Booksigning in McCalla...with Pictures!

I joined several other authors today for a booksigning at a Fall Crafts and Book Festival in McCalla, Alabama, at Brooke's Book Stop on Old Tuscaloosa Highway. It was a gorgeous day here in north central Alabama, with the temperatures a little on the chilly side in the shade but quite pleasant once the sun moved past the trees overhead and shined down on us a little bit.


I finally took some pictures of an event! I know y'all are probably shocked. I mostly took pictures of other authors, but since they're a lovely bunch, I figure that's fine with y'all.



Lynn Raye Harris (L) and Kimberly Lang (R), both Harlequin Presents authors (and Kimberly also writes for Presents Extra, I believe). Kim, I'm sorry that I caught you talking with your hands, but, well, I didn't have all day to take a picture. ;)


Lynn always makes us other authors look like schlubs. She has the best fashion sense and she always looks fabulous. Plus, I gave her no warning before I snapped this photo, and look at her gorgeous, smiling pose.

Louise Vaughn Gambrell, author of Red Angels.

The delightful Melanie Dickerson, whose first book, The Healer's Apprentice, came out early this fall. Melanie kept me company a couple of months ago at a booksigning in Huntsville. She's a lovely person and you should check out her book.

The fabulous Gayle Wilson, who has not one but two books out this year after taking 2009 off. Her Harlequin Historical, Claiming the Forbidden Bride, came out in September, and she also has a novella in November's Regency Christmas Proposals. (And I hear she has something in the works for 2011 as well. Welcome back, Gayle!)

And here I am, having a very bad hair day. Also, I didn't realize I was quite that pale and pasty-looking. I did sell a few books, though. Maybe they felt sorry for me. Do you feel sorry for me? Pre-order my April book. It'll make me feel better.

Suzy and Kenny Spencer aren't writers, as far as I know, but they are really good musicians. They call themselves Fiddlin' in th' Parlor. The music they played during the festival was a throwback to all the great old traditional music that was played during the early days of our Republic. I wish I had taken video with audio so you could hear the music they were playing. I loved it so much I bought a couple of their CDs. It was like going back a couple of centuries and hearing the kind of music your great, great, great grandparents might have listened to. Kenny played a variety of instruments--violin, penny whistle, Irish low whistle and accordian. Suzy played keyboard. If you're ever in the Bessemer, Alabama, area and need a unique musical act, you could do a lot worse.

There were also several craft booths and tents there, and people seemed to have a great time. I know I did.

Hitched and Hunted

That's the title of my upcoming April Intrigue, which just showed up on Amazon.com for preorder.

So, of course, if you're in the mood to get a little early shopping out of the way, have at it.

Want to know a little about the book?

Well, it starts with a tornado. And then things really start falling apart for the hero and heroine, who happen to be already married. That's right, I wrote a romance where the hero and heroine are already a couple. Because apparently I love to torture myself as much as I torture my characters.

It's also the first book in a miniseries within the Cooper Justice series—Cooper Justice: Cold Case Investigation. Here's a little banner I created to promote the three-book miniseries, coming April, May and June 2011:




Ready to pre-order yet? You know you are...

Why, yes. Yes, I do know I'm a craptastic blogger.

It's been a month since my last post, and longer than that since I said I'd draw a winner in the Bachelor Sheriff blog launch party. Because, well, I am a craptastic blogger.

I do have a reason for my extra slackiness. I was sick for almost two weeks with a rather painful case of cellulitis. The good news is, I didn't have to be hospitalized; I caught it early and treated it quickly with antibiotics. The bad news is, it hit right as my day job exploded into chaos due to a Christmas online catalog that turned into a print catalog as well, and all of which I alone could work on because nobody else at my office really knows how to make the files happen. So even though I could only spend a few hours a day at my office (after being out of the office completely for nearly a week, due to being nauseated and headachy the first week of the illness), I still had to work a full day just to get things done. I brought home all the files to work on here on my home computer; fortunately, a few months ago I had bought the necessary software to work at home if I ever needed to.

So anyway, I've been working wall to wall on the day job project, as well as finishing up the final Cooper Justice book. ::sniffle:: And tomorrow, I have to hit the ground running on my inline continuity book that's due 1/15/11.

All that to say, sorry I've been such a blogging slug, and here are the contest winners for the Bachelor Sheriff book launch: Nancy Ison and Amanda Gardner! Please click on the "home" button at the top of this blog, which will take you to my website. Then click on "contact" to email me with your email addresses so I can send you the eGiftcards.

And thank you, everyone who commented. I may not seem grateful (being as how I avoided the blog for a month and all), but I really am.

Let's see, what else do I have to tell y'all? Well, The Long and the Short of It Reviews gave the first three books in the Cooper Justice series some very nice reviews. I don't know if they're still on the website anymore, but the reviewer was kind enough to post the reviews on Amazon, so you can read them there:

Case File: Canyon Creek, Wyoming: http://www.amazon.com/Case-File-Wyoming-Harlequin-Intrigue/dp/0373694504

Chickasaw County Captive: http://www.amazon.com/Chickasaw-County-Captive-Harlequin-Intrigue/dp/0373694563/ref=pd_sim_b_1

One Tough Marine: http://www.amazon.com/One-Tough-Marine-Harlequin-Intrigue/dp/0373694911/ref=pd_sim_b_6

Whew. Sorry to just regurgitate everything I've been sitting on all at once, but hopefully, I'll be a little bit more frequent with my blog posts now that I'm just about through with the day job project.

Well, at least until it's time to start work on the direct mail catalog that drops in February...