Sandra Hill, NYT and USA Today bestselling author of historical,time travel, and contempory novel, all with a dash of humor and sizzle.

I love books! No surprise there. As an avid reader and writer, it would be a logical assumption. But I don't just like, or enjoy, books. I LOVE them.

This was brought home to me this week as I am in between deadlines. Just finished a book and am about to start writing another. Plus, there is the underlying tension of a new book coming out right now, VIKING IN LOVE. This is a return for me to my first love, historical romance, and a first book from Avon. I'm wondering how it do? If readers will like it?

Anyhow, like most women under stress, I clean.

I decided it was time to give my library a good cleaning,and weed out lots of books that haven't been read in years. Keep in mind, I live in a seventy-year-old house with a real library,complete with floor to ceiling bookshelves. Almost immediately, I realized how hard it would be to part with some of these precious books. Not just the vast number of research tomes dealing with Vikings, tenth century Britain, Cajuns, and Navy SEALs, but those with a history personal to me. Or my prized fiction books.

There is the two-volume white leather set of Washington Irving's ASTORIA about explorations beyond the Rocky Mountains. I bought it at my first ever antique estate sale.

I couldn't get rid of the funny book on odd sexual facts,including stuff about pigs' penises being really, really long and shaped like a corkscrew or about Tyrone Powers being able to tuck his under his belt. That's also the book where I learned for the
first time that in the average sexual encounter a man thrusts 120 times. I mean, in and out counts as one. Shocked, I went to my best friend, expecting her to tell me that the book must have been written by a man and that it was a total crock. Instead,she said that, yes, that sounded right. Holy cow! I've been married forever, and I can tell you, I've been cheated.

Then there's the two-volume set of the history of James Duke of Ormond which led me to discover I am a descendant of Hrolf the Ganger, first duke of Norsemandy.

And the hilarious humor book, THE LOST DIARY OF ERIK BLOODAXE, VIKING WARRIOR. It shows how funny these Vikings could be. And, really, Ann Landersson?

My grandmother had a book called SAFE COUNSEL: LIGHT ON DARK CORNERS, A COMPLETE SEXUAL SCIENCE. I'm sure this was a daring book for her time, but talk about outdated! It says, "There is no medicine taken internally capable of preventing conception,and the person who asserts to the contrary not only speaks falsely, but is both a knave and a fool." It was written in 1896.

As you might expect, my library is looking cleaner these days, but not much leaner. I guess I am a book pack rat.

So, do you have books you cannot part with? Do certain books bring back memories for you? Tell us about them.

And please check out my new book VIKING IN LOVE. This is the medieval version of the Dixie Chicks video "Goodbye Earl" where the three girls kill the abusive husband of one of them and dump the body in a lake. In my book, five Viking princesses kill
the abusive husband of one of them...an earl, of cours...and dump his body in a very unusual place. Thereafter, they are on the run until they land in the rundown castle of a Saxon knight with ten motherless children. Great fun.

And come visit my website at http://www.sandrahill.net/ for news, videos, free novellas, and more. Wishing you smiles in your reading!

Comment on this blog and you could win two signed copies of MY FAIR VIKING, prequel to VIKING IN LOVE and a copy of THE LOST DIARY OF ERIK BLOODAXE, VIKING WARRIOR.