Fame at Last! — I think I've 'nailed' it!

I received an email yesterday from romance writer Stef Ann Holm, who I've never met, but who clearly is a kind and lovely person, telling me my book was featured on page 10 of the August 3 issue of WOMAN'S WORLD.  She sent me this picture and this email:

I was eating lunch this afternoon, and glancing at the August 3 issue of Woman’s World magazine (The one with Dr. Oz on the cover and how to lose up to 400 lbs. by eating almond butter—going to pick me up almond butter in a moment. LOL)  Anyway . . . on page 10, they show how to make manicures special.  They used a paperback to imprint pages on your nails. I’m a romance writer too, and I always look at book titles.  Saw “SPRING BRIDE” and did a Google search.  There you are!  And this is YOUR book.  Thought you’d enjoy knowing that.  Here’s a picture of the page you’re on.  May all women use your book to paint their nails.  But only after they read it and post 5-star reviews on Amazon. 

And lo! Yes, that's text from my book, THE SPRING BRIDE on that model's nails.  So do you think I've nailed the Fame thing? Or am I trying to gloss over the destruction of a book? Do you use my books to paint your nails? Should I? And wasn't it lovely of Stef Ann Holm to let me know?

Reissues!

Harlequin Australia has reissued my first two books -- Gallant Waif and Tallie's Knight in a two-in-one collection they're calling Courage & Circumstance. It's due on the shelves in August, so let's hope people can find it. Booktopia (Australian on-line bookshop) currently has it on discount.

When these two books were released in the USA All About Romance gave them both Desert Island Keeper reviews, and said "Sometimes it can be hard to pinpoint which books are really getting a lot of buzz on the Internet. But when six AAR reviewers and editors (and publisher) independently buy two books by the same author over one weekend and four more rush out to get them in the next few days, well, that's buzz like I've never seen before. Anne Gracie is an author worth getting excited about, and Tallie's Knight is the best Regency Romance I've read in years. (The other book we all rushed out and bought? Anne Gracie's other U.S. release - Gallant Waif - which received DIK status earlier this week.) "

You can still read these reviews: here's the review for Gallant Waif and here is the one for  Tallie's Knight.

I'm so pleased, because people have been writing to me for ages, asking when/how they can get hold of my old Harlequins. Ironic that they've been easily available as e-books in the US and Uk, but in the country I live in, we can't get them. But I've been informed they'll now be available on kindle etc, too, which will be great.

In September, Harlequin Australia will release my other two historicals — An Honorable Thief and the Christmas novella, A Virtuous Widow.

The Spring Bride ~ enter the hero

Here's a short excerpt from my new book, The Spring Bride. In it, you meet my bad-boy hero, Zach, for the first time. (Whitehall is where the government offices were.)

"Sir?" A clerk poked his head into the Honorable Gilbert Radcliffe's discreet Whitehall office. From the outer office, Zachary Black watched, faintly amused by the clerk's excessive caution. Surely he didn't look that dangerous? 

"Yes, Evans, what is it?" Radcliffe sounded preoccupied, busy.

"There's a man here asking to see you." The clerk lowered his voice. "Demanding to see you."

"And?"

"The thing is, sir, he's a gypsy."

"A gypsy?"

"Yes, sir. Dirty and disreputable-looking. I would have shown him the door, only the fellow asked for you by name, sir, insisted you'd want to see him, and wouldn't take no for an answer." He added doubtfully. "I could try to have him removed, if you insist, sir, only he's quite large and I fear it would be. . . difficult."

"An ugly customer, eh? Well then, send the fellow in. I'll deal with him."

The clerk turned to Zach, and stepped back to let him pass. "Watch yourself, gypsy. Mr Radcliffe might be a gentleman but he won't put up with any nonsense."

Zach winked at him, and sauntered into the the office, saying in a roughly accented voice, "Gen'leman give me a message for some toff called Mr Gilbert Radcliffe--that you, is it? Said I was to give it only to 'im. Said Mr Radcliffe would give me a gold guinea for it."

The Hon. Gilbert Radcliffe leaned back in his chair, regarding his visitor through narrowed eyes. His gaze took in the the darkly bristled jaw, the worn, faintly foreign clothing, the muddy boots, the shabby sheepskin coat with the faded but outlandish embroidery— and most damning of all, the small gold earring. "Gold, is it? For a scoundrel such yourself?"

"Gold, 'e promised me." Zach edged closer. "And gold is what I'll 'ave."

Gilbert Radcliffe wrinkled his nose. "Faugh, that smell. . . Have you been sleeping in a barn?"

Zach's mouth twitched, but he whined in an aggrieved voice, "I come a long way wiv this message, I 'ave."

"Shall I call someone and have the wretch removed, sir?" said Evans from the doorway.

"No, no." Radcliffe waved him away. "Bring a pot of tea and two cups." 

The clerk gave him an incredulous look. "Tea sir?"

"And some biscuits?" Zach added hopefully. "Ginger ones?"

The clerk gave him a dirty look and glanced at Radcliffe, who nodded. "Yes, and biscuits—ginger if you have them. And shut the door behind you." When the clerk had gone, Radcliffe looked at Zach and shook his head. "He probably expects you to steal the spoons."

Zach gave him an indignant look. "I'll have you know, Gil, I haven't stolen any spoons for, oh, weeks."

To pre-order The Spring Bride:

BarnesandNoble  

amazon.com 

IndieBound  

The Book Depository   

Booktopia   

Bookworld  

More Paper Earrings

Several times I've made paper earrings from my book covers, for me, and also for a few of my friends. Book award time coming up, I had a request from another friend for earrings made from the cover of her award-nominated book. So I made them.

I put them on FB and it provoked interest from a couple of other friends. So here are some more - the covers and the earrings. Kelly Hunter's RBY final What The Bride Didn't Know — a wonderful book— and her two books for Tule Publishing, both of which I loved — and they had such pretty covers I had to make them into earrings, too.

And BTW the blue bikini one —The Honeymoon Trap—is on special for the next few days at 99c and it's fabulous - set at a gaming convention and so sexy and funny.

Can you match the earrings with the covers?

And Trish Morey's RBY finalist book - A Price Worth Paying. I couldn't decide which cover to use, so I made both.

I'd already made some tiny books of my own RITA nominated Autumn Bride cover for last year's conference, so that'll do for me. Unless I get inspired again tonight — I make things in front of the TV when I'm relaxing.

But I did make some tiny earrings out of some leftover Japanese paper and I think they look pretty gorgeous, don't you?

Regency Dresses

Yesterday I was putting together some thoughts for the cover conference for the cover of my next book, The Spring Bride. I'm still writing the story, but in my case, because Im not a speedy writer, the cover is always finished long before the book.

They'd asked for some suggestions, and so, because the title is The Spring Bride, it'll be no surprise to you that there will be a bride on the cover. And it will be spring.

So I went looking for a few regency-era dresses for Jane, my bride.  Daisy, her sister, will be making the dress for her. Jane remembers her mother telling her about a beautiful pink dress she wore the day she met her future husband, and so Jane wants to get married in pink. It doesn't have to be all pink -- a cream dress with a few touches of pink would be fine.

Pinterest -- otherwise known as The Endless Tunnels of Gorgeousness. A place so easy to get lost in. Honestly, I could spend all day looking at stunning regency clothes. But I did manage to resist all the other gorgeous period collections. And I came up with a few possibles: So what do you think?

We'd need to make this one a little less apricot and paler for Jane, but I love it as is and I love the embroidered net overlay.

Such a pretty dress and the touch of pink roses around the hem and train are gorgeous. Not sure about the ninja scarf around the bride's face, though. :)

I loved this one with its lace overlay — this was very popular on FaceBook when I showed it.

Of course we'd need to do this in pink instead of blue, but otherwise, it's lovely, isn't it?

This was popular on Fb, too. I'm not so sure about the leaves. I do like the idea of appliqued and embroidered leaves, but these are a bit big for my taste. But the fabric of the gown is beautiful.

A lace veil or possibly a shawl. It's Spring, after all, and in England, so the weather won't be guaranteed sunny.

Or how's this if the weather is a bit nippy — a gorgeous cream pelisse, fastened with shell buttons.

I'm nowhere near writing that scene yet, so it might not be any of these dresses. In the meantime, oh dear, I might have to wander down The Endless Tunnels of Gorgeousness. I can justify regency clothes  because it's 'research' but there are luscious clothes from all eras, and all kinds of other beautiful things.

Which I must and shall resist. She says firmly. 

Really!

Do you have any favorites from the ones above?

I have books!

Hooray! The advance copies of my new book, THE WINTER BRIDE (an RT Top Pick!) have just arrived.

Normally they don't get here until just after the book comes out, so I'm thrilled to have them a little bit early. Of course I ripped open the box and tossed them onto the rug to take a photograph.

They look pretty, don't they?

I have a couple of friends who've been waiting impatiently to read this, so they'll be pleased.

The rest of you will have to either wait until the book is out (April 1st) or visit me on the various blogs I'm touring and leave a comment. I'll be giving away a book at each blog.

You'll be notified about the blog tour here, and also on Facebook and Twitter, where I'll also be posting snippets of the story (there's one below this post —scroll down) and the occasional review.

The Australian cover

Two advance copies of my Australian edition of THE WINTER BRIDE arrived in the mail today. So pretty.

Mary Jo Putney will be interviewing me about the book on the Word Wenches Blog, and I'll give one of these away to a North American commenter. Stay tuned for the interview date. I'll put it on FB and twitter -- and here too.

Trifles — and something exciting.

No, I'm not talking about the dessert made of cake, jelly, fruit and custard that I used to see when I was a kid; I'm just talking about small things— paper earrings — and then I remembered I should mention something not so small, and quite exciting (for me, anyway.)

 I haven't been posting a lot recently, as I'm deep in book-world, but I thought I'd just dive in quickly with a small insignificant thing -- ie a trifle.

Last year, for the ARRA (Australian Romance readers Conference) I made a few origami-style paper earrings from the cover of my books, and gave them away. I blogged about it here. So this year I made some more paper ones, only in a different style — little paper Autumn Bride books.

I'm thinking of going to the US to the RWA National Conference in Atlanta in July, so my question is, should I make some paper earrings to give away there? 

Oh, and I just realized I haven't put this on the blog — the something exciting — why might I go to the US conference? Because my book, BRIDE BY MISTAKE is a finalist in the RITA competition, the romance writers' Oscar, which I'm thrilled about. 

So. . . decisions, decisions.

An Exciting Package

A courier just came to the door with a lovely big box. Great, I thought, copies of The Autumn Bride in time for Christmas. But no, instead, the box contained a pile of foreign editions of my books.

There were two in Indonesian (they're the ones in the pic with the title in English), all four French editions of Les Archanges Du Diable (love that French series title — The Devil's Archangels, instead of the Devil Riders), a copy of Princessa Furtiva, (Stolen Princess, or maybe Secret Princess in Spanish) and a Japanese edition of the Accidental Wedding. 

The titles in other languages aren't always the same as the ones in English, and I always find it interesting to see what they've named them. The only ones I can read are the French ones (and then not all that well, so please forgive me if I've translated the titles wrongly or clumsily) and from right to left in the top line of the photo, they are "Rider of the Storm,"(The Stolen Princess),  "Lady of my Torments," (His Captive Lady),  "A Lady to Marry,"(To Catch a Bride)  and "Nothing But Passion," (The Accidental Wedding.)

 I love getting my foreign editions — and so do the libraries I usually donate them to.

Would you wear these?

I watched a movie on TV last night, and because I like to do stuff while I'm watching TV, I tried making some paper earrings out of my book covers. Each one only takes a few minutes. They're a miniature version of the paper decorations I made for Christmas one year.

 I thought they might be fun to give away at the ARRA convention I'm attending in a couple of weeks time.

Can you identify the books they're from?

 #1

#2

#3

#4

Here they all are together, hanging off a coffee mug.

What do you think? Should I take them to ARRA? Is it a dumb idea? 

Would you ever wear something like this?

Leave a comment or match the earrings with the books, and I'll pick someone to receive a pair of earrings made of whatever cover you want.

Post script: After Trish Morey's comment,  I made these from her book covers and some for another author friend. I gave my earrings away at ARRA and they were such a hit I might make some to take to New York in June.