Thanks for your patience. I'm here at RT in Columbus--and shockingly not online 24/7, as I usually am! But I figured out the hotel wi-fi this morning and Random.org kindly gave me two winners for Maggie Robinson's fab Mistress by Mistake (which, by the way, received a very nice review at Dear Author yesterday!)

Winners are:

#9 - Danielle Yockman
#16 - Cecilia Grant

Congratulations, ladies! Please use the contact form to send me your snail mail addresses, so I can send you the book.

Speaking of prizes, I was very honored to receive the RT Reviewer's Choice award for Best First Historical Romance yesterday evening! I was so very honored. It's a beautiful award--very clear and shiny and therefore difficult to photograph, but here's an attempt.

Of course, I have no pictures of me holding it, but I'll try to get some from a friend.

I've been having a great time, meeting readers and booksellers and fellow authors from around the country. If anyone at RT is reading this, please come find me at the book signing and say hi! I should have some of the new excerpt books I made with Courtney Milan.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

This week, I'm off to the RT Booklovers Convention in Columbus, Ohio, where I can't wait to meet up with readers, writers, and booksellers...oh, and accept a lovely award for Goddess of the Hunt (RT Reviewer's Choice for Best First Historical 2009)! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy checking out the new book video and listening to an excerpt from One Dance with a Duke. And be sure to request your free bookmarks!

It's another banner day in Romancelandia! Another dear friend is celebrating her print debut. Today's toast is for Maggie Robinson. I met Maggie online over three years ago now, and I've been a fan of her writing from day one. She's since signed contracts with two different publishers, and the world's going to be treated with several of her smart, sexy stories over the next few years.

I'm so excited to spread the word of her first novel to release, Mistress by Mistake, which is in stories today. In the words of Anna Campbell, it is "a marvelously sexy romp!"

Here's the blurb:

Charlotte Fallon let her guarded virtue fall once—and she’s paid dearly for it ever since. She swore she’d never succumb to men’s desires again. But even a village spinster’s life miles from temptation can’t save her from a sister with no shame whatsoever. Or a heart that longs for more, whatever the cost…

Sir Michael Bayard found more than he expected in his bed when he finally joined his new mistress. He’d fantasized about her dewy skin and luscious curves, assured her understanding that what passed between them was mere dalliance. But he didn’t expect the innocence and heat of her response in his arms. Nor her surprisingly sharp tongue once she was out of them…

A few days of abandon cannot undo the hard-learned lessons of a lifetime. Nor can an honest passion burn away the restraints of society’s judgments. Unless, of course, one believes in nonsense like true love…

I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this book, and this is part of the babbling, gushing fan letter I sent Maggie when I was through:

Maggie, it's wonderful. I loved Bay and Charlie so much. They felt so real to me, and their physical and intellectual chemistry was just palpable on every page... Your prose is just so stunning. All those beautiful details of setting and the senses, and the dialogue is just sparkling... I could feel you having fun writing it, and I had so much fun reading it.

Don't you want to have fun reading it, too? Of course you do!

So, it's a contest! Comment to enter; two lucky people will win copies of Mistress by Mistake. Entries are open until midnight EST, Thursday.

Since Mistress by Mistake begins with the hero, Bay, mistaking the heroine, Charlotte, for his newly acquired mistress--the topic is mistaken identity. Name a favorite book or movie that deals with mistaken identity (mine's While You Were Sleeping!), or if you have one, tell a real-life story of mistaken identity.

Here's mine. Once, many years ago, I was out at a crowded club with my then-boyfriend. He'd been standing just behind me, and slightly to the side. I took a step back and laid my head on his shoulder...only to hear some strange voice say, "Uh, you got the wrong guy." Yes, my then-boyfriend had moved away to look at something else, and I'd unwittingly cozied up to a complete stranger. If the embarrassment wasn't bad enough, this guy had the nerve to act offended about it. "Dude," I wanted to say,"come on. You could do worse."

Let the mistakes begin!

Thanks to Melanie, a very alert reader in Austria, I've got my first foreign cover!

Goddess of the Hunt will be released in German translation on October 18, 2010.  I'm told the German title, Der Kuss der Jagerin (so sorry, don't know how to do the umlaut in WordPress), translates as "Kiss of the Huntress."  I love that. Isn't that an awesome title?

And I love this cover!  Love the colors, and lush, verdant setting and the flowers in her hair.  I just adore clinch covers, and I'm not ashamed to say it.

Also, I cannot help but notice that my name is way bigger on this cover than it has been on any of my North American covers to date.  Like, bigger than than the title.  Woohoo!  Awesomeness, all around.

So my dear friend, critique partner, fellow RITA nominee, role model, and general inspiration in life, Ms. Courtney Milan, is spending her pre-RT Con weekend at the Chicago Spring Fling conference. And she took with her copies of our new excerpt booklet (You may remember that last year we joined forces to create The Dangerous Book of Excerpts, still available as a PDF download here).

Here's a pic of the new one, Highlights, snapped by SB Sarah:

Here's a peek at the back:

Even though Courtney is the one handing these babies out, I want to make sure credit for this masterwork is distributed evenly and appropriately. So here is how the grand collaboration went.

Tessa: Hey, do you want to make some excerpt books again, to put in the RT Bookseller goody bags?
Courtney: Sure!
Tessa: Okay, I'll tell them we'll be sending some. Any ideas for a theme this year?
Courtney: No, but something will come to us.

**weeks pass**

Courtney: So, if we're going to make the deadline, we should make those excerpt books...um, now.
Tessa: OH. And here I forgot to schedule my brainstorm. What's popular right now that we can riff on? Um. Cupcakes? Can we call it Pride and Prejudice and Hot Lovin'?
Courtney: Uh. Your ideas suck.
Tessa: I know, I know.
Courtney: Here's one that doesn't.
Tessa: Oooooh, that's good!
Courtney: *hours later* Here, I made eight alternate covers. Which do you like best?
Tessa: B, I think. Or maybe C. D is also good.
Courtney: *sighing* Great. Can you send me your files, so I can do all the layout and all the formatting, because you, Tessa, are completely useless with desktop publishing and image software?
Tessa: (10 minutes later) Sure, here!

**a day or two later**

Courtney: *panting* Here is the product of my many, many hours of work, stolen from my precious deadline-meeting efforts. What do you think?
Tessa: Can my name be bigger? And golden?
Courtney: *grumble*
Tessa: Oh, and pay for everything, will you? And I'll cut you a check at RT. Sweet. You're a peach.

So it's an equal partnership, obviously. For the record, I did try to convince her to take top billing. But she had some problem with that, design-wise. It apparently didn't look symmetrical. *shrug*

This is a limited print run, so if you'll be at the Spring Fling or RT, look sharp! But who knows, maybe we (read: Courtney) will do another downloadable PDF.

Next week I'll be traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to attend my very first RT Booklovers' Convention, the annual reader/author event sponsored by RT Book Reviews magazine (formerly known as Romantic Times). Some months ago, I learned that my debut, Goddess of the Hunt, was nominated for an RT Reviewer's Choice award in the Best First Historical Romance category. I was so honored.

This week, RT published the full list of the nominees and winners. I was even more honored that GotH was chosen to receive the award! I should caution, though -- at the moment it says something like "Best Historical" next to my category. Tempting as it is to grab that glory and run with it, I feel the need to clarify that the award is still for "Best First Historical Romance," which is a tremendous honor and in and of itself, especially considering that I was nominated next to these wonderful authors:

Olivia Drake, SEDUCING THE HEIRESS
Lavinia Kent, A TALENT FOR SIN
Tina Gabrielle, LADY OF SCANDAL
Lindsay Townsend, A KNIGHT'S CAPTIVE

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners in every category. And to anyone who'll be in Columbus next week, I look forward to seeing you there! Although I still have no idea what I'll be wearing to accept this very cool award.

Oh! While I'm posting, I should mention that the new June issue of RT has a 4-1/2 star, Top Pick! review of One Dance with a Duke!

The other day, my friend and fellow author Jennifer Haymore announced on her blog that she's been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. (You may remember that I hosted a giveaway just a few weeks ago to celebrate the release of her newest book, A Touch of Scandal.) Her prognosis is good and her attitude is fantastic, but I'm sure she'd appreciate all the support, prayers, and well wishes she can get. Whether you've read her books or not, if you'd like to send a good thought her way, you can visit her blog to do so, or click on over to Smart Bitches Trashy Books today. SB Sarah is collecting helpful hints and tips for getting through cancer treatment, and giving away several copies of Jennifer's book.

YA author Rosemary Clement Moore is celebrating the paperback release of Highway to Hell with her wonderful Mosquitoes Suck Contest.

From Rosemary's blog:

In Africa, the bite of one mosquito can transmit malaria, a disease which kills one person every 30 seconds.

Can you believe that a $10 mosquito net could save someone’s life? It can.

The United Nation Foundation’s Nothing but Nets Campaign is a global, grassroots effort dedicated to saving lives by preventing malaria in Africa. When you make a $10 donation, 100% of your contribution goes directly toward purchasing and distributing an insecticide-treated mosquito net and teaching the recipient to use it properly...

Make any size donation to the Nothing But Nets Campaign, and you will be entered in a drawing to win one of a growing list of prizes.

Included in that "growing list of prizes" is a gift certificate donated by yours truly, as well as gift cards and books from a whole slew of authors. Any donation - even one dollar - will enter you in the drawing. All the rules and easy-to-follow instructions are here. This is one of those wonderful opportunities where the amount you might spend on a book or a movie can make a real, lasting life-changing -- make that life-saving -- difference for someone else.

I'm so inspired by Jennifer and Rosemary's courage and conviction, and I hope you can find the time to support them both.

Anyone want to share a way to do good today?

I woke up to a flurry of tweets informing me that Publisher's Weekly had posted a starred review of One Dance with a Duke (releasing May 25)!

One Dance with a Duke Tessa Dare Ballantine, $7.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-345-51885-9

This standout Regency romance, the first in Dare’s Stud Club trilogy, matches an unlikely heroine with an arrogant, secretive duke. Plump, plain, and poor, spinster Amelia d’Orsay is astonished when Spencer Dumarque, duke of Morland and a famously handsome and wealthy bachelor, literally sweeps her off her feet and out the door at a London ball. The news of a friend’s unexpected death leads them on a significant detour, and Amelia returns home at dawn. Deciding others will believe Amelia compromised after a night in his company, Spencer asks for her hand, leading to a hasty, often conflicted, and deeply passionate marriage. Amelia’s imperfections endear her to both the reader and her husband, while Spencer’s complexity of character sets him well beyond the typical aristocrat and a little bit of a murder mystery adds the perfect finishing touch. (June)

I can't tell you how unbelievably happy this makes me.   Little stars, be they gold or red, never lose their thrill, from preschool onward.   Also, I know a positive review in PW gives cash-strapped librarians a little extra motivation to order the book for their collections, and that is good for cash-strapped readers.

My weekend was also great.  I spent Saturday at the Literary Orange event at UC Irvine.  Along with the pleasure of sitting on a Romance panel with Super Librarian Wendy and HelenKay Dimon, I got to hear several other authors and illustrators speak, including keynote speakers Karen Joy Fowler and Dean Koontz.  (It's always so comforting to hear authors in other genres and at various points in their career fessing up to their various creative and life challenges.  We all fear the blank page!  It's not just me!  whew.)   I also got the chance to reconnect with several former coworkers in the librarian world, and meet some wonderful readers.  An excellent day, all around.

Hope your week is off to an encouraging start!

I need to update my bio. I've been putting this off for years now. You know, the little bio I have on my "Author" page? I wrote it late one night when I was putting together my very first basic website, when I was an unpublished author with no actual books to mention--let alone any awards or honors or other nifty bragging points. And I was a frazzled mom with a toddler and a tiny infant. Between caring for them and writing, not much else got done. So I let my bio reflect that.

While I still like this bio because it sounds very "me", it's getting pretty out of date.

Tessa Dare is a part-time librarian, full-time mommy and swing-shift writer living in Southern California.

Tessa lived a rather nomadic childhood in the Midwest. As a girl, she discovered that no matter how many times she moved, two kinds of friends traveled with her: the friends in books, and the friends in her head. She still converses with both sets daily.

Tessa writes fresh and flirty historical romance, a blog, and the stray magazine article. To the chagrin of her family, Tessa does not write grocery lists, Christmas cards, or timely checks to utility companies. She shares a tiny bungalow with her husband, their two children, a dog, and many dust bunnies.

Tessa enjoys a good book, a good laugh, a good long walk in the woods, a good movie, a good meal, a glass of good wine, and the company of good people.

Tessa is represented by Helen Breitwieser of Cornerstone Literary Agency.

Tessa did not expect to enjoy writing about herself in third person, but what do you know? Tessa does.

Looking at this now, I realize I actually have edited it twice. Once to remove mention of our cat, who died a few years ago now. *sniff* And again to mention my wonderful agent, once I got one.

Fluffy and insubstantial as this bio may be, it has become increasingly inaccurate.

Technically, I am still a part-time librarian, but it's more like part-part-part-time. Right now, I work one evening a week at my local library. When certain budget cuts take effect, even that may cease to be the case.

As for "full-time mommy" - I have had my darelings in some form of childcare or preschool, part-time or full-time, on again/off again, since I sold, so I could find time to work and meet my deadlines. However, I never feel like I stop being a mom, since my day is usually broken up with classroom volunteering, gymnastics classes, grocery shopping, laundry... I used "mommy" at the time because that's what they called me. Now the darelings are a little older, and I'm just "mom" most of the time.

And for the most part, I'm no longer a "swing-shift writer". I've arranged my schedule so that I can do most of my writing during the day (See points A and B above.) So probably that whole first sentence needs to go.

Other things have changed, too. While we still live in Southern California and in the same tiny bungalow, I pay a lovely pair of ladies to come in every other week and corral the dust bunnies. I do make the occasional grocery list. Mr. Dare now pays our utility bills online. And to the utter amazement of about two dozen people, last year I actually sent some Christmas cards.

I still enjoy the good books, movies, meals, wine, and people! And I still have my wonderful agent, thank goodness.

I've resisted changing this for years now because, even though about half of this bio remains unchanged, I feel like I need to just scrap it and start over. The result should probably sound...sigh...more professional. I should probably mention some of the books I've published. I should probably give myself a teensy bit more credit for household management. Teensy.

Any suggestions? Any author bios you particularly find entertaining or enlightening? What kinds of things do you want to know about an author, when you visit her website?