Countdown to Cindy Dees Workshop

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

I'm so psyched. Today I mailed off my check for Florida Romance Writers' Super Saturday. It will be an all day workshop on 9/16/06 put on by none other than my fellow Madonna Key cohort Cindy Dees. The stories she tells of her service in the Air Force are alone worth the price of attending her workshop, but she's such a fabulous writer. If anyone is interested in attending, the application and information can be found under the tab 'workshops' at the chapter's website:

http://www.frwriters.org Below is the MK group shot from RT in Daytona Beach. Cindy's on the left along with Lorna Tedder, myself and Evelyn Vaughn. :)Carol

Nice chat with my editor

Monday, August 21, 2006

I had a good chat with my editor today. She's a sweetie and it was comforting to speak with her after having Bombshell pulled from underneath me last week. My editor's stoked about a new series I proposed so slowly I'm drifting back into writing. I did relax over the weekend, taking lovely naps. However, I also picked up a few books from the line I'm targeting and indulged in a little reading. I have to admit, though, I ended up returning to my tried and true Nora Robert's books. I always loved the MacKade Brothers series so I read bad boy Rafe cover to cover. So things are good. I promised myself a decent break to recover from my last book, but one week from writing and my fingers are twitching. Below is a picture of my critique partner Linda Conrad and myself at the Harlequin party at RWA in Atlanta. We were are the Ritz Carlton with the theme 'Putting on the Ritz'. I did a Fred Astaire. :) Carol

WHEEE!!!!!!! BENJY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Well, after a not so great week, a bright note. My man Benjy won So You Think You Can Dance! I'm so thrilled. I would love to see him in the movies at some point. What a great performer. :) Carol

The End of Bombshell

Even though I suspected the writing was on the wall for this wonderful line, it was still a stomach punch on Monday [8/14] to get the news that Harlequin was ceasing its publication after January 2007. This particularly hurt when I had just about killed myself to get COURTING DISASTER turned in by my deadline...Monday, 8/14. The one bright note is HQ is reverting the rights to my primary characters in the Courting series so I can market them elsewhere, and my wonderful agent sprang into immediate action on Monday to do so. Much has been written about the failure of HQ to market this line correctly so I won't beat a dead horse. The marketing sucked 10-year-old rotten eggs. But first and foremost, I'm a storyteller. Where one line ceases, another begins or exists. While I was out of town for my day job, I came up with another legal concept for the newly emerging Silhouette Romantic Suspense line so we'll see if that flies. If it doesn't, I have a thousand other ideas. I'll keep writing because I cannot 'not' write. :) Carol

Update on Carol

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Maddie here. My human Carol is in a state of complete collapse. She had a 8/14 deadline and mailed off her completed book yesterday. Good girl. She always meets her deadlines. I gave her an extra lick for a job well done. However, she can't rest too long as she has to turn in a revised proposal by 9/1 so she'll be diving back into writing by mid-week. Today she did take time to give me another swimming lesson. She heard about dogs accidentally getting in pools and then not being to find their way out so she takes me to different areas of the pool and lets me swim to the steps. As a lion dog, I don't really care for the swimming or the bath part afterwards, but I know she loves me and is doing these lessons for my own good. Bark at you later. Carol's heating up pizza and I want to make sure I get my fair share. Maddie

Our Generation's Definition of Cowardness...

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Al Qaeda. Wusses who don't have a molecule of moral decency; hell would probably spit them out as being even too despicable for the devil. The old-fashioned punishment of drawing and quartering would be too good for them. Since they like airplanes so much, I think taking them up as high as a jet can go and then pushing them out without a parachute would be lovely. Carol

Maggie Finalist!!!!

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

I got the call tonight from Georgia Romance Writers that COURTING DANGER is a Maggie finalist in the long contemporary category. This contest is always special to me as it was my first win as an unpublished writer. I won the inaugural Maggie in Paranormal, Futuristic in 1996. That win led to my landing my super agent Roberta Brown. Speaking of which...here is a shot of Roberta and me at the RWA conference in Atlanta. :) Carol