Release day jitters!

Today is the release day for my latest historical romance, TO LOVE A SCOUNDREL. Release day is always a weird day for me, a day filled with a strange combination of nerves, excitement, jitters, hope. As I sit at my computer, trying to concentrate on whatever new manuscript I'm working on, I'm also resisting the urge to run out the door, jump in my car, and head down to my local Barnes & Noble so that I can 'visit' my books there on the 'new release' shelves! Because there's something special about seeing your latest book on booksellers' shelves for the first time, its cover all shiny and crisp, just waiting for readers to pick it up, to write or email you and tell you how much they enjoyed it!

I always liken it to sending your 'baby' off to preschool or kindergarten for the first time. You dress them in their best and send them off, excited for them yet hoping that the other kids (and teachers!) will 'get' them, understand them, like them. You want them to be judged 'smart', to excel as a student. Yet all of this tempered with the notion that you will love them just the same, no matter what. Mostly you're just proud.

Well, it's pretty much the same with a new book, crazy as that sounds! You're so filled with hope on release day--hope that readers will buy it, that they will enjoy it, that they will deem it a 'smart' book and that maybe it will even garner great reviews and accolades.

But even if it doesn't, that's okay, too. You understand that, just as some people like vanilla but others prefer chocolate, people have varying tastes. Every kid can't be the most popular, nor can every book.

Still, I hope you'll look for TO LOVE A SCOUNDREL this week. She's a 'nice kid'--really, she is!

And finally, to celebrate release day, I'm giving away a SCOUNDREL t-shirt to one lucky commenter--the winner can choose any summer t-shirt from my Cafe Press store!


HE’S NOTORIOUS FOR HIS WICKED WAYS…Frederick Stoneham thoroughly enjoys the life he leads as one of London’s most disreputable rogues. When his father arranges for him to wed Lady Eleanor Ashton, he believes his decadent lifestyle can carry on uninterrupted. After all, he remembers Eleanor to be plain and timid--not the kind of wife who will demand attention or insist he leave his mistress. But Frederick has a change of heart when he sees the striking beauty Eleanor has become…


CAN SHE REFORM HIM?
Eleanor is stunned to discover she is to wed Frederick Stoneham--the man she has secretly pined after for years, despite his reputation. When Frederick’s former mistress tells her a horrible lie, Eleanor feels betrayed. But Frederick’s persistence--and a passion that refuses to be ignored--are slowly melting Eleanor’s resolve. Now Frederick must prove to Eleanor that his days as a rake are in the past and that she is the only woman he will ever love…