This post should be subtitled, “It’s the romance, stupid!”. But that probably wouldn’t be polite. Apt, but impolite. Now I’ve watched All My Children (AMC for us junkies) for 30 years now. Basically since the last time I had pneumonia. I started watching when Erica had her disco. A disco, for goodness sakes. But this is why, for 30 years I’ve kept watching: the romance.

Yes, writers of soap operas, it’s the romance. Tad & Dixie, Erica & Jack, Haley & Mateo, Kendall & Zach, Ryan & the Princess. Why do we watch the shows that keep us hanging? Because … 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 »

I got an email this morning from a friend that I was up on the AAR Blog about their recent reader poll and that I HAD TO GO LOOK. She knows me too well, I don’t visit review sites, so the caps were her way of saying, “Get your butt over there and look.”  Yes, yes, Chris, I went and looked. Happy?

Well apparently they do reader’s polls, and they had adjusted my rankings. I have rankings? I never knew. Again, I am hopelessly out of the loop on review sites. I spend too much time on knitting blogs, or … Read more »

I’ve been spotted again. First I was in Italy with Julia Quinn. (And my heartfelt thanks to Julia for finding me over there. But next time, Julia, how about bringing me along? I’m just saying . . . ) And now it appears I am on the road again. And not with Julia, who I believe is in the Galapagos Islands this week. Julia, if you are out there and find one of my books translated into giant tortoise or penguin, let me know.

But off to my new adventure. Just as a girl has a chance to get … Read more »

I got a picture from Julia Quinn recently. She’d been in Italy last summer and while standing at a corner newstand in Rome spotted one of my books. She took this picture for me to show me where I was.  Now I know this could be anyone’s arm in any city, but believe me, this is Julia Quinn in Italy.

You see, the picture came a stricture that I crop her face out, as she claimed she had “travel face,” and while I think she looked great–happy and touristy—she asked me to remove her face. So you will have to … Read more »

Imagine me rolling my hands together, my eyes glazed over with a madness over my own inflated worth . . . or just see me laughing that I actually had more say in something than I ever thought possible.

You see as an author, you build a career slowly. And from the very beginning, you learn one very simple rule, well hopefully you learn this rule: The only thing you have power over is your writing. If you don’t learn this lesson quickly, you become an author who doesn’t last long. Or one who beats their head against the wall … Read more »

Oh, that title ought to drive Google crazy. But there it is. I had to just get it right out there in the open and share, because my book, His Mistress by Morning, was recently featured in an article, Why Foreplay for Women is a Novel Concept, in the Irish Independent newspaper. I think the funny part of the article is how shocked the author was to find, sex, yes sex, in the book a 64 year old granny was reading. My book, to be exact.

I like the idea of my book in Ireland, the land … 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 »

Boy, I am behind. I’ve had this info sitting here for weeks, and finally got it typed into my Alphasmart. Here are the stores where, like the Easter Bunny, I popped in and signed books while I was in Florida. If you are headed to Orlando, consider this a good list of bookstores in the area, and if you want to go on the hunt and discover a signed copy of one of my books, call ahead to make sure they still have copies, or call and purchase one over the phone ask them to ship it to you. They … Read more »