I'm a winner again... Karina Buchanan: Winner!

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Karina Buchanan: Winner!: And the winner of Daring to Love and my little Irish gift is...drumroll please...Aurelia B. Rowl! Congratulations! If you send me your detai...

Friday the 13th!

And a huge happy 5th birthday to my son - and a little shout out for my daughter too who turned 3 on Sunday - their joint party is tomorrow but we're cheating this year and having it at Wacky Warehouse :o)

Funnily enough, Friday the 13th is usually a good day for me; it's generally Thursday the 12th that gets me but so far this year, every day has felt like your typical Friday 13th.  From fallen trees in the garden to broken heating, cancelled birthday orders to not been able to place an order and then the delivery coming on different days. Then my purse got stolen from my friend's house and the following day my daughter's birthday trip to the zoo didn't go to plan.  I could actually keep going as it's been that kind of year, it really has, but I won't bore you. I'm hoping that this is just some kind of karma balancing exercise and that something REALLY good is going to happen this year to make up for the rocky start.

On the upside, my family are well and happy; my creativity is still flowing so my WIPs are coming along; I am on a role with winning books to read and I have my fab new laptop that is small enough to slip in my handbag and take out with me.

Onwards and upwards... now then, who's for birthday cake? (made by my very talented friend)

My favourite reads from 2011

"So what was your favourite book/series of 2011? Make it your top 5 if that helps :o)"

I tweeted that very question this afternoon and it got me thinking about my own favourites from 2011. Having read over 200 books last year though, that is no easy task, I can tell you!

2011 was the year I rediscovered the library, made several trips to discounted book stores and started using the Kindle app on my phone before going the whole hog and getting a Kindle.  As a result, I discovered - and absolutely loved - several paranormal series last year, some mainstream and some indie, and I also got into Mills & Boon - so much so that my current focus is on writing romance instead of my original YA trilogy work in progress. Of course, what all that waffle really means is that I'm going to cop out. Don't shoot me! Instead of naming my top 5 books for 2011, I'm going to do my top 20 as well as refer to entire series instead of individual books in my rankings. So, here goes...