To celebrate the launch of my Teagues of Texas trilogy from Harlequin American in January, I’m holding a contest. The Cowboy’s Secret Son kicks off the trilogy about three brothers whose family own and operate a guest ranch in the Hill Country of Texas. It will be followed by Cowboy to the Rescue in March and The Cowboy Sheriff in May. I have the first two covers, and they’re awesome!

Okay, on to the contest. All you have to do is send me a photo of yourself somewhere in Texas and tell me a bit about where you are in the photo. During the duration of the contest (end date Feb. 1), I’ll feature these photos here on the blog. The winner in a random drawing of all entrants will receive a signed copy of the entire trilogy.

Never been to Texas? Never fear! Just tell me where you’d most like to visit in Texas and why.

If you’d like to enter, send your photo or note about where you’d like to visit to parkfan89 AT yahoo DOT com. Include your name and where you are in the photo. Submission of a photo gives consent for it to be used on my blog in conjunction with this contest.

To kick us off, here’s a picture of me with bff MJ Fredrick at Luckenbach, Texas.

Once upon a time I was focusing on writing romantic suspense. Though that’s not my main focus now, I still have to work at not putting too much suspense in my contemporary books for Harlequin. But when I was trying to sell into the romantic suspense market, I had good luck on the contest circuit with my manuscripts. One was Dangerous Kisses, which finaled in the Golden Heart sponsored by Romance Writers of America twice and won the coveted Golden Heart in 2004.

Recently, I pulled that book out again and gave it another read-through, making some tweaks as I went. And I still liked the story. So I decided to put it up for sale myself and see what happened. It’s set in Nashville, where I live, so it was fun putting in setting details from my neck of the woods.

If you like romantic suspense, I’d love for you to give it a try. There are buy links on the Books Page of this site.

As expected, prior to the movie there were previews for other summer films. Two in particular I’m looking forward to are X-Men First Class and the remake of Conan the Barbarian with Jason Momoa (who was Ronon Dex on Stargate Atlantis). Check out the trailers below.

Q. The Last Soul is your first published novella. You describe it as a sexy paranormal romance. Tell us about this story and what paranormal element(s) you use.

A. Faina, the heroine, has been dead for one hundred and fifty years, but she’s about to become human again. All she has to do is seduce Jace Blackmon, the most honest financier ever to grace the city of angels, into signing away his soul.

Jace Blackmon has fallen in love with his fantasy woman. But when he realizes she was tricked by a demon to bring about his ruin, including the revelation of a long-buried secret to the media, he must choose between his heart or life without her.

The paranormal element is the demon world interacting with the human world, but in a way that keeps the humans guessing. Faina takes true demon form only once in front of Jace, when they’re threatened by a man with a gun, and it’s so brief he questions his own senses. Then near the end of the story, Jace is confronted by three other demons, but by then he’s in love with Faina and is no longer freaked out.

Q. I love playing cast the movie. So, if The Last Soul were to be made into a movie, who do you see playing your main characters?

A. This is always so hard for me because I tend to think back to actors from Hollywood’s glory days! I could see Jennifer Ellison as Faina and Johnny Depp as Jace.

Q. How long have you been writing?

I’ve been writing stories since I could print. I was the geeky kid in junior high and high school who carried around a notebook and wrote stories in class, just for fun. My English teachers loved me. About ten years ago, I wrote three novels, but I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. It wasn’t until two years ago I joined RWA and began to get serious about my writing career.

Q. Tell us a bit about your writing process.

Once the idea for the story forms, I pick the hero and heroine. I decide what type of names they’ll have and research them until I find the right ones. Once I pick them, the characters come alive for me and take on faces, body types, hair and eye color, and personalities. Then I can write them. I’m a pantser. I have a general idea where the story is going, and I know the ending, but the rest takes shape as I let my characters talk to me.

Q. You actually had two sales very close together. Haunted Heart, a contemporary romance, is coming out from Etopia Press July 1. Tell us about that story.

Haunted Heart is the story of a woman who returns home after ten years of living in Hollywood to restore a century home left to her by her beloved great-aunt. The man she hires to restore it is the one who hurt her in high school. As Rowena and Van work out the rift that tore them apart as teens, they also uncover a plot to make Rowena think the house is haunted. The men behind this plot include a fake ghost hunter and one of Van’s own crew.

Q. What are you working on now?

I’m finishing up the sequel to The Last Soul, Hunted, another paranormal novella. The heroine in Hunted is Jahi, Faina’s best friend. She’s being hunted by a fallen angel, and the hero not only has to protect her, but has been hired to find this rogue fallen angel.

Q. Last year was your first RWA National Conference. What are the top three things you took away from the conference that you think have really helped with your writing career?

Nationals helped me see the big picture. I really got a sense of how tight the romance writing community is, and how much the authors rely on others for support. I learned persistence and patience are the keys. And, I figured out we have to know who we are as writers, and build from that place.

Thanks for being here today, Carolyn.

To learn more about Carolyn and her writing, visit her website. To buy Carolyn’s book, go here.

While I was gone, our muddy, weedy flowerbeds were transformed by landscapers. The new area that was created by the new driveway and front walk now looks like this.

You’ll notice some wilted daffodils throughout the landscaping. That’s because they were transplanted. Hopefully, they’ll come back pretty next spring. The area beside the driveway, which had an out-of-control bush of some sort now has azaleas and the monkey grass that hasn’t quite greened out this year yet.

In front of my office, there used to be some ugly bushes and a forsythia that had gotten so big that it was partially blocking the window. Much more attractive though.

The forsythia got moved to an area on the side of the house where a half-dead lilac bush was removed. And it stayed in bloom!

We still need to have the yard re-done because of the damage done by the cement truck when they poured the driveway (not to mention the amazing collection of weeds that we call a lawn and that gets mowed because it’s green), but that will have to wait until the fall. In the meantime, hubby and I are trying to smooth it out with new topsoil and grass seed.

Still, the place is looking better, and it makes me happy when I look out the front windows now.

Anyone else pulling on their gloves and diving into yard work?

Of the 52 books I read, my favorites were:

City of Ashes and City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent

New Blood and Heart’s Blood by Gail Dayton

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pffeffer

Lover Mine by J.R. Ward

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Sunrise Over Texas by MJ Fredrick

Worldshaker by Richard Harland

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Matched by Ally Condie

I watched 75 movies or TV seasons on DVD. A few were in theaters, but the vast majority were via Netflix on were on TV. The best of what I saw:

Leap Year

Torchwood, seasons 1-3

Slumdog Millionaire

The Tudors, seasons 1-3

The Young Victoria

The Blind Side

Spartacus: Blood and Sand, season 1

White Collar, seasons 1-2

Stargate SG-1, seasons 1-2

Freedom Writers

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

What was on your “best of” books and movie lists for 2010?

A friend sent the following puns through one of my e-mail loops today. I got a good chuckle out of them.

I just sent out my newest newsletter, which can be found on the Newsletters page. If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, be sure to do so by clicking on the “Join My E-Mail Newsletter” graphic in the sidebar at right. Beginning in January, I’ll be giving a prize to one of my newsletter recipients each month.

If you’re still looking for that perfect gift for people on your holiday shopping list, may I suggest a trip to your local bookstore? They’ve got all kinds of books, e-readers, toys, games, magazines, reading accessories, etc.

Now to go hop on the treadmill for some exercise…and to warm up!

Looking for some other books to read this month? Click on the link to my October author newsletter under the Newsletters tab to see a list.