Ten Ways to Show an Author You Love Them on Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day. Some of us of a Valentine as someone sweet and cuddly who might conceivably give us chocolate, flowers or perhaps even jewelry. But I think we should broaden our view. This is because authors have been giving us Valentines for years. Books are not easy to write. And it's not easy to put your brain child out in the open for other people to criticize or even worse, ignore. So if an author has written a book you love, they really have given you a great gift.

Many of us wish we could send fan mail to folks like Jane Austen or Charles Dickens or George Eliot. But some of our favorite authors are still alive.

So if you admire a living author who wrote a book which has given you hope, great ideas, information or even wisdom, here's a top ten list of what to do for your favorite living authors in return. Remember that nonfiction authors get a lot less fan mail than the fiction ones do which would make your note to them even more special.

1. Post an author's book on your Facebook page.

2. Tell a friend how wonderful an author's books are. Word of mouth is the best way to spread the good news about a book.

3. Like an author's Facebook page.

4. Follow an author on Twitter.

5. Write an honest review of an author's book on Goodreads, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

6. Give a favorite author's book to someone else as a gift.

7. Give a copy of an author's book to your local library.

8. Pin an author's book cover or portrait on a Pinterest board.

9.  Lend your copy of a favorite book to a friend to read.

10. Send the author a note telling them how much you liked the book. Tell them how it inspired you or changed you. Snail mail is grand but email costs nothing for either you or the author who might reply.


Some of these things would take only a second. I think I'm going to see if Elizabeth Peters has a Facebook page.

New Coat

 One of the nicest things about having my book do well this past month is that I've been able to treat myself to a few much-needed things. Top on my list was a new coat. My old coat (and frankly, I have no idea how old it is. Michael seems to think that some of our children weren't born yet when I got it and the baby just turned twenty-eight) still looks fine on the outside but the lining is just shredded.

I could have relined it. That would have required buying a lot of lining fabric, cutting out the old lining, cutting new pieces from the old shredded pieces, sewing them together, doing a lot of handwork getting a new lining put in, etc. Or paying someone else a lot of money to do it.

The other alternative was to wait until the very end of the coat season and pick up a deal. Which I decided to do.

The coat situation had become rather ridiculous. I found myself going to church for the last three Sundays without a coat rather than wearing the ragged one or my every day down coat. (Fashion discipline must be maintained.)

So here is my gorgeous new coat. Even on an insane sale the coat was still an investment, but I've been taught that you buy clothing based on cost per wear. If you wear a dress once and it costs you $100, then the dress is $100 per wearing. But if you buy a coat and wear it thirty times a year for twenty or more years, then the same $100 investment works out to be...well, I promised there wouldn't be much math in this blog, but you get my drift. I definitely got my money's worth out of the old one and the new one will get good use for years to come.

Behold, Here's Poison

Lots of people who love Georgette Heyer's romances probably don't know about her mysteries. This is a shame. Her mysteries are charming reads. Always about the gentry, they open the door into a world that most of us will never experience.

Behold, Here's Poison starts with the murder of Uncle Gregory, an irascible soul that almost everyone was glad to be rid of. Then a cast of memorable characters verbally spar as the police try to figure out how and why he was murdered.

Two of my favorite Georgette Heyer characters appear in this book. One is the ditsy penny-pinching sister of Gregory. Miss Harriet Matthews runs the home on spartan principles. She dithers a lot. Another memorable personage is Mrs. Zoe Matthews, the sister-in-law of Gregory who is very canny and scheming and walks around saying completely insincere things like "It is always such a mistake to condemn people's little foibles. One should try to understand, and help them."

My favorite Inspector Hannasyde and his side kick, Sergeant Hemingway add to list of memorable people you will meet in this novel.

Of course, there is love interest. This is Georgette, right? And all comes to a satisfying close with a person you really didn't like being stuck with the murder rap.

A delicious read and well worth your time, Behold, Here's Poison  was originally printed in 1936. A lot of us Georgette Heyer fans have gleaned copies from used bookstores and have re-read them to the point that they are held together with rubber bands. My copy is a reprint from 1987.

But, luckily for you, it is now available new from Amazon and Barnes and Noble and is in Kindle and Nook format as well. This means you don't have to keep yours in one piece with a rubber band.

Oh, and the new cover has absolutely nothing to do with the book.  This isn't bad when you consider that the picture on the front of my cover gives away an important plot element if you look at it closely!