Tag: Strokes of Midnight

Random Reports from City Girl on the Street

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Okay, it’s officially spring in New York, which is to say gray, windy, and cold
–still. Despite the scrumptious array of spring clothes on tantalizing display in the storefronts of West Village boutiques and the designer chains on Fifth–think crayon colors, bold geometric patterns, and belted waists–like most of my fellow Manhattanites, I’m still tooling around in turtlenecks and wool.

Still, it’s spring, the pollen is in full bloom, and all in all people including Yours Truly are walking the streets with a uh…spring in their step. (Sorry, couldn’t resist).

Tomorrow, Saturday, I’m the guest speaker at the Romance Writers of America/NYC chapter brunch at PJ Clarke’s. I’m still working out my presentation, but it’s basically a not so shameless take-off on Donald Trump’s THE ART OF THE DEAL. In my case, I’ll be speaking on the ART OF THE RE-DO, both in writing and yes, in so-called “real” life.

PJ Clarke’s is on the waterfront, so here’s hoping its warm-er. Afterward I’m on tap to meet a friend and hit a couple of the Chelsea art galleries having receptions. I doubt I’ll buy any art but hey, someone has to help out with all that free wine. 😉

Like my Strokes of Midnight heroine, Becky Stone, I check my online horoscope and yes, tarot readings just about every day. It’s a big world out there, make that a big Universe, so I like to cover all my bases. I’m happy to report the Hanged Man, Hermit, and Death card (yikes) are no longer showing up in my Love & Relationship sector!

See, it really must be spring…

Happy Weekend,

Hope

Happy New Year

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Whether you ring in the New Year clinking glasses with friends and party music pumping or at home watching the televised Times Square ball drop with Chinese carry-out and a cat curled on your lap, in the words of my STROKES OF MIDNIGHT heroine, Becky Stone, I wish you a 2008 chockful of “fresh starts and “dazzling opportunities.”

Happy New Year,

Hope

The holidays: all pumped up

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Foremost, to all of you who’ve called “time out” from the holiday bustle to email me nice notes on my December holiday book, Strokes of Midnight, thank you! Your kind words mean more to me than any critical praise. For those of you who missed my previous Christmas book for Harlequin Blaze, It’s A Wonderfully Sexy Life. “Don’t worry, be happy.” 😉 It may be long gone from brick-and-mortar bookstores, but you can still order the book online, including trusty ole amazon.com.

Fortunately Strokes of Midnight is a two-day read, leaving oodles of time for tackling all those other great books waiting to be read. (Christmas started out as Twelve Days, remember). My personal pick is Claire Cook’s Life’s A Beach. Claire is the talented author of Must Love Dogs as well as several other books celebrating not only romance but the quirky beauty of all our relationships. Life’s A Beach is chockful of romance, to be sure, but there’s also plenty of sister love-hate to go ’round as well as pets–you gotta love a heroine who names her cat “Boyfriend.”

You can read my “review” of Life’s A Beach at a wonderful new site/ezine: Writersarereaders.com.

P.S. Don’t forget…My special holiday co-contest with fabulous fellow Harlequin Blaze author, Cathy Yardley draws to a close this Monday, December 17th, so please check back for the announcement of winners. In the spirit of celebrating the charms of giving *and* receiving, each winner will receive two extra sets of books to give as gifts.

PPS. I can’t believe I left this out of my NYC posts. Check out the above photo of Strokes of Midnight (center), my New York-over-the-holidays book taken, yes, in New York over the holidays!

Back from the Big Apple

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Yes, I’m back from New York and though the impetus for the trip was work-related, you guessed it–I had a fabulous time. Following in the (spiked heeled) footsteps of my romance writer heroine of Strokes of Midnight Becky Stone (AKA Rebecca St. Claire) I took an off-Broadway detour to Rosie O’Grady’s for a drink and a nosh. Unlike Becky, I was spared the confrontational encounter with any “Elliot”-like bad boys though I definitely checked out the bar’s dark-suited “inventory.”

As to that dreaded “work” stuff, it wasn’t dreaded at all but totally fun. Morgan Doremus and her hubby, Nick, owners of Pacific TV, graciously opened their Murray Hill filming studio to interview me. Prior to me sitting down with Morgan to dish on the book, they indulged me with a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility. The equipment room alone had more buttons and knobs and blinking lights than the console of the Starship Enterprise! Sitting down in front of the camera in the celebrity hot seat, my nose dusted with shine guarding powder and my posterior warming the same seat occupied by Jerry Seinfeld the month before when he stopped by to promote his blockbuster, “Bee Movie” was…well, pretty heady stuff.

My fifteen minutes of fame, winnowed down to ten, will “air” from the newly launched Romance Writers of America-NY website later this month. In addition to a few juicy not-yet-released Behind the Scenes details on the book, I include some hopefully helpful tips for aspiring writers on how to best use the Internet as a research tool to “keep it real” in our books. As they say, stay tuned…

I also hope you’ll join me on Thursday, December 20th when I “sit down” with LifetimeTV.com “Romance Buy the Book” host, Michelle Buonfiglio, to dish on Enslaved and the future of unusual historicals. Visit my Media & Events page for details on how to sign up and participate.

Live from New York…!!!

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Hi All,

The famous Snow Flake on Fifth Avenue, the annual Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center (breathtaking!), the 75th year anniversary of the legendary Rockets, and Jack Frost nipping at…well, everything I “own”…Yes, you guessed it. I’m in the Big Apple soaking up the holiday vibe and walking the walk albeit in slightly more comfie shoes of my Strokes of Midnight heroine, romance novelist Becky Stone. So far I’ve skipped: a) the not so nice editorial news Becky receives at the book’s beginning (whew!), b) the totally medicinal martini she understandably quaffs afterward (replaced with a very good glass of shiraz), and c) the shoe-shopping splurge at Saks (drats!). I also haven’t managed to collide with any 6″4 blue-eyed blond-haired Max-like hunks on Avenue of the Americas–but hey, the trip’s not over yet. 😉

I hope you’ll stay tuned for the next update on my self-guided tour of the city at this most magical time of the year and please do look for Strokes of Midnight in brick-and-mortar and online bookstores.

Happy (Shoe) Shopping,

Hope

The Big “It”

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I’m feeling a little bit proud today–and a lotta bit sore. Yesterday I ran the U.S. Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC along with about 30,000 other like-minded folks (that’s folks, not fools). It was my third marathon, my second Marine Corps Marathon, and overall just a lovely fall day.

Oh, by the way, yes, I did finish. 🙂

My time, 4:22, isn’t record-setting, but it is respectable. Despite spotty training and a pre-race fall up some concrete steps crossing U.S. Route 50 to the Start point, I shaved off a minute or two from my time thirteen years ago–a particular point-of-pride because well, Girlfriend’s not getting any younger. 😉

Though the wonderful spirit of the event is alive and well, a lot of other things have changed since my first marathon. Back in 1994 there were no cell phones on the course. Hooking up with cheering family members and friends at the various mile markers, and yes, finish line, required more ingenuity and a goodly dose of luck. There was also no GPS tracking based on a clever little clicker affixed to one’s shoelaces. Today thanks to technology each runner receives his or her true finish time, no need to guestimate the minutes lost waiting to cross the Start line–and yes, with thousands of runners, you don’t all cross when the gun goes off.

There were a few wheelchair entrants back in ’94, mostly graying Vietnam vets with shorn off legs, massive arm muscles, and shoulders as wide as the proverbial football field. Yesterday, there were a lot more, beautiful young men and women from the current conflict with legs missing but hearts whole. Everytime my aching body suggested it might be okay for me to slow down, to if not quit at least walk it in, one of those brave former soldiers invariably came into my view (when Marines call out “make a hole,” I now know to get to the right or left–fast!), and I knew being a slacker simply wasn’t an option.

Today I’m sore. No, not pleasantly sore, but sore-sore, hopped up on Motrin “as we speak” but in a good mood nonetheless. The pride of accomplishing my goal more than makes up for some stiff limbs and blistered feet. If running 26.2 miles was easy, then everybody would be doing it, right?

What’s your big “It” with a capital “I”? Whether your It is completing your first marathon or one-miler, typing The End on your first manuscript or your fiftieth, wracking up yet another milestone for success or picking yourself up and trying again after the Universe has dealt you that really big, brutal Boot in the Face, if you haven’t already done so, take a moment to brag on yourself, even if the voice saying “You go, girl” is silent except for inside your head.

And in the words of my Strokes of Midnight heroine, Becky Stone, here’s wishing you an autumn filled with “fresh starts and dazzling opportunities.”

Hope