First of all….I saw my book at the store yesterday for the first time!!!!



I meet my cp at B&N and we ride together to 3rd cp’s house. I was running in to B&N to see if my book was there when my cp pulled up. I went to get in the car, told her what I was doing, and she said, “Let’s go!” She went to look in the romance section while I asked the girl at the information booth. Linda came back and said she didn’t find it as the girl was telling me there were no orders listed under my phone number or email. I was disappointed. Then Linda remembered to look under my pen name, and as the girl was looking up the book, Linda called my name. I ran over, and there was one copy, on the bottom shelf, far left side. We moved it up a shelf, next to Lori Foster, and took a picture! Excuse the I-need-to-color-my-hair hair!

This week, back to work.

1) Get son ready for trip to NYC-he leaves Tuesday.
2) 2 guest blogs+SPN blog
3) 35 pages of Texas
4) SARA
5) Grocery store
6) Color hair
7) Exercise
8) House

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The print copies of HOT SHOT came yesterday!!!

I would add a picture but I would have to find


a) the camera
b) a clean surface in my house
c) the camera cord.

And I woke up late so that's not happening this morning :)

This is a momentous occasion because

In 2000, I started this book.
In 2001, I pitched it in New Orleans.
In 2002, I won my first contest with it, Where the Magic Begins.
In 2003, I finalled in the Golden Heart with it.
In 2004, I got my first editor phone call (asking for revisions, but still.)
In 2005, I got an agent.
In 2006, I revised it, all year. Didn't write ANYTHING new that year.
In 2007, I sold it.
In 2008, it came out in ebook.
In 2009, I'm holding it in my hands.

Now, if that's not the little book that could......

Okay, so advice. I want to send a copy to my former agent and a copy to Susan Litman. Not a nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah, but a sincere thank you. Susan read the thing 3 times, and requested it a third, after it finalled in the Maggies, but I got my agent by then, and the book was too long for SRS after I was done. I want to thank her for believing in the book.

And I want to send a copy to Emily because it never would have been published without the endless revisions.

What do you think? Tacky? Career ending? Or do you think they'll understand when I include a nice note?

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I thought in honor of Bull by the Horns releasing next week, I'd blog about my first cowboy book.



I was in middle school when I wrote it and it was called Ramblin' Man. Back in those days I had a crush on John Schneider and come to think of it, maybe it was about the jeans....

ANYWAY, I cast him as my rodeo cowboy, though I don't remember what kind. Probably a bronc rider. He would go from city to city, each place a different chapter, and meet different girls. There were at LEAST 6 of them, and to think I had that many "cute meets" in me at such a young age is pretty funny. They would have little love stories, but he'd move on, thus the title. EXCEPT that in the last chapter he realized he'd had enough and went back to the girl in the first chapter.

The book was written in PENCIL on notebook paper and I think I tied it together with yarn through the holes. I don't know how long it took me to write, but I remember working on it when I went on vacation with my dad to south Texas. Unfortunately, I threw it away before I moved out of my mom's house. Boy, would I love to read it.

Since then, I haven't written another cowboy story until now, when one of my cps challenged the other two of us to write a story for Wayback Texas. Even the cp that challenged us hasn't written her story, though I have her heroine in my book! Anyway, it's fun and while it has the common theme of the homebody vs. the traveller, it has some cute twists, too.

I finished the galleys on Hot Shot last night. Please PLEASE let that be the last time I have to read it!!!! Not that I don't love it, but I have read it at LEAST 50 times. At LEAST.

I storyboarded my Nano story last night since the boy was working on the computer, but I'm itching to focus on Vamp Hunters.

Mama Kitty stayed outside yesterday, and was mostly good when we brought her in yesterday evening. Poor thing is scared and pregnant and she was so hungry!

I was falling asleep during The Mentalist last night, made it to bed just after nine and slept till after five! YAY!

I'm doing an email chat on Samhain Cafe so I thought I'd post some Hot Shot trivia here today.

1) Hot Shot was conceived during the Colorado wildfires of 2000, inspired by an email from Cindi Myers.

2) Gabe Cooper has the same initials as his inspiration, George Clooney. I never even realized it until the book was contracted.



3) Peyton's original name was Sydney, and instead of a reporter, she worked for a congressman.

4) Gabe lives in Albuquerque in the off-season but he's originally from Savannah.



5) I wanted Gabe to have a Hanover Street like arc, where he'd been fearless before, then falls in love and makes a stupid mistake. HQ did not like that tack, and now I see they're right.

6) I got the contract offer for Hot Shot when I got home from the November SARA meeting, where I had just announced that I was anxiously awaiting word from Samhain.



7) Anne Scott's requesting email was in my SPAM folder a week before I saw it. I check my SPAM every day now ;)

8) Hot Shot was released on April 1. If you knew all the trouble I had getting this book published, you will see the irony there.



9) The original ending had Gabe going to a banquet in Chicago, held in Peyton's honor, to win her back.

10) The love scene in the orange and black motel room is original - hasn't changed from 2000, though most of the scenes around it have.



11) I bought the new National Geographic just because it was about wildfires. I watch the news stories about them, too, and almost believe I'll see Gabe and Peyton hiking out!

12) In earlier versions, Peyton hid the fact that she was a reporter.



13) Hot Shot was a Golden Heart finalist twice, a Maggie finalist, a Sheila finalist and it won Where The Magic Begins and Hot Prospects (Brenda Chin wrote wonderful things about it and told me to send it to Superromance with her blessing).

14) It was requested by the same NY publisher 3 different times.

15) In contests, Hot Shot got dinged for not enough romance, not enough sexual tension, too much firefighting, the title (too much like a Charlie Sheen movie) and Peyton's name.

Wow, today is WILD. I'm so glad I canceled tutoring. I kinda wish I'd taken the day off.

First, HOT SHOT RELEASES TODAY. (Not at 5 AM, though ;) )

Second, I'm guest blogging at Marianne’s AND Romance Bandits AND Samhain.

Third, a Hot Shot excerpt is up at
Coffee Time’s Spring Showers Promotion - come talk to me!

And last, I got an email that Where There's Smoke is Joyfully Reviewed! I made the reviewer CRY! (Weird that makes me so happy ;) )



Here's another excerpt of Hot Shot - come see me around the blogosphere!!!

“You’re limping. I want to look at your feet.”

“They aren’t burned.” And she had some defensive issues of her own. Was it him she wasn’t willing to admit weakness to, or herself?

“Blistered, though, aren’t they?”

She stammered, glanced away. “A—yeah.”

“First fire, new boots?”

“I have on two pair of socks,” she said.

Yeah, definitely some defensive issues there. He leaned forward and crooked his finger. “Let’s look at those feet.”

“They just…I…”

Her discomfort amused him. He wasn’t asking her to strip, for crying out loud. Why was she so skittish? “Sit and take ’em off.”

She did, grumbling more now than on the trail. Delayed reactions were fine with him. She’d done what she’d been told, and had done a fair job of it. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t dredge up any resentment.

She thrust her feet toward him and immediately he saw the outer sock, blackened on the top from soot, had been worn through.

“Peel.”

“I can take care of my own feet.”

He couldn’t tell if she was blushing under all the soot, but her jerky movements told him she was embarrassed as she stripped off the socks. He motioned for her to place them in his lap for inspection, which she did with more force than necessary, near a place a man wanted as little force as possible.

He picked up one foot, was amused by the hot-pink toenail polish, amazed by the softness of the skin. Calluses hardened a few places, the rest was city-girl soft. He allowed himself a brief picture of what she might be like on her own turf. Would she wear girly dresses? High heels? Fix up her hair? Hard to tell what she’d be like dressed up, the way she looked now, in her baggy fire gear and covered with ash. But he’d imagine she wouldn’t be too bad.

Of course, sandals wouldn’t be very flattering. He could see some blisters forming, traced a testing finger over the high arch of her foot. She jerked and shouted, the sound startling the girls as it echoed off the cave walls. He grinned.
“Ticklish?”

She scowled and tried to pull her foot away, but he tightened his grip on her heel.

“I have some cream in my pack.”

“So do I,” she said through her teeth.

Stubborn wasn’t as bad as most people made it out to be. It would keep her alive till he could get her back to safety. He wanted to smile again, but her other foot was still free and dangerously close to where it could do damage.

He released her and she scrambled to her side of the cave.

“Fine. Then put your clean socks on and put the dirty ones still in one piece over them.”

He watched to make sure she followed directions, then shut off the flashlight and closed his burning eyes.

Gabe dozed, his head against the wall. How could he relax when Peyton’s heart still drummed a mile a minute? The terror of the past few hours only now hit her. She’d understood it was serious at the time, but the pure audacity of their victory kept her mind churning.

Woman against nature. Considering the huge force she was up against, she felt damned lucky to come out even.

In the dim light of her headlamp, she saw the children were asleep, piled together like puppies. Josie curled against the wall, her back to them. So Peyton watched Gabe.
His strength was apparent in every aspect of his body, his broad shoulders and muscled arms accented in the black T-shirt, his wide callused hands, his stubborn jaw, black with both stubble and soot.

He was handsome, rescued women and children, true hero material.

God help her.

Here's an excerpt:

Gabe pushed out of the tent and collided with the soft body of Peyton Michaels. She must have found the showers, because her hair was no longer black with soot, and some fruity scent floated up from her, but he couldn’t stand around smelling her, thinking of her as a woman, as anything other than a reporter. His mind already moved ahead to the mountain. He acknowledged her with a nod and set her aside.

She hurried after him and touched his arm. He stopped, glanced from her hand to her bold brown eyes. “Can I help you?”

She didn’t drop her hand away despite his pointed look. “I want to go with you.”

“Go where?” As if he didn’t know. Just like a reporter. This was not something he wanted to deal with now, on the heels of dealing with Jen. His shields weren’t all the way back up.

“To the camp.”

He glanced back at the tent. Of all the people to overhear, it had to be her. “Eavesdropping?”

She merely lifted her brows. Always challenging him. “I have ears.”

“We had a deal. One shift.” He sliced his hand through the air in a gesture of finality, not wanting the responsibility for her a minute longer. “Your shift is up.”

“But this—rescuing trapped children!” Her voice shook with excitement as she trotted after him. “This is exactly what I’m writing about.”

He scowled. “I’m not doing this for your amusement, Michaels.”

She looked stricken he would think so, and he felt an uncharacteristic stab of regret. Hell, what did she think, making statements like that? That she was going to improve his opinion of reporters?

“No, of course not. But you have to see how important this would be to me.”

All the wrong reasons to go up on the mountain. He shook his head. “And just what makes you think that matters to me?”

Her temper brightened her eyes. “Is it just me, or all reporters?”

He didn’t hesitate. “All reporters.”

She huffed out a breath. “Here I was all a-tingle, thinking I was special.”

Here he thought he was starting to like her wise mouth. He didn’t dignify her remark with an answer.

“What happened?” she pressed, hovering at his elbow. “Someone get on your bad side?”

“Did you hear I had a good side?”

A surprised laugh burst from her. Damn, she was cute, all dimples and white teeth.

“You know, you’re right. An assumption on my part.”

“Comes with the job,” he muttered, and she laughed again.

“What is it?” Her voice was breathless as she tried to keep up with him. He wouldn’t feel sorry for her. “What makes you hate us so much?”

“It couldn’t be the constant questions,” he said.

“Sure, it could be, but that would be an annoyance, not downright hatred.”

He stopped then and faced her. “Will you tell me, right here and right now, what your angle is?” She opened her mouth and he lifted one finger to silence her. “Not what your story is, but what spin you’re going to put on it?”

“Is that it? You’ve been burned by interviews so all reporters are bad?”

“See? You can’t even answer a damned question without a question. I need to go get my crew together.” He turned on his heel.

She came after him, edging around a cluster of firefighters to look up at him. “All right. My series is on heroic jobs and the people who live them. People want to read about real-life heroes.”

He snorted. “Then you’re following the wrong guy around.”

My cover is up on Samhain and Breaking Daylight placed first in the Golden Palm with Leslie Wainger!!!

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I REALLY enjoyed The Jane Austen Book Club. Lupe, I thought of you the whole time. I thought the characters were interesting (though the dh said he didn't see one he liked), the individual stories compelling (though the French teacher's story had me cringing about putting up pictures of Taylor on my blog even though he's 26) and I loved the Austen discussions. I loved how the men in their lives were drawn in by the books. Unlikely, I know, but it was just....I really liked it.

Elizabeth was a visually stunning movie (especially the Clive Owen scenes ;) ) but not as memorable for me. Though I have to say, DANG, that girl can ACT!

Blockbuster is sending Across the Universe, though I have my queue set up to delete movies I rented from the store. So I'll return the store one and wait to watch the mailed one. I'm also getting Aristocats and Once, because I saw someone on another blog recommend it.

Supposedly I have 2-3 weeks before the copy edits come for Hot Shot. Hallelujah.

I found a used iBook on Amazon for less than $500. Thing is, that's 2 generations old....I don't know about getting that.

Okay, I've been listening to country music for 4 days now and have only heard one song I like. Sad. I have heard some ear-worms, though! Gah!

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A LOT of good movies are coming out on DVD today, movies I’ve been looking forward to. So after tutoring, I’m swinging by Blockbuster and trading my 3 DVDs for 3 of the following:

The Aristocats – my favorite Disney movie when I was a kid. I had a Marie doll from Disneyland.

The Assassination of Jesse James

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

The Jane Austen Book Club

Across the Universe

Any of those exciting to you?

I finally found a song I liked yesterday on the radio. Garth Brooks, who knew? Ignore the video, though.



The boy is indeed going to the Journalism conference at Columbia. GULP. He’s never been from home more than a night, and that’s usually just been down the street. I’m excited for him and jealous of him and just plain freaking out.

I finished Hot Shot and sent it back to my editor. I’m working on another book for her – boy is it a mess. Sigh. I don’t think it’s been revised at all. Most of my notes to myself are EMOTION and REACTION. Sheesh. Again, this story was written in 2004.

I didn’t get to work on my Wayback story at all.

Okay, I got an email on the Samhain loop about a cool promo opportunity, but I need to email the lady from Coffee Time with my blurb and a prize.

WHAT PRIZE? I don't know what to offer readers.....what do you think? A gift cert to Samhain? Help!

And I found out this morning An Accidental Husband isn't coming out till AUGUST! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

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I took a personal day yesterday to get SOME of my stuff taken care of. I knew today was shot because it's critique, and Sundays aren't usually very productive for me. So I worked on Hot Shot from 5-7, cleaned the kitchen, took the boy to school, went to Lowe's and got a lamp, went to the grocery store, cleaned the guest room, worked on Hot Shot from 10-12:30, slept (those 4 AM wake-ups are getting to me), watered my plants (and discovered I have NO grass left in the backyard), worked on Hot Shot from 3-5:30, made dinner, went to the Apple Store with the dh, got gas in the car, then vegged on the couch watching Friday Night Lights and Monk, wanting to work on my small town story but not having it in me.

But there's a whole SLEW of things I should have done but didn't.

1) finish sweeping
2) water my plants in the front
3) get a haircut (it is in BAD shape, too long and heavy)
4) color my roots (I have hag hair.)
5) go get lunch (I had a wrap from the grocery store. Yum. But I always go get a burger as a treat.)
6) laundry (so the hampers were stuffed when I sorted clothes this AM)
7) go to post office (I sold a CD on half.com - must do this before critique)
8) go to library (can probably do this before critique, too)
9) work on anything new

I didn't even turn on the TV till I was making dinner, and the house wasn't really in that bad of shape. I told my guys they HAVE to start helping me. Apparently it fell on deaf ears because there are still dirty dishes in odd places.

BUT I did address all my editor's comments in Hot Shot. I want to go through one more time before I send it back to her. She needs it by next Saturday.

I'm having real trouble getting back into my small town story. I think I need to start all over from the beginning, and it feels like it needs to be typed. I'm seriously considering getting a refurbished Dell laptop or something. But I may just set it aside while I write my rodeo book (only 100 pages, remember?) because that world is building up pretty fast. My cps are talking about their books today. I sent 30 pages of Breaking Daylight :( I want to talk about my story, too!

Oh, and the dh got a $700 bonus yesterday. The boy came home with info on a Spring Break trip to NYC through journalism. Guess how much it costs? Yup, $700. We're considering sending him, though, you know, we have no grass because our sprinklers are broken again.

Here's a sneak preview of my rodeo cowboy. Yes, I know he's young, but he's older than Jared!

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I am having a very strange reaction to my cover. I love it, don't get me wrong. But now I'm having trouble revising the story now that I have someone else's vision of Gabe in my head. I keep writing the story and seeing this stranger doing the actions. It's very weird.

I will post it as soon as I have permission.

I did print it out and take it to school yesterday. I showed some teachers at lunch, and I said that the cover model was "follicly challenged." (He had a serious receding hairline, which my cover artist fixed, bless her!) One of the teachers misheard me and said, "He's PHALLICLY challenged?" I protested and they asked how I knew he wasn't. Um, because I CREATED him? I told Cindi and she didn't get it...she didn't know the meaning of either word! Bad, Cindi!

I had strange dreams. I dreamed it was my birthday and just my mom and I were going to dinner at Gristmill, when suddenly the dh and ds show up with my grandmother (the one who died). The dh made a huge deal out of it, and even had a Tim Riggins lookalike (from Friday Night Lights) come eat with us. It was weird. Then later, some reporters were coming to school to talk to us about guns in schools (apparently they found some, in my dream. IRL, other stuff is happening in my district.) and some lady was telling us what to say. It was weird.

My room was 86 degrees yesterday. We couldn't get the AC men to come out until we got a parent to call Main Office. How sad is that?

LOST was awesome last night - the SIX? Supernatural was just okay.


Oops, it's below freezing and I didn't cover my plants!

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I have an ISBN!!!

Three more plot points to get through. I should be able to get one this AM, maybe two, if the ds doesn't wake up early to finish his physics review.

Oh, and my cps were tossing around the idea of writing for The Wild Rose Press's Wayback series and I may have come up with an idea. Will try to flesh it out while the kids are taking the writing test today.

My dh's cousin found my email through The Wet Noodle Posse and emailed. Cool, huh?

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I spent ALL DAY yesterday on revisions. I did searches for overused words, I fixed eight plot points, most minor, but one the timeline question. I made him a former smokejumper. I still need to smooth that one out today. I need to fix 6 more things, some harder than others, like the fire shelter thing. Thankfully, I found an instruction manual for the burrito shelter. I was freaking because I didn't see how two people could fit in it, but the manual does say they can, though it's not recommended.

Anyway, I was going to steal Jill's excellent post idea about ten things you won't see in my books, but by the time I was done editing it was 8:30. I showered, watched some TV and CRASHED. Thank goodness today's testing!

I should find out soon when Smoke is coming out!

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(The quote is from Disney's Aladdin, in case you're racking your brain as I was.)

My revisions have me in a tizzy. For the most part, my edits have been easy, repeated words, tiny story questions. But when I was doing yesterday's pages (before school, and before picking up the ds from school AGAIN), her notes were more about the story. And there's one I just don't know how to fix. I'd never realized it. My agent never realized it. The two Silhouette editors who read it never said anything about it.

My timeline is off. I have part of Gabe's conflict as people trying to mold him to be who they think he is, and part of that was his ex-eife pushing him to be a smokejumper. Only he met and married her when he was in his 30s, and I doubt he'd go to smokejumping school at that age. So I'm trying to wrap my mind around it, and trying to think how I'm going to expand the ending (she says it's too rushed.) I was going to send it to my chapter's online critique last night but fell asleep on the couch!

So thinking about revisions is making me queasy.

I did dream I got my cover, and they had this old guy on the cover. Ew.

No tests today, but we're going to review like crazy.

Grey's Anatomy was new last night and GOOOOOOOOD. I cried so much!

Oh, and my FAVORITE JDM website is GONE!! WAH!!!

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Yesterday Trish and I did something we have never done – we finished writing a book on the same day. Cool, huh?
Of course, my last two pages, the ds was standing over me waiting to type up his newspaper story. Then when I finished and said I won, the dh said, "It's like winning golf - you're competing against yourself." Then the ds said, "Yeah, take THAT, past you!" referring to the FRIENDS episode where Monica tried to outdo herself for Thanksgiving dinner.



I was thinking about this Nano vs. last Nano. I looked for my Excel chart for last year but couldn’t find it. That would have been interesting. And since I didn't use all my good pictures, I will sprinkle more through today's post in celebration.

Last Nano, I changed heroes midstream.

Last Nano, I woke up early almost every day to write before I went to work.
This Nano, I only did that the last week.



Last Nano, I had out of town company, and so did the bulk of the story at the beginning of the month.
This Nano, I had edits and revisions at the beginning of the month, so did the bulk of the book at the end of the month.

Last Nano, I had green on my chart almost every day.
This Nano, I have more red than green. I really doubted if I should try to finish, just before Thanksgiving. I knew if I didn’t catch up that week, I never would.



Last Nano I wished that I had a plot about 2/3 of the way through.
This Nano, I wished that I had a plot about 90% through.

Last Nano, I couldn’t keep my hero and heroine’s hands off each other.
This Nano, the sensuality felt a little more forced. And only one love scene.



Last Nano I finished on November 27.
This Nano, I finished on November 29.

I got an email from my Samhain editor that Hot Shot may be out in ebook in April. Happy birthday to ME! I wonder when I'll get my cover....

I had JUST finished watching Ocean's 13 and I checked my email and there it was, an offer from Samhain for Hot Shot. I MAY have waited ten seconds before emailing back YES YES YES!!!! Then I sat at the computer and stared for ages. Of course it was late and everyone online was asleep and Trish is on a train in the Sierra Nevadas, so I celebrated quietly. Didn't touch the floor all day, though!

I had gone to SARA earlier in the evening and mentioned that I loved my WRP cover and was so glad that book sold, but I REALLY wanted to sell Hot Shot (mainly so I don't have to mess with it anymore) and 2 hours later....

I didn't think I'd sleep, but I did. At least until 4 AM ;)

Got the contract today, about to go over it. And I do have some minor revisions on the back end.