Thought I’d start out with a bang and the cover of a collection of shorts Harlequin Spice will release next March! Don’t you love it?! That month is shaping up to be another crazy busy one for me. Darkness Burning (the third Dark Realm story from Avon), Texas Men (my next single-author anthology from Kensington) and now Size Matters, will all be out in the same month.

For those of you who talk with me online, you know I’ve been suffering Internet outages since the end of April that left me with intermittant Internet or email capability. Hopefully, yesterday’s repairs did the trick. I’m here for now, anyway!!

As soon as I opened my email yesterday, I found a message from my editor at Kensington asking if I’d like to be in the next multi-author “Cowboy” book (see The Cowboy and Only with a Cowboy to see what I’m talking about). Of course, I couldn’t resist the challenge. So you’ll hear me cursing cowboys for the next three months straight as I finish up Texas Men then plunge right into the cowboy book. Ack! (I act scared, but I actually do better under pressure, so take all my grousing with a grain of salt.)

Lastly, I have an agent. A great one. Don’t want to talk about it too much for fear of attracting negative mojo, but I’m quietly jazzed about the whole thing!

It’s been such a busy month for me. When I look back at my calendar, I’m amazed I accomplished so much.

I finished another story for Ellora’s Cave. I’m still wrapping up edits for the third Dark Realm story. On Monday, I slammed out a short story to submit to a foreign anthology—finished 25 pages and it wasn’t total crap! I attended a Bachelor’s Auction and gained tons of research on that event that will help me with my next project. I tromped through a graveyard with my Arkansas writer friends and came up with some wicked ideas to fill another tale. Oh, and I wrote another chapter to satisfy my MIK fans (or drive them nuttier, depending on how much you love Quentin!).

Thanks to everyone who participated in the blog contest. I do have a winner. Many of your comments on the blog made me smile. And thanks especially to the volunteer readers who helped me shape the short story into something entertaining on Monday. I really needed the support to keep slamming those pages.

Once in a while, I need a challenge like that to blow out the cobwebs and to see something FINISHED. Most projects take a long time of thinking and dreaming, then weeks of writing. That one day marathon left me feeling flushed and victorious!

Back to the contest. First, here are the answers to the questions:

1) What’s the title of my latest release? Royal Bondage (at least on Sunday, it was!)
2) What’s the title of the book I’m giving away in my newsletter “for readers”, one chapter at a time? Knight Dreams
3) In Sin’s Gift, what police substation does the hero’s brother work in? The East Substation
4) In Seduced by Darkness, what waterway jumped it’s banks, flooding a cemetary and freeing a monster? Bayou St. John

The winner of the blog contest will get a tote with a stash of Romantic Times goodies (a couple of books included)! And she is…Stephanie[dragonstar1974@aol.com]! Steph, be sure to send me your snail mail address privately so I can get your package to you! Congratulations!!