Sail Ho! THE ROGUE'S PRIZE Book Cover Arrived!

It's here! It's here! THE ROGUE'S PRIZE has a book cover!!!

I'm blogging about the cover at my blog: http://katherinebone.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/sail-ho/

Won't you stop by?

Blessings,
Katherine

Digging Your Way Out & Swabbing Decks!

Don't you just love digging your way out of things? For instance, I happened to notice today I was supposed to blog here yesterday. Oops!!! Big apology, me hearties! My ship has been filled with much deck swabbing of late. You see, I'm preparing to sail off to adventure on new shores. Yes, it's true! (Pirate!)

Adventures begin with lots of prep work, don't they? Whenever I go on vacation or on a short trip, getting the house ready, getting packed last minute (it's always last minute), and setting up loose ends I end up swab batty. Or is that ratty? Not sure there are bats on a ship. I've heard of bats in the bellfrey. Don't be mistaken, I've got those too. Ships have plenty of rats however. They go for the weavil infested biscuits. Ugh!

But I digress...

In the past month, my youngest deckhand graduated from Auburn University. We helped Second to youngest move home to prepare for a move to Alaska. My edits came in and were due during said trip to help HS#2 move from Fort Bragg. If that wasn't enough to curl a pirate's toes, the proof of said book returned and needed to be turned in on another arranged due date. Whew! (I know something else happened in here but those bats are fluttering around again.)

I blame the bilge rats!!!

And then what to my horizon-gazing eyes should appear? A book cover for me newest release THE ROGUE'S PRIZE, the second book in my Nelson's Tea Series, due out June 24th!!! Let me tell you, I couldn't be more excited and wish I could share it with you here. (If I get it prior to the next blog post, I'll add the BIG reveal!) But until then, I'm raising a mug of rum to my good fortune. Yes, indeedie!!! Couldn't be happier with my book cover. The Crimson Romance Art Department has been mighty obliging.

So as I swab my deck, await THE ROGUE'S PRIZE's book cover and prepare bookmarks and other promotional goodies for giveaways at the Heart of Dixie Luncheon & the Romance Writer's of America Conference, I'll ask you this. If you were stranded on a deserted island with one shot and a jug of rum, who would you want to spend your time with?

Me? Well, that's a no-brainer. I'll settle for Cap'n Jack Sparrow!!!


Second question: If you could only have one signature piece of clothing, what would you choose?

The Lost Art of Piddling

No, not that kind of piddling. The other kind.

I used to be a really talented piddler. Given a few hours of free time, I could watch TV. Devour a book front to back. Listen to music while studying the lyrics (whether or not I sang along would depend on whether anyone could hear me--I wouldn't subject that warbling to my worst enemy). I played with my dogs, who seem to enjoy my warbling, especially when I warble in some Alabama-Louisiana version of French. I worked on quilts.

I piddled.

This week, I realized something, and I'm not sure whether it's good or bad. I've lost the ability to piddle. And it kind of ticks me off.

The pace of the last year has been brutal. I had three full-length novels to write to contract in 2012, plus several to shepherd through edits and revisions and proofs, and four books released. From February 15-April 29 of this year, I cranked out a 90,000-word novel that comes out in June, and had another release in February. My full-time day job went nuts at the same time, going from a laid-back easy affair in November to a nail-biting, harrowing crazy space.

"Once I get back from RT," I thought, "I'll relax. The deadlines will be past me for the most part. I'll have fun. I'll piddle."

That lasted, oh, about twenty-four hours. Part of my problem is that, thanks to my no-longer-secret penchant for reality TV, I have the attention span of a gnat. And, also, I guess I got used to the breakneck pace of working eighteen-hour days.

Now, I'm driving my agent nuts with ideas. I'm tinkering with six proposals (which is piddling, in a way, since I can't possible devote much time to them all at once). I have this horrible need to dive into something huge and crazy, but I can't figure out what it is.

What do you do between projects? Do you find it difficult to stop and take a breath? If I rediscover the art of piddling, will I lose the desire to work until I drop like the only plough mule on a forty-acre farm? Will I begin to use bad Southern similes whenever I try to write if I do, indeed, sit down and watch nine episodes of "Swamp People" back to back? (Because that's how many are on my DVR at the moment--how Troy and RJ have made it through an entire gator season without me is hard to imagine.)

Or do I need therapy? How do you relax after a big deadline and recharge so you can do it all again?

Restless, bored, non-piddling minds want to know!

Gone South Again! Book Release Day

Celebrate with us today as the second book in our Gone South series is released. If there is nothing like that first one, the second one provides some relief that you can do it again!

It is probably possible to write a contemporary series set in the south without mentioning football, but it would have to be set in an alternate universe.

Still, Scrimmage Gone South is no more a football story than Gone With The Wind is about cotton farming.

Yet, Nathan Scott had to be a football coach. What else was he to do? His life had been mapped out—high school star, college All-American, and a certain future in the NFL. A reporter had christened him “The Angel” because no one without wings should have been able to leap so high with such precision to snatch a ball out of the air—that and his flawless face.

He had even met the girl of his dreams—classy, smart, and funny. She would have been way out of his league if not for the talent that had made him famous and was going to make him rich.

But two games away from his the end of his senior season and seven months away from the NFL draft, it all ended in a matter of seconds. He zigged when he should have zagged and ended up at the bottom of a pile with a destroyed knee.

And it was all her fault. Just hours before going on the field for what would be the last time, he found out she had been lying to him all along.

At sixteen, Tolly Lee had always been such a good girl. It was time she did something bad—and really how bad was it to crash a fraternity party and tell everyone she was a junior at a neighboring college? And how she could have predicted that a dance and a kiss with Nathan Scott would lead to more lies and his ruined future? She paid with her heart and she’s been paying ever since.

Tolly would have never moved to Nathan’s home town to practice law with her cousin if she had dreamed he would ever return.  After all, it had been thirteen years. She has made a good life for herself here, but if the people of Merritt find out that she ruined their hometown hero’s career, she might as well pack her bags.

But when the Merritt High Bobcats need a head coach, the town calls home their favorite son. When he accepted the job, no one told him Tolly Lee, sneaky lying debutante lawyer, had set up practice on Main Street. But why would they? No one knows about their past and he is just as anxious as she is to keep it that way.

They might have gone on like that forever if the Merritt Bobcat starting quarterback had not suddenly become orphaned with no good place to go. In a moment of uncharacteristic spontaneity, Tolly offers to take the boy in and, suddenly staying away from Nathan is a thing of the past.  

Are you a football fan? If you are not, would you read a story with football elements?

Books Vs. Hollywood

Are movies or shows ever better than the book they were based on?

I recently re-read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books by CharlaineHarris in preparation for the final book release on May 7th. During this time, I started seeing trailers for the upcoming season of True Blood. I enjoy the books much better than the show.

I had to force myself to get through the first few seasons of the show, whereas I can’t put the books down once I start reading them. I finally had to tell myself that although HBO uses Charlaine’s characters (most of them anyway), they have created a completely different storyline. Reminding myself of that helps me get through the season with less swearing at the television.

My husband has threatened to put duct tape over my mouth the next time I say, “It didn’t happen like that in the book.” I have the same problem with Game of Thrones but at least they stay in the same ballpark as what George R.R. Martin created, for the most part.

Even on the big screen, I compare the author’s creation to Hollywood’s interpretation of it. The Help movie turned out pretty well but I still enjoyed the book more. I don’t like when they change storylines and sometimes I don’t like the casting choices. For instance, in my mind, Bella in Twilight looked more like Alexis Bledel than Kristin Stewart. I guess it has a lot to do with how the author’s description creates an image in my brain.

Alexis Bledel

There is a musical that I love that is based on a book and I can say it is better than the book because I’m a happily-ever-after kind of girl (and I like musicals). Wicked the Musical gives you the HEA that the book doesn’t.

Have you ever met a movie/show/play that you preferred to the book it was based on?