I've just found out from reading
somigliana 's journal, that the latest Kathy Reichs book is out, so I now have several things to do at lunch time. I have finished a long-ago started cross stitch project and started a new one - a panel of
somigliana 's entry in the last SS/HG exchange - and need some dark green embroidery silk. I am also going to treat myself to one of those hoop-things to make it easier to work on.
While I am in the embroidery mood, I will offer something cross stitched - bookmark or keyring - for the pay it forward meme. Either that, or, as I offered to
camillo1978 , a pouch made from a kangaroo's scrotum, which are absurdly common here, or something else quintessentially Australian.
So, the first 5 people to respond can have any of the above - if its a bookmark or keyring, please let me know what sort of colours/designs you would like. All you have to do is pay it forward, and make the same offer in your lj. Don't be shy - all reasonable request shall be considered!!
Back to books - I've just finished a second read of a great book - Sunshine by Robin McKinley. It is quite dark, set in an alternative US where Vampires and Weres are common, as are demons and magic handlers. The lead character, Sunshine, works in a coffee shop bakery and has quite an ordinary life until she visits the lake and is captured by vampires. She meets the enigmatic Con, a vampire like no other, who just happens to be tall, dark and ugly (sounds familiar?), and the pair escape. The story then follows Sunshine's rediscovery of her magic heritage, her investigation and attempted recruitment by the Special Other Forces, and her eventual alliance with Con to destroy the vampires that abducted her. It is set against a bleak but common inner-city background, and has the feel that extraordinary things happen to ordinary people, rather than being a true sci-fi/horror story. Well worth a read.