We finalled!

Hey, Christo here!

Did you hear about the RITA nomination Nat and Anne and I got? Cool, yes?

I didn't know anything about the RITA contest, and Anne didn't bother to mention it before she went off to New York. So when a very nice woman began leaving messages on the answering machine, I listened to them, but I didn't know what she was talking about.

It wasn't until Anne called home later that night that she told The Prof and he told me. Nat was in NYC with Anne and Nancy the Cat Slayer doing weddings and chocolate tours and whatnot. Girl stuff.

But what I want to know is, how could Anne just go off and not tell me something might happen? How could she FORGET?

Boggles the mind.

She and Nat are home now. Nat brought chocolate and tales of amazing places we need to go next time we're in New York City. We can do that, but we're also going to a baseball game or two or maybe a hockey game, depending on the season.

Anne, who is out running errands today, said to tell you that she's got the blog on the Pink Heart Society for April 1, so if you want to find out what she did in NYC, you should check it out.

She is giving away her favorite chocolate confection there, too. She and Nat brought a bunch home because they think they are the neatest funniest seasonal chocolates ever.

Check 'em out. Leave a comment. You might win your very own Chirp N Dale!

Christo is a RITA finalist!

Hi from New York!

We've been having a fabulous time, and it isn't even wedding day yet. That's Saturday.

In the meantime, though, we've been wandering the city, getting reacquainted with old haunts, seeking out a few new ones, and generally enjoying ourselves.

Nancy the Cat Slayer (not!) has joined me for this trip as The Prof is proffing and can't possibly leave his classes (he did retire, but no one told him that!). NTCS is a good traveling companion and we manage to find fun things to do regularly.

Yesterday we went to the Brooklyn Museum which was wonderful. I'll tell you about it later, but I have more exciting news to share that I got when we returned.

I had an email from Anne Gracie congratulating Christo on his RITA nomination!

Turns out the RITA finalists we announced yesterday and ONE-NIGHT MISTRESS. . . CONVENIENT WIFE is one of them.

Christo is pleased. Natalie is pleased. I'm thrilled and delighted and honored. Not to mention amazed.

This year there are FOUR (count 'em) Presents and Presents Extra nominees. Besides Christo's book, Jane Porter, Jennie Lucas and Kelly Hunter all have finalists in the contemporary series category! It was a huge category -- over 250 entries, I've heard. So the competition was fierce. And to have so many books from the line is great news.

I'm going to celebrate with Christo today by taking him to the Pierpont Morgan Libary and checking it out. Never been there. I've heard it's wonderful. Natalie is up for the chocolate tour. But it's drizzling and promising worse, so I'm not sure we'll make that.

Back home on Wednesday!

Great Book Give-Away Week 4

Hey,

Anne is still busy playing with Sol, but she's given me a list of the books that are up for grabs during Week Four of her 25th anniversary Great Book Give-Away.

They are:

Anne McAllister, Antonides' Forbidden Wife

Kelly Hunter, The Maverick's Greek Island Mistress

Nora Roberts, Face The Fire

Liz Fielding, Her Desert Dream (this is Kal's book, by the way!)

Lucy Gordon, Beauty and the Boss

Stephanie Laurens, A Rake's Vow

Candice Proctor, Midnight Confessions

To enter the drawing for one of this week's books, send Anne the answer to the following question (and include your name and snail mail address so she can send your book if you're one of the winners):

Anne wrote a Harlequin American called The Eight Second Wedding, about rodeo bull rider named Channing Richardson and PhD candidate Madeleine Decker who went down the road together from rodeo to rodeo for a couple of months one summer. It was a pretty desperate thing for them to do. Why did they do it?

Remember that even if you don't win a copy of one of this week's books, your entry makes you eligible to win a book any time in March. If you win, please give others a chance and wait an enter again in April.

Our Here Come the Grooms! contest ends tonight. Mitch and Micah and I (and Natalie) will be picking the winner of our part of the contest tomorrow. Stand by!

Great Book Give-away Update!

Hi,

I've stolen my blog back from Christo (and Natalie, apparently) just briefly to say that I've sent off the books to the winners from weeks one, two and am just finishing up week three.

If you commented on a blog piece in week three, you should also just hit the 'contact me' link at the bottom of the page and send me your name and address. Some people put them in comments, but if you would prefer not to (and I generally would prefer not to) sending it to me via the contact link means I will have it. Otherwise, I don't get your email address, so I have no way to contact you to ask you for it so I can send you a book.

The response has been really good -- and I'm delighted to be supporting the US postal service sending out all these books. I hope that those who receive them will enjoy them and maybe will find a new author they like or at least a book they will have enjoyed.

I'm getting the finishing touches on the cleaned-up house prior to Sol's arrival. All things knee-level and below have been vetted for chew-ability and put up high if they don't pass muster.

Also doing the line-edits and copyedits of George's book which have to be returned next week. As if I'll be doing them when I could be playing with Sol. Maybe Christo would like to do them, too, along with standing in for me here! I'll have to ask him.

Christo -- again

Hi, Sorry I've been neglecting my job taking care of Anne's blog. I thought she'd try to sneak back in here and write something because she's sort of a workaholic when it comes to writing. But apparently she meant what she said and I get the blog for the rest of February.

I don't know what Kal and Nikos are up to. I've been up to my ears working. I'm a lawyer in case no one told you. That's how I met Natalie, in fact. I was working for the firm where her father is a partner. She was a summer intern there after her first year of law school.

I noticed her -- who wouldn't? She's bright and funny and a hard-worker -- and beautiful, besides. But off limits. I don't get involved with co-workers.

I didn't get involved with Natalie. Not really.

There was one kiss. Yeah, I admit it.

But only because I was so damn happy when we won that case. It was just a spur of the moment thing. Didn't mean anything. She knew that. Or I thought she knew it.

But then one night I found her in my bed!

I can't tell you any more about it than that. Anne would kill me if I did. She'd say that you have to read the book to find out what happened then. Anne has a flair for the dramatic.

Nothing happened! Nothing!

Excuse me! Hi, Natalie here.

I was going to be quiet and just let Christo talk. But he's out of his mind if he thinks nothing happened!

Something certainly happened that summer. Something happened that night. Not what I wanted to happen. It was the most mortifying night of my life.

I hated Christo Savas after that night! No one would blame me for hating him, either. That summer was the start of my whole life being turned upside down. Not all of it due to Christo, admittedly. But he was a big part of it.

He certainly taught me not to trust my instincts . . .

See? That's Natalie all over. She rushes in where sane people fear to tread. She gets a notion and she just runs with it. She doesn't trust me to tell the whole story.

I don't want him to tell the whole story! Anne already told it! He's just trying to make himself look kinder and more human at the start. He wasn't! Well, he was -- deep down -- but his humanity was so buttoned-down he didn't even know it was there.

I did so!

Did not!

Did so!

I love it. He never used to argue like this. He'd just close up and do whatever controlled dutiful responsible thing he thought needed to be done. I've humanized him!

Sheesh! I can see there's only one way to stop this. She'll shut up if I kiss her.

Wanna bet?

Yep. C'mere.

No! I -- well, just for a -- ahhhhhhh...

Christo Here!

Hey, I'm Christo.

Anne has given me free rein with her blog for the rest of the month so she can take care of her mother and so I can talk about my book and Natalie and give you a chance to win three great books (mine, of course, being one of them) in the 4th annual Here Come The Grooms contest.

So let's get business out of the way and then we can talk.

Business:

• What the contest is: a chance for you to win a copy of Anne's book about me and Nat and also books from Kate Walker and Liz Fielding. That's a pretty good deal, if you ask me.
• What you have to do: go to all of their websites to find the answers to three questions. Answer them in an email to each of us -- three answers in each email. That means you find all three answers and send them to Kate, to Liz and to Anne. Then sit back and wait.
• When the contest starts: now
• When the contest ends: March 1st the winners will be announced. So get your answers in before that.

• One entry per person, please, at each email address, which gives you three chances to win if you send all three of them an email. Also a pretty good deal.

• KAL'S QUESTION (from Her Desert Dream): Of which literary character did Kal remind Lydia? (apart from Prince Charming!)
• CHRISTO'S QUESTION (From One-Night Mistress, Convenient Wife by Anne McAllister)
  Why is Natalie staying at her mother's house?
• NIKOS'S QUESTION (From The Konstantos Marriage Demand by Kate Walker)
  What name did Sadie use so that Nikos would not know his 10 o'clock appointment was her?
  
  Good luck!
  

Okay? If you have any questions that I didn't answer, email Anne or Kate or Liz.
Don't ask me.

I'm just the hero of a book. I don't know anything about the contest beyond what I've just told you.

So, business is out of the way, yes?

Now we can talk . . .

Got questions about the book or me and Nat -- I can answer those. And I'll be back soon to tell you more about how this all got started between Nat and me. She scared my socks off, if you want to know the truth.

Talk about temptation. . .

But I don't want to get ahead of myself. So for now I'll just say, have a happy Valentine's Day.

Nat and I are celebrating the birth of a very special someone who has made this the best Valentine's Day ever. I'll tell you about him later, too.

Tote Bags today

I'm writing the blog at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs on Sunday. So stop by and say hi. Share a memory about your high school days.

Or if you don't want quite such a big audience, share it here!

Facebook has brought high school back into my life. It's a strange experience. And it's reminding me of all kinds of things I didn't realize I even remembered.

Christo's book, One-Night Mistress . . . Convenient Wife, benefited from those emotions because it is all about unrequited first love and what happens when you meet the right person at the wrong time.

George's book seems to have something of a similar theme, though the stories are quite different. Do you suppose my subconscious is trying to tell me something? Or is it just one of the main thematic mountain ranges in what my former editor Patricia Smith calls "my emotional landscape?"

What do you think? Do you see themes in your own writing or your own life that you address in different ways over and over? If you do, do you know where it comes from?

Inquiring minds are curious -- even though they should be thinking about George.

Where I've Been . . .

Nowhere interesting, believe me.

I've been holed up in my office writing George. And writing an article. And creating a Power Point presentation on immigration trails.

George has been the most fun part of my life, which ought to tell you something.

At least I'm not battling him to a standstill the way I did Demetrios. He's actually turning out to be entertaining -- right now -- before revisions and deep in the middle of the first draft.

How often does that happen?

Not very, to be honest. But sometimes it does, and so I'm just enjoying it. Nice to go to work every morning for a change.

I've done a little Christmas shopping, too. And I'm struck, when I do it, how much of it I do online these days. What about you?

I started doing it online when I was looking for things for the older grandsons when they were little -- and I got tired of dragging from store to store to find that what I wanted wasn't there. Or it was there at a price I couldn't bring myself to pay.

So I started looking on the internet and, wow, what a time saver. Money saver, too.

Have your shopping habits changed like mine have?

I'll be back tomorrow when, I hope, George will make it into chapter six, and I will have something new to write about -- a reprint or two (well, that's not new, but it's exciting). I'm just trying to get the information sorted.

In the meantime, if you see Christo hanging around a bookshelf anywhere, do me a favor and put him up at eye level. He was gone at my Target when I looked last week. I was happy about that.

Also happy about the review on the Pink Heart Society where Julie Bonello said, "Anne McAllister never fails to come up with the goods and One Night Mistress...Convenient Wife is one of her best books yet! Funny but poignant, tender but sensuous and moving and utterly engrossing, One Night Mistress... Convenient Wife is a spellbinding Harlequin Presents novel readers will just devour.

"With a spunky heroine, a gorgeous hero and oodles of love, passion and laughter, One-Night Mistress... Convenient Wife is the perfect book to cuddle up with on a cold autumn's night!"

How nice is that? If you want, you can read her whole review here. Thank you, Julie.

Once upon a crush . . .

Once upon a time when I was young and emotional, I was in love.

Or thought I was.

I don't know what the object of my affection thought -- if indeed he thought about it at all. I doubt that he did because I never actually saw him run screaming in the other direction. So chances are he remained oblivious.

But I was sure (not fairly sure, not reasonably sure, but absolutely positively sure) that if the stars aligned properly or fate so decreed that he would notice, we would live happily ever after.

We didn't.

But it doesn't stop me thinking about it and remembering it -- all the angst, all the emotion, all the deep unrequited desire -- now and then.

And when Christo Savas popped into my head carrying a surfboard and talking on a cell phone, I was reminded of those days. He's exactly the sort of guy I would have looked twice (or maybe several million times at).

So did Natalie, my heroine.

But Natalie was far more, er, pro-active than I was at her age. She made things happen -- or tried to.

It was a disaster, of course. Sometimes the time and the place aren't right, even if the people might have been. That's what happened to Natalie and Christo the first time. The second time is what I wrote about in One-Night Mistress...Convenient Wife.

And crushes are what I'm blogging about Thursday on the I Heart Presents blog. So stop over and check it out. Leave me the tale of your own crush there -- or here.

Whoever makes me laugh, cry, cringe or sympathetically shake my head will win a copy of Christo and Natalie's book

.

Christo's Cover

I finally had a few minutes this evening to prowl through more than email. And so I looked online to see if I could find the cover for Christo's book.

Remember him? And Natalie?

I do. Barely.

Mostly I remember them as having spent far too long in my house over the holidays last year. They were like guests who had long since worn out their welcome before they finally decamped after revisions. Frankly, I'd blotted them out.

But recently several Presents authors with books out the same month as mine (that would be November 2009) were saying they hadn't seen their covers yet. Obviously I hadn't either.

Then I remembered that Kate Walker sent me the cover of PJ's book when she found it online before the Powers That Be ever sent me a copy. So I decided to go look.

Christo and Natalie's book, called One-Night Mistress...Convenient Wife (don't get your expectations raised over that, either) wasn't on the US site of amazon.com, but oddly, the US Presents cover was already posted on the UK site, amazon.co.uk!

So here it is.

Does he look like Christo? No.

Does she look like Natalie? Not at all. The hair color is even wrong.

The setting? Nope. It takes place mostly in a house on The Strand in Manhattan Beach -- or on the beach. Or in Brazil. Or . . . well, suffice to say there's not a lot of OFFICE in it, but clearly the artist was told to send the message: OFFICE ROMANCE.

There is a bit of the office thrown in -- in revisions. They asked for it. I did it.

But I walked a very narrow line the whole way. You may recall me whining that The Prof's cousin, a lawyer, kept vetting the lawyerly bits of it and ringing me to ask if I wanted to get Christo disbarred!

Er, no. I didn't, thank you very much.

I suppose that would have made an interesting story, but it was not the one I had in mind. And definitely not the one editorial hoped I would write.

Anyway, it's not the worst cover I've ever had (Snow White,and the Axe Murderer was probably that. Or maybe Jay Leno and Jimmy Cagney's Death Mask). But it's not the best, either. It's okay. No Axe Murderer. No Death Mask.

I'm counting my blessings.

What do you think?

To Christo and Natalie

PJ here.

Anne just sent up a flare telling me that Christo and Natalie have left England headed for the copyeditor in Canada. So . . . no more revisions!

Whew.

Anne is pleased. I'm pleased -- because that mean I can get back to my once-and-forever wife, Ally, now. And, of course, Christo and Natalie are vastly relieved.

Break out the champagne!

Really glad to see all the entries for the Here Come the Grooms contest coming in. Remember, if you haven't already entered, you can do so until January 21st. The questions are below. Keep scrolling down.

I'll be back to tell you about Jago's book, Wedded in a Whirlwind. I can see what he means about Manda having a kick like a mule now. But, given the circumstances, I reckon he deserved it.

The book kept Anne up until 1:30 this morning. She thinks it's dynamite. She gave it to me this morning so I could read and "understand" Nick Jago.

Well, I don't know about that. But it's a good book. I'll be back tomorrow and tell you a bit more.

Saved by research

When people ask me what the best part of writing is, I always say, "Research."

For the uninitiated, those who hear the word research and immediately think of hours spent in high school or college poring over dusty tomes and making notes on 3" x 5" cards, let me assure you that that's not what I mean at all.

Well, occasionally there might be dusty tomes. There are rarely (at least in my research) 3" x 5" cards. Mostly there is the chance to learn -- and often very interesting people to learn from.

The dusty tomes have their place. As does the internet. Research is vastly easier in the internet age than it was when libraries had a finite number of books and an even more finite number of hours during which you could use them.

With the internet open 24/7, it's much easier to learn -- as I did last night -- which plants flower in Manhattan Beach in the summertime. It's also useful to check on the flow of traffic, to pore over Google Earth maps and decide where my hero might want to live and what's nearby.

It will even help me with some of the things I need to know about lawyers. But not enough.

And that's where real live people come in handy.

The Prof's cousin is a lawyer. A very patient lawyer. A lawyer who doesn't mind (or if she does, she hides it well, which is probably one thing that makes her a good lawyer) being asked questions about lawyers.

And a good thing, too, as if I hadn't asked questions, I'd have alienated the entire legal profession with this book. As it is, she has saved Christo from being disbarred more times than I can count. One of her emails a couple of days ago said plaintively, "Are you trying to get him disbarred on page one?"

Well, no, I wasn't. How was I do know he couldn't do what I wanted him to do? It didn't seem 'improper' to me.

Color me wrong.

Why am I just discovering this now, you ask? I asked the same question a few days ago myself.

Well, because in this book's previous incarnation, while Christo was a lawyer, much of the action did not take place in a lawyerly realm. It took place elsewhere. On the beach, in the house, in Brazil.

It still takes place there, but not so much. Now there is a workplace involved (at the editor's request). Thus there are clients. And where there are clients, there are cases, lawsuits, details that have to be right. Or else.

There is life beyond this romance and it's in the workplace because that's where the editor wants it. I don't think it's a bad idea. But I understand far more clearly now why I didn't put it there in the first place -- I know damn all about being a lawyer.

So it's a good thing we have a lawyer in the family -- even the very extended family.

This is, I am learning, part of the reason these revisions are taking so long. It's like I've had to go to law school to write the damn book. Interesting to be sure, but not exactly what I'd planned to do over Christmas vacation.

The thing is, you will probably not notice it when you read Christo's story -- because, hopefully, I will have got it right.

You would primarily notice if I got it wrong. Then you would be throwing the book across the room and saying, "I'll never read that woman's stuff again. She can't be bothered to do the research."

Well, I can. And I have. And I hope it's right now. But I will surely hear about it if it's not.

I just need to go away now and get back to work so I can get this out of here sometime in the next few days. And then I may need to explain to the editor why some things take longer than others.

The ripple effect

I've been doing revisions on Christo and Natalie's book.

They are odd sorts of revisions because they are basically all in the first three and a half chapters. I've only had one other book like that -- Out of Bounds -- with my cellist and my pro beach volleyball player. That, too, needed all its mucking about in the first seventy pages or so.

And like the changes in that book, these make perfect sense and will make it a stronger book ultimately.

But they are creating a ripple effect that goes on and on.

Change one thing here, I have to change something else there. Otherwise it doesn't make sense. And if I change that, then I have to change that remark in chapter six or seven. Or maybe both. And then, if I do that, well, I will want to go back to chapter one and tinker a bit again with what was going on there.

It's worthwhile. But it's also frustrating. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever feel like a whole again.

It would be less frustrating, I suppose, if I hadn't spent a week figuring out how to accomplish it, then a week nursing Gunnar through his final illness during which I forgot much of what I thought about, then a week trying to get my head around the hole he left in our lives.

Some of the revisions are done. There's a new prologue and a new first chapter. The rest -- the changes in chapters two and three -- I'm going to try to get done tonight and tomorrow. But that might be pushing it.

I like what's happening. It's a better book. I just wish it was happening at a different time of year under different circumstances.

Ah well. If I disappear for a few days, you'll know why. It will be me and Christo and Natalie holed up working hard trying to get things wrapped up and sent off. Think good thoughts.

Also, don't forget to go to Fresh Fiction on Monday and say hi.

Out of the Hammock

No sooner did I mention the word hammock, than my editor pricked up her ears and went, "Ah ha! She's loafing. Must do something about that."

And she did. She sent me revisions and took herself off to Cornwall so I could get on with them.

That's called adding insult to injury as far as I'm concerned. But they are sensible sane sorts of revisions that I could see will make the book better. So I'm thinking about how to accomplish them this week -- and hopefully doing just that.

While I'm gone with my nose in the computer again, I thought I would share with you some of the pix I took in Cannes. I promised Donna Alward, on the Pink Heart blog comments today, that I would put up some photos so she could travel vicariously a bit (since I know exactly how tied down she's feeling. Been there, done that.). I'll save some of Cornwall and elsewhere

So, enjoy. Think of me slaving away. And if I don't get back by Thanksgiving, have a blessed holiday with family and friends. And if you can't be with them, carry them in your heart. That
works, too.

Early Morning along La Croisette

The beach, before the people

Just to remind you of the film festival in Cannes

Restaurants are everywhere

The front garden of one of the small hotels where we had breakfast

Where Presents heroes hang out, of course

View toward La Croisette from the Festival Hall

Inside the Festival Hall -- lots of red carpet

The Palme d'Or, symbol of the Cannes Film Festival

Hammock Time

I know I'm supposed to be feeling the pressure of the upcoming Christmas season. I will. I promise.

But right now I'm in that soft, swaying place where the book is gone and the new book is barely forming in my mind, and I can see at least a part of the carpet in my office (it's blue. I'd almost forgotten) and after a week of dealing with a very sick dog, he seems to be currently improving (so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a miracle as he is 12 and that's 80-something in dog years), I don't want to do anything except lie here and drift.

Which is one reason you've had a dearth of blog entries this week. What could I say? Nothing was happening. I wasn't even reading. I was just . . . drifting.

It felt great to drift. Everyone should get to now and then.

But I have a feeling the drift is about to come to an end. I bought the Thanksgiving turkey today. Which means I had to clean out the refrigerator to find a place for it, which means I did less drifting than I had been.

And the characters are beginning to nag again. It's Demetrios this time.

He was the actor brother of Tallie and Theo Savas. Now's he's an independent film producer/director. He's in Cannes, and he's not exactly patient. He wants me to get on with his story. Across a crowded room he's just spotted a woman he never thought he'd see again.

And he's annoyed that I won't get out of my hammock and get to work.

I need to think about this some more, though. At least that's what I'm telling him. In the meantime I think I can get at least a few days more of relaxation.

After Thanksgiving? Yeah, I think that's about right. Maybe Christo's book will be back for revisions then and I can put Demetrios off a while longer.

Maybe I'll start looking for collage pictures. I think I know what he looks like. But I need to get a better idea about his heroine, Anny. At least I have lots of pictures of Cannes.

Anny is blonde, by the way. Wholesome. Girl next door-ish. Which, when he finds out who she really is, turns his world upside down. She's also capable of absolutely stunning elegance when required. Think Cinderella at the ball, minus the mice and the fairy godmother.

You guys helped me find the perfect Natalie. That's her to the left. Want to take a shot at Anny?

Post links or tell me names and I'll check them out.

I can do that while I'm still lying in the hammock.

They're Gone!

Christo and Natalie have left the building. They got finished last night and hopped across the pond shortly after midnight. They aren't even due until tomorrow. Does this make them premature?

No matter.

It makes them DONE. And that's what's important.

I'm off to watch Casino Royale so my mind will be refreshed and I will understand the back story for Quantum of Solace this week. And to read my Daniel Craig GQ.

Never let it be said that I don't take preparation seriously.

No Place Like Home

I have barely seen "home" in 6 weeks. It looks pretty much the way I remember it. The dogs were glad to see me. So was The Prof.

So were the complement of grandsons (three of the four in existence, the eldest being elsewhere) who were in the front yard when I got home from the airport. So was the new puppy who was following after the twins. I harbor a deep wish that said puppy will find a different home as the boys already have a dog (father of puppy), and this puppy looked like twins would be too much for him. Just my humble opinion.

It is rare however to feel that kids will be too much for a dog, so trust me on this.

Anyway, I am home. And I wrote 35,000 words in 3 weeks (amazing even myself, not to mention the 8 year old granddaughter), and I have one and a half scenes to go to finish Christo's book. Correction: to finish a draft of Christo's book.

It should be done in the morning. Then I can go back to the beginning and line up all the frogs (remember, we're in the year of the frog in McAllisterland; the ducks are taking the year off).

With luck Christo and Natalie can go winging off to the editor on Wednesday or Thursday. Early for once. Imagine that.

I'm also way behind on updating my website. Poor PJ, aka Antonides' Forbidden Wife, is halfway through his month on the shelves in UK and Ireland and I haven't even posted him on the sidebar.

I will stick him here, though so you know to look out for him if you are a UK/Ireland person in need of a good book.

I might even let PJ or Ally come and blog. What do you think? Should we invite them?

I'm going to bed with Christo now -- and finish his scene. Get your minds out of the gutter.

See you tomorrow (I hope).

Vanishing Act

I really didn't mean to be gone this long. But the internet connection I have at my granddaughter's house is, um, iffy at best. And as a result, every time I almost got a post going, the connection would vanish.

Which it may again post haste.

I have given up trying to post pictures. That is impossible. No connection would last long enough for one to upload. So you will just have to think about all you know about Cannes and imagine George Clooney or whoever you wish on the red carpet (which is more than you would get from my pictures anyway) until I am somewhere more reliably connected.

The good news is that Christo's book is going like a house afire. I've written 14000 words since Monday. Don't let my editor see this or she will banish me to Texas every time I have a book due.

I think it's that I had nearly a month where I couldn't get anything written, and the ideas kept building up. So they came tumbling out when I finally got going. Then there is the fact that, other than the sick 8 year old, there are no distractions here. Nothing that I specifically need to be doing -- except writing.

And then there's the odd fact that I seem to be writing this book front to back to middle. Which is to say, I wrote the first four chapters, left them with a pizza and couldn't get past it. To save my life, I couldn't.

So finally Monday I began in chapter nine and wrote it and chapter ten, and now I'm going back and filling in. But at least I know where I am going -- an unusual and happy occurence, believe me.

So wish me luck. Today I'm tackling Brazil. Another 1500 words would be a great blessing. Then again, I may have all weekend alone to write which would be somethng that has never happened in my life before. No dogs, even. Boggles the mind. Wonder if I can stand it.

Deep in mid-book

After Christo having led me a merry chase for the past month, during which he has gone down the beach and I have gone after him, and he has gone surfing and left me to fend for myself, he's back -- with a vengeance.

Finally.

And now he seems to be waiting for me to catch up. So I've grabbed my notebook and pen and I'm following him and Natalie into the kitchen where they are deep in discussion -- one that she wants and he'd just as soon avoid.

But then, as I pointed out, if he'd cooperated a month ago, we might be well past this now and he could be having a good time instead of having his world turned on its head.

Poor Christo.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

Knitting and Character Development

I don't knit.

Well, I do. Or did. Badly.

I tend to increase. No matter how many stitches I start out with in the beginning, there are always quite a few more at the end whether there are supposed to be or not.

When I was first learning (or should I say, when I began to try to learn before it was determined that I was hopeless), my friend who was teaching me said, "We'll just start with a square."

I think she meant a rectangle, but no matter.

What we ended up with -- or what I ended up with -- was a trapezoid. And no matter what I did with it, no matter how many times I unraveled it and began again, I still had more at the end than I did at the beginning.

The question soon changed from, could I knit? to could I count?

Well, math was never my strong suit, either.

And, sad to say, character development is a lot like that. It seems straight-forward. Christo seemed perfectly straight-forward when he breezed into my life, tried his darnedest to knock Seb out of the way and muscle onto the page.

Hold on a minute, I said. Wait your turn.

And he did. He cooled his heels, muttering a bit. But he seemed to be perfectly clear about his story. I only had to write it, he told me. How hard could it be? He and Natalie. Meant to be. Piece of cake.

Yeah, right.

Turns out it isn't quite like that. It never is, of course, but they sucker me in every time. They promise me easy chapters, words that will flow like honey, completely transparent backstories that will make my life -- and theirs -- easy-peasy.

Ha.

Can't trust 'em. None of them. Well, except maybe for Aidan Sawyer, nearly twenty years ago, who did exactly what he said he'd do in The Marriage Trap. And Austin Cavanaugh in Marry Sunshine who might have driven Clea crazy, but to me was the soul of cooperation.

Was I living right twenty years ago? Or were the fates just on my side for once?

Because, as far as the rest of them go, Cooperation Rn't Them.

And Christo is no exception. He who seemed transparent when he was a test pilot, turned in his test pilot badge before we ever got out of scene one.

Now he's a lawyer. A rat of a lawyer, if you ask me. Why didn't he tell me the truth? Why did he say he was a test pilot, then make me nuts trying to figure him out before he told me the truth.

And what about the girl in his bed?

What girl in his bed? I demanded.

He shrugged. Didn't think it was important, he said finally when I twisted his arm. Wasn't going to happen again.

Oh, really?

Who's writing this book, anyway?

Sneaky hero.

He doesn't even look like he used to look! He's edgier. Smoother when he needs to be (like I said, sneaky), but submarines could get lost in this man's depths.

He looks a lot like Hugh did in Erskineville Kings. I noticed that as I was hunting up Hugh photos for the Hugh Jackman tour. Especially when he (Christo) started talking as I stared at the picture. Hmm.

Wonder what else he's hiding from me.

Right now, he's making the knitting needles look tempting. Not to start knitting with -- to poke him where it will do him the most good.

Business as usual mid-book, in other words.

Argh.