Author Jo Leigh lost her husband to cancer some time back, and since they didn’t have health insurance she’s been left with lots of medical bills. A benefit auction has just gotten under way offering some great items for writers and readers just in time for the holidays. I’ve donated a critique in one listing, and our Romance Bandits blog has a bit basket of goodies in the lineup.

Check out all the offerings here.

So, you all know I was in New York City and Washington, D.C., last week, so I thought I’d share some photos and other tidbits. And when you get to the end of the post, I have some fun news.

Here’s Times Square the night my agent and I were headed out to see Wicked.

Here I am after the play. Dude, it was cold, but I wanted a picture with the poster since I was still on the post-play high.

After the RWA board meeting was over in D.C., I had a few hours to play tourist in D.C. before my train arrived. So, I took the subway to the Smithsonian, in particular the National Museum of American History. The big draw was the 1814 flag that flew over Ft. McHenry and inspired the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I couldn’t take a picture of it because no photos are allowed in that exhibit, but you can see some and learn more here.

Other items in the museum included the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and…

Kermit the Frog and…

a piece of the Berlin Wall.

After I finished touring the museum, I still had some time to walk around before heading back to the subway. I bought a map at the museum store and saw how close I was to the White House. So off I went and ended up with a few pictures from the fence area at the front of the property.

On the way back to my Metro (subway) stop, I paused to take photos of the National Christmas Tree located at the edge of the Elipse, a grassy area that sits in front of the White House property.

The day had started out pleasant, but by the time I was headed back to the Metro, the clouds and cooler temps were moving in, as you can see in this photo of the Washington Monument. Someday I’m going to go up in the monument, but I didn’t have time during this trip.

Okay, on to the good news. Sometime during my ride on the subway, my agent called. Since she couldn’t get through to me, she left a message, which I got once I emerged into daylight again. I sold two more books to Harlequin American! Those of you who have read A Firefighter in the Family will hopefully be happy to find out that the first of these new sales will be a sequel. Adam, Zac’s best friend from Firefighter, will be getting his own book. Yay! The second is part of a continuity with five other authors, but I don’t know any details yet. I’m VERY happy to have some sales in 2008, just in time for Thanksgiving.

Speaking of which, I hope everyone here in the States had a fabulous Turkey Day. Gobble gobble.

I’m blogging at the Harlequin American blog about seeing Wicked last week. There are even videos of two of my favorite songs from the play.

Hola, peeps!

I’ve been so busy the last few days, I’ve not managed to blog. Monday, I drove to Virginia. Tuesday, I took the train into New York City and saw the play Wicked with my agent. It was fabulous! We both loved it, and I was singing some of the songs for the next few days. If you get the chance to see it either on Broadway or with the touring company, go!

Wednesday, my agent and I met my two editors from Razorbill, my young adult publisher. My main editor’s office overlooks New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. How cool is that? We had a good lunch and chat about business and just fun chitchat. My agent had some other meetings, so I went back to the hotel and worked. If it hadn’t been so brutally cold and windy, I would have gotten out and done something during the afternoon. But it was just miserable outside.

Thursday, I caught the train to Washington, D.C., for the RWA board meeting, which we just finished up about 6 p.m. tonight. In celebration of being finished for this time and having waited forever to see it, three of us from the board (Stephanie Feagan, Sara Reinke and moi) along with my good friend Michelle, who is from the D.C. area, took the Metro to a movie theater and saw Twilight.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating this movie and wasn’t disappointed — at least no further than with any book adapted to screen when you wish the movie was longer so you could see more of the story you first fell in love with. I know there have been criticisms of it and some of the actors, but I was pleased. I wish Jasper had had more dialogue because he’s getting some bad chatter for his acting ability, but he just didn’t have many lines and his expressions were what they were to express he’s the youngest of the Cullen vampire clan and struggles the most with not attacking humans. You could see him physically holding himself back, trying not to inhale Bella’s human scent. Jasper is one of my favorite characters, so I hope to see more of him in the upcoming movies. I read that the second in the series, New Moon, has already been greenlit. I’m happy to see that Twilight has made close to $75 million this weekend, ensuring follow-ups — unlike the first of what was supposed to be another series based on books I liked, The Golden Compass.

Anyone else see Twilight? What did you think?

I’m on the road, so today you get a funny video of a cat. Click here to be highly amused.

On Friday, hubby and I celebrated our 16th anniversary. He took off the day from work, I played hooky from all the many things on my to-do list, and we went hiking at one of our favorite state parks, Burgess Falls. It had rained the previous day, so the falls were flowing nicely. And the park and trail had that damp woods after a rain smell that I like so much.

Here we are at the beginning of the trail. A nice couple took our picture. Usually, we end up just taking photos of each other when we’re out on our own, but we lucked out this time.

There are four falls of various sizes along the riverside trail. This is called Middle Falls.

And this is the big falls at the end of the trail. You can actually hike down to the bottom, but we’d done that before and decided not to this time since it’s a pretty strenuous hike back up. This is the view from the platform that hangs out over the edge of the bluff. Hubby even walked out to the end to take a peek even though he’s not a big fan of heights.

On the way back to the parking lot/picnic area at the trailhead, we walked along the easier route of the service road and came upon this little guy. Hubby said I should say in this post that I kissed the toad, and he turned into hubby.

After our hike, we enjoyed a picnic of sub sandwiches and chips beside the river. It was a wonderful, pleasant day, and I’m glad we got out and communed with nature before it turned off cold this weekend.

I’m blogging at Romance Bandits today about historic events that I remember from my lifetime and asking readers to do the same. So come on over and share your memories.

My fabulous friend Mary, who writes as MJ Fredrick, has a new release out, a fun story with a hunky cowboy hero. So I decided to do a little interview with her about her new offering, Bull by the Horns.

Q. You write wonderful heroes, but Taylor in Bull by the Horns is your first cowboy hero. What made you decide to write about a cowboy?

A. My critique partner, Linda, challenged me to write a novella. I’ve never written anything short, and she thought it would help me with plotting. She challenged each of us to write a story for the Wayback Texas series at The Wild Rose Press. I got the idea and ran with it, including a character from Linda’s story, and I’m the only of the three of us who completed the story! Linda’s is sooo good, too. If only she’d have time to write it!

Q. Why do you think cowboys are such a popular hero type in romance novels?

A. I think it’s because they’re untamed. They travel from place to place, and women like to imagine they’ll be the one to settle a cowboy down. And they live by their own code. They treat women with respect, are forthright and hardworking. That’s what drew Taylor to this life, anyway. Also, they seem to long for a simpler time, and I know that’s been my own feeling lately.

Q. Who are some of your favorite fictional cowboys — in books, on TV or in films?

A. When I was growing up, I spent Saturday afternoons watching Roy Rogers and El Chapparel and Gunsmoke. I kind of grew away from the genre until the 1980s, when Young Guns brought them back for a bit. Paden from Silverado is my all-time favorite cowboy. I love that movie, I love how stoic he was, how determined to do the right thing.

Q. If they made a movie of Bull by the Horns, who would you like to see cast as the leads?

A. Taylor is absolutely Taylor Kitsch from Friday Night Lights. I actually had real person in mind for Lavender. Maybe a heavier Christina Applegate.

Q. What are you working on now?

A. I’m writing my very first historical for Nano. I got the idea three days before Nano started, after having plotted a romantic suspense to write during November. I was teaching my class about Jane Long, who defended a fort all winter long with just her servant and babies for company, and I thought that was amazing. I pictured a man riding up to the fort and falling out of the saddle, and she has to nurse him back to health. I’m having the best time with it, but it certainly is challenging, trying to avoid modern sensibilities in a historical novel. I’m having to learn so much!

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I know I for one can’t wait to read the historical, which was my first love as a romance reader.

Okay, readers, you can get your virtual little hands on Bull by the Horns by downloading it at the Wild Rose Press site here.

I used a Barnes & Noble gift card to buy the soundtrack to the movie Twilight today. It’s awesome! It’s a combination rocking songs, softer ballads and folksy tunes. I was only familiar with two of the bands, Linkin Park and Collective Soul, ones I already liked. And it introduced me to some new acts that I’m enjoying.

First up on the CD is the band that Stephenie Meyer loves, Muse. Appropriate band name for a writer to like. Their “Supermassive Black Hole” makes me want to get up and dance, as do quite a few of the songs on this soundtrack. The second song is “Decode” by Paramore, which I just discovered is from my neck of the woods. Maybe I’ll be able to catch a show if they’re playing in town. Paramore is a punk-pop quintet, and they have a second song on the soundtrack, “I Caught Myself.”

Other acts who contributed are The Black Ghosts from the UK, Blue Foundation from Denmark (two more European bands to add to my list), Mute Math, Iron & Wine, and Perry Farrell, frontman of Jane’s Addiction. Rob Pattinson, who plays Edward in the movie, even sings a ballad called “Never Think.” The CD ends with an instrumental track called “Bella’s Lullaby” by Carter Burwell.

I’m glad I got the soundtrack prior to seeing the movie so I can be familiar with the songs already when I hear them in the movie. Only 11 more days until the movie hits the big screen!

I mentioned that we had a group book signing at Sherlock’s Books yesterday in Lebanon, Tennessee for the members of my local RWA chapter. I’d meant to blog about it today, but Jody Wallace, fellow MCRWer and all-around cool gal, already has a wonderful wrap-up, complete with photos, on her blog. You can see it here.

I’ve been so productive today. No, not writing. I’m in between projects at the moment. But I was in full-on cleaning and culling mode. I cleaned the guest bathroom and the master bedroom and have been going through assorted accumulated mountains of paperwork in my office. Why look, it’s the top of my desk! While going through some saved receipts and such, I found some old stuff that is headed toward the shredder. Dude, I even found a receipt for when we used Hotwire in 2004 to book a hotel in Orlando the last time we went to Disney World. Yep, time to chuck this stuff.

Goals for the week:

1. Clean, cull and reorganize my office. This is a big job. Things accumulate when I’m on deadline, and it seems like I’ve been on deadline most of the year. Which is a GOOD thing.

2. Clean the remainder of the house.

3. Revise and send two synopses to my agent.

4. Catch up on lots of reading — books, magazines, my Buffy comics, etc.

5. Watch and clean off the rest of the TiVo because I’m basically going to be gone for two weeks after this week.

6. Exercise every day.

7. Finish up a contract job for work.