Things Afoot

For years after seeing Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, my friends would utter the line, "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K..." whenever odd events popped up in groups. Well, today's not so much filled with odd events, per se, but it's definitely a day in which there are Things Afoot. Things Bill and Ted would deem "Most Excellent!"



Okay, that was a hokey intro. But you know what I mean. It is a HAPPY day!

First: Survivor starts up again tonight! (Collective YAY!) I'm participating in Fantasy Survivor (you can sign up on the CBS site, right here, if you're interested.) However, I will warn you that I plan to win.

Second: I've raved about Alyson Noël's books since I read her first one, FAKING 19. This week, her newest, EVERMORE, is on the New York Times List. If you haven't read her stuff yet, you must must must grab this book. And, frankly, everything else Alyson has written. (Collective YAY for Alyson!)

Third: Yesterday I was perusing the aisles at my local Barnes & Noble and, lo and behold, there's also gorgeous display for my good friend Cynthia Leitich Smith's newest release, ETERNAL. ETERNAL takes place in the same wacky, paranormal version of Austin, TX, as Cynthia's last novel, TANTALIZE. I wasn't expecting to see ETERNAL for another week or thereabouts, so it was truly a happy find. (Collective YAY for Cynthia!)

Go. Read. Watch. Enjoy!

Magazine-palooza

I subscribe to four magazines: Newsweek, National Geographic, Shape, and Self. When I'm going to be on an airplane, I treat myself to an airport-purchased copy of Lucky and/or Allure. Magazines are my guilty pleasure--their bite-size columns give me the ability to stop and start without losing my train of thought, as sometimes happens when I'm reading a book.

I hit the magazine jackpot at Thanksgiving, though--my sister-in-law handed me a stack of magazines she'd read on the flight from Minnesota to Colorado so I could read them on my flight home to Boston. I devoured Entertainment Weekly and US Weekly (which made me glad not to have paparazzi following me, hoping to get a shot of me tripping over a curb or with something stuck in my teeth.) But the most guilty pleasure of all was the "Sexiest Man" issue of People. Matt Damon was this year's winner. Kudos to the mag for making an out-of-the-box choice!

I was also glad to see Peter Krause and Seth Gabel from my newest fave TV show, Dirty Sexy Money. I'd be tempted to subscribe and feed my addiction, but I doubt that with all those magazines floating around my house, I'd ever get my writing done.

Normally I recycle my magazines, but when I finished this batch, I left them scattered in different seat backs so people on the next flight could do some guilty pleasure reading while airborne.

So what about you? What magazines are your guilty pleasures? And what do you do with them when you're done reading?


*** And a P.S. to today's blog, for those of you who do your guilty pleasure reading on the web: I'm featured today in author Cynthia Leitich Smith's popular blog, Cynsations. Thanks to Cyn for giving me the chance to chat about the creation of Goddess Games! ***