I went to Charlaine Harris’s site yesterday and read the first chapter of her new Sookie Stackhouse book, DEFINITELY DEAD. It won’t be out until May. Ack! How can I wait? It seems like everyone has a book out in May. I belong to the West Houston RWA chapter, and six members have May books. Hmm, does that have some deep cosmic meaning?

I haven’t been doing much reading lately because of deadlines, but I just finished DARK LOVER by J. R. Ward and loved it. I know some people say the market is getting glutted with vampire romances, but I don’t see it. Considering how many romances are published each month, vampire romances make up a very small percentage of the whole. I’d love to see a lot more on the shelves, but that’s just me.

A little more about my trip to New Jersey (I’ll sprinkle in a few tidbits with each post). Barbara and I talked for hours about the good old days in Ireland. We only lived there for a few years, but it was hands down the most exciting years of my life. She’d put the music we’d taped in the Dublin folk clubs on CDs, and we listened to those over and over. I really want to get back to the music. I’ve been promising myself that I’d sign up for guitar lessons because I haven’t touched a guitar in so many years. Well, I’m really going to do it. I’ve missed the music, but life just got in the way.

Oh, and I went in search of the Jersey Devil while I was in Jersey. Since I’ll be doing a few more books set at the Woo Woo Inn, I decided I needed to refresh my memory of what the Pine Barrens looked like. Barbara drove me to Leeds Point, but I was really disappointed to find that the Leeds house (legendary birthplace of the Jersey Devil) was in the woods somewhere. There were no historical markers, no guided nightly tours of the woods, and no crass commercialism. I didn’t find one Jersey Devil postcard or cheesy souvenir. What a letdown. I did have Barbara take my picture standing under the Leeds Point sign. And the lady in the small post office there gave me the name and phone number of a local man who’s done years of research on the Devil. So if I decide to bring the Devil back in a future book, I won’t have to do any research.

Guess I’ll shut it down for the night because Abby is trying to dig her way into the room. Yes, she loves digging in the carpet. Grr. At first I thought she wanted to reach me, but now I think she just smells fresh unchewed phone cords (see yesterday’s post).