Monday, July 06, 2009

SAGE CANE'S HOUSE OF GRACE AND FAVOR - Released 7-17-09



My new book comes out on July 17th. I'm very excited. It's an Old West Historical set in a Colorado mining town. It's quite a different story than I usually write, and I wrote it under a different name, Christy Hubbard. I loved writing this book. It felt like it was being channeled to me. I think I must have lived one of my previous lives in the Old West.

Here's the story of SAGE CANE'S HOUSE OF GRACE AND FAVOR:

In 1859 a woman needed guts to live in the Old West, and Sage Cane had an abundance. Penniless and in debt after the death of her father, then abandoned at the altar by a fortune-hunting scoundrel, she headed for Colorado gold country to take possession of the hotel she’d inherited from her Aunt Hannah “Honey” Wild. But the hotel is really a bordello called Wild Mountain Honey, and her plan to close it down is met with resistance from Bridger Norwood, the sexy town marshal whose job it is to keep peace in the rough and rugged mining town. Backed by the town fathers, he's convinced the miners need a nice place to go to keep them off the streets and out of trouble.

But Sage wasn’t born to let adversity keep her down or men control her destiny.

Fairplay Creek is a town of, by, and for men, with nothing for women. Not a slip of silk or froth of lace can be found anywhere outside the bordello. While the men mined for gold, drank in the saloons, gambled at the card tables, or visited Wild Mountain Honey, the wives were left behind to scrabble together a home in tents, huts, and dugouts. Until Sage Cane secretly teaches the women in town how to dress for adornment, whisper into a man's ear, and practice the fine art of seduction. Secrets are revealed and secrets are kept, but Fairplay Creek is changed forever.



Thank you RT Book Reviews for your 4 STAR review - "...marvelous tale...Dynamic characters...captivating plot..."

Thursday, July 02, 2009

RE-READING BOOKS

I’ve never understood re-reading books.

Often I hear people say they have read a book many times, or they put a particular book on their keeper shelf to read again later. I have a keeper shelf, but it’s for signed first editions, not for books I plan to read again. I can’t think of a book I would want to read more than once. Why would I? I already know what happens.

Plus, as the saying goes – “So many books, so little time.” That’s how I look at it. I have hundreds of books in my bookcase that I haven’t read yet, and new books are released every day that entice me. If I re-read my books, I wouldn’t have time to read all the great new ones coming out.

I don’t buy DVDs, because I don’t even like to watch a movie more than once. Well, maybe there is a handful I will watch if they’re on television, but few enough that I can name them – Shoot The Moon, Two for the Road, Grand Prix, La Dolce Vita, Tombstone. They’re old movies. You probably haven’t heard of any of them except Tombstone. I have a couple of concert DVDs, but haven't watched them more than two or three times.

Usually, I’m reading two or three books at a time, and I try to make sure at least one of them is nonfiction. Here’s what I’m reading now:

Fire and Ice” by Paul Garrison
Live From New York, an Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live” by Tom Shales & James Andrew Miller
The Secret History” by Donna Tartt

Oh, and I have new music, too. Here’s what’s new in my CD collection:

“Dummy” by Portishead
“Ultimate Waylon Jennings” by Waylon
“The Essential Johnny Cash” by Johnny
“The Essential Willie Nelson” by Willie

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

OH, MY GOSH, DAN SIMMONS!


I just finished reading Dan Simmons "A Winter Haunting" and oh, my gosh, it is spooky! I ended every chapter with a cringe, a glance over my shoulder, and a nervous little laugh.

I don't normally jump at house sounds in the night, but I did while reading this book, and in addition, I checked and re-checked to make sure the house alarm was activiated. (Not that an alarm would have scared away any of the malevolence in THIS book.)

Dan Simmons has skillfully blended reality with unreality, so that it ALL seemed real. Mysterious messages appearing on the computer screen, strange lights and noises in the boarded up second story of an abandoned house, the sudden appearance and disappearance of a stray dog, an overwhelming sense of danger, and all of it overlaid with the cold and gloom of a midwest winter.