Books**** I'm an honest to Gosh Darn Writer

This is a strange time for me...strange and wonderful. Let me explain.

December 1st my very first e-book novel will be released. It's a Christmas Romance, the first in a three part CHRISTMAS MIRACLES SERIES called Santa is a Lady.

I submitted SIAL to the publisher on March 28, 2010 and received a contract on March 29, 2010.

Anyone who knows the publishing world knows how incredible that is. NEVER...or almost never does a book get contracted within hours of its submission.

SIAL is not the first new story I have written this year. My daughter, that incredibly prolific best selling author Kat Holmes, convinced me to forget the derogatory things Steven and Jeff, the agent and editor I had worked with back in 1999 and 2000 said and try to sell my meager muse's meanderings again through her publisher.

To that end I wrote a story with an older woman and younger man. I had JUST finished it when her publisher stopped taking such stories from new authors.

Pooh! I thought it was an omen! I was not supposed to bother.

Kat wouldn't hear of that. She urged me to write something in the genre's left. Nothing short of electric shock treatment and a frontal lobotomy was going to get me to write about S&M or demons. I've lived with enough demons. I'm NOT writing about them!

Holiday stories, my prolific charmer urged with a grin that only a mother would not wish to turn her back on and call foul...because at that moment it was one of those coaxing, "I so don't want to be talked into this" kinda smiles that she employs so well.

SIAL was the end product.

Luckily Kat's publisher was very busy and didn't notice this tiny story sitting in their submission pipeline.

Along comes my publisher...and the rest, as they say is history...well except my daughter's publisher did finally find my little story at the end of April 2010 and offer me a contract. But I was already with my publisher Muse It Up by then.

April 2010 was a slow month, book wise, but I have a good reason. I was busy with some health things. You know those pesky things that crop up without warning and then demand your undivided attention? Like it or not, you're stuck with THAT routine and THAT routine leaves little time for the daily highs of being an honest to gosh darn writer!

May 2010, though, more than made up for April.

May 3rd. I got to participate in this really great MEET THE AUTHORS online chat put together by my Publisher. What fun!

I got there early as did quite a few others and we were having a ball. Then at 9:00 the chat began and once again, what fun!

My daughter, Kat, who was not yet contracted with my publisher, joined in and since she would receive a contract the next day, it was a fantastic sharing experience for mother and daughter and a wonderful prelude to all that was to come for both of us.

And speaking of the next day, I too would receive a contract, my second, for a story I wrote back when I was being told by editor and agent that I should never write anything but the poetry I loathed. The title of this book is The Pendulum Swings and has a scheduled release for March 2011.

I think you will love this story even though it is not a holiday tale at all. But here's a clue, it does have some belly dancing in it, oh and a dancing chimney too.

Moving on, on May 7th I did a guest blog with my fellow author and dear supporter Roseanne Dowell. Roseanne very generously invites many authors to come onto her blog and introduce themselves to the reading world. Her generosity is boundless.

May 8, 2010 my third book, and the older woman younger guy story In From The Cold was contracted and will be released in June 2011. What can I tell you about this story? She's 50 and feisty; he's 36 and hot. It takes place on a mountain and there's a very impudent cat involved.

May 11, 2010 The Christmas War was contracted and will be released in December 2011. This is Book Two of my Christmas Miracles series and picks up where Santa is a Lady leaves off. You will so love the magical town of Northeringale from Book One that you will look forward to visiting it again and learning more about the wonderful people who live and love there.

May 13, 2010 Beyond Yesterday was contracted with a release date of September 2011. This is a darker story and came about because of the Reba MacEntire song "Fancy".

May 17, 2011 I did another guest blog. This time at Penny Lockwood's Journal Blog.

May 22, 2010 This Time Forever was contracted. I don't have a release date yet for this one, but I can tell you the tension in this one will keep you on the edge of your seat.

And today, May 25, 2010 I placed a short story on my publisher's blog called The End that is also a little on the dark side.

You can also catch me chatting like a magpie on Facebook and several reader loops and I'm working on the third Christmas Miracles story, although I have a lot of research to do first concerning leprechauns. Anyone know what poteen is made from?

There you go. Now you know why I say "I'm an honest to Gosh Darn Writer!"