The Lori Foster event was fun and the RWA convention just around the corner. How is that possible? Summer is already flying by. At any rate, I’ll be in Washington, D.C., July 15th through the 19th. Saturday the 18th, I will be signing books from 9:00 to 10:30 AM in the Thurgood Marshall West room at the Marriot Wardman Park hotel. Come by and say hello if you live in the area or will be at the conference. I’d love to meet you!

On that note, let’s talk books! So, what is everyone reading? I’m an author, but I am even more an avid reader. Here’s a short list of what I have on my radar for this summer: Right now I am reading Celeste Bradley’s Desperately Seeking a Duke. She’s so funny. I love her unconventional heroine, Phoebe. So far, a real winner. On board next, Julia Quinn’s The Lost Duke of Wyndham. I know, I know, I am behind because both books have been out a while, but forgive me, I’ve been busy with deadlines! JQ is a particular favorite of mine. I also need to start the new Mary Balogh series. Oh yes, just read Mademoiselle Boleyn by Robin Maxwell. Fabulous. Jon Sanford’s Wicked Prey is another in the huge pile next to my desk. I love his mysteries, though they aren’t for the faint of heart.

A Devil’s Bargain (Siren Publishing) is a finalist in the Passionate Plume contest for best historical! The winners will be announced in D.C. at a dinner hosted by the RWA Passionate Ink chapter on Thursday, July, 16th. It’s always nice to get the nod of a final.

Otherwise, I just finished edits for Seducing the Highlander (May 2010 from Signet Eclipse) and am expecting edits for the first of the Jaded Gentleman series. I have the other two contracted books to write, so life is not dull here <laugh>

The very talented Bethany Michaels sent me this list on the top reasons to buy eBooks and I had to share it with you. In case you haven’t read her, she writes for Red Sage and several other publishers and you might just want to give her website a little look at: www.bethanymichaels.com

Have a lovely June!

All best to everyone and happy reading,

Emma

Top Ten Reasons E-books Rock
By Bethany Michaels
www.bethanymichaels.com

1. E-books never get yellowed pages, a musty old-book smell or book mites, no matter how long you have them.
2. E-books are usually cheaper than their dead-tree counterparts, which means your TBR file can grow even faster!
3. Immediate gratification. You see, you download, you savor, all while Grey’s Anatomy is on commercial break.
4. If you invest in a mobile device with a back-light feature , you can read in bed in the dark without keeping your bedmate up…unless you choose to ?
5. You can “Go Green” painlessly, like all the coolest celebrities. No trees give their lives for your reading pleasure and no diesel-engine trucks are required to transport your e-book from the publisher’s server to your PC.
6. As more publishers release their backlists in electronic formats, you’ll be able to hunt down another copy of that book you loved and then lent to someone in 1987, without paying prices on Ebay the mafia would respect, writing 100 letters to the publisher begging them to release a re-print, or trolling used bookstores every weekend for a year looking for it (wait, that part sounds kind of fun!)
7. You can read the hottest erotic romance title in your doctor’s office waiting room without cardiac patients going into arrest from seeing a cover filled with images of naked people doing things they’ve only read about in public service brochures.
8. You can buy the hottest erotic romance title without facing a smirking teenaged clerk who knows exactly what’s between those pages and why you’re buying it.
9. E-books don’t take up any space in bookshelves, closets, garages, attics, basements, crawl-spaces, coffee tables, in kitchen cabinets, under the beds or in bathroom vanity drawers. And when you move, you put your library in your purse instead of packing it in 157 moving boxes.
10. Your text-messaging, viral-videoing, social-networking, Blue-Toothing kids will think you’re cool.