Musings, Spring Updates & Books

Five more days until this month is gone--it went too fast. But I'm hopeful that the weather in April will turn warmer. We had 20 degrees for a low this morning! We're 15 degrees colder than we should be. I'll say!

I've finished the book An Embarrassment of Riches last night by Yarbro. This is not your typical blood sucking vampire story. Yarbro sets her vampire, Saint-Germain off from others in her own way, and needs not apologize for it. The scenes are lush with historical detail and language. The novel is set in the 1200's. The historical backdrop and all the clothing, and different words took me a while to get used to. (Yarabro's notes at the beginning are helpful and a must read before you go on to read the book.) This is definitely a book to read should you be interested in the Medieval time period, but I'd have to say it is not one filled with a lot of action. Saint-Germain--in this he is Razkoczy Feranci--who was known, in history, at this time as an alchemist. In this book he is an exile, and treated rather well since he owns land which the king wants. Kings at that time were going to war for power, land, and other such things. I felt Yarbro did a great job in showing how the power of the royalty works, but also how the church ruled over everyone and kept them all in the dark, as well as frightened about things they simply didn't understand--which included their own religion. You must remember at the time common people were illiterate, and very few upper class could read their own language let alone what is called church Latin.

When I closed the book for the last time, I felt somewhat as though it closed on a quiet note, assured that our hero would continue on in his way as a vampire. Saint-Germain's problem with all the women at court, from the queen to her ladies-waiting, he did so without becoming too perturbed, and maybe that's what bothered me a little bit. These various women who were very demanding, and could certainly give him probems--putting at risk his own people who would be slaughtered should he not dance to the tune of politics and meet demands for jewels, and sexual pleasures of Roza of Borsod, who held a high position in the queen's household. Still, I felt that he should have at least faced a little more of a threat than he did toward the end. Although I'm not disappointed in the fact he found a way out of it all, by no design of his own. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it. I did and look forward to reaind another of her books. It must have been a demanding piece of work researching the era, the people and their ways, as well as the clothing, and how they addressed one another. These things I did glean a great deal from the historical aspects.

The intrigue is more with the women who sought Raskoczy for his "sexual" favors. Of course, unless you are not familiar with Yarbro's St. Germain I'm not going to tell you a great deal about his sexuality. For me, what I do remember from the one other book I did read Hotel Transylvania, is that I was rather disappointed that she made him impotent. That was something that had stayed with me, back when I'd read it, before I penned my own vampire book, and I felt that it was a shame that he merely derived his pleasure from the blood he sought from women. Not that the women were disappointed, believe me. There was a very good reason these women came to him.

I would love to find another of her books and read it. Compare it. Each of her books are stand-alones, so you can hop around the centuries, new adventures, and countries.

The other book I read this month was All Hallow's Blood by Raven Corinn Carluk, who I hope to interview and post it here. In contrast to Yarbro, Carluk's book is set in modern-day Portland, and definitely had plenty of action, danger, sex and so forth. The character, Keila, had some special talents, and if you like the kick-ass chick type of vampire fiction, I would recommend this one. Her vampire, Varick Eitenhaur, is the yummy vampire who holds Keila to finding the bad vampires who want to take over his territory. Together they make quite a team, and in the process discover things about themselves they weren't aware of. An interesting tale and with the added psychic advantages that Keila has, it makes for a truly different type of heroine.

Other things that I've been busy at have been, of course, finding blogs which will host me/my book. I've had word back from two. One I've managed to get a definite date of the 10th of April, and I will announce this later on. Another is an interview with an acquaintance, Mike Kleen, who I met at a book signing, and he lives nearby. He has promised to send me interview questions, but theses have not come my way as yet. Possibly Mike may have bought the book in order to read it, before slinging questions my way about it. That would be very cool if he did.

I've appealed to two other places as well. One is a well known (and very popular) one to me, but until I get word back about it, I'll not mention it for now. All things in their good time.

I understand that there is a "post-a-day" thing coming up. If you are involved with that, have fun.

Meanwhile I work on the edits of my own book.

Adieu for now.