Hump Day Hunk

In honor of the upcoming Batman movie, here's the ever-so-wonderful CHRISTIAN BALE. Intense, brooding, a great, complex hero.

Wrote another 1,000 words on The Lady and the Libertine, the May '09 Egyptian historical. The hero is turning out to be very intense, complex and dark and keeps doing things that HE wants to do, but it's fascinating watching the twists and turns. He's almost an anti-hero, but for the reasons motivating his actions.

And the other actions he does to encourage the heroine to break free of the expectations she's placed on herself that have chained her.

I like this couple. He might turn out to be the hero I like most. We'll see.

Barbara Vey's blog for Publisher's Weekly, Beyond the Book, featured The Scorpion and the Seducer today in a book review by Joyce. Stop by to comment if you get a chance.

Going home

Cover model contestants from RT 2008.

I have no tact, I had them say BOOBIES when I took this shot.

Bobbi Smith was doing a fundraiser for SOS, take your photo with the guys and make a donation. Bobbi... I can't say enough about her. She's very nice, warm, outgoing and just a good person.

There are a lot of good people in romanceland. Authors, readers, publishers, reviewers, etc. I met CL Wilson, who lives in my home state, and her mom. Readers Kitty and her daughter Nikki. Kitty is an artist who does beautiful paintings. Nikki writes poetry and we were trying to encourage her to write short stories. I met Isabo, who is just the greatest person.

There's a blur of names and faces right now my tired brain can't remember.

I do remember someone telling me that at the book fair when the lights went out, someone yelled. WHERE ARE THE MEN? (hiding in fear, I'd say) And someone told me she'd handed a book to Brenda Novak to sign and the lights went out and Brenda signed it by the light of her cell phone.

Gotta love the innovation at these conventions.

Getting up this a.m. was pure torture. My eyeballs felt glued shut. I had to pack. I went to bed at 1 and got up at 6. I managed to pack all, and eventually got downstairs.

In the lobby I saw my editor, and got to say goodbye to him. I told him I was afraid my suitcase would go over the weight limit.

He asked, "Why?"

I said, "I have an Ellora's Cave cover model in here."

I'm at the airport now, trying to wake up and make use of down time to upload and sort out photos because I know as soon as I get home it will be back in the home mode. I have to go to work at the day job tomorrow. Something amusing for me at this conference was talking to other authors and having them be stunned that I write for two houses and work FT. They said they don't know how I do it.

I don't, either.

RT 2008 was fun, tiring, and an interesting experience. I'm in a period now of introspection, trying to make decisions about the future. I was at Mona's booth at Club RT, the woman who sells gorgeous shawls and jewelry, and looking over the jewelry. I met Celeste Bradley, talked with her for about 5 minutes about jewelry. I bought a pair of turquoise earrings. Certain stones carry certain properties with them, and turquoise, which I love, is supposed to bring clarity and good fortune.

I'm not seeing either now, but there is always hope.

Though the booksigning for me yesterday was meh, and a disappointment, I'm glad I did it just to meet people who wanted to meet me. There weren't that many, but it was very gratifying to meet them. I appreciate every reader who takes a chance on my books.

And it's so validating as an author to hear a reader say, "thank you." I met one woman who told me she has horrid migraines and the books she reads help her though the pain.

The publishing world is like a roller coaster. Authors have ups and downs. You put out a book, cross your fingers and pray and hope it sells. Books you think are probably doing great sometimes end up not selling that well. Or you get really crappy reviews, and the book ends up doing well.

If I had to compare it to anything, it is a lot like modeling. Some get great gigs and do well, and have skyrocketing careers. Others get some bread and butter gigs, and others get one or two modeling jobs and they struggle.

If you're very lucky and very talented, you can make a real career out of being a romance author. So much of this business, and I heard it again and again at this conference, is luck and timing.

And if you're lucky, you do okay, and have the gratification of meeting readers who thank you for writing the books you love to write.

That is probably the best thing, for me at least, about being an author. I'm grateful for every reader who takes a chance on my books. I'll never be a "superstar" author, but I'm glad there are readers who like my books, and I'm glad I got to write the books I really love to write.

And having Jimmy portray the hero from THE SCORPION AND THE SEDUCER was a real highlight for me. I've never had a cover model portray my hero in the competition. And I've never been escorted into the competition and had a front row seat, as if I were someone special.

Now it's back to my darling hubby, whom I really miss, the dogs, the day job and reality. I'm glad I'm going home. RT is like an escape from reality in a way. You can go there and for a few days or the whole week, feel totally in another world with fairy balls, and cover models and authors and publishers and readers and booksellers.

And if you're really lucky, you have a lot of great memories to take back home with you. Or a cover model or two in your suitcase. :-)

Herding rats

I just found out Dorchester contracted to have The Cobra & the Concubine printed in Italian. Yay! That means my books have been translated now into 6 languages, including English, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and Japanese.

Posted an excerpt to The Scorpion and the Seducer on my website. Click here to read.

And speaking of excerpts, a topic that dovetails into web excerpts... I got an RWA alert about piracy sites. There's been talk on message boards and in RWA chapters about this.

It stinks. I have a book on at least two sites I know of. The publisher's legal department is looking into this, obviously not just for me, but the hundreds more, and well known authors, who are also being pirated.

Just to state a fact: If you download any of my books for free, you are doing so from a pirated site. Please. Don't. I doubt most readers are doing it gleefully rubbing their hands. Some probably just want to "test the waters" and see if they like my writing. If that's the case, I post generous excerpts on my website for all my books.

Please, don't download my books off the internet from a piracy site.

It's stealing, plain and simple. It doesn't benefit me, the publisher, or you as the reader. It perpetuates a cycle of negative backlash in this industry for me, other authors and publishers.

At the same time, trying to track down these piracy sites is the equivalent of herding rats. Not cats. Rats always come back. They breed faster.

When I first found my book on a piracy site, I was upset. But when I found a SPANISH copy of my second Egyptian historical on another piracy site, I just started to laugh. Hey, I'm being pirated in TWO languages now!

I laugh not because this isn't a serious issue to me. It is. But I realized then the futility of it all. I had this mental image of me chasing down these ratonas running through the internet in digital form with copies of El Tigre y la Tumba, which isn't even an ebook, so someone scanned it. The whole book. So I'm letting the publishers handle it and going back to what I can control through the many frustrations of this publishing business: the writing.

I'm a writer. I'm going to sit my pirated butt in the chair and get to work on the next project due.

And hopefully I'll be writing about werewolves, and not thinking about those ratonas running amok with copies of my book in Spanish.

Contest winner and new cover!

Yay! Jennifer and I have a winner for our OLDIES FOR NEWBIES blog contest!

It's Susan, schaballa. Congratulations Susan! Thanks everyone who entered the contest. And for all those who are itching for another contest, I'm running one on my website and giving away a handmade jewelry box. Click here to get more information.

In other news, I FINISHED the book! YAY! My second Nocturne is done! It's tentatively titled Enemy Lover and is Damian's story from The Empath. It's set in New Orleans. Love that city. We visited back in April and did everything from riding the street car to City Park to eating at Brennan's.

Oh yeah, got some great news this week! Found out The Empath, my first Nocturne, made Bookscan's list of Top 100 Bestselling Romance! Yay!

My next release after The Empath, which is officially out this month, is The Scorpion& the Seducer. Another Egyptian historical. Here's the cover. Let me know what you think. It's Nathan Kemp. I like how he's staring at her like he's really conflicted. Should I? Or shouldn't I? Scorpion is Jasmine's story from The Cobra & the Concubine. And the seducer is Lord Thomas Claradon, an earl's heir who falls in love with her, but it's a forbidden love as she's outcast from high society.

Have a great Sunday. I'm going to celebrate finishing my book by cleaning the house and hunting down dust bunnies.

It's over and I cried!

Sob sob!

I FINALLY finished the book!

The Scorpion and the Seducer is DONE. FINI! COMPLETED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's printed and in a box, ready to be mailed.

I cried when I read over the ending. Oh, it was soooo sweet. I felt like Joan Wilder in that first scene in Romancing the Stone, crying as she finished her book.

Then again, maybe I cried with relief because I was finally finished. LOL! Yeah, that's it. The book sucks. NO, it doesn't. Yes, it does. No, it doesn't. It IS different from anything I've written, and has more of a tone that Panther and the Pyramid and Cobra and the Concubine had.

Enough, enough. It's FINISHED. Ta, book! Now at last I can take a small break. Maybe I'll just collapse on the sofa and zzzzzzzzzzzzzz for a while...