Author Archives

Melissahttp://www.missmeliss.comWriter, voice actor, dog-lover, and bathtub mermaid, Melissa is the Associate Editor-in-Chief at All Things Girl. To learn more about her, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter (@Melysse) or Facebook. You can also listen to her podcast, "Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub" at Bathtub Mermaid or on iTunes.

I’m Curious

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So, you’re given a prepaid visa with a balance of $100, and two hours in your favorite bookstore. What do you buy? The hardcover new release that everyone’s talking about but has been out of your budget? A stack of magazines you’d never normally be seen in public with? Or an old favorite remembered from childhood.

I’ve been known to do all of the above on various shopping trips, or none. I’ve been known to buy seventeen books, and sometimes just one.

But hands down, my favorite place to begin is the New Fiction section. I love discovering authors when their work is new. Sometimes, I build lifelong relationships with them – I’ve been reading the Pink Carnation series since day one, for example, and I was reading the Anita Blake series years before it had gained any popularity – when it was being released only as mass market paperbacks, in fact.

So, if you’re reading this, tell me: what’s your fantasy book buying spree?

Teaser Tuesday: Angelology

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On Teaser Tuesdays readers are asked to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between 7 and 12 lines.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

I’m watching the current episode of Glee as I write this (DVR’d earlier) and am trying to dash this off before it resumes. It’s been a pajama day for me, as I’m not feeling well. Again. I didn’t even read, but I have a stack of stuff waiting to be read. One of the books in question, is Angelology by Danielle Trussoni.

Suddenly a hot, sticky substance seeped over the skin of my palms. Lifting my hands, I squinted, trying to determine what had happened. A gummy golden film, transparent and glistening as honey, coated my hands, and when I held them up in the light of the angel’s skin, the substance refracted, scattering a reflective dust over the cavern floor, as if my palms were coated in millions of microscopic crystals.

Quickly, before the other angelologists saw what he had done, we wiped our hands against the rocky surface of the cavern wall and slipped them back into our gloves. “Come, Celestine,” Dr. Seraphina said, “Let’s finish with the body.”

(Angelology, by Danielle Trussoni, page 230)

I have never worn gogo boots

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I’m reading this book called What to Wear for the Rest of Your Life. It’s thick and yellow, and the pages are heavy, and I feel like it should be printed on glossy magazine paper, but It is not.

There are some lovely sketches in it, and cool fashion trivia. I saw a sketch of go-go boots and a note explaining that they came in as a response to the miniskirt.

I have never worn go-go boots, but suddenly I want a pair. I have pair of lovely cowboy boots with orange stitching and faux ostrich skin, and I love them, but they’re not the same. They’re not shiny plastic (vinyl) or anything like that.

Don’t you just love the power of words? I love that even a non-fiction style-guide can take me into a world where I have the perfect closet. I made mental checklists of my own wardrobe, and identified deficiencies as well as areas where I have too many items. I am not a fashionista – I work from home, and tend to chose comfortable black clothing most of the time (In my defense, I really DO need seventeen black t-shirts. I also need a new bathing suit, to take with me to Mexico, where I will read in the sun and splash in the sea for ten days.) but I love reading about fashion, and experiencing it vicariously through characters in novels.

And come home infused with new stories.

And perhaps, even, a new book.

Or two.

Booking through Thursday: Restrictions

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On Thursday, April 29th, Booking through Thursday asked:

God* comes to you and tells you that, from this day forward, you may only read ONE type of book–one genre–period, but you get to choose what it is. Classics, Science-Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Cookbooks, History, Business … you can choose, but you only get ONE.

What genre do you pick, and why?

*Whether you believe in God or not, pretend for the purposes of this discussion that God is real.

I would like to be the person who chooses the classics, because they’re timeless, really, and generally incredibly well written. However, there are a finite number of the classics, and frankly, women in them weren’t treated all that well. So, I’ll choose Mystery, please, because within Mystery there’s all those nifty little subsets – paranormal mystery, horror, thrillers – and ranges – cozies, hard boileds, procedurals, etc. And some Mysteries even have a dash of romance, so, simply because I believe it offers the most options, and is a genre that remains popular, that’s my pick.

I mean, where else can an insurance quote or the recipe for the perfect flan be equally valid plot points? What other genre visits historical settings as well as modern ones, has existed since Poe, includes Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, appeals to children (Nancy Drew? The Hardy Boy?) and adults (Come on, tell me YOU don’t want to see Penelope and Jack figure out how a bookseller and a ghost can have a relationship while fighting crime), and incorporates humor as well as drama?

Mystery, please, with a serving of tea and scones.

Teaser Tuesday: The God of the Hive

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On Teaser Tuesdays readers are asked to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between 7 and 12 lines.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

Laurie R. King’s Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell novels are some of my favorite mysteries ever, and not just because I like taking a break from a world where we discuss hair growth shampoo and spending time in a world where high tea is a normal event. I’ve been a Holmes fan since as long as I can remember, but I love the relationship that King has created with his protege’ cum wife Mary. It just works.

Like many of her readers, the “to be continued” ending of the last novel really disappointed me, which is why I’ve been counting the days until The God of the Hive was ready. My copy arrived today. I can’t wait to read it!

Evening, and I might have curled up to sleep fully clothed except it had occurred to me that children required putting to bed. Estelle and Goodman were in front of the fire, he on the floor with Damian’s sketch-book on his knee, she stretched with her belly across the tree-round he used as a foot-stool, narrating the drawings for him. I had found the book in my rucksack, astonished that it had survived this far, and leafed through its pages before I gave it to her, making sure it contained none of his detailed nudes or violent battle scenes. Some of the drawings I had found mildly troubling, but doubted a small child would notice.

— from The God of the Hive, by Laurie R. King (page 80)

Teaser Tuesday: Twelve Rooms with a View

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On Teaser Tuesdays readers are asked to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between 7 and 12 lines.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

To be honest, when I first began reading Twelve Rooms with a View, the new novel by Theresa Rebeck, I thought the lead character, Tina, was a bit dense. This is a woman who doesn’t know the difference between a prevera review and Prometheus Unbound, I thought. But it turned out that Tina had her own form of intelligence, and I ended up really liking the book. A lot.

Eyeing Mrs. White’s gorgeous pink outfit, I felt a sincere moment of sympathy for those teenage girls learning a broader system of values. I mean, their mother was running all over New York City in designer suits, and they had to throw on the same ugly pleated skirts every morning before heading uptown to hang out with a bunch of nuns. It seemed like a pretty nasty fate, especially considering that they lived in Manhattan, where I would have thought that nobody, and I mean nobody, went to Catholic school to learn values.

— from Twelve Rooms with a View, by Theresa Rebeck (page 94)

Teaser Tuesday: The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder

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On Teaser Tuesdays readers are asked to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between 7 and 12 lines.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

I confess, I’d read pretty much anything that comes from the mind of Rebecca Wells, even if she was writing about adult acne treatment, so I’m really excited to have her latest novel – non-Ya-Ya, though still set in Louisiana – in process right now.

“And that’s where I get my secret, secret ingredients. Calla, here in New Orleans, spells are still a commonplace occurrence. Think of my secret potions like protective spells. Did you know that in the colder climates, ninety percent of the body’s heat is lost from the head? Well, the reverse is true with spells. Ninety percent of the spell goes in through your hair and your head.”

I was getting the chills, listening to Ricky talk.

“A true hairdresser pushes the bad energy out and knows how to replace it with good energy. And also when to walk away from certain energy, because a good hairdresser must know how to protect him or herself as well. The inspiration that a beautician – a true beautician – can bring to a person, that person in turn can bring into the world.”

from The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells

Book Trailer: The Baseball Codes

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Listening to NPR while I was doing my morning bathroom routine earlier today, my attention was caught by a conversation with the author of a new book called The Baseball Codes that’s all about the official and unofficial rules, regulations, and codes of etiquette involved in baseball. While I’m not generally a sports fan, I do have a soft spot for baseball, and have fond memories of watching ball games on television with my grandfather when I’d be at their house during the summer.

I miss those summers.

In any case, when it comes to marketing books, one of my favorite promotional products isn’t really a tangible product at all, but the book trailer. So, here’s the book trailer for The Baseball Codes, by Jason Turbow:

Reading With the Fishes?

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I have a thing for sharks. If I could have security cameras hidden in the ocean at the places with the most shark activity, and a constant feed, I’d watch it. Not 24/7 or anything, but I’d watch it. Naturally, if there’s a shark book, I want tor read it, as well.

My favorite shark book, so far, is Devil’s Teeth about the Farallon Islands, and the shark observation that went on there for many years. But recently, I saw this trailer for The Shark Man of Cortez, and it seems like it would be something right up my alley, so of course, it’s been added to my wish list.

I came across this video on YouTube, related to the book, and had to share it. Enjoy.

Booking Through Thursday: Which End?

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On Thursday, April 15th, Booking through Thursday asked:

In general, do you prefer the beginnings of stories? Or the ends?

It would be easy to cheat on this and say that one end of a book isn’t much good without the other, but the truth is, I do have a preference. In acne solutions, I prefer the end, but when it comes to stories, books, anything written, it’s the beginning that does it for me. The opening chapters of a good book hook you – seduce you – they’re not mere teasers, but introductions to characters and situations. Once you get to the end, there is definition, but until then, anything can happen.

Well, anything that fits within the established rules of the world that book inhabits.

I’ve said before that nothing disappoints me more than when a really enjoyable book ends, but the reverse is also true: nothing excites me more than the beginning of a really good story.