If you’re looking for my “Saddled” winner, you’ll have to scroll to the bottom of this post. All posts made on Tuesday through this morning were included in the contest (48 entries total)! Thanks, everyone, for commenting!

I’m in Central Arkansas and we don’t get temperatures in the teens. In fact, the weather guy said it is the coldest it’s been in fourteen years. I guess I’ll be staying inside and running a portable heater next to my desk. It gets a little drafty in my office.

I’ve been very, very busy this past week. I finished Fun with Dick and Jayne and mailed it to my lovely EC editor. She told me it cracked her up, so yay me! I finished edits of Bad, Bad Girlfriend, and again, my EC editor sent me laughing smileys.

I wrote a short story for a Cleis anthology and shipped it. Cross your fingers they like it—or not. If it doesn’t sell, you’ll likely see it as a free read. Nothing ever goes to waste. I wrote a short story for Samhain’s Valentine free reads and shipped it yesterday. Again, a cute, hot contemporary. Today, I’m working on adding a chapter to a medieval vampire story I wrote a few years ago for a now-defunct publisher so that I can submit it either to EC or Samhain. Haven’t decided yet. And I’ll start looking hard at a proposal for a New York publisher that I slammed last month and that seems to be missing something. Have to get that one out the door.

All in all, a very good start to the new year.

Did I mention that I’ve started Chantix to help me give up the cigs once and for all? I’ve never been a heavy smoker—10 to 20 a day—but I can’t kick them on my own and I’ve tried everything. The first day on this pill, I felt sick to my stomach, but at least I wasn’t anxious about quitting because I’m allowed to keep smoking. Don’t know how my writing productivity will be affected by it. I remember reading somewhere that Stephen King’s productivity was cut in half when he quit. And I have to find another way to “dream” my stories. I like writing a few pages, then heading outside, lighting up, and letting that Nicotine open up the synapses to find the next scene. My most fun story twists were found on the back porch while I inhaled. Am I going to lose that? Scares me some. The weather should help me keep those trips to the porch to a minimum too!

Keep posted. I’ll be doing another couple of flashback contests in the next few days to celebrate the release of Unforgiven. And if you haven’t already read Unbridled, you might want to do it now, because the two are very closely tied.

So, back to that winner. By random number generator, the winner is…Sue Brandes! Congratulations! And be sure to email me to let me know what email address you want me to send that download to!