I have so much to be thankful for this year–the most wonderful husband, an adorable furbaby, great friends, supportive family, bountiful travel opportunities, time to pursue writing and art, living in the most beautiful place in the world…. This year we have exciting news to be thankful for: the Scottish playboy and I are expecting our very own secret baby! We found out this week that we are having a little girl, and now visions of sugarplums, tea parties and fairy princess dresses are dancing in our heads. Our little bundle of joy is due April 5th.

Name suggestions??? We’re looking for something not too popular, but not too weird, that will fit our heroine-in-training.

I hope everyone had a fabulous thanksgiving and that your holiday season is merry and joyful. May you read many good books!

I know, I know, it’s been a looong time since I blogged last. I have lots of excuses, but who cares? I promise to try to update more often. Here in Seattle it’s been cold, damp, and windy: perfect for snuggling up with a good book. Every day it seems like I discover another great local author. Today my high school news letter arrived in the mail and I was delightedly surprised to learn that Marjorie M. Liu is a fellow alumna. I wish I had known that when I met her at the RWA National conference in San Francisco. If you haven’t read Ms. Liu, her Dirk & Steele series is one of the best in the dark paranormal romance genre. Her urban fantasy series, Hunter Kiss, is set in Seattle (which should have been a clue that perhaps she had local ties). I highly recommend both.

My favorite recent read:

MUST LOVE HELLHOUNDS

Must read this book! Three of my favorite authors, Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook, and Nalini Singh, dish up action packed urban fantasy novellas with hot heroes, kickass heroines, and monstorous hounds. Fans of Brook’s Sir Pup will enjoy an extra story featuring the mischievious shapeshifting canine, while Kate Daniels’ devotees will delight in finally finishing the Raphael-Andrea saga. Singh’s novella is set in her new urban fantasy world with archangels and vampires. I hadn’t read the single title books yet, but after reading this novella I’ve added them to my TBR list. Charlaine Harris’s addition was the only one that wasn’t a love story, which meant that it was least interesting to me personally. Highly recommended!

With the explosion of the Young Adult literature market, publishers are scrambling to meet the demand for more Twilight-esque reading material. The high school-aged protagonists in YA are attracting a much wider aged audience. St. Martin’s Press has noticed the interest twenty-something readers have for series like Twilight (Stephanie Meyer), House of Night (P.C. & Kristin Cast), The Mortal Instruments (Cassandra Clare), and Vampire Academy (Richelle Mead). Seeking to cash in on our rapacious reading appetite, St. Martin’s has branded this audience “New Adults” and seeks to publish books with coming of age stories specifically targeted at the twenty-something demographic. Protagonists will be “older teens” AKA college-aged or early twenties. Themes are finding one’s place in the world and discovering oneself.

The complete details of St. Martin’s Press submission contest can be found on Georgia McBride’s blog here. The contest begins Monday, November 9 and ends Friday, November 20, 2009.

I applaud St. Martin’s effort to publish books specifically aimed at my demographic, even as part of me feels that “new adult” sounds like “adult with training wheels.” Dorchester Publishing’s recently closed SHOMI line was also targeted to twenty-somethings. I liked SHOMI, so I’m glad another publisher seeks to fill the void.

The majority of heroines in Urban Fantasy and Romance are twenty-somethings seeking to define themselves and find their place in the world. They are starting new jobs, trying to make it on their own, discovering adult relationships for the first time. Even the hundred year old vampires, like Edward, struggle with these issues. How, then, will the “New Adult” market be different? I suppose I haven’t read many books where the protagonist is actually in college, except for Tom Wolfe’s I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS. Maybe I’m thinking of protagonists in graduate school, like Karen Marie Moning’s Highlander heroines.

In other news….Harlequin announced today a new digital-only publishing house called Carina Press with Angela James (former executive editor at Samhain) holding the reins. I look forward to seeing what they produce.

The first annual National Bookstore Day, organized by Publishers Weekly, is today. 140 independent book sellers around the country have signed up to participate, with giveaways, author signings and discounts to encourage readers to shop local. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like any stores in Seattle are participating. Even more unfortunately I’m still in bed sick and wouldn’t be able to participate even if there were. Sob!

Are independent bookstores in your neighborhood participating? Do they sell romance? One of my big pet peeves is that a lot of indy bookstores don’t stock romance, so I can’t support them even though I want to. My beloved Epilogue Books closed in August, taking with it the fabulous collection of used romance novels that I treated like my own personal library. All that is left here in Ballard is The Secret Garden Bookstore, which has an excellent collection of new children’s and YA books but very few adult romances.

I’d love to hear about your favorite local bookstores. Where do you buy books?

PS: For all you NaNoers out there — YOU CAN DO IT!!!