Conference season begins!

I'm prepping for Rom Con in Denver, one of my favorite conferences. It's a favorite for 3 reasons: it's very well run for such a new conference, it's in Denver (so I can visit family), and it's the right size: small enough to touch base with readers, big enough to get lost in the crowd if you want.

When I first started in the publishing business 7 years ago (yikes. So long!), I went to the RWA conference. I went to 3 or 4 of those, and decided it wasn't for me. It's great to touch base with friends, but it's so pricy and crowded. I may go to the one in Denver in a few years (to see family again), but it's not on my calendar yet. A lot can happen between now and then.

I've been to a couple of RT conventions, the ones that were convenient for me to attend (i.e., near me so I could drive). That's chaos, with so much going on it's hard to keep track of things. It's a bit too much for me, so I doubt RT will be on my calendar in the future.

I've gone to smaller conferences (Love is Murder, Malice Domestic) and those are good, but LIM is tough to get to (Chicago in the winter?) and Malice is a bit of a trek (the D.C. area).

I think I'm getting burned out on conferences, so I may take next year off. It's tough to squeeze them in since I work full-time and have limited vacation hours, hours which I'd like to spend with my family. Of course, I think I say that every year, and every year I'm off to a conference.

So we'll see what happens -- I'm happy be at Rom Con this year to talk about my latest book, one of the most challenging ones I've written out of the 27 books so far. It should be a very good time!

Another summer, another summer book!

Yep, finally. My summer book is here and what perfect timing--a summer book for a vacation weekend.

I wrote this book for my sister, who (like me and my other sister) worked during the summer at an out-of-state resort. Our parents encouraged this when we were in college as a way for us to earn money and get some good life experience. The heroine in the book is a combination of me and my sister from that summer long ago. And the hero, Nate, well he's every girl's hero, I think. A combination of shy and bold, sweet and sexy. What's not to love?

So head over to my web site and check out the buying links for this book -- all kinds of ways to buy it, and all kinds of reasons to love it -- Emily and Nate have a story to tell, and I enjoyed telling it.

J L

Pick up, examine, then ....

pitch or keep?

I'm in a clean-out binge lately, and that's been my mantra. Look at something, examine it and think about it, then keep it or pitch it. I can now say that every closet and every drawer holds only what I want to keep. I have the garage, the "gun room" (a.k.a., the secret room in the basement: a long story), and the porch to do, and I can't do the garage or porch because it's too freaking cold.

I recently did the same thing with the book I'm writing. I was a bit stuck in the mid-book blues, so I left the book for a day or two, fussed around with another book, then came back and re-read what I had. I immediately saw the problem. I was at a mid-book crisis for the characters, but I hadn't properly set it up.

I had to do the same thing with my most recent release. I originally wrote 2 books: one set in the past, and one in the current day. Then I thought I'd combine the two and alternate chapters. Talk about editing! I examined every scene -- no, every word -- and had to decide what to keep or pitch. I lost a lot of scenes I adored, but it made for a better book to lose them.

Keep or pitch ... my mantra going forward.

J L

Warmth ... not just a word?

Yep. Winter is starting to get on the nerves, isn't it? It's not the cold that bothers me so much. It's the lack of color. The black, white, and gray of it. Even the evergreen trees are starting to look a bit bleak.

But hey: spring is just around the corner, right? In a few months we'll be complaining about the heat and humidity. For now, all we can do is remember warmth... And just in time to remind me, my summertime book is out. What good timing...

Sigh. Remember beaches and sunglasses (needed because of sun, not sun on snow?)

It won't be long now...

Warm summer books for cold winter days

New release announcement! My latest book, Resorts (for short), is out.It's available at Amazon right now, and will be in wide release in May.

It's a summertime book so if you're in the grip of winter, maybe this is what you need.

This is one of the first books I ever wrote and it took a lot of editing to get it in shape to submit to an editor. It's 2 books in one, really. One book is set in the present day and the other is 30 years ago, when the hero/heroine first met. 

Can you imagine combining two books into one readable book? It was a challenge!

Check it out and tell me how I did ....