I suspect that I am not a conventional movie renter. Here’s my approach to renting movies:

Step 1: Start thinking about how it would be great to rent some movies. Then wait until that desire increases 10 times.

Step 2: Go to Hollywood Video (I don’t like Blockbuster) and spend a minimum of one hour selecting movies.

Step 3: Come home and watch one of the movies.

Step 4: Remind myself on day two that I have five days to watch the movies, so I can watch the rest at leisure.

Step 5: Remind myself on day four that I need to watch the rest of the movies so I can return them. Decide I’m not in the mood to watch movies.

Step 6: Watch as many of the movies as I have time for on day five.

Step 7: Return the movies to Hollywood Video even though I haven’t seen all of them OR keep them for an extra five days (incurring a late fee), hoping that I will be in the mood to watch the movies later.

When it comes to step 7, I usually take the latter approach. This time around, though, I went for the former. I’m delighted to say that I made it through three of the four movies: The Heart of Me, Red, and The Forgotten. Napoleon Dynamite will have to wait until next time.

There are several books I’m just dying to get. Some are available now but others are not. Here are five books I want right now, in no particular order:

Not much to say here except that I’m ready for another installment of Eve and Roarke. Origin in Death is not available until July, however.

Once I heard that Till Next We Meet has a plot reminescent of Cyrano de Bergerac, I was ready to buy it. It’s available now, but I’m waiting to see if Karen Ranney will be at the RWA signing . . .

This debut by Lydia Joyce is getting a fair amount of good press from online reviewers and readers. I look forward to reading it. Joyce’s website indicates that she will be doing another signing at the same time as RWA, so I needn’t wait to buy it. I’ll pick it up next week.

I know some people don’t enjoy MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead series, but I’ve loved both of the previous books. Davidson won’t be at RWA, so I’ll buy it once it hits the shelves, but I can’t figure out whether that will be in May or July; I’ve heard both dates.

Since I enjoyed Marjorie M. Liu’s debut book, Tiger Eye, I’m looking forward to seeing what she’ll do with her next book. This book is apparently part of a multi-author series. It will be available in August.

I’m in one of those phases where writing on my blog feels too much like work, even though they have nothing in common except, well, writing. I’ve also been feeling guilty about not having written any TRR reviews for a few weeks. Since blogging and guilt should never go together, I wrote a review yesterday and will finish another one this weekend.

A number of bloggers have been expressing how much time they spend keeping up with the blogs they read. It seems like dozens of new romance-related blogs have started in the last few months. This is a good thing; I enjoy hearing all of the different voices and perspectives. I’ve also discovered that there are only so many blogs I can visit in the time I have for blogging. So, if all of you would stop linking to other blogs, it would really help me out.

So, if it has felt like I’ve been taking a blogging break, you’d be right. I’ll be back though, better than ever.

After reading and enjoying Lori Handeland’s Blue Moon, I was excited to read the next installment in the series, Hunter’s Moon. While I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first, it’s still a strong read: 4 out of 5.

This story takes place in the same world as Blue Moon; in fact, the hero and heroine of that book play key roles in Hunter’s Moon. But the focus is on Leigh, who has hunted werewolves for two years. This book is told in first-person from her point of view. Her latest mission takes her to Crow Valley, where she meets a mysterious man named Damien.

As I mentioned, this is a strong story. The plot takes an interesting (and at times surprising) direction. To avoid spoilers, I won’t say more, but there are plenty of twists and turns to make the story exciting. Hunter’s Moon seemed darker to me than its predecessor.

The romance is the weakest part of the story. Their relationship becomes physical quickly, which isn’t a problem by itself; however, we’re told rather than shown that their feelings for each other are deepening. More of the getting-to-know-you stuff would have helped here. I was more (though not completely) convinced of their feelings by the end of the book.

The third book in the series is Dark Moon; there’s a short excerpt from it in the back of this book. Add another book to my to-be-bought list.

Since my Canon Rebel gave up the ghost, I’ve been investigating digital cameras. It’s amazing how small some of them are. I’ve found a few digital cameras I like—the Canon SD400 and the Sony DSCWS. Now I’m in the research stage, where I’ll take a look at product reviews. I’m hoping to narrow it down to one, then go shopping so I’ll have it before next month’s trip to Arizona.

I think I’m still mourning the loss of my Canon Rebel. Is that stupid?

I have time to write only a quick blog entry.

As I’ve been anticipating a trip to Reno for the RWA signing, I commented that it was going to be challenging for me to keep from buying new books between now and then. Then, I saw Rosario’s recent blog entry about reading a title from her TBR pile, and was reminded that I could take a different approach to the whole thing. Instead of being frustrated that I won’t be buying new books, I can view this as an opportunity to make a dent in my own TBR list. It certainly can’t hurt, since my TBR bookcase is overflowing.

Now, I just need to pick one to start with . . .

I’m back from the library book sale. That trip was an adventure. There was a marathon in downtown Salt Lake City today, so I spent about 20 minutes maneuvering the streets trying to go the final four blocks.

Once I arrived, I realized that the library was in a completely different building. It’s been several years since I went there, obviously. It was on the same block, just one building north. Anyway, I was shocked by the size of the book sale area. The new building is HUGE, but the sale area is probably one-third the size it was in the smaller building. Then I went looking for the romance section. They didn’t have a romance section. !? They had a mystery/true crime section and a fiction section, which included romance. The entire paperback fiction section was about one-fourth the size of the paperback romance section at previous sales. So that was disappointing.

On the other hand, less to choose from meant I didn’t have to be picky about what I purchased. I initially thought I would fill my bag, then buy what I wanted most. Instead, I ended up buying everything I put in my bag. For $13, I bought:

• Almost Like Being in Love, Christina Dodd: I enjoyed the first one in the series and thought I’d try the second.
• Blue Dahlia, Nora Roberts: I never got around to buying this one.
• Bubbles A Broad, Sarah Strohmeyer: I have the first three in the series, so I snatched this ARC.
• Conspiracy in Death, J.D. Robb: I’ll add this to my lending library.
• Forever Blue, Suzanne Brockmann: It’s a first edition in great condition.
• A Game of Chance, Linda Howard: After reading and liking To Die For, I thought I’d try this one.
• Knock Me Off My Feet, Susan Donovan: The cover appealed to me.
• Overload, Linda Howard: I read “night in an elevator” on the back cover and put it in my bag immediately.
• Paris or Bust, Kate Hoffman, Jacqueline Diamond, and Jill Shalvis: I’m still collecting Jill Shalvis’s books.
• Rapture in Death, J.D. Robb: I’ll add this to my lending library.
• Red Roses Mean Love, Jacquie D’Alessandro: I’ve been looking for this book since I read the library copy.
• A Rogue in Texas, Lorraine Heath: I am always looking for Always to Remember by this author; I didn’t find it, but I picked this up.
• The Seventh Suitor, Laura Matthews: I remember loving Matthews’ books 10 years ago; I can’t remember if I read this one but decided to buy it.
• The Tender Stranger, Diana Palmer: Amazingly enough, I don’t think I’ve read this book by one of my guilty pleasure authors.
• Texas Destiny, Lorraine Heath: I read the third in the series and thought I’d try this one.
• ‘Tis the Season, Vicki Lewis Thompson: I hadn’t gotten around to buying a copy; this one looks like new.
• To Die For, Linda Howard: I’ll add this to my lending library.

So I got an interesting variety of stuff. When I got back from the sale, I created two scrapbook pages:

Thoroughly Modern, Page 1
Thoroughly Modern, Page 2

It reminded me (again) that I need to strive for balance. Work and reading does not a full life make—at least, not for me. I’m hoping to scrapbook more and mix things up a bit so I have more variety in my life. One of these days I might actually do something about it instead of just talking about it.

So I was burning a small votive candle in my bedroom, and I was getting ready to go to sleep. I was too lazy to get out of bed to get the candle snuffer, so I tilted the candle holder so I could blow it out. As you might imagine, it slipped out of my hand. The good news is that very little of the wax got on my carpet. The bad news is that more than a dozen books are now splattered with wax. So far I’ve been able to get most of the books clean, but I’ve set aside the ones with the most wax on them for later. And I’m hoping to figure out a better method for wax removal than scraping it off with my fingernails.

My candle snuffer is now by my bed.

Last night I scrapbooked for the first time in weeks. Here are two pages about January’s trip to Florida.

Today’s the first day of the big library book sale. I’m going to try and be selective today, but on Tuesday I’ll go back and take advantage of the bag of books for $5.

Here’s my latest quiz, courtesy of a link on Alison Kent’s blog.

I am a hybrid of: Academic Girl Progressive Girl Click on the pictures below to read more: Take the ‘What Kind of Girl Are You?’ quiz at CookingToHookup.com

I’m going out of town for two book signings this summer: one next month to meet Charlaine Harris and one in July, the RWA signing. One of today’s tasks was to call the bookstore where Harris will be signing so I could find out their policy about bringing books from home. I made it clear that I will be buying books there, but I wanted to find out if I could also bring some. The employee said yes, even after she asked how many I’d like to bring and I said six. So I’ll have a nice collection of signed Charlaine Harris novels.

As for the RWA signing, there will apparently be more than 400 authors there. Although the list of authors will be posted at some point, patience is not one of my strong suits. I am visiting author websites to see if they have mentioned that they will attend. If I don’t see anything about it, I have been e-mailing to ask if the author is attending and if she happens to know what she will be signing. I want to know the latter so that I can (hopefully) avoid buying books twice. Some authors seem pretty sure about what they will be signing, while others don’t have the final word. The latter doesn’t surprise me after hearing Wendy’s comment about this subject, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to ask.

What hurts is the thought of waiting to buy books by my autobuy authors. I’m used to being able to buy a book I want when I see it on the shelves; now I’m telling myself to pass until July—for authors attending the signing, anyway. I keep reminding myself that I managed to go a few weeks without buying The Trouble with Valentine’s Day, but that hasn’t improved my mood. On the other hand, a kind reader offered to send me a copy of a book I’ve been anticipating for months. My library doesn’t have it, so I was going to go without until July. Thanks to this reader, I won’t have to.

Is anyone else planning to attend the Reno signing? Would it be valuable for me to create a file with information about the authors I have contacted and what they will (or hope to be) signing? If others will find it useful, I’ll put something together.