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was that performance by Fantasia on American Idol? :beam:

Sweet Jesus that was painful!

to all the moms out there. May your day be filled with lots of love, hugs and kisses from your brood whether they’re real or in spirit :hug:

It’s been a good weekend despite recovering from surgery. Yesterday I sat propped on the couch while hubby and the kids went shopping for Mother’s Day pressies. THey brought home Chinese take-out for dinner.

Today hubby folded all the laundry and cleaned the kitchen and he’s presently out shopping for steaks to grill for dinner. I love that man…

Me? I’m still propped on the couch with my laptop. I’m still sore but nearly as sore as I was yesterday. I’m working on something I’m not supposed to be working on…..shhhhh!

Stay With Me is now available! :banana:

Getting her back will be the toughest deal they’ve ever negotiated.

On the night of her fifth anniversary, Catherine Cullen-Wellesley intends to break the news to the two men in her life. She’s pregnant with their child. It’ll be the perfect preamble to the vacation they’ve promised her: Two weeks on a Jamaican beach. No cell phones, no emails, no business.

But when Logan and Rhys blow off the trip for yet another “business emergency”, Catherine faces some difficult truths. She hasn’t come first in her busy husbands’ lives in a long time. Defiantly, she packs her bags for her long-awaited vacation—alone. It’ll give her a chance to figure out what the hell she’s going to do with the rest of her life.

When Logan and Rhys come home to an empty house, they realize two things: One, it was a mistake to take Catherine for granted. Two, they’re not willing to just let her walk out of their lives.

Winning her back will be the most difficult battle of their lives—more important than any business deal they’ve ever negotiated.

You can go here for an excerpt!

Or go here to purchase.

We were talking over the weekend in the Writeminded Reader’s Group about Stay With Me and I mentioned that while I love writing about finding love, meeting newly and going on to the happily ever after, there was something so powerful about taking people who had already embarked on their HEA and show them holding onto their love, fighting for it. People make mistakes, they make stupid choices. They’re human. To me it’s rewarding to see a couple not give up when faced with hard times. Forgiveness is a big part of loving someone unconditionally. Who hasn’t made a mistake that they’ve needed forgiveness for?

This was my focus for this book. I hope that if you pick it up, you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it! :hug:

The pages are flowing. Ahhh I love it when that happens. Despite already setting tight deadlines, I’ve challenged myself to complete the books ahead of schedule, for this particular book I’m working on right now (Sweet Persuasion) I challenged myself to complete it in half the time.

Goal was to finish half the book by May 1 and have it completed by May 15th. I’m happy to say I did get half way through yesterday so now it’s on to the second half :whoo:

I have a proposal due June 1 so I wanted the end of May free to work on that. And then I need the month of June to finish Into the Lair, and THEN I must write book 2 for Desires and THEN, finally, lord, finally! I get to work on The Darkest Hour.

After that, it’s pretty much a blur of more books, more deadlines etc etc lol. I’m just ready to sink my teeth into TDH. Love that book and the characters.

So in my RT recap that I posted yesterday, I mentioned how much I loved Beth Williamson AND I said the following:

…I wish so much success for her, and I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing some verra good things about her in short order.

It should come as no surprise that I LOVE being right.

Congrats, Beth!!

chocolate cake.

:eatchoc:

I know there has been lots and lots of chatter, speculation, recapping etc of RT, and well, I’m sorry to say I have no gossip, no spot on observations. See how boring I am? I don’t have the first clue if any of the stuff reported from RT is true or not because when I’ve been asked about it, my response is huh? Really? I had no idea. :lol2:

I did my own thing at RT and had a pretty good time. Oh, I take it back, the one thing I can confirm is that the hotel sucked rocks. I’m STILL sick and I’ve been sick since the very first night I was there. :kap:

I stress about conferences because they’re out of my comfort zone. I’m not a socially adept person, and as a result, I’m sure I come across as rude or withdrawn. Totally not my intention, but I’m painfully shy/uncomfortable in situations that pull me out of my comfort zone. Get me in a small, intimate setting with people I trust and am comfortable with and I’m extremely outgoing.

So anyway, the conference got off to a terrific start because Kimberly Kaye Terry was on my flight from Houston to Pittsburgh and we rode a cab to the hotel together. She is such a terrific lady. She’s funny and intelligent and she’s one of these people who is just nice to everyone, and she has this really gorgeous smile that warms you to your toes. I hate her for that. :purplelaugh:

Tuesday night, the first night I was there, I hosted a reader party for our Writeminded readers in my hotel room. It was so much fun. I bought pizza and several readers brought goodies with them and we just hung out and chit chatted. I gave away some of mine and Jaci’s books, and we just had a good time.

I got to see Beth Williamson. I heart her so much. She’s just so warm and friendly. I wish so much success for her, and I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing some verra good things about her in short order :whoo:

Also caught up with Lauren Dane pretty quickly, though she fussed at me about my lack of proper greeting. See, I told you I sucked at the whole social stuff *sniff*

Oh and I can’t forget my favorite Brit, Shara Cooper, who unfortunately got sick as did many others :passedout:

I saw Dakota Cassidy regularly in the smoking area, and while I ran into her once or twice at last year’s RT, we didn’t really get to chat until this year. She’s hysterical and completely irreverent. (I love irreverent people)

Spoke briefly with Sasha White and Sylvia Day. I went to their mixer (my only party I went to at RT lol) but then I spent the majority of the mixer talking to Shelley Bradley. I love getting together with her and talking shop because we share a lot of the same…philosophies shall we say. :nunchuk:

Some people I only got to chat briefly with like Shiloh Walker and Lora Leigh, both of whom I’d only met in person at this RT. They’re both really lovely ladies, very warm and friendly. (Obviously I have a thing for warm people lololol)

Probably the highlight of the entire conference, though, was getting to hang out with so many cool readers and booksellers. Bookseller Ann rocks. Wonderful lady. Readers Ann and Renny. Two super cool ladies. They both have the most beautiful smiles! I wish I remembered more names. I’m so terrible with them. But I remember every single reader I met (just not their names damn it) and I sincerely treasure each of those moments. I wouldn’t even BE at conferences like RT if it weren’t for my readers and so I can’t say enough how much I adore each and every one of them.

Oh and a special hello to the smut sluts who came by to see me at club RT! Very funny and nice ladies.

The Samhain crowd was terrific. I don’t speak often about my publishers or hold gush fests (and I wont lol) but I’m really happy to work with some consumate professionals. Notice I did not say BFFs or “family” *shudder* I’m a business bitch, and these ladies are hard core professionals. Love that about them.

Well, except Marty. I’m sorry but she’s one person I just have to hug and smoosh and love on. Because I love her.

I’m sure there is a ton of stuff I overlooked and people I left out, which is why I usually hate doing recaps and shit, because it horrifies me to be rude and for anyone I spoke to or hung out with at RT to think I didn’t value their time.

One of these days I’ll get used to going to conferences and won’t spend the first several days in the throes of terror and maybe I can REMEMBER more of what happens at them :sack:

if I mentioned, and I probably haven’t, but I’m having my website redone. I’m branching out from writing *just* the southern set hot romances and so I want a website that is not so specific to “Sexy Southern Romance.”

See, my PLAN was, for any non erotic romances I published to be under Sharon Long and reserve Maya Banks for the erotic stuff. That was my plan from day one. I just never expected Maya’s name to take off and garner the readership. So when I sold my contemporary RS series to Berkley Sensation, we decided to use Maya because well, she has a readership and Sharon doesn’t and I don’t want to start all over again.

But I told myself, never fear, there was still that whole pipe dream of writing for either Harlequin Presents or Silhouette Desire and I couldn’t imagine H/S wanting me to use a pen name that I wrote erotica under so I figured if and when I made the sale to H/S I could use Sharon Long for that and develop a whole new website for Sharon.

Well, then I sold to Silhouette and my editor said she was more than happy for me to write as Maya. Oops. Poor Sharon. She’s been officially put to bed before she ever got her chance :lol2:

So anyway, I now need a website that can reflect not only the erotic romances, but also the contemporary RS’s I’m writing for Berkley Sensation AND the contemporary romances I’m writing for Silhouette Desire. Hmm maybe I need a new tagline now. Damn, I really liked Sexy Southern Romance :help:

since RT, but I’m STILL sick :crying:

The first night I was at RT, when I went to bed, my throat hurt so bad I couldn’t swallow. I gradually deteriorated until by the time I got home I had a head full of snot (lovely image, yes?) the entire right side of my head is completely and utterly stopped up and I can’t hear a damn thing out of that ear. I have no voice (Im sure my husband isn’t complaining) and my head hurts so damn bad that I’m thinking an ice pick through the eye ball would actually feel GOOD right now.

Despite my grumpiness and feeling like crap, I’ve been writing. A lot. I don’t have TIME to get all sick and whiny. Sweet Persuasion is going…well. Finally. I struggled with it in the beginning but then I got into the groove and the pages have been flowing a lot easier. I want to have it finished by May 15th. It’s not due until July 1 but uhm I have to finish Into the Lair by then and I also have the proposal for Desire book 2 due June 1.

I then have to write Desire book 2 and THEN I finally, FINALLY get to dive into the series I sold to Berkley Sensation. It’s been killing me to stay away from it. I wrote the proposal back in Feb I think? And I’ve had to lay it aside because I have other books and proposals to write but as soon as the second Desire book is done, I am all over The Darkest Hour. Can’t wait!

This business is best handled with patience and gee, I don’t happen to have a patient bone in my body. I’m probably the most IMPATIENT person I know, which Amy will atttest to…

I’m gonna go whine to my husband and get some sympathy snuggles from him :hug:

Several updates to my website :banana:

I now have blurbs and excerpts for Stay With Me (May 6th release) Reckless (June 3rd release) AND I finally have a blurb AND a long excerpt for Be With Me which releases this November (can’t wait!)

I’m currently writing like a fiend on Sweet Persuasion (Damon’s story!) which is why I haven’t been venturing out of my cave much.

I also just mailed in my first Desire book today :whoo:

Think I’ll go celebrate with some grape Nerds :lol2: