Wet Hunk--the Very Best Kind

Well, okay. Maybe he's only wet from the ankles down. Sorry. He'll just have to do....

Feeling pretty good this Saturday. The Bravo Christmas book is coming along fine. After it, I go right into another Bravo, for release in February. Work is good.

Saturday out in the yard is better. I keep meaning to post pics of my garden. Will do. Today, though, say hi to Juan...

Cover Love

Okay, I love this cover! It's for my July SSE, which begins a new Montana Mavericks miniseries called Striking It Rich.

I love how romantic it is, I love the light. Love that the heroine looks just as I pictured her--and as I described her in my cover art info, which I turned in a little before the manuscript was due. I love that the guy is yummy--even if my hero, Grant Clifton, would never wear his hair that way and is def older than the guy pictured here. Hey. Yummy is good. Yummy is very, very good.

I don't care that the scene is supposed to be a tack room and no tack room I ever heard of looked out a huge picture window onto a scene quite like the one we see here. Really, the whole effect is otherworldy--but somehow in a good, good way.

I don't even care that she seems to be holding her feet in mid-air for no discernable reason. I don't care that, really, why has he twisted his torso in that odd way, with one arm thrown back across that hay bale that resembles a section of sofa covered in sheepskin or maybe shaggy rope?

I don't care, I don't care.

I love, love, love this cover!

So. What do you think?

Saturday with Booksellers and Librarians--and a Chance to Win!

I love my local RWA chapter, the OKRWA Outlaws. Always great stuff going on at our meetings.

Saturday was the Booksellers and Librarians Reception at Nonna's restaurant in Bricktown, OKC. Above, yours truly and three of our guests--and that would be the amazing Georgina Gentry just barely in the frame to the right.

Great desserts. Stimulating company. Champagne. Lots of talk about how we can all work together to promote books and reading. We're thinking of making this an annual event. I'm all for that.

Oh, and we had a few extra goodie bags left after each bookseller and librarian had hers. We held a drawing.

Guess what? I won one.

I want to pass this treat along. Contains a number of fun book-related goodies--including two advance excerpt pamplets from upcoming books by P.C Cast and exciting new author, Jordan Dane. There's also a signed copy of Janis Reams Hudson's June '06 Special Edition, Winning Dixie. And you know I'll throw in a signed Christine Rimmer book, as well.

Just post on my blog--this entry or newer ones--in the next week to have your chance to win. I'll randomly draw a winner Tuesday, May 1.

Good luck!

An American Tragedy

The horrific events of last Monday haunt me. My heart goes out to the families of the Virginia Tech students.

Tuesday night, the students here held a candlelight vigil for the lost ones. The J came home after midnight and knocked on our bedroom door--to hug us and tell us he loved us.

I just ache for the mothers whose kids won't be coming home again.

And I am so grateful for each moment I have with the ones I love...

Free Delivery...

Well, it says so, doesn't it? Right there, next to Rusty in all his Ab-o-lishous glory. Oh, my.
I keep thinking I should put up some new hunks now and then, you know? Because, like, variety is a good thing.

But it appears I'm monogamous even when it comes to my hunk choices. I am inevitably drawn to the same hunky men: Rusty and Sebastian, mostly. With your occasional Eric Bana and Antonio tossed in for good measure.

Really. So sad. Snif, snif.

You'll just have to settle for this amazingly goodlucking man. Sorry...

Well, okay. Not that sorry...

Oh, and I have a title for my 3/08 HQN: NEVER KISS ME AGAIN. I like it. After all, I did sugggest it. ;) Hero and heroine were divorced and *think* they hate each other, so the title fits.

And really, there's a lot of kissing that goes on. Among other things... Mwahaha.

So what do you think? Like it? Hate it?

The Bravo Family Tree Issue

Okay, it's embarrassing. Over a year ago, on my website, I began promising a Bravo Family Tree. I meant well. I truly did.

But, well, there are only so many hours in a day and up till now I have dedicated very few of them to getting the Bravo genealogy in order, attractively displayed and onto my website. I did get promises. From the J and the DH. They would take my info and put in a PDF file and then I could send it to my webmistress, the brilliant MS Shelley, to put up on my site.

Men. Didn't happen. And hey, I had someone to blame other than me! Win/win. Oh, yeah.

But at last, I'm proud to say, I've made an actual move toward fulfilling my Family Tree vow. I bought software. Yes, that's the box you see above. It's really cool software and supposedly idiot-friendly. I like that in a genealogy program. Supposedly I'll be able to do things like add pictures (covers, in the case of the Bravos), and details of the family history. And there are several display modes. The finished product could be a tree, or flower-bedecked.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Way ahead. All I'm after now is to fulfill my promise of getting all those Bravos onto an orderly-looking genealogy chart.

I'm getting there, folks. I really am....

Title Woes Part Deux--and My Current Hero

Kiss Me, Kill Me; Don't Tempt Me; Family Plots; Kiss Me Again; Never Kiss Me Again....

It goes on and on. I won't know for a while yet, which title they choose. The suspense is killing. I need a big glass of wine. Or maybe two...

I am, however, having fun with the next Bravo book. The hero, Marcus, is just cracking me up. He's one of those Hasn't Got a Clue guys. You know the sort. He can run a billion-dollar company in his sleep with one hand tied behind his back, but the determined, big-hearted heroine, Hayley, has him tied in knots. He doesn't know which end is up...

Here's a taste:

Marcus regarded the pregnant woman on the blue couch. At least she had a little color in her cheeks now. Telling him all the nonsensical reasons she wouldn’t have him as a husband had brought a warm flush to her velvety skin.

So great. She had pink cheeks and he wanted to…

Hell. He didn’t know what he wanted to do, exactly. Something violent. Something loud. Something to snap her out of this silly resistance she was giving him and bring it crystal clear to her that she was making no damn sense and she ought to smarten up and get with the program.

He spoke, the soul of reason. “I’m here, now, today, and ready to do what you wanted. You left me because I wouldn’t marry you. And now I want to marry you. I want to give you exactly what you were asking for all along. I don’t understand why you have to be difficult about this. You’re not behaving rationally. And one of your finest qualities has always been your ability to step back and assess a situation logically. I advise you to do that. Now.”

“Marcus.”

He hated when she said his name like that. So patiently. As if he were a not very bright oversized child. It was supremely annoying, the way she got to him, the way he let her get to him. He’d graduated from Stanford at the top of his class; he’d built a billion-dollar corporation from virtually nothing. He knew how to deal with people, how to get along and get what he wanted.

But with Hayley, somehow, since she decided she loved him and wanted to marry him, he hadn’t known how to deal at all. First, she left him because he wouldn’t marry her. And now that he said he would marry her, she was turning him down.

And she was talking again. All patience and gentleness, trying to make him understand. “No. You don’t want to marry me. You want to take care of your child—and the mother of your child. You think marrying me is the best way to do that, to take care of us. I…admire you for that. I truly do. You are a fine man and I’m proud to be having your baby. But that kind of marriage, marriage you want because it’s the right thing? Uh-uh. That’s just not what I want. It’s not what I wanted from you at all. And it’s not what our baby needs, either. Our baby needs—no. Our baby deserves a loving home, a happy home. How can our baby have that if you’re resentful because you felt you had to marry me?”

“Whoa.” He said the word and waited, just to be sure she was going to stop talking and listen for a moment. When she stayed quiet, he said slowly and clearly, “Don’t characterize me. Please. I’m not resentful. Not in the least. And you know me well enough by now to know that I never do anything because I have to. I never do anything I don’t want to do.”

She was shaking her head. “All right. Have it your way. You want to marry me. Because you feel that you have to.”

He stood. “Hayley.”

She gazed up at him, her expression angelic. “What?”

“I’m going to go now.” Before my head explodes.

“Oh, Marcus…”

He went to the closet by the door and got his coat. “We can…work this out tomorrow.” He’d regroup, come at this problem in a fresh, new way—true, at this point he hadn’t a clue what that way might be. But something would come to him, some way to get through to her, to make her see reason.

“There’s nothing to work out,” she said brightly. “Not when it comes to marriage, anyway—and where are you staying?”

He named his hotel. “Tomorrow, then.”

She was on her feet, her hands folded on top of her belly, her expression verging on tender, her eyes at that moment more blue than gray or green. He wanted to cover the distance between them, sweep her into his arms and taste those lips he’d been missing for so many months.

But no. Later for kissing. After she realized he was right about this. After she agreed to marry him and come home with him where she—and their baby—belonged.

***
Poor Marcus. He should have said yes when she proposed seven months ago. But he didn't. I could almost feel sorry for the guy. But then again, what fun would that be?

Title Woes....

Well, there's always something. Once again, as with RALPHIE'S WIVES, the cover team for my next HQN is having issues. This one I titled BET ON IT.

And you guessed it: not working for them. They want people on the cover--as opposed to those covers you see with just flowers or Adirondack chairs or whatever. Covers without people are known in the biz as ICONIC. For HQN, it's been decided that ICONIC is a non-starter.

So...racking my brain again to come up with a new title that will instantly lend itself to amazing non-iconic, well-peopled cover images. Oh, and they want a cover that echoes the RALPHIE'S WIVES cover, so readers will recognize my "cover style." But mind you, these two books are NOT in any way connected...

ARgh. Screech. Help!

Oh, and HAPPY EASTER, everyone!

Even a Rita Finalist Has to Work

Sheesh. It's so not fair. I'd much prefer sitting up in the bed, reading great books and waiting for my publisher to call with a gazillion dollar deal.

Le sigh. Not happenin'. So I'm into the latest Bravo, the one that's scheduled for a December release. A Christmas story, or did I already mention that?

Had to recast my hero. Ian Lawless was too...nice. Needed to go a little more edgy. So...

Guess who?

Oh, my yes! I think Clive will do just fine...

Yesterday, we cleaned the deck. Such glamorous work. I'm telling you, the life of a RITA finalist can't be beat for elegance and style.

How's everyone? Living the good life, I hope?