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 »

I’ve been twittered. Or at least I’ve dipped my toe in and have given it a try. I feel so . . . connected and a little baffled and a lot overwhelmed by the feeds. Who to follow? What are the rules? What are the social niceties that one must follow so that one does not upset or insult anyone? Which being me, won’t be all that hard NOT to do.

I blame Liza Palmer (@LizaPalmer) and Megan Crane (@megancrane) (who also writes as Caitlin Crews) entirely for this situation. When I was down in LA for the Romantic Times … 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 »

A real quick update for everyone: here are the names of the winners from my last contest–each of whom will/or already has received a gift certificate from the online bookseller of their choice: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or Borders.

With the appropriate drumroll and fanfare, the winners are:

Christina S of Tonasket, WA
Margaret R. of Grand Rapids, MI
LaQuita P. of Alma, AR
Patricia A. of West Miami, FL
Judy B. of San Diego, CA
Vanessa O. of Hanslett, MI
Sharon D. of Abbeville, LA
Miranda O. of Hamburg, NY

I’ve notified everyone, but not everyone has claimed their … Read more »

Okay, I make no bones about this. I hate excerpts, sneak peeks, previews, look aheads, whatever you want to call them. I don’t like them. I want to be surprised, amused, delighted as I turn the page of a book, watch a movie, check in on All My Children or lately, One Life to Live. I don’t want to know what day Angie’s baby is going to be born. I want to tune in and be part of the story, then and there. No Cassandras allowed in my life. I don’t want to know.

Sadly, I have had to come … Read more »

They are a coming. In the next few months my website will be getting some upgrades and new features. Not giving away anything just yet, but just wanted to make sure you had a bit of a heads up. It’s been sort of exciting to go through my current site and look at it from a redecorating stand point. I love my site, but we all need something new every once in a while, don’t we?

One thing I can show you is that I’ve cleaned up my Blog Categories over there on the right–added some new, gathered together a … Read more »

Dear heavens, where did January go? I hope the rest of the year doesn’t disappear like that. I’ve got a lot to do. And I am sure you do as well.

Let’s get down to business right away. Contest winners. There will eight lucky winners in the next eight weeks, so make sure you have entered over on the Contest page. It’s very simple, and you only have to enter once to be eligible for the entire run of the contest. But you can’t win if you don’t enter. Not very original, but very true.

And if you like second … Read more »