Just an update. We’re working on figuring out what’s going on with older editions not being out for the Kindle. No news in this case is just no news, but I’ll get it fixed.

Thanks for being patient, all you kindlers!

Go be my friend!

All right, so I’m dragging myself into the 21st century. I signed up for a Facebook page. I’ll put a button up when I figure out how to do it.

Thanks to everyone who nudged me in this direction. I think.

PS. I am on FB — I haven’t posted anything yet and still haven’t had time to figure out how to put a cute FB button here. For the moment, if you want to be my FB friend, just search for me on facebook, I guess, then do the FB friend thing. My page has the One Magic Moment bookcover as the avatar thing. Do I need a web-keeper, or what?

Brenda Novak does an auction every year to benefit juvenile diabetes — actually, it might just be diabetes in general. I think it’s a very worthy cause and am happy to help in some small way to generate some cash for her.

The auction’s over at the end of the month, so I should have posted something about it long before now. Here’s the link to Brenda’s site.

I am really slightly appalled to see where the bidding has gone . . . I have managed to put together a few books, but I’m not sure my advice is worth that much. I’d rather give any modest insights I might or might not have away for free and make everyone happy, but since it’s for a good cause I’ll just gulp, think very kind thoughts about everyone who’s willing to support Brenda so generously, and keep my fingers crossed I can say something useful to the winner.

As for the rest of us–and just because I think we all need to hear this OFTEN–here’s my writing tip for the day: Write What You Love. Really. It was tempting to try to outguess the market when I first started, and I think it’s just as tempting now. But unless you’re writing something that speaks to your heart, it’s not going to speak to anyone else’s heart. The path might be a little rocky and take some patience, but I truly believe that no time spent writing is ever wasted. Even if all you do is write your books for yourself, the effort will be absolutely worth it.

I wrote Stardust of Yesterday because I wanted to do a sort of Ghost and Mrs. Muir meets Ivanhoe, but I wanted to do it the way I wanted to. I wrote it in spite of the market advice at the time that said no thank you to romances with a ghost as the hero, because I wanted a ghost as the hero. After 15 years, Gen might seem a little goofy and Kendrick a little over the top, but I still laugh when I think about her first sight of his sweatshirt with “Death to the Buchanans!” written on it. Periodically when the top is about to pop off my blender or we’re fighting with saranwrap, someone in the fam will mention Kendrick fondly. If Berkley had actually bought my first book (a vampire romance that I’d written to chase the market — yes, let’s all be extremely grateful my first beloved editor didn’t want THAT thing!), I would have been stuck on a path that wasn’t the right path for me and no one would ever have met a medieval knight turned modern earl and all his crazy relatives.

Write what you love and worry about selling it later.

I’ve disabled the comments temporarily (unless you’re a spammer then it’s permanently! yes, permanently!) for the journal.

I just want to know where those spammers are who’ll either give me a cut of that $20M that’s floating around in cyberspace, a new beach bod by June 1, or the new iPad 2.0 with the 64 gig so I can let my young’uns play angry birds on a great big screen . . .

In other news, I killed the blog because I’m a lousy blogger. I’m considering other less time-intensive things–maybe here in the journal.

And THANK YOU to everyone who took your hard-earned money and splashed out on John and Tess. OMM opened at #16 on the NYT list and #14 on Publishers Weekly. Editor and publisher are happy, I’m very grateful, and I hope you enjoyed the story.

And in even more random news, isn’t the OMM cover lovely? It’s the same artist who did Till There Was You and One Enchanted Evening (and With Every Breath, as well, now that I think about it). I think he really outdid himself on this latest effort.

Happy reading!

I just wanted to wish everyone on my side of the Pond a happy Thanksgiving.

In years past I didn’t have much time to do anything but chase kids, cook, and entertain family. You all know the drill, I’m sure.

This year, though, my kids will be peeling potatoes, my husband’s on tap for most of the cooking, and I’m getting a few minutes to sit in front of the fire, knit, and count my blessings.

I’m grateful most of all for my family who puts up with my crazy hours and bouts of daydreaming (you know your kids are resigned to what you do when they only sigh lightly when you drag yourself back from whatever book you’re working on in your head to help them find clean socks). I’m grateful for good friends who are never more than a phone call or email away, no matter how much distance separates us. I’m grateful for ancestors who were courageous enough to buck the conventional wisdom and go after their dreams, no matter the odds.*

And without getting all maudlin and sappy, let me just say that I’m also especially grateful for the chance to write and the opportunity it’s afforded me to meet so many amazing people I never would have known otherwise: my editors, past and present; my agent; my wonderful publisher; and, most of all, you who have come on this crazy ride with me as readers. It’s a joy and a delight to get to send the characters in my head out into the world, but it wouldn’t mean anything if they didn’t find welcoming bookcases to land in.

So thank you, every one of you, for being a part of my writer’s life.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

*My father is a descendant of William Brewster (the Mayflower Brewster) through his daughter Fear (who claimed brothers Love and Wrestling–gotta love those Puritan names!) who married Isaac Allerton. It seems that Mr. Allerton had a, ahem, less than stellar record of financial dealings with those early settlers, so every time I get a little smug about a connection that one intrepid ancestor, I remember his son-in-law cheated the entire Plymouth colony out of their profits until they figured it out and ran him out of town on the rails.

Isn’t genealogy great?

I’m working on nagging my tech guy into helping me get the bookcover up on the homepage, but here’s a quick heads-up on what it’s all about.

My publisher was looking for a way to keep Another Chance to Dream and If I Had You in print, so they repackaged the originals in a trade format and took one of the original step-back cover innards and used it as the cover on ATFL. It’s a nice view of Artane!

Whew! Am I the only one who can’t believe it’s September? Hope everyone had a lovely summer!

I had the very lovely opportunity to do an interview with Bookreporter dot com. If you’re interested, click here.

I’m a little behind the curve here, but I just wanted to say THANK YOU! to everyone who bought OEE. It was on the NYT Bestseller list (extended and printed) for four weeks, which is a record.

It made my publisher very happy which means I keep getting to sign contracts . . . well, you all know the drill there

Again, THANK YOU!

I’ve had some questions about availability of the Kindle edition of OEE. I did a little digging and got the scoop.

Apparently Amazon and my publisher are in negotiations about a few things regarding the Kindle, but I understand things will be resolved soon. If you Kindlers want to send me privately an email where you can be reached, I’d be happy to drop you a line when that particular edition becomes available.