Hi all!  So, today is the release of FATED.  The e-edition will be available on March 1st for kindle, nook, sony, etc.  For anyone in the area, we’re having a launching party tonight at the Gourmet Way from 4:00pm to 7:00 pm…regardless of the winter storm warning just put out.  🙂  I hope to see you there!

I’ll post tomorrow or the next day about the launching and how it went.  Today I need to go help unpack books for the launching, and I thought maybe I’d drop by Hastings and Borders to see, ah, my book on the shelves.  I’m also over at Savvy Authors talking craft in the terms of layering and lasagna.  And…I have some friends with releases today:  (And for the life of me, I can’t get the books to be of equal size!  WordPress is being difficult today.)

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

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.  🙂

Welcome to my blog!  I thought it would be interesting to follow the path from book sale to publication – since I have no idea what to expect next.  First, a bit about my year of writing.  I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so last December (08)  when we were snowed in, I thought maybe it was time to actually write something.  I wrote a book.  Then I wrote another one.  Then…I started the querying process.  Eeek.  Lots of ups, lots of downs.  Those rejections are not fun.

I had a book called Urban Bite about feuding vampires, and I didn’t really query it because rumor had it that vamps were out.  But, as I sat at my desk on Dec. 10th, 2009 – it was either jump on the treadmill or send a couple of email queries out.  Email won.  The next day I received a request for a partial (first 50 pages) from an editor at Kensington Publishing.  I sent it.

The following Tuesday the emails went as follows:

9:00 am – partial request from an agent (now my agent)

9:30 am – full manuscript request from the editor (now my editor)

1:00 pm – Full request from agent

The next day:  Offers from both editor and agent.  I signed with the agent, they negotiated, and now I have a three book deal with Kensington for the first book to be released early in 2011.  They’re calling the series, “The Realm Series.”  So, what happens now???  Check back and we’ll find out together.