08 May 2007

Time's A-wastin'

First, I have to get my blatant horn-tooting out of the way...

LADY X’S COWBOY has received a 2007 Golden Quill Award nomination for Best Historical! Squee! It's not what we'd call an "unusual historical" per se, as it is set in England in the 1880s, but I like to think that it's unusual by virtue of the fact that the heroine, Lady Olivia Xavier, owns and runs a brewery in London, and the hero...well, he’s a cowboy. Winners will be announced in the July 2007 RWR.

Maybe it's because of the hot weather here in Los Angeles, but I'm having a really hard time concentrating on my actual work and writing. So, naturally, I turn to the internet to amuse myself and generally waste time. Some of my favorite time-suck sites:

Romance Related:
Smart Bitches Trashy Books (the name says it all)
All About Romance (reviews, title listings, discussions)
Dear Author (reviews, news, opinion)
The Good, the Bad and the Unread (reviews and coming attractions)
Unusual Historicals (obviously)

Everything Else:
Cute Overload (now my husband is addicted to looking at pictures of kittens and puppies)
Slate (good cultural analysis)
Arts and Letters Daily (a clearinghouse of interesting articles, opinion pieces, book reviews and more)
Not Martha (nesting blogger: crafts, cooking, home improvement, &c.)
Outblush and Uncrate (shopping!)
Apartment Therapy (because being a published author doesn't mean I live on an estate like La Nora)
Television Without Pity (impossible to find better, funnier and more snarktastic television recaps)
The Comics Curmudgeon (you'd never know how many people read the funny papers and mock them)
Anthropologie (always cruising the sale rack)
Banana Republic (finally, petite clothing that I'd actually wear)

I could go on, but now you have a rather intimate (and sad) look at what preoccupies me when I'm not producing more masterpieces of romantic fiction.

Tell me I'm not alone! What are your favorite time-suck websites?