I want to thank Coffee Time Romance for hosting me today and letting me chat a bit with all of you out there. It’s been a really fun day.

So thus far I’ve talked about myself as writer. I figure for this last blog I’ll chat a little bit about me as reader and other fun stuff I do.

First and foremost I am a mom, which is a job I love but with 2 little ones it takes up a lot of my time and energy. I’ll be upfront and admit I don’t do as much writing as I would wish because of this. That will change as my daughters get older, but right now it is simply a fact of life.

When it comes to books I am a romance reader, almost exclusively in fact. I’m one of those people who wants to take a break from reality when I’m opening a book, I don’t want my reading to depress myself further. I want books where I know in the end good guys win, bad guys lose, and true love will triumph.

I am one of those people who started reading romance when I was around 11 or so, sneaking my mom’s Harlequin’s during the dead of night and reading with a flashlight. It’s funny how many of my fellow romance-a-holics say they started reading romance the exact same way. I have no idea if my mom knew or not, and I’ve decided to never ask.

These days what I read sort of corresponds to what I write (imagine that, huh?) I usually read the fantasy stuff – Paranormal romance and Urban Fantasy top that list. But outside of inspirational, I do read every genre of romance

I occasionally read non-romance, but only if it’s come highly recommended and doesn’t have one of my automatic ‘no thanks’ attached to it. Ex: cheating spouses. I don’t care how well done the book is, I won’t be able to read it if a main character of the book is a cheat.

I used to read thrillers and horror when I was younger, a lot more than I do now. I have a soft spot for the likes of Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I also love Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman, at least their more classic stuff, and for Gaiman, his graphic novels. I also hold them up as examples of those who do YA really well.

I grew up with Anne Rice during her early Vampire novels, but I always liked her non-vampire stuff from that period best, with “Cry To Heaven” being my favorite of her novels. I find this early stuff holds up really well. And of course, if you like ‘literary’ erotica, “Exit To Eden” and the “Sleeping Beauty” trilogy are shining stars.

Some of my favorite authors – well, my all time favorite romance author is Laura Kinsale. If anyone ever says romance writers aren’t ‘real’ writers, I laugh uproariously and hand them her “Flowers From the Storm” or “For My Ladies Heart”.

However, as much as I love her, Laura Kinsale’s stuff is not easy. The journey she takes you through grinds you up, stomps on you, then spits you out. Certainly not an everyday read. Still, as far as I’m concerned, there will never be a greater writer in the romance genre than Laura Kinsale.

Most of my free reading time these days is taken up by manga (those Japanese graphic novels I mentioned earlier). I used to say I don’t read YA, but now that I think on it, most manga is set during High School, so actually I’m probably the biggest YA reader around!  😀

Finally, one last thing I want to say about me before I give all the obligatory links! I host a podcast (aka Internet Radio Show) called “Romantically Speaking”. It’s all about the romance genre. Usually it’s author interviews, but I do other things as well. The only constant is it somehow, someway revolves around the wonderful world of the romance novel. If you are interested in this, all directions to it can be found on my website. If you use iTunes and want to find it, go to the podcast section of the iTunes store, type in Romantically Speaking, and my show “Romantically Speaking w/ Danielle Monsch” will show up.

Whew! Probably more than you wanted to know, right?  🙂  Thanks again to everyone who stopped by and commented. If you commented on any post today, I’m sending you an ebook. It would have made me sad if I wrote all these posts to the sounds of crickets chirping, so this is my thanks to you  🙂

So now to end my final post of the day, all the ways you can reach me – and my stories – on the web!

Website is www.DanielleMonsch.com Twitter is www.twitter.com/DaniMonsch Facebook is www.facebook.com/DanielleMonsch Goodreads is www.goodreads.com/DanielleMonsch

For my books “Loving a Fairy Godmother” or “Pleasure Satellite” I’m putting their page on my website on their hyperlinks. From there is a link to everywhere they are sold, so you can just click from there.  However, if you don’t want to do that, you can find the books at all the usual suspects – Amazon, Nook, All Romance, or you can go direct to the publisher site. www.ellorascave.com for “Pleasure Satellite”, www.liquidsilverbooks.com for “Loving a Fairy Godmother”.

Thanks again and have a good night everyone!