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.
Here’s Elsie and me at the the annual NJ Romance Writers Booksellers Luncheon. If you’re a bookseller in the area and would like to attend, please visit the website and contact the President or PAN Liaison. Their e-mails are right on the site.
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:
Caren Johnson recently began her own literary agency, Caren Johnson Literary Agency. She began her agenting career four and a half years ago when she started an internship at Peter Rubie Literary Agency. She stayed at the agency for three years, the first year as an intern and two years as an agent. She then left to join Nadia Cornier at Firebrand Literary where she stayed for a year. She recently made the switch to agenting on her own so she could work more closely with her authors in building their careers. She would like well organized, well crafted stories in the areas of romance (particularly romantic comedy in the vein of Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jenny Cruisie and Kelley St. John; and historical in the vein of Susan Carroll, Diana Gabaldon, and Lauren Willig—high concept only please!), Teen fiction (in the vein of Caridad Ferrer/ Adios to My Old Life, Scott Westerfeld/ Uglies Trilogy) and commercial fiction (in the vein of Christopher Moore/A Dirty Job, Carl Hiaassen/ Nature Girl). For the moment she’s full up with wonderful paranormal romance (Caridad Pineiro, Lee Roland) and romantic suspense (Caridad Pineiro, Dianna Love Snell) authors so if an author submits in this genre, she will be more critical than she normally is. She is only accepting queries via email so send to [email protected].
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:
Originally from LaGrange, Georgia, Stacy Boyd is a voracious reader who turned her love of stories into a degree in studying people (aka, cultural anthropology) from New College of Florida. She’s been with Harlequin Enterprises since 2001 and has edited for both Harlequin and Silhouette series romance as well as for the LUNA Books trade imprint. She’s the winner of the 2004 PASIC Editor of Merit award, and her author base consists of many talented writers, including a New York Times bestseller, a Nebula Award winner, RITA nominees and Waldenbooks bestsellers. She currently lives in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC, with her husband and son.
I read “My Stroke of Insight” in one sitting – I couldn’t put it down. I laughed. I cried. It was a fantastic book (I heard it’s a NYTimes Bestseller and I can see why!), but I also think it will be the start of a new, transformative Movement! No one wants to have a stroke as Jill Bolte Taylor did, but her experience can teach us all how to live better lives. Her TED.com speech was one of the most incredibly moving, stimulating, wonderful videos I’ve ever seen. Her Oprah Soul Series interviews were fascinating. They should make a movie of her life so everyone sees it. This is the Real Deal and gives me hope for humanity.
Caridad, it’s so nice to see a picture of you! I’d love to meet you at a booksigning. There are some pics. of me with Kate Douglas at the RT convention in Daytona on the RT website.
Do you go to lots of book signings. I usually go to several a year. I live in al. And I’ve been to Ohio and Tampa Fl to signings. I loved ohio Lori Foster has a reader writer gettogether and there are lots o different types of authors and readers there.
Hi Cari! Love the shot of you and the skulls. Thanks for posting the pictures. See you at “Spring Fling”.
I was just checking out your site and I love that you have so many different things to read through. I also like that you try to get to know your fans better. I’m not sure I’ve ever got to talk to an author, but I’d like to hear how you got into writing. My mother and I are trying to write some books, like a series and I was just wondering how we would go about getting them published when they were done. Hope to hear from you. Priscilla