UPDATED: March 31, 2009

I'm incredibly excited to report that Finding Home was named a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award this year in the Best Lesbian Romance Category! Totally surprising and unexpected to me and I'm so, so psyched. I'm in amazing company once again, grouped with such wonderful authors as JLee Meyer, Karin Kallmaker, Radclyffe, and Catherine Friend, so to be nominated truly is an honor. The ceremony takes place on May 28 this year in New York City, and as of right now, Bonnie and I are planning to attend. We went in 2007 and had a blast, so I expect this year to be no different (and to offer less pressure, since I have no allusions of winning. LOL!).

Visit the Lambda website at here for details and information.

THOUGHT FOR THE MOMENT

Family is still first and foremost in my mind, so I thought I'd leave the following ruminations up for a bit longer...

I've been thinking a lot about family lately. Moving away from ours was an incredibly hard decision for Bonnie and me. But we were at a point in our lives where we needed a change and we don't regret starting over in a new place. We needed a reboot.

Now, though, we have had several family members come down with health issues. Bonnie's brother has been battling cancer for over a year now and his wife was just diagnosed with lung cancer. My beloved aunt has battled her own variety of lung cancer and won, only to have it move into her bones and liver. My father just had a teeny, tiny stroke last week. The distance between us and our families has never seemed so large.

Family drama is prominent on my side (huge Italian family = near-constant turmoil), but at the same time, we're tighter than most I know and I'm very aware of how lucky I am to have such a bond. I'm the oldest of five daughters; I have a sister, two step-sisters, and a half-sister. Three of them have given me my two nieces and three nephews, who constantly make me laugh. I'm almost embarrassed to say that Bonnie and I had no idea we'd miss our families as much as we do. Six hundred miles might as well be six thousand; that's how it feels.

So, gentle readers, hold your family close to your heart, okay? Life isn't nearly as long as we'd like to think.

Me and my niece, Alexis, over Christmas. Since the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, she's a big dorkball.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"I don’t believe in regret.  If you regret things about your life, then I bet that you’re not paying attention.  Regret is just imagining that you know what would have happened if you took that job in California or married your high-school sweetheart or just looked one more time before you stepped out into the street…or didn’t.  But you don’t know; you can’t possibly know."

~Ridley Jones in Lisa Unger’s novel Beautiful Lies

RAVES, FAVES, AND OBSESSIONS

UPDATED: March 31, 2009

Ann Patchett still remains my favorite author. I hold her near and dear to my heart, always. She can write a pamphlet on STDs and I'd pay good money for it and read every word.

That being said, I'm always reading and always looking for writers who impress me. My latest awesome discovery is Lisa Unger. Her fourth novel, Die For You , will be out this summer, but in the meantime, I highly suggest you grab both Beautiful Lies and Sliver of Truth, her first and second novels. Both of them feature lead character Ridley Jones, a woman on whom I developed a serious crush (yes, I'm aware that she's fictional). Ms. Unger's writing is fast-paced, insightful, funny, touching, and she makes so many amazing observations through Ridley's eyes that I often stopped to read passages aloud to Bonnie. I didn't want either book to end, which to me, is the sign of an incredible read.

Get details about the books and Lisa herself at her website here.