More excitement today. Not only did I finish the first (rough) draft of Arctic Heart (aka the second YA book), but I got the ARCs (advanced reader copies) of Heartbreak River. Here’s me with a copy, and sporting my newly dyed hair. I think it’s time to dance a jig. All together now…

I’ve been a little under the weather the past couple of days. That combined with trying to finish this rough draft and prepare to leave Wednesday for San Francisco has kept me away from the blog the past few days. But the winner of last week’s book giveaway is…Natalie. Please e-mail me your address so I can get the books out to you before I head west.

Up for grabs this week:

The Burning Point by Mary Jo Putney
Pagan Bride by Tamara Leigh
Too Many Bosses by Jan Freed

Yep, I’m late again posting last week’s book winner, which was…Monica McCabe!

Up for grabs this week:

Prince Charming in Dress Blues by Maureen Child
Her Galahad by Melissa James
Mistress by Amanda Quick

I’m also blogging over at Romance Bandits today about what I’d do if I were suddenly and fabulously wealthy. Come by and join the fun!

Last week’s books winner was…Cheryl C. Congrats! E-mail me your mailing information through the Contact Page.

This week’s giveaway includes:

Jealous Heart by Cecilia Tishy
Love With the Proper Stranger by Suzanne Brockmann (one of her older books)
Sleepless at Midnight by Jacquie D’Alessandro

All you have to do to be in the running to win is comment on the blog sometime this week. Only 10 weeks of these weekly giveaways left!

Finally! I finished my revisions on the second American book last night and e-mailed it and some suggestions for alternate titles off to my editor. Today is catch-up day because I will start cranking pages on the YA tomorrow. I’m trying to get the first draft done before I arrive in San Francisco for the RWA conference. Smoke may be flying from the ends of my fingers.

Because of the above-referenced revisions, I’m a little late posting last week’s book winner which is…Fedora! I’ll mail your books today as I just happen to be headed to the post office in a bit.

Up for grabs this week are:

Dear Maggie by Brenda Novak
Time’s Captive by Kate Lyon
Marooned with a Marine by Maureen Child

And as an extra incentive, everyone who gets a new person to come by and comment this week will get an extra chance to win. Just have your new person mention in their comment that you sent them by. And if one of the new people wins the drawing, I’ll give the person who referred the winner a little something too.

Time flies when you’re…busy. I finished up the requested revisions to the first three chapters of the outline for my next YA book and sent them back to my editor yesterday. Then, I’ll admit, I played hooky the rest of the day to give my brain a break before diving into the next round of revisions on my second Harlequin American today. I’ve already gone through it once, but now I’m doing another pass of revisions based on the fabulous Mary’s suggestions. I should really count how many times she wrote “more emotion here” and “tone” on my pages. Okay, so while playing hooky yesterday, I did actually clean a couple of rooms of the house. Real cleaning happens when I’m between projects. When I’m in the middle of writing or revising, things just get a quickie cleaning.

But I also watched a couple of movies. The Other Boleyn Girl inspired me to do a bit of research about the British monarchy and particularly Henry VIII’s six wifes, three of whom it turns out were named Catherine. Must have been a very popular name. I liked Scarlett Johannson and Natalie Portman in their roles as Mary and Anne Boleyn, but I have to say that Eric Bana is just way too hot to play Henry. I mean, all the paintings I see of Henry show a portly, red-bearded man. Let’s just say Eric isn’t portly. I’m a fan of Natalie Portman’s, so it was a bit jarring to see her playing such a scheming bitch. Even so, she made you feel her despair and heartbreak when she realized that the failure to produce a male heir was going to lead to her death. Let me just say, what a sucky time to be a woman noticed by the king. I think I would have rather been an ugly peasant, thanks.

Netflix delivered Into the Wild today, and the next few things on my queue are all about or set in Alaska to inspire me as I get ready to start writing YA #2.

I’m late on announcing last week’s book winner, which is Teble! E-mail me with your address and I’ll get the books out to you. Up for grabs this week:

Something’s Cooking by Joanne Pence
Countess in Buckskin by Merline Lovelace
The Family Next Door by Janice Kay Johnson

I’ve been so busy this week that I’ve not updated the blog. Bad Trish. I’ve been doing revisions to my second Harlequin American while also trying to convert an older manuscript from the original documents in Word Perfect to MS Word. Talk about a pain! I think I finally have it where I don’t have to change the font of and retype every single quotation mark and apostrophe in the whole thing. Ugh. I’ve been working on the manuscript here and there, revising it and bringing it up to my current writing standards. Okay, that sounds a little snooty. What I mean is that when I go back and look at my older books, I can tell that my writing has progressed since then. Thus, the need for revisions. But I still think it’s a good story and thus worth the work. Plus, it’s a hearth-and-home type story, which is area of Harlequin I’m writing for, so hopefully it’ll make its way to store shelves.

I’ve also been immersing myself in all things Alaska because the second YA book is set there. I already watched Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel because I’m a big fan, but I also added The Alaska Experiment. I just started watching Ice Road Truckers too, though it’s set in the Northwest Territories of Canada instead of Alaska. But dude, it’s COLD! I cannot imagine hauling semi loads of huge mining equipment over frozen lakes! And this season, it’s even crazier. They’re driving across the frozen Arctic Ocean! That takes cojones, peeps. I’ve also checked out a ton of books about Alaska from the library.

Okay, let’s get to last week’s books winner and what’s up for grabs this week. Last week’s winner is Marianne! E-mail me through the Contact page with your mailing info, and I’ll get the books out to you. Up for grabs this week:

The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
Forever, Rose by Robin Lee Hatcher
The Cowboy Who Came in from the Cold by Pamela Macaluso

You’re the next weekly winner in the books giveaway. (Wow, I hope everyone gets the Price is Right reference in the post title, or I’m going to feel silly.)  Fedora, e-mail me through the Contact page on this site with your full name and mailing address, and I’ll get the books out to you.

Up for grabs this week:

Longwalker’s Child by Debra Webb
Falling for You by Julie Ortolon
To Love and To Cherish by Patricia Gaffney

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

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!