Okay, so I have a very loose definition of “tomorrow”… *shrug* Click on any of the pictures for a better view.

Friday was a big day at RWA, and I began it by sleeping late. 🙂 Seriously, I’d planned to attend morning workshops, but I was just so beat by the previous two days’ activities to drag myself out of bed before 9:30 AM.

So my first real activity of the day was to attend the Awards Luncheon, which I would not have missed for the world – because the speaker was none other than Eloisa James. And what a speech she gave.

A Washington Post columnist happened to be in attendance, and you can read his summary and reaction here. (Be sure to scroll down and read the comments for a more rounded view of the event.) For me, Eloisa’s main point was that we can’t be afraid to use the drama and humor of our own lives to fuel our fiction. A quote I tweeted from the luncheon went something like this: “Best-sellers are born of strong emotion, not just lots of sex.” 🙂 I can tell you that there was not a dry eye at our table at the conclusion of the luncheon.

After the luncheon, Courtney Milan and I were on a panel with our wonderful agents, Kristin Nelson and Helen Breitwieser, and historical authors Sherry Thomas and Tracy Anne Warren. The topic of the panel was something akin to “How to be an Anomaly”–which, … Read More »

Come comment today at Romance B(u)y The Book! I’m blogging about first crushes, and one lucky commenter will received a signed author copy of Goddess of the Hunt (just as soon as I receive them! 🙂 )

Correction: I think Michelle actually has an ARC! She’s going to send it to me for signing, and then I’ll pass it along to the winner. Woot!… Read More »

Goddess of the Hunt releases in 49 days. Gulp. If I think about that for more than 49 seconds, I start to get the shakes.

Fortunately, I have lots to keep me busy in the meantime. In addition to my ongoing work on the trilogy for 2010, I have some travel coming up.

At the end of the week, the Dare family will be embarking on our family vacation–a relaxing trip to the Midwest to visit relatives.

Then in July it will be on to DC for the RWA (Romance Writers of America) National Conference. Conference is always one of the highlights of my year, simply because I get to see so many friends and gather inspiration from some of the genre’s brightest stars. But this year will be especially exciting because it will be my very first booksigning! More on that in future posts…

In the weeks and months to come, I’ll also be doing some virtual traveling–doing guest blogs and interviews at various places around the Romance webscape. Tomorrow I’ll be a guest at Romance B(u)y The Book, so please come by!

Are you headed anywhere this summer?… Read More »

That’s the topic of my guest blog today over at Risky Regencies! Please do come visit and tell us what were-hero you’d like to see in historical romance. 🙂 One commenter will win a free copy of The Legend of the Werestag and a signed coverflat of Goddess of the Hunt!… Read More »

I’m guest captaining the pirate ship today, over at the Romance Writers’ Revenge. Come check out my post about taking the paranormal bandwagon for a joyride, in which I explain some of the Werestag‘s mythic origins. I’m giving away a copy of the e-novella and a signed coverflat for Goddess of the Hunt! Just comment for a chance to win.

Coffee Time Romance posted a 4-cup review of The Legend of the Werestag yesterday! You can read it here.

Also, if you read historical romances, you won’t want to miss this beautiful new online newsletter put together by soon-to-be-published Kensington author Beverley Kendall. Called The Season, it’s going to be a quarterly guide to forthcoming historical romances, both from debut authors (“The Debutantes”) and returning favorites (“The Belles”). Bev’s done an absolutely lovely job with it.

Happy Monday, everyone!… Read More »

Courtney Milan stole the blog post from my fingertips this morning. Huge squees of joy are in order for two more friends who have made their first sales: Maggie Robinson, who recently sold to Berkley Heat, and Tiffany Chalmers, who just sold this week to St. Martin’s Press! Congratulations, ladies! I can’t wait to find Paradise and Hidden Beauty on shelves in 2010!

As Courtney points out in her great post, Maggie and Tiff are just two more successes from the amazing circle of friendship and support that grew out of the 2006 Avon Fanlit event and the Eloisa James Bulletin Board. (Now also Julia Quinn’s BB!) Courtney does a great job of discussing how that network has led to success – through various friendships, critique relationships, and sub-groups, many of us have gone on to complete manuscripts, land agents, and sell.

But another thing many of us have had in common? The advice and critique prowess of Ms. Courtney Milan. Which is why her critique up for bids in the Brenda Novak Auction to benefit diabetes research just may be the steal of a century.

There’s no way I could have completed or sold Goddess of the Hunt without my critique partners, one of whom is Courtney Milan. Her comments on my manuscripts have always been insightful, useful, and unfailingly honest. And her expertise in legal matters is unparalleled. If you’re an aspiring author of historical romance, I don’t think you could spend your money … Read More »

There is a lovely review of my upcoming Samhain novella, The Legend of the Werestag, posted on Smart Bitches Trashy Books this morning.  It’s my first publicly posted review!  Ever!  And it’s entirely kind and mostly positive!  Wow.  I am honored and tickled and pretty much thrilled.  All this before 8 AM.

Now that I have a review, I suddenly realize I should start saving them somehow.  What do authors do with their reviews? Print out and save?  Bookmark?  Scrapbook it with pinking shears and the whole nine yards?… Read More »

Hey, all – more excitement! I just got the slightly revised covers for my trilogy. As you can see, they decided to make the typography a little more modern and the colors a little more bold. I love the red for GODDESS. Lucy wears red almost all through that book, so it’s perfect!

The titles will be embossed in foil now, which is very exciting. Well, and most exciting parts (for me) are those quotes. 😉

Does this mean the cover flats I’m giving away in my contest are now a collector’s item?

It’ll probably take me a few days to get the covers replaced all through the website. First priority is finishing the current book!… Read More »

If you celebrated Easter or Passover, I hope it was great for you and yours!

The Dare family is currently chillin’ at a supremely air-conditioned resort condo in the desert, for our mini Spring Break.  So far I’ve spent most of it working on copy edits of A LADY OF PERSUASION while Mr. Dare and the darelings hang out at the pool.  But this morning we’re off to the desert zoo!

Today is the official release date of the Smart Bitches book, BEYOND HEAVING BOSOMS: A SMART BITCHES GUIDE TO ROMANCE NOVELS.  Congratulations, Sarah and Candy!  Between the release of their awesome book and the recent boost in romance novel sales, the genre is getting some – gasp! – relatively positive publicity!  From such venerated sources as NPR and Nightline!

I never knew that this was what was missing from my life:  Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd reading aloud from romance novels.… Read More »

Happy National Poetry Month!
(And thank you Janga, for the lovely reminder!)

In THE DESIRE OF A DUKE (you all convinced me not to mess with the title just yet), I’ve given my heroine a much-cherished family home on the banks of the River Wye, not far from Tintern Abbey. And I’ve been reading and re-reading Wordsworth’s famed description of the area for inspiration:

The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
‘Mid groves and copses. Once again I see
These hedgerows, hardly hedgerows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild; these pastoral farms,
Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!

(From Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey)

Of course, Tintern Abbey itself never appears in the poem, but this 1794 watercolor by Turner captures the ruins as they might have looked to my heroine, in her youthful rambles.

One thing I love about writing romance set in the Regency period is that the period overlaps with the beginnings of true Romanticism, as an artistic, literary, and musical era. I don’t know that it’s especially historically probable, but I love imagining my characters to be influenced, subtly or overtly, by the capital-R Romantics of the day, Wordsworth and Turner among them. In the case of this … Read More »