Jimothy's Coming Soon Page!

Just had to pop back for a mo to say that The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing PRINT is now up on Samhain's Coming Soon pages. Whee! I've been looking for it and I'm so pleased to have that link to give you now. :D

Three-Day Weekend Blog Party 2009!

It's time to party, guys! Normally I wouldn't be up this early on a Saturday, but when it's a 3-day weekend, the rules can change. Right? Right! Sometimes that long weekend is a reason to crash out for three days; sometimes you don't want to miss a minute of it so you sieze the holiday. After all, there aren't half enough 3-day weekends in the year. I was doing a mental count the other day and came up with only five: Jan. - Martin Luther King Day; Feb. - Presidents' Day; May - Memorial Day; Sept. - Labor Day; Nov. - Veterans' Day. And I thought, 'That can't be all!' So I went googling. Seems I missed out Columbus Day in October, but since he didn't really discover America, I'm dubious on that one. Does anyone who isn't a federal employee actually observe Columbus Day? Of course there are the holidays that move around through the week: New Year's Day, Independence Day, Christmas Day. But none of those guarantees a three-day weekend.

All right. Enough of that stuff. Let's chat about why we're partying on this newly declared 3-day weekend. My first novel, The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing, comes out in PRINT on Tuesday! Whee! I'm excited. Can you tell? ;) The fact that I'm awake at 7:30 on a Saturday is evidence enough of that. Later today there will be an excerpt, so make sure you check back for that. Tomorrow I'll be giving you a sneak peek at my second novel, Client Privileges, which I recently contracted with Torquere Press. And on Monday I'm traveling over to Lucy Monroe's place to guest blog. I hope you'll visit me there. (Don't worry. I'll post a reminder here on Monday so you won't miss out.) And of course there's a CONTEST! It couldn't be easier. Just post to play. That's right. All you have to do to enter is post a comment between now and midnight PDT on Tuesday 28 April. I'll even include any comments made to my guest blog post over at Lucy's. What a deal! What's that? You want to know the prizes? Fair enough.

Grand Prize: An autographed copy of The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing. I'll even personalize it if you want me to. :D
2 First Prizes: 1) A Ballad of Jimothy Redwing coffee mug with a selection of tasty teas;
and 2) a Ballad of Jimothy Redwing tote bag so you can carry your books/groceries/anything you like in style. (I think these are both cool, so I declare them both to be First Prize. ;) )

Now I want to know how you like to spend your three-day weekends. Do you travel? Take the family camping or to Disneyland? Do you invite friends over for a barbecue? Do you stay home and do all those things you've been meaning to do if you could just get a little time off to do them? How do you mark that elusive weekend+plus+one+more+day?

Friday quizzage and Are you ready to party?

Everyone ready for a three-day weekend? I know I certainly am! See you tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a silly Friday quiz to kick things off. :D

Your Old Fashioned Name Is: Avis Strangewayes

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Old Fashioned Name Generator

Three-Day Weekend Blog Party!

I think the world needs more three-day weekends, don't you? One per month would be a good start. To encourage this behaviour, I'm throwing a Three-day Weekend Blog Party to celebrate my upcoming print release of The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing. (Okay, okay. It comes out on Tuesday, which would make it a four-day weekend, but work with me here.)

Activities will include, but not necessarily be limited to:

• a super-easy contest with spiffy prizes--including a Grand Prize of an autographed copy of the book in question
• a sneak peek at my second book, Client Privileges
• and a guest blog event over at Lucy Monroe's place (Who doesn't like to go out of town, so to speak, for a three-day weekend, right?)

So come by this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to see what's going on! We'll party extra hard on Tuesday since that's Release Day (woo-hoo!), and on Wednesday, while we all recover from our long weekend, I'll announce contest winners.

Hope to see you around!

Best seller!

Apparently last night The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing was #44 on Amazon's bestseller list--under the appropriate category headings of course. I missed seeing that myself, but thanks to my fabulous friend Kate, I know it happened. This morning I'm at #83, but hell!, I'm still pleased. I broke the top 100. And for a little while at least, I broke the top 50. Woo-hoo! :D

New Contract!

I'm a little bit superstitious. Just a little. Okay, more than a little. I'm an actor and a baseball fan. Short of adding sailor, which I'm not, you can't really get more supersitious than me. Which is why, when I sold a novel to Torquere Press a fortnight ago, I did not post about it. I wanted to have the contract in my hot little hands first. Well, let's just say my hands are smokin'!

The title (at least for now) is Client Privileges and it's set in the same world, same country even, as The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing. More details in a bit. Just had to get this post up a.s.a.p. to share the good news at last! :D

Friday Quizzage!

What Greek Goddess are you?

You are Hestia! You are like Hestia, goddess of the hearth. You have the urge to mediate with logical reasoning when placed in contentious situations. You are also quite good at soothing the nervous soul or resolving the crisis situation. You are cool under pressure, and aim to make the world a more harmonious place with your intervention. You are a great communicator, and can be quite the social butterfly.

How do you compare? Take this test! | Tests from Testriffic