A New Release, A New Newsletter, A Freebie, and Time Is Running Out!

It really is true that there's no rest for the wicked! Every time I feel I'm getting caught up, something like this happens:


That's right, Comrades in Arms was released yesterday by Cobblestone Press to much fanfare, tooting of horns, and throwing of confetti. (Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little. I didn't actually see any confetti being thrown.)

I have to admit, this was an extra exciting release day for me because I shared it with none other than the legendary Piers Anthony! Let's face it, that is pretty darned cool. For the whole story of how Anthony came to contract his own Wicked with Cobblestone Press, check out his post on the Cobblestone Authors blog. It's very interesting reading.

Okay, so that's the new release news. Since I last posted writing news, I've also signed the contracts for my Cobblestone 12 Days of Christmas novella, Unwrap My Heart. No cover art yet, but I promise to be prompt in doing so when I receive it.

I like to think of the plot of Unwrap My Heart as It's a Wonderful Life in reverse: instead of finding out awful life would have been if she'd never been born, my heroine finds out how wonderful her life could be had she made some different choices. Here's the blurb:

Holly Ackerman has scratched and clawed her way into the position as an anchorwoman at a local TV station, but along the way, she's passed up marriage and family. Now, on Christmas Eve, which is also her forty second birthday, she can feel all she's worked so hard to achieve slipping away. When an unbelievable encounter with a very real Santa Claus gives her a second chance at love, she must decide whether to give up her hard-won past for a storybook future.

I really enjoyed writing this story, which pestered me for months before I finally had the time to put it on the page, and I hope you'll like it, too. I don't have a precise release date, yet, but I know it will be sometime between December 12 and December 23.

With everything that's going on these days, I've decided it's finally time to break down and do a quarterly newsletter. I haven't exactly been resisting it, but I'll admit that the logistics had me a bit bamboozled. But having chatted with some other writers who do regular newsletters, I think I've got the basics down.

As an incentive to sign up for the newsletter, I'll be entering all the names I get before the end of the month into a drawing to receive a free copy of either Comrades in Arms or Unwrap My Heart (winner's choice).

In addition, everyone who signs up before Christmas will receive, free of charge, the Twelve Days of Christmas Anthology collected and edited by my dear friend Leanne Karella (who doubles as Anna Leigh Keaton). The anthology features twelve short, romantic stories by a wonderful slate of authors:

• Kate Austin
  
• Brandi Broughton


• Leanne Karella


• Shonna Brannon


• Diana Bold


• Deborah Schneider


• Mandy M. Roth


• Sheryl Hoyt


• Kay Gregory


• Susan MacPherson


• Michelle M. Pillow

Oh, and of course, yours truly.

So, use that button over there on the right hand side of the page to hurry and sign up. Remember, if you join by the end of November, you'll be entered in a drawing to receive your choice of Comrades in Arms or Unwrap My Heart, and everyone who enters before Christmas will receive the free anthology.


Last, but certainly not least, I want to mention that Wickedly Ever After will go off sale at the end of next week (or a few days thereafter). The novella will be the first in my Kensington anthology, along with two new novellas titled Scandalously Ever After and Sinfully Ever After. So, if you don't buy it from Cobblestone Press before the end of the week, you won't have a chance to see it again until June of 2009! Hurry, hurry, hurry!