More For You Bravo Fans Out There...

No, I haven't forgotten the Bravos. There are more coming up, as I mentioned in my last post. In May, FROM HERE TO PATERNITY. Love that baby at left.

And then, in December, A BRAVO CHRISTMAS REUNION, which is all plotted and proposed and approved. I'm writing that next. As soon as I tweak the Proposal That Almost Ate My Brain, aka Dead Shark Rejuvenated and write a synopsis (fyi, like an outline in story form) of the next Bravo book, coming out in Feb '08, I hope, I hope.

In the meantime, I've signed up for the amazing Louise Ahern's PR BOOTCAMP. I hear it's a demanding course, so...wish me luck. One can simply never know enough about promoting books.

Better get back to figuring out where the kidnapper got the rope. I'm in the home stretch on this, folks--meaning the proposal mentioned above. The one that Ate My Brain and Stole My Lunch and turned me into a raving harpy.

But I'm nice now. Mwahaha.

How's by you?

Casting My Characters

Yes, I do. I cast my characters. I cut out pictures from magazines and download them from the internet and post them on the bulletin board I have by my computer. It's a writer thing. Most likely a result of my theater background. Once I wanted to be an actress, so when I create my characters, I always have to figure out who would "play" them in my ideal movie of the book.

So...SPOILER ALERT. If you're a reader who likes to imagine for yourself what the characters look like....read no farther!

But if you want a peek into my mind (big Mwahaha here), read on...

Above, pictures of h/H for my upcoming May Special Edition, a BRAVO story, FROM HERE TO PATERNITY. Yes, the heroine is modeled after Kyra Sedgwick of the terrific cable series THE CLOSER. And "playing" the hero...okay, his name escapes me now. Too much info inside my brain. Hey, it happens. If anyone recognizes him from the pictures, drop me a comment. I do like to give my actors screen credit!

On the bottom half of the board above: a map of the town, New Bethlehem Flat, CA, where the book takes place. And a calendar where I jot in what happens and when. Yes, to me, my books take place in real time. Yet another quirky author thing.

And the Hero and Heroine of RALPHIE'S WIVES?


To me, Phoebe is played by Jennifer Connelly

And Rio?

Here you go....



Yes, Antonio Banderas all the way. Okay, okay, a slightly younger Antonio, but Antonio nonetheless.








And here's a question: When you read a book, do you "cast" the characters, do you picture real people as the hero and heroine?

Publishing Marches On...

Here's a little more Sebastian to admire while I blab...

Yes, def on a Sebastian kick. The man has it all. And then some. Can we all just whisper, "Yum!"?

So my first HQN, RALPHIE'S WIVES is out any minute now--and what am I doing? Getting the proposal together for a book that won't be out until 2009--and getting with the cover team for my next HQN, BET ON IT, which is scheduled for March 2008 release.

I sent in a bunch of ideas. Though BET ON IT is not connected to RALPHIE'S WIVES, both are totally stand-alone, I'm hoping the brilliant cover team will figure out a way to give BET ON IT a cover treatment as exciting and fresh as the one for RALPHIE:



Hard to top. It's fun and quirky and with good shoes! Lots of readers have told me it brings to mind DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. The whole kind of "let's have coffee and dish and don't mind that body in the living room..." thing.

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can approach that tone with the BET ON IT cover.

Having been in this biz as long as I have, well, I know you never know. But a girl can dream, and I do!

It will be a while before I see where the cover team went with this. Keep your fingers crossed for me. A good cover goes a long way toward selling a book...

Addendum: I wrote this post, then saw that Abby Zidle, now with Pocket Books, who was the editor-in-charge of the cover team for Ralphie, dedicated a post on her group blog to the subject of covers and authors and editors and art people. Here's a link in case you want to know more: Dead Guy Blog

Happy Valentine's Day!

We all have our weaknesses, right?

I have many. Because there's nothing like surrender to a burning need.

I love...Krinkles. At left, note a Krinkles Valentine display.

A few years ago, at Dillards during a Black Friday shopping spree (That's what they call it, right, shopping the day after Thanksgiving?), I found my first Krinkle.

It was an ornament, an adorable poodle dog in the most amazing little shoes.

It looked like this:



Dreadfully expensive, of course. Well, I mean, for an ornament. Especially considering I have boxes and boxes of gorgeous, expensive ornaments already.

But what can I say? There was that burning need. I had to have that Krinkle poodle for my own to put on my tree.

So yes. I bought it. And I've never regretted surrendering my hard cash to that particular blazing desire.

Is a Krinkle the sort of gift you give your fave guy at Valentines? Oh, probably not. Too whimsical. Not, as a rule, a guy kinda thing.

Okay. I still buy them. For myself. So...Happy Valentine's Day to me! And to you, too.

Got plans? Do you give a Valentine to your sweetie? Mine gets a conversation heart or two and a great, big kiss. Followed by a sweetly and sincerely whispered, "I love you."

Deepening the Mystery...

Well, and that's me there on the left. In my thong and great shoes. Lounging on my red satin sheets, jotting down notes as I develop my revived dead shark proposal.

Hah. Don't I so wish. I haven't had a pair of glutes like that since...

Well, at least a month or two. LOL.

But, you know, I can dream, right?

Here in real life, as the shark cuts through the shimmering deep, I'm remembering what Eudora Welty once wrote in her wonderful little jewel of a memoir, One Writer's Beginnings.

"...one secret is liable to be revealed in the place of another that is harder to tell, and the substitute secret, when nakedly exposed, is all the more appalling."

So this book is about substitute secrets. First, the death is not a murder. Then it is. Then the most obvious person did it--then that person didn't. A trip to the Bahamas to rest and recuperate is just a vacation, right?

Or did something else happen there?

Got a great plot from plot group for this book. And I'm using it. And then, just when I think I've got it solved, it turns out the shark wants to swim deeper. Mwahaha...

Woke up this morning with a headfull of plot. Jotted it down, quick, before I could forget. I think this is working.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

This is so funny, really. I've never been a plot-driven writer. I'm still not. It's all about character for me. But I'm finding with the larger canvas in my mainstream stories, I'm driven to use the extra room to tell a more complex story. I still love writing my Specials. But you know, sometimes a girl just has to swim with the sharks...

The Hairy Chest Dilemma

Some like a man smooth...And some like him...



not.

Sebastian Rulli's your man either way. Cause, like, what you want...
he's got!

Hard to believe I won a poetry contest once, huh? But that was long, long ago. Clearly.

More on my Dead Shark...thank you all for the encouragement. I started to feel I hadn't given that story enough of chance. So I'm back on it. And liking it just fine.

The writing life. It should get easier. Buuuuut no!

A Dead Shark Ain't Art...

A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we’ve got on our hands… is a dead shark.
— Woody Allen, Annie Hall

And how is a proposal like a relationship?

Well, and yes! Now you ask, I am feeling just so cheerful today. My proposal continues to refuse to swim forward. What does this mean?

Time to give it up, I think. It's okay. It happens. In spite of what I said in my Tear-Your-Hair-Out Post at the end of January. So sad. But true...

And really, don't you think "Dead Shark" is so much more evocative than, say, non-starter?

Years and years ago, long before I sold a romance and started writing for a living, when I made my home in Southern California, I had a dear friend named Deborah Lou. Deborah Lou was totally supportive of my writing addiction, though she did get a little bitter when she'd want me to head off on an adventure--say, driving cross-country to dig crystals in Arkansas--and I'd take a pass because I had to write my book. I credit her with coining the phrase "Dead Shark" in terms of a project that's simply not moving forward.

I've always had a lot of ideas for books. It's true. Ideas really are cheap. But right now, I'm not talking about just the germ, the seed, the basic starting point of a story. I'm talking about ideas I've fallen in love with, ideas I've nurtured like babies, watered like tender saplings, coddled and spoiled. Ideas I have loved--the ones where I've done my best to make them grow up a little and swim on their own. But even with all my tender loving care, sadly, some of them--okay, okay. A lot of them--just don't make it from my twisted brain to the page. As Deborah Lou would say, "So, it's another dead shark. Move on."

So I am.

And how's your day been?

Do Book Trailers Sell Books?

Haven't a clue. But I sure love the one my brilliant webmistress Miss Shelley of Web Crafters Design has created for Ralphie's Wives.

I love it. Did I already say that?

Have a look. It's up as an intro at my website--don't forget to have the sound on. I love the music, too. Here's a link: ChristineRimmer.com

Okay I Have This Thing for Latin Men...

Meet Eduardo. I love a guy named Eduardo. I call my cat, Eddie, Euardo. Often.

Also, this guy makes me think of Rio, the hero of RALPHIE'S WIVES. Oh, my, my...

More Ralphie News and My Total Lack of Geekiness...

Found out today that my March HQN, RALPHIE'S WIVES, will be out next month on audio, too.

Kinda cool, huh? Here's what they're saying at eHarlequin. (Scroll to the bottom for March audiobooks) You'll be able to get RALPHIE as an ebook at Audible.com--and also it'll be downloadable to your iPod.

I love technology. Too bad I lack a good, strong Geek gene--meaning I'm not good at it, you know?

Like for instance, this blog. I did manage to switch to the new Blogger, which has some cool drag-n-drop features not available in the old Blogger.

But now I'm hearing how everyone's moving to Wordpress. How totally faboo it is and so much easier to use and yaddayaddayadda. Okay, so I went and had a look.

Uh. Sounds great. Looks great. Really. Lots of neat features. Go for it, everyone. For now, though, I think I'll just stick here with "new" Blogger.

And I confess, I got myself a page at Myspace. Never been back there since I set it up. My page is probably really lonely. Too bad. One blog is plenty for me.

Oh, and the new Windows Vista operating system just came out. I should be excited about that, right? The J certainly is. But me, I'm thinkin'...later. I've grown accustomed to XP, which everyone had fits about (and not always in a good way) when it came out back in...when was that, aeons ago...2002?

And is it just me, or is technology changing really fast these days? Help, I lack a Geek gene and I can't keep up!

Oh, and about my proposal? Still tearing my hair out. But it's getting there...