Unfortunately today here is not a pretty morning (OK, it's afternoon now), it's been very dark and grey and overcast all day with bouts of heavy rain. So seeing posts on LJ makes it better...

I'll second the recommendation for Jim Hines, I'm 2/3 through "The Stepsister Scheme" at the moment and have "The Mermaid's Madness" on order (Amazon UK aren't indicating it as available yet). (It's All Seanan's Fault(tm), she recommended him. As if I needed yet more authors to read *g*...)