Continuing her sold-out appearance at my blog, please put your hands together and give a big shout out for Caren Johnson, my agent extraordinaire (Come on now! A little louder! I can’t hear you yet!)

So now, without any more delay from lil’ ol’ me, here’s Caren!

If you have any questions, please post them as a comment to this blog! Thanks!

Hi Guys:
There were a few questions about what I’m interested in and one where someone asked me to elaborate on my tastes. I know this isn’t something you want to hear, but I want to put a warning at the very top of this message.

Just b/c it seems like I like one type of book doesn’t mean I’m going to immediately scoop up one that is just like it. That means if I say I like (for example) Gone with the Wind and someone writes to me and says not only did they love GwtW as much as I did, but there book is just like it, I’m probably not going to take another look. Why? B/c we already have GwtW. Why would we need another? Now if someone tells me they have a Latino version of GwtW or a version that tells the real story of Melanie (was she really that nice or was she quietly planning to murder Scarlet in her sleep), then I’d take another look.
Read the rest of this entry �

Hi Irene:

Great questions. I’m glad you threw them all out at once. The questions were how do I cultivate my relationships with different editors, where do I meet them, how do I contact them and stay in touch?
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I’ve always had a rocky relationship with historical romance; there are some that make me gnash my teeth and want to throw the book at the wall. First, historical romance better be accurate. It drives me crazy when me (a so-so history student at best) spots inaccuracies. Second, there are social mores and cultural practices (arranged marriages, compromised virtue) that I have a hard time dealing with, feminist that I am. While I’m aware that these things are very real parts of history, that doesn’t mean I want to read about them in romance novels. There are others that I adore (Catherine Coulter, Amanda Quick anyone?)

I want high concept historical romance. I’d like to avoid virgins b/c they play into a lot of the cultural practices that turn me off. What I’d really like are well written, well-researched stories about intriguing periods of history that feature characters caught up in the thick of events. Susan Carroll does this with her brilliant book The Dark Queen. I devoured it b/c the writing was brilliant, the story exciting and the characters memorable. I’ve been reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series as well. I’m about ten years behind the curve, but those books are amazing. I’m currently reading a narrative non fiction about the Medici’s called Medici money. It’s about how the Medici family made their money in trade (gasp) as a banking family before they were patrons of the arts. I’m sure that would be a brilliant historical romance topic.

Hope this gives everyone some insight.

C.

Hi guys:

I got your question Cynthia. What would it take for a romantic suspence query to peak my interest enough to ask for more?

Well that’s a two part question that you’re asking. The reason I say this is because I look for content first, meaning what your story is about. But in finding out what your story is about I also pay attention to how you pitch it. I swoon when I find someone who not only knows how to tell a good story, but can explain it well. Too many times I get letters from people comparing themself to multi-published, best selling authors. The trouble with that is it doesn’t give me a fair overview of your work. Then they give me a ho-hum plot that I’ve read before many times.

Now to brass tacks: I’d like to see romantic suspense that are heavier on the suspense side with a strong romance vein running through it. The main focus of the story would be suspense with strong romantic elements. I’m open to a number of topics, but to give you some idea about what I’m into these days, I’ve been addicted to shows like 24 and Prison Break, The Shield and The Closer. Of course they’re mostly suspense with lots of action, but if I had my way, Jack and Audrey would find a way to be together, Michael and Sarah would have some hot and heavy on-the-run sex, Dutch would find someone other than Vic’s wife to date and Brenda would dump the FBI guy and have a hot fling with an actor. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, my apologies for launching into geek-speak.

Also note: I’m not looking for romantic suspense authors at the moment b/c I have some fabulous ones on my list already. But if a query comes in that is really fresh and exciting, I will take a look.

Hope this helps and keep those questions coming.

C.

We’ve got something special this week! Literary Agent Caren Johnson (my agent FYI), will be blogging with us all this week. Here’s a chance for all you pre-published authors or anyone who has wondered how this publishing biz works to ask.

Here’s some info about Caren:

FYI — We’ll have Stacy Boyd, my editor at Harlequin, guest blogging the week of Feb 5! More on Stacy to follow.

I’m also lining up some other editors and agents to join us during the rest of the year.

You know I write Vampires.

You know I write sexy women’s fiction.

I also write romantic suspense and love it! My next romantic suspense is out in August and is a sequel to MORE THAN A MISSION. Here’s a little trailer for it.

Click on navigation bar at bottom left to control video.

For a larger version of the video, please visit my Videos page.

I just received a Delia’s catalog in the mail and I noticed they are ready for spring. So am I. They have tons of lovely spring dresses. Now floral prints are okay… to a point. Also single colors, pastel yellows, and greens seem to be the most popular. Navy is also a big one.

The theme seems to be the styles of the past. Wide straps, baby doll pattern form. So if you are planning your spring vacation these cute spring dresses are definitely a YAY! in my book.

Maybe you’ve noticed the progress bar to the right of the blog. Maybe you didn’t. It’s a bar that’s measuring how much progress I’m making in keeping to my New Years Resolution to lose weight. I decided to put it up on the site for a couple of reasons. First, I hope it keeps me honest and keeps me off the sweets wagon. Second, I know a lot of you had the same resolution and maybe seeing how I’m doing will help you reach your goals as well.

I do have some hints to help with the diet.

First, we know why diets usually fail. Diet food is so damn tasteless. I’ll give you a quick recipe later on for a quick snack or meal that isn’t tasteless and will satisfy. I think that’s a key to staying on a diet — learn to make food with lots of flavor so that you feel satisfied after eating.

Remember to drink lots of water. It helps wash out the byproducts of burning all that fat and keeps things moving along.

Next, try to increase your activity, even if only a little bit each day. A fifteen or twenty minute walk at a nice clip will really help. Can’t do that much at one shot. Do 2 ten minute segments. Studies have shown that the effects of exercise are cumulative (but 20 minutes is key for aerobic health).

Last, but not least, don’t give up just because you blow one day. Nobody is perfect, so don’t be so hard on yourself if you don’t stick to your diet. Just don’t do it too often.

Anyway, here’s that tasty snack/meal. I can’t take credit for all of it. The basic idea for the soup came from something on HGTV. I think the garlic bread thing came from Giada’s Everyday Italian, but regardless, it’s tasty and relatively low fat.

The Soup:

One of the following:

Here’s how easy it is:

While the soup is warming: Toast a slice or two of a good quality bread. Peel a clove or two of garlic. Once the bread is toasted, take the garlic and scrape it across the toasted bread. The roughness of the toast will grate the garlic. The final result — an oil-free tasty garlic bread!

Saturday is a full day for me. I’ve got my monthly NJRW meeting and other running around.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

I had a delight in the mail last night — pictures from my friend Elsie. She runs the East Brunswick Borders Readers Group and she is amazing! Talented and such an artist. Whenever she comes by, she brings some wonderful goodies. As I write at the desk in my office, I have a beautiful water glass she had etched with my name for one of the group’s wonderful Book Flings.

I know I’ve met many of you at signings and if you have a snapshot, please send it on so we can all get to know each other better.

If you haven’t had a chance, snap a picture of you reading a book (hopefully one of mine) in your favorite location and send it on.

It’s been so nice “talking” with all of you and I’d like to think that this blog is about more than me. It’s you and me getting to know each other. It’s about US.

Just a quick note for those of you who have said you’re interested in writing.

On January 22, I’ll have a guest blogger for the entire week– Caren Johnson from the Caren Johnson Literary Agency (and my agent). She’ll be here to talk about the publishing industry and answer any questions you might have. Here’s Caren’s bio:

Plus, starting on February 5 I’ll have Stacy Boyd, one of my editors at Harlequin blogging with us all week. I love working with Stacy. She has been incredibly supportive and has really helped improve my writing. I hope you’ll drop by to talk with her. Here’s Stacy’s bio:

Here’s the other one! Hope you can see it!

I know some of you haven’t been able to see the trailers, so I’ve created one that you should be able to see! Here it is:

When I first started writing, I didn’t have a clue as to the definitions of some of the basic terms used in the Publishing industry. It was worse than legalese at times. I thought I’d help out the pre-published and newbie authors with some of these explanations.

ADVANCE: The Advance is the money you are paid up front for your work. You don’t pay back an advance if you don’t sell enough books to EARN OUT (see below). Your advance is applied against the royalties you earn and once you earn beyond the advance, you start getting additional monies.

ARC: Advanced Reading Copy. An unedited, uncorrected proof of the book, usually in a cheaper binding. Intended for review copies and to create buzz. ARCs are not to be sold as they are merely intended for review purposes.

ART FACT SHEET: The author is oftentimes asked to suggest scenes for the cover and to describe the hero, heroine, clothing, setting, etc. in order to help the Art Department produce the cover.

CATEGORY BOOKS: Generally mass market paperbacks that are part of a line, put up on the shelves for a month and then replaced with the next month’s offerings. Many imprints from Harlequin and Silhouette are category books.

COPY-EDITS: The manuscript with the copyeditor’s marks.

COVER FLATS: The cover for the book before it is bound to the book. Cover flats are sent to the authors and industry professionals to help create buzz for a book.

EARN OUT: What’s left after deducting the advance from the royalties. If enough copies of the book have sold to cover the advance (and then some) the book has earned out.

GALLEYS: Also known as Page Proofs. The pages printed in the way that they will appear. An author will get one final chance to make minor revisions (FYI — I first wrote under the name Caridad Scordato because that’s what appeared on the galley and it was impossible to change it on so many pages!)

GMC: An abbreviation used for Goal, Motivation and Conflict.

GUIDELINES: Guidelines are the details of what a publisher wants to see for a particular imprint. For example, check out this section at Eharlequin.com where Harlequin provides the requirements, editor names and submission requirements for all their different lines.

HARDCOVER: The print format where the book is bound with a hard cover and generally sold for a higher price.

HEA: An abbreviation commonly used in the romance genre which is an abbreviation for HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

JOINT or BASKET ACCOUNTING: When the royalties for two books are lumped together. So, if Book #1 doesn’t EARN OUT, the sales of Book #2 will be applied toward the advance paid on Book #1. Definitely not a good thing and to be avoided at all costs.

MASS MARKET PAPERBACK: A smaller format book with a soft cover (see Trade Paperback below also).

OPTION: The clause in an author’s contract that grants the publisher the right of first refusal on the author’s next work. Publishers will like to get as broad an option clause as possible, while authors will like to limit the option to the next similar work, or the next women’s fiction book, etc.

PRINT RUN: Number of books being printed.

PROPOSAL: The work that you are submitting to an editor or agent for consideration. A proposal will generally consist of a synopsis and the first three chapters.

QUERY/QUERY LETTER: A letter introducing yourself and your work to an editor or agent. Look for a future article on the Dos and Don’ts of query letters.

REVISIONS: The editor’s requested changes to your proposal or manuscript.

SELL-THROUGH: Percentage of the shipped books that actually sell. Sell-through is really important. There is some disagreement, but in general, sell-throughs of about 50% are good, although some say publishers are looking for sell-throughs of 70% or higher.

STRIPPED BOOKS: When booksellers do not sell a book, they pull off the front cover and send it back to the publisher. Books sold without covers are “stripped books” and are the equivalent of stolen as they have been reported as unsold to the publisher.

SYNOPSIS: A short summary of your novel detailing the basic elements. Synopses can be anywhere from 2 pages to about 10 as a max. It all depends on the publisher and the genre.

TRADE PAPERBACK: A larger format with a soft cover, generally sold at a higher price than a mass market paperback, but at about half the price of a hard cover.

Friday night as I rushed to catch the train home, I noticed others scurrying about more madly than me.  The short, but cute, stubble-faced guy heading to the Amtrak ticket window as the speakers overhead crackled an “All aboard.”  The little old lady, barely 4’8”, dodging and weaving between the people in the crowd, her bob of silver hair bouncing beneath her shocking pink beret.  A quick swerve around the corner by the Krispy Kreme and she was almost gone, but the sweet smells of just fried dough lingered in her place while visions of sugar glazed donuts tempted me as they glimmered beneath the lights in the display case.

As the last bit of pink beret faded from sight, I thought, “It’s Friday night.  Maybe she has a hot date.”

But in New York City, where an escalator just means you can walk up the stairs even faster, rushing to somewhere is just a way of life.  Not that NYC is so different from many other places.  As a whole, our way of life seems to be rush, rush, rush.

We’re so busy rushing to somewhere that we’ve lost our to ability to experience the where we are, much less remember the where we’ve been sometimes.

It’s the old stop and smell the roses adage.

As a writer, you almost have to stop and smell the roses a great deal of the time because one of the greatest tools a writer can have is her power of observation.  The ability to remember the details of people, places and things.  It’s those little details that breathe life into our characters and stories.

Next time, stop and think about the scene that you are going to write.  Think about the smells in the air.  The feel of the location and the noises  (or lack of noises) that surround you.  What do you see as you stand there, experiencing the where you are?  Do you taste anything as you stand there?  Where had you been before and was it different?

The five senses, or as many of them as you can possibly include, need to be present in that scene to bring it alive for readers.  When you enhance the descriptions by infusing them with your personal observations, it brings a scene to life in a way that can’t be accomplished just by research.

If you’re a writer, stop rushing to somewhere and take the time to experience what’s around you.

For everyone else, stop and smell the roses anyway!  Time is too short to always be rushing to somewhere without savoring the here and now.

P.S. – Do you think that little old lady in the pink beret will ever make into a story?

This blog is especially for Melissa, who asked if I’d ever had a mojito and if they were good.

Yep, I’ve had a mojito or two.  I’m not much of a drinker, but mojitos are delicious.  They taste like a sweet lime-ade and because of that, they are deceptive.  It’s easy to have one too many because you don’t really taste the alcohol.

With winter upon so many of us, thinking of a sultry sexy South Beach night might be the thing to do to chase away the icy chill.  Maybe if you make yourselves a mojito, it will put you in a South Beach kind of mood!

Is South Beach as sexy and exciting as I make it seem in SEX AND THE SOUTH BEACH CHICAS? A big yeah!! I’ve been there about 4 or 5 times and am dying to go back.

Why? I remember a perfect night in South Beach many years ago. My husband, daughter and I were sitting in chairs on the veranda of the Park Central Hotel (a landmark by the way.) The Hale-Bopp comet was visible in the night sky and a balmy breeze was coming off the beach, rustling the palm trees. In front of us, all kinds of beautiful bodies ready for a night of partying passed by.

And I mean beautiful!! Of course, a rather interesting six foot transvestite also sashayed before us as well.

But those weren’t the most interesting sites. A full lunar eclipse was on its way. As we sat there, the moon went from its milky white to a dark maroon-grey color as the eclipse developed. It stopped everyone along the Ocean Drive strip — not an easy thing to do.

So, imagine the palms, sexy bodies and warmth when you make yourself one of these mojitos. FYI — if you don’t drink you can still skip the rum and it’s tasty and refreshing.

Mojito
(pronounce it ‘mo-hee-toe,’ and savor the flavor of  a night in South Beach!)

An easy mojito recipe to share with your friends:

1.5 oz white Rum
12 fresh spearmint leaves
1/2 lime
7 oz club soda
2 tbsp. simple sugar syrup
(or 4 tsp. sugar)

If you don’t have simple sugar syrup, place granulated sugar lime juice, rum and mint in cocktail shaker and shake until the sugar is dissolved.  Then add the club soda and garnish.

For flavor variants, try spiced and mango rums! I prefer the original though because the taste is refreshing and light.

Nope, I’m not procrastinating!  I did a lot of revisions and needed a break (especially since hubby refuses to say a word while the 24 premiere is on!)

So here it is!  Let me know what you think.

Articles by Paranormal Magazine 

A lot of you have been asking if THE CALLING series continues past the books that are out  — DEATH CALLS and DEVOTION CALLS –  and the answer is YES!

In April, you can read the DESIRE CALLS novella for free up at eharlequin.com.  I will let you know when the first chapter of it goes up.  They are putting up one chapter at a time.

In May, BLOOD CALLS will be released.  BLOOD CALLS features Diego, the Spanish Lord turned vampire, that you have met in earlier books.  The heroine, Ramona Escobar, is a painter who unwittingly becomes involved in an art fraud.  A sneak peek at one of their first encounters follows this blog!

In addition — cross your fingers — the proposal for another 3 books is sitting on my editor’s desk.

So here’s a question for you if you’ve read the earlier books:  What secondary characters would you like to come back as main characters in their own book?

Excerpt from BLOOD CALLS, May 2007, Silhouette Nocture

     As he had two days earlier, he stood before her paintings, admiring them.  Appreciating the sweep of her brush as it almost made love to the figures she had placed on the canvas.  The movement of the brush strokes so alive, that he found himself laying his fingertips against the image on the canvas as if to prove to himself that it wasn’t real.

     Ramona wondered what he was doing as he stood there, scrutinizing her artwork once more.

     When he picked up his hand and touched the canvas, she had to go see what had drawn him.  Feeling stronger thanks to the rest in the cab and the tea that had provided a boost to her flagging energy, she set the mug on the table and joined him.

     He brushed his fingertips along the line of the woman’s hip in the painting.  Slowly moved his hand upward along the slender sweep of her waist and within her, she imagined the motion of his hand against her body.  Imagined how it would be for him to touch her the way he caressed the woman in the canvas — the woman she had imagined herself to be, lost in the throes of a lover’s embrace.

     As he shifted his hand upward, over the shadow beneath the woman’s breast, she felt his energy beside her.  Sensed his growing desire and her own.

     When he looked at her, his ice blue eyes blazed with fire.  “Did you feel this way as you painted?”

     She had felt that way and more, she wanted to say, but couldn’t confess that with each stroke of the brush, she had imagined it was them together.

     “No,” she said, but he faced her and laying a hand at her waist, said “Liar.”

     He bent from his larger height, but she was already meeting him halfway, wanting to experience him if only for this one moment.  A moment that had sprung from nowhere but was not to be missed.

     His lips were a bit cold, but wonderfully soft on hers.  Exploring as he sampled the edges of her lips with his and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close.

     The body she had admired from afar was much like she had imagined.  Big.  Strong.  Hard.

     He was so hard beneath her hands as she grabbed hold of his shoulders.  Hard against the flatness of her belly as he swept his arm beneath her buttocks and tightened his embrace.

     She moaned at the thought of that hardness within her.  Of his big body urging her downward into the giving softness of the bed that was just at the other side of the loft.

     The sound of her need and the press of her small body jolted Diego from the enjoyment of her response.

     As right as it felt — as she felt in his arms — this was so wrong, he thought and slowly eased away from her.

I am sooooo sorry for the tardiness of all of my fashion Fridays. I have been doing a lot and sometimes it skips my mind and then on Fridays I get home too late to type up anything and I just fall asleep. But I promise to be more on top of things next week.

So this week I want to talk about t-shirts.

I love the funny one liners on some shirts. Some obviously are not meant for school or at work but others are just too funny you have to laugh.

There is this slogan on the shirt

And this one:

 

You can get these and a lot of other funny ones at Cottonfactory.com. The t-shirts are $15.00. That is an amazing price!

If you have t-shirts that maybe don’t fit or you don’t like certain aspects of it, there is a book:  Generation t:  108 ways to transform a t-shirt.

They even create a wedding dress. So I give T-shirts a YAY!!!!

Let me preface this with, I’m far from any kind of expert on Santeria. My exposure to it is because as a Cuban, santeria was something that everyone knew about. Even my parents and grandparents, devout Catholics that they were, would do things that I later recognized as being tied to Santeria beliefs.

What kinds of things? Well, the first thing you saw in my house was the statue of the Virgencita de la Caridad.

Who’s that? you might ask. Caridad del Cobre was an apparition of the Virgin Mary in Cobre bay. Our Lady of Caridad (or Charity) is also the Patron Saint of Cuba and my patron saint.

Anyway, on special days, the parents and grandparents would leave sweets or bring flowers to the Virgencita, much like you see Ricardo doing in DEVOTION CALLS as a way to honor the beliefs of those people who think he is a santero. I think those actions were a natural blending of their Christian beliefs with those of the Afro-Cuban santeria religion that was practiced in Cuba.

What’s a santero? It’s someone who is a priest in the Santeria religion. Santeros learn their practices orally from another santero.

What’s Santeria? As I said, I’m no expert. I researched the subject for the book and included what I could from my personal experiences in visiting an occasional botanica in NY, NJ or Miami. We sometimes went to get a statue or medal of La Virgencita Caridad for a new baby or home as the Virgencita was always with us.

What’s a botanica? It’s a place where you can acquire religious objects and other things, including what you may need to practice Santeria.

For a little more on this, including some links to other sites that explain Santeria, you can visit the Ricardo’s Botanica page at the new site we are developing.

As the mother of any teenager will understand, getting a teen to function before noon is a nearly impossible task.

So, Fashion Fridays by Sammie will be Fashionably Late! Hopefully we’ll get her report on the latest things of interest in the fashion world up by later today.

Before I get to characters of the heart, just a few quick things.
1. I gained back a pound as you can see from the progress meter on the right hand side of the blog. Must be all that muscle I’m building on the treadmill and bike since I’ve been a good girl.
2. Speaking of good, check out the Entenmann’s Little Bites Fudge Brownies. A bag is 100 calories of delicious chocolatey goodness — but you’ve got to stop at just one bag because they are so good!
3. If you want to subscribe to the blog, just click on one of the buttons at the bottom right of the blog and you can add the blog to your personalized browser page. It works great.

Finally, 4. Thanks for your comments. I don’t normally reply on the blog itself as I like to reply to each person personally and if they want, continue the conversation. If you’d rather that I did it on the blog, please let me know.

Okay, characters of the heart. Diana Reyes and Ryder Latimer (DARKNESS CALLS, DEATH CALLS). Definitely special to me. Tori , Sylvia and Virginia from the Chicas books. Also sharing a place there. Your heart can never be too crowded with people you love.

Yes, I called them people because when you’ve been involved with them for so long, they almost become real which is why it’s so hard to think about letting them go . . . eventually.

Ryder is special because he represents so many different things. Eternal love. Strength. Honor. Caring. He was always a special character from the moment he came to life in my head.

Diana has many of the same traits, but she’s wounded and troubled. I wanted to find a way to make her whole and hence THE CALLING was created because even though each story is about different characters, in my mind, each story also takes Diana a step closer to becoming whole.

If you want to see how I originally pictured Diana and Ryder, you can click here for a sneak peek at some scenes that were either deleted or changed in DARKNESS CALLS. Once you visit there, you can also check out a slightly more intense scene that was changed in DEATH CALLS.

Much as Diana and Ryder represent the darkest aspects in my heart, Tori, Sylvia and Virginia are the light. The yin and yang of me.

Why Tori? Deep dark secret time here . . . She’s the one who is most like me in real life. Responsible. Dependable. Demanding of herself, but with a good heart and lots of buried passion (I luckily can release that passion through my writing!)

Sylvia and Virginia! I am so excited that their story will be coming out in September of this year. The tentative title for the book is SOUTH BEACH CHICAS CATCH THEIR MAN, but this book is so much more than a story about two women finally finding love. It’s a story about a headstrong and temptestuous daughter, Sylvia, who has a successful and sexy mom, Virginia.

The relationship between mother and daughter is special and it’s very similar to the relationship I had with my mom and which I know I’ve created with my daughter.

I also wanted to show that women in their forties are still sensual and desirable, especially since 40 is the new 20!

Do you have any characters you’ve fallen in love like that? (And it’s okay if they’re not in one of my books!) Let us know who and why?

Do you believe in life energies and otherworldly things? In alternative treatments for illnesses?

I don’t know what made me choose such topics for DEVOTION CALLS, or maybe I do. When my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer (and a big KEEP IT UP for all of you who had New Year’s resolutions to quit smoking), we followed all the regular avenues for treatment.

Since then I’ve asked myself, were there others to try . . .

So, Life Energies? Are there such things?

In DEVOTION CALLS, Ricardo Fernandez has learned to augment the gift he was born with — the gift to heal or kill — by using certain meditation techniques. Research showed me what kinds of things people said they experienced in such states and from there, Ricardo’s experiences were born.

Alternative Treatments?

Much like I must have felt, Sara Martinez is willing to try anything to save her mother and so she visits Ricardo and relies on his powers.

So do they work? What do you think?

I know this — I do believe that prayer and meditation can accomplish things if the will is strong enough. If love is present. If you have read DEVOTION CALLS, you know what I’m talking about. If you know the scene to which I’m referring, let me know what you thought.

So, I guess I’m warning you all that there could be spoilers in the comments to this post, but they will not ruin the mystery in the story involving the chupacabra. They will, however, maybe give you something to think about.

As for the procrastination and all your comments to JUST DO IT! Okay, I am (and have been) hard at work on multiple sets of revisions. Right now I’m deep into the last of them which I hope to have ready within a week or two.

But even I need a little break and so while watching HOUSE last night (yes, I do watch TV and work at the same time), I took some of your suggestions and fixed the trailer I had done. Here’s the new one:

I am so excited that CATALINA magazine picked DEATH CALLS as the Top Fantasy Book of 2006! Thanks to CATALINA and all the members of the online CATALINA book club.

It’s an awesome club and totally free! Plus, you can chat with the authors of the books for an entire month. Where else can you do that? To join, you can either sign up at http://catalinamagazine.com/book.htm or send an e-mail to Rosa@catalinamagazine.com.

I’m also excited that so many of your recent comments have said that you would like to see more of Diana and Ryder’s story.

You will see more of it in DEVOTION CALLS and as well, in later books. I had hoped to do yet another complete book with Diana and Ryder (#9), but we will have to wait and see what happens with the proposal which as we speak, is with the editor.

As for DEVOTION CALLS and how it impacts on Diana and Ryder’s story, the hero — Ricardo Fernandez — is a psychic healer and that power has a good side and a dark side. It also allows him to sense things about people, particularly illness.

Ricardo’s power will lead to an interesting development with Diana, but I won’t spill the beans and please, if you know already, don’t post a spoiler!! But I intentionally developed the next six books in the series with the continuing story arc revolving around what happened to Diana at the end of DEATH CALLS.

I did that because I thought that all of you would like that Diana mystery to slowly build from book to book. When will that mystery be resolved?

Look for more hopefully in book 9 of the series, although in each of the books coming up, you will get more and more hints as to what is happening with my absolute favorite character (if you hadn’t already guessed!)

Let me know what you think of this or whether you would rather know all at once.

Also, let me know what you think about Sara Martinez, the heroine from DEVOTION CALLS. When she first appeared in DANGER CALLS, there was something about her spunkiness and devotion to Melissa Danvers that said to me Sara had to have her own book.

If you want to know more about Sara, take a sneak peek at the new THE CALLING site we are developing by clicking here!

Okay, so here it is again! I’d love your comments on it. There’s a few sections I’m thinking of changing — like the two sections (NYC and graveyard) so that the background isn’t as busy. What do you think?

If you cannot see the video below, then click here to see it at Youtube:

What do you do when you have tons of things you should be doing, but don’t want to do any of them?

You create a video trailer! A first for me, but I think it came out pretty well.

Click here to see the video trailer for THE CALLING vampire novels at Youtube.

We’ll soon be launching a special site for THE CALLING and I’ll be sure to let you know when that happens.

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