I found out on Friday night that I sold my second book to Silhouette Desire.

Winning a Millionaire is a connected story featuring the oldest Case brother Sebastian and his executive assistant, Missy.

It’s scheduled to come out in January 2012.

Now, I need to get to work on changes for book 3.  Middle brother, Max needs his story told.

I have a new title.  I knew A CASE OF MEDDLING would never make it onto a Desire cover.  What I didn’t expect, however, was to have input.  I thought that decision would be completely out of my hands.  Imagine my surprise when my editor asked for a list of potential titles.  I gave him a bunch.  To my delight, they picked my favorite.  So, almost 3 months after I sold, my first book to be published will be MEDDLING WITH A MILLIONAIRE.  I love the title.

The other thing I’ve done since selling is fill out an art fact sheet.  That was intimidating.  There are questions about your theme.  You’d better be prepared with at least 3 themes for your book.  They ask for geographical location.  Landmarks.  Inside places.

Describe your hero and heroine.  Both physical and psychological.

Then you have to describe 3 scenes that might end up as the cover.  What are your characters wearing?  Doing?  Any special object that’s recalled through the story?

Oh, and I had to provide a synopsis.  A 300-500 word synopsis.  If you like writing a long involved synopsis, you are going to hate this part.

After completing the art fact sheet, I had to provide some photos for the cover.  What do my hero and heroine look like.  Also, I needed some poses.   I had a ball going through pictures on istockphoto.com.   Perhaps a bit too much.

Now that I know some of the information I will need to provide going forward, I’m going to make this part of my plotting process.

Next step, line edits.  Can’t wait to see what that’s like.

We kick off with an interview featuring Harlequin Blaze author Tawny Weber.

Come join us.

www.GetLostInAStory.blogspot.com

Yes, it can be a crap shoot.  But every now and then someone gets lucky (like me) and finals.

Then wins.

Then sells.

If you don’t enter you’ll never have that opportunity.

Just sayin’

Good luck!!

The main character is the ex-wife of the hero from my first single title. She is gone, taking care of her I’ll mother while the hero babysits her kids. Then without warning it hits me that the reason she’s gone is because she’s on her honeymoon. Only I haven’t written her story yet. And Island Fire was born.

I’m very excited to write this book. The island is a little more fleshed out in my mind and getting more so each day. I love the heroine’s three kids. It will be fun to spend a little more time with them.

I’ve got characters for 8 more books so I want to make sure the island is some place it will be fun to return to over and over.

And what could be better than heading to Florida for a little hands on research?

How many characters are bugging you to tell their story? I have 2 more Desire targeted books impatiently awaiting their turn.

Unfortunately, the selling doesn’t stop when you receive “the call.”  In fact, it’s only  the beginning.  You need a brand.  You need to connect with readers.  You need to keep producing terrific stories with even less time than you had before.

Today I sent the full for my next book off to my agent and included a partial of the book after that.  Now, I get to sit back and wait while she works her magic.

Meanwhile, I’m struggling to keep up with Twitter, Facebook, this blog, a new blog I’m starting with a few recently sold 2010 Golden Heart finalists.  Thank goodness I have until July before the real heavy hitting promotion starts.

Time enough to write the next Desire idea noodling in my brain.  I had scheduled it for January…

But then, I got an idea for another single title that makes me think it needs to be set months before the one I just finished and was planning to spend the rest of the year revising.  Arg.

I want to write them all and I want to write them now.  Hopefully someone will want to buy them when I’m done.

Are your creative juices flowing.  Do you feel more inspired at one time of year versus another?

Sometimesmwhen I’m between books I have trouble starting my next project. When that happens I sometimes clean my house and cook dinner for my daughter. This time, we purged a bunch of stuff from our bedrooms and my office.

The desk got cleaned, making room for a second monitor. I got rid of two chairs that I never sat on, and bought this comfy chaise. And you may notice the 4×6 foot whiteboard for plotting? I’m in writing heaven.

What’s your favorite thing about your writing space??

I’m going to sit by the pool. Walk the beach. Shop. Eat seafood. And probably do as much research as possible in 6 days because where we’re going is the setting for my single title books and I need some ideas for future stories.

Heaven.

How about you? What’s your idea of a perfect vacation.

Instead of starting at the beginning of the book and working her way through, she jumps from scene to scene, layering description, setting, fixing dialog, characterization. Then when she’s done with that, she prints it out and reads the whole thing through. So far, this is allowing me to concentrate on the imagery and the dialog, play with my words. I don’t know if I could use this same technique in my short contemporary stories. I guess my next book will determine that.

Have you ever tried a new way of revising/editing? What was it? Did you stick with it or go back to your tried and true methods?

blue, green, white

I stare at them, wishing they were something else

the blue is a chair, I wish it was the sky in the early morning before the sun comes up

the green is a panel blocking my view of the window, I wish it was a hill and I would climb it to admire the panorama

the white is the ceiling, I wish it was a high puffy cloud drifting leisurely through the chair blue sky

blue green white fill my days

how I wish it was blue, green, white instead