Waiting and waiting...FINALLY THE OFFER COMES!

Publishing is synonomous with waiting...and waiting. For example, I thought my cover for Mona Lisa's Room would never come. But when it did, I was thrilled with Rae Monet's work--as always. After another month-long wait, my final galley arrived. I found two errors, so we're back to square one in that department. Once it arrives again, and I sign off on it, I'll be given a release date. Until then, I'm waiting.

Just so you have some perspective, I sent my finished manuscript for this book to my agent the last week of April, 2011. We did two rounds of edits, using tract changes. She submitted it to TWRP the middle of June. A contract offer arrived 3 months later. My actual contract took a month to reach me, and I signed it the middle of October. Thus, the span of time from my typing "The End" to my signing the contract was 6 months.

Mona Lisa's Room, a romantic suspense, is book one of The Red Hand Conspiracy series.

Rain is a Love Song is book two of the romantic suspense series involving a group of terrorists, called The Red Hand. I sent the finished manuscript to my agent on the 19th of December. She submitted it to my editor on February 4th. My contract offer came May 1st. You'd think by now, I'd be an old hand at waiting. Sadly I'm not. I will say that when the offer, the call from my agent, came I was just as shocked, just as humbled. "Really? They want it?"

How does Rain is a Love Song start you, might ask. Well, there's this French government agent working undercover who eases his Harley to the curb in front of a cafe. He's wearing angel wings that drag on the pavement. No, he's not a real angel--not by any stretch of the imagination. The wings are simply part of his disguise as he prowls the sex district of Paris.

Couldn't happen, you say.

Oh, but it did.

When we were in Paris 7 years ago, having lunch at a cafe across the narrow street from the Pompadieu Museum, a bike slowly eased by, the rider's shoulder length hair blowing back in the wind (no helmets required in France, it seemed) and his alabaster feathered wings dragging across the pavement. What a sight, and I found just the place to insert that traveling memory.

JEAN-LUC LeFEVRE

Gwen Morningstar makes Jean-Luc nervous, and that's not easy for an ex-Maritime Commando, the French equivilent of our SEALS. Currently, he's an expert at interrogation tactics within the counterterrorism unit of the French government. She teases him and knocks him off his granite perch.

Her daughter, Rhiannon, well, she's wormed her way so deep into his heart, he's inclined to give her anything, including the puppy she wants. But first he has to keep the child and her headstrong Mother safe. Not an easy task when Gwen insists she can take care of herself--and she does.

GWEN MORNINGSTAR

A single Mom, Gwen and her little girl, Rhiannon, are visiting family in Paris. Still hurting from the death of her husband years earlier in Iraq, she wants no emotional attachments, even with a gorgeous agent whom she enjoys teasing. Besides her life is in North Carolina, where she is a crime scene photographer. She has enough stress dealing with a daughter who wants a daddy and a puppy, especially when Rhiannon knows exactly which man and which puppy she desires. Oh, how that little girl can scheme...

RHIANNON
SHE CLAIMS JEAN-LUC IS HER GUARDIAN ANGEL.
HE FEARS SHE'S HIS.

COMING SOON:  RAIN IS A LOVE SONG