Santa must really love me this week because I just saw the cover of my March Harlequin American release today on Amazon. And it’s awesome! The art department did a fantastic job of capturing the look of Adam, the hero in The Family Man. I told them he was supposed to look similar to Eric Dane, aka McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy, and I think they totally nailed what I was looking for.

What do you think?

Considering a recent phone conversation with my father-in-law recently started with him asking, “Have you died?”, I think perhaps it’s time to do a better job blogging.

And as luck would have it, I have something exciting to share — the cover for my second young adult novel, Winter Longing, which is set to come out next August. I really like it, and I’m hoping it will make people pick it up off store shelves and race to the cash register. What do you think?

I just turned in a proposal for a trilogy to my agent, who sent it to my editor at Harlequin American. I’m hopeful she loves it as much as my agent who said she “loved every word!” I heart my agent.

I’ve also got lots of other things out there under submission, so Santa, if you’re listening, I’d like a new contract for Christmas!

After I put together the big Dragon*Con post last week, I managed to get sick with whatever it was hubby had when I got home. We’re not sure if it was a really bad cold, a sinus infection or possibly a lighter case of the flu, but whatever it was I’m glad it’s now gone. Bleh.

It’s a busy blog today for me elsewhere. I’m blogging over at Nobody Writes It Better about the passing of Patrick Swayze, and at the Romance Bandits blog I’m hosting MJ Fredrick, whose new book release, Beneath the Surface, is great. She’s talking about heroes who make us melt with the things they say. There’s even a quiz with a lovely prize.

My good friend Mary, who writes as M.J. Fredrick, has a new romantic adventure release that went on sale today. So I’m going to hold off one more day on putting up more conference pictures so I can share the following Q&A with M.J. By the way, Beneath the Surface is one of my absolute favorite stories she’s written. So I was so happy when this book was bought by her publisher and thrilled when she got the gorgeous cover.

Q. Tell us a little bit about Beneath the Surface.

A. Beneath the Surface is a reunion story between two archaeologists on the verge of divorce. Mallory Reeves brings the divorce papers to the Yucatan Peninsula for her husband to sign. When a storm strands her there, she has to work to remember why she left archaeology–and Adrian–in the first place.
Q. What drew you to excavating sunken ships as a story backdrop?

A. You know, I don’t remember. My baby brother loves archaeology and I remember bouncing a lot of ideas off of him. I think the original idea was for Adrian to have found a Phoenician ship in the Caribbean. The way it was written, though, it overwhelmed the romance. so I revised. And revised. And revised.

Another issue was that I needed Adrian to have a specialty, and I thought underwater archaeology would be a cool specialty.

Q. Would you ever like to dive a sunken ship?

A. God, no. I’m claustrophobic as all get-out. I couldn’t even get in the submarine at Disneyland!

Q. Your couple is already married in the story but on the verge of divorce at the beginning. This isn’t usually a type of story that attracts me, but yours is wonderful. It has the same feeling of newly falling in love about it. Have you ever written about other married couples, or is this your first?

A. This is my second estranged couple book. The first isn’t published, though I’d like to go back and work on it one day. I was intrigued by the movie Twister. In fact, the first scene is similar, though my heroine goes to my hero. I wanted to find out how people who could feel so strongly about each other once upon a time could be pulled apart. This was a struggle as well, finding the balance between what had split them up, but not making it so serious that they couldn’t recover, but also not making it a big misunderstanding. I think I struck the right balance.

I loved playing with their memories, too, feeding that information of their early passion throughout the story.

Q. What’s coming up from MJ Fredrick?

A. I have another book from Samhain coming January 2010 called Breaking Daylight. It’s a story of a mother trying to find her child with the help of an Army Ranger who would rather be doing anything else.

I also have another book, Don’t Look Back, my 2006 Golden Heart finalist, coming from The Wild Rose Press in 2010, but I don’t have a release date yet.

Be sure to get your own copy of Beneath the Surface (in electronic format) from Samhain Publishing by clicking this link and following the directions.

I still owe everyone a final “road trip to Wisconsin” post, and I hope to get that posted in the next couple of days. It’s just been a crazy week of getting ready to leave for Washington, D.C., and the RWA National Conference. Hitting the road in the morning, but I wanted to share a few photos of what came via FedEx today. I had this purse made to take to the conference. It’s made from the cover and some of the insides of my first YA book, Heartbreak River. How cool is that!? Karla at Bagitude! made it. Check her work out on the Web here.

It’s my day to blog over at the Harlequin American Romance authors blog, and I’m talking about writers and novels in which the setting is so real you feel like you’re there. Come over and share your favorites.

I’m taking part in a group book signing at Sherlock’s Books in Lebanon, Tennessee. Swing by if you’re in the area. We’d love to see friendly faces.

Today’s my day to blog at both the Supernatural Sisters and Romance Bandits blogs. At the Supernatural Sisters, I’ve recapped and offered observations on last night’s season finale. At Romance Bandits, I’m having a launch party (complete with giveaway) for Her Very Own Family. Come on by!

If you’re a fan of Joss Whedon’s work and would like to see Dollhouse renewed for a second season, here’s a page with all the ways you can contact FOX. The last time FOX had one of Whedon’s shows, Firefly, they canceled it way too early (before the end of the first season) and didn’t give it a chance to establish itself and gain a following. Seems to be the M.O. in broadcasting today. But I want to know what happens next. It only takes a moment to e-mail FOX, or there are other options like writing a letter or Twittering about it.

In other news, Her Very Own Family, my second book from Harlequin American, officially releases today! Your local bookstore, Wal-Mart, or other book-buying outlet should have it.

After several reports of people unfortunately not being able to find Heartbreak River on the shelves at Barnes & Noble locations around the country, I finally heard of a sighting at one. Tami Brothers snapped this shot of the New Releases rack at the B&N in Macon, Georgia. She said there were four copies. Yay! And look — it’s close to one of the wonderful queens of YA fiction, Meg Cabot! I might expire of excitement. Thanks, Tami, for the photo.

It’s been a week of All Revisions All the Time — well, almost. I did occasionally sleep, eat and collapse in front of the TV at night. And yesterday, the official release date for Heartbreak River, I went bookstore hopping to see it on actual bookstore shelves. One of the lovely ladies working at my local Books-a-Million was kind enough to snap a picture of me with the book. And yes, my book was located on a shelf just below the two full shelves of Stephenie Meyer books. Squee!

Today, I was SO happy to finish up the revisions on my second young adult and send them back in. The book, which was originally called Arctic Heart but then changed to Ice and Desire now has a different, and we believe, final title — Winter Longing. I like it, and it really fits the book. So put it on your calendars now for…Summer 2010.

Okay, I’m curious where else Heartbreak River has been showing up. If you’ve seen it in your local stores, let me know where and how many copies they had. And if you bought it, have someone take your picture with it and you just might end up on this blog.