The Little One is finishing up Midnight Rain (or at least that’s the plan), this week at camp.

It’s been some time since I read it, but I remember it as incredibly suspenseful and creepy, like the early X-Files episodes (which is a different post). (And I mean “creepy” in a good way.)

Phoebe Rain’s violent ex-husband lies in a coma a thousand miles away. Yet Phoebe knows the voice on the other end of the phone, the voice of that twisted man, who vowed he’d never let her get away. Panicked, she turns to her neighbor, Dr. Alan MacKerrie, who finds the story hard to believe. But now he too is receiving chilling warnings of danger from beyond. Caught between icy terror and mounting passion, is there no escape?

Today’s teaser, from page 147 (randomly selected by Amazon.com) of Midnight Rain:

When I opened my birthday present, aside from the gift itself, out fell two twenties and a ten. And the first thing I thought was, Now I can buy more groceries.

As you know, sometimes the life of a writer sucks. But I do have a summer software contract lined up, which should fund this year’s big book giveaway. As we say: I’m just writing to make money until my software-development career takes off.

Nonetheless, I did manage to stop by the Used Book Superstore yesterday, on a lark. I told myself I’d only check for Holly Lisle titles that I didn’t have. Didn’t find any. (No surprise.) And then I happened through the foreign-language section and the advertising-and-marketing section and the religion section.

Phoebe Rain’s violent ex-husband lies in a coma a thousand miles away. Yet Phoebe knows the voice on the other end of the phone, the voice of that twisted man, who vowed he’d never let her get away. Panicked, she turns to her neighbor, Dr. Alan MacKerrie, who finds the story hard to believe… But now he too is receiving chilling warnings of danger from beyond. Caught between icy terror and mounting passion, is there no escape?

On the way to my goal to read every book Holly Lisle has ever written… Well, not yet close to that goal, but at least heading in the right direction. And like her other romantic suspenses, Midnight Rain comes with about equal parts evil suspense, paranormal terror, and passionate romance, all weaved through a compelling story driven by deep characters, proof that stories that grab you do not also need to be shallow.

Today’s teaser, from page 84 (randomly selected by Random.org) of Midnight Rain:

You wouldn’t think that I would need more books, judging from the size of my Goodreads “to-read” list, all of which I have on the premises or readily available to borrow. But the fact is that I’ve been looking for some engrossing, character-driven fiction to read, and on that score Holly has always delivered. Besides which, the Little One has wanted to read Fire in the Mist ever since I told her about it months ago. (I had read part of it online at the Baen Free Library, but that was before ebooks were convenient to read, and I’ve been longing to finish it myself.)

But that wasn’t the end of my book acquisition. I’ve also set up an account on BookMooch, have already given away 5 books from my “to get rid of” pile, and have already requested 2 more Holly Lisle books.

All told, here are the books I’m expecting (some of which I’ve already received):