A digression, a review, a giveaway…

We’ve reached the end of questions week, unless anyone wants to weigh in on Casear’s chicken-or-egg query, or tell Patrick the difference between a preface and a foreword? Like, officially? (I think it’s whatever you decide it is. I think prefaces are usually written by the author and forewords by the author OR someone else, but that’s merely anecdotal. Google was no help either.)

In the meantime, my buddy Andrew has started a crusade. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Also, it shocks me every time I realize how groweds up he is. I still think of him as the college kid who needed a place to crash one Spring Break…

As a writer, you are subject to lots of reviews of your work. Some of them are negative, but you can see their point, and will secretly vow to do better next time. Some of them are negative, and you know the reader has caught the entirely wrong end of the stick and/or is taking crazy pills to get that interpretation, and you must powerfully resist the temptation to tell them so. (Pause, while I powerfully resist temptation to give examples.) Some reviews are positive, and those make you happy, even if you aren’t always sure what they so loved about the story was what you were getting at. These may make you wonder if you will accidentally repeat the effect in the next book you write, or if you are doomed to disappoint the reader through no fault of your own. But the best reviews for a writer to read are the ones where the reader gets it the way you do, loves what you love, and says so in a way that you took 300 pages to get across. Those are the ones I can’t resist sharing. Especially this part:

And let me just say, I have been reading just tons and tons and tons of sex scenes of late and have been pretty well burnt out, but this book made me sit up and get interested again. Hubba hubba.

That made my day. Several of them, in fact. Thank you, Speed Reading Book Nerd, wherever you are…

Enough about me. Let’s talk about two very different books that are both out this week:

First up, we’ve got Unmasqued: An erotic novel of The Phantom of the Opera, by Colette Gale. I am dying to read this book. I actually won a copy the other week, but I’m keeping it out like a carrot on a stick until I finish ROS(B). Here’s the description:

One of the world’s most beloved stories as it has never been told before, Unmasqued is a novel of breathtaking historical erotica. His exquisite obsession… Christine Daaé heard rumors of the hideous Phantom said to haunt the great Opera House in 19th-century Paris. But its youngest and brightest star knows something no one else does-the truth. For in the darkness she thrills to the deep velvet timbre of his arousing voice, and quivers to the soft strokes of his leather-gloved fingers. He is real. Her inspiration. Her Ange de Musique. Her liberator.

Her erotic awakening… Condemned to the catacombs below, Erik has desired his obsession from the shadows, careful to keep his identity, and his secret, in the dark. Only he understands Christine’s extraordinary talents and her beauty. Only he can pleasure her like no man has before. But his sensual power comes with a price-and a risk to everyone who stands between them. For Christine too is succumbing to her most forbidden and dangerous desires-and to the Phantom who’s making them all come true.

Oooooh. Yes, I had that whole Phantom phase when I was in high school musicals. Plus, I loved the recent movie starring Leonidas Gerard Butler, and I know Colette was more than a little inspired by it as well. So this one is just pushing all my buttons. I’ve been hearing about it for ages from Colette, and I’m so excited it’s finally on the shelves! And that cover! Wow! (Rumor has it she’s working on another one based on my all-time favorite book, too!)

And, on the opposite end of the spectrum, we’ve got the teen-friendly Beyond Cool, by Bev Katz Rosenbaum, a sequel to the cryongenic comedy I Was A Teenage Popsicle. Here’s the description:

Apparently being frozen for ten years hasn’t made me any cooler… The next in the hot series about a girl whose life is really on the rocks. Floe Ryan was frozen at sixteen because of a rare disease. Now she’s been thawed back to her normal self-but everything else has changed: her little sister’s older than her, her teachers are holograms, and she’s learning to drive a hovercar. Plus, with her boyfriend acting distant and having to deal with all the cliques, high school is becoming an even colder place. She’s also learned that those who were frozen are susceptible to illnesses, and the one doctor who can cure them has gone AWOL. Floe must find him. But she’s learning that someone might be hunting for her too-and she could be iced for good this time.

I know a lot of folks who have been waiting on tenterhooks for this book, so I’m so glad it’s finally out!

Leave a comment here, and I’ll enter you in a contest to win these books (two winners, one of each book).