Three exciting things

After the release of Letters to my ten year old self, I received an e-mail saying that I won a book in a Goodreads giveaway:

Isn't that exciting! I've never read any of Sandra Brown's stuff, but I'm looking forward to it. It should be arriving in about 4 - 6 weeks, according to the site.
Here's an excerpt of the blurb, taken off the goodreads page:
 

Hammond Cross wants to be the district attorney, and for years he has proven himself to be a man of high principles and irreproachable character. When his investigations turn up evidence of the corruption of local tycoon Lute Pettijohn, Hammond has no doubt about what is the right thing to do--even when his own father is under suspicion. However, this simple debate becomes complicated when Pettijohn is murdered and Hammond's alibi is a night of forbidden passion with the suspected murderess, Dr. Alex Ladd.

Also, this is a little late in the posting, but Weng Onn, a friend of mine, is (was?) the composer for the latest Malaysian musical: The Secret Life of Nora.

The write up was in the Star here and I'd initially missed reading it (I don't read the news much) but my mom went "hey, your friend was interviewed."
Back in 2004 we were in the same cell group at SIB KL and we worked together in the first season of Drunk Before Dawn. (Chehwah, sounds so pro... he was one of the composers, I was a lowly chorus member. Haha)
I don't really know why I'm excited for him, since I haven't actually spoken to him since I left KL in 2006-ish and he went off to New York for his Masters, but hey I'm happy for his success!

I've also got my novel synopsis up at on my NaNoWriMo profile! I'm excited that I actually have a plot and something akin to a story line even before November and I think I could really do a lot with this one. It's also something I've been wanting to write for a while now - something which fits the profile of most of the books I read: it has magic and fighting. I'm a little sucky on the world-building thing (which is why I'm glad I have the idea now so I can fiddle with it before the writing spree comes) but there's no better place to start and try than now, is there?
I admit I was also very excited about last year's story, but I hit a glitch called "I have no clue what I'm writing about" which derailed me midway. I'm still researching into that one on a bit of an on-and-off basis because I really do like the story, but it really needs more research, which I don't really have the time to do on a consistent basis. Sigh. If anyone wants to be my political/sociological advisor with a spin on a uniquely Malaysian setup, please feel free to volunteer. I'm also trying to steer off the deep undercurrent of blatant racist blaming that happens so often, so that's a challenge.

Okay. So that's the three exciting things for today.
I'll just add one more for good measure. Alex and Donna Carrick at Carrick Publishing are having a Daily E-book Give-away, so mosey over here to pick up the free coupon codes for smashwords. I've already read Donna's Sept-iles and Other Places, which was a really good read (my review here) so I'm looking forward to reading the rest of them.