Ahh, we’ve got to blame this one on Steven Beeber, author of The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s. It’s a really cool book tracing the history of Jews and the punk rock movement. Steven asked us to list our top 10 rock books, so I decided to do it here rather than there.

This is in no real order. And, of course, I can’t limit myself to ten. Hello? Me? The self-proclaimed expert on rock and roll fiction?

I don’t think so.

Anyway, here’s the list:

1. I’ll be crass and start this list off with my own books. Because I can. If you haven’t read them yet, shame on you for six weeks!

2. If you haven’t heard me rave about KL Going’s Fat Kid Rules the Earth, you haven’t spent a lot of time with me.

3. Don Bruns writes a great mystery series about a dude named Mick Severs. Don’t miss them.

4. Don DeLillo — Great Jones Street. I read this in college and it’s stayed with me all these years. It’s also the only DeLillo book I could finish.

5. Peggy Ehrhart — Sweet Man is Gone

6. Bill Flanagan — A&R

7. Kathi Kamen Goldmark — And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You

8. Mark Childress — Tender

9. Sylvie Simmons — Too Weird for Ziggy

10. Michael Shilling — Rock Bottom

And of course there are a few honorable mentions, as well:

Roddy Doyle — The Commitments
Jeanette Clinkunbroomer — Life Without Music
Joe Meno — Hairstyles of the Damned
Cecil Castellucci — Beige
David Hiltbrand — Killer Solo

Got any of your own? I’ll link ’em here and/or add them to my rock books page. And yes, YOU can include non-fiction. I won’t tell.

**reminder of the disclaimer garbage: most of these links will take you to Powells.com, where I’m an affiliate. If I ever make money from it, I’ll buy books to give to you guys, my readers. If not, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I love you anyway. And really, I’d rather have the royalties from you buying MY books, when all is said and done…

I make a point of not going to my PO Box every day. Unless I have to mail out a copy of one of my books, or unless I am waiting for a payment so I can come back and mail out a book, I don’t like opening my poor PO Box door and seeing nothing but the far wall of the inside office.

I usually stop by the post office twice a week.

Monday’s visit yielded nothing. Nada. Just empty space. However, I had three books on request from PaperbackSwap, so I knew it wouldn’t be a week of emptiness.

On Thursday, I was proved right. All three books were waiting for me!

The Mascot, written by Mark Kurzem, is for my book club. I really don’t want to read this; there have been maybe one or two non-fiction books we’ve read that I’ve loved. There were maybe one or two more that I said more than, “Eh,” to. (I’ll let you look over the list of what we’ve read and see what you think!)

I know. You’re wondering why I’d let this group, which is run by ME, bully me into reading something I really don’t want to. There’s a very good reason for this.

Let me make it up. Give me a minute or two…

No, seriously. If you don’t occasionally follow when someone else leads, you might be refusing to have a hell of an experience. So they expressed strong interest in this book. We’ll see what happens.

The other two books were welcomed more warmly. The next was JR Ward’s Lover Eternal, the second in the Black Dagger Brotherhood books. (And see? Proof that us women like to read about men! But that’s another issue for another post) I recently read the first in the series and while I didn’t love it, I’m willing to try it again. Maybe it’ll be like Kathy Reichs for me — hit or miss. Who knows until I try? (see a theme here?)

My third and final book of the week (and the winner for the Best Wrapping award, not that the other two were slouches by any means!) was David J. Schow’s The Kill Riff. No cover picture; Powell’s didn’t have one available. It’s rock and roll fiction, so look for it to be reviewed one of these days over at Rocks and Reads.

So there ya go. My mailbox. Be sure to stop by either The Printed Page or The Story Siren to see what others got In the Mailbox, on Mailbox Monday.

**
Just a reminder: I’m a Powell’s affiliate. Anything I earn through your purchases there will go back to you in the form of gives. And no, I won’t buy copies of my own books for these gives. That’s just tacky. (Anyone get the joke?)

Yep, here I go again… more rock and roll book coveting.

This one’s a bit different. It’s an unauthorized biography. I usually stay away from unauthorized anythings, but … it’s about Hetfield. You guys know how much I love Hetfield.

The book is called James Hetfield: The Wolf at Metallica’s Door. It was written by Mark Eglinton, who is apparently an author (ya think?) and journalist. (Janiss, do you know him?) It claims to have interviews from such cool folk as:

Charlie Benante [ANTHRAX], Jerry Cantrell [ALICE IN CHAINS], Rex Brown [PANTERA, DOWN], Jeff Waters [ANNIHILATOR] and Mille Petrozza [KREATOR], among a list of equally important others, and to kick things off there’s an excellent and fitting foreword by legendary [TESTAMENT] singer Chuck Billy.

(Quote stolen from the article on Blabbermouth. and I really hope that link works… but if not, you know how to go to Blabbermouth and search for the book title. Really. If I can do it, so can you.)

And now it’s time when I do my shameless begging for a free review copy… I mean, heck. I’m already predisposed to liking it, right?

I only made it to the post office once this week (as the books sitting on my floor, waiting to be mailed will attest), and when I was there, only one book was waiting for me.

Lonely? It’ll have PLENTY of time to sit and be social while it waits its turn on the TBR mountains.

It’s Laura Fitzgerald’s One True Theory of Love.

If you weren’t a visitor back when I read Veil of Roses, you may want to use this handy-dandy link and see why I absolutely couldn’t wait to add this to the mountains. And really, you should become a regular around here. That wasn’t even six months ago!

That’s it for me this week. Drop by The Printed Page and The Story Siren to see what others got in THEIR mail this week. Make a few new friends while you’re at it, too.

I forgot a book in last week’s Mail Call!

I got a super duper copy of Rebecca Cantrell’s A Trace of Smoke — from the author, herself. She even signed it!

I won it from… I want to say Number One Novels. Really. You should think I’d keep better track of these things. One thing I WILL be keeping track of is this book. It’s going to go into my Book Club bag, which has been looking a little empty of late.

I know where The Jewel Trader of Pegu came from! Paperbackswap.com, thankyouverymuch. I’ve read really good things about it, and then the Tour Manager’s mom raved about it to me and … that did it. I brought the synopsis to my book club and … it’s on our list.

And if you remember this post, I’ve got a VERY cool update of it.

Ms. Olivia Brynn herself saw my post — and sent me her one and only print copy so I can review it!! Wasn’t that amazing of her??? The book is called Falling Star and I am DYING to get reading it. I’ve got a few in the queue in front of it (go figure), but I’m trying!!

I swear, when it rains, it pours. Lots have been showing up here for my two passions: Jewish lit for my book club, and rock and roll lit for me.

Life is good.

Be sure to look at The Printed Page and The Story Siren for other good lives and better books, eh?

Oh, and those of you looking for the links, pictures, and tales of the weekend writer’s retreat, stay tuned. It’ll come during the week, I promise. I need sleep and processing, in that order. It was quite the adventure…

Well. I’m off with some of my local Sisters in Crime for the weekend. We’re journeying to a town that’s supposedly currently flooding, where we’ll take over a B&B and kick the owners out. ’cause you know. Mystery writers? They talk about how to kill off their characters — and the conversation is often loud, gleeful, and … to the casual eavesdropper, scary.

Nope, this doesn’t mean I’m going to bring you a mystery, although I haven’t ruled out the idea of writing one. It just means I’m gonna try to whip this one particular puppy into shape…

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Whoa. Books showed up here two weeks in a row.

Used to be, if I went two DAYS without books arriving, it was weird. But in an attempt to make the TBR mountain range here in my office shrink, I’ve been VERY disciplined about limiting what comes into the house. (within reason; I still get a nice share of RABCK — random act of BookCrossing Kindness — surprises)

So, in addition to the three party-hardy, beer-soaked books that showed up here on Wednesday, I got…

Searching for Tina Turner, by Jacqueline E. Luckett

Nope, this isn’t a rock book, believe it or not if you judge by the title. (And don’t give me that. Tina could teach ANY rocker a thing or two!) It’s just something that I wanted to read.

Still personal is the arrival of Lori G. Armstrong’s Blood Ties. Lori rocks, pure and simple. I know her as both Lori and as her alternate, erotic counterpart. I DIG Lori, hear? You would, too, if you knew her. She’s just that awesome.

And since she’s awesome, that means I need to read her awesome books, too. So, I shall.

Yes, it IS this easy in my world.

Except for when my books get to party harder than I do. That’s just WRONG.

Be sure to stop by The Printed Page, where Marcia is hosting Mailbox Monday, and The Story Siren, where Kristi hosts In My Mailbox. I’m sure other people got better-behaved books that don’t party as hard as those still-unnamed three did.

That’s right, boys and girls! It’s here!

Read an E-Book Week began bright and early Sunday morning and YOU (yes, you) can get in on the fun. If you’ve never read an e-book, it is time.

Here. Start with The Demo Tapes. I’ve made them half-off at Smashwords, on top of that already ridiculously low price point I am experimenting with. Then, surf around. Find the other Read an e-Book Week partners and see what sort of great stuff you can find.

Wait! It’s Monday and I’m feeling left out of the all attention being given to the freebie books. So… Both Demo Tapes anthologies are now free at Smashwords. If you’d like to get them in print, use the handy buy links here on the site and use coupon IDES. That’ll work until March 31 — and give you 10% off the cover price.

It may not be as big a discount as free, but it’s a start!

Load up your hard drives, your flash drives, your e-readers. Even if you don’t get to read them this week, you’ll have them. They don’t go bad. And then, you can spread the Read an e-Book Week goodness year-round.

Join me. Read an e-book, even if it ain’t mine.

I don’t know how many of you remember — assuming you even saw it — the Camp Choas spots, lambasting my favorite real band and the whole Napster debacle.

Even if you’ve never seen it, you need to. Ten years later, it still cracks me up. The Tour Manager and I used to mimic the Cartoon James and announce “Beer! Good!” Hell, to this day, I still say, “Fire! Bad!”

But we’re talkin’ beer here. And books. Because, while beer is the booze I prefer, beer and books just don’t get along.

See, here’s the deal. I went to the post office on Wednesday. It’s a small post office, and the two women who work there know me. So it was with some chagrin that a package was handed to me. It had arrived that morning — and it was wet. Another package had erupted in the mail sack, and wouldn’t you know, but this 9×12 catalog envelope headed for me had gotten the worst of it.

By the smell, it’s beer.

Now, it turns out this is a very very bad thing. Not merely because inside this package is a book I’d been expecting and intending to review. But because the author was kind enough to send me THREE COPIES so I could give them away.

All ruined.

My postmaster tried to get some restitution for me. But… the post office is buried under layers of legislation protecting their profits. They aren’t going to pay to replace my books, even though this happened while the books were in their hands. And they aren’t going to try to track down the sender of the beer, even though if you hunt around the USPS.gov website long enough, you’ll find that you’re not actually supposed to mail beer.

To add insult to injury, there was the implication that this was partially the author’s fault, for throwing three books into a 9×12 catalog envelope and not wrapping the books better. Like he was supposed to know some schmoo was dumb enough to mail beer?

Now, this is where it gets good. No, not that I contacted the publicist who’d set this whole thing up and she was quite understanding and wonderful.

It gets good the very second that I tell you that these books are about the 80s glam metal frontmen — a group of Aqua-Netted, bleach-blonde men who were known for their copious beer consumption. You know: who partied hard and lived to tell the tales.

These books certainly partied hard, whether or not any of us wanted them to. Lived to tell the tales? I’m not so sure.

Still. Who mails beer?

1. Last year, I posted about Read an e-Book Week.

2. This year, YOU (yes, you) can read BOTH of my books.

3. They are listed at Smashwords.com, as part of their special Read an E-Book promotion.

4. Yeah. That link won’t actually work until the 7th.

5. Or you can visit my profile page there now.

6. If you’re savvy, you’ll notice I dropped the price on the books.

7. And if you’re even savvier, you’ll hang tight for the 7th. The books will be discounted a FURTHER 50%.

8. If you want to make me extra royalties, or want a print copy, go to Lulu.com.

9. Use coupon code IDES between now and March 31 for a 10% discount on the print or download (it’s a .pdf download) copy.

10. But be sure to visit Read an E-Book Week’s home site.

11. You’ll find links to other e-books.

12. But they won’t be as good as mine. Or their authors as friendly as me.

13. Discover a new author this upcoming week. At the prices many of us are charging, you can REALLY load up and let the fun last beyond one mere week.

Yeah, I’ve been talking about books I didn’t write more than I’ve been sharing my own fiction of late. That’s okay ’cause my nose is still pressed firmly to the grindstone and I KNOW you guys are going to dig what I’m at work on. Promise.

So let’s talk books this week, shall we? On Monday, I found that my friend Megan, of Leafing Through Life, sent me a book from my wishlist (the shorter one posted at BookCrossing, not the 2000 or so I’ve got in an Excel file). It’s Dinner with Anna Karenina, and it was written by Gloria Goldreich.

I love wish list books. And I love seeing them show up in my PO Box even more.

I’m still on the prowl for books about rock stars, and another one found its way to me this week: What the Librarian Did, written by Karina Bliss.

This will NOT linger on the TBR mountains for very long. Promise. Keep an eye on Rocks and Reads for the review.

In the meantime, check out The Printed Page and The Story Siren for more Mailbox Monday/In My Mailbox and see what others are intending to read.

Yeah. I know. You’re going to fall over from the shock of this book I’ve come across.

It’s called Metallica: All That Matters, and it’s written by Paul Stenning.

Like always, anyone who’d like to buy me a gift or send me a review copy is welcome to.

I don’t think I need to say much more than this, huh?

But to change things up a bit. Sort of. Not really, I came across Olivia Brynn’s Falling Star. It seems to ONLY be an e-book and the only link I’ve got is to Liquid Silver books. Yeah, I should probably suck it up and buy it; Lord knows, it’s not terribly expensive. But the aspiring book blogger in me wishes all these books would show up on my doorstep so I can pretend I’m an important reviewer and all.

(btw, the link for Falling Star will take you to Liquid Silver books, not to Powells. So if you click through and then buy something, I won’t get the pennies I would if you bought through Powells. Just so you and the FTC know what’s up here.)

Since there’s now two weekly book memes: In my Mailbox and Mailbox Monday, it seems that just calling for a mail call is in order.

The past few weeks (since my last check-in, in fact), I’ve gotten a few books. Not many, and I forgot to blog about them.

However, I’m fixing that! Mary at BookHounds was kind enough to send me her copy of Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City: A True Story of Faking It in Hair Metal LA.

I’m not much of a memoir fan. You guys know I’m almost entirely about fiction. But given the subject matter, resistance is futile.

Anyone else get good books?

And for the record, Trevor wanted me to let you know he’s busy reading the back of a box of Frooty Pebbles. I guess you gotta start somewhere…

So our good friend Alice Audrey has her debut novel hitting shelves today! You guys know Alice; she of Alice’s Restaurant (that’s the blog) and Suzie’s House (that’s her online fictional serial).

Moving In is the name of this awesome first book — I’m eager to read it. And since it’s being released today, I had to ask her … what song makes you think of your book?

Here’s what she said:

This may be my first professional publication, but I’ve written a fair number of books before. A couple of them are making the agent/editor rounds in New York right now. Sometimes I listen to particular songs or artists while writing – everything from Pearl Jam to Afro Celts. Sometimes I have to turn the music off entirely. Moving In required silence. However, Good Enough by Sarah MacLachlin fits it very well.

Sarah’s folksy, accessible tones are much like Diane. Diane has a way of turning an apartment into a home, whether it’s her’s or her neighbors. She’s a down to earth, warm, and kind woman. Her greatest flaw? She’s convinced a woman can not be a mere housewife and still worthy of respect.

Trigvey disagrees. Adamantly.

He moves into the upstairs apartment of a converted Victorian the same day as Diane moves in downstairs. Actually, since he need to get to work and the previous tenants are still moving, he ends up putting his belongings in a corner of her apartment.

For Tirgvey, the title “Good Enough” is very appropriate. He is a doctor, financially secure, well respected, and good looking, yet when he comes home to a bare apartment and Diane’s generosity, he doesn’t feel good enough for her. He knows what she needs is love and attention, two things that are hard to demonstrate when you spend all hours of the day at work.

When things go badly in the ER, only Diane’s support gets him though. His faith in himself and his life is shaken. Before he’s done, so is hers.

You can click on the link above to see the official music video. And here’s the buy link!

Please join me in congratulating Alice and wishing her great sales (which we can ALL help out with, in fact!).

By now, you ought to know what a Jennifer Estep fangirl I am. I just finished her newest book, Spider’s Bite, and so… I had to ask.

You guys know the drill, right? I ask ONE question to an author about her (there haven’t been any men yet!) new release. That question is a simple one: What song makes you think of your book?

Jennifer picked Human, by the Pretenders. (Jennifer and I share a taste in music!)

Here’s why:

The song “Human” by The Pretenders makes me think of my main character, Gin Blanco. On the outside, Gin is a tough-as-nails assassin and ready to battle any bad guy who comes her way. But on the inside, she has a lot of inner demons, including her guilt over not being able to save her murdered mentor/foster father as well as all the bad things that happened to her the night that her mother and older sister were killed by a Fire elemental. The line from the song “I’m only human on the inside” just really sums up Gin’s character.

Here’s a link to the song at YouTube. Let me know what you think. And pick up Spider’s Bite! It’s available now. In fact, here’s a buy link, to Powell’s.com (Yes, I’ll earn a commission. No, I won’t spend it on myself. When I have enough moolah, I’ll give a book away to one of YOU.)

I swear, today’s Booking Through Thursday is a retread. I’m even going to begin my answer the same way I did the last time.

But first, the question:

Who’s your favorite author that other people are NOT reading? The one you want to evangelize for, the one you would run popularity campaigns for? The author that, so far as you’re concerned, everyone should be reading–but that nobody seems to have heard of. You know, not JK Rowling, not Jane Austen, not Hemingway–everybody’s heard of them. The author that you think should be that famous and can’t understand why they’re not…

Answer: ME! (especially since until the end of the month, I’m donating at least 50% of my royalties to the Red Cross, in response to the earthquake in Haiti. What a good time to buy my books.)

Want a less ego-centric answer? Jennifer Estep. Anya Bast. Ann Aguirre (although she’s well on her way). Carrie Lofty. India Edghill. Marcia Muller (she’s been around forever but has never really broken out. What a shame. She writes great stuff.). Cody McFadyen. KL Going. Don Bruns. Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Sheesh. Dig around the index here. Go under “Books” or “Susan’s Book Talk.” Find the books I’ve talked about. Ninety percent of them are written by non-best-selling authors. That’s because I prefer the hidden gems, the non-best-sellers-that-shouldn’t-be-non-best-sellers. I’ve started trends before. No reason I can’t do it by championing some of my favorite books.

**UPDATED: Until January 31 (and maybe beyond), royalties earned from book sales will be donated to the Red Cross, to help the people of Haiti.**

Because I feel like it, I’ve dropped the price on both Demo Tapes anthologies over at Smashwords. I’m also offering 10% off the print version of both books at Lulu.com.

AND if that’s not enough, I’m offering a two-fer if you buy through the Kindle store.

Check the Contest page for more details.

So, awhile back, I listed my Best Women-Penned of 2009. This week’s Booking Through Thursday asked what our best books of 2009 were, and since I wasn’t able to make the vague ideas for this week’s Thursday Thirteen gel, here’s a list of 13 of the best books I read in 2009.

**Note. Some links will take you to reviews, others to buy links via Powells.com. Any books you buy with my Powell’s affiliate will earn me money … which will go to buying books to share with you guys. I’m not keeping any profits I make through the Powell’s affiliate, only from the royalties I earn on The Demo Tapes (buy link for THAT below).

1. I started off the year with my first Greg Iles book, 24 Hours. I need to find more of Mr. Isles’ books. This was a great thriller.

2. Then I stepped back in time — with my very next read! — and discovered Michael Simon. I started with his first book, Dirty Sally. Loved the noir going on. My book club? Not so much. I’ll keep reading the series without them.

3. I read a bunch of rock and roll fiction. Rock Bottom by Michael Shilling, The Rock Star’s Homecoming by Linda Gould, Bahama Burnout by Don Bruns, Dark Side of the Morgue by Raymond Benson. Some were great, some weren’t. Later in the year, I got to A&R by Bill Flanagan and Do The Devil’s Work by Rick Florino, as well as Erica Kennedy’s Bling and Cecil Castellucci’s Beige and Dylan Schaffer’s Misdemeanor Man. (Reviews of these last three will appear at Rocks ‘n Reads sooner or later.)

4. Sometimes, I feel like I was one of the last people to be introduced to Lloyd Jones. His Mr. Pip is still making the rounds of my book club, and it’s a book I repeatedly refer to.

5. I really like fantasy and George RR Martin is truly one of the masters of the genre. I read A Clash of Kings this year — it took forever, as it was the book on my nightstand — and found that even though the cast is huge and I’d read the first book in the series years ago, I was brought up to speed seamlessly.

6. I got around to reading a lot of popular books: Audrey Niffeneger’s The Time-Traveler’s Wife, Christopher Paolini’s Eragon, Ann Brashare’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. One I loved, three I liked, one didn’t impress.

7. I’ve spent LOTS of time raving about Hank Phillippi Ryan. Why haven’t you joined me yet?

8. Another rock book and another rave: Tommyland, written by the majorly colorful (on many levels) Tommy Lee. I think you guys know I dig these books written by rockers. (See my raves about Tommy’s bandmate Nikki Sixx and his Heroin Diaries.)

9. The brilliantly written Shadow Man introduced me to Cody McFadyen. I’ve heard a lot about McFadyen from a number of you guys. I finally picked this book up and … wow. Okay, I had a FEW quibbles, but overall, this is a great debut. I can’t wait to read the second in the series; it’s sitting here, waiting for me.

10. Although I already raved about it in the women-penned list I linked to above, Song of the Seals by Christy Yorke deserves a second mention. The atmosphere alone made this an incredible read and as we’re passing it around my book club, we’re all talking about how it steered away from cliche.

11. After hearing one of my son’s classmates’ moms tell me she didn’t like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (written by Jeff Kinney), I picked up the first and read it. I like the mom, but it was a reminder of why I don’t fit in with many (most?) of the moms in this area. I can’t even pretend to share her concerns.

12. Series: Gini Hartzmark, Charlaine Harris (Sookie), Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum), Steven Brust, Kathy Reichs, Colleen Gleason (another West of Mars favorite), Rachel Caine, MaryJanice Davidson, Marcia Muller, Linda Fairstein, Alexander McCall Smith.

13. And, of course, there are my own books. If you haven’t joined the Trevolution yet, why not? Drop me a line; I can hook you up with autographed copies.

I know. I don’t often do Mailbox Monday posts. Or an In My Mailbox post. That’s because I’ve significantly slowed down what arrives in my mailbox. I’m trying to move things OUT, not in.

However, just this morning, my trusty PO Box was stuffed to the gills. Okay, maybe one or two more could have been squished in, but four’s a pretty darn good haul!

I got…

Never Mind the Pollacks, written by Neal Pollack. It’s a Rock and Roll Novel, and will be reviewed shortly at Rocks ‘n Reads. ‘Cause, you know, I write rock and roll fiction. I gotta know the genre inside and out. This was a PaperbackSwap.com find.

Another PaperbackSwap.com find was Steven Brust’s Taltos, the next adventure for my bud Vladimir. I totally love this series. I don’t get why more people aren’t reading it. Maybe it’s Vlad’s voice. Dry, acerbic — and yet smart. That doesn’t mean Vlad doesn’t do dumb things, though — and that’s the fun of this series.

A RABCK (that’s a Random Act of BookCrossing Kindness) also showed up. Bangkok Tattoo, written by John Burdett, has been on my wishlist since July of 2005. Only 1930 books left on my wishlist to find…

I saved the best for last. It’s autographed. It’s a great story.

You see, I was keeping an eye on my Twitter stream one day before Christmas and my bud, author TJ Bennett was tweeting about buying Christmas presents. So… I pulled a Trevor. “Oh, but why are you stressing?” I asked (or something to this effect). “All you need to get ME for Christmas is your latest book.”

So guess what showed up today? TJ Bennett‘s The Promise.

Damn. Trevor’s good.

***
Disclaimer shit: the buy links take you to Powells.com. If you should be motivated to use them, I’ll save up my take of the sale and use it to buy something I’ll turn around and give to you. If you’d like to help me financially, you’re better off to buy my books. Links are up on the left-hand side here, so click on through and get busy!

It’s release day for my new friend Christie Craig. Her Divorced, Desperate, and Deceived comes out today, so I asked her the now-familiar question: What song makes you think of your book?

Here’s what she had to say:

Well, at first I almost chose: Old MacDonald Had a Farm

My stories are whimsical/quirky, fast paced, have lots of animals, are about down-home folks, and hopefully make a lot of people smile. Ahh, but then they’re also kind of sexy. And while I’ve often said that my books are hotter than a goat’s butt in pepper patch, let’s face it. A bunch of animals on a farm, or even a pepper patch, are not reflective of my sensual or suspenseful tone. So I had to go back to the drawing board. But I didn’t come away empty handed. I found: Hero, by Enrique Iglesias.

Okay, I know you’ve probably gotten this one before, but I’m a sucker for lyrics. And these words are so perfect for my book. In many ways this song resonates with the whole Divorced & Desperate series, because all my heroines in these three books are afraid to let another man in their life. They are all in desperate situations and all the heroes are determined to win their love, but first they have to keep them alive.

I can be your hero, baby
I can kiss away your pain
I will stand by you forever
You take my breath away

Stan, AKA, Luke, sees Kathy’s pain. He’s been trying to win her over for almost three years. More than anything, he wants to be her hero. She symbolizes everything he longs for in his life. Someone tender, who wants the simple things, someone who could accept him, flaws and all. But she can’t trust in love. While she’s turned him down more than any man should allow, and he should just give up, he can’t turn his back on her—especially when she accidentally gets caught up his past life, one that could get them both killed.

The lyrics continues to read:

Would you tremble,
If I touched your lips?
Would you laugh?
Oh please, tell me this.
Now would you die,
For the one you love?
Hold me in your arms tonight.

My books are sexy, my books have a heck of a lot of laughter and they are suspenseful. This song with its beautiful lyrics brings all that into the listener’s mind. Luke and Kathy are on the run, they find themselves laughing their way through stressful situations. Kathy has to defend herself with toilet tank lid, and then they find a dead guy in the Porta-potty. So yup, you’ll laugh, but you’ll never forget that danger is right around the corner. Forced to trust Luke with her life, Kathy learns to trust him with her heart. Falling in love has never been so risky, or so much fun.

Thanks so much asking me to participate, Susan. Here’s hoping my quirky stories offer a few smiles and sighs to your readers.

Divorced, Desperate, and Deceived. Pick it up, if only to find out about the dude in the Porta Potty!

Can’t get to a bookstore?? Well, Christie’s got a copy to share with you guys (US only, though, ’cause she’s paying for the mailing herself). Just leave a comment telling me WHY you want to read this and your e-mail. I’ll pick a winner on Monday the 30th.

No fancy hoops, like over at Rocks ‘n Reads. Just a comment will do!