Sorry for the ten-day absence. I wish I could tell you I was on a beach that was so remote, wild and untamed, there wasn’t any internet access, but you probably guessed the truth: it was just my day job, which has become a full blown nightmare in which Kate does not sleep, nor does she write fiction. Law – what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Meanwhile, I’ve been hearing good things from readers about CHARADE, and that has helped boost my spirits, and remind me I’m not really a lawyer, I’m a writer. Thanks to all of you for that! I'm so pleased that you're loving the ATHENA FORCE books.

So what’s new otherwise? Here’s some Movie news, some Doggie news, and a bit of Writing news.

MOVIES: We went to see SUPERBAD, and yes, it was funny. Not as funny as KNOCKED UP, but pretty good. A lot more juvenile-boy humor in SUPERBAD, so I did notice that the men in the audience were howling during certain scenes where I was just rolling my eyes.

Once again, the trailers before the movies promised a great Fall and Winter season. The new Denzel Washington movie looks fantastic. Then there’s Jessica Alba doing romantic comedy – it looks hilarious, and since I like her, I want that one to be a huge hit and the start of a new phase of her career.

Even National Treasure II looks good. The first was good also, and again I give credit to that cast. They’re funny and charismatic, and just the right group to take a fairly preposterous plot and make it work. (My husband has warned me that I’ll need to see this one without him. That’s fair, since I won’t go see that 3:10 to Yuma thing with him, right?)

DOGGIES: poor little Parker, the mini pom-chi, was finally disemballed. He came through it surprisingly well, full of energy that same day. Such a trooper.

WRITING NEWS: Last month I finished the manuscript for the YA novel I began in May, and I have now found the perfect, perfect agent to represent it, so I’m hoping for great things! I’ll keep you informed about this as things progress. I’ve known for a while that I should switch agents, but it’s not an easy thing to do. It feels right though – in fact, it’s amazing. I would have been so much more disheartened this month if I hadn’t had something exciting going on in the background, writing-wise.

Anyway, wish me luck on that!

I’ll blog again soon. Have a great day.

Kate

Right now, CHARADE is available on eharlequin as an e-book! WhEEEEE. And it will be on the fictionwise.com site as of Oct 1, apparently.

Not only that, you can actually get the print version for free -- sort of -- since it's one of the buy-one, get-one-free selections at eharlequin. So if you buy one of the other selections, you can get CHARADE for free. Or vice versa. I'm hoping to attract some new readers that way, lured in by the pretty picture on the cover.

That's all the CHARADE news I have for now. It's actually an October release, so all of this is rather premature, but I take my fun where I can find it!

Kate

I just heard that Romantic Times magazine loved CHARADE -- yay! And what a relief.

CHARADE received a 4 and 1/2 star rating. I had confidence in it, but still... A Mafia princess and a Eastern European dictator are far afield from the characters I usually create, so a little validation is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Oh, and my author copies arrived too. Now begins the dance. The carton will sit in the entry way, unopened, for a while -- maybe two days. I will circle it warily, or gaze on it fondly, depending on my mood. It's part anticipation, part superstition, and mostly procrastination -- because if it's the wrong book, or the cover is hideous in person, I don't want to know.

I did receive the wrong books once -- those of another author with a release that same month. Very disappointing. Eventually rectified, but I always remember it, thus the circling.

Did you know that once I open it, I will not ever open the book itself, except to autograph some copies? I have never once in my life read any of the pages of my books once they're bound. Why? Because I can't tweak them anymore, and I'm such an eternal tweaker, I just can't look. Plus, if I see a typo or error, I'll go crazy.

Best not to look.

Kate

My July contest is winding down, and I have to say, it’s been wild. Over 200 entries!

I’ve held the same kind of contest three months in a row, and for August, I’m changing formats. I thought I’d mention it so that if you stop by, you can figure out your answer now and avoid the August rush.

Basically, I’m doing a little research on what visitors would like to see in a blog entry. Do you like hearing about my writing woes? Tidbits about upcoming books? Do you prefer movie reviews? My opinions on miscellaneous? My feud with the you-know-what?

Semi-seriously, I want to know. It would help me decide what to blog about, and how often to do so.

So officially, the August/Sept question will be, which blog entry have you liked best so far, and why. I’m going to keep track, and perhaps modify my blogging accordingly (or not, depending on how valid the results seem, as in, if I get 100 entries that all say the same thing, word for freaking word, I won’t be too impressed.) But if a dozen people want movie reviews, well – that gives me a reason to go to the movies more often, so I’d be very, very inclined to take it to heart!

It’s still four days away, but I’m planning ahead as you can see.

Meanwhile, I Fed Ex’d my CHARADE manuscript to Silhouette today – and I was definitely ready to let it go. The first draft was pretty solid, but I made tons and tons of one-or-two-sentence changes during the read-through, which then produced the second draft. I made dozens and dozens of one-or-two-word changes to that one, and printed the third draft. Could I have found more tweaks? Sure, but basically, I was happy with it. The difference in shipping if I had gone one more round? 72 dollars instead of 38 – yep, that’s 34 reasons to ship it today, so I did.

BTYL! – Kate