Did you hear the sigh of relief today? That was me after I finished my chapter outline for my new YA book. I’ve now sent it off to my friend Monica for a read before I make final edits and send it to my editor. Yay! Of course, then it’s on to revisions on my second Harlequin American and my Supernatural essay. I did get good news from my YA editor. Heartbreak River came back from the copyeditor so clean that it’s now off to the printer! I may have bound galleys next month!

Thursday was my birthday, so I took that day off. Hubby took the day off from work. I had lunch with friends, then hubby and I went to see Prince Caspian, which I really enjoyed. In fact, I’m basing the hero in this new YA on Ben Barnes, who plays Caspian. Then I zipped into Books-a-Million to pick up my friend Jeanne Adams’ debut novel, Dark and Dangerous. Finally, we went out to dinner at Olive Garden, which was yummy. It was nice to have a day off to just play in the middle of hectic deadlines, and I think it actually helped me be fresh enough to power through to the end of my outline last night.

Okay, I’ve mentioned before how much I LOVE Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and how I’m eagerly anticipating the movie Twilight this December. So, I did a little squee when I saw the gorgeous new poster for the movie and discovered there’s a new trailer available for viewing. You can see these at the movie’s new Web site, and you can also download the poster image as your computer’s wallpaper, like I did. Now the image below of Bella and Edward will greet me each time I turn on my computer.

The cranking on the outline continued today. Got through 10 chapters!

So, the new book currently has a tentative title of Arctic Heart, but it’s possible it’ll need to change since the book technically doesn’t take place in the Arctic (though many of us might think of all of Alaska as arctic). Thus, I need some alternative titles that would fit a YA novel about love and loss set in Alaska. It also needs to have “Heart” in it somewhere since my first book does — Heartbreak River. Any ideas?

Did you all smell the smoke coming from my fingers tapping away on my laptop today? I cranked out the first chunk of my detailed, chapter-by-chapter outline for the second YA today, the first five chapters. I hope to get that many done tomorrow as well and each day this week.

Since my second YA is set in Alaska, I’ve been doing research online, including looking up photos of the area in which I’m setting my fictional village. I’ve also been picking my friend Monica’s brain since she lived in Alaska for awhile. (Read about her Alaskan adventures here.) And I’ve been soaking up episodes of Deadliest Catch (which was already a favorite) and The Alaska Experiment.

Has anyone been to Alaska? If so, what part(s)? What struck you about the state and its people?

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend. Ours was nice except that our little five-month-old nephew was in the hospital with bad bronchitis. He got to go home today, though he’s still a sick little boy. Hopefully, he’ll continue to get better over the next few days. It’s so hard seeing a baby in the hospital, especially when you can’t explain to him why all this is going on.

On the good news front, I got a release date for my second Harlequin American, The Willow Creek Cafe. It’ll be out in May 2009. I’ll be working on revisions to it after I finish my outline for my next YA novel, which is what is on the docket this week.

Okay, time for last week’s book winner — Cindy Procter-King! Cindy, contact me through the Contact page on this site with your mailing info, and I’ll get your books out to you.

Up for grabs this week:

The Hidden Years by Susan Kearney
The Greek Tycoon’s Unwilling Wife by Kate Walker
Angel in My Arms by Colleen Faulkner

I saw an article online today listing the TV series that have been canceled for next year. I have an abysmal record of liking shows that end up getting canceled, so it wasn’t a surprise that I watched nine shows on the list:

Moonlight (the one I’m mourning the most)
Men in Trees (I’m just going to firmly believe that Patrick and Annie would have gotten back together.)
Jericho
Back to You (I thought Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton were funny, but I guess not enough other people did.)
K-Ville  (no more Cole Hauser, sniff)
New Amsterdam
Life is Wild
Bionic Woman (Poor Will Yun Lee keeps getting cast in shows I like but which are canceled; he was in Witchblade too.)
Journeyman

This list didn’t even include Blood Ties (which I’m also mourning; come on, leave me ONE vampire show), which had been previously canceled.

I wonder which new shows in the fall I’ll like and thus be the kiss of death for.

As this year’s shows wind down with finales, my TiVo’s to-do list was getting pretty short. (I think the only things still on it are LOST, Battlestar Galactica, Deadliest Catch and The Alaska Experiment.) So I went through today and scheduled some movies I hadn’t seen. Maybe I’ll have time to watch them after I meet my YA outline deadline the first week of June. I still haven’t gone to see Prince Caspian either. Maybe I’ll do that on my birthday or as a treat after I meet my deadline.

Luckily my choice in friends is more successful than my choice in shows, including the fabulous Beth Pattillo. She’s guesting over at the Romance Bandits today in celebration of the release of her new book, The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society, this week. Swing by and say, “Hi.” She’s giving away a copy of the book to one lucky person.

As you can tell from my lack of a blog yesterday, I’ve been busy, busy, busy.  And that’s a good thing. While researching and brainstorming my next YA book (set in Alaska — cool!), I’ve completed a partial for another book and a synopsis for yet another book, both of these latter projects for Harlequin American. I’m hopeful they’ll garner me another contract with them. I have to say I’m excited about the stories. I’ve also been going back through an older story that has been on the back burner for a few years and revising it to fit American. It actually already fits what a Harlequin American is story-wise. It just needs to be trimmed to meet the word count and have the language and style spiffed up a little. I was happy with how much I still like this story, which was a Maggie Award of Excellence finalist once upon a time. Cross your fingers that my lovely, very wise editor likes it too.

Last week’s winner of three free books was…Emily Marshall! Congrats, Emily. E-mail me through the Contact page on this site with your mailing info, and I’ll get the books out to you.

Up for grabs this week:

St. Raven by Jo Beverley
Line of Fire by Cindy Dees
The Year of Living Famously by Laura Caldwell

I’ve been very busy the past week, working on a new book. I read back through the first three chapters today, colored pen at the ready to make revisions. Though I marked several things, overall I was happy with the story so far. That was a nice surprise since I’m always convinced I’m going to go back over it only to find out it’s total crapola.

Today was the Heart of Dixie Readers’ Luncheon in Huntsville, Alabama. I was attending for the first time, and as a guest author. I’m sure I was grinning like an idiot the entire time. I’ll admit to being a bit nervous. After all, I was low on the author totem pole since I don’t have a book out yet. I had visions of no one sitting with me or being forced to sit at the “loser table” when the big authors’ tables filled up. I didn’t have anything to really give the ladies sitting at my table other than my new bookmarks. I was lamenting this last night, when my faboo roomie for the event, author Janice Lynn, mentioned that some authors in the past had bought the people at their table raffle tickets for the big baskets of books that are raffled off. Great idea!

Well, like most things I worried about, I shouldn’t have. A lovely lady named Susan came up and said she had been looking for me because she wanted to sit at my table. Color me shocked! And thankful. We started talking about my books and where we were from, and then something amazing happened. More people sat at my table! I ended up with the most wonderful group of ladies, and we had a great time talking. That’s them below. Susan is on the far right. (Sorry I can’t get the picture to post any bigger. It’s being contrary.)

Lady Luck seemed to be with our table too. Of the eight people at the table, five won raffle baskets. Three of them won two baskets each, including the biggest basket donated by the published authors of the Heart of Dixie chapter of Romance Writers of America. Dorothy, Susan’s mother-in-law, won the huge basket of goodies. And here’s the funny part. Even though she’d bought several raffle tickets, the one I’d given her was the winner of the big basket. How cool is that!? Here’s Dorothy looking very happy with her large, very cool basket.

The keynote speaker today was Roxanne St. Claire, who was just lovely and entertaining. She was so popular that she ran out of books at the book signing. Here I am with Roxanne. We evidently got the subliminal memo to wear black and white, as did many of the other attendees.

The authors in attendance also gave away special baskets. Again, since I didn’t have any books yet, I put together a basket from my Romance Bandits gals. Here is the lovely Ann Linker, who won the basket. See, she got the black-and-white memo too.

I got to meet the wonderful Pamela Bolton-Holifield (who comments as “doglady” on the Romance Bandits, Wet Noodle Posse and many other blogs). She was sporting her shiny new gold heart bin for being a Golden Heart finalist. Here’s Pam with me and then with my roomie Janice. Pam comments frequently on the Writers at Play blog, where Janice is a member.

Finally, here I am with fellow RWA board member and shoe shopper extraordinaire Linda Howard. (I think she got the memo too.)

Thanks to the ladies of Heart of Dixie. I had a wonderful time and hope I can come back next year. Hint, hint. And I’ll even have books to sign by then!

I’m blogging over at the Romance Bandits about brushes with fame. Come read the fun stories, and share your own!

Thanks for all the lovely comments about my cover!

I have the finalized cover for my first young adult book, Heartbreak River, and a release date — April 2009! This is so cool, I’m grinning like a fool. I feel the need to periodically get up and do the happy dance around my office. Waiting for a cover is crazy-making. You bite your fingernails and hope you get a good cover. It really can make a difference in sales. I have to say I’m thrilled with this cover. If I get a really good cover for my Harlequin American that is coming out this September, I’ll be one happy woman.

So, what do you think?