My Recent Comments

...heading over there right now to check this out...and bid!

... I found the coolest website, freerice.com, that gives rice to end world hunger when you take their vocabulary quiz!  It totally rocks!!!

Steeple Hill Blaze, Love Inspired Spice?  I'd read it in a heartbeat!

I, too, think it would be nice ot see a little more physcial/sexual interaction in the "faith" books (I just don't always have the patience to wait for that one chaste kiss at the end, LOL!).

On the flipside, I think it's cool to see spiritual elements in Blaze and Spice.  I've read several Blaze that get into pseudo-spiritual paranormal elements, but I'd like to see that expand to show greater spiritual depth.  My dh (yes, I said my dh) just finished Caine's Reckoning (a Spice title) and while it used a religious context, he said he could have used more redemption sort of language, and had the author play with the spiritual aspect a little more.  Not that we're complaining--the whole reason we bought the book was because we were excited about the whole sex/religion mix!

I sort of said something like this before, but I don't think I can stress it enough: sex, love, and religion are HUGELY related.  Stories that use just one or two aspects sell themselves short on showing the whole person (well-developed characters, anyone?).  And you can totally do that without getting preachy.  It just takes a good writer--and Harlequin has plenty of those!

What was the name of that SSE w/ the pastor?

My TBR just keeps growing...

What's the title on that SSE w/ the Jewish h?  I would love to read it!

Hey everybody, this is a great discussion.  I laughed, I cried (okay, maybe not quite), and it certainly made me think.

Having read a lot of Blaze and a fair amount of SHLI, I can tell you I've hit the cringe factor with both (not out-and-out offended, but cringing anyway).  Here's what it comes down to for me:

If a bad writer tries to write sex, it's gonna be bad.  When a good writer writes sex, whoa boy, that's good.  Religion is much the same.  Who we are as spiritual beings is an intimate, personal thing (a lot like sex!) and it has to be handled with a deft hand.  I, too, get very turned off when either one of those is done poorly.  And perhaps that's really where the rating issue comes in.

Because if somebody can take something intimately personal and write about it in such a way that makes my soul sing, I'm going to be impressed.  But if they just mutilate it and squash it into some square-cut writing guidelines, I'm going to be turned off.

For me, it's not about what you write, but how you write it.  Love, sex, and our eternal souls are all heavy issues, and when we dare to approach them, we tread on sacred ground.  Such a journey should be undertaken in reverence.  Not lightly, not with a heavy hand, and Lord help us, not by shoving anything down anyone's throat.

I love this idea!!!  It was good of you to bring this point forward, becuase you're right: it's so easy to look at what others have that we don't, rather than realizing how richly we've been blessed.

Our family has sponsored three World Vision children, one for each of our own children.  Another group that does similar work is Compassion International.  They also have occassional special gifts for when there are earthquakes, floods or other disasters throughout the world that displace people and make life difficult.

Local food pantries and coat closets are also good places to support, as well as libraries, camps, and campus organizations.

Great blog!

I am totally transfixed by that blinking winking billboard where your picture is supposed to be.  Where can I get one of those?  And did you come up with those snarky sayings yourself (because if so I am five hundred times more jealous than I was a minute ago).

Usually the books themselves will list the other books in the series, either on a page inside the front cover or at the end.  Or maybe you could check out the author's website, if they have one, or the publisher's website in some cases.

BTW--sometimes people will list whole series of books as Ebay lots.  Anyway, if you find out what the titles are, that's a good place to check if your local used bookstore doesn't have what you're looking for.

By now you've guessed that I'm not in on the Book Challenge.  I suppose I ought to join that one of these days.

You're totally right.  I also never go home.