Reading til the wee hours...

When is the last time you sat up until the wee hours reading? You know what I mean--it's so late you may as well not go to bed?



I finished Swift of Heart at 3:30 AM this morning and I'm still not quite awake. Swift of Heart is a book written by my friend/blog partner, Amarinda Jones under her alter-ego's name of Janet Davies. You're probably wondering what kind of story could keep anyone up until 3:30 AM. Well, I have to admit that it's a pretty unusual premise.



The hero, Mac, shows up after a year long absence with no word to the heroine, Stephanie, and when she demands to know where he's been, he tells her he's been away fighting a war in his home country... in another dimension. Of course, she immediately believes him and all is forgiven--not!



Anyway, I made the mistake of starting this book while I was waiting for Yahoo to get it's act together yesterday afternoon. Janet/Amarinda had a chat scheduled that she was gracious enough to share with a few friends. In case you don't know what this is, author and friends post excerpts from their books and chat about them. Maybe there are some questions and answers from authors or readers. Everyone has a good time. As long as Yahoo is working properly!



Yesterday, however, Yahoo had a meltdown about five minutes before the chat began. No posts showed up. Frantic efforts on the Hostess' part were for naught. So once I posted a few things and waited for Yahoo to fix whatever was wrong, I thought I'll just begin this book and read for a while. Reading time is precious when you're a writer so you grab whatever time you can find to read.



Uh-huh. Never start a good book when you're going to have to keep putting it down... or since this was an e-book, I kept having to switch screens to check on the chat. Then my royalty check came and I had to run out to the bank to deposit it (no it wasn't that big, but every penny counts so rush out and buy one of my books!) Support your local author.



Then I had to stop and feed the ravening beast (my husband). Haven't quite figured out why he insists on eating every evening, but there you are. Some things are cast in stone after forty years.



Back to the chat which was hopping by then as Yahoo suddenly "fixed" whatever was wrong, though I know there were a couple of posts I sent that still hadn't showed up when I signed off at 10:30 PM. That's because our hostess extended the chat so we could still chat and post.



Ah-hah, I thought. Now I'll get to read the book. Nope. Had to deal with a couple of emergencies and a long dog walk.



Midnight. Okay, now I'll get back to Swift of Heart! The computer decided it was time to run a scheduled scan. So I puttered around while that happened. I should have done the dishes, but was too impatient by that time to mess with it.



1:00 AM. Finally, back to the saga of Mac and Stephanie. By this time, I'm determined to find out how they defeat the bad guy and win. Of course, they'll have a happy ever after--that's required, but how will they get there? How many bad guys will they have to defeat? What will it take to convince Stephanie that Mac won't disappear again?



What? You think I'm going to tell you the answers after I sat glued to my computer monitor until the wee hours? Not a chance. I will however tell you where to get your very own copy of Swift of Heart.... http://www.cerridwenpress.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419908255 by Janet Davies from Cerridwen Press. Don't delay as the sequel will be out in September.

Finally satisfied that all was well with Mac and Stephanie, I toddled off to bed. This morning I dragged my sorry ass around the house, yawning and trying to remember what I had to do today. As is my custom, I booted up the computer to check e-mail and stuff. Imagine my complete lack of surprise when I discovered that Yahoo seems to have misplaced several of my chat loops--including the one from yesterday. Guess it wasn't quite fixed, eh?

Well, that's a job for later on when I'm actually awake. In the meantime, go read what Kelly did to my sexy Scrabble story at http://www.kkirch.blogspot.com/ and then stop by Amarinda's blog to read her take on the entire chat to-do at http://www.amarindajones.blogspot.com/

I think I might go take a nap.

Anny