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Yippee, Hooray, Hallelujah!

I don't know how other authors feel when they turn in a book they've been working on like a maniac, but I feel equal parts relief and fatigue. Okay, and happiness, joy, anxiety. I've written five books in the last 2-1/2 years so that's a lot of relief, fatigue, happiness, joy, and anxiety (heavy on the fatigue). That comes from having had contracts with two different publishers that were overlapping, and, no, I'm not complaining! It's just that I'm not Nora Roberts so it's not typical for me to write more than a book a year. At least, that's what I'd gotten used to when I was doing my Debutante Dropout Mystery series with Avon. Then I signed to do THE DEBS series with Random House, and those books were due about every nine months. And on top of that, I signed with Avon trade to do a women's "beach book" about three forty-something friends who happen to fall in love with younger men. Between first drafts, revisions, copy-edits, and galley proofings, I feel like I've hardly been away from my desk. The wheels of publishing keep us authors on the proverbial treadmill, although sitting at my desk hardly does wonders for my thighs. But every time I write something new and do my darnedest to make it as good as possible (knowing everyone won't like it anyway), I feel immensely gratified. But the biggest gratification comes from holding that finished book in-hand. I've got one that I should be seeing soon, too....

The second DEBS book, called LOVE, LIES, AND TEXAS DIPS, comes out on June 9, 2009, and I can't wait. Then next March, the third in that series, GLOVES OFF, will be out...as will THE COUGAR CLUB, the women's novel I just turned in to Avon trade. Whew! It's going to be a busy spring of 2010, that's for sure. For now, I've got a little breathing room before I have to start on a stand-alone YA book for Random House. I've had the idea spinning round my brain for awhile now, so I'm anxious to begin tinkering with it. But I'll get a chance to catch up on reading first (my TBR pile is HUGE) and to visit with friends, see my little niece and brand-new nephew, watch my husband play in his summer hockey league, and work in the yard and around the house. Which is all to say, I'll feel like a human again for awhile before I have to dive back into crazed-writer-chained-to-her-keyboard mode.