TGIF

Hey, it's castle day here at The Lady Novelist. This is Chenonceau in France, given by Henri II of France to his long-time mistress, Diane de Poitiers, the uncrowned queen of France. This is another great love story. Diane was almost 16 years older than Henri, and a widow, when she became his first lover. Henri fell in love with her, and stayed devoted until his death, seriously pissing off Catherine de Medici, who seized the chateau after Henri's death. Remember, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and Catherine was pretty upset that Diane had to send her lover to impregnate the Queen, so that France would have an heir.

Okay, before I go on to our regularly scheduled blog, I just have to have a mini-rant here. Now I know that agents are very busy people, between their own clients, dealing with editors, listening to pitches at conferences, and the many other myriad duties. I get that. But when I sent out a partial proposal on a Monday night at 7:00 p.m. and I get a unsigned form rejection letter on THURSDAY of the same week, I get pretty steamed, because I know that my manuscript has not been given the 'careful consideration' stated in the letter. Now this agent has gone to the bottom of my submission pile, and I doubt that I will ever submit to that agency again.

Rant over. Other than the rejection, it's been a pretty good week. I managed to find the last bag of dark chocolate M&M's at Target, 8 items on my reserved list at the library, including the complete Regency House Party, are ready for me to pick up, so I'll be busy all weekend, I had a great night at a hotel, 2 Orchestra tickets to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which was fabulous, and a backstage tour.

I even finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Tuesday night, and all I can say is Wow. I'm still trying to digest what happened in this book. I stand in awe of JK Rowling, and what she's achieved with this series. Harry is growing up, with everything that it entails. I don't know how she's going to tie everything in the last book, or if she will at all. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the book yet, but I thought it was better than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The problem with that book for me was that Harry was so angry and angsty for the 3/4 of the book, and I thought it dragged the story down. This book had more moments of lightness than the previous book. I can't wait for Ron and Hermione to finally just admit that they have feelings for each other and get on with it.

Also, I've discovered another new Bombshell author that I'm loving, Stephanie Feagen. Her book Show Her The Money, is everything that I've wanted Bombshell books to be, fast, funny, and lots of tension. I can't wait to read the second book in the series.

Well, I'm off to the beach this weekend with Janet Evanovich's new Stephanie Plum.

Stay cool!