Archangel Books and Gifts
My mother, who had no previous business experience, decided to open a store one day because my youngest brother had left for college and she was bored. She filled it with things she liked and, voila, it was an instant success! Since 1995, her store has been the hottest book and gift shop in St. Cloud, Minnesota, whether or not you're Catholic.

Monique Raphel High
Monique is my former literary agent who has gone back to being an author. She is genuinely one of the sweetest, classiest individuals I've ever met. Not to mention that she knows the English language backward and forward (or is it backwards and forwards?), even though her first language is French. I still retain her friendship (and her mentorship!), but I'm excited that she's writing again and can't wait to read her new book when it comes out!

HerkiMURALS
Sheri Herkimer is an amazing artist! And I'm not just saying that because she's one of my bff's. We met when we both lived in Texas, and she has gone on to build a business out of what was once just a hobby for her. Her faux-stone paintings look completely real, but my faves are her dreamlike faries.

Denianne Bland Photography
One brisk day in March, I had a photo session with Denianne. Despite the shelter of all the old brick buildings in downtown Cinci, my cheek muscles kept freezing from the cold wind, making my smile look like a forced grimace. To get my face to relax, Denianne would pop off with comments like, "Oh, that's a great pose! You used to do porn, didn't you?" I would bust a gut laughing, and suddenly, my face would be relaxed. She was just fabulous!

The Barrow Downs
I'm a complete Ringer (that's a Lord of the Rings fan, for those of you outside of Middle Earth). This is one of my favorite websites for scholarly information and for chatting, though I don't visit as much as I used to (time constraints!). Also, I won second place in their "Write the missing Two Towers story" contest.

Mario Acevedo
Mario has a great series on a vampire-detective: a complete guilty pleasure for me! Plus, I've met him, and he's the nicest person. You'd never guess this easy-smiling, unassuming guy is a best-selling author, or that he writes about sexy, bloodsucking demons.

Snopes
Okay, there are a LOT of Internet hoaxes out there. You know the ones I'm talking about—the stories that have been forwarded umpteen times until they've made their ways to our Inboxes. Most of these are pesky and false, but once in a while the story is true. Nine times out of ten, Snopes has already done the research and they've got a great search engine, making it easy to check out whether Bill Gates is going to send me $24,800 if I forward everyone I know some photos of a brown recluse spider bite.

Junz
Okay, if you are ever in the Denver area, you must try this place. One of my favorite restaurants. Yum!