And the winners of copies of Sara Lindsey‘s PROMISE ME TONIGHT, as determined by Random.org, are….

Emily (#6)
and
Willaful (#16)

Congratulations! Please use the contact form to send me your snail mail address. And if you didn’t win, be sure to enter my current “New Authors” contest–I’m giving away copies there, too!

Thanks to everyone for a great discussion of the Best Friend’s Little Sister trope. There were so many mentioned that I love (The Duke and I! sigh – Pleasure for Pleasure! yum) and several that were new to me, as well.

Today, I’m excited to go have lunch with some SoCal romance bloggers – assuming they brave the torrential rains for the drive to the OC. And then it’s back to the cave to finish up THREE NIGHTS WITH A SCOUNDREL, which is not a Best Friend’s Little Sister romance, but a Dead Best Friend’s Grieving TWIN Sister romance. Oh, the guilt and heartache and forbidden pleasure! I’m loving this book.

Happy Superbowl, everyone. I know the Saints are a sentimental favorite, but I have to stay true-blue to my home team, the Colts. I expect it’s going to be a great game!

Hope your weekend is drier than mine, and just as fun-filled.

If you’ve read Goddess of the Hunt, you already know that I find this an irresistible romantic trope: the poor guy who falls under the spell of his best friend’s little sister, all grown up. For years, she’s been nothing but a sister to him, or a friend–perhaps even an annoyance. And suddenly, Little Sis has grown into that awkward coltish frame, set aside her hoyden ways (well, in Lucy’s case – never!), and become a woman. So tempting, and yet so forbidden.

On her side, she’s been yearning for him for years (or, in Lucy’s case – that other guy he hangs out with), just hoping one day he’ll stop cavorting with a string of brainless beauties, put down the brandy flask, and notice her. She’s knows in her heart they’re meant to be, and in almost every case (ahem, Lucy once again being the exception. She’s incorrigible, what can I say?) the heroine’s proved right, and all her years of awkward teenage hoping are vindicated.

I never tire of this setup, in historical or contemporary romance. Some recent favorites have been Victoria Dahl’s Talk Me Down and Beverley Kendall’s debut, Sinful Surrender.

Today, a brand new take on this ever-popular theme hits the shelves: Promise Me Tonight, author Sara Lindsey‘s utterly charming debut historical romance. Here’s the blurb:

Isabella is determined to marry James…

Isabella Weston has loved James Sheffield for as long as she can remember. Her come-out ball seems the perfect chance to make him see her in a new light.

James is determined never to marry…

James is stunned to find the impish girl he once knew has blossomed into a sensual goddess. And if he remembers his lessons, goddesses always spell trouble for mortal men.

A compromise is clearly necessary.

When Izzie kisses James, her artless ardor turns to a masterful seduction that drives him mad with desire. But, no stranger to heartbreak, James is determined never to love, and thus never to lose. Can Isabella convince him that a life without love might be the biggest loss of all?

I’ve been lucky enough to read this book in several incarnations from first draft to print, and I can tell you James and Izzie, and indeed the whole Weston family, are a complete delight. Sara Lindsey’s voice is humorous and sexy, her characters are completely endearing, and the tension between them is scorching. If you’re in need of a fun, funny, sexy, sweet read to brighten up your February, you couldn’t do better than Promise Me Tonight! Best of all, it is the first in a series – woohoo!

Are you a fan of the best friend’s little sister setup? What are your favorite examples? Leave a comment, and you could win a copy of Promise Me Tonight! Deadline is midnight Friday, PST.

ETA: Courtney Milan is also giving away copies here!

In my own little bubble, anyway. Of course, the past week has seen horrific news on the global scale, and my thoughts and heart are with the people of Haiti as they continue to suffer the aftereffects of the catastrophic earthquake. But in times like these, it is some comfort to find small reasons to celebrate.

Last weekend, I was invited to speak at the San Diego chapter of Romance Writers of America. I jumped at the chance, seeing as I love RWA and I love San Diego! We rounded up the darelings and made a weekend out of it. I had a wonderful time meeting the chapter members and chatting with the industry professionals in attendance. My speech is sort of a smudge in my memory now, but I think it went okay. I told a lot of embarrassing stories. Anyway, I want to say a big thank you to the members of the RWASD chapter, for making me feel so welcome. I had a great day.

Second, I came home to find some truly thrilling news on the Internet. My debut, Goddess of the Hunt, was shortlisted on the American Library Association’s 2010 Reading List, which is put together by the RUSA division of ALA to recognize “outstanding genre literature.” This thrilled me for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, because I’m a librarian myself, so any recognition coming from librarians is extra-special to me. Second, because – zomg, did you see that shortlist? My name is there alongside those of Julia Quinn, Nora Roberts, Lauren Willig, and Anthony Strong. How unbelievable is that? Pinch me, and hard.

Lastly, I just received word today that Goddess of the Hunt has been licensed for Turkish translation by publisher Pegasus Yayinlari. Sooo very cool! For anyone interested in the rundown of coming translations:
Goddess of the Hunt will be forthcoming in Japanese, German, Slovak, Thai, and Turkish
Surrender of a Siren and A Lady of Persuasion have thus far been licensed for German, Slovak, and Thai editions.
I owe many, many thanks to the wonderful rights managers at Random House.

I hope good news has been happening to you! I look forward to the good news that my latest manuscript is finished – but that will not happen unless I go work. Like, now.

As I write this, I’m in the lovely (well, rainy and cold…but to me, it is lovely!) Pacific Northwest with my dear friends and critique partners, Courtney Milan and Carey Baldwin. We’re celebrating the release of Courtney’s amazing book (see previous post) and eating great food and enjoying wonderful conversation. Today we’re actually going to write!

I decided to keep the New Year’s Resolutions low-key this year. My contractual obligations are enough to keep me busy without added unrealistic goals to the mix! I think my only resolution for 2010 will be: take my vitamins. I always forget.

Whether your corner of the world is rainy, sunny, snowy, or scorching hot – I hope you’re kicking off 2010 in grand style!

The good news is, as of this morning, those three tasks I mentioned in my last post (page proofs, revisions, partial manuscript) are all completed! (So is Thanksgiving, for that matter!) The not-as-good news is, I still have a lot of writing to do on THREE NIGHTS, my house is a disaster, and I haven’t wrapped or shipped a single Christmas present yet. uh.

But…I also have great news to share! I was extremely honored to learn that Goddess of the Hunt has been nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice award for Best First Historical Romance. The awards ceremony will be held at the RT Booklovers convention next April, which I had luckily already planned to attend. Now I just have one more reason to look forward to it.

And then I learned just this morning that those lovely people at Random House have sold some foreign rights for my books. The entire trilogy will be translated into German, and rights to Goddess of the Hunt have been sold for a Japanese language edition! So exciting.

Whether you’re naughty or nice, I hope you all are having a great holiday season! Now I’m off to try to cross one more thing off my list…

I’m still alive. To prove it, I even had a birthday since I blogged last! Woohoo!

Here’s what my “desk” looks like at the moment:

Galleys of One Dance with a Duke (due in early December)
Revisions of Twice Tempted by a Rogue (due…um…soon?)
Still writing Three Nights with a Scoundrel (partial manuscript due to my editor Dec.1st)

And Thanksgiving is when? Ack.

Please bear with me, I’m just drowning in work right now. BUT – I hope I will be forgiven a bit when I tell you those titles above now link to individual book pages! (In)complete with covers, blurbs, pre-order links, and – in the case of One Dance – a teeny teaser excerpt. These pages aren’t looking as spiffy as they eventually will, once I get my fab web designer in on the game, but they’re up!

Happy Holidays. I’m thankful for you all!

If you don’t watch the Bravo TV show Top Chef, this post won’t have much interest for you, sorry! But TC is one of…three?…TV shows I actually make a point to watch, and something’s been bugging me ever since this week’s “Restaurant Wars” episode. (Warning: Spoilers ahead, if you DVR’d it and haven’t watched yet.)

“Restaurant Wars” happens every season once the “cheftestants” are down to eight. They divide into teams of four, and each team opens a restaurant for one night. It’s usually an episode filled with drama and strife between competitors and lots of frantic rushing around. This year’s Restaurant Wars was no exception. The two team leaders were both chefs with lots of obvious talent and experience, and they’re two of my favorites on the show. Michael V. has this sort of hotheaded, foul-mouthed renegade image going on. To me, he has seemed awesomely talented, but somewhat inconsistent. The other team captain, Jennifer, I’ve come to associate with precision, consistent quality, coolness under pressure. In an earlier episode, she lead the entire team of contestants and really impressed me with her toughness.

During Restaurant Wars, however, Jennifer imploded. Now, there could be lots of reasons for it. But I think she had the better team of the two, and they just fell apart at every level. Because each of them has mad skillz, they kind of decided to divide and conquer–each person working to his or her own strengths. Jennifer didn’t get in anyone’s face. She just trusted her teammates to deliver the stunning, high-quality dishes they’ve produced in the past, and in the end they all failed (including Jennifer herself) to do so. During the critique portion of the show, host Tom Colicchio said that they needed someone to step up and lead, and no one did.

On the other hand, Michael V’s kitchen was a storm of drama, accusation, micromanaging and profanity. He had two people on his team who clash loudly and often, and a wider range of skills and experience to work with. He basically took control with an iron fist and a foul mouth, and in the end, all the food was amazing–his, most of all. The judges declared Mike V.’s restaurant to be the best Restaurant Wars effort on Top Chef, ever. Quite an accomplishment.

So what’s bugging me here is this. It reminded me of last season, when fan fave Carla imploded in the season finale after coming on strong and improving with each challenge. Once again, her implosion seemed to have a lot to do with leadership — she listened to her sous chef’s suggestions too much, and trusted her to do things that didn’t happen. Her consensus-building style ultimately worked to her detriment.

I know every man and every woman is an individual with his or her own unique brand of leadership or lack thereof. Generalizations are just that: generalizations. But what bugs me about this week’s Top Chef is that once again, it seemed like a female chef leading with what I consider a more feminine leadership style–trusting the talent of teammates, building consensus, leading by example–lost BIG time to a competitor running in full-tilt Alpha Male mode, complete with bullying and cursing. Even Michael V’s own brother said he was annoyed that Mike’s bad behavior was rewarded. But it was rewarded…because it worked.

Clearly there were other factors involved in how the episode went down, and I know editing plays a big role in how the events appear on TV. But after the Carla disappointment and Jennifer’s meltdown, I’m asking myself if a woman can succeed in a team challenge on that show (or in a real kitchen) without basically adopting an aggressive, dominant male personality. I find myself wondering, do the team members respond better to the Alpha male leadership because it’s truly more effective, or simply because it’s what they know and are used to?

I will admit, I never watched Top Chef very consistently until last season, so maybe I missed examples of women leading well and winning. Please bring them up if you have them. Other thoughts?

Lately, a fair number of people have asked me whether I plan to write stories for some of the peripheral characters in my debut trilogy. First, let me say that I love those questions! I love it that people want to read more about them.

Just in case anyone else out there is wondering the same thing, let me answer here on the blog. And I should probably add this to the FAQ, too.

Joss
Before A Lady of Persuasion came out, lots of people were asking whether I’d write a Joss book. I tried to reply with coy “we’ll see” comments. And even after reading A Lady of Persuasion, some of them are still asking for a Joss book! (If you haven’t yet read ALOP, the following is a spoiler. Highlight the empty space to read it.)

I loved writing Joss and really wanted to give him a happy ending. Because I only had three books on this contract, I didn’t know that I’d ever have a chance to write him a book of his own, so I wrote his romance with Hetta as a secondary romance, and I was really happy with how it turned out. But even so, a lot of readers seem to want more of them. I’m considering writing a novella. At the end of ALOP, they are on their way to marry…but they haven’t tied the knot yet! Who knows what could happen… *wink* However, I can’t even think about writing such a story until I finish the third book of the new trilogy.

Davy
I do adore Davy, the fifteen-year-old green hand from Surrender of a Siren. Some people (some of them my very close friends) insist that he would make a wonderful hero, and I’m not opposed to the idea. Some even want him marrying one of Sophia and Gray’s daughters, which to me would seem rather awkward…but then, awkwardness makes for great story! Who knows. In my opinion, to make Davy into a hero who could carry his own novel, I would need to put him through a lot of hardship. And I’m not sure I want to do that to dear, sweet Davy! I haven’t ruled it out, but I have no plans to write such a story now.

The kidlets: Tommy, Lyddie, and all the other children at the end
This was a question I just got asked for the first time. I’d never even thought of it before! Aside from the few readers angling for a Davy/Miss Grayson romance, no one had asked about the other kids yet. There are a lot of them! And it might be fun to write about them…but then again, the same problem rears its head. It’s difficult to write a character-driven romance between two happy, well-adjusted people with parents who are living and loving, not to mention this entire circle of friendship and support they’ve developed. If I wanted to write a Tommy/Lyddie romance, for example, I would probably have to let something awful happen to at least one of them, and that would perhaps call into question the “Happy Ever After” ending of the original trilogy. So I don’t know.

In all cases, I would never say never! But aside from a continuation of Joss’s story, I don’t have specific plans to write any of them at this time.

Any other characters I forgot?

In other news…
Over at The Season, Surrender of a Siren was voted the readers’ Favorite Historical Romance for the month September! How exciting, and what an honor! Thanks to any of you who voted.

Oh, and tomorrow I’m signing books at the Fullerton Reads book festival in Fullerton, CA – from 11 AM to noon. This is a big event with fun for the whole family, so if you’re nearby, please drop in!

Thank you to those of you who left me blogging suggestions yesterday!  How my writing process has evolved…great idea, will do.  Teasers for next trilogy…oh, most definitely! But today I will direct you toward Petit Fours and Hot Tamales, where I’m blogging with my two critique partners, Courtney Milan and Amy Baldwin.  We were invited to discuss our critique relationship, and how it has evolved over the past three years.  And of course, you’ll learn why the nickname for our group of three writers is “The Two Geniuses.”

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

(That’s a quote from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.  Ah, Lumiere.)

Hooray!  Twice Tempted by a Rogue is turned in to my editor! (And not a moment too soon, since it has just shown up on the Random House site! Release date June 22, 2010.)

This means I have emerged from the Deadline Cave.  I am blinking at the bright rays of the sun, and slowly catching up with email, snail mail, grocery shopping, reading, sleeping, and the like.

I’ve posted a new contest for October and November.  In honor of Isabel Grayson, heroine of A Lady of Persuasion and indefatigable advocate of social justice, and in recognition of the fact that October is Fair Trade Month, I’m giving away gift certificates to GlobalExchange, a nifty online store that specializes in fair trade products.

So, now that all my books are released and I’ve met this deadline, I should theoretically have more time to blog, hm?  And I realize that my blog audience has changed a bit in the past few months, so I’m not sure what all to blog about.  This year’s books?  Next year’s books? What’s new with the darelings? My writing process? Does anyone out there have a burning question…?

What should I blog about?  Any ideas welcome!  All (okay, most) questions answered!