ARCs

Yesterday I received exciting news from My Publicist (okay, so she's the publicist for the entire Sourcebooks Casablanca line, but she's also MINE)! She is ready to mail out ARCs of The Wild Sight.

In case you aren't familiar with that acronym, an ARC is an Advanced Reading Copy, or in this case an Advanced Review Copy. These are copies of the book before it is finalized. They are sent to reviewers like Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, and even online reviewers like All About Romance and Romance B(u)y the Book.

Yes, I'm a nervous wreck worrying about whether or not I'll get "good" reviews. I know not everyone has the same taste and not everyone will like it, but worrying about things over which I have NO CONTROL is a specialty of mine! Plus, I'll have a great excuse to over-indulge in chocolate or fruity alcoholic drinks no matter what the reviews are like.

Mostly, I'm excited that I've made one more step down that road to publication!

P.S. If you are a reviewer and would like to receive an ARC of The Wild Sight, please email me via my website (link is on the sidebar) and I'll pass along your request to my publicist.

Character Building

I'm blogging today, May 26th over at the Casablanca Authors blog. Just click on the title of this post (also the title of my blog post there!) to go there.

We will be trying something different starting June 1st. Each of the participating authors will post an installment of an ongoing story called The Bachelor Auction. My contribution will be on June 5th. This promises to be a fun and interesting experiment! Please check it out.

Back Cover Copy

A couple of days ago, My Editor emailed me the file of the cover flat for my Advanced Reading Copies! I was tickled pink to see not only my front cover but also the back cover and spine of the book. There were a couple of wonderful quotes from lovely and generous authors, Karin Tabke and Sandy Blair, neither of whom "know" me but were willing to read and say nice things about The Wild Sight. And best of all, I got to see and read the all-important back cover "blurb" written by My Editor!

So many readers (including yours truly) pick up the book, read the back cover, and make their decision whether or not to buy. Here it is, and I'd love to know what you think. Does this interest you to read further? I know it does for ME, but I could be a tad biased...

He was cursed with a “gift”
Born with the clairvoyance known to the Irish as “The Sight,” Donovan O’Shea fled to America to escape his visions. On a return trip to Ireland to see his ailing father, staggering family secrets threaten to turn his world upside down. And then beautiful, sensual Rylie Powell shows up, claiming to be his half-sister . . .

She’s just looking for the family she never knew . . .
After her mother’s death, Rylie finds tantalizing clues that send her off to Ireland to find the man listed on her birth certificate as her father. She needs the truth—but how can she and Donovan be brother and sister when the chemistry between them is nearly irresistible?

Uncovering the past leads them dangerously close to madness . . .

Donovan’s visions lead them into mystery and murder, and only by going deep into the fens can they defeat an ancient enemy and bring the truth to light . . . but will they ever be able to get out?

Turkey Talk

Oh dear! It's been a very long time since I shared a travel adventure. Better cure that up, right quick, as my Gramma used to say.

Last week, the DH made reservations for our holiday getaway. For the past three years, we've gone on a cruise, but this year we are going on an escorted tour of Turkey. We have been to Turkey once before, but that was twelve years ago. We had a wonderful time and I'm really looking forward to going back! The Turks are lovely, friendly people, always willing to help even if they didn't speak English (and we definitely didn't speak more than about two words of Turkish).

On our previous visit, we were limited to the west coast of Turkey. This new trip will revisit some of our favorite places and take us farther east into Cappadocia and Ankara. We will start in Istanbul, of course, a beautiful, exotic city that I can't wait to see again! The Blue Mosque (pictured), the Grand Bizarre, and the Topkapi Palace are all fantastic sights!

We will also go back to Kusadasi, which is now a cruise ship destination, so I doubt we recognize it. Of course, the whole reason to go to Kusadasi is to visit the ruins of Ephesus, and they are spectacular! On our last visit, we had just been to Athens and seen the Acropolis, saw Ephesus, then went on to Naples and visited Pompeii. Of those three I can unequivocally say that Ephesus impressed me most!

Don't know if things have changed (HOPE NOT!) but at that time, you were allowed to walk in, around, and over the ruins of that fantastic city. I kept thinking how Antony and Cleopatra walked the same streets (or more likely were carried on elaborate litters), of how the most intelligent and sophisticated denizens of civilization lived and worked there, and naturally St. Paul's letters to the Ephesians.

One of the more memorable things that happened when we were at Ephesus involved a photo. It was quite chilly the morning we arrived via dolmus (hired van) at the ruins. I am seldom bothered by the cold, rarely wear gloves, and a hat almost never. However, on this day it was cold enough that I sported both gloves, a hat, and about three layers of both tops and bottoms under my jacket. Basically, I resembled a homeless person wearing everything I owned.

I was snapping photos of everything, including DH, when I was approached by a lovely Turkish lady with a camera. I thought she wanted me to take a picture of her and her family, but after much gesturing and halting words, I figured out she wanted to take a picture of her family with ME and DH! So DH and I sidled up to her husband, two children and mother (or possibly mother-in-law) and smiled. This was in the pre-digital days, so I don't know what the final product looked like. But somewhere in Turkey, in a family photo album is a picture of me and DH bundled like the homeless and grinning like fools. I imagine the caption underneath reads: Us with a pair of weird Americans we met in Ephesus.

A Tiny Taste of Things To Come

A couple of weeks ago, my editor (yup, still a thrill to type that!) asked me to get some "blurbs" for The Wild Sight from other romantic suspense and paranormal authors. I've seen these "blurbs" in other books, of course, but I hadn't thought far enough ahead to obtain any on my own. So now I found myself in the very awkward position of having to ask friends, people I barely knew, and people I didn't know at all to "...please read my book and say nice things about it."

YIKES!

I had this big knot of fear in my stomach for every one of those emails I sent out asking for "a favor." And here I thought all those years of rejections had toughened me up. I need to pull up my "big girl panties" and GET OVER THIS! Asking for blurbs is just another little step down this twisty path of publication.

Very soon now (in less than 147 days!) "my baby" will be released to the world and not everyone will like it. GASP! I know I will get bad reviews and nasty comments from people who may or may not have read it. Waiting to hear back from other writers (who tend to be much kinder than reviewers) is just a tiny taste of things to come. Here's hoping there will be far more positive than negative!