Anticipation. Just yesterday a package, a much-anticipated package, arrived from Amazon. In it was:
50 Great Curries of India, Tenth Anniversary Edition
Anne Stuart, Ice Blue
Loretta Chase, Not Quite A Lady
I bought the 50 Great Curries cookbook because my friend Myretta Robens had it at her house when I visited a few months ago, and I love cooking and eating Indian food. But that’s not the point, either.
I got Stuart and Chase because they are two of my personal author goddesses. They are, in romance vernacular, on my auto-buy list. Other authors on that list include my fellow Riskies (and my budget thanks you for putting out so many books, Diane! NOT.), my writing friends, and other of my favorite authors: Mary Balogh, Eloisa James (who is also a friend), Laura Kinsale, J.R. Ward, Carla Kelly, Stephenie Meyer, Lilith Saintcrow, and yeah, there are more.
BUT, because I am so goal-oriented, I am going to have to wait to read Loretta and Anne (First-name basis? Sure, why not?). What will I have to do before I get to open the pages? A few ideas:
Lose three pounds
Write 50 pages
Dust the living room
Go through the 7″s in the closet that are haunting me (vinyl records, Janet, you filthy thing!)
Write 100 pages
Lose five pounds
…well, you get the idea.
So–do you hold out books as rewards for yourself, or can you not resist diving in as soon as the mailman has turned his back? What must you do before you indulge in reading? Are any of my auto-buy authors yours, too?