Mmm books!

I just came back from a hellacious business trip (including a return flight home where my originating flight was delayed, I missed my connecting flight, and United tried to tell me the first flight home would be in the morning. After I bullied them into flying me out that night, they lost my luggage).

However, there were some positives to this trip. Notably, I was in lovely Oceanside, CA (well, parts of it are lovely, anyway), and I was able to visit my fave local bookstore, Fahrenheit 451 in downtown Carlsbad. It's two blocks away from the ocean, and conveniently located across my favorite bar and my favorite sushi place. Mmm. I miss California.

Anyway, I headed in there one day and ravaged their fiction and writing sections for half off cover price. Borders just cannot compare. I picked up some new novels: Sittenfeld's latest, "The Man of My Dreams", Emily Gilbert's "Stern Men", and Jodi Picoult's "Vanishing Acts". Those saved my sanity during my long and disasterous day of travel on Friday!

But best of all, I picked up some books on writing:

• The Renegade Writer, by Formichelli and Burrell
• Follow the Story, by James Stewart
• The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches & Proposals, by Moira Allen

I'll review each of these in the weeks to come as I work my way through them. They have a more non-fiction focus than usual, for me, but I am interested in expanding my writing horizons (and making more money). And, as we count down the days to closing on our house (assuming our short sale works out... we'll see) I find myself day-dreaming about turning one room into a study, with a shelf full of writing books to reference.

Ah, I'm a dork. But that's nothing new. :)