Pretend this is June 1st, 'Cause here's another great picture and one final excerpt!!

We're super busy around here tomorrow, so I'm posting my June 1st a little bit early.

One more Romantic Times picture to share, my favorite of them all...Romance Cover Model (and nice guy), Peter DeCicco and new friend Dana and me at the Vampire Ball.

Everyone was in costume but me it seemed, so my friends helped me become "the victim"...I was in thrall, LOL!! Can you blame me after checking Peter out? Someone even had these nifty tattoos. Can you see my bite?

Okay on to yesterday's winner from the comments section...Meljprincess, pick a book!! The list is dwindling, but there are some great ones left still (and lots more promo goodies, too):

Count Down-Iris Johansen
Darker Than Midnight--Maggie Shayne
The Dark One--Ronda Thompson
On Blue Falls Pond--Susan Crandall
Chill of Fear (Hard Cover!!!)--Kay Hooper

And, one final excerpt from The Perfect Daughter before we move on to celebrating my July Superromance, The Prodigal's Rturn. The scene is too long to give you all of it, but I think I found a good place to leave you hanging ;O)

Sigh, my hero and heroine have a long road ahead of them, but I'm dying for you to join them on their ride. The wait is killing me. Hope it's killing you, too LOL!!!

*******

Matt's strong hands caressed Maggie's skin. His body was a fiery warmth she craved, as if she'd been cold all her life. She swallowed his growl, returning in kind the roughness she'd never known she'd wanted before they'd met. Her nails scraped. Her teeth nipped at supple muscles. Their bodies came together one last shuddering time.

Minutes later, their breathing still out of control, he rolled until she was straddling his waist, their chests touching, her brown hair curling madly around her face as she leaned in for another kiss. He palmed her bottom, his fingers long enough to trace downward until she wiggled and collapsed with a purr of contentment. His arms wrapped her in a hard-edged cocoon she never wanted to leave. She cuddled closer and held on to both the moment and the man that she was fighting so desperately to keep.

"That was amazing." He tucked her head against his shoulder, letting out a lazy sigh that made her heart skip the way it always did when something felt this right. Then his tender kiss at her temple shattered the last of the fragile peace she'd been clinging to. "You're..."

She felt his frown in the way his body tensed. Wiped at the tears she knew had trickled onto his shoulder. Pushed away. Drew the sheet around her. Cursed under her breath as she wiped at her face again and fought off the emotion closing in on her.

The doctor no on knew she'd been seeing was a quack. Their sessions, talking about the past, remembering...it was only making things worse.

"I have to go." Matt sat up, too, his voice gentle but his expression grim.

"I know." She nodded.

The task force finally had a lead on the group of Latino gang members who'd ambushed Matt and Bill two weeks ago. Matt's guys had been tracking them ever since the night of the funeral. Out of loyalty to Bill, she kept rationalizing, not out of some obsessive need to avenge the man's murder.

"I should have left a half hour ago." He dragged on his pants in impatient jerks.

"I know, I just..."

... needed to hold you, so I wouldn't think about where you're going...or what could happen...

What had happened before, to Bill and to--

A masculine sigh yanked her from her thoughts. She looked up to find Matt watching her come unglued.

"We're going to have to talk about this." Standing there, shirtless, muscles rippling as he shifted his feet, he had the look of man who'd rather eat dirt than talk.

She'd brought up the investigation into Bill's shooter a dozen times. She'd tried to get him to step back and refocus, but nothing doing. He never wanted to talk about his job or what drove his single-minded devotion to his work, any more than she'd offered up her past and its recent aftershocks for casual conversation. The determined set of his jaw announced their mutual decision to live and let live was over.

Just when she was a sniffle way from a breakdown.

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty about going to work," she hedged. But she had dragged him back to bed when she'd known he had a midnight call. A bed where she still sat, no doubt looking tragic, wrapped up in sheets still warm from his body. "I--"

"I never said you were trying to." He crouched before her and took her hand.

Not a good sign.

Matt was an amazing lover. A tough man with a huge heart to match every other larger-than-life part of him. But tender and understanding gestures weren't his thing. Neither was looking at her as if she might shatter to pieces.

"You're the smartest, most beautiful, unpredictable woman I'd ever met," he continued. "I'm a lucky bastard, having someone like you in my life. But, I thought you knew...that you understood the risks that come with my work."

"I..." She did understand, too well. That was the problem.

The first problem in her life she hadn't been able to tackle head-on. She hated feeling like a victim every time she thought of losing him. She hated not having a spine where his work was concerned. The woman he'd first met and had had one, and he understandably wanted that kick-ass, confident Maggie back.

So get a grip!

"We can't keep doing this." He sounded almost angry now. Sad, but angry. "I'm not totally sure what's changed, but I don't need to know the reasons. Not when I can see what this is doing to you."

"See what?" she asked in a disgustingly watery voice.

You go, girl!

"That living with me is terrifying you." His fists clenched against his thighs. "I can hear it every time you say, 'I love you,' when I walk out the door--like you might never get another chance."

"I say I love you because that's how I feel." And even though he never returned the sentiment, she knew he cared deeply for her, too. "Since when is that a crime?"

"Since you make it impossible for me to do my job without worrying about how it's going to affect you! You've always known what I do. What I am."

"Yes," she agreed simply, when she couldn't remember the last time anything had felt simple.

Matt stood between total strangers and the harm most people never knew surrounded them. But Maggie knew. She'd survived her teenage brush with drugs and the violence of that world. Her best friend, Claire, hadn't. Her sheriff's deputy uncle had protected her, but she'd seen with her own eyes the kind of risks officers took to do their jobs. Risks that might one day get Matt killed.

She curled deeper into the sheet, hiding the shiver taking control of her body.

"But--" Her throat closed, refusing to finish the sentence.

"But?" Matt's bright blue eyes filled with regret. He smoothed a hand through the messy hair that made her look even younger than she was.

But I can't stand to lose you, too.

"You've changed, Matt," she said instead. "Lately, it's like you're looking for an excuse to push limits. Like you're trying to put yourself more and more at risk, until you make up for what happened to Bill. Like you won't be happy until you totally self-destruct."

The compassion drained from his eyes as she unfairly made this about him, when every last speck of the mess they'd become was on her. "I'm doing the same job I always have. You're the one who's changed. Living like this, scared all the time, it isn't right for you. Maybe I'm not right for you, baby."

Baby.

She jerked away from his favorite endearment, anger conquering the sink hole her emotions had become...

Okay, Back in Town with New Winners!!!

No Internet reception where I was--well, a little. Just enough to upload Monday's excerpt as promised, but it took most of the morning ;O)

So, we have new prize winners from Friday and Monday's posts. Haven't heard back from Thursday's Ayreann yet, so the remaining books up for grabs still are:

Count Down-Iris Johansen
Darker Than Midnight--Maggie Shayne
Code Name: Blonde--Christina Skye
The Dark One--Ronda Thompson
On Blue Falls Pond--Susan Crandall
The Duchess Diaries--Barbara Dawson Smith
Chill of Fear (Hard Cover!!!)--Kay Hooper

Friday's winner...Tam!!!
Yesterday's...Beth!!

Ayreann, Tam and Beth, email me at anna@annawrites.com to let me know your book picks. Everyone give me two choices, and hopefully we won't cancel everyone out ;O)

How 'bout I post a final excerpt from The Perfect Daughter tomorrow???? And of couse another winner from today's comments (until the books and the promo goodies from RT are gone ;O)

And keep an eye out for The Prodigal's Return excerpts coming soon to the blog...can't wait for you to get a look at my July book!

You asked for it...Here's another scene!!!

I'm having trouble posting from the road, so here's the second scene of The Perfect Daughter...Matt Lebretti's first scene...More details and prize winners to follow, when I can get a reliable connection, so keep checking back!! Maybe even a third scene later in the week (Matt and Maggie's first together ;O) . There are still more books and promo goodies to give away to one lucky visitor each day who leaves a comment...

************

"You guys ready?" Tommy Callihan asked. Word had just come over the radio. The hearse was a couple of blocks away.

"Hell no," Matt Lebretti bit out as he turned away from the church.

He wasn't ready for any of it.

It was too dark to be such a such a hot, July morning. The grey-tinged clouds overhead threatened rain as they drearily rolled by. Still, staring at the depressing sight was a relief.

Anything was better than focusing on the flood of dark blue surrounding him as he waited for the body of his friend to arrive. Or turning around again to find Maggie still watching from inside.

"Oh, my God! I'm so sorry," she'd said three days ago, when he'd first told her about the shooting.

She'd clung to him, asking if there was anything she could do, for him or the Donovan family. She'd bravely battled the first tears he'd ever seen in her expressive eyes when he'd left for work the next morning. Then when he'd come back that night and every night since, she'd clung some more. And he'd let her, even though anxious women who couldn't handle the reality of the job were tops on his list of distractions to avoid.

He'd let her, because he'd needed Maggie's warm, toned body in his arms, just as much as she'd needed him. Just for a day or two, he'd told himself. Just until he could close his eyes and not see Bill bleeding out while Matt was powerless to do anything but pray for a medical miracle that hadn't come.

But two days had come and gone, then three. And the haunted look in Maggie's eyes hadn't disappeared. A look that wasn't just about Bill.

She said she was fine. She'd been saying it for nearly a year, ever since she'd moved in with him and something had changed inside the amazing woman he didn't understand anymore.

Maggie's friend Amber called her an old soul, whatever that meant. All he knew was that Maggie had been a force to reckon with when they'd first started dating. Then last summer she'd started calling his cell three and four times a day. They'd argued about it, when they'd never argued before, and she'd finally stopped. Next, his long hours and late nights had started to irritate her. This from a woman mired in a grueling schedule of student-teaching by day, and masters-level courses in education at NYU several nights a week. She hadn't been irritated, he'd begun to realize. She'd been scared. Then Bill had been killed, and Matt had seen tears in her eyes every time he'd left her since.

Maggie Rivers, kick-ass independent and mature beyond her twenty-five years, the unpredictable center of the last year and a half of his life, daughter of one of the toughest cops he'd ever met, was terrified by the job.

The job that was the one constant in his life that had never let him down.

The dangers inherent in being a lead detective on Manhattan's gang task force were constant and unforgiving. One mistake, one foot placed in the wrong direction, and he could be gone tomorrow. Hell, Bill had done everything right, and he was gone, regardless.

Damn it!

He had a friend to bury. A job to do. A flood of internal red tape drowning him after the shooting, when he wasn't hunting down leads on the gang that had staged the ambush that got his partner killed. Soothing his girlfriend's fears, worrying about her worrying about him, shouldn't even rate a second thought right now.

That made him an asshole. Clearly not what Maggie needed him to be. But it was the way things had to be. The way his life worked.

"I'm here if you need to talk," she'd said the night Bill had died.

And they would talk, eventually. But neither one of them had the stomach for it now.

Maybe her anxiety would burn itself out, and he'd get back the woman who'd knocked him on his ass when he'd first caught sight of her--at the Central Park softball game she'd come to watch her dad pitch. She'd been almost too young, but not the least bit bowled over by his bad-boy muscles or the Italian charm most women responded to. Her first irreverent comeback to one of his smoother pickup lines had piqued his interest. Before the game was over, he'd talked her into going for a beer after, and he hadn't looked at another woman since.

A sudden burst of sunlight glinted off the windows of the hearse as it turned the corner and crept to a stop at the curb. He and the other officers headed down the granite steps, his mind replaying the image of Bill's widow and his mother crying at the front of the cathedral, powerless to stop what was happening. Just as they'd been powerless every day Bill had left to do what he'd sworn to do for the people of this city.

The same job Matt could never turn his back on. Yes, his work was dangerous. Yes, every year it was tougher not to wonder if he was wasting his time. There was always more crime and violence, more too-young gang hoods joining the party, than he and his men would every be able to stop. But he did the job better than just about anyone on the force. And he'd always been willing to give up just about anything, or anyone, to keep making a difference.

So why couldn't he face the reality that, sooner rather than later, it was going to mean giving up Maggie Rivers, too.

Another winner--and a teaser of an excerpt

Hey everyone!! We'll start with prizes and move right into an excerpt of my latest draft (for my Feb. 07 three-quel to my "daughter" series, The Perfect Daughter).

Yesterday's winner is...Ayreann. Send your book pick and mailing address to anna@ananwrites.com, and I'll get you all set up ;O). Please use the list from yesterday's blog post, minus Amanda Ashley's "Desire in the Dark"--Amy snapped that one up.

The prizes for the last three days are packed up and going out priority today. Everyone should have their goodies early next week. Be sure to let me know when they arrive.

Okay, I'm off to do some errands and all-around relaxing things today. I'm diving into several new proposals starting this weekend and next week, so I'm taking a few days to recharge after the craziness of my last deadline and the week of hard, hard work at RT--see, one more pic of me working hard is required to give you just the right image of why I need a bit of a break...Deven was fiercely telling everyone to back off, the writers need to rest...isn't he sweet ;O)

Speaking of my last deadline, I'm proud as punch at the way The Perfect Daughter turned out. We'll have to wait a while to see what my editor thinks, but in the mean time, I'd love to give you a taste.

Those of you who've been following this series, Maggie was 17 when we first met her in The Unknown Daughter, and eighteen/nineteen in The Runaway Daughter. Now, at 25 and about to finish up graduate school at NYU, she gets her own romance in The Perfect Daughter. She's in love with a tough, Italian NYPD detective, and as she fights to hold onto her relationship, she's also fighting demons from the past--the terrifying things we've all watched her go through in the first two "daughter" books. She's worked so hard to be the put-toghether, can-handle-anything woman her family's always thought she was. But the perfection she's been clinging to is starting to crack in places. The fear and pain leaking through could cost her everything she loves most, particularly Detective Matt Lebretti.

The story begins in NY, but have no fear, everyone's back in Oakwood, GA before you know it. The small-town community and family ties in this book are wonderfully heartwarming.

So here's the first scene. Let me know what you think, and if you likie I'll post another on Monday ;O)

********

"Stop hovering, Mom." Maggie Rivers barely glanced at the woman who'd joined her beside an ornate stained glass window.

She'd been supporting herself for years. She was putting herself through grad school and living with the man of her dreams. She knew her mother, a self-made success in New York business circles, respected all she'd achieved. But today, Carrinne Wilmington-Rivers was displaying an alarming talent for hand-wringing.

"I'm fine," Maggie insisted. "Please go wait with Dad."

She couldn't remember the last time she'd actually felt fine, and the strain was clearly showing. But why did her family have to pick today to finally call her on it?

Her dad was waiting somewhere amidst the crowd of Class-A-dressed officers who'd filled the enormous Manhattan cathedral. But her mother had abandoned their perfectly good seats to offer the kind of public support that could only mean disaster. The kind of lean on me, when you're not strong display Maggie refused to let NYPD Detective Matt Lebretti see her needing.

Matt and the other pallbearers would be carrying the flag-draped coffin into the church soon. Then he'd join her at their own seats near the front. She had an entire funeral service to get through, for a man she barely knew. A man whose death was, for her and Matt both, entirely too personal. Indulging in a heart-to-heart with her mom wasn't going to happen. As if it already wasn't impossible not to picture this service being for Matt instead of his partner.

He and Bill had been standing two feet away from each other when Bill went down.

"I know how hard this must be for you." Her mother laid a comforting hand on the shoulder Maggie kept subtly stretching. Her entire body felt like a throbbing migraine waiting to happen. "I just wanted to see if you needed anything."

"I need to focus on Matt right now."

She needed to be as okay as she kept insisting she was.

She caught sight of him through the cathedral's open doors, where he was waiting on the steps for the hearse to arrive. Her heart caught at the rigid set of his classic Italian features. He was determined to be okay, too, no matter how responsible he felt for Bill Donavan's death.

"It's not like this is the first funeral I've ever been to." She steeled herself against the unwanted echoes of everything she'd left behind to get on with her life.

She was a Rivers. Getting on with it was in her blood. Wallowing in the past was a waste of time.

"Matt's clearly worried about you, too. He--" Her mom stalled at Maggie's wordless glare to, shut up, please. "Letting yourself lean on people while you deal with something like this isn't the end of the world, honey."

Something like this.

A sea of blue.

That's what her dad had said a NYPD funeral would look like. But his description hadn't begun to prepare Maggie for the reality.

Five years ago when she'd started NYU, he'd transferred from being the sheriff of small-town Oakwood, GA, to a captain's position in one of New York's outlying boroughs. His county-funded job mostly involved enforcing civil laws and warrants, unlike the city officers who dealt with the bulk of the day-to-day violence and street crime. Still, he and his deputies had attended every department funeral in the last five years. They all turned out--NYPD, New Jersey officers, sheriffs, port authority cops. They showed up in force to honor the ultimate sacrifice made by an officer who'd put the safety of others before his own.

Maggie let her gaze travel to the front pew, where Bill's grieving widow and mother were clinging to each other. Women who'd given a hero their heart, never believing this could happen. Not really. Not to them.

No one ever did.

"I'm fine," she assured her mother. She had no business being anything else. "Don't worry about me."

But Carrinne was a long way from convinced as she walked away. She'd shot Maggie that same you're kidding, right? look more than once over the last few months.

Okay, so fine wasn't the right word to describe standing alone in a cathedral teaming with grieving people. But she'd earned herself a few blessed moments of silence, free of her family wondering how messed up she really was. Free of them asking questions that she had no intention of answering today, any more than she had since she'd gone back to Georgia last summer. She'd gone down for her great-grandfather's funeral, unearthed memories she'd thought were long-dead, and everything had begun to unravel.

The past had a stranglehold on her life now. Every day, she fought off the panic. The compulsion to beg Matt to hold her, to stay with her instead of going to work, so the fear of losing him and the need to run from everything would go away, at least for a while.

Just what a stressed-out NYPD detective longed for, a clingy, slightly unhinged girlfriend.

As if sensing she needed it, Matt smiled solemnly from his post at the door.

It hurt like hell, but she made herself smile back.

A Rose by Any Other Name

Friends are wonderful things, and as I said the ones I've made at RT the last couple of years have been amazing. Many of the pictures from this week and today come to you courtesy of Rose, Lisa and Patrice. All I had to say was, "I'm doing somoething fun online," and they were there to help out--both me and the fun...

Here's me and Patrice again, dancin' like crazy women...




And the cream of the Peter Decicco fan club (kid you not, the man has his own online harem...check his pic out from a few days ago, and you'll see why). It was the vampire ball...I didn't have a costume, so I went as a victim (I was in thrall)...someone gave me a tatoo that made it look like I'd been bit...somewhere...



More models...Need I say more...








And then it was home to the real world this week--my son's last few days of school. Yesterday afternoon, at around 3:00 busses full of singing and screaming children were cruising all over the neighborhood for the last time until Fall . Once my son arrived, we booked it over to a friend's house for a celebratroy water baloon/water gun fight, an afternoon of craziness and then a neighborhood pool party. And so our summer begins...him chilling and resting up from all things academic, me enjoying him while he's still young enough to be hanging near home during the summer (and working hard on my novels, so I have a good excuse to head to RT again next year), and everyone relishing a couple of months of less-hectic schedules and longer days.

We're heading to New York for a family thing in a few weeks, then to Cincinatti for another reader event. I LOVE road trips...long hours of dedicated writing time...More work that's not quite work, because I love it, and I love being able to live my life around my job.

How 'bout everyone else...what's your summer looking like? I know a lot of you have another month of school to go, but after that...what are you going to do to recharge (I strongly recommend dancing all night and cover models, but I know that can be a tall order ;o) ?

Our winner from yesterday's comments--Amy S.!! Amy, email me at anna@annawrites.com to give me your snail mail addie and your book preference. The list after our first two winners chose their books is...

Desire After Dark--Amanda Ashley
Count Down-Iris Johansen
Darker Than Midnight--Maggie Shayne
Code Name: Blonde--Christina Skye
The Dark One--Ronda Thompson
On Blue Falls Pond--Susan Crandall
The Duchess Diaries--Barbara Dawson Smith
Chill of Fear (Hard Cover!!!)--Kay Hooper

I'll keep giving books and promo items away until they're gone, even as I settle more deeply back into my real world. Leave a comment in todays blog to be eligible.

Tomorrow, I'll share a teaser of my Feb. '07 book--The Perfect Daughter--as I dive back into writing the May ;07 book. Come back and tell me what you think!!

Yes, It was a hardship, but someone had to do it...

For an author, RT is supposed to be about networking with peers, the management from your publisher, booksellers and reviewers, and most importantly readers. And, yeah, there's lots of that...otherwise there's no way I could write off the expense on my taxes ;O)



See, here's another gift bag I gave away to a lucky raffle winner in Club RT.









And here's my spot at Saturday's booksigning--aren't the little cars I gave away cute. They're squeezy stress toys that are the closest I could get to the vintage red car on my July cover (which you can see a bit of on the left of the screen). Oh, and I gave away another gift bag there, too. Tons of authors did.



And me hanging (ah, networking) with fellow author Patrice Michelle. Don't we look professional? This is right at the end of the book signing, right before we headed out to Mexican next door for a late lunch, then a long walk on the beach, followed by the Mr. Romance competition. But I digress...you're supposed to be feeling my pain as a hard-working conference author.


Picture me schlepping around promo items and books and workshop notes and so forth. Feel sorry for me yet?... Okay, then let's return to our regularly scheduled program ;O)

Yes, I had a blast, and whether you're a reader or a writer, you have to go to RT one day.

Yes, my name is Anna, and I'm a dance-aholic. Every night is about dancing with girlfriends you only get to see once or twice a year... This is Lisa, Jan and Dana...

...every day, you try to sneak out to the beach for a few minutes whenever you can. Throw in some amazing men...Check out Lisa waith Bill Freda...and what could be better!!!

I know, I know... The men are what you're coming back to see, so their pics are below (I'm hoping to be getting even more from my girlfriends).

But before I get off track, yesterday's winner is...

Shari C

Shari, email me at anna@annawrites.com to let me know your book pick from yesterday's list (Zara already grabbed up The Naked Marquis), and your mailing address, and I'll send your book and RT promo goodie your way this week.

I'm trying to snag photos from friends who are only just now getting back to their real lives and careers, so be patient. I may still be uploading pics weeks from now. In the mean time, here are some more highlights from my digital memories ;O)



This is Bobby, CJ and Deven... Models with their shirts on...











Models with their shirts off ;O)










And models hugging me ;O) This is Andrei, last year's Mr. Romance winner!!! Scroll down in the blog to read more about him.


Okay, enough for today, or my blog software's going to explode. Come back tomorrow, and let's see what I can pull together ;O)

Thanks for sharing the fun. Leave more comments, and tomorrow we'll have a new winner!!! Don't forget we'll be doing this again in a little over a month for my July The Prodigal's Return launch party!!!!

So many books, so many pictures... Waaaaaaa!!! I wanna go back to Daytona, LOL!!

It's hard to believe I left for RT last week this time.

The conference blew by so fast, yet it seems like it took way more than a week to do everything. I'm glad everyone's liking the pics of the promo items and the conference. I have more to share today, until the blogger starts acting up again.

As promised, here's the list of books I picked up. There some amazing titles and authors here, but I'll never have time to read them. So, sucks to be me, but my online buddies are in luck. Until all the loot is gone, I'll pick a winner each day from the previous day's comments. The winner can pick a favorite book and I'll throw in a promo item. And the titles are:

• Desire After Dark--Amanda Ashley
• Count Down-Iris Johansen
• Darker Than Midnight--Maggie Shayne
• Hunting Fear--Kay Hooper
• The Naked Marquis--Sally MacKenzie
• Code Name: Blonde--Christina Skye
• The Dark One--Ronda Thompson
• On Blue Falls Pond--Susan Crandall
• The Duchess Diaries--Barbara Dawson Smith
• Chill of Fear (Hard Cover!!!)--Kay Hooper

And yesterday's winner is...Bamabelle (Zara) !!!

So pick a book, and I'll load your priority mail box tonight. I'm determined to get prizes out on time this week--for once, I'm not staring down a deadline while running an online give away. Sigh...it's good to be free ;O)

Okay, enough of the administrative stuff. Let's talk about Romantic Times and why you HAVE to go to Housten next year.

I know you ladies LOVE prizes, and there are so many to win in the Club RT hospitality suite. There's never enough room for all the loot the first few days of the conerence. Here's Tina Smith, a bookseller, and the beach bag she won from me!!

And just in case you don't believe I was actually working while I was there, some friends and I threw an ice cream social for about 100 book sellers, gave away more goodies, and smoozed with the ladies who position our books in their stores.

Then, of course, we HAD to go to the evening events and work hard to appear to be having a good time dancing and hanging out with the...yeah, you guessed it...cover models.

Jason Santiago and Devon Yala swept me off my feet ;O)

During the day, the scenery was amazing!!!

This is Rodney Chatman, already a successful cover model, who won the Mr. Romance competition...and we can all see why. He's definitely easy on the eyes.

Every time you stepped out to the beach, beautiful men were lining up to have their picture taken. Don't you LOVE model volley ball???

It was watching my favorite scene from Top Gun up close and in person ;O)

The Best of the Best, RT Promotional Goodies

Okay, here are some shots of the promo items I swiped for my online fans.

There was so much, and a lot of the same old same old (pens and paper stuff). I also have some pens I didn't photograph. Tomorrow, I'll give you a list of the books I'll be giving away, and until it's all gone I'll give a book and a promo item from my stash away to a lucky winner who posted the previous day (like we do for the book launch parties). You'll get to pick the book, and I'll throw in the promo item just before I seal the envelope...how does that sound ;O)

Of course, each day I'll also be flashing some more fab. photos...next year, you just HAVE to come and see RT for yourselves ;O)

Here we go!!

Bobi Smith gave these gift packs away at her social .










Aren't these vampire duckies from Raven Heart amazing!!





Tiaras were a great idea...








...and bath salts...










...Oh, and baseball fans...

I have more than one of some of the items, and great books to give them away with, so leave a comment and come back tomorrow for more...and, yes, more cover models, too!!!

What a week!!!

Romantic Times should have their conference in Daytona every year!!!! What a blast ;O)

Of course there were great opportunities to work--signings, promoting to readers and booksellers and reviewers, speaking on panels, etc.

But then, there was the dancing and the meeting the cover models and the beach and the watching the cover models play volleyball and the friends and dancing with them and the cover models...did I mention there were cover models?

I have pics of everything. I'll share all I have this week, including some I hope my friends share with me (I couldn't take my camera with me everywhere, but there was always someone there to help me save the moment).

I'm also taking pics today of the cool promo items and books I picked up at the conference...I'll be picking winners from this week's comments and sending them out to you. I have no space for more goodies here, but I couldn't stand leaving them behind. Looks like I'm going to have to share the wealth!!

Now let's see...what pics to start with??? Oh yeah, the cover models...


Here's my favorite, Peter Decicco and Mr. Romance Contest Reader's Choice Winner, Mike Ward...sigh...it's not fair that they're so pretty and nice guys, too, is it?





Another contestant, Jason Santiago, and Elloras Cave calander model Brooks Johnson. Not enough...okay, okay, I'll give you one shot of the...






Cover Model Volleyball Matches!!!

Isn't Joe Gruber a amazing!!Yowza ;O)





Okay, I have to go take pics of the promotion prizes now...and to weed through the other cover model photos to find the perfect ones to share...did I mention there were cover models in Daytona???

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE!!!

Too tired...long conference...lots of dancin' and fun (with friends AND lovely cover models)...must sleep...but...must...post...to...blog friends...

Look for updates every day this week, complete with pics (of course including those of the great-looking cover models) and giveaways from the Romantic Times Conference promotional table goodies I picked up (including books and more!).

The Perfect Daughter draft is in, I had a great week in Daytona, and it's time to catch up on all things Internet. I'll be uploading pics of new contest prizes, too (my latest winners should be receiving their website contest prize purses this week). Don't miss the fun...come hang out and win something amazing!!!

Maybe we'll do a few early excerpts from The Perfect Daughter, too...let you vote for your favorite scenes...sky's the limit now that I have some room to breathe before my next proposal is due ;O) I'm off to dream about surf and sun and friends and fine looking men...hope you're snoozing with a smile on your face tonight, too!!

Don't Miss the Chance to WIN GREAT PRIZES!!!

Best Selling author Brenda Novak's Juvenile Diabetes auction is up and running, and there are some great items out there to bid on--including several from yours truly!!!

I'm including links to my items today (including some fab. purses, of course), but there's tons more to see. For a complete tour, head to the auction homepage (http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/Home.taf) and look around. To bid, it's as easy as logging in (so the auction software can keep track of your bids and how to contact you when you WIN!!!), then finding something you want to try for. Let me know if you have any questions...

So, as for my goodies, here's a list...hope some of my buds beat out the competition:


A designer Sorelli necklace (valued at over $187)

A Gift Package for One to Georgia Romance Writer's 2006 Readers Luncheon, including a one night stay in the luncheon hotel, lunch, a chance to chat with Sherrilyn Kenyon and much, much more (valued at $160)--

A certificate for dinner for two to Atlanta's 5-Star Italian restaurant, La Grotta, for those of you who live nearby or are coming for either RWA Nationals this summer or the GRW Reader Luncheon in the fall (a $100 total gift certificate)--

A Pink Suede Coach Bag and autographed books from, well, me ;o) (valued at $175)--







A Pink Suede Coach Clutch Bag and autographed books from some of our fab. Georgia Romance Writers (Anna Adams, Stephanie Bond, Anna DeStefano, Karen Kendall, Tanya Michaels, Berta Platas, Wendy Was, and Karen White), plus lots of other fun goodies (Valued at well over $150)--

Have fun playing at the auction!!!!