My Most Recent Blog Posts

I had my son pull the names of two winners for the drawing from the Life: Not What I Expected blog. When he was finished he asked me what the drawing was for and I said a book. He got all depressed and started unfolding the other names and saying how sad it was that I couldn't give a book to everyone.

That made me sad.

Life doesn’t always go the way we plan. Sometimes the unplanned elements turn out to be the best parts. Here are a few of mine:

One of the very best perks of being a Harlequin author is that whenever I have a book released, Harlequin sends me boxes of free books to use for giveaways and as review copies, etc.. Granted, the books are all the same...but for a dyed-in-the-wool book lover, there's nothing like opening up those boxes and seeing all the fresh, lovely books! I look forward to this delivery like a seven-year-old kid looks forward to Santa.

You all understand that, right?

So here's what happened this weekend.

My newest Superromance, Plan B: Boyfriend is coming out in December. (That means November in eHarlequin time!). It's the first book I sold with less than a complete proposal--my first two book deal. (In my mind, a complete proposal is 3 chapters plus a full synopsis. The proposal for this book was ten pages and a short synopsis.)

I put up an annual blog post here at eHarlequin where we post 12 books we’re planning to read during the year. I have to admit that my reasons for doing the blog post are partially selfish. Readers at eHQ are so widely read and so knowledgeable about the next great book that I scour the responses for recommendations. Sometimes we come back and post our impressions of the books in that thread, but it’s mostly a great way to find books people are anticipating.

So now I’m approaching the question from the other side: What’s the best book you’ve read this year? (Or any time recently. Don’t feel you need to confine yourself to one calendar year!) Doesn’t have to be romance. Doesn’t have to be anything except a really great read you want to share with us!

I’ve been thinking about what to blog about in my inaugural Super Blog post—I considered so many ideas but nothing really grabbed me. (Maybe because I had a book out in May and I blogged a lot that month. My blog well is depleted.)

Then I thought about one of the traditions I love best from the Superromance board here at eHarlequin. Snippets!

Hi,

We gave away four books in the Superromance Title Puzzles game. The four winners are:

The Super Authors blog is having an official kick-off week starting June 1, but since the space is here and we’re all here…it seemed like a prime opportunity for a little word game! 

Do you remember the games Nini posted on eHQ last December  where we guessed the retitled holiday songs? Example: Embellish Interior Passageways = Deck the Halls.

Jeannie Watt and I adapted that game by running the titles of the 2009 Supers (January-May) through the Obfuscation Machine. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to decipher the real titles. Post guesses in the comments. (Just to clarify: You can guess at one or two--I didn't expect anyone would want to attempt the whole list.)

I thought I'd share another deleted scene from The Boyfriend's Back. I had so much trouble getting this book where I wanted it that I have pages and pages of deleted stuff. In this scene, JT has just come back to town and he and Hailey (his high school girlfriend) meet each other when they are both out strolling around. He wants to talk to her, but they have some awkward moments and then this scene happens.

I’m a technical writer. That means I write Frequently Asked Question pages (FAQs) on a regular basis. Did you know that most FAQs are made up by technical writers and have nothing to do with actual questions anyone has ever asked? Yep. It’s like writing fiction, except about bytes and bandwidth and secure passwords. And also the FAQs are usually nonfiction. Usually.

Anyway, I wrote an FAQ for His Secret Past and the comments were a ton of fun (here) so I thought I’d do one for The Boyfriend’s Back.