I’ve received my release date for FAIRY TALES CAN COME TRUE! Get your ereaders, Kindle/Nook/Kobo apps on your phones ready, or simply your computer! You can buy and download a .pdf file to read on the computer. It’s a fun story, short and sweet, and you KNOW you want to find out more about Alex and Deke! Just to whet your appetite, here’s a little teaser.

Blurb:

Going home for her 25th class reunion isn’t on Alex London’s radar until her assistant pulls out the fairy godmother card. News correspondent, Deke Carpenter would rather cover the nearest war than attend the reunion–yet deep down he hopes to encounter the girl who got away, Dorothy Reagan, now well-known fashion photographer, Alex London. Alex, on the other hand, has hopes of seeing the boy she carried a torch for all these years–basketball player, Marty Keegan. In one whirlwind weekend, surrounded by the ghosts of high school past, Alex and Deke discover each other and the unwritten rule of fairy godmothers everywhere: Fairy Tales Can Come True.

Iffy promises to post pictures of the characters soon. Y’all need to fuss at her if she forgets!

Wait…you ACTUALLY want to know the date? LOL. Silly peeps. September 15th! Two days before FAERIE FIRE comes out! (Though I suspect FIRE will be available in print a bit before the ebook release date! ) Oh, and the cost for FAIRY TALES? $3.50

WooHoo! Time for new cover art, blurbs and excerpts. Who knew I could write contemporary romance? With nary a paranormal shadow, despite the title. So, without further fanfare, here is the blurb, cover, and excerpt for FAIRY TALES CAN COME TRUE.

Going home for her 25th class reunion isn’t on Alex London’s radar until her assistant pulls out the fairy godmother card. News correspondent, Deke Carpenter would rather cover the nearest war than attend–yet deep down he hopes to encounter the girl who got away, Dorothy Reagan, now well-known fashion photographer, Alex London. Alex has hopes of seeing the boy she carried a torch for all these years–basketball player Marty Keegan.

In one whirlwind weekend, surrounded by the ghosts of high school past, Alex and Deke rediscover each other and the unwritten rule of fairy godmothers everywhere: Fairy Tales Can Come True.

Everyone referred to Alex’s father by his rank. George Reagan had been the Commander for as long as Deke had known the man. Overbearing, blustery, always issuing orders to his daughter like she was one of his subordinates, George seemed more like a commanding officer than a father. Deke wondered how Alex had ever found the nerve to leave. More than once, he’d considered contacting her, wanting to ask her out. If he were honest, he would admit he’d dreamed about her for the past twenty—five years, turning her into a fairy princess in his imagination—and the one woman to whom he compared all others.

When his food arrived a few minutes later, he didn’t remember ordering and ate on autopilot. Should he go over and say hello? Introduce himself in case she didn’t recognize him? Without taking his eyes off her, he raised his glass of ice water and missed his mouth. Water dribbled down the front of his shirt. Great. Question answered. Head down, dabbing at his shirt, the soft clearing of a throat took him by surprise.

“Derek Carpenter?”

He glanced up and recognized the eyes staring down at him. Caribbean blue flecked with gold, he’d dreamed of those eyes in high school—and on many a dark night since while stuck in some God—forsaken spot, reporting on the latest edition of human tragedy.

“Uhm…yeah…ah…” Terrific. The intrepid reporter who managed stand—ups with bombs bursting in air turned into a tongue—tied doofus the moment her voice and gaze washed over him. He gulped around the lump in his throat. “Hi, Alex. I didn’t expect to see you here but I’m glad you came.”

Jeez. Did that sound as stupid as he feared?

So? What do you think? All kudos go to amazing cover artist, Nicola Martinez. She designed the series logo and is creating some beautiful covers!

I received an email the other night from the gentleman who is the cover model for FAERIE FIRE. He asked permission to use the cover on some promotional material he was handing out at Romantic Times (RT) Convention next week. I have a cover model. HEE! Well, it turns out, so does Alannah Lynne and Ashlynn Pearce. In fact, we all share the handsome Jimmy Thomas. So, today for brunch, here’s a more up close and personal view of the man who graces our covers. Enjoy!

And to show the many moods of the Mr. T, here’s our three covers! I love that Alannah, Ashlynn, and I all have one more thing in common! It’s a small world, don’cha know!

These are some simple truths I’ve learned, seeing as I’m older than dirt.

1. Sometimes, eating fiber=5 pound weight gain.

2. Sometimes it’s better to cry over spilled milk.

3. And sometimes, crying over a movie or the end of the book makes you feel satisfied.

4. When you are a writer, sometimes the baby does get thrown out with the bathwater.

5. Size matters. Just sayin’. Sometimes, anyway.

6. Sometimes, a hug is worth a thousand words. Unless you want him to talk about his feelings. Then it’s just frustrating.

7. I love writing. It’s the paperwork I can’t stand.

8. Sometimes, the only thing that helps is standing under the shower until all the hot water is gone.

9. Sometimes you do get to eat the last cookie.

10. And sometimes you just have to *squeee* over your book covers because it all still feels like a dream.

Faerie Fate coming April 9, 2010

Sorry. I still wake up and pinch myself to see if this whole rollercoaster ride is real. I now return you to the regularly scheduled blog. What about ya’ll? Anybody have a simple truth to add to the list?

G’morning, shadow peeps. I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. First, news on the Name The Trilogy front. It will have no official name. LOL! The Powers That Be don’t like foreign looking or sounding names as they feel it discombobulates readers. (True, that can happen–I know I have to stop and look up unfamiliar words, especially when I read Regencies!) Miss Editor and I could not decide on a series title we liked so I suggested dropping the title altogether. The books have similar names and the covers will tie them together. Each book is basically stand alone in that there is no over-reaching story arc. The fae and the family ties are what provide the cohesion among the three books. That leaves me free to call it what I want, albeit unofficially. Welcome back to Tír Nan Óg.

Second, I’ve officially started writing FAERIE FOOL. (If you call one paragraph a start – LOL!) Rory and Delaney will finally have their story told. I’ll be working on it simultaneously with the edits on FAERIE FIRE.

Third, speaking of FIRE. Would you like to see the cover? The fabulous RAE MONET has done it again!

Be sure to click on the cover to see the full-sized version. Well…the almost full-sized. The big file I have would clog your computers! It’s awesome blossom goodness!

Stay tuned for news of FAERIE FATE goodies to come.

And the last bit of news, the winner of November’s random drawing will win an autographed copy of Merline Lovelace’s newest book, ALL THE WRONG MOVES (A SAMANTHA SPADE MYSTERY).

Cheers!

See larger image All the Wrong Moves (A SAMANTHA SPADE MYSTERY) (Paperback) By (author) Merline Lovelace List Price: $6.99 USD New From: $3.15 In Stock Used from: $2.27 In Stock

Yeah. This is why there are professional artists to design book covers. Have I ever mentioned the evolution of The Penumbra Papers, SEASON OF THE WITCH, and Sade (in particular)? No?

Sade was a character I developed and “played” with for awhile. As I got to know her, I also got to know her “entourage”–those supporting players every protagonist needs to be well-rounded. The people she grew up with–Mathias, her master vampire godfather; Roman, the gargoyle bodyguard; Caleb, her foster-brother and werewolf… Even Ariel, the fae seducer sent to bedevil her, which necessitated Roman’s arrival as a permanent part of her life. These “window” characters didn’t arrive until after I’d started the first draft. Let me start at the beginning. Sort of…

Way back in 2006, I met some amazing people on-line through Live Journal. Several of them are now close, personal friends. I’d hit a point in my life where I didn’t find much joy in my writing (or life for that matter) and these people convinced me that I wasn’t a hack, that I really could put together a string of words that people wanted to read. And that’s when several of them told me about National Novel Writing Month. I have the site linked over there in the blog roll. Check it out if you aren’t familiar. I had partial manuscripts strung all over my office. Every finished MS had already been rejected at least once and none of the new stuff seemed to get on track. I’d write anywhere from four chapters to fifteen (or more) but would never finish the book. I’d write, edit, re-edit, edit again, revise, edit, tweak… You get the picture. So…NaNoWriMo. Everybody in the group was doing it so why not? In September and October, Sade kept walking in, plopping down on the chair and bitching. Oh yeah. She did that. A lot! And despite my protests of no story, no plot, she assured me that if I wrote it, the plot would come. To prove her point, she showed me the image you see up top–a statue in a cemetery in Prague. That image captured my imagination and I used my admittedly poor photoshop skills to create a book cover to go on my profile page at NaNoWriMo.

For the month of November, I wrote feverishly. With a goal of 1,666 words a day (what’s needed to reach the goal of 50,000 words writing EVERY day), I often exceeded that amount, even though I often had to stop to research places and things. Because I’m anal. I had to know the history behind the Witch. And the shared history of Mathias and Sinjen. I needed Sade’s history–why she is who she is. (Which is why this revision is so tough. That backstory is so much a part of who and why!) I took off December for the holidays but come January, I dove back into SOTW and I finished it. And polished it. Then let it sit. I still wasn’t quite ready to start the next round of rejections. Come the next November, 2007, I started Caleb’s story, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, despite Real Life. My mother died the last week of October. My best friend’s father died four days later. November was a blur. I wrote, knowing that the last of the month would be “lost” to writing as I’d be driving to California to help my friend close the house and estate. TDYK still sits unfinished. I was going for the 50K and when I blocked on one section, I’d write another scene and I’ve never found the time to go back to match them up into order. That’s okay because that’s a different story.

SOTW. Through an odd series of coincidences, I submitted a proposal to the executive editor of Juno books after she agreed to look at it. Oh. My. Wow. Her critique cut like razors. And that was okay, too, because she made me really LOOK at SOTW. I love this story. I adore all the characters. And in so doing, I forgot to be a writer/editor. While many of her suggestions were dead on, I rejected others. But once again, RL and other projects intervened and SOTW went on the back burner.

November, 2008, arrived and SHADOW DANCE was in Patience Smith’s hands at Silhouette Suspense. During October, I’d played with the idea of revisiting New Orleans post-Katrina, along with Guy and Kate, my H/H from SD. Enter their daughter, Matilda, and her very own ghosts and RML. And the sale of FAERIE FATE (and revisions) and now the sale of FAERIE FIRE (and hopefully FEWER revisions – lol).

August, 2009. SHADOW DANCE (ultimately rejected by Silhouette and now restored to full length but with tighter writing–I hope!) is off for agent query/submission. WALTZING MATILDA is on the back burner. AGGIE & THE ZOMBIES (sucky working title) is stewing in my imagination. Time once again to revisit some of my favorite characters. My posts will most likely begin to center on the process of revisions and introduction to characters as I work on SOTW. Hopefully, I’ll find my stride and zip right through it so SOTW can join SD on the submission list. I hope you’ll want to come along for the scenery…

Squeeeeee! I really wasn’t expecting to see the cover for Faerie Fate until after Christmas. But lo and behold, an early Christmas present. My compliments to Rae Monet at Rae Monet Inc. Design for the cover. I love her vision! So…here’s the big reveal…

Coming in 2009 from The Wild Rose Press!