Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

NOTE: I’ve been light on the posts, because I’m working feverishly on the next novel, Ardor Point #2… which I need to come up with a proper name for. Currently, the two top contenders are A Reason to Live and Finding Light.

Race Relations on the Internet

Seen on Facebook…

Is it bad to hate a certain race?

... cuz I like running the 5k...but the 10k really takes a lot out of me...

But Maybe Margaret is Right about the Hair Dye

It really hit me the weekend the girls came back from camp, and I asked my Little One to help me out with a new profile photo. While they were gone, my Beloved and I did a little small-scale clothes shopping. And I thought it might be time to try to update the photo.

Independence Day at the Point

Catching up on some of my subscribed RSS feeds, I was enamored of a photo post by smilla4 on her Independence Day in Maine at Ardor Point— er, I mean Merepoint.

Charity Versus Deeds of Lovingkindness

Heard this phrase at a recent tevilah, the phrase gemilut chasadim (גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים), “deeds of lovingkindness.” This article on MyJewishLearning.com explains gemilut chasadim.

Gemilut chasadim are not just alms given to help the poor, but things we do to be charitable to everyone.

I’m still collecting and writing up my thoughts on Enchantment, Charlotte Abel’s first novel. However, I’ve already peeked into the sequel, available as an ebook, Taken, a magical YA paranormal romance.

What I’ve seen so far encourages me, as I immensely enjoyed its predecessor. So even though I’m not officially reading it, and even though I’m not yet ready to write a review, today I’m quoting a snippet from a random location (chosen by Random.org)—or thereabouts—from the YA novel Taken:

Aunt Wisdom handed the jar of magically enhanced calendula, aloe and rosehip ointment to Channie. “Dab a little of that on your face.”

Aunt Wisdom had the ability to heal Channie and Josh’s damaged skin with magic, but as a master-healer it was her responsibility to conserve her energy for real emergencies. Ordinarily, she’d turn the treatment of frostbite over to one of her apprentices. Like me. The thought formed a lump in her throat.

I wanted to post this on Tuesday, but I was distracted by the recent holiday. Naturally, I’m referring to National Guys in the Floral Department Day.

Every year around this time, if you go into any store with a floral department, you are likely to see a dozen or so men wondering aimlessly in the vicinity, browsing from flower arrangement to flower arrangement, obviously lost but unable to ask for directions.

Why do they do this? Well, it’s the law. And if any man in a relationship of any sort fails at this task, the consequences are serious indeed, let me tell you.

Stores plans for this day, and every year they stock up on pretty young attendants to help out the guys who don’t know what they’re doing. Except for the store that I went to, which had a fat dude telling a pimple-faced guy with a scooter—and this actually happened—that they didn’t have bouquets of roses half red and half pink. Meanwhile, I thought, if he wanted a mixture of red and pink roses for his one true love, he should have gone to a real flower shop and paid more than 20 lousy bucks on an arrangement. Then he could have swept her away on his scooter, fading with her into the horizon and the setting sun.

As for me, I chose a bouquet of a dozen roses for my Beloved, pink blossoms just beginning to brown around the edges.

She loved them, especially the brown spots. Apparently, I have her well-trained to expect almost no attention from me whatsoever. Congratulate me.

(I was just kidding about that last part, in case you couldn’t tell.)

You may recall, I read Enchantment this past summer. And I liked it so much that I decided to include it among my favorite indie romances.

I’m collecting printed editions of these novels into a deluxe package, which I had hoped to make available for Valentine’s Day. (You know, because romance equals Valentine’s.) But I was unable to pull together all the extras in time. So still working on it. For now, here’s…

Sixteen year old Channie Kerns leads an idyllic life of magic, deep in the Ozark Mountains, until her family is forced to flee from a powerful rival who wants them all murdered. They leave everything and everyone behind, uproot their lives, change their names, and disappear to Louisville, Colorado. But when her parents catch Channie flirting with a group of “sex-crazed,” non-magical, city boys, they slap a powerful chastity spell on her to protect her virtue. And the spell has side-effects no one expected. Then Channie begins to fall in love with Josh Abrim, a BMX racer with dangerous secrets of his own. She rebels against her parents and turns to dark and forbidden magic to break the chastity spell, with disastrous results.

In the spirit of full disclosure—and a little bragging—I discovered Enchantement when Charlotte Abel commented on BeTheStory.com: ‘If the early reviews for “Enchantment” are any indication, I’d have to say “we” nailed it. I’m including you in that “we” because it was your article that gave me the courage to write what was in my heart.’ That’s when I began to suspect that I might like this book. And I was right.