ARCs

Look what I received yesterday. The ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) for AS YOU WISH. This stage always makes the process seem more real. I'm holding a real book in my hands; it has weight and dimension; it has a cover, pages and a back blurb. Really a lot of fun. It isn't the final version, but it's one step closer. And now I have to let them go. Three are already in envelopes ready to be mailed to reviewers. And that's the scary part. Letting the book out there where no guarantee of love exists. I hope people will love it; I hope they find what I wrote to be humorous, uplifting, exciting, and an escape. I hope I succeeded in making this book a stand alone book despite being the second in a series (I believe I have succeeded, but my own perception may be skewed). Let me assure you that I did write it so that anyone could pick it up and read it without having read the first book.

AS YOU WISH is Reggie's tale. Regina Scott comes from a prominent Arcani family, but she never had any magic of her own. And then she discovers she's chosen to be a fairy godmother. Unfortunately the transition won't be easy. Reggie faces a curse, an attempt to overthrow the magical Council, and an entirely too enthusiastic mother.

Let's not forget the hero. Jonathan Bastion is a man of power and wealth and a hidden agenda. He wants to use Reggie for his own purposes and never expects to find true feeling for her.

Throw in a couple of special bakers, an irascible one-armed gnome, a demanding family,and a mysterious friend and you have a story that flew from my fingers onto the page.

So...the reviews start. The rest of you will have to wait until April 26.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Somewhere Along the Way by Jodi Thomas

AS YOU WISH

I know; I just posted a new blog yesterday, but I couldn't wait. Here, with much fanfare, drum rolls, and glee, is the cover for AS YOU WISH (Tor Books, April 2011)

Big, long, awe-filled sigh.
--Gabi

POD

I ordered a book to read for the holidays and mistakenly ordered an older book. That's okay, though, because I hadn't read it, but when I received the book I stared at it for a while because it looked different. The cover was slick, the binding extremely tight, the paper slippery, and some of the line were squished on the page. It looked like an ARC, but it didn't have any sort of designation on the front. I had the book for a few days before I realized it was a print on demand book (POD).

So what is my feeling about this technology? Well, I'm happy that I can buy and read this older book. But it feels wrong. It's too shiny. I'm a spine breaker (of books, not people) and I absolutely cannot open this book wide enough to read it comfortably. That's probably an odd complaint, but it's hard to read the words close to the spine. It slips through my fingers as I turn pages, and the pages are too white. There's a glare from any light (and it's not even an e-reader). I'm finding myself unable to read the book for long periods of time.

Overall, I believe the technology has to improve before I give it my stamp of approval. I have yet to try an e-reader (I know, I know. I have absolutely nothing against e-reader, but I like the feel of a book in my hand. I've heard the experience on an e-reader is comparable, and I've finally decided which one I want, but I haven't acquired it yet...yeah, because the one thing I need is easier access to books because I don't have an addiction already), but I expect that it would be more comfortable than the POD.

Sigh. I really am too obsessed about books.
--Gabi
Books I'm reading now:
As You Desire by Connie Brockway

Cookies

I just finished making the traditional Christmas cookies (Vanilias kifli, without the accent marks, for those in the know) that my grandmother made for her family in Hungary so many years ago. When my mother married my father, she didn't know how to make them. They were my father's favorite cookies, so she asked my grandmother to teach her. We had them every Christmas ever since. She gave me the recipe the first time I wasn't able to be with her for Christmas. I plan to pass it along to my kids someday.

I don't have many traditions passed along in my family. My parents immigrated from Hungary. Their whole lives were uprooted for a chance at a better life in a new place. As I grew up, I never knew Santa Claus--he wasn't a Hungarian tradition--and they dropped a lot of the Hungarian traditions because they weren't American. I never had a stocking, and we opened presents on Christmas Eve. But the cookies were always there. The kind I baked tonight and the two other kinds. Frankly, I don't really want to learn how to make the other ones. They're not my favorites and, really, should I spend hours working on something that I just won't enjoy? (Rhetorical--don't remind me that we all have do do stuff often for hours that we don't enjoy. I'm talking cookies here.)

My father died 21 years ago this week. So as I make the cookies, I think of him, my mother, my grandmother (whom I met once when I was four--she lived in Hungary, I lived in the US), my kids, my husband, and his family, who have accepted me as one of them. And I realize traditions are pretty cool.

Especially if you end up with cookies.:)
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Eon by Alison Goodman
Big Jack by JD Robb