I read in an advice column recently a letter from a woman who had hosted Thanksgiving last year and the next morning, one of the guests called her and berated her for not giving out the leftovers. The writer couldn’t fathom why she was supposed to give away her leftovers, while the guest couldn’t fathom how anyone wouldn’t share. When you get right down to it, I suspect leftovers are often the most battled over serving of the entire dinner, with the possible exception of my mom’s holiday rolls. There are never any leftover.

Yet this is all about blending … Read more »

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you might be aware that I adore Thanksgiving. Any holiday dedicated to a week’s worth of cooking that is devoured in about 20 minutes makes my heart go pitter-pat with delight. I mean, come on, I have an entire Category on this blog dedicated to Thanksgiving. There is just something about the marathon aspect of Thanksgiving, the countdown to the big meal, the planning, the recipe sorting, the shopping, the secondary shopping, and the “oh, crap I forgot to get (insert item here)” shopping and then an entire day of … Read more »

Yes, that’s right. The excerpt for How I Met My Countess is up, which also means it won’t be that much longer before the book is hitting the shelves. If you read it and love it, will you do me a favor? Hit one of the social networking buttons at the bottom and share it with your Facebook and MySpace friends. You never know who amongst them might be starting to think about what to get you for Christmas. Just sayin’ it’s always nice to make it easy for them.

And along with the excerpt, there is also a very … Read more »

Needless to say, this hasn’t been the easiest year for me, but I finally feel like I’ve found my feet again. (I am so Irish, that as I wrote that, I thought to myself, “oh, you’ve gone and cursed yourself now.”)

Curses aside, I ended up having to cancel a lot of things, including speaking at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference and at Emerald City Writer’s Conference, both of which I hated having to say “I can’t”, but I just couldn’t. Between the lost time writing and now trying to catch up, speaking would have been impossible. When you see … Read more »

Was spent at home. Sorry to dupe you, but when I got pneumonia I had to cancel all my travel plans. So this past week and weekend I would have been in Washington DC. Considering how much I was looking forward to conference in DC, I was surprised that after I canceled everything, I wasn’t all that letdown.

Oh, I had a few moments during the week–Tuesday, the day I would have flown there, the Wednesday autographing, and a tea party  I was supposed to attend, but otherwise, I really didn’t give the entire affair much thought. I was just … Read more »

Here is the problem:  I come up with an idea for a new series, propose it, Avon loves it, and I start writing. Of course, the last book in the previous series is well into production, somewhere off doing what books do once they leave the safety of the author’s nest. And then it comes out when I am already into something new, and you all discover some couple in that book, go gaga over them and hound me about writing their book. (Okay, I really don’t mind all that, but come on, I can only write so fast . … Read more »

Right after I left on my trip my last Wednesday an email arrived in my inbox from an astrology list I belong to that read: “This is a good time to be especially clear in your communications, agreements and travel plans. Mercury is Retrograde from May 7th through May 31st  and little mishaps can happen.” Of course, I didn’t take my laptop with me, so I didn’t get it until Sunday morning. But it explained a lot. Let me tell you what Mercury in Retrograde can do to your travels:

• Read a great book for a quote, and have only

‘Cause you never know where you will find them! And considering all the books I’ve signed recently, I sort of feel like an Easter bunny–hopping across the country and signing books wherever I go. And if you live in Wichita, you may find some of those signed books I left behind. And even if you don’t live in Wichita, there is a way for you to get your hands on one–but more of that later.

When an author travels, they love to do what is called “the drive-by.” Which means, you locate all the bookstores in a reasonably doable radius … Read more »

Sometimes I know a book is going to be dedicated to a certain person before I sit down and write it. Other times, I come to that realization while I am writing the book. I know as I crafted the pages of Confessions of a Little Black Gown, that Tally’s book belonged to Jessica Burtt. And let me tell you why.

We met Jessica about seven years ago, when Matthew was a baby. He’d run through just about every babysitter I could find. He was one tough baby. He even sent the neighborhood’s alleged “baby whisperer” into a two hour … Read more »

That is really what the Celebrate Romance conference should be called, because Wow! what a great group of readers. This was my first CR, (and please, don’t let it be the last!!) and I had so much fun. I knew the trip was going to be great when on the train going down to Portland, the movie showing was The Philadelphia Story–that wonderful, Academy Award winning movie with the indomitable Kathrine Hepburn, the gorgeous and sophisticated Cary Grant and the always amazing Jimmy Stewart. A great romantic comedy to start off a weekend of romance and laughter.

Now I had … Read more »