March 21, 2008 | News,Quirky notions

Up close and personal, that is.

I’m blogging today on that very subject over at Brava Authors. Please stop by and let us know what you think!

Diane

March 15, 2008 | Better than chocolate,News,The stories

Hey, lookee here! BOND OF FIRE made it into a fabulous book trailer from Circle of Seven!

I’m always fascinated by what parts of a book wind up getting emphasized in a book trailer. This one puts the focus squarely on Jean-Marie and Hélène, the hero and heroine, plus their long agonized fight against the demands of duty and honor which keep them apart. Not to mention Celeste, Hélène’s little sister and the story’s villainess.

Film also has a nifty way of summarizing things in a few, rich images, too, that I deeply envy as a writer. I wish I could portray Paris in an instant – or a Texas ranch at sunset! But that’s what I keep working to learn how to do better. And, of course, I get to spend many long hours with my characters writing their stories. Yeehaw!

Hope you enjoy this book trailer as much as I do -

Diane

March 5, 2008 | Me, myself,Quirky notions

We’re getting ready to sell the house. (Oh joy unforeseen…) As part of this thrill, we get to open up vistas throughout the house, so potential buyers can see how much space actually exists in our little townhouse. (Riiight.)

In other words, everything we can possibly live without gets to go into storage so strangers can traipse through our home. If this works, we get more money. I call this A Big Incentive. What I’m having a really hard time with is watching all my so-called spare books go into storage.

Every piece of fiction – gone. All of my Linda Howard collection, Elizabeth Lowell, Angela Knight, Georgette Heyer, Lora Leigh, volumes of Secrets, and more – vanished into boxes and locked up. Okay, they’re carefully labeled and I do have a key. But can I wander over to my bookshelf and grab one? Can I look up a quick bit of DREAM MAN for a fast bit of inspiration? Or how about THESE OLD SHADES for Vidal’s sublime way of putting pretentious idiots in their place? No, I have to rely upon my memory. Well, I do have these well-loved, well-thumbed keepers memorized but, even so, my friends aren’t with me any more!

I even had to prune my research collection. I pray my editor doesn’t want a detailed explanation of the Texas Ranger history behind BOND OF DARKNESS; most of those books are now sleeping peacefully. My Arab histories of the Crusades – well, I made it through BOND OF BLOOD so I probably don’t need them any more, even if they do help explain Don Rafael’s broad cultural tolerances. I even had to pack up many of my Civil War histories, which is dreadful for somebody who likes to prowl Civil War sites on free weekends.

Still, who’d have thought I could take sixty boxes of books out – and still have so many books left in the house? I still have my basic research library here, more than capable of taking me through the next Devil book and my 1920′s paranormal romance.

Plus I do have a few novels stashed away. My Treo is still stuffed with ebooks, including NY Times bestsellers thanks to eReader. I’ve got a complete collection of JD Robb novels hidden there.

And my copy of Dakota Cassidy’s THE ACCIDENTAL WEREWOLF arrived the day after my other novels went into storage.

Hmm, I seem to hear a novel calling to me. Please excuse me while I go check out Dakota’s book.

Happy reading, friends!