Hooray! Hooray! I'm on USA Today!

This morning I am one happy author. My latest book, The Unwilling Bride, made the USA Today bestsellers list! I'm not number one, or even 100, but 145 is still a huge thrill.

So picture the author all excited and happy and bursting to crow and...nobody's home. Yep, when I find out about this, I'm home alone. I can't even share my news with the cats, because they're all sound asleep. I phone my mother -- always supportive and a shoulder to cry on when things aren't going well -- and her phone is busy. Yargh! Years I've been working toward this, and I can't talk to anybody about it!

I finally phone my daughter at work, where things are a little hectic (she works in retail). I manage to get in a plea for her to bring home celebratory chocolate (champagne does nothing for me). She tells me she won't be getting a break. I'm thinking, What's that about? Is this Victorian England?

My son returns. It's not easy to impress a 23-year-old male who's spent the summer traveling around Europe, but he gives me a great big grin.

Later, I get a congratulatory email from my husband, who supports me in his own quiet way. For instance, he was the one, way back when, who suggested we get a computer for me to write. We were a young couple with two small children and a mortgage, so that was very much under the heading of "luxury item" at that point, especially as we had no idea if I'd ever succeed in the endeavor.

Now that I'm a little calmer, I'm also very grateful, to all the readers who bought my book, and to those who've been buying my books for years. I'm thankful to have a great publisher, and to work with Tracy Farrell, who bought my first historial lo, these many moons ago and brought me aboard HQN, and who got this book in a special promotion. I'm lucky to have a very patient and supportive editor, who doesn't give me a hard time when I decide to do things like cut out two chapters at the copy edit stage, or send an 11 page list of Author Alterations. She says things like, "It's your book and I want you to be happy." My agent keeps me grounded when my imagination goes wild with visions of impending career doom. The art department's been doing a wonderful job with my HQN covers. I'm grateful the PR department sent out galleys and otherwise promoted my book. I'm thankful for every reviewer who loved the story.

So as much as I'd like to take complete credit for this tangible sign of success, it took the efforts of plenty of other people, too. I truly am grateful to each and every one.