Forbidden Territory

My first book, FORBIDDEN TERRITORY, is very hard to find new online, and y'all know how I feel about buying new if you can.

Powell's Books has one available. First come, first served!

What is Patience Smith Really Like?

The lovely folks at Pink Fuzzy Slippers Writers give you a chance to find out with their interview with the Silhouette Romantic Suspense senior editor.

I love my editor and writing for Intrigue, but this interview really tempts me to pitch a few things Patience's way, just so I could work with her.

There. Are. No. Words.

The Top Five Awful Disney Crossover Toys.

I'm an unapologetic capitalist, but...dude.

If you were stranded on a deserted island...

(Crossposted from the Intrigue Authors blog and the eHarlequin Intrigue Authors Blog)

We're doing our spring cleaning at home a little late in the season, in order to turn a basement den into a small apartment for my sister. Unfortunately for me, the basement den is where I've stored about half my books, so now I have to find room for them upstairs. Except, if there were room upstairs for the books, they'd have already been up here. So you know what that means: it's time to cull.

Culling out books is hard for me. I'm a collector by nature, and many of these books I've had since childhood. But as I go through the books, I'm finding that many books that once meant a lot to me I can now get rid of without much pain.

Writing books have been some of the more obvious casualties, now that I'm published and know more about what it takes to be a writer. The books that were once so valuable to me for their information and support are now headed to charity or the local library in hopes that they educate and inspire other aspiring writers still reaching for the brass ring of publication. Also gone are the piles of romances and other novels I bought over the years as I tried to find my niche as a writer. Not all of them, of course; the ones that spoke to me, that helped me find my genre and my voice, stay on my shelves in an honored place.

I have books I bought as reference material for a specific novel that I'm now getting rid of because the novel is written, or the reference book turned out to be useless. I have books that I'm getting rid of because they're literally falling apart at the seams or they duplicate, in some way, other books I have. (I have a large Shakespeare compendium I bought in college that's in wonderful shape; what's the point in holding onto those little paperback versions of specific plays?)

The classics stay, even if I didn't enjoy them, because I have nieces in grammar school who aren't too far from needing those books for their studies. I have books that I seldom read but keep for sentimental reasons, like the books written by a writer friend who passed away tragically early from cancer. I kept my college textbooks forever, but I'm finally letting some of them go--Algebra, Trigonometry--while I hold onto others--Zoology, Spanish, all my English textbooks--because I think they might be useful to me yet. Who knows when I might write about a hunky biologist and a sassy English professor who end up on the run in South America? (...jotting that idea down in the idea file...)

I've often played along with the old game, "If you were stranded on a deserted island, what's the one book you'd want to have with you?" It's fun to speculate. It's not so much fun, however, to have to reduce your book collection by nearly half. I can attest to that personally.

However, I do think I could probably come up with a list of five books I'd have to have with me: The Bible, Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE, THE STAND by Stephen King and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. (But I sure would miss ROBERT FROST'S POEMS, PERSUASION, JANE EYRE, the Harry Potter books and THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN).

So, what about you? If you had to trim your book collection drastically, what would go? What would stay? Or is this a subject too horrifying to contemplate?

Introducing...Cooper Justice

Coming from Harlequin Intrigue in 2010:

COOPER JUSTICE

The Coopers of Chickasaw County, Alabama believe in truth, justice and family. They also want to believe that love can last forever—but danger has a way of finding each of them at the worst possible moment...

CASE FILE: CANYON CREEK, WYOMING
January 2010

On the trail of the killer who murdered his wife, Wyoming cop Riley Patterson finally has the break in the case he's been waiting for—a real, live survivor. But while pretty tourist Hannah Cooper can't remember anything about her attacker, he remembers her. After a second attempt on Hannah's life, Rileyoffers himself as her personal bodyguard. But will his growing attraction to Hannah put his case in jeopardy, especially if his best chance to catch a killer puts Hannah directly in the crosshairs?

CHICKASAW COUNTY CAPTIVE
February 2010

Someone is targeting Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Sam Cooper— and using his family to do it. After an attempted kidnapping leaves Sam's four-year-old daughter Maddy traumatized and his teenaged niece in a coma, Sam knows he needs help protecting his family and finding out who's behind the attack. But is a young, female police detective with a notoriously tragic past really the person for the job?

Literary Nightmare

Last night, I dreamed that my editor wanted me to write a short book (67 pages) with another author's hero (but Intrigue had the right to use the character). The hero's name was Dominic, and he'd appeared in two books by a now-deceased author. (Helpfully, she'd sent me the two books by that author in which Dominic had appeared). It seemed that Dominic was a time-traveling immortal who, at one point in his time-traveling history, had raped a woman. Oh, and in the first two books, he'd had a torrid affair with the same woman, so readers might expect him to end up with her or something.

You might think that part of the dream was the strangest. But no, for my editor showed up in person to discuss it with me, and turned out to be not a female, as I thought, but Adrian Paul dressed in a very natty suit. Which, I admit, might normally be seen as the best part of the dream, except in my dream, he was clearly batting for the other team.

(Only I would have a dream about Adrian Paul in which he was gay. Sigh).

Then I woke up.