Archive for May, 2009

Research help!

Monday, May 18th, 2009


Miss me?

I got caught up in taking care of Ellie and Henry last week. And when I wasn’t doing that, I was hard at work on Demetrios and Anny.

The interminable (or so it seemed) chapter two finally ended (after 7500+ words) and I was able to move into — and straight through — chapter three in a couple of days.

I came home on Saturday and made the wonderful discovery that being stuck in the Minneapolis-St Paul airport for almost 5 hours had no downside at all. The food court has counters with electrical strips running along the back and there is an outlet for every seat.

So I bought my personal pizza and a nice cup of tea and set up the laptop (with its wonky battery I despaired of being able to do much work) and got almost 1500 words done before I had to catch my next flight.

Right now Mpls-St Paul (MSP) is at the top of my favorite airports list. If I could figure out who to write a fan letter to for all those electrical hookups, I’d do it in a minute. If you know, tell me.

And now I’m in chapter four. Which requires sailing knowledge. Not a ton, but more than I have. And my sailing friend – at least the one I usually consult — Peggy Nicholson who wrote Run So Far, one of my favorite Harlequin Presents of all time, is up to her eyeballs in work of her own right now.

I’ve put out feelers to my other sailing friend, Antoinette Stockenberg, and I hope she can answer.

But in case she can’t, if any of you have sailing in the Mediterranean knowledge, can I please pick your brain?

I need to get Demetrios from Cannes to Santorini realistically. The internet is letting me down.

So if you can come to my rescue, I’d be much obliged. So would Demetrios, who has assured his brother Theo that it won’t be a problem.

Well, he didn’t think it would be. Neither did I.

I’m still hopeful that it won’t be!

I’ll bore you with Ellie and Henry pix another day. Right now I have to do the stuff I can do in chapter four without the particular details I’m going to need before the final draft.

First off, I need to find a sailboat.

Mothers and Babies Contest Winner!

Saturday, May 9th, 2009


Ellie and Henry have picked a winner from among the entries in the Mothers and Babies contest!

Congratulations to Tara Woods!

Tara, I will be posting your goody box to you when I get home from visiting with Ellie and Henry this week. So it should go in the post around May 18-19. I’ll let you know when it has been posted!

Thank you everyone who entered. I hope you’ll come back and visit again.

Kids and Babies

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Deep in the throes of grandparenting, and getting not very much writing done, I decided that my post this weekend on The Pink Heart Society blog would have to be about babies and kids and their role in romance fiction.

Sometimes I feel personally responsible for the population explosion in our books because of my first Harlequin American (and first book published) back in 1985, Starstruck, which was about a heroine with five children — and a rabbit. (See, all the livestock in Savas’ Defiant Mistress had early precursors in my books).

So please drop by and let me know what you think about all the babies and kids in romance. You can read what I think while you’re there. And if you have keepers that feature babies and kids, please let us know in the comments section here or there what the titles of your keeper books are.

Those of you who haven’t entered my mothers and babies contest, it ends Saturday night at midnight my time (Mountain Daylight right now). So if you want to win some great books and other goodies, drop by the contest page and enter.