WHAT’S NEW JULY 2010

A new book! I've been promising the next book in the Seasons in a Small Town series, and now it's here. Welcome to autumn in Drago, Illinois.

PRINCIPAL OF LOVE is the story of Drago High School principal Josh Kincannon and Zeke-Tech CFO Vanessa Irish. You met them both in WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? and THE RIGHT BROTHER.

Josh is a single father of three who's committed to his family, his job and his community. Vanessa is a workaholic who believes she's not interested in family or community.

Amid colorful leaves, high school football, homecoming, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Zeke and Darcie's magical October wedding, Josh and Vanessa are thrown together, discovering together if the attraction of opposites can last through all seasons.

PRINCIPAL OF LOVE is available for sale at AWritersWork.com.

You can buy PRINCIPAL OF LOVE or any AWritersWork.com book, in e-Pub format or as a PDF, both convertible to any e-reader format. What if you don't have an e-reader? Not to worry, download free software (try Calibre) to read e-Pub on your computer. Or download free software (Adobe Reader) to read PDF on your computer or to print it out so you can hold it in your hands.

Speaking of other AWritersWork.com books, I hope you'll consider buying MATCH MADE IN WYOMING.  All of my proceeds from its sales at AWritersWork.com will be going to animal rescue groups. Read more about it here. I hope you'll help these wonderful groups – buy a book, help a pet!

 AWritersWork.com is growing and growing. Just in the past month we've added five authors you love – Diane Chamberlain, Ken Casper, Phoebe Conn, Barbara Freethy and Cait London. Plus additional books from Patricia Rice, Kathy Lynn Emerson, Lori Handeland and me.

And I hope to have a couple more books there by the end of the year. But only if I get back to work now!

WHAT’S NEW 2010

What do readers want?

I've been asking myself that question for quite a while, as both a writer and a reader. I know what I want as a reader is to have good books by authors I trust at a good price . . . and no waiting.

That's the whole idea behind the March 1 launch of a new website – AWritersWork.com.

I got together with a group of fellow authors – all of us published professionally -- and we've put together a site that we think readers just like us will love.

As AWritersWork.com grows and expands, we'll be offering fiction and non-fiction, previously published and original, long and short from an increasing number of professional authors. There's no waiting. And the prices are great, because this is direct from the authors to you.

If you follow publishing, you know that a whole lot is new in 2010. E-books are being talked about everywhere. But you probably also know that for a reader it's a jumble out there in e-book land. The largest marketplace for e-books urges anybody to publish anything. Have you been burned by this? Thinking you were getting a quality book written by a professional, and what you got was anything but? I sure have.

At AWritersWork.com, you know you're getting stories from proven authors. Plus, you can read the complete first chapter before making a decision.

What if you don't have an e-reader?  No problem.  You can download any AWritersWork.com book as a PDF and read it on any computer or print it out. Or you can download the software to read the e-Pub format on your computer. We're using e-Pub as our second format because it's open source, so nobody controls it, which means nobody can ever charge you for using it. For those and other reasons, it appears headed toward becoming the standard format, and more and more e-readers are using it.

Plus, we have a whole section About E-Books on the website for more information.

To start, thirteen of my books are available at AWritersWork.com. For each book there's a "Patricia says" segment that tells a little extra about it. Among the books I'm offering there are two that aren't available anywhere else as e-books – THE GAMES and LOST-AND-FOUND GROOM.

Sure hope you'll come visit, and let me know what you think!

It’s taken me a year to be able to write this update:

My much-loved collie Riley died on April 14, 2008. He had a degenerative disease that he had fought so well for two and a half years that the end caught me entirely unprepared. I’m still trying to absorb all the wonderful lessons he’s taught me about living. Take a look at the article I wrote on “Lessons From Riley.”

At the end of June, I adopted another collie from Tri-State Collie Rescue. She was about 18 months old then and had had a rocky start, with the experts saying she’d been abused before showing up at a shelter at about a year old, then being adopted by well-intentioned people who didn’t have experience with dogs, much less an abused dog.

I named her Kalli, after the heroine of RODEO NIGHTS. Riley was named after the hero of that book, so it seemed right. Kalli’s made great strides in the months I’ve had her, and has provided lots of entertainment. Especially in our regular visits – in all kinds of weather – to the local dog park. Let me tell you, there are a million stories at the dog park!

She’s also developed a very odd habit of eating horizontal paper products when she’s left alone. She doesn’t touch anything in the bookshelves. But if a book or paper or magazine or folder is left lying on a table, watch out! She particularly seems to like the taste of hardcover books . . . naturally, they’re the most expensive.

Speaking of books – yes! I am still working on mine. I hope to put up an excerpt from Josh and Vanessa’s story, the “Autumn” book in the “Four Seasons in a Small Town” series. You might remember Josh as principal of Drago High School and Vanessa as Zeke and Quince’s partner in Zeke-Tech. This story follows WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? and THE RIGHT BROTHER, and you’ll get to attend Darcie and Zeke’s wedding during it.

In the meantime, if you want a taste of my writing, check out some of the “bios” of dogs up for adoption at Tri-State Collie Rescue. See if you can spot the ones I wrote <g>. I am crossing my fingers that the bios help these innocent creatures find loving homes. Tri-State and so many other animal rescue groups have been hit hard by the tough economy, both in diminished donations and in greater demand as some people abandon their pets. Let me tell you, these people at TSCR do the work of the angels – bless them all.

WHAT’S NEW 2008

 The quick answer to “What’s New?” is “Just about everything!”

Last spring I decided to test the real estate market with my home in Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C.  I figured the lousy real estate market everyone was talking about didn’t matter, because this venture would give me a good trial run for a few years down the road when the market rebounded and I really got serious about selling.

So much for my seeing into the future.

The house went on the market on a Sunday, I had an offer on Tuesday and we had a contract by Friday.

The upshot was that in a bit over a month I sold my home, quit my job at the Washington Post – I’d been both places more then 20 years! – packed up and left town.

You might notice one little item missing from that list – buying a new house. 

Yup, I moved without having anywhere to move to.

Thank heavens for family!  I stayed with my sister and brother-in-law in Ohio while I house-hunted in Northern Kentucky.  They were incredibly welcoming and generous, and we had a great time together.  It’s the most time Cathy and I have spent together since she left for college when I was in kindergarten. And Joe, my brother-in-law, was as fantastic as ever.

Not only is the man a computer-fixing whiz (he pulled my desktop back from death over the holidays – again), he’s also a house-looking guru.  Among other things, he found one house had an incomplete foundation (!), while Cathy and I were upstairs debating how to add a second story to the house. 

Nope, I didn’t buy that one.

And it took me a while to find the one I did buy. So I was with Cathy and Joe until mid-October.

Then I decided to re-do the master bath in the house I ended up buying.  It started with the pink carpet in bedroom and bath. Pink didn’t work with my other furnishings at all. And I’m not a big fan of carpet in the bathroom, especially pink carpet, especially pink carpet that went up the side of the tub.

So, all I was going to do was replace the carpet . . . Right.

I will not impose my renovating story on you (at least not now, but it might just show up in a book <eg>), but I will say a whole lot more than the carpet changed and I’m still not safe from various clumps of guys trooping through my bathroom at all hours.

What about writing, you might be asking?  Books are probably the reason you came to this website, so it’s a good question.

I’ll get to that in a second.

Also during 2007, I was president of Novelists, Inc., an organization of multi-published authors of popular fiction. It’s a fantastic group with members from around the world and from many genres. I was honored to be elected, and I had a rewarding year. It also absorbed a lot of my time and energy. And it gave me new perspectives.

Between moving and Novelists, Inc.,I’ve done some major thinking about my life and my writing.

I’m going to be doing some experimenting with my writing.  Not sure where that will take me, or what I’ll be doing, but I will definitely let you know.

And in the meantime, I hope you’ll check out my books being re-released as e-books  (more should be coming later in 2008) and get a copy of THE GAMES  if you don’t already have one.

I’m also considering e-publishing the final two books in the “Four Seasons in a Small Town” series myself. These are the books that follow WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? and THE RIGHT BROTHER. "Autumn" with Josh, the high school principal, and Vanessa, Zeke and Quince's partner in Zeke-Tech, and "Winter” with Quince, the third Zeke-Tech partner, and Anna, who went to work for Jennifer in THE RIGHT BROTHER.

You can click here to e-mail me about whether you would read them as e-books.

I’ll look forward to your response – it might just help me figure out the next step in “What’s New?”

Happy reading!

Patricia was honored with the Washington Romance Writers' Outstanding

Achievement Award on April 28. She was unable to attend WRW's annual

retreat at Harpers Ferry, W. Va., this year, but sent her thanks and

thoughts:

I so wish I could be there to thank you all in person. This award means

a great deal to me, because it comes from WRW.

It also took me very much by surprise, and it’s caused me to look back...and forward. I hope that this is early days yet for me — in my writing, in my career and in my association with WRW. With that in mind, I went looking for some thoughts on achieving, and I found this from composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein:

"To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite

enough time."

Great! I’m halfway there. Now all I need is a plan.

So I kept searching, and I found more help from Dave Barry’s words:

"My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish

what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M's and a

chocolate cake. I feel better already."

Ah-ha! NOW I have a plan!

Thank you all – hope to see you next year. And may we all have many M&Ms

between now and then.

WHAT’S NEW 2007

“You should be very flattered,” the library clerk told me. “Your book’s been stolen.”

Hmmm. Authors take their compliments where they can get them, but I’m not too thrilled about this one.

THE GAMES had been circulating very well – “VERY well,” the library clerk had said last month – and then it was just gone.

Perhaps it bothered me because THE GAMES has been a particular pleasure because the word of mouth on it from reader to reader has been growing and growing. My Silhouette Special Edition books are only available on bookshelves for a month and not a whole lot longer online. But THE GAMES has a longer life. And that’s letting people discover it as they hear about it from a friend or spot it on the New Books shelf at the library … until someone steals it.

It did cheer me up slightly that the library clerk said he’d put in a request to order a replacement book. Still, it was unsettling to think of a copy of THE GAMES in the hands of a nefarious book thief.

I was reminded of that conversation when I spoke to some readers recently. A lovely woman who’d read THE GAMES tracked me down and had me come speak to her book review group.  She had said the magic words, “I read THE GAMES and I couldn’t put it down.”

I had a terrific time with these women from McLean, Va. I did shatter their illusions about the writer’s life – not glamorous, not glamorous at all – but they held up well upon hearing that truth. And they fed me great cake. Plus. they had lots of questions, which is always fun.

At the end, they were gathered around, looking at my books, choosing which ones to buy. One member of the group innocently reached for the hostess’s copy of THE GAMES. “That’s mine,” our hostess declared, snatching it away and holding it close.

I suppose her reaction was some distant relative of the urge that made someone steal THE GAMES from the library, but I sure like my hostess’s version better! Especially since she decided she needed to buy a second copy of THE GAMES so she could let a friend read that one while she kept a firm grip on her original copy.

So, here’s the plan:

Ask your library to order a copy (or copies!) of THE GAMES.

Lots of libraries have an online form you can fill out with suggestions of additions to their collections. And all the information you need is here here. Or you can print out that page and take it in to your library to make the request.

Buy your own copy (or copies!) of THE GAMES.

Because you don’t want to be caught short in case a nefarious book thief strikes again.

Here’s a list of places to order online with some good deals. Or you can print out the information and take it to your local bookstore and get them to order it.

Oh, yes, there’s one more option. You could ask me to speak to a group of readers, and I’ll give you a great discount … as long as you feed me cake.

Katrina relief:

Among the places you can donate to:

http://www.salvationarmyusa.org
http://www.secondharvest.org
http://www.redcross.org
http://www.vfw.org

Among the romance community sites organizing auctions/contests:

http://www.romancedesigns.com/reliefcontest.cfm
http://www.likesbooks.com/katrina.html
http://www.romaid.net

Can you crochet? Knit? Sew? You can help through Project Linus

http://www.projectlinus.org/

For the animals in need and the people who love them:
 

http://www.petsmart.com
https://secure.hsus.org/01/disaster_relief_fund_2005

And for longer term aid, consider donating to

http://www.habitat.org
http://www.fisherhouse.org
 

A few points on donations:

-- Beware of scams, particularly websites that imitate established charities, mushroom sites that arise out of nowhere after disasters and disappear after they have your money, and online or telephone appeals.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9160668

-- Experts recommend that you do NOT donate to anyone who appeals to you via e-mail or phone solicitation. Seek out the places you want to donate to … and check them carefully.

-- Keep your eyes open for matching donation opportunities, including with your employer.

-- As great as the Katrina need is, don’t abandon your regular charities. Their needs remain.

Bless your hearts!