Over at the West of Mars Facebook Page, I’ve started running Book Questions of the Week. I’d love it if you’d drop in and leave some suggestions and links there, but if you’d like to leave ’em here, too, go for it.

After all, one can never have too many suggestions for great books to read.

This week’s theme: Women Sleuths, contemporary age. This is, of course, to celebrate Women’s History Month, and don’t ask how contemporary women sleuths make up Women’s History, except women are making history, maybe. It’s a bit of a stretch, but too bad.

Leave suggestions and/or links here or there. You can suggest your own books, you can suggest a friend’s books, you can suggest a book (or series) you love… it’s all good! And, of course, along with your links, feel free to actually (shocker alert:) talk to each other about your suggestions.

You just might make some new friends.

I love new friends. Especially book friends.

So let’s hear it. Women sleuths, licensed or not. Contemporary age.

Who are your faves?

And don’t forget that we’ve got the Featured New Book Spotlight and Lines of Distinction for your promotional needs. Take advantage: they cost you NOTHING!

And hey, if you’re still reading… if you’re a new client and your manuscript IS the BQOTW, speak up before the next one gets posted and you’ll get a discount on your editing needs!

You get to look at the cover for Broken because not only is it my newest release, it’s the story I’m proudest of at the moment. (Note: at the moment)

Thanksgiving’s approaching. Those of you who are my friends and who interact with me on a regular basis saw my Ultimate Monday picture on my personal Facebook page the other day: an unknown-to-me member of the AUDL’s Toronto Rush, mid-sprint, one hell of a determined eye on the disc. It was supposed to be a reminder and a motivator this week, when it’s hard to focus (and having a sick kid at home doesn’t help with that focus thing.). I’ve spent a lot of time staring at this dude.

It’s not helping.

Because the truth is that while I’ve got a small stack of manuscripts to edit (and there’s room for more… not your NaNo winners, but the holidays are a great time to send your manuscript to your Jewish editor ’cause she’s got zero Christmas shopping to do and generally hides from the other Christmas shoppers this time of year), I’ve been writing. All my friends and fans who listened to me swear up one side and down the other that I was done writing and was purely an editor… well, every single one of them promised me I’d write again. Turns out they were right.

And like all writers-by-birth (as opposed to writers-by-choice, and if you don’t know the difference, you’re not a writer-by-birth), all I want to do is curl up on the couch (with the new West of Mars mobile office!) and write.

I’m older than I was when I was working on the Trevolution books. I’ve learned so much about writing by editing, and I’m bringing that to my new stuff, as well. And I’m a lot more aggressive about using my library system to find books with themes and structures that mirror and resemble — sometimes scantily — what I’m working on.

So. That leads me to my question of the day: what books are you loading on your e-readers, throwing in your suitcases, tucking into a nook or cranny in your car to accompany you on your Thanksgiving travels? If you’re staying home, what have you hidden in the bathroom, under your bed, in the basement for when you can get away from a house full of guests?

Me, I’m reading:
Midnight Ride by Cat Johnson
Sweet Revenge, by Zoe Archer
and, oddly (or not) Sweet Revenge by Nora herself.

If you look, you can probably figure out what I’m up to.

How about you? What are you up to?

And got any books in mind similar to my current list?