A Huge Thank You

Thanks to all who helped me out on the title dilemma. I gave the results of my poll to my editor and she will keep them in consideration when she meets with the Historical team next week. I feel like I’m too close to the book to make any sort of decision, so I appreciate your help!

My brain wandered south and it just occurred to me that I never announced the winner of the May contest. Oops! I drew a number from the newsletter subscribers, and Jeanne Dickson is the lucky winner! Jeanne, e-mail me your snail mail address and I’ll send you a signed copy of Her Irish Warrior and a signed copy of Julia Quinn’s When He Was Wicked. Congratulations!

I have been working on another Irish medieval idea, and I’m in that get-to-know-you phase with the characters. I don’t like outlining characters or interviewing them. I usually find out about them along the way, while I’m writing. It’s fun for me when a character suddenly does something unusual and I think–whoa! Never knew that about you.

Last night, I went out to dinner with two writer friends, Larissa Ione and Laurin Wittig. Right before I met them for dinner, I stopped by the Barnes and Noble across from the restaurant. This bookstore doesn’t carry Harlequin Historicals, so imagine my delighted surprise to find two of my books on the shelf in the “New in Romance” section. Especially considering that Her Irish Warrior is a May release and is not really supposed to be on the shelves any more (Shhh!). I spoke with one of the booksellers and got permission to sign my books. She stickered the books and kept them at her desk to be reshelved.

After dinner, we returned to the store. (How could we not? It’s a bookstore where we can stalk our books!) I found that my books were still on a cart. I wanted so badly to grab them off the cart and put them back where they were, but the clerks were all surrounding that area. Finally, Larissa and Laurin pulled a Mission Impossible and snatched both books off the cart. I, of course, pretended that I did not know them. We repositioned them in the same section they were in before (only, er….at eye level now). Heh. We’re so bad. It’s why I have such fun when we do a ladies’ night out.

We did talk about our auto-buy authors. They were shocked and appalled that I’ve never read J.R. Ward. My auto-buy authors are Susan Elizabeth Phillips, LaVyrle Spencer (before she retired), JK Rowling, and Julia Quinn. How about you? Who are the authors that could write the phone book and you’d buy them?

Title help needed!

Wonderful, helpful readers… I am appealing to your greatness and grovel before you.

I need your honest vote here. Given the following two choices, which title would you be more likely to pick up if it were on a shelf?

Choice 1: Her Warrior King
Choice 2: Her Irish King

And for all of you anonymous readers out there who never post comments because you’re too shy, please drop in and vote! You don’t have to tell me who you are. I just need an honest assessment of which title is stronger. Apparently Her Irish Warrior has been doing fairly well and they aren’t sure if it’s because of having Irish in the title or Warrior.

Thoughts?

Entering the Dark Zone

Getting a five-year-old to keep his room clean is nothing short of a miracle, I think. My husband and I stayed in today, planning to clean the house. Instead, we spent about four hours going through my son’s toys, sorting, organizing, and pitching things he no longer played with. I am now a believer that McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys are the curse of the devil. How many of those things do children NEED? I can see the advertising executives brainstorming, “Now which toys will drive parents absolutely insane? Yes! That’s it! Let’s pick those!”

In our quest for order amidst chaos, we found Legos mixed with marbles, action figures, and crayons. My brain is swimming with the number of puzzle pieces and other odds and ends that were beneath his toy box. Thankfully there were no dead animals or laundry older than a week. (shudder)

I considered leaving only one toy within reach and putting everything else in the attic, but I suppose that’s a little extreme. Mostly I moved a lot of stuff to the top shelf of his closet so he has less to put away.

Yesterday I had my last booksigning for Her Irish Warrior. This one was a group signing with friends from my local RWA chapter, and it was fun to catch up with everyone while hanging out in the bookstore. I’m a little sad that my first book will no longer be in stores, but it’s a good feeling knowing that The Warrior’s Touch will be out in September (or August on eHarlequin.com). Now hopefully I can get my plot finalized for a new proposal and get that going.

Starting tomorrow I am cracking the whip on myself to get back to my daily pages. Brainstorming is a necessary evil, but I always feel like I haven’t done anything productive. It’s tough to lose that mindset and realize that planning ahead is a Good Thing.

How was your weekend?