Every once in a while, I come to a place in a book where I need an unexpected character. Someone I wasn’t planning on. Usually I have all my characters mapped into the outline, names picked and they wait in the wings until their curtain comes up.

Then a story will take a little bit of a twist and I find myself making a quick casting call.

In the case of Lord Langley is Back in Town, that character was Lord Andrew Stowe. Suddenly, I needed a young agent from the Foreign Office willing to help Langley. Basically, I … Read more »

This weekend was such a whirl. Trip to Portland, a booksigning, come home and then over Puget Sound to Silverdale for the last signing. I can’t believe how fast the time went. But I thought you might like to see some pictures from all these adventures.

Powells

Julia Quinn and I were there for a duel event–the booksigning and the Romance Live event–which when they post it, I’ll share a link, just in case you missed it. Let me say, it was way too much fun. Great questions from the audience and via the online folks. I hope Avon plans … Read more »

First of all, huge props go to Stefanie Sloane who organized this wonderful event. As Julia Quinn and I joked, nothing would have happened–not the food, the flowers, getting the word out–if Stefanie wasn’t the world’s most organized writer. I will only take credit for picking up the incredible and beautiful cakes from Bakery Nouveau, which was a task I was assigned based solely on the fact I live in that part of town.

Everything was ready and waiting for us. From our books:

To lots of Lord Langleys awaiting good homes. Doesn’t he look entirely lonely and in … Read more »

Bracing myself for the week ahead. Three events, four if you count that this morning, Lord Langley goes on sale! Huzzah! Hurray! Yee-hah! I think that covers it.

Since I am usually a stay at home mom who has been known to drive through carpool pick up wearing her slippers, being trussed up, er, dressed up for three events (one of them in front of a live stream internet audience) is rather daunting. But I will survive if only because A) I get to meet so many of you, and 2) I’m hanging with my good peeps, Julia Quinn… Read more »

A long time ago, a typo in a group post amongst the Avon Authors became the butt of some good-natured ribbing. I don’t even remember who it was, but someone had gone to their local store to see if they could “spoot” the new books that were supposed to be out that day.

Book spooting! We all laughed, but after that it became a monthly tradition for everyone to report in and give “book spooting” reports as to when our various titles had arrived at ones local Walmart, Target, B&N, Borders, Books-a-Million, grocery stores, et al. This was before all … Read more »

We have a winner for the early finished copy of Lord Langley is Back in Town. And without too much further ado, (But I do love a good ado when it drags out the suspense that much more) the winner is: ChrisS, whose comment on May 23 at 11:22am started as follows:

I definitley prefer a flawed Hero.

There you have it, ChrisS, you are my winner. You’ll find my email at the top of my Contact page. Please send me your full name and address before noon PT tomorrow (May 26th) so I can overnight your copy of … Read more »

As the early reviews began to come in for Lord Langley is Back in Town, I was quite pleased to find that all of them were very favorable. I wanted the story to be funny, but I also wanted the story to have an emotional depth, since it is a story of coming home and about discovering one’s identity, and the reviews I was reading got that. Hurrah!

But one review stood out, and not for its kind words about the book but what it said about Felicity, the heroine of Love Letters from a Duke, and a … Read more »

Last weekend, the Seattle Times ran a front page article about Navy SEALS and how they make great romance novel heroes. On the front page of the paper. If you didn’t get to read the article, here it is in its original form via the Washington Post.

Of course all my husband sees as he reads the article is how successful all these books about SEALS are and has to ask, “Why aren’t you writing about SEALS?”

Well, I am here to argue that I am. And have been for years. May I introduce my newest Regency era SEAL, … Read more »

While at RT, I picked up a lovely award for Mad About the Duke. The 2010 Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Love & Laughter Historical. I tried to tell a joke as I accepted the award but it sort of fell flat. Way to go for the funny writer. Let me tell you, humor is a lot easier to write than execute before a live audience.

But I have to credit the Duke of Parkerton for being the real comic genius of this story. He arrived in This Rake of Mine, all stiff and proper and ducal, and … Read more »

The closer a book comes to being released, the more I feel my life speeding up. I start writing faster, I panic faster, I get out of the house more. Which is probably a good thing–because then I can get a chance to see all of you. And in that, let’s get outta here vein, I’m off to the Romantic Times Reader’s Convention this week. Currently I am going through my usual, “what to wear, what to pack” panic but by the time I reach LA, I will have my SoCal vibe on and be quite mellow.

I hadn’t planned … Read more »