First, I’m over at the SOS Aloha blog today giving away a copy of FATED…drop by for a chance to win!

Okay, I’ve been going a bit crazy with deadlines lately and thought I’d have some fun.  So, you know you’re a writer if…

1)  The UPS guy has actually released you from handcuffs because you needed to see if you could shimmy your bound hands from behind your back to your front.  BTW, you couldn’t.

2)  All of the ‘yous‘ and ‘yours‘ in the above sentence bug the crap out of you.

3)  The UPS guy no longer comes to your door.

4)  Your husband asks if you’ve met anybody interesting lately in one of your worlds.

5)  You’ve tried to find at least six different ways to describe the word ‘green.’

6)  You’ve decided that the word ‘emerald‘ sucks.

7)  You see and fully understand:  TSTL…POV…HBF…TMB

8)  Those acronyms at one point made you cry…now you laugh your head off.

9)  You have a special calendar to remind you when you’re guest blogging other places…as well as who’s guest blogging at your place.  And you’ve mixed them up more than once…

10)  The idea of a muse makes you alternate between bawling and laughing hysterically.

So, the time has come.  Tomorrow is February and FATED will be released on the 22nd.  I’m excited and a bit nervous.  Being compulsive, I googled my name and reviews are popping up all over…and Target is carrying the book.  Who knew?  I thought FATED would only be at book stores until (and if) it goes mass market…then it goes to Target.  Shows what I know!

This month I’m blogging and being interviewed all over the place – if you look to the schedule over to the right, you can see where I’ll be.  On several of those places we’ll be giving away a signed copy of FATED, among others.

For my blog this month, I thought I’d bring in some of the experts and talk about books.  Here’s the schedule:

** 2/2/11 ** Interview with the mult-talented Cynthia Eden about writing for two publishers and why the darkness appeals to us all.

** 2/7/11 ** Interview with the amazing Bonnie R. Paulson about her new sale to Carina Press and how she manages to get it all done.

** 2/10/11 ** Interview with my excellent critique partner Sayde Grace, who writes about sexy cowboys and dangerous werewolves…for different publishers.

** 2/12/11 **  Valentine Blog Hop – win lots of prizes and books if you take the whole hop.

** 2/16/11 ** Interview with the fabulous Megan Records from Kensington Publishing…what did she buy last year and what’s she looking for now?

** 2/22/11 **  RELEASE DATE FOR FATED

So, I taught at the college today and hustled home before going to pick the kids up at school.  A big box sat on my porch.  Well, I figured it was the RWA books I’m supposed to judge for the RWA Rita contest.

It wasn’t.

The Magnificent Megan (Yes, I borrowed that term from Cynthia Eden, but Cynthia is right–our editor is awesome) grabbed some promotional copies of FATED for me.  Then, I held my first book in my hands.  Very cool.  The picture on the front is altered slightly from my coverflat – the woman has a couple of bite marks on her neck.  Oh yeah.  🙂

I may have gotten a little emotional when I lifted the first book out of the box.  Then it was pure excitement.  I held my book.  🙂  It’s been just over a year from “the call” when FATED sold.  (Remember it was called “Urban Bite”).  The year has been wonderful, and the book is about to be on the shelves.  (2/22/11).  It will be available on Kindle on 3/1/11.  Thanks to everyone who’s showed such wonderful support during this year…I really appreciate it.

Also, The Gourmet Way in Hayden is having a book launching/signing party on February 22nd from 4:00 to 7:00pm.  There will be wine, giveaways and some fun.  The public is invited and I hope to see all of you there.

I’ll have some contests and giveaways for signed copies of FATED coming up.  For now, I’m lining my copies up on my bookshelf and just admiring them.  🙂

I have fantastic parents who are still together after more than forty years of marriage.  And my dad wants to read my book.  Of course he wants to read my book – he’s my dad.  But…there’s sex in my book.  And not the closed-door, see ya in the morning kind.  My hero’s a vampire – the guy bites.

It brings to mind the one sex talk my dad and I had – sometime in high school when a girl in my class became pregnant.  My dad and I stood swinging nine-irons on the practice green behind our house.  It went like this:

DAD:  WHACK.  He hit to the green.  “So, I heard so and so was pregnant.”

ME:  Slice.  I hit the nearest tree.  “Yeah, I heard that, too.”

DAD:  Whack.  He put it right next to the hole.  “Follow through and roll your wrists.  Do we need to talk about it?”

ME:  Smack.  Closer to the green.  “No.  I need a new glove.”

DAD:  Whack.  In the hole.  “No.  You need to break your wrists faster.  So, about sex…”  Whack.  Dad hit the tree.

ME: Whiff.  I missed the ball completely.  “Not interested in sex.”  And believe it or not, I wasn’t.  I loved high school and my home town.  But I knew my freshman year in college would occur at a school on the beach, and no way was I missing out on that.

DAD:  Whack.  Who knew?  There was a sandtrap just beyond the practice green.  “Well, sex is your business.”  His voice kinda cracked here.  “But if you get pregnant, it becomes my business.  Point your left toe toward the pin more.”

ME:  “Okay.”  I rolled my wrists, broke them in time and pointed my toe toward the pin.  The ball rolled to within an inch of the hole.  “Nothing to worry about, Dad.”

DAD:  He blew out a breath and then hit the tree again.  “Good talk.  Want to get breakfast?”

So, I figure my dad’s been around a bit and knows that vampires bite.  Anyway, he’s promised me he’ll skim FATED’S  spicy parts.  🙂

Well, I’ve added the 20,000 words to Not Urban Bite – some backstory, some fleshing out and some foreshadowing for book two.  Oddly enough I enjoyed the heck out of adding to the story.

I spent some time on the phone with my agent yesterday discussing my other five books.  I learned something, too.  The stories she likes best are the ones I wrote for the heck of it.  Just for fun – just for me.  Not the ones I wrote with the publishing industry in mind.  Hmmm.

Also, I have two young adult books  (YA) that aren’t truly YA.  They’re adult books masquerading as young adult.  (And apparently not hiding very well).  This point was driven home the other day at Costco.  I was walking out the door, waiting for the lady to check my cart and give me the coveted yellow highlighted slash across my receipt, when two teens ahead of me had a conversation.  It went like this:

LOL

OMG

ROFLMAO

And I thought ‘WTF?’  Are they actually using texting acronyms to have a conversation?  It took every ounce of control I had not to bash their heads together to see if a complete word would pop out.  So, maybe I should stick to adult writing for now…