What’s on my (mostly virtual) nightstand 11-6-11

“The hurrieder I go, the behindeder I get!”

I participated in the Library 2.011 WorldWide Conference on November 2, conducting a webinar on genre fiction. I’d never conducted a webinar before. Well, now I have. But the prep time threw my reading schedule off. A lot.

And I still have stuff to read for this week!

I review ebooks for Library Journal Xpress Reviews whenever they send me a book. The reviews are published at the Library Journal site, and sometimes they are printed in the Library Journal print magazine. Which is really cool, because it gives me something to show my mom. Last week, I got a book to review for LJ. So I’ll be reading White Hot Christmas by Serenity Woods. My review is due to the editor on November 11.

November 11 is Veterans’ Day. In honor of Veterans’ Day, Bell Bridge Books is publishing a collection of romance novellas featuring Navy SEALs as the heroes, titled SEAL of my Dreams. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go towards Veterans Research Corporation, a non-profit fundraiser for veterans’ medical research. I have a review copy of SEAL of my Dreams from NetGalley, and this is one review I want to make sure comes out for the release date.

I need to read both Fallen Embers and Blowing Embers by Lauri J. Owen. I received both books from the author, and promised to provide an honest review. I also promised to provide said review by this Friday. I had intended to read Fallen Embers last week, and didn’t quite make it. So I’ll be reading them both this week.

I mentioned last week that I glommed up half the Carina catalog for November from NetGalley. What was I thinking? I have three books with release dates next Monday, November 14; Dark Vow by Shona Husk, Knight of Runes by Ruth A. Casie and The Hollow House by Janis Patterson. Knight of Runes is definitely a time-travel romance, Dark Vow looks like a fantasy romance, and the description of Hollow House reads like a cross between a paranormal and good old-fashioned gothic! They all looked so good! They still do. Thank goodness none of them are the length of War and Peace, or even the average Charles Dickens’ novel.

Looking back at last week (groan, moan) I still have that archiving problem with Frost Moon and Blood Rock. I have to read them before 11/26 or they will timebomb off my iPad. Never got to Snuff, but at least that won’t go away. And doesn’t that look strange as I write it. Slip Point and The Lady’s Secret are done, I just need to write the reviews. I did finish Cast in Secret. It will be a couple of weeks before I even contemplate Cast in Fury.

The other problem is that I want, I really, really want, to read Scholar, the new book in L.E. Modesitt’s Imager Portfolio series, that will be released on Tuesday. I absolutely adored the first three books, and see no reason that I won’t love this one, whatever the early reviewers might say. But if I can make myself wait, the price will come down. What’s a girl to do, I ask you?