Monday, March 29, 2010

The Norwegians are Coming!

Congratulations, Fedora, on winning Lorraine Heath’s Promise Me Forever! I’ll send you an e-mail to get your snail mail.

As with the last blog, I’m moving back to my historical collection and will be giving away The Sins of Lord Easterbrook by Madeline Hunter. As always, to be eligible for the drawing, leave a comment, and you must type in your email address. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on my next blog in two weeks!

Remember that old movie, The Russians are Coming! Late sixties with Alan Arkin. Very funny and silly. And this week I have my own invasion, the Norwegians! My husband’s cousins. They’re coming for two weeks to celebrate hubby’s birthday. Yes, he gets to celebrate for two weeks. Who else gets a birthday that lasts that long? So I hustled to get the first draft of After Midnight done. That’s my next Berkley book. Writers never just write, they always have to rewrite, so I wanted to get the first draft done in order to be able to cogitate on the second draft while the Norwegians are here. And in order to do that, I wrote 60,000 words in March. Whew! That was working 7 days a week. But I did it! Then this weekend we spring-cleaned. I know it’s his birthday, but hubby (let’s just call him the Viking God) had to help. Those windows look so lovely! And I cannot even begin to tell you how much dog hair came out of the couch. Oops maybe I shouldn’t admit that. I’ve been scouring local travel magazines for things to do, too. This is the third visit from our Norwegians, so we have to think of somewhere new to take them. Hearst’s Castle is on the list (don’t miss Hers for the Evening coming in May; Hearst’s Castle is featured!). And I also found lots of fun stuff in Golden Gate Park that I didn’t know was there. Like the windmills! They are Dutch style windmills and right now all the tulips will be out. And of course, there’s the new Academy of Sciences. The old Museum of Natural History which included a planetarium and aquarium was damaged in the ’89 quake, and when the Norwegians visited, there were only two walls standing. And I haven’t been to the new one! So, we’ve got lots of fun things planned. Plus the birthday party for the Viking God. He’s requested a stripper. Um, does he really think he's going to get one!?

And I got some more reading done! Last up was the fourth installment in Shelley Adina’s young adult “All About Us” series called Who Made You A Princess. I loved it! In fact, I love the whole series! There are 6 books, and I’m reading the 5th one now. And the audiobook I’m listening to is The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I know the whole Twilight phenom, but I actually like The Host better. It’s about a race of aliens that take over human bodies, basically they’re parasites, and the resistance against them.

Happy Easter!!!!

Monday, March 15, 2010

The RWA Rita Awards!

Congratulations, Anna Hoque on winning the autographed copy of Kate Perry’s Chosen by Desire! This is a wonderful series! I’ll send you an e-mail to get your snail mail.

I’m moving back to my historical collection and will be giving away Lorraine Heath’s Promise Me Forever. When I go to the Romance Writers of America national conference, I have the pleasure of sitting next to Lorraine at the literacy signing (Heath, Haynes, you get the picture), and Lorraine always has a Rita finalist flag on her table. So you can imagine just how good this book will be! As always, to be eligible for the drawing, leave a comment, and you must type in your email address. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on my next blog in two weeks!

So let’s talk about the Rita. This is the award given out by the Romance Writers of America for outstanding romance fiction. Think of it as the Oscar of romance. There’s even a cool gold statue for the winner of the category! I’ve been nominated once, for Somebody’s Lover. And of course I entered Fair Game and Yours for the Night this year, too, so I hope you’ll cross your fingers for me. The interesting thing about this contest is that you are judged by your peers. So to enter the Rita contest, you also have to judge the contest, though not in a category that you’ve entered. I have just finished reading my panel of Rita books and judging them. Of course, I can’t give you specifics until the finalists come out, but once that’s announced, I can make some recommendations for you based on what I read. I have read some books though that were not part of my Rita books, and I can make some recommendations from those. I just finished Hot as Sin by Bella Andre. I loved it! It was a great follow-up to Wild Heat, and I can’t wait for the next book in the series of hot firefighters, Never Too Hot coming in May. I also read Loving Luke by a new author, Jenny Andersen. Loving Luke was also wonderful, about a man coming home after a being imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit.

What have you been reading recently, something new, an old favorite?

And here’s my usual promo. Take Your Pleasure will be coming out from Loose-Id.com on April 13th! And as I promised, here’s the cover! Oh my God, isn’t it gorgeous, sexy and classy. It’s done by Croco Designs. I love it! Drop by the website to read an excerpt. I’m also blogging Wed, March 17, on MysteriesandMargaritas , so be sure to drop by!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Mine Until Morning

Congratulations, Elaine Seymore on winning the autographed copy of Veronica Wolff’s Lord of the Highlands! You’re going to love it! I’ll send you an e-mail to get your snail mail.

I’m giving away something very special again, from another member of my RWA chapter. Kate Perry’s Chosen by Desire. I love Kate’s series! And all the martial arts stuff is very real since she is an expert. As always, to be eligible for the drawing, leave a comment, and you must type in your email address. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on my next blog in two weeks!

I’m so pleased to show you the cover for Mine Until Morning, the third book in the Courtesans Tales, which will be available in December. Gosh, I love this cover. I give you Isabel’s story in Mine Until Morning, and for her story, I took a little research trip down to Palm Springs to scope out some settings. It’s always fun figuring out how to incorporate the settings into my stories. I never want to do the same old tired thing. And I think I’ve given you something new, different, sexy, and fun for Isabel. But I’m feeling the itch for another research trip. The Reno Snow train I told you about last blog was very fun, but it was only an overnighter. So where should I take my readers to next time? And where should I take my husband!!?? We haven’t been on a vacation in ages. I feel like a driving trip. I thought of Santa Fe. That could be a lot of fun. Maybe for the balloon festival which I think is in October. But I’m pretty sure I’ll need a vacation before then. We’ve never been up to Oregon. Maybe that would be fun. We’ve also talked about driving across the great Canadian Highway.

I’d love to hear your suggestions of where to go, places you’ve visited that you really enjoyed. So leave me a comment!

Just a little promo. Take Your Pleasure will be coming out from Loose-Id on April 13th! Hopefully for the next blog, I’ll have a cover for it! Also I’ll be blogging tomorrow (Tuesday, March 2) at ToteBagsNBlogs and of course, giving away a book, so be sure to stop by!
 

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