My first-ever online read at eHarlequin.com begins today. You can go here to read the first chapter.

The six authors who are taking part in the continuity series The Codys: The First Family of Rodeo are hosting a contest. Here are the details:

June kicks off the debut of Harlequin American Romance’s first-ever six-book continuity The Codys: First Family of Rodeo. In honor of this exciting occasion we’re running 6 one-day-a-month Social Media Blitz Contests at www.harauthors.blogspot.com

Contest Scoop
Beginning next month in June, an author in the continuity will post a blog at www.harauthors.blogspot.com and discuss her contribution to the The Codys: First Family of Rodeo series. After reading the author’s blog, post the link www.harauthors.blogspot.com, the title of the book and the author’s name to your Facebook, MySpace and or Twitter pages as well as your favorite blogs. The more places you link to and mention the author and her book, the more chances you have to win.

You can earn additional chances to win if you refer a friend and they in turn post a link to their favorite social media websites and blogs. Be sure to return to www.harauthors.blogspot.com and tell us where you’re spreading the word by posting the information in the comment section of the blog–that way we can keep a tally of your activity. Remember, it’s One Day Only Each Month June-November 2010!

Authors will be giving away prizes to several lucky winners. Your name will be entered into a drawing for each social media site you promote The Codys: First Family of Rodeo and for each friend you contact who in turn spreads the word through their favorite networks. You have twenty-four hours to link to us and win! The author will post the winners in the comment section of her blog the next day–be sure to return to see if you’re one of the lucky winners.

On June 5th Senior Editor for American Romance, Kathleen Scheibling will introduce The Codys: First Family of Rodeo to readers and the following day on June 6th Rebecca Winters kicks off the Social Media Blitz Contest with the first book in the series– Walker: The Rodeo Legend!

With the help of our faithful readers we’re hoping that on June 6th the web is buzzing with chatter about The Codys: First Family of Rodeo!

Like millions of other people, I watched the series finale of LOST last night. I came away with mixed feelings. I cried, especially when some of the couples met up again — Charlie and Claire, Sun and Jin, Sawyer and Juliet. I still didn’t buy the Sayid and Shannon pairing, especially since they spent so much time building up the deep love he had for Nadia. Or are we supposed to interpret it that the reason he kept losing Nadia was she wasn’t who he was supposed to be with? Sorry, still don’t buy the Shannon thing.

I know lots of people are upset that we didn’t get definitive answers, but that’s been the nature of LOST from the beginning. Lots of things have been open to interpretation, and that’s how it went out. Would I have loved to have concrete answers to all my many questions? Sure. And maybe we’ll get some of them at some point in the future. I’ve heard show creators Damon Lindlelof and Carlton Cuse may expound on things at some point in the future, and I’m sure there are going to be books written on the subject.

I am still confused about the Sideways stories we’ve gotten this season. What were they? Did they really happen? We were told by Christian Shepard at the end that everything on the island really happened, but what about the Sideways stories? I can’t figure that one out. And I can’t believe I didn’t realize the potential implications of Jack’s dad’s name — Christian Shepard. And I wonder if everything that happened on the island was just some sort of test — either for Jack or for all of them — and that it ultimately didn’t matter.

What was your impression if you watched LOST? Did you like the finale? Hate it? Somewhere in between? What questions do you still have that you most want answered?

It’s late May, so that means there are season finales left and right on TV. Last week, we got the finale of Supernatural, which left me with a lot of lingering questions about next season. In fact, I’m blogging about those today at Supernatural Sisters.

And like many other people, I’m eagerly awaiting the LOST series finale. I can’t wait to see what all the show’s writers answer and what is left open to interpretation (aka drive me crazy).

Next Tuesday is the finale for The Biggest Loser. I’ve really enjoyed this season, liked the contestants. And it’s always so dramatic to see what everyone looks like now.

Any predictions for LOST? What season finales have you enjoyed? Looking forward to?

I’m being auctioned off! Okay, not really. But I have donated some critiques and books to be auctioned for good causes.

Up now is a critique of the first 25 pages of an unpublished young adult manuscript and an autographed copy of my first YA novel, Heartbreak River. This is to benefit diabetes research and is sponsored by author Brenda Novak, whose son has diabetes. You can access the auction listing (and bid!) here.

Tomorrow (Sunday, May 9), I’ll have a similar package available on the Do the Write Thing for Nashville auction to benefit flood victims here in Middle Tennessee. While my auction isn’t up yet, you’ll want to go over and look through all the fabulous auctions available now. I’ve bid on a few myself. Books, critiques, phone calls with agents, and all kinds of good stuff is just waiting for your bid.

I knew it was going to be a stormy day when I headed out to Gena Showalter’s book signing yesterday, but I had no idea it was going to turn into a historic weather event. Several of us got stuck at the bookstore well beyond when we’d planned to go home as wave after wave of storms and tornado warnings headed by us. Thankfully, I don’t think any of the funnels ever touched down, but the rain is what has ended up being the issue. We are currently experiencing the worst floods since the 1940s. As of last night, we’d had about a foot of rain in Nashville and it’s been pouring all day today. Creeks and rivers are overflowing. Water has overtaken some of the interstates and forced their closure. Five people have been reported drowned in Tennessee so far, one here in Nashville as Mill Creek overtook I-24 near Hickory Hollow Mall. At the end of this post, I’ll put the video of the flooding on I-24. It’s unbelievable. But first, my inner reporter came out this morning and I very carefully drove around our area taking photos. I took my husband’s truck since my car sits too low, and if I had encountered any water over the road I was going to turn around and backtrack. I’ve seen stories of way too many people attempt to drive through water and end up drowning.

This is the drainage ditch that runs behind our house.

Just up the street behind the next subdivision, it looks like a river has formed, complete with cascades right next to the road.

This is the parking lot below Percy Priest Dam at the entrance to the Stones River Greenway.

And here’s the Stones River overrunning its banks.

They don’t currently have the flood gates open on the dam, but I suspect that’s because there’s already flooding going on below the dam and if they open them it’ll be that much worse. But they’ll have to open them at some point because flooding is happening above the dam too.

I drove to a parking area above the dam and had to sit in the truck for a bit while the latest monsoon calmed down.

Once it slacked enough for me to take some photos, I hopped out quickly to take a few shots. This is a little park just above the dam. You can see the top of a bench at the right and that tree on the left is at the point of land that juts out into Percy Priest Lake.

Here, if you look closely, you can see the lighter shade under the water at the left. That’s a sidewalk in front of a bench that you can barely see.

Here’s a tree down at the entrance to our subdivision.

And this is where the drainage ditch that runs between our house (left) meets the one that runs behind another area of the subdivision.

And here’s the incredible video of I-24 yesterday.