Off to San Antonio!

I'm getting ready to head to the Romance Writers of America's national conference in San Antonio. If you're in the area, I'll be signing at the

"Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing
on Wednesday, July 23
from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter Hotel, 

3rd floor ballroom.

If you're attending the conference and see me there, say hi!

 

Four Stars From Romantic Times!

 Whoo hooo!  Romantic Times gave CASTLE OF THE WOLF a four-star review!

"Fans will love her newest medieval romance about a knight in tarnished armor and a damsel in distress. Readers can count on the author for realistic settings, authentic dialogue, lots of action and hot sexual tension."

Read Entire Review 

Thank you, Romantic Times!

Sale News for CASTLE OF THE WOLF

CASTLE OF THE WOLF is  being offered for 30% off at Harlequin.com until the end of July.  

Order Now!

CASTLE OF THE WOLF is now available on Kindle at Amazon, too!

Order Now!

If you'll be in the San Antonio, Texas area on July 23, I'll be at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter Hotel  for the Romance Writers of America "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing.  Buy a book to support a great cause, or just come by to say hello!

Details

Today's the day!

My newest book, CASTLE OF THE WOLF, is on sale in print and digital editions today!

Facing marriage to a man she loathes, virtuous Thomasina is forced to choose family duty over her own happiness—until a high-stakes tournament ends in her abduction! Trapped with her fearless captor, the legendary Wolf of Wales, she soon finds herself irresistibly drawn to the man beneath the armor. 

Though Rheged captured Tamsin in the name of revenge, he can't ignore his instinct to protect her. Although to love her could bring the wrath of his enemies down upon them….

Read an Excerpt

Buy Now!

CASTLE OF THE WOLF on sale!

CASTLE OF THE WOLF is on sale for a special price of 1.50 in the UK on the Mills and Boon website.  I'm not sure how long that'll last, so if you live in the UK, hurry on over now.

http://www.millsandboon.co.uk/castle-of-the-wolf

If you're in North America, it's already for sale for a discounted  price on the Harlequin website.

Otherwise, it will be in bookstores June 17 -- that's next week!  It's available for pre-order on Amazon, and will be available for the Kindle on July 1.  

Whoo hooo!   

Believe me, no matter how many books I write, it's time to celebrate when a new one becomes available for readers.

Now available at Harlequin.com!

CASTLE OF THE WOLF is now available for ordering from Harlequin.com!

Here's a little excerpt, the opening of Chapter One.

The flickering light of the torches and beeswax candles in the great hall of Castle DeLac threw huge, moving shadows on the tapestries depicting hunts and battles hanging on the walls. A fire blazed in the long central hearth, warming the chill of the September evening. On either side of the hearth, knights and their ladies sat at the tables closest to the dais where Lord DeLac, his daughter and the most important guests dined on a sumptuous repast. Hounds wandered among the tables, snatching at the bits of food that fell into the rushes covering the flagstone floor, while a weak-chinned minstrel, dressed in blue, warbled a ballad about a knight on a quest to save his lost love.

Sir Rheged of Cwm Bron didn’t care about the feast, or the ballad, or the other guests. Let the nobles spend the rest of the evening amusing themselves with banter and drink, dancing and music. He would rather be well rested for the tournament on the morrow.

This never gets old....

I've had a lot of books published over the years but getting author copies is still a thrill.  Here's what came to the door this week:

This also means CASTLE OF THE WOLF will be out soon -- as in, next month!  It's already available for pre-order at Amazon in the US and in Canada.

My Cover on Facebook

I'm not on Facebook, but my book is! 

The cover for CASTLE OF THE WOLF (out next month!) is featured Harlequin's Cover Thursday on Facebook.  Of course, it IS a fantastic cover!

I've also been fixing my Author Page on Amazon.

Right now, I'm in the midst of getting my garden going.  Next week, though, it's back to the writing life!

The People Who Change Our Lives

I had some sad news over the weekend.  A man I've known since high school passed away suddenly.  Ken wasn't a close friend, and I saw him only a few times after high school, but I always liked him.  He was a good guy and a great raconteur. 

He also changed my life.

We were in the same class in Grade 10, and one day Ken stood up and announced that the St. George's Youth Choir was looking for new members.  I didn't go to St. George's, and I knew I wasn't the best singer, but I wanted to go, in part because they were going to be doing a stage production.  A friend was going to go with me, but she backed out at the last minute. That meant the only other person I would know was Ken, and although we were in the same class, we weren't really friends. 

I went anyway, and it was the one of the best decisions of my life.  Not only did I have a wonderful time with that show and others that followed, I made life-long friends.  We still get together at least once a year. 

I also met another guy in the choir who had a really good friend.  Reader, I married the friend.

So if it wasn't for Ken, I wouldn't have joined St. George's, wouldn't have made such great life-long friends, wouldn't have met my wonderful husband of almost 35 years, or had my two great kids. 

Ken changed my life, and he will be missed. 

On Mother's Day

There are times when words fail even people who write for a living.  

I simply can't express in words how much my mother, and being a mother, mean to me.  

Another Medieval Title and Release Date!

Good news!  I have a title and release date for the sequel to CASTLE OF THE WOLF, my July release from Harlequin Historicals.

BRIDE FOR A KNIGHT is to be a January 2015 release.  That means it will actually be available earlier, probably mid-December -- in time for Christmas!

What's BRIDE FOR A KNIGHT about?  Here's a little teaser:

Lady Mavis plans to flee her arranged marriage, until she overhears Sir Roland talking to his horse.
Sir Roland wants to cancel the arranged marriage, until he meets the bride.

Mavis is the cousin of the lively heroine of CASTLE OF THE WOLF and Sir Roland is the stern, reticent brother of the villain of that story.  And let me just add, Mavis is no shrinking violet, in any way. 

A wonderful article about Harlequin Historicals

I'm working hard to meet the deadline for the sequel to CASTLE OF THE WOLF, but I wanted to point out a great article about Harlequin Historicals in USA Today. 

Read it here.

Now back to work on Mavis's story!

The Cover!

Here's the cover for my newest medieval historical romance,

CASTLE OF THE WOLF,

 which will be out in June in both print and digital editions.  Isn't it great???  I LOVE IT!

Read more about CASTLE OF THE WOLF, including an excerpt, on my website.  You can pre-order from Amazon there, too.

I could go on and on about this cover but I've got a deadline for the sequel looming.  

CASTLE OF THE WOLF is available for pre-order!

My new medieval historical romance, CASTLE OF THE WOLF, is available for pre-order from Amazon!

From the back cover:  

PASSION FOR HER PROTECTOR 

Facing marriage to a man she loathes, virtuous Thomasina is forced to choose family duty over her own happiness—until a high-stakes tournament ends in her abduction! Trapped with her fearless captor, the legendary Wolf of Wales, she soon finds herself irresistibly drawn to the man beneath the armor.

Though Rheged captured Tamsin in the name of revenge, he can't ignore his instinct to protect her. Although to love her could bring the wrath of his enemies down upon them….

These descriptions are never exactly what I'd say, but this one is very good!

I've also posted an excerpt on my website.

I don't have the cover yet, but when I do, my email newsletter subscribers get the first look.  Then I'll post it here.

It's been quite a while since I've had a new book out, so I'm pretty darn excited!

Pre-Order in the U.S.

Pre-Oder in Canada

Cover copy Copyright ©2014 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited.  Cover copy text used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited.

Book Centerpieces

Here are three of the centerpieces I made for the recent Night Out With Authors event.  I didn't come up with this idea.  I found it in a magazine.  Unfortunately, in my zeal to de-clutter, I didn't keep the issue, so I can't remember which one.  And I'll confess that when I first saw books used in this way, my first thought was "Desecration!"  

My second thought was, "Hey, I've got some foreign editions in the cupboard..." 

How did I make the holes for the ELECTRIC tea lights?   (And for reasons I hope are obvious, you must use ELECTRIC tea lights.) 

First, I found the center point in the cover and traced the tea light.  

Then I started to cut.  Someone thought I must have used a drill.  Nope.  I used fingernail scissors.

After I cut out the hole in the cover (and it's better to do this from the back, I discovered), I ran my pencil around the hole, gathered a few pages, and cut again, from the center out.  I did this many times, until I got down to about Page 200.  That seemed deep enough to me.   

I only encountered one minor problem - the covers tended to stick up, so they had to be taped down.

Cost?  The books I got free from my publisher, the tea lights were 2 for a dollar from Dollarama. 

That's my kind of craft project - easy, inexpensive and no fancy equipment required (although I did have to overcome my qualms about cutting into a book)

Boldly going where I've never gone before....

Unlike many authors who've been published for more than 20 years, I've never done readings of my own work.  It's not that I get stage fright or hate public speaking.  Quite the contrary. 

Why not, then? 

Because it just seemed...weird...to me.  Like I'm intruding on a reader's experience somehow.  Also, I tend to "hear" my characters more than "see" them.  For me, they have distinctive voices, and I can't really do them justice.

However, that's about to change.  On January 20, I'll be doing a reading from my next release, CASTLE OF THE WOLF, at Night Out With Authors in Toronto.  (Details of location, time, and who else will be reading, etc can be found here.)  I dipped my toes in the reading waters at the last Night Out With Authors, and it was...okay.  Even kinda fun.  So I'm actually feeling pretty good about the longer reading on the 20th.

I just hope Mother Nature cooperates, and doesn't send more cold, snow or ice!

2014 so far...

After a Christmas "holiday" that wasn't exactly that, what with the ice storm and power outage and subsequent unexpected overnight and dinner guests, I was hoping to start the New Year off on a less stressful note.

We decided to see the new Hunger Games movie on the 31st, only to find it sold out.  No problem, though. We saw the Hobbit movie instead and enjoyed it.  Then we had dinner out.  So far, so good, right?

Until we got home and realized something was Wrong with one of our cats and perhaps had been for awhile.  We have 2 cats, so we had to be sure which one it was, since both were acting quite normally.  We figured it out the next morning, and then spent the entire afternoon of New Year's Day at the Toronto Emergency Veterinary Hospital.  Lovely facility, but not quite the way we'd planned to spend that day.  Fortunately, it appears that it's not a serious problem, although more tests today will confirm.

Then, last night, we heard three loud bangs that seemed to be coming from the attic.  I'd heard two such noises before.  In fact, at one point, I feared one of my parents had fallen from the bed when they were having their impromptu overnight visit.  But they were fine, the chimney hadn't fallen down, no tree limbs were on the roof.  Indeed, nothing else seemed amiss.  Must be a neighbor's car door, or perhaps the newspaper delivery guys (because we read two newspapers every day and I will subscribe to the paper version for as long as it's published).   But the three noises last night had me worried that we had critters in the attic.  Until the early morning TV news (what can I say?  I like to be informed!) mentioned "ice quakes," and a check of the attic by my Intrepid Husband revealed no sign of animals.  Voila!  We have an answer.
Still, it didn't make for a restful night.

In fact, this may be the most sleep-deprived holiday I've had since my kids were babies, and I've had some serious jet-lag in my time.

That said, it could have been much, much worse and we'll be telling tales of the Christmas of '13 for years to come. 

How were your holidays?  Better?  Worse?  Will make for good stories...or just want to forget?

Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone all the best for a wonderful holiday and a happy, healthy New Year!

News and First Drafts

I've got some news. It's official that CASTLE OF THE WOLF, my new medieval from Harlequin Historicals, will be out in July 2014.  Hooray!

I'm currently working on the sequel.  Well, it's more like I'm wandering around, or at least that's how it feels as I wend my way through the middle of the story.  I don't do outlines other than the synopsis my editor gets and I generally tend to be pretty vague about the middle of the story at that point.  I know the beginning, I know the crisis and the climax and how the story's going to end.  But the middle?  Uhhhh....stuff happens. 

But that's also where the unexpected happens, in no small part because I've kept things vague.  That leaves me wiggle room to explore new characters or plot ideas, and to come up with unforeseen elements of the characters' histories. 

So while it's a bit of a nail-biter to be wandering through uncharted territory, it's thrilling, too.

7 Tips for Public Speaking

I used to do a lot of public speaking competitions when I was in school - prepared speeches, impromptu speeches, debates.  Along the way, I learned a few things about getting up and talking to a room full of strangers.

1.  Eye contact is good.  But forget the ol' adage about picturing people naked.  I can think of few things more distracting when giving a speech or workshop.  Here's what I do, especially if it's a big crowd.  I look just over people's heads.  Looks like I'm looking at them, but I'm not.

2.  Instinctively raise your voice by looking at the back wall.  This tip came courtesy of the late True Davidson who was one of my contest judges.

3.  Move around.  Not a lot, but some.  Few things are more boring than seeing somebody stand in the same place for an hour.

4.  Avoid fussing with glasses, jewelry, your water bottle, papers...anything, really, that makes folks start to pay more attention to what you're doing than what you're saying.  I remember one workshop where the speaker kept unscrewing, then re-screwing, the lid of her water bottle.  Just about drove me nuts and I have no memory at all of her workshop except for that.

5.  Rehearse, but not too much.  You want to sound competent and in command of your material, but you don't want to sound like a robot. 

6.  Wear comfortable shoes and clothes.  This is NOT the time to wear those fantastic new pointy-toed pumps.  Or that shirt that looks good, but makes you itchy around the collar.

7.  Most importantly, try to relax, especially if it's in a workshop environment.  People want to hear what you have to say, or they wouldn't be there.  And having been to several workshops myself, I can tell you that you really have to do something pretty foolish to earn the enmity of the room.  Nervous?  That's fine.  We sympathize.  Lose your place?  Laugh and get back on track, and it's all good.  Don't have the answer to a question?  Admit it.  Nobody expects you to know everything.  Slam a genre in a roomful of readers and writers of the genre?  That's just plain foolish.  But you really do have to do something that extreme to lose the room, so try to relax, look at the back wall, move around a little, and enjoy the ride.