May is the one-year anniversary for the Romance Bandits, and we are celebrating big time. In addition to our normal fun posts, we’ve got a lot of great guests coming throughout the month beginning with New York Times best-selling author Eloisa James tomorrow.

We’re also having lots of drawings for prizes ranging from bookstore gift cards to signed books to critiques of first chapters. Be sure to visit every day and comment to be in the running for the prize drawings.

This video of a very sleepy bear cub is so cute. I think most of us have felt like this little guy at some point. In fact, I think I could take a nap now if I tried. But there’s too much to do. I seriously think my to-do list multiplies when I turn away.

I’m eagerly awaiting the release of Twilight in December, but until then I keep popping over to Stephenie Meyer’s blog (she’s author of the book on which the movie is based) to get updates. There are links to this series of videos about the filming of the movie. Cool!

Got a lovely e-mail back from my Razorbill editor yesterday, thanking me for getting my revisions back early and that hopefully the next time I see the manuscript it’ll just be the copy editor’s  line edits. Yay!

I already blogged about my adventures in mowing this week, but after two days of helping my brother-in-law and sister-in-law move into their new home I should have some muscles. And if I haven’t lost at least some weight, I’m going to be seriously irked. I even skipped dessert and a candy bar when I had the chance. Gotta do something to make sure I can wear my conference clothes come July.

It was a lovely weekend for moving. Warm, blue sky. The rain didn’t move in until hubby and I were on the drive back home.

It’s catch-up week for me — cleaning the house, running errands, paying bills, yard work, culling stuff to go to Goodwill, etc. I’m also going to work on handouts for the workshop I’m doing with YA author Julie Linker at the RWA National Conference this summer and start work on a new partial that will my agent will offer my editor at Harlequin American as my option book.

Okay, this week in books…

The winner of this week’s books is Tori Lennox! Girl, you come out of the woodwork and win. Send me your mailing address through the Contact page on this site, and I’ll get your books out to you.

Up for grabs this upcoming week are:

Key of Valor by Nora Roberts
Behind Enemy Lines by Cindy Dees
Milkrun by Sarah Mlynowski

Moonlight was back after an extended, writers’ strike-induced break, but it was well worth the wait. I’ve blogged before about how I like vampire shows, so it was a fun fan moment at the end of tonight’s episode when two of those shows had a bit of an intersection. During a scene between Mick and Beth, “Lucky” by Biff Naked started playing. I recognized it from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Album soundtrack. Of course, when the episode was over I had to fire up iTunes and play the full version of the song.

In other TV news, the last two weeks of Survivor have been wild. Last week’s blindside of Ozzy was a brilliant strategic move. Ozzy was one of my favorite players from his original season. While I still liked him, at least the editing made him seem cockier and full of himself this time around. Then last night, another blindside of someone sitting with the immunity idol but not playing it. Poor Jason was just lied to and lied to. I never understood why everyone disliked him so much, and I was pulling for him. Alas, the bitchy patrol got together and ousted him. Those girls have got to realize that everyone on the jury is totally ticked at them. Of the people left, I’m rooting for Erik first, then Amanda, then Cirie, then James. I’d love them to be the final four, would love to see the other three girls voting out one after another over the next three weeks.

So, yesterday could have been called Adventures in Mowing for me. Hubby normally mows the lawn, but he’s been traveling a lot for work. I’ve only mowed one before in my life, and that was just the front yard. Yesterday, I decided to be ambitious and mowed both the front and the back, all while wearing an oh-so-stylish surgical mask because of my allergies. I seriously hope I sweated off about ten pounds because I was pooped when I was done. I’m doing this with a push mower, people. I came away with sore hands and two blisters on the insides of my thumbs, but I felt oddly good to have tackled the lawn and won. But I think I’ll leave the weedeating for hubby.

And finally, in writing news, I finished up my second round of revisions on Heartbreak River. All I have to do after posting this blog post is to do a spell check and then e-mail it to my editor. Wahoo!

As I’ve mentioned before, I love these “top whatever” lists that Yahoo does frequently. Today’s was “Tourist Traps You’ll Love.” Hey, that’s right up my alley because, hey, I’d be the person who’d want to see the World’s Biggest Ball of Twine or Carhenge.

Yahoo’s list offered up seven things to see, but I’ve only been to two — Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. Have to say I liked Wall Drug more because it’s such an institution, has tons of things to meander through, and you see the eye-catching signs advertising it all the way across South Dakota. It has a very yesteryear feel to it. Not to mention it’s a good place to stop and eat if you’re driving across South Dakota.

Do you enjoy “tourist traps”? If so, which ones? Which ones didn’t live up to your expectations. For me, the latter includes Rock City near Chattanooga, Tennessee. I grew up seeing the “See Rock City” barns, so I guess my expectations were high. It has a decent view of several states from the top, but overall it’s pretty cheesy.
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In writing news, I got through the latest set of revisions on my YA manuscript today. I’m still typing them in and need to make sure I addressed all the points my editor listed in her letter, but I hope to finish that tomorrow.

No, it’s not news about my books, but my sister sent me the link to this article which says that all funding for the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program has been eliminated for 2009. I grew up in an economically depressed area, one where lots of kids wouldn’t have been able to have books of their own if not for RIF. I was among them. I can’t express how much those RIF books meant to me early in my lifelong love affair with books. I can think of few areas (except for basic requirements like food, shelter and health care) where government funds could do so much good. Speaking as someone who has an illiterate family member, the ability to read is imperative to carving out a good and productive life for oneself. Getting a child hooked on reading early is the key to setting them on the right course.

Sorry, I didn’t post the list of books up for grabs last week, but they were:

Father of the Brood by Terry Essig
Key of Valor by Nora Roberts
A Charmed Place by Antoinette Stockenberg

The winner was…Jane! I’ll get the books out to you this week.

And speaking of this week, here’s the offerings you could win by commenting on one of this week’s posts:

Lord of Sin by Madeline Hunter
The Amethyst Crown by Katherine Deauxville
Perfect Ten by Bonnie Purcell

Sorry I fell off the blog radar for a few days. The Internet connection was poo in my room at the RT conference hotel, and I spent yesterday driving home from Pittsburgh. But without further adieu, here’s a look at my week in pictures and a bit of commentary.

My hotel room overlooked the site of historic Fort Pitt (you can see the outlines of the original fort on the grass), and where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers come together to form the Ohio River. It was cool to see the spot where the Ohio River begins since I grew up near the opposite end of the river. To the far right of the photo below, you can see a bit of Heinz Field, more commonly known as Three Rivers Stadium to Pittsburgh Steelers fans.

Since some of my Bandita pals were there, and I was an American Title finalist like one of them (KJ Howe) and several other writers in attendance. We had a group Bandita/AT dinner at a restaurant across the street from the hotel. Others took those pictures, so I don’t have those yet.

I’ve decided that at any future RT conferences I attend, I’m going to go the costume route at the evening parties. Lots of people went all out, including my pal Lindsey Brookes, and it was great to watch. Because these parties included dancing, I didn’t want to keep up with my camera. But if anyone sends me photos, I’ll be sure to post them.

On Friday was the awards luncheon where numerous authors were honored, and Helen Scott Taylor was announced as the winner of the American Title contest. I came in first runner-up. Huge congrats to Helen! That’s her below sitting between her beautiful daughter, Katherine, right, and the first AT winner, Janice Lynn.

Here are some more ATers: Holli Bertram, Evonne Wareham, former finalist Judi Fennel, last year’s winner, Jenny Gardiner, and (standing) Liz French, managing editor of Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine and our fabulous RT contact throughout the contest.

On Saturday was the big group book signing. I knew lots of the authors signing. Here are just a handful of them.

Colleen Gleason

Anna DeStefano

Jessica Andersen

Natale Stenzel

Here I am being a total fangirl with J.R. Ward, who is not only talented but gracious, friendly and hysterical too.

Oh, and here my fabu agent, Michelle Grajkowski, and I decided to have a picture taken together to see how much our printed shirts would mess with people’s eyeballs.

Okay, here’s what you all have been waiting for — cover models! Not only were this year’s contestants in the Mr. Romance contest there, but since it was the 25th anniversary of RT, there were also famous cover models in the building. Yes, Fabio was in the house. In fact, I nearly plowed into him when I was exiting the ladies room. I also spied special guest Adrian Paul of Highlander fame looking verra nice in a purple suit. Sorry, didn’t have my camera with me. Next time, I think I’ll just have my camera attached to my hand at all times. If you’ve been reading romance novels for awhile, you’ll also recognize the name John DeSalvo. And guess what! Yes, I do have a photo of him.

The Mr. Romance competition brought out the flashing cameras. Here’s a peek at the reason why.

And here’s me with the very nice and charming James Gaskin, who was the second runner-up. One night, he talked to Michelle and me for several minutes after one of the parties. We chatted a bit about him studying physics in college and how my hubby was a physics major for a couple of years before changing to economics.

And the winner was…Chris Winters. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, he’s the one showing off his pecs in the photo above. Hey, if you’ve got it, flaunt it.

I didn’t meet Chris, but from all accounts he’s a nice guy too. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the guys I met and heard about were all very nice and down to earth, several of them college students. Other than James, I only talked to Chris Howell and a bit with Luke Walsh. I think I felt kind of funny just striking up conversations with them because it seemed like they were constantly being pulled one way or another. I figured they had to be totally exhausted by the end of the week.

So, have I convinced any of you to attend RT next year in Orlando?

My feet hurt! I went dancing at the Ellora’s Cave party here at RT last night. Seriously, there’s a party every night. I love to dance and used to go with friends in college, but until I went to the Harlequin party at the RWA National Conference last year I hadn’t been since college. So it’s fun to attend these parties with my writer pals. But let’s just say that my heels made it about one or two dances then got kicked off for the remainder of the night. So I can dance again tonight, I’m wearing tennis shoes today and my feet are much happier.

I went to a couple of panels on writing vampires yesterday. I haven’t written them, but I love vampire books. It’s fun to be at a conference that has a lot of pure readers/fans who aren’t writers because they really show how much they love particular authors and their books. Popular authors Kim Harrison and L.A. Banks got hoots and hollers from the crowd after being introduced. I’m sure J.R. Ward will at the panel I’m going to this morning. And after hearing Mary Janice Davidson speak, I have to read her books. She’s a riot!

Okay, more updates tomorrow if I don’t dance myself totally stupid tonight.

So, you all know about my home Internet woes the other day. Last night, the Internet in my hotel room didn’t work so I had to go to the lobby to check e-mail. Today, I get to the conference hotel for Romantic Times, and guess what. You got it — the Internet signal in my room doesn’t work! So, I’m in the lobby again. Oh well, at least I’m not paying out the nose for access like I usually do at conference hotels. Have you ever noticed that the more expensive the hotel, the smaller the room and the less you get for free? Hmm…

I’ll post this week’s freebie books up for grabs tomorrow (I left the list up in my room and I’m too tired to go get it), but last week’s winner is Rae Ann! E-mail me through the Contact page on this site with your mailing address, and I’ll send the books to you.