1) Our own Risky Diane got a great review in the Chicago Tribune this week, for The Vanishing Viscountess! It says the story is “expertly spiced with adventure and passion.” But then, we here already knew that!!!

2) Websites: some updates have gone up on mine, including an excerpt from my April book, A Sinful Alliance! (Which got 4 stars from RT, plus a KISS award for the hero, Nicolai. Yay for him! And I still say he is not the bad-hair dude on the cover…)

3) Book trailers. I’m always trying to come up with new ways to “get the word out” about our books, so I’ve been watching a few of these on author websites and YouTube. I’m not sure they’re for me–for one thing, I’m a techno-idjit and would have to get someone else to do one for me. For another, I would be annoyingly picky. I would want it to look like a Real movie trailer (like this one, for instance), but I have a feeling it would end up like “The Humans Are Dead” bit on Flight of the Conchords. That’s the one where their incompetent band manager Murray films it on his cell phone. So, this is probably not for me right now. What do you think of the trailers? Have any made you want to pick up the book?

But I am doing a book signing at a local Renaissance fair next month! (For my Renaissance-set books, get it??). I’ve never done this before, and am a bit nervous, but at least it’s an excuse for a new costume.

4) Speaking of clothes, I have to go to a St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser ball for work on the 15th, which is another excuse for something new! I really want something like Amy Adams’s Oscar gown (it’s green, see?), but time and fundage may mean I have to wear a dress I recently bought for RWA. It’s black and white, so I need something green to go with it. Emeralds would be great, but again the fundage. Any suggestions?

5) Shakespeare. For some reason he’s all over the place in my life lately! From Netflix I got 2 of the BBC’s Shakespeare Retold movies (Midsummer Night’s Dream and a great Taming of the Shrew with Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell, both movies were excellent!), and I’ve been reading The Lodger Shakespeare by Charles Nicholl, which takes Shakespeare’s brief appearance in an early 17th century lawsuit involving his ex-landlords and makes a whole (and fascinating) book out of it. Plus I have a new book bought with the last of my birthday Barnes and Noble gift cards called Filthy Shakespeare: Shakespeare’s Most Outrageous Sexual Puns. This one is so hilarious it deserves its own post, so stay tuned.

7) Orlando. Of course. Just because.

So, to recap–reviews, book trailers, green dresses, Shakespeare, Orlando, Renaissance fairs, Flight of the Conchords. Oh, and tea. What are you thinking about this week?