I’ve finally finished Cynthia Leitich Smith‘s Tantalize in ARC, which a coworker grabbed for me last summer at ALA. It won’t be out till March, but when it is, you should read it. Contemporary fantasy involving vampires, werewolves, other shapeshifters, and some really good (and sometimes creepy) food. In addition to a highly useful children’s literature review and interview blog, Cynthia has written several picture books, but I believe (vacation brain, sorry–I’m too lazy to look it up) that this is her first novel for teens. Within a fast-paced fantasy story (it took me four hours to read–I started it at midnight and couldn’t put it down before finishing it at 4 a.m.) she also includes quite a few nods to classic vampire lore that the connessieur of such literature will appreciate.

I’m also working on Holly Black‘s Tithe, which I started a long, long time ago (she signed it the summer of 2005!) and have been trying to get back to forever. It’s a good book! It really is! I’m just very ADD with my personal reading these days, ever since becoming a full-time editor. I read so much for a living, it’s hard to concentrate on reading at home, and I tend to do it very moodily. As you can imagine, working on Hallowmere–dark teen fantasy, though historical and not contemporary–makes me look for things other than dark teen fantasy in my reading at home. So now that I have the week off and I’m back home (flew back to Seattle on Christmas Day evening, but the office is closed this week, so I’m lazing about), I’m trying to catch up on all that reading I’ve been trying to do with such a lack of attention in the last year or so. 🙂

But now I’m off to watch The Lion in Winter with coworkers who are equally as bored with a week of no work. And to knit some more. And just plain get out of the house. It’s been nice to relax the last couple of days, but it’s also easy to get into a funk and never move again!

By the way, my vacation at home was lovely. Spent most of the time with my sister, reading books to my nephews, watching them and giving my sister and bro-in-law a night off to go snowboarding or to a comedy club. Got to watch my six-year-old nephew’s school Christmas program, and a number of other fun, relaxing things. Sadly, I missed Christmas dinner because it somehow migrated from lunch (which is what we’ve done every year since I can remember) to supper. Because I had to run to the train to Chicago at noon to catch a 5:55 flight, I had two egg salad sandwiches for my Christmas dinner. I want to go buy turkey now. And cranberries so I can make cranberry dessert (like chocolate chip cake, another family favorite, but with cranberries and with a warm sauce of milk, sugar, and butter over it).