I finished the last chapter of my rough draft today. Yay! I’m taking tomorrow off to do all things Christmas — shopping, wrapping, cards, Christmas letter, decorating — and then get back to work on revising this book on Saturday.

Here’s a link to an interesting poll about what types of things have led book buyers to buy books. Based on this and what I’ve heard experienced authors say, I think I’ll just save my promotional dollars and not do postcards and all those do-dads you find in goody rooms at conferences. I may do bookmarks, but I think I’ll mainly depend on my Web site (planning to get a new one) and personal appearances to do the heavy promo lifting.

Writing update: Wrote two chapters yesterday, wrote two more today, three to go. Am ready for this first draft to be done so I can start back through it doing revisions and additions because it’s going to need them. I’m having a case of “this book is crap,” but I’ve had it before and they ended up okay in the end. I’m hoping that’ll be the case for this one as well.
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When bands remake songs, the result is often not as good as the original though that’s not always the case. One of my all-time favorite songs is Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”, so I didn’t know how I’d like a remake by HIM, a Finnish band I just discovered. Turns out I really like it, even though Chris Isaak’s is still the classic. What do you think? Also, I recognize the actress wearing white in the video (can’t tell if she’s the same one as in the black outfit), but for the life of me I can’t figure out what her name is.

Mary often puts up her goals for the week on her blog, so I’m going to give it a try. All of you hold me to them, okay?

1. Finish the first draft of Heartbreak River by Friday
2. Decorate for Christmas
3. Catch up on miscellaneous paperwork
4. Cull e-mail accounts
5. Finish Christmas shopping
6. Begin revisions/additions to Heartbreak River on Sunday
7. Exercise one hour every day

I’ve mentioned here before that 1) I’ve discovered new bands I like by watching fan videos on YouTube, 2) I find I like European bands, and 3) I like vampire shows. Well, here’s a video that combines all three. I discovered the band HIM, a Finnish metal band, while on a fan site for the show Blood Ties, a Lifetime show that is based on the vampire novels by Tanya Huff. The people in the video and show are Detective Vicki Nelson and her partner, vampire Henry Fitzroy. The song is called “Vampire Heart.”

As you may have noticed, I’ve been absent a lot for the past couple of weeks. That’s because Amtrak trains don’t have Internet access. I’ll blog more about my trip to San Francisco in the days ahead, but I wanted to take a break from my Thanksgiving gluttony to post that I’m guest blogger over at Drunk Writer Talk about my favorite TV show, Supernatural. Mary has already been over to post. Natalie, where are you?

Also, a reminder — I need help getting to the second round of the American Title contest, so if you haven’t voted yet or know anyone with an e-mail address you can rope into voting, I would really appreciate it. Voting in this second round ends this weekend. You wouldn’t believe how nerve-wracking it is waiting to see if I’m “voted off the island” at the end of each round.

Hello out there in blogland. Since I last posted, I disappeared because I was on a train for several days to reach San Francisco and then have been in the RWA board meeting the past three days. Ruth Kaufman, another board member, and I are going to do a team blog for those of you out there wondering about the hotel and environs for next summer’s RWA conference in San Francisco. Ruth will be posting by Monday evening about the hotel and its amenities. I’m tackling the area surrounding the hotel.

I know in the past, particularly in Dallas, the hotel’s location didn’t make it easy to walk anywhere for food or shopping. Not so in San Francisco! The San Francisco Marriott is in a fabulous location. There are tons and tons of restaurants within easy walking distance in every direction. Three I’ve been to for dinner since being here are:

The Fly Trap (4 blocks away)
Lori’s Diner (few blocks, didn’t count)
Chevy’s (2 blocks)

In addition, there’s a very good food court inside the Westfield Centre shopping mall directly across the street from the hotel. We’re not talking McDonald’s and Burger King here. There’s also a Bristol Farms grocery next to the food court.

And speaking of Westfield Centre, you’re going to adore it if you love to shop. It has five floors with a total of more than 400 stores like Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom’s, Borders, and much more.

Across a different street from the hotel is the Metreon Center, which houses more eateries and a movie theater. Also across the street is the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Yerba Buena Gardens. You’re also just a short distance from busy Market Street, which also is home to more eateries and shopping. Trust me — you won’t feel captive to the hotel restaurant.

So be sure to start saving now. While San Francisco is one of the more expensive cities in the U.S., it has SO much to do and see. If you can, come early so you can play tourist for a day or two before the conference. I really thing RWA members are going to love this hotel and conference location.

Be sure to check out Ruth’s blog tomorrow night for the scoop on the Marriott.

Voting in Round 2 of the American Title contest (think American Idol but for books) has started, and I’m happy that I survived Round 1 and am still in the game! To survive yet another round and get one step closer to having my book, OUT OF SIGHT, published, I need your help. During Round 1, I did a blog tour for two weeks in which I appeared, writing on a different topic every day to get the word out about the contest and my entry. Since I’m going to be traveling a lot on business during the next couple of weeks and will have large chunks of time when I’m Internet-less, that isn’t possible this time. Plus, I want to try something different. I’m calling in the Snowball Effect. Visualize me at the top of a snowy mountain. I form a small snowball and start it rolling downhill by telling people I know about the contest and asking them to vote. It grows bigger and bigger (people I contact about voting contacting people they know and then those people contacting people they know, and on and on) until the snowball is HUGE at the bottom of the mountain. HUGE = enough votes to help me advance to Round 3. So how can you help?

1. Go to http://www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php and vote for OUT OF SIGHT. This round is focusing on descriptions of the heroes and heroines of the remaining finalists’ books, and I’m so happy that I got nice comments from the judges.

2. Ask other people in your family to vote. Remember, Romantic Times is only accepting one vote per person this year, but if your husband/wife/significant other, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, children, grandparents, etc., have an e-mail address, please ask them to vote. Tell them they’ll make this gal in Tennessee they don’t know really happy.

3. Do you work outside the home? Ask your co-workers to vote. I hope some of you work at really big companies.

4. Are you a member of groups (PTA, a sports team, choir, book club, etc.)? Ask your fellow members to vote, to help make a dream come true. I was excited when I wrote OUT OF SIGHT, and I’d LOVE to see it on bookstore shelves. If I win this contest, I’m so going to dedicate the book to all the people who made the win possible.

5. Frequent your local bookstore? Have a favorite bookseller? Ask her/him to vote and to get the rest of the employees to vote. Patrons too! Hey, if I win, that’ll be one more book they can put on their shelves! (Oh, this goes for libraries and librarians too.) And while you’re at the bookstore, look for the December issue of Romantic Times Magazine. My fellow finalists and I are in it. I just bought my copy this afternoon, and it’s weird to see myself in a magazine I can buy at the bookstore.

6. Are you going to be attending a Thanksgiving gathering? Set up a computer where everyone in attendance can vote from their e-mail address.

7. Kids are constantly online. Ask your children to have all their friends vote.

8. Do you have a blog? MySpace page? Participate in online forums? Post there about the voting.

9. For everyone you ask to vote, ask them to ask people they know, and so on (thus, the Snowball Effect). It’s like a chain letter, only less annoying. And tell them that I really, really, really appreciate them taking the time to do so.

Again, thanks so much for the votes. I truly appreciate your help.

Just saw this article online. It caught my attention because I once did a report on Amelia Earhart in school. Is anyone else like that — always notice things about people on whom you did reports while in school? Marco Polo is another report subject from way back when. Anyone remember a TV mini-series about Marco Polo and his travels? It was on when I was a kid. Which of the Missing Wonders would you like to find?
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Tomorrow the second round of voting in the American Title contest starts. I would very much appreciate any votes for my manuscript, OUT OF SIGHT. Go here to read the information about the second round and to vote. Thanks!

Had to take a break from my revisions this afternoon to run out and do a freelance story for the magazine I used to work at full time. I interviewed a guy who has a gigantic, drive-through Christmas light display on his eight acres. He puts up 1.5 million lights, and his electric bill for December is in the neighborhood of $4,000. Wow!
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It’s interesting how no matter how many times I go through this manuscript doing revisions, I always find something else I can cut or add. I’m really shooting to get all the way through the manuscript by Sunday night.
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Anyone catch Survivor China tonight? Jean-Robert is gone — yes! He was just smarmy. And did you see the look on his face!? Like he just couldn’t believe they dared vote him out. I predict he will be most unpleasant at the final tribal council when members of the jury get to question (or in some cases verbally attack) those vying for the million bucks. I was a little nervous for James during tribal council tonight, but I bet he plays that immunity idol next time if he doesn’t win immunity.

I talked to my editor at Razorbill today, and some of my deadlines are being moved up because they want to get my first book out earlier in 2009 and have a follow-up book in the summer of 2009. That’s great for building a readership, but it’s made my writing/revising schedule a bit more hectic this winter. I have some sort of deadline every month beginning Dec. 1 through April 15. Between now and March 31, I’ve got to write 3 books! I’ve got 75 pages written on one, 50 on another and nada on the third. So I’m officially changing my middle name to Busy.

I’ve been writing like crazy on Heartbreak River — up to Page 70. I’m keeping myself to a 10-pages-a-day schedule. Hopefully I can keep that up even after I start working on revisions to Fanning the Flames (the first Harlequin American) tomorrow. Those revisions are due Dec. 1, so they’re more pressing.

I received the latest Entertainment Weekly a few days ago — the Holiday Movie Preview. Here’s a question — when did the holiday movie season turn into scary movie season? Do you remember when most scary movies came out in the weeks prior to Halloween? I mean, I really like Johnny Depp, but there’s no way I’m going to see Sweeny Todd.

One movie I definitely do want to see, however, is The Golden Compass. I’ve read the book, the first in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, and just finished the second book, The Subtle Knife. The movie looks great.

Other movies of interest coming out this holiday season:

Atonement (I know some people don’t like her, but I like Keira Knightley.)
I Am Legend
Beowulf
Love in the Time of Cholera
Enchanted (This looks really cute.)
The Kite Runner
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
P.S. I Love You (I know Mary will like this because her boy Gerry is in it.)
There Will Be Blood (Don’t know much about this movie, but Daniel Day-Lewis is a great actor.)

What movies are you looking forward to this holiday season?