A lot of writers have some very personal and some splashy and some just private ways of celebrating when a new book gets released. When Love Letters from a Duke hit the NY Times extended list, I celebrated by buying the espresso machine I’d been dying to own–a De Longhi Magnifica. I have to say that was the first time I’d ever done anything extravagant over one of my books. And I admit I felt really guilty about buying it (even at a steal on eBay) until I poured in the first pound of beans and it made me a … Read more »

Whenever anyone invites me over across the Sound for a Peninsula RWA Chapter function, if I can make it work to go, I go. Because the first thing I have to do is take a ferry ride. I love ferry boats–always have. There is just something so magical about driving onto a boat and sailing across Puget Sound.

Oh, I could drive around, but why? It takes the same length of time, but I spend half of it sitting in my car, with a perfectly good view of the water and can just sit back and leave the driving to … Read more »

. . . bar none! And this readers’ group, from the Borders in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho are no exception! I just love these ladies–they’ve been kind and generous since my first book, and any chance I get, I go over to visit them. This was my third trip!

We all went out to dinner and got caught up on our favorite TV shows (House, Heroes, compared guilty pleasure reality shows) and got caught up–made a firm date to meet up again at the Rose City Readers’ Luncheon in April, then got down to the business at hand: romance novels. (This … Read more »

As a romance author you learn quickly that you won’t always get the respect of the mainstream media, of all readers and booksellers and librarians. But the least you can expect is to have the respect of your family. And at the very least, the respect of your husband.

So the other day I was autographing a huge pile of coverflats and he comes and sits down with me.

Him: Why do you do that?

Me: Because people like autographed coverflats and such.

Him: Can I help?

Me, after the initial shock of him asking if he can help: Well, … Read more »

And I always find it so thrilling when one of my books get translated into another language.

I’ve had books translated into Russian, German, French, Italian, Romanian, Norwegian, and several others and some have had very pretty covers–like this one, and others that were . . . well, bright and colorful, were the nicest things I could say about them.

But there is always that moment when I open the UPS package from my editor with my 6 copies of this foreign treasure, stare at the new cover, see my name (which is always reassuring) and scratch my head and … Read more »

Where did we go wrong? I remember the first time I saw you. Across a crowded movie theater. I was young, so very young. The year was 1976, and you stepped onto the screen as Bugsy Malone. The mysterious, rakish sort of guy who could steal any romantically inclined girl’s heart. Mine especially. That was the year I gave up looking at blond haired guys. From then on, all my heroes had dark hair and a come hither smile. Still do.

For the most part, I stayed faithful to you (well, if you can excuse my Sting years then I’ll … Read more »

All your kind comments and heartfelt stories about how autism (as well as other problems) have touched your lives, has left me speechless and feeling so blessed to be part of this community.  I was just going to leave a long comment, but thought it was better to write another blog.

I have this speech I do usually at librarian conferences or to reader’s luncheons, and the part that always chokes me up is when I talk about how personal romance novels can become to each of us.  These aren’t just stories, they are  our books.  Not because we’d … Read more »

Yes, Love Letters from a Duke arrives today in stores. Yes, today. So a huge welcome to my newest book, and an even bigger welcome to everyone dropping by to check up on it, read the excerpt, or just curious about the new site. If you have the time, check out my expanded Bookshelf, the new Events page, and of course this blog. If you are a fan of Julia Quinn or Candice Hern, you might like a recent blog I wrote about them. It’s a bit of a tell-all, very gossipy, and was all-together too much fun … Read more »

but Julia Quinn copied me. Oh, yeah. She copied me. I don’t think I’ll probably ever be able to say that again, so I have to admit to a certain smug satisfaction in it. Not I’m not pointing any fingers or bitter about it, but she saw my most excellent idea and stole it without blinking. If you are wondering what I’m talking about, I direct you to Exhibit A.

Are you as shocked as I was? Oh, yeah, Julia’s calling it “Bridgerton Couture,” but you, me and any jury of our peers would agree that this is nothing … Read more »

You asked for it, so I convinced The Ultimate Reading List authors/librarians extraordinaire to drop by and indulge our collective curiosity as to how they came up with their picks. So without further ado, let me introduce you to Joanne Hamilton-Selway and John Charles, who BTW have both held the title of RWA Librarian of the Year.

1) How did you make your picks? Did you have rules or guidelines or a set of parameters that you were working with?

The Complete Idiot’s Guide series is designed for those new to a subject as a basic introduction. So when it … Read more »