1. I’m Diane, not Megan; I’m just the person taking Megan’s place today. Megan came to my rescue on Monday when the unthinkable happened. Shudder. My internet was down. FOR TWO DAYS, so I’m taking her day.

2. Here is the view from my deck on Monday when it snowed in the Washington DC area and up and down most of the east coast, Monday being the day I was without internet, I’m just saying.

This weekend they are forecasting temperatures in the 70s.

Looks like I have lots of property, doesn’t it? The ten or twenty feet of woods behind my house is “common ground,” owned by my suburban community. And there’s a development of townhouses on the other side of it.

3. I was dying to blog on Monday to tell you all about my birthday present (we will not speak of what birthday this was). It arrived last Friday…..My Kindle2!!!

Totally extravagant gift. Not a necessity. A definite frill.

My daughter gave me an Amazon.com gift card so I promptly purchased all the Kindle versions of my books (they only had 3). Isn’t that cool how it displays the cover of The Vanishing Viscountess.
My husband gave it to me. His idea was that if HE loved it, I could get him one for his birthday, but he’s not as thrilled with it as I am. His great love is his iphone and a Kindle was not enough to lead him astray.

I also downloaded Regency England by John Plowright, which is really about the political events during the time Lord Liverpool was Prime Minister. 1812 to 1827, longer than anybody.

I also downloaded several free ebooks, including Elizabeth Rolls’ His Lady Mistress, one of the 16 free ebooks Harlequin is offering to celebrate their Diamond Anniversary. You can see the titles HERE.
Books out of copyright are free, too: I downloaded Cecelia by Fanny Burney, The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, Travels in England in 1782 by Karl Philipp Moritz, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, Persuasion by Jane Austen.

There has been spirited discussion of the new text-to-speech feature of the Kindle2. As an author, I totally support the Author’s Guild’s drive to protect authors’ rights in this matter, but as a reader, I have to say this feature is totally cool. The speaking voice doesn’t get the proper inflection of speech all the time, but it does a pretty good job. You can listen to a sample HERE.

I can also download my manuscripts, if I want to, and have them read to me!

I’m sure I’m going to love my Kindle2!

4. My new bookcovers are up on my website, as are two sneak peeks, one of my Undone estory, The Unlacing of Miss Leigh, and the other one is of my novella “Justine and the Noble Viscount” in The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor (also starring Amanda McCabe and Deb Marlowe!)

Okay, I couldn’t resist showing them to you.

So how about you? Any more weather stories to tell? Are your jonquils up? (mine are, but not blooming yet). Does anyone else have a Kindle? Do you love it? Does Diane have every gizmo in creation? Ask me!