Today, my book is out. Just Surrender is Book 1 of the Harts of Texas trilogy, and I’ve got a link to an excerpt here.

Just Surrender

And as if that wasn’t enough to make me smile, I just turned in my revisions on Book 3 of my trilogy, so I have no deadlines.

Ahhhh!!!!!!

For some reason, the Perfect Storm of Happy is bearing down upon my life. It is spring, the temps are warm, the trees are budding with flowers, I have lost 6 pounds, and the kidlets are on Spring Break.

I’m having a great day today, and I think it’s going to be a really good week. Is there anybody else having a great week? Everybody ready for spring? Let me know if things are good or bad for you and one random commenter will win a signed copy of JUST SURRENDER!

And so, last night was great. All we had was dinner out, but it was quiet and peaceful and for a few hours I pushed off everything else.

I’m finishing up my book now. I’m at the point when I have a list of things that I need to put in, or need to double-check, and one of the things I always put on my list is the falling in love scene.

My favorite books and movies have the ‘ah’ scene where you can see the hero or the hero (ideally both of them) falling in love. Last weekend, Pretty Woman was on TV, and I watched it, and there’s a great scene where Richard Gere is sleeping and Julia Roberts (aka Vivian the hooker) kisses him on the lips. It’s a very soft, gentle kiss, but the audience knows exactly what it means because Vivian has told him her rules and there is no kissing on the mouth for her. When I watched that scene, my heart sighed and I was suddenly Vivian, loosening my defenses where Richard Gere was concerned (and I don’t even LIKE Richard Gere which tells you how effective it was).

I love when the hero is doing something that he hates for the heroine. To me, that says I love you in ways that Kay or Jared jewelers never can. I’ve had heroes who have subjected themselves to all sorts of misery for the heroine, dancing, dressing up in a suit, going to a chili-cook off, all because the heroine asked. These are the best heroes to me. I know that a hero that will put his life on the line for the hero is really cool and popular, but you know, if he dies, then he doesn’t have to worry about the embarrassment of facing his friends, who will most likely laugh at what he has done.

Writing these falling in love scenes always makes me cry happy tears, and last week I was at Panera Bread writing away, tears streaming down my face, and I think people might have been staring, but I didn’t care because I’m a romance writer, and tears (happy and sad) are part of it.

So, what about y’all? What’s the most romantic scene/gesture, either fictional or real life? What’s romantic to you?

I hope you are all having an awesome summer. It has whizzed by at light speed, and in the next few weeks the kids will go back to school. I will miss the touching moments (NOT!), finally having the peace and solitude that frankly, I think I deserve. That, and I do my best writing when the children are not around. Sometimes my son will barge into my office and stare at computer and ask me a question. It used to be (before he was a good reader and a naturally curious person) that this did not bother me. But now, my screen may be littered with graphic words and unclothed body parts and having an eleven year old looking over my shoulder, well, it bugs me.

I’ve gotten to where I will write love scenes late at night when I know that everyone is in bed, and the world becomes my character’s world, rather than my characters inhabiting my world. It’s a lot easier that way. I suppose that those who write romantic suspense are used to untimely interruptions, but since that is not me, I frown upon them.

I know there are mothers in the world who cry when their children go back to school, but my tears are tears of joy, not sorrow. I tell myself it’s because I want them to be educated. To grow up and be learned citizens of the earth. But ha! It’s all about me and my introverted self.

So, anybody else about to do the back to school dance/depression? Which is you?

I have no problems dreaming up great characters that fascinate me. Sometimes it’s a line of dialog, sometimes it’s a hopeless dream. Sometime it’s a character trait from someone I know and love, and sometimes it’s the je ne sais quoi-tude that makes them fab.

Now the subplots, OY!! That’s where I always have to mull and think and ponder and think and mull some more. However, serendipitously, I am blogging here, amongst all the awesomely wonderful Blaze readers (and some authors, too), and I’m thinking HIVE-MIND CALL! I’ve always wanted to experiment with this, but the timing was always off – until now.

So, once again, I’m calling out for help. I have two $25 Amazon gift certificates as rewards to random plotters. Here’s what I know so far (all completely subject to change and editor’s approval).

Heroine is sheriff of tiny town, TX and has loved hero a long time, but he skedaddled as soon as he could, leaving her heartbroken. Hero comes back to his hometown (which he hated), to make peace with some pieces of his dysfunctional past, but at one time he had a thing for heroine, who is a fixture there (probably taking care of her own family in some way).

I’d love to have small town antics, there’s tremendous opps for quirky crime (No SERIAL KILLERS, please!). Town wants to break them up so that she’ll stay and not be tempted to leave for greener pastures (literally). I’m thinking there’s a ten year reunion, because they would both be 28 years old, and so it makes a lot of sense that it’d be going on.

Timeframe is Texas in the summer, so it’ll be hot and humid, with lots of front-porch
sitting and watermelon eating and skinny dipping, possibly all at the same time. (My mind really does zoom off in ten million directions at this phase).

I have no idea how this story will end up (I usually hone the story as I go along), so I don’t know what the final product will be, but I’d love to have some ideas to spur me upward and onward!

Any help, any idea, is appreciated. Sometimes even silly stuff causes the brain to go AHA! All right, hive-world, feel free to spurt out whatever you choose!

Spring Scene

I do love spring. This year, the pollen has been very sneezy, but everything looks so pretty that it’s hard to complain. We have a birm full of periennials, and when they start popping up, I always forget what we have there. The peonies nearly got weed-whacked, because I didn’t remember them, and I think there must have been some serious peony-lovin’ going on, because I think they have multiplied this year.

Apple Blossoms

So, question for all, what’s your favorite spring flower (or tree)? I’ve got an April release (JUST FOOLING AROUND) AND a May release (LONG SUMMER NIGHTS), that I’ll give away to one lucky commenter!

Happy April!

You know, speaking as a non-health professional with only a dabbling of high school biology, I am shocked… shocked! that medical professionals are only now recognizing that DUH! people should strive to be happy. And you know what makes me happy? Happy endings.

I am a total doofus for a book that gets me all warm and smiley inside. It colors my entire day and I’ll be walking through the mall or the grocery store and I’ll think back to the book I was last reading (or sometimes writing!) and start to smile. Before you know it, someone will see me smile and smile back, and it’s all because of that book and that one scene or gooey ending or set of characters. Sometimes we forget the little tiny moments of the day that ignite a chain of responses that go far beyond 240 pages in 12 point font.

So, I’m done with trying to justify my reading choices. Somebody else take the vein-ripping suicide tropes; this is American Hearth Month (L) , so I’m reading for my heart health. I’m going to watch American Idol and not feel guilty. I’m going to daydream out the window and worry about the laundry later. I’m going to tell a stupid joke to my kids so that they will roll their eyes. And I’m going to stick with my happy endings.

So these are the things that I do to stay happy. What about you all? What makes you happy? Anybody else read romances to be happy? Heheheh… Now you can get all sanctimonious and judgmental and say, “I read them because they’re heart-smart.”

ahhhh…..

Yes, that joyous scream you heard on Wednesday was the sound of Kathleen sending in a book. There is no moment on the planet that is as sigh-inducing as knowing for another few days at least you are FREE. Well, actually, there are a few moments that are as sigh-inducing as that, (I do write for Blaze after all (K) ) but seriously, it’s pretty awesome.

So, today, I went out shopping. There was no watch-watching because I had no place to be and no guilt about taking time out to be among the huddled masses (it was nine degrees this AM; the masses were def huddled). I scoured for various holiday bows, but the shelves were pretty much empty. Rite-Aid had their Valentine’s Day candy on display. (VD-CREEP). At the craft store, the shelves that held the little decorative sprigs looked like an antelope carcass on the savannah, cleaned to the BONE. I did score a food processor at Macy’s, and some awesome cheese (not at Macy’s, in case you were confused). But in the end, I came home with bags of bows and Drunken Goat (it’s a cheese, not an actual intoxicated animal), and a high-powered chopper that makes the Bass-O-Matic looked like chopper liver.

So, we’re off to a party tonight, and I have a few books lined up for the holiday reading fest, but all in all, it’s good to be a very restive, relaxing, holiday. AT LAST.

So, here’s the question, if you could design your favorite holiday break, what would you do? Shop, read, spa, TV, movies? Let me know, and I’ll have some hot chocolate, mug, and books to one lucky commenter.

But last night, I slept. I fully believe that sleep is the most underrated homeopathic medicine ever discovered. I love crawling under a warm blanket (electric). I love pulling the down comforter over me, and slowly feeling my toes lose their chill. I love the way the pillow automagically cradles my head in the perfect position and I never get a neck ache.

It is bliss.

Then, as if sleep alone isn’t magical enough, we get to dream. Sometimes my dreams are awful, sometimes they are very Salvador Dali, with melting faces, and cactuses stuck in the middle of our living room, and sometimes, and this is when it’s magic, they are the perfect solution to my story problem du jour.

I love it when that happens. I’ll wake up and think, “EUREKA!” because there, niggling at the base of my mind is the perfect reason, scene, backstory, reaction, or whatever it was I was seeking.

The reason this post is late. I um, overslept. :-$

Does everybody love sleep? Do you remember your dreams, and do you get solutions from out of the stuff of dreams?

It’s very rainy, cold and gloomy here, and all I can think about is eating — mostly things that aren’t good for me, which is my traditional winter ritual. However, it’s only the middle of October, and I depress myself if I think that we’re hitting winter in October.

So, I digress — back to the block. I considered writing about my new cover (YAY!), but I didn’t see anything controversial in it, and I actually like the cover, although I think I always get the tilt-a-wheel covers, which sort of cracks me up, cause I’m thinking the art department sees “Kathleen O’Reilly” and immediately rotates the print thirty degrees (as you can see, we writers can find pretty much anything to complain about).

And then I considered writing about Halloween, but we haven’t put our decorations up yet, and I need to take my kids costume-shopping, which I’m procrastinating about. Sadly, I don’t want to face the fact that Halloween is creeping up ever so quickly, and before you know it, I’ll be hitting every craft store in the tri-state region looking for some obscure color of paint because we waited too long and I don’t dare send my kids out in a store-bought costume (the community’s equivalent of store-bought cookies at a bake sale). So, you’ll understand why I don’t want to talk about Halloween.

I could talk about books that I’ve read recently, but I HAVEN’T READ ANYTHING RECENTLY and frankly I’m a little grumpy about that.

I actually have watched a lot of television. The Bourne movies, which I enjoyed a lot, and we’ve been watching a lot of Law & Order, and Law & Order: SVU, but not as much as I’d like to, because we don’t have TIVO, which is first on my Christmas list. Last year, we actually got a TIVO player, but then switched over from cable to FIOS and we realized that we’d need the more expensive HD TIVO receiver, so we sent back my Christmas present and I did without, and when I think about it, I still get a little pissy, so you can see why I don’t exactly want to write about my TV watching habits, either.

I considered writing about balloon boy, but that starts me on a rant about the need for news organizations to actually, you know — investigate — before they put something on the air instead of relying on TWITTER for sourcing, but if I write about balloon boy, then aren’t I contributing to the very thing that I detest? Conundrum squared.

So, here I am, throwing myself on the mercy of the Blaze Authors Blog readers. Any good book, TV or movie recs? And also, best Halloween costume you’ve seen?

As my husband always says, a dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Anyway, so on to serious things, like, you know, romance novels.

I love when people ask about favorite quotes from a romance novel. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re gooey, sometimes they make you sigh. There are a lot of great quotes in the world, stirring or clever, but when you recall a line from a book, the whole experience of the book unfolds from that one tiny passage. It’s more than a few words, and slapdash punctuation. It’s the hero and the heroine who were there with you. It captures all the emotions that led up to that one moment. The tears, the pain, the joy… and the love.

What’s yours? Favorite line(s), and author and title if it’s handy.

Since I asked you all this one, I’ll start it off with two. One is a favorite quote from my books, and one is my favorite romance novel quote ever:

“I know,” he said, almost proudly. “That’s what Christmas is all about. When you dig through all the tackiness, and ugliness, and vile shoppers, it’s just about a day that you spend making the people you love happy. If I could reduce myself to buying something like this, it would make you happy.”
– Spencer James, Breakfast at Bethany’s.

“He stood, helpless in the driving rain, unable to rule his needy mouth, his restless hands, while within, his heart beat out the mortifying truth.
Ho bisogno di te.
I need you.”
– Dain, Lord of Scoundrels