Holiday shopping is upon us.  Does anyone else share my sense of creeping panic?  I don’t like shopping under normal circumstances.  Factor in the holiday madness, and it’s all over.  Malls make me itchy.  Online shopping it is.

Fortunately, the darelings are easy.  They’re already conditioned by our grand consumer culture to blurt out, “I want that!  Me, me, me!” at every toy they see on TV or in the print ads.  So I figure they’ll be happy with anything.

But I never know what to do for the adults in my life. My family is very geographically dispersed, so I tend to go for the easily shippable items.  Books go without saying–I usually give books.  But then what else?  It’s barely November, and already I’m suffocating under the avalanche of mail-order catalogs: wine gift basket, cheeses and hams, baked goods, fruit, etc.

Anyone have any cute gift ideas to share?  Any new online stores to check out?  Mail-order gifts you’ve given or received lately that were a pleasant surprise?… Read More »

Maggie and Gillian!

Congratulations, you two.  Please email me your wish lists and snail mail addys…

Thanks to everyone who commented, especially Gillian for giving us the link to Terry Jo’s blog.  Both darelings caught a virus this week, and we’ve spent several days quarantined and miserable.  Things are looking up today: we’ve decided everyone’s well enough to go on the overnight camping trip we’d planned.

Oh, and in case anyone’s wondering about that Unleash Your Story progress… Between the novella I completed, and some synopses I’ve been working on for my new proposal, I’ve written about 18,000 words this month so far.  Still 2000 to go before September 30th, and I know I can make it.  I’m taking a notebook and pen to the campground  🙂   As a team, the Chocolate Mafia has already raised over $1000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation!  And I’ll be pushing that total higher, as soon as I reach my goal and make my own contribution to celebrate.  Great work, everyone!… Read More »

Yay! I’m actually officially here in my new blog digs.  Welcome!  I think next week I’ll have some sort of contest to celebrate, but in the meantime, I wanted to just thank everyone for bearing with me and share some exciting news.

SQUEE!!! Beverley Kendall, another Fanlit friend, has just signed a two-book deal with Kensington!  Her debut historical, tentatively titled A Lady’s Compromise, will be coming to a bookstore near you in Fall 2009.  Congratulations, Bev!

Lastly: Arrrh, mateys!  It’s International Talk Like A Pirate Day!  I’m celebrating by taking the darelings to ride Pirates of the Caribbean for the one millionth time.

But, since piracy does play a role in my second book, Surrender of a Siren (releasing late August 2009!), I thought I’d leave you a little excerpt, below the fold.  … Read More »

Hi!

I haven’t officially moved the blog to this site yet – as you’ll see if you poke around a bit, there are still some kinks to be worked out.  But you’re welcome to visit my old Blogger blog in the meantime.

Thanks for your patience. 🙂 (Love the emoticons in WordPress)… Read More »

First, the Unleash Your Story update:
(see previous post for an explanation)

Three days into the challenge, the Chocolate Mafia now has seventeen members! As a team, we’ve raised $220 toward our goal already.

As for my progress toward my 20,000 word goal – eh, there hasn’t been much. About 1,200 words or so. I knew this week would be a hard week to write, which is why I kept my goal pretty low. In a normal writing month, I’d be aiming for 25-30K. The darelings start preschool again next week, which will make a huge difference. This week, we’ve been doing the back-from-vacation shopping and meet-the-teacher open-housing and what-the-heck-why-not trips to Disneyland, and I’ve had no energy to write when my day finally winds down.

But enough excuses. I will get there.

One of the projects I’m working on this month, now that I’ve finished my trilogy, is a short story that’s connected to GOTH by a very thin thread. Ever since the idea for this story took shape last year, thanks to a conversation with Vagabond Lindsey, I’ve had the heroine’s name in my head as Cecily. As I write, I’m not sure this is the best name for her anymore…her personality is coming out a bit differently than I anticipated…but that’s of no moment. Although I may eventually do a Find-and-Replace to change her name at the end, I’m going to keep writing her as Cecily. And sentences like this are why:

“Leave him alone,” Cecily added … Read More »

Well, I was looking for a way to get motivated to start writing again in September, after taking most of August off. And lo and behold, along comes the fabulous Unleash Your Story event!

This is like a text-based equivalent of a fundraising run or walk. It’s all about setting writing OR reading goals to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a worthy cause indeed. Because everything’s more fun in teams, we’re starting a Chocolate Mafia team (nothing like a little FanLit nostalgia!). If you click on the banner above, you can go to my fundraising page and either make a pledge to support me and the team (I’ve committed to writing 20,000 words in September) or better yet, join the team yourself and set a goal of your own. Those Unleash Your Story people are smart…they’ve got prizes.

Click the banner above and check it out!… Read More »

To squee about!

Huge congratulations to two – yes, two – wonderful writers, good friends, and former Fanlitters who have just signed with agents: Maggie Robinson and Manda Collins! Congratulations, ladies! I know great things are in store for you both, and I can’t wait to squee over your sales.

(Man, are we setting NY on fire or what? It’s squee-a-minute around here. Who will be next…?)

As for what I’m up to – I’ve been spending the last few days preparing character descriptions and plot outlines of all three books for the purposes of assisting the cover art designers. It’s terribly exciting, I must say. My editor and I did chat about possibilities in SF, but I really have no idea what style the covers will turn out to be. (There was a meeting about them, evidently, which occurred while I was out of the country. A whole meeting! Really, the idea of people having a meeting in NY about my books while I was scarfing cheap beer and boiled peanuts on some beach half a world away…it’s just so very cool.)

Honestly, I’m just stupidly thrilled that they care enough to ask what my heroes and heroines look like. I can’t wait to see what the artistic geniuses at Ballantine create.… Read More »

Hey, I’m back. My body is still on SE Asian time though, which would be why I’m up blogging at 3AM. Mr. Dare has promised the darelings donuts in the morning if they sleep through the night (something they failed to do our first night home…and our second). I, however, know I am assured of donuts whether I sleep or not. It’s just a matter of how much coffee I drink with them. 🙂

So, I’m up blogging at 3AM.

I’ve been meaning to blog about this topic for a while now, but somehow never found the time, what with all this traveling and deadline-meeting and squeeing and whatnot.

At this point, I have written three historical romance novels. Together, they comprise a completed trilogy and represent a fulfilled contract. Thus I find myself in a transitional phase, taking stock of what I’ve learned and dreaming about what I want to write next.

After writing these three books in one genre, what can I say for myself? I still can’t say I’m in print, LOL, but I can say that my voice feels very solid. That statement doesn’t exactly fit the definition of an accomplishment–it’s more of a reassurance. It gives me the confidence that I can write down whatever story I happen to dream up next.

Authorial voice is a tricky creature – elusive, shifting, hard to define. But editors and agents are always saying (so it seems) that voice is what sells a book.

To me, one’s writing … Read More »

Not that this will be news to many of you – by now, it’s everywhere on the Internet. (Why can’t auctions take place on eastern hemisphere time?) But congrats, huzzah, kisses, hugs, and much much love to Courtney Milan, who just sold her first book, PROOF BY SEDUCTION, to HQN in a two-book, six-figure deal, at auction!

Words can’t express how excited I am for her, and how proud (and grateful) I am to be her critique partner. I’m thrilled, overjoyed, delighted, and just about everything else good…except surprised. Here’s the Publisher’s Marketplace blurb:

Golden Heart Nominee for Breath of Honor Courtney Milan’s debut historical romance PROOF BY SEDUCTION, about a rigidly logical marquis who uses the scientific method to save his heir from the clutches of a fraudulent fortune teller, only to fall for her and discover that the one hypothesis not susceptible to proof is love, and a second book to Ann Leslie Tuttle at HQN, in a good deal, at auction by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (World).

Mark your calendars for Fall 2009 – I can’t wait for the world to discover this wonderful book!… Read More »

Just a very brief post in-between trips…

I arrived home last night from San Francisco and the RWA National Conference – tonight, we leave for our intercontinental extravaganza, so packing and laundry and jetlag are eating my day. (Yes, I still get jetlag when traveling within my timezone. I am not a good traveler. ugh.)

San Fran was wonderful – I got to meet with my wonderful agent and editor and attend my first Friday-night publisher party. The whole week was filled with brushes with greatness, including these banner moments:
*holding Lisa Kleypas’ espresso
*passing Sabrina Jeffries the sweetener
*bumping elbows with Elizabeth Hoyt at lunch
*congratulating Julia Quinn on her 2nd RITA in two years!
*being kissed by the wonderful Anna Campbell
*getting rear-ended in a taxicab with Madeline Hunter (yes, we’re all okay)
*sitting second-row, center for the RITAs and Golden Hearts, within touching distance of Courtney Milan, Amy Baldwin, Lindsey Faber, Toni Blake, Julie Anne Long, and Jade Lee! Awesomeness.

Obviously each of those is a story in its own right, and there were so many more…I even attended some workshops in there, too. 🙂 But the best part of conference was seeing all my wonderful friends and making new ones. I wish I had the time and brainpower to blog more about it, but laundry calls. If you were there for the puppy shower, the late-night drinks, the plotting chats, the random hugs in halls and elevators…thank you so much for making my conference amazing. If … Read More »