Dear Diary: Reader Mail

Before I get into today's post, I have an update from yesterday. We broke the news to Brandy that her under-the-bed office is shutting down, since our new bed will have drawers and not provide access to her favorite hideout. Later in the evening, I went into my room and noticed Brandy had barfed on the bed, which has never happened before in the two years she's lived with us. And they say animals don't understand English? Mine does! I've always thought so, and now I have proof. She's pissed, and she's letting us know it!

Yesterday was a really good writing day that took me up to 41,000 words on Hoping for Love. Things are heating up between Grace and Evan, but he's about to do something he'll regret for some time to come. Can't wait to dive back into their story! I mentioned this yesterday to some of my readers, but I thought it would be fun to bring it up here too: I hate writing love scenes. In fact, I hate writing them so much that it takes me a day or two to "recover" before I can go back and re-read what I wrote. My readers tell me they like my love scenes, which I really appreciate, but they do give me grief! What's funny is, like the act itself, when it's going well, I can tell. Everything is firing on all cylinders (literally—LOL) and it's "coming together" the way it's supposed to. Okay, enough with the puns. You get the picture!

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about my readers. I've been blessed to encounter the nicest, friendliest, most supportive group of readers. We are having BIG FUN over at Marie Force Book Talk where we now have 95 members, and we're growing every day. I really enjoy being able to hang out with my reader friends on a daily basis. Our Falling for Love Readers Group is now up to 75 members, and you're welcome to join us after you've read the book since there are spoilers galore in the individual book groups. We have groups for each of my books as well as the McCarthys of Gansett Island Series and the Fatal Series. Anyone is welcome to join, so come on down! For a full listing of all the reader groups, visit my Facebook page. They are listed under "Info."

In addition to all the fun we have on the groups, I receive such lovely email from readers after each new release. Here is a sampling of what readers are saying about Falling for Love:

Naomi wrote:

This book had so much going on that it kept me so excited the whole time. And I loved it when you left so much possibility for at least 2 or 3 more books! I can't wait to find out about Owen/Laura. I loved the banter between Grant and Stephanie.  Gals with attitude are always great! And love scenes were very steamy, yet really tasteful.  I enjoyed reading it.

Anyway, I enjoyed every word.  There is so much hope for more stories!  I love it! I can't wait to read Evan's story, as well as Adam, Owen and maybe Doctor David?!?! Now, I'm getting myself ready for another Fatal series!  I've already pre-ordered it. So while I wait, I'm reading Love at First Flight once again! Thanks for all the books you write.  You make me laugh/cry and make my day a lot more enjoyable!

Anna wrote:

Just finished Falling For Love, and it was sooooo good!! I loved it!! I am so glad that there is more to come. You are amazing, and you have such a gift for writing. You blow me away every time with your books, and I am always left wanting more. Thank you for all your hard work in writing such excellent books!!!!!

Jill wrote:

I have just finished reading Falling for Love which I only found online yesterday...don't know how I missed it  and as usual absolutely loved it. I am pleased to hear that you are now writing full time as this means not only more books  but more often as well....A win win situation....Can't wait. Best wishes for a long and happy career.

Rhonda wrote:

You've done it again!!!! I couldn't put this book down! It killed me to have to work today and not sit at home to read!!! You're writing really makes me feel like I'm right there in the story with them. You truly have a amazing gift! And I loved the first glimpse of Evan's book. 

Karen wrote:

I then decided to try your McCarthy series and have been consuming them like a crazy woman. I read Maid for Love and Fool for love within two days and I'm hooked. I just started Luke & Sydney's story and was so happy to see that I have Falling for Love waiting for me once I finish Ready for Love. I cannot wait to hear more about my favorite couples, Maddie & Mac, Janey & Joe and the rest of the family. I just read your blog and found out that you're now a full time author. Congrats! I promise to keep you in business and will look forward to reading more of your books. 

Alyson wrote:

Picked up the McCarthy series & I swear to you, a marching band could have gone thru my bedroom & i'd have been none the wiser. My mom RAVES about the Fatal series, but I'm going to have to wait till the last one comes out so that I can have a marathon. Write faster! You're fabulous. :)

Now you see why I love my readers. Thanks to every one of you for making my new life as a full-time author possible. If you keep reading, I'll keep writing. Deal?

Dear Diary: What Weekend?

Another weekend has flown by in the blink of an eye leaving me to wonder what happened to the last two days. We spent some time on a snowy Saturday getting ready for the next phase of our home renovation project. Our new king-sized bed arrives tomorrow. I ordered it online and "some assembly required" has Dan up in arms about just how much assembly may be required. We went with a storage bed with drawers underneath since we have a small room and can use all the storage space we can get. Brandy the dog will be bummed to lose her under-the-bed "office" hideout, but it's her fault we needed the bigger bed. She insists on sleeping with us and is a huge bed hog! We're also sacrificing bedside tables for a bookshelf headboard. Can't wait to see it all put together, but tonight we get to move everything out of our room. Our current bed is going to the guest room downstairs, so that's where we'll be sleeping until the new bed is put together. Good times! More upheaval! Can't wait to be done! My goal was to have it mostly done by the end of January. We may make that goal. We'll see!

Yesterday, I spent a big chunk of the day on the odious task of paperwork. Where does it all COME FROM? It piles up in my kitchen until it starts to avalanche and I have no choice but to deal with it. There's personal stuff and business stuff and kid stuff galore. I caught up my business checking account and tax deduction spreadsheet that I let go for a staggering amount of time and then I am left to piece my recent life back together so it makes sense to the accountant. When the check register says "PayPal," something else has to go with that transaction. Thus a trip through the PayPal history is required. Are you seeing why this process always gives me a headache? New Year's Resolution (it's not too late to make them, is it?): Keep track of expenses and deductions AS THEY HAPPEN rather than weeks later. If that actually happens, I'll be shocked. But I will try...

Also yesterday, I got to see my son score a point in hockey and then get into a scuffle with another player that involved the use of their hockey sticks in an unauthorized manner (AKA stick to body). Dan and I were shocked that Jake took a swing at another kid with his stick, because that is soooooo not like him. He says he was provoked. We say if he does it again he won't play anymore. Sheesh! This isn't the NHL, boys!

Watching the New England Patriots earn another visit to the Super Bowl was a highlight of the weekend. The game was sooooo stressful! Can you tell me why I care so much? I'm not much of a fan until things get interesting at the end (sort of the same way I am about the Bachelor—talk to me the last three weeks. Before that, who cares?). However, I'm ALWAYS a fan of Tom Brady who is just too cute for words. He's not only the best quarterback of his generation, but he's a gentleman and not afraid to say he played terribly in a playoff game in which he didn't throw for a single touchdown. I like that about him. He takes the blame when it's his fault. There's not a prima dona bone in his body, at least not that he shows us. We're hoping for a different outcome than we got in the 2007 Super Bowl face off with the Giants, a win for NY that my son still calls "cheap." (One of his favorite words.)

Over the course of this weekend, I also did a re-read of what I've written in Hoping for Love so far (good news, I don't hate it) and laid out the print version of True North while I watched the game. That will be coming soon to Amazon! I'm trying not to put pressure on myself to write on the weekends, but I'm certainly using that time for other business-related matters. Here's another New Year's Resolution (I really hope it isn't too late): Take a day off every now and then. What must that be like? I can't remember!

Have a good Monday!

Dear Diary: It's Finally Snowing!

Our snow-free winter is no longer, which is good news in one way: It forces my husband to take a day off from talking about global warming. He's been "on fire" on that subject during our unusually warm fall and winter. As one who grew up in Rhode Island, I've tried to tell him it's always been this way. Some winters we're hit by one snow storm after another and others are relatively snow-free. I blame the lack of snow up to this point on him. After nine winters of shoveling our long driveway, he finally bought a tractor with a plow last fall. That all but guarantees several snow-free winters, right? The used tractor sounds like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with the emphasis on BANG BANG. It backfires. Loudly. After which he is usually heard to say, "Oh, shit!" The kids and I listen for the bang and laugh at his reaction. We also make sure the windows are closed to keep Chitty's fumes from overtaking us, which nearly happened last fall! The bad news about the snow is that I have to drive in it, which I hate.

So back to business! Yesterday was a productive day in the writer land. I got quite a bit done on Hoping for Love, had a good talk with my agent, Kevan Lyon, about the Fatal Series and some other things that I hope will come to fruition soon. A lot of people ask me why I still need an agent when I'm doing pretty well as an independent author. Well, for one thing Kevan represents me on the ongoing Fatal Series and has been very helpful in dealing with a number of things on that front. She keeps her eye out for potential opportunities for me and helps to decipher the always-perplexing royalty statements I receive from two different publishers. We've been together for three-and-a-half years and have always had a great relationship. Is our partnership different now than it was before last year? Yes, it is. However, I have to say that from the day I first told her I planned to self-publish some of my unsold books Kevan has never been anything but supportive of my endeavors. She sees the big picture. Any progress I make on my own will be beneficial to the books I have with her, too. She "gets it," which is why I'm glad she's still my agent.

I made it to the gym yesterday for the first time all week, and today I can barely move. Next week, I aim to go three times so I can get back into a regular routine. We'll see how that goes. Hubby's company holiday party is tonight. They always do it in January, which is actually nice. December is way too busy, so we're glad to not have to add another obligation to the schedule. We're just wondering if the party will be snowed out! We'll see!

Hope you're having a great Saturday!

Dear Diary: How Did I Ever Fit a Job Into This Life?

(Note the addition of Fatal Flaw to the banner above...)

Back in the day, TGIF used to be one of my favorite sayings. I was always thanking God for Friday. These days, every day is Friday because the next day, I get to do what I most want to do: WRITE! Happy dancing all around! As the third week of "new life" comes to an end, I'm already wondering how I ever managed to fit a day job into my hectic schedule. Here's how yesterday went...

7 a.m. Wake up and see off the kids and hubby, snuggle with Brandy, take care of some e-mail, write a blog, do some Facebooking and tweeting.

8 a.m. Plug in the backup hard drive I bought last week to fully back up my hard drive for the very first time. As 1.3 million items made their way onto this tiny device, I gave some considerable thought to producing a TV show for computer horders. For surely I must be one with 1.3 MILLION items on my laptop.

9 a.m. Talk to my dad, who is in Florida for two months, for half an hour. As my self-appointed director of productivity, he wants daily reports on what we're up to in the office. At the moment he called, Brandy and I were having our second snuggle of the day. Shhhh, don't tell him! He'll be so jealous. Brandy is the one he misses most when he's away.

9:30 am Open HOPING FOR LOVE and get to work. Wrote 2,500 words over the course of the day that came rather easily, which is always nice. Things are heating up between Evan and Grace!

10:30 am Admitted the carpet guy, who was back for a third day to do the upstairs. Had a freakout when I saw the carpet going in because, as feared, it's way too light for the high-traffic area. Reminded myself that it's really a very small area we carpeted (hallway and dining room), so if it doesn't work, we'll live with it for a while and then redo it. Why sweat the small stuff, right?

Moved downstairs with Brandy and her food for the rest of the day. The new carpet smell from the recently installed basement carpet gave me a headache, but I kept working as the hard drive kept moving 1.3 MILLION files. The laptop got kinda hot during the big transfer, which made me hot as I toiled away in the COLD basement.

11 am Call from a close friend who just realized HER boat is on the cover of my book READY FOR LOVE. Now how crazy is that? Seriously....

Noon Got a text from a friend that led to a 90-minute catch-up lunch with many laughs. We sat in the sun at lunch so I would get some photosynthesis. You gotta kill two birds whenever you can.

2 pm Rushed home to be here when the high school girl got home since there was a guy working in the house. Now I've got a dog and a teenager in the room with me while I'm trying to work. She buried herself in the iPad for a while, so that was great until the carpet guy started on the basement stairs, quickly driving us out of the room with the banging. Upstairs we go with computers, backup hard drives, backpacks, dog bowls. Are you getting the picture? We were refugees in our own house! Yet I still wrote 2,500 words. (Just needed to get that in there again in case you were thinking TOTAL SLACKER at this point...)

3 pm Wondering where the boy is. No bus, no call from him that he is staying after school for something. At 3:10 I call the school to see if he stayed after. They haven't seen him. The heart begins to do that funny little pounding thing it does whenever something isn't right with one of my kids. I wait on hold while the school pages him to see if he is in the school, never realizing that the WHOLE TIME I AM ON THE PHONE I AM LOOKING AT HIS BACKPACK sitting on my kitchen table with the ballcap he wears every day resting on top of it. Being the good boy he is, he scooted around the carpet guy, into his room and out of the way. He missed the, "Hey, Mom, I'm home" part of the program. He was in his room the whole time I was organizing a search party. Mother of the Year nominee, at your service! Apparently, he called downstairs to tell me he was home RIGHT at the exact moment his sister and I were walking around the house to come in the front door. You gotta laugh. After you find the kid, that is...

4 pm Phone call from an old friend, lots of laughs.

5 pm Hubby is home, time to move all the dining room furniture back to where it belongs. Sweat, grunt, sweat, argue a little...

6 pm Get everyone fed. Decided the carpet doesn't suck after all. Phew. Carpet guy tells me he handles a customer freakout at least once a week. Apparently, buyer's remorse is common in the carpet business. Who knew?

7 pm Leave for daughter's swim meet one town over. Pools are insanely loud, hot and smelly during swim meets. Bleachers make you back and butt scream for mercy. Seeing your kid whipping down that lane, graceful and smooth through the water: Priceless.

10 pm Return home from swim meet, watch American Idol, Grey's Anatomy (the scene between Richard and Adele was one of the most moving things I've ever seen on that show) and go to bed to read How the Marquess Was Won by Julie Anne Long, which I am absolutely LOVING.

11:30 pm Lights out.

How did I fit a job into this life? Can you tell me that? The morale of the story is this: MORE writing. LESS of everything else.

I forgot to mention one other really cool thing that happened earlier this week. Years ago, when I was first writing books, I started referring to my writing journey as the "House That Jack Built." You've probably read the story on my website (if not, here it is). I always said that if I ever incorporated a business around my writing, it would be HTJB, Inc. Well, this week, HTJB, Inc. is becoming a reality at the advice of my accountant and attorney. While it may seem like a big pile of paperwork, which it is, underneath it all it's another bit of the dream coming true, and it needs to be celebrated as such. So, here's to HTJB, Inc. You've been a long time coming!

Dear Diary

So much for my big plan to post every day. I totally blew off day 2! That's an auspicious start! Yesterday was a productive day with another 2,000 words in the bank on Hoping for Love, more promo work on Falling for Love and (shocker) MORE work on the website from hell. I also registered for the Romance Writers of America Conference in Anaheim, CA. I'm really looking forward to the three conferences I have coming up:

• PASIC (Published Author Special Interest Chapter) in New York City on March 8-10 (I'm on a self-pub panel)
• New England Chapter Conference in Salem, MA, April 27-28. I'm the Saturday luncheon speaker (gulp)
• RWA in Anaheim from July 25-28 (I'm organizing a reader dinner on July 25 after the literacy signing if anyone is interested in joining us.)

I'd love to connect with nearby readers at any of these events, so let me know if you are interested in getting together.

Today I'm hoping to get a lot of writing done, but the carpet and tile guy is back for another two-day engagement that has my house turned upside down AGAIN. So I'll do what I can!

Oh and this AM I was invited on a local TV show, the Rhode Show, which is Rhode Island's equivalent of the Today show. I have to be in Providence at 8:30 a.m. for this engagement. I predict getting up at 4 a.m. to make myself presentable!

Finally, I'm celebrating the very good showing Falling for Love has had on Barnes & Noble, where it was ranked no. 71 overall this morning. That is very exciting! It's doing well on Amazon, too, with a good placement on the contemporary romance bestseller's list. Thank you to my lovely readers for making this possible!

Off to write! Have a great day!
xoxo