I’m blogging over at The Bradford Bunch about this topic today. If you get a chance, stop by and let me know what you think.

Back in the day (I love beginning stories with those words), I was a pretty good softball pitcher. Sure, I didn’t have Olympic type skills or anything, but I could throw one fast ball. The tricky “curveballs”–well, those weren’t my specialty.

I’ve been thinking about curveballs today. Life throws those a lot, huh? Like…oh, when on Wednesday night, Life decided to be funny and toss me a ball–and make my refrigerator stop working in the middle of the night. Fun-ny. I’d just gone grocery shopping the day before, but, alas, the food in the fridge was not meant to be saved–because, of course, the repairman couldn’t come out yesterday. Oh, no. But at least he made it today, and after a trip to the grocery story–where I got to drive the “RED CAR!! (as my son likes to call the buggy designed to resemble a car) and I narrowly avoided side-swiping a good twenty other shoppers–the fridge is restocked and life is back on track.

Curveballs.

In my writing, I like to add curveballs. Like to drop those unexpected (and not always pleasant) surprises onto my characters. I enjoy creating their reactions–then creating more conflict. Drama, baby.

Oh, yeah, I love curveballs in writing. In real-life? Not so much.

I’m blogging over at Fresh Fiction today. My topic: Why write romance? If you’d like to add your reasons for writing or reading romance, drop by!

I’m over at the Brava blog today, talking about my upcoming release, HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT, and…I’m giving away one of my remaining ARCs. If you get a chance, drop by for a chance to win!

There are so many good books coming out now–I think I’m going to have to expand my book-buying budget. 🙂

First up, we have Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace. Grimspace has received some wonderful reviews, and I can’t wait to read it! From Ann’s website, I learned this awesome bit of news:

“Last week, GRIMSPACE was #8 on B&N’s SF&F mass market bestseller list and #36 on Borders group SF&F mass market bestseller list.”

Wow–huge congratulations to you, Ann!

And some other books that I am oh-so-eagerly anticipating:

Sydney Croft’s Unleashing The Storm—and it’s available as of today!!!! I love the ACRO world–and I love the way Sydney writes. (And I love the stories she writes as Larissa Ione, too!)

Anya Bast’s Witch Blood–officially releases on March 4. I love the blurb for this book, and I’m always in the mood for a sexy witch story.

3 Books on my must read list.

What’s on your list?