There are grandchildren everywhere.

I consider this a good sign for the coming year. I tripped over three bodies in the middle of the living room this morning while trying to get to the kitchen in the dark (hey, it was 4:45!) to make tea before we took daughter and granddaughter to the airport. And there were grandsons scattered all over. They looked like a pile of puppies.

Why — when there are perfectly good beds upstairs, not to mention two perfectly good air mattresses in the dining room — they all prefer to sleep on the rug or on the sofa or wherever they drop, is beyond me. Actually I think they must sleepwalk.

But I’m glad they are here — even if they did create an obstacle course in the dark of earliest morning.

We have been to the airport now — and returned home — and the daughter and granddaughter are now in Chicago, where they practically arrived before we got home. (The puppies are still in the living room on the sofa, having moved from the floor).

Now I’m gearing up for the new year.

I expect George and Sophy to resurface sometime in the next week or two, doubtless requiring revisions of some sort. I hope they are not extensive, but mostly I hope whatever the ed suggests makes it a better book. Usually her revision ideas help. My editor has a good eye — and a good sense of story.

In the meantime, I’m getting ideas for a new book, which is nice.

I rather like having had a couple of weeks to just be a real person without a book in my life. It was a nice change. I was actually surprised when the ideas began bubbling up for a new story. Not a lot there yet, but it is coming. I hope I get enough to discuss with my editor by the time I’ve got George back and gone again.

This year is my 25th anniversary of publication. Starstruck, which was my second book, but my first to see the light of day as a published novel, came out in February 1985.

So to celebrate the event, I’m going to begin giving away a book a day starting February 1st. Some of them will be my books. Some will be other peoples’ that I’ve enjoyed. It seems like a good way to celebrate a career in romance fiction — giving away copies of good books.

Stay tuned and I’ll be posting more about the Great Book Give-Away soon. Also Liz Fielding and Kate Walker and I will, I believe, be running our annual Here Come the Grooms! contest before long. I might have to find a copy of Starstruck as a prize in that contest as Joe, the hero, was my first groom. I wonder if there is still a copy back in darkest reaches of my attic.

Will have to go check. If I don’t reappear, send search parties.

Speaking of which, The Prof has gone out to look for the daughter’s cell phone where they went hiking and climbing yesterday and the cell phone disappeared. It’s about 10 below zero this morning, so if he doesn’t get back in an hour or two, I’m sending out search parties for him.