The pastel cartoon covers are mostly out, except for authors who already have a defined brand image (like yours truly). Photo-realistic covers are more "in" today. I guess the spell that veiled the chick lit books from her was dropped recently. I'm just pissed off that she didn't rant about seeing these fluffy books with a fairy on the cover shelved next to Jonathan Swift. Next time you go slamming a genre, give me some ink, okay? Thanks!

And now because I can't think of anything else to say and really must get to work (and to that electric blanket), I leave you with the latest Out of the Blogosphere entry, Moon Awakening, a juicy werewolf tale by Lucy Monroe.

When Emily Hamilton's family is ordered to send a woman to the Scottish highlands for marriage to the laird of the Sinclair, Emily volunteers in order to save her younger sister from such a fate. But at her new home, the only friend she finds is the laird's sister-especially after Emily's stubborn streak causes the laird to cancel the marriage. And though her plans have gone awry, she refuses to return home...

Lachlan Balmoral is laird of his clan-and leader of his pack. One of the most feared werewolves prowling the Highlands, he is on the march against the hated Sinclair, who have abducted a Balmoral woman. He kidnaps the sister of the Sinclair laird, planning to marry her off in revenge-but the woman he takes along with her proves to be the greater prize...

For more info and an excerpt, visit Lucy's web site.