I am at the beach, in North Carolina, a spot to which I've been returning for 22 years to be with family, my husband's and my own. For the whole sappy story, you can open this awkwardly-named link, a cybersphere icon whose porcine lips are not accepting lipstick, thank you very much. Download Essay1comfortfood.
Anyhow, it's so lovely to be at the beach, even when my book is coming out in a week and I'm way behind on publicity, such as it is. Last week our gathering was a fairly small group, my husband's sister and her family and his brother. We had time to sleep and read and devour episodes of House Hunters. I spent several hours reading Mary Doria Russell's DREAMERS OF THE DAY which is just well, knock-your-socks-off glorious. I must devote a separate blog to this, but in the meantime, if you've not ever read Mary Doria Russell, you've got such a treat coming! Start with THE SPARROW, then CHILDREN of GOD, then THREAD of GRACE. Or start with DREAMERS. I think she's one of America's finest living writers. I couldn't stop reading but I didn't want it to end. Found myself stopping to fold back pages over paragraphs I wanted to come back to just for their perfection, but also rushing because I had to know what would happen next.
And how perfect that one of my Girlfriend's Cyber Circuit blog pals has a book which combines the genre of romance with fantasy, and is called IN OVER HER HEAD ?
.When Erica Peck, one terrified-of-the-ocean marina owner, finds herself at the bottom of the sea conversing with a Mer man named Reel, she thinks she’s died and gone to her own version of Hell. When the Oceanic Council demands she and Reel retrieve a lost cache of diamonds from the resident sea monster in return for their lives, she knows she’s died and gone to Hell.
When they escape the monster and end up on a deserted island, she amends her opinion – she’s died and gone to Heaven.
But when Reel sacrifices himself to allow her to return to her world, she realizes that, Heaven or Hell, with Reel, she’s In Over Her Head.
Not only does the cover feature a man's chest worthy of the workout routine I ordered after falling in love with an infomercial by Tony Horton called BEACHBODY, but it's oceanic, filled with mythology and human psychology as well. It's the third in a series . Ms. Fennell's a Romance Writers of Amercia award winner who's as popular as she is prolific.
Ah, the beach! I'll be heading down soon this summer and CAN'T wait - even if I don't go in the water (seems my heroine, Erica, isn't the only one terrified of the ocean!)
Have a great time and thanks for mentioning In Over Her Head!
Posted by: Judi Fennell | June 14, 2009 at 09:36 PM