Last Day for Contest Entry!

If you haven't entered the contest on my website to win a copy of the upcoming Savas' Defiant Mistress, you can do so until midnight tonight. That's just one of the goodies in the Goody Box the winner will receive.

There's my Year of the Frog plush frog and a few other books (not just mine) and some chocolate and, hmmm, maybe another surprise or two.

To enter, just go to the contest page and match the book titles and the hero and heroine of each book. Answers are scattered all over this blog, so it's not rocket science.

Sunday Micah and Mitch will be picking the winner. They've been licking their chops in anticipation for the past two weeks.

The book pages are coming along slowly but surely. A few are up -- but lots more will be along during the next week or so.

Blog make-over up! Books on their way!

If you are here -- and you've been here before -- you must see something different. No, you're not imagining things. The make-over has reached the blog.

I'm so happy with my new look.

Those of you who have been dropping by have an inkling of how hard Heather Reed of WeWriteRomance has worked to get things up and running. It took her a lot of work to switch the blog over and make everything come out even, too. The blog is three years old this month. It has a LOT of pictures on it. It weighs a ton, she said -- or words to that effect.

Anyway, I'm sooo impressed that she did it and that it looks so great. Yea, Heather! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

There are still things on the site itself that will continue to be updated.

So far my most recent title are up and have their own pages. But Heather has been working madly on the backlist titles, too. That's really important to me.

Because a lot of my books are linked, even though you don't need to read one to read another, it's nice to have a place where people can come to find out which characters are likely to turn up in each other's world. (Actually, that's pretty much any of them, as it's sort of an alternative universe where all my characters live).

Anyway, she has a mini-series page planned as a portal to the linked books, and then each page within it will have the various books that belong to the mini-series.

Of course, if you read Harlequin Presents and nothing else, you can click on the Presents page which she'll be putting up, too, and find all my Presents there as well.

If you read Silhouette Desire and want to see which books I've done for them, you should be able to find all my Silhouette titles together, too.

If there's anything else you can think of that will make access to my earlier books easier for you (yes, I know -- reprint them! I'd love it!), do comment here or send me an email through the contact tab at the bottom of each website page.

Thank you, Heather! You're wonderful.

A Matter of Perspective

My new webmistress, Heather, tells me I need to work on my blog titles. I'm trying.

But there is just so much you can do with what I write about. And today's blog is a case in point.

I intended to write about writing because that's what I did at the Pink Heart Society where Wednesday's blog (which I wrote) is already up. I talked there about first chapters because when you're just starting a book, they are, um, pretty significant hurdles.

Almost every writer has qualms when she starts a book. For one thing, unless you've plotted the whole thing out ahead of time, you aren't quite sure precisely where the "beginning" is.

It's when things change, yes. But change can be abrupt or it can be subtle. If it's the former, well, you've got a point to begin at. If it's not, you need to do a bit more thinking. And even when you find it, what's the right way in?

And then there's the point of view.

Whose? Is it a given? Or is it a toss-up? See what I mean?

Every story, and the way you tell it, is a matter of perspective. Like life.

Which brings me to the other bit that I wanted to comment on today because it made me smile. I have a google alert for Hugh Jackman. Is that a big surprise?

Of course not. And I'm not the only one who finds him an "inspiration" for heroes in romance novels. So I never mind getting a daily dose of 'news' about Hugh.

Today my google alert on Hugh came, I skimmed over it and found the wonderful meme of "My 25 Things . . . or 15" written by Stephanie DePrez who writes for The Observer at Notre Dame and St Mary's Universities.

If you've blogged for any length of time at all, you've been tagged for that one, and it's making the rounds again.

I liked Stephanie a lot just from reading hers.

She made me smile. She made me remember conversations I've had with attentive squirrels, too. She made me remember college life.

She made me laugh -- especially when I read #6 on her list.

"I have crushes on old guys. Hugh Laurie, Nathan Fillion, Hugh Jackman, Sting. The young ones, eh. They do nothing for me."

Old guys.

Like Nathan Fillion. Like Hugh Jackman.

See? It's all a matter of perspective.

(I just went to IMDB and checked. Nathan Fillion is a year younger than my oldest son. Yikes.)

Frankly, though, I agree with Stephanie. I think Nathan is pretty impressive. As are Hugh One and Hugh Two.

I might give her Sting, but other than that, I'm right there with her on her choice in men.

Even if they are old guys.

One of the joys of writing romance, as I see it, is free license to appreciate guys -- old or young.

But it does make me wonder why all the good ones seem to be too one or too the other.

Is Harrison Ford the only hunk in my generation?

Valentine's Day Wishes -- and Fixing Glitches

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. I hope you get to spend the day with the person you love the most! I am.

We're even going out to dinner tonight with old friends he used to teach with years ago. It will be fun to see everyone. Not your romantic dinner for two, but a wonderful way to celebrate the years -- and the people we've spent them with.

In case you have been by the new website -- which I hope you liked -- and tried to leave a comment, Liz Fielding kindly pointed out to me that the comments link under my post has not been working. Apparently neither is the contact Anne link at the bottom of each web page! Yikes!

I just checked the comments page and it's working again now. So I guess it was a Blogger issue, not ours. But the contact Anne page is definitely 'our' issue and when Heather gets back from having a life, I'm sure she'll sort it out.

In the meantime, try to leave a comment (and we'll see if it keeps working). If you want to write me a note, use the contest page link for the time being, and send me a message from there. And while you're at it, match the titles and their characters and enter to win.

While you're poking around, if you see other things that need fixing, please use the link and let me know. We'll get on it as soon as Heather gets back.

Enjoy your day!

Anne McAllister : : New Look! New contest! New cover!

It's here! The new look has arrived!

For those of you who are lurking on the blog wondering why nothing has changed, it has. But maybe not on the blog just yet. Soon!

But if you hurry on over to my website, you can see the "new look" Heather has brought us! I really really like it. I hope you do, too.

There will be continuing updates throughout the coming week -- or perhaps even longer -- as Heather links up all the backlist books and puts up "portal" pages for the different lines, publishers and mini-series. I've got over 60 books in my backlist now, so it is no easy matter to slap them all up there.

She's done a great job of putting my mini-series books together and providing the links. So you should soon be able to find the linked books without wondering if you've missed something along the way. How you get them, of course, since most of them are out of print now, is another story. But maybe Silhouette and Harlequin will decide to reprint. We can hope!

In honor of the newness of everything, I have put up a new contest as well. The winner will get a goody box containing, among other things, a copy of my upcoming Savas' Defiant Mistress which will be coming out toward the end of March. If you want a taste of Sebastian's life, you can read an excerpt on my website now.

There will be other things in the goody box as well. I've been collecting some fun things for the past few months -- including a wonderful plush frog in honor of the year of the frog (you remember, the ducks are out now and the frogs are in) -- and I always add in other writers' books as well as some of my own backlist titles.

So if you want to have a chance to win a great prize, go to the contest page, hook up the four books and their heroes and heroines I've mixed up there (answers are all over the place -- on my blog, on my website (as soon as the links are up) and if you google them, you can probably figure out the answers, too.

Send your answers to me by March 1st to enter. Mitch and Micah, my golden retrievers (and contest chairmen), will be wrestling over the choice the next day. They say they won't take bribes. I hope that's true!

While you're visiting the website, sign up for my newsletter if you want something in your email box irregularly. It will be rare, I promise. I won't be giving your address to anyone. It's all mine.

And if you have comments or suggestions or wonderful things to say to Heather, please contact me as well. We'd love to hear from you.

What do you think? Like the new look? I hope so!

New look on its way!

I've been watching (and adding and subtracting apostrophes) while Heather of WeWriteRomance works wonders with her website magic and creates my "new look."

It's all coming together really well. I'm delighted beyond belief. I hope that when it finally goes live -- which will probably be Friday -- you will all stop by and take a look. She has worked and worked and worked to get all the material organized and to create portals to the different book lists and generally to make things accessible again.

She deserves several gold stars for all her effort (and no, she's not holding a gun at my head and making me say this. She doesn't know I'm saying it. She's too busy working.)

Anyway, one of the pages she has put up is my contest page and in honor of Valentine's Day and my "new look" there will be a contest to win a Goody Box featuring some backlist titles, some goodies I've picked up in the last few months with an eye to contest, several books by other authors --- and a brand-new not-yet-published copy of Savas's Defiant Mistress.

This is the cover. I am not sure where it's supposed to be. The book takes place in Seattle -- largely on a houseboat. The houseboat is not quite as glamorous as this setting. But maybe this is supposed to be a wedding. They went to a wedding. There wasn't a boat in the wedding, but poetic license, I think, allows them to put a city, a boat and a wedding that all occur in the same book together on the cover of that book.

I'll be introducing you to Sebastian and Neely in the next few weeks.

Anyway, please stop back here to click your way to my website or go directly there on the weekend and look around. Send me comments if you wish. I'm sure Heather would like to hear what you think, and I know I would.

I think she's done a fabulous job. Thanks, Heather!

Getting a box . . . sort of

It's that time of year again.

I'm gearing up for Demetrios and Anny and so over the past week I was thinking about the book and what I have and what I need, and I remembered Twyla Tharp's advice: Get a box.

Well, maybe she didn't say that in so many words. What she said was that she gets a box whenever she's starting a new project. And she puts stuff in the box that relates to it, inspires it, makes her remember bits and pieces of it. It's a good idea.

Some people do collages. Anne Gracie does wonderful collages. So does Jennifer Crusie. I'm not that visual. So I thought, a box. Yes, I can do that.

And I did. Sebastian and Neely have a box. The trouble with their box is, the box reflects the book I didn't write.

Some of it is the same -- the people, the conflict, the guinea pig, the rabbits, the bloodhound, the kittens.

But not the editor. And not the setting. Though there's still water and a houseboat involved.

So the box is a container, but half the stuff on the outside of it doesn't reflect the book. Even the hero doesn't reflect the man Sebastian came to be.

So . . .

This time the box is going to be a file folder on my computer. It's going to have my hero as its icon. And inside his folder I'm sticking all the Cannes photos and the train schedules and the videos I took and the mementos from the festival hall.

It's got pictures of Anny -- and Demetrios, of course. Thousands of her (because there are thousands of her photos everywhere) and two of his because he doesn't seem to be nearly as visible. No dogs yet. No kittens. No bloodhound. No guinea pig.

There aren't a lot of details coming to me yet. Well, there's a yacht. And a sailboat. And a Greek restaurant. Probably a good thing I don't have a box. They wouldn't fit.

I'm casting off today, steering toward the horizon, wondering where the dragons are and how soon I'll meet them. I hope I at least get out of the harbor!

# # #

The winner of the Here Come the Grooms contest for Santos Cordero from Kate Walker's Cordero's Forced Bride, is Lynn of Florida. Congratulations, Lynn. I'll get PJ's book off to you post haste.

# # #

There really is going to be an update to my website (and eventually the blog). Keep holding your breath. Heather has had an emergency and can't get it finished right now. What I've seen, I love. It will be worth the wait.

# # #

We're going to play a version of I-Ching for Demetrios and Anny.

Tell me three things:

• a weather related item (my mother will be especially good at this)
  
• a color
• a small gift

And let me see what it sparks off in my mind for Demetrios and Anny. The first three ideas that spark off something will win their submitter a copy of one of my backlist titles -- your choice, provided I can find it in the attic.