Dead Girls Are Easy... and they ROCK!!!

The Lesser of Two Evils

I've been fascinated lately by the concept of choices, so that's what I'm guest blogging about today over at WRITERS AT PLAY.

Come on over and read some hypothetical questions about possible moral dilemmas, and then make your choice between the lesser of two evils. You could win a gift certificate for a free e-book!

What I Love About Florida

Individuality is encouraged...














and so is proper footwear...




















It's the only place where your mail comes via dolphin,



















grouper,

















or pelican.


















Oh, who am I kidding? THIS is why I love Florida, baby!















Vacation was over too soon...

I've Been "Examined"

During the booksigning at Borders last week, I met a lovely woman named Julianne Draper, who is a reporter for The Examiner. She interviewed all the authors who were signing, and wrote a great article called "Romancing South Tampa", which you can read HERE.

(There was a reporter from the Tampa Tribune at the signing as well, who's promised to keep us posted on his article. He taped several of us reading aloud from our books, and I must say, it was a bit odd to be reading sexy scenes I'd written myself out loud to a man I didn't know!) :-)

Anyway, hope you enjoy Julianne's article!

Good News and Good Times At Borders

Times are tough these days, aren't they? The economy's down, unemployment's up, and most of us have had to do some belt-tightening of one type or the other - fewer dinners out, fewer vacations, fewer trips to the mall or the movies. Many consumers have given up everything that might even be considered a luxury, except for the those they consider the most important, like books. Yes, book sales are up, and consistently rising, according to Sue Grimshaw, corporate romance buyer for Borders - romance more so than other genres! Yay!

I spent a fun and fascinating day this past Saturday, listening to Sue talk books during a chapter meeting at Tampa Area Romance Authors. She led a lively question and answer session about what's selling and why, the importance of covers, trends, publisher support, promotional efforts, reviews, cover quotes, and reader shopping habits (all before lunch!). It seems that readers can't get enough of paranormals, romantic suspense, "soft" romance centering on small towns and women's issues, and historicals are once again on the rise. Great news for us writers, and hopefully great news for our readers.

All this industry talk was followed by a field trip to our local Borders, where Sue walked us through the how's and why's of bookstore placement and displays. Here she is on the far right, posing with Mart Sadler (the local Borders General Manager), TARA president Vicki Lane, author Kathy Carmichael, and Borders employee extraordinaire, Gypsie (in black). Why is Gypsie so extraordinary? Because she and Mart not only hosted our entire chapter (approx. 40 excited, chattering, giggling women) in their store at one time, but she put together a group signing for ten different TARA authors afterward (here we are in the photo below). She promoted the heck out of us beforehand, too, and we all got chocolate chip cookies! Woohoo! :-) A great time was had by all - we came, we signed, we conquered - and we all came away with a much better idea of what goes on behind the scenes of a major bookseller like Borders.

And did I mention the cookies? :-) Give a writer a chocolate chip cookie and you've got a friend for life!

Thanks so much to Sue, Mart and Gypsie!

Signing Books in South Tampa

Join me this Saturday, June 13th, at the S. Tampa Borders at 909 N. Dale Mabry!

I'll be signing books along with NYT best-sellers Karen Rose, Virginia Henley and Joan Johnston, USA Today best-sellers Alyssa Day, Julie Leto and Roxanne St. Claire and several other fabulous authors who'd love to make your summer just a bit more cool. :-)

If you can't find a book you'd like to read among this bunch, then there's simply no pleasing you!

Seriously, it'll be fun. We're being joined by Borders executive and corporate buyer, Susan Grimshaw, and I'm looking forward to seeing my sweet friend, Gypsie, who works at the store. This particular Borders is my local hangout - the moment you walk in and smell that fabulous coffee, you'll know why. :-)

My son even worked there for a while, but now Mom makes him crack the books in college instead of the bookstore!

Hope to see you there!

DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY Inspires a Goth/Rock Single and Video by The 69 Eyes

One of the best things about being an author is that sometimes the coolest things can happen, right out of the blue!

A few months ago, one of my friends recommended I check out a Finnish "goth n' roll" band called The 69 Eyes, also known as the Helsinki Vampires. I watched their videos, listened to their music, and thought they were pretty freakin' awesome! So, I "friended" them on MySpace, and immediately got this really nice email from Jyrki, their lead singer:

Did I tell you - can't remember...But wait till the next 69 Eyes album comes out, you'll see which book of yours inspired me the most...Let's keep in touch!

From Helsinki,
Jyrki69

And then guess what I saw this morning:

The 69 Eyes will release their new album "Back In Blood" in September, 2009. The album is produced by American, Grammy awarded producer Matt Hyde (Slayer, Monster Magnet). The album was recorded in Los Angeles, USA during the spring. "This record rocks ten times harder than anything The 69 Eyes have previously done!" says the producer. "It's like when Rick Rubin helped The Cult discover themselves on ‘Electric' - we made a similar spiritual journey with Matt," continues the vocalist Jyrki69.

The first single cut will be the hard & dark rocking "Dead Girls Are Easy" of which the band will shoot a video with Bam Margera as a director. The MTV skate superstar has earlier directed the band's classic video of their anthem "Lost Boys".

Can you believe it? I cannot WAIT to hear this song and watch this video!

And they're such nice, clean-cut guys, too. :-)