JUNE 24: Today is the offical publication for COME HIGH WATER, the last book in the Black Swan trilogy from Avalon. And today I'm finishing up a promotional blog tour for my newest Sourcebooks novel, I LOVE THIS BAR, the first of the Honky Tonk series. I'm over at My Reading Room if you'd like to comment or throw your name into the boot or Stetson for a free copy. Contest is open until July 1. Happy Reading!
JUNE 21: Good news! I LOVE THIS BAR received a STARRED review from Booklist in their July 1 publication. Also, I'm blogging at My Book Addiction & More today and they are giving away chances for two books for anyone who might be interested.
JUNE 10: Tomorrow (Friday) I'm blogging at Thoughts in Progress on my blog tour. Stop by and leave a comment. You might win a free copy of I LOVE THIS BAR!
JUNE 4: I'm continuing my blog tour at Much Cheaper Than Therapy and at Love Romance Passion. Both places are having a drawing for a free copy of I LOVE THIS BAR to anyone who comments. Come on over to either or both and throw your comment into the Stetson for a chance to win.
JUNE 3: I LOVE THIS BAR is on the shelves now! Woo-Hoo! And I'm kicking off my blog tour this morning over at Fresh Fiction for anyone who'd like to stop by and comment.
MAY 19: Author's copies of I LOVE THIS BAR from Sourcebooks and COME HIGH WATER from Avalon arrived this week. I'd seen the covers but there's just something about holding the books in my hands that makes my heart skip a beat.
MAY 12: Break out the chocolate. PEOPLE MAGAZINE’S COUNTRY ISSUE for August will be featuring the Honky Tonk series in their round up of books ... especially I Love This Bar and Hell, Yeah! Now, that's reason to have chocolate cake topped off with double fudge ice cream!
MAY 7: For the past several years I've looked forward to the RWA conference being in Nashville, which is just one of my favorite places ever! But bless those folks hearts out there, the floods have prevented that and now we are going to Orlando. Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Gretchen Wilson, even Porter Wagner all make my little heart skip a beat. Mickey Mouse? Not so much! My new series is the Honky Tonk Series and what better place to yell from the rooftops about it than Nashville, home of the Grand Ole Opry and Music Row! I don't think Mickey and Minnie are going to two step to Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar." But life does go on and my belly aching is causing a major guilt trip ... what about all those poor folks who've lost homes and jobs? Sorry about pouting, folks! It's just that I've looked forward to this trip for five years. Okay, okay! I might get over it it Toby shows up at my hotel and sings "I Love This Bar" in the hallway of my hotel.
MAY 5: Come High Water will be on the bookshelves the later part of June but the cover is now on my historical book page. It's a lovely addition to the other two and I promise by the end of the book my readers will know what really happened Ralph Contiello!
APRIL 30: Lessons Learned by Kate Davies won the award for the small press division Reviewer's Choice Awards at the Romantic Times Convention. Congratulations Kate!
It's a cloudy but warm day in Oklahoma. It's hard for me to stay inside and work on writing in the spring and fall. I hate to sweat so in the summer I don't fuss about staying in under the air conditioning! And winter isn't my season so I'm quite content to let it snow ... outside ... while I watch from the window above my computer. The one thing that helps today is that I'm writing a contemporary about this very time of the year so I can justify going outside every couple of hours to figure out how to describe the smell of spring and the sound of the birds chirping. After all, how does a person write about four kittens romping over the lawnmower if she doesn't go out there and watch the sight!
APRIL 25: This is the week of the Romantic Times Convention, this year in Columbus, Ohio. My book, TO BELIEVE, is a nominee in the small press category for Review of the Year. I would have loved to have been there but alas, this year it wasn't possible. Maybe next year.
APRIL 15: ONE LUCKY COWBOY has finaled in the National Reader's Choice Awards! I'm so tickled I don't know whether to wind my fanny or scratch my watch! The awards will be presented at the RWA Nationals in July in Nashville and yep, I'll be there with bells on my toes.
APRIL 13: It's spring in Oklahoma and Husband and I've been working on our flower beds. It reminds me of writing. Plant a seed on page one. Watch it grow throughout the whole book. The mountains are turning green with the redbuds adding their splash of purple and the dogwoods offering up some white blossoms. Yes, we have mountains in southern Oklahoma ... the Arbuckles. Husband tells me they aren't really mountains but he's from Pennyslvania where they use a different dictionary to describe mountains.
APRIL 8: I keep saying I'll do better at this blog idea but it really is somewhat like that five year diary that I drove my poor mother crazy about. It should have been called a five day diary because that's about how many entries got made in it. Anyway, I'm making no high powered promises, but I'm going to attempt to do a better job at the blog.
It's been a busy month so far! I'm working on the first book in a BRAND NEW series for Sourcebooks for 2011. It's called the Spikes & Spurs series and I'm very excited to be writing more about cowboys! It's just a few weeks until the first book in the Honky Tonk Series, I LOVE THIS BAR (June 1) will be on the shelves and the exclusive hard back rights have been sold to Rhapsody Book Club. Also, two of my books, a Kensington from 1997 and an Avalon (The Wager) have sold to a Japanese company to redo in Manga books and e-books. So my writing life is good. My mother would be so happy about it all. She always asked about my "books" when I visited her in the nursing home. She passed on Feb. 6 this year and I've missed her.
