A little celebration

My book is done! Now I’m going to take the next week and wrap up revisions and line edits, then send it off to Merry old England for my editor’s feedback. But it feels so good to have the book finished. I thought it would be 360 pages, but as luck would have it, I ended up with 376. I’ve written about 20 pages in the last 3 days. That’s typical for me. Once I have it all laid out and ready to go, I can blast my way to the end. The downside is, the ending is never where I think it’ll be. On my other book, Wedded to the Enemy, I thought I only had 10 pages to write and I ended up writing 26 that day (because I swore I’d finish it). Today’s total was 10 pages. Thank goodness for weekends and chocolate doughnuts. Always inspiring.

And speaking of inspiring, this photo of Christian Bale seems pretty close to Patrick. He’s not perfect, but he has that rugged look I was going for. I don’t like pretty boys for heroes. For me, I want gritty, a man who has seen the rougher side of life.

Now that the book is done (except for pesky revisions), I get to treat myself by doing some reading for fun. I adore reading and it’s crazy because now I feel guilty if I spend a few minutes reading instead of writing. I’m enjoying my friend Jan Kenny’s western romance One Real Cowboy right now. Jan is one of the nicest people I know, and it was wonderful celebrating her first sale last year when I met her in Atlanta. Her book is funny, sexy, and just a great read.

Another book I finished recently was Liberty by Kimberly Iverson. It’s about a female gladiator and the Roman nobleman who falls in love with her. I enjoyed it very much, and I eat up Roman-era stories like M&Ms.

When you read historical romance, what’s your favorite time period? Do you have more than one? For me, it’s medievals, American-set Victorians, westerns, and a select few Regencies. I burned out on some of the Regency stories, and it takes a really good author (e.g. Julia Quinn) to reinvent them for me.