Thanks for the entries...

Monday, June 30, 2008

Happy holiday week to all of you---

Thank you all so much for jumping so quickly to enter my spur of the moment contest. There are definitely plenty of true colors hopefuls out there--many more than I expected. Because of the time crunch, we had to put all this together quickly, and so we've chosen the lucky winners and sent out the manuscripts. But to those of you who didn't win this time, we'll keep your name in the hat for the first advance reading copy. I'm not sure when that will be, but I'll keep you in the loop. I really wish I'd had enough copies for all of you...

aloha and thanks again for entering--

I'll write more this afternoon.

Kristin

Just between us...Ssshhhh....

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Good evening, friends--

We've been having another fun chat on the blog this month, and I want to thank everyone for chiming in. I really appreciate hearing from you!

And now (drum roll, please), I actually have something interesting to pass along. An opportunity. In a nutshell, here it is: my publisher has sent me a very small number of galleys for my next book, True Colors. Well, they're not actually galleys--they're what's called bound manuscripts. this means they've taken my manuscript pages, reduced them to the size of a hardcover novel, and bound them in some way. These pages have not been copyedited (checked for mistakes, typos, etc.) or finalized yet, but they're pretty darn close to the final book. Obviously, when I heard this, I knew I had to go to my faithful blog-friends first.

So, here's the scoop. I have two copies of the manuscript. Would any of you like to read it? All you have to do is tell my publisher what you think. Easy as pie.

Anyone who is interested, please send your name, along with something that identifies you as a "True Colors hopeful" and let me know you'd like to receive an early peek at what I honestly believe is my most romantic novel in years. There's only one catch. I have to mail these out ASAP (the publisher is hoping to hear what you think of the book by late July). So we'll be choosing the winner by Wednesday. We'll put all the names in a hat and draw out the two winners, so send your snail mail address along, too.

I know it's late notice, and I'm sorry. Think of it as a lucky break for the few of you who are regulars to the blog. I'll have a big, no-holes-barred contest for the ARCs of True Colors at the end of the summer. Promise.

I look forward to hearing back from you...

aloha,
Kristin

Botswana Book Project

Sunday, June 8, 2008


Aloha, friends---


Well, I'm back from the road trip to sunny southern California. We got our son set up in his apartment for his summer internship and said goodbye...only to get a phone call a week later that his wisdom teeth were still hurting. Of course I kicked into full helicopter mom mode and got him set up with an oral surgeon in Los Angeles, who called to say that they were rushing my son into immediate surgery. Wow. I have to say, it was absolutely horrible to have my child (even though he is a man now), alone and sick in a city fifteen hundred miles away. I don't think I slept well for days. Even worse was the fact that he was not healing well, and I knew it, and his oral surgeon totally patted my head and blew my off. Acted like I was a silly mom who needed to be placated. Don't you HATE that? I felt like pulling a Glenn Close and yelling, "I won't be ignored..." But of course, I was ignored, and he was sick. All I can say is that I'm glad I semi over reacted when he called to say it wasn't healing right. Those infections can turn bad much too quickly.


But now, finally, life is slowing turning back into its normal position. Although Seattle has still not seen the sun since I've been home, I do know that summer is on it's way. It's just stopped somewhere for a drink.


I'm beginning the copy editing of the book that's coming out in February. Soon I'll have a cover to show you all, and it won't be long at all before I'll be running a contest for one of you to read the manuscript--mistakes and all.


Best of all, I'm going away for a weekend with a girlfriend. It's our brainstorming/spa weekend where we spend about 48 hours yakking about the books we're going to start writing, sipping wine, and visiting the spa. No kids, no husbands, no schedules. Nothing to talk about except our books and our lives. In short, pure heaven.


Before I head off, though, I have a few bits of business to attend to. First of all, I promised all of you some scoop about my Africa trip, which is finally coming together. Honestly, my husband and I have never planned a trip of this magnitude before, and it's daunting. Airlines, hotels, passports, visas, shots, clothing. We're going a little mad getting ready for all of it. But one thing I've known from the beginning, is that I want to give back a little, and many of you have expressed a similar desire. So here goes: I've thrown my support behind a couple of Africa charities for this year. First on the list is the Botswana Book Project. This is an organization that collects books for schools in Africa. Can you imagine what it's like to live without books? One shudders at the thought. It seemed a perfect fit for me...and quite possibly for many of you as well. So if any of you would like to join me in the effort, the Book Project is looking for clean paperback novels to send off this July for the Get Botswana reading drive. This year, instead of school books, they want genre novels that people will enjoy reading in their spare time.


Please send books (or donations) to:

Books for Africa

Botswana Book Project

c/o Pam Shelton

715 East Minehaha Ave

St. Paul, MN 55106


Any donations sent before July 1, will make in the next shipment. Pam and I thank you all in advance for your help.


And here are my books/movie recommendations for the week: The Spiritualist, by Megan Chance. Yes, Megan is a good friend of mine, but she's still written a heck of a great book. :)

I have also read and loved this month--The Year of Fog, by Michelle Richmond, Domestic Affairs by Eileen Goudge, and the Sex and the City movie.


What about you guys? Any recommendations for me this week?


Aloha and have a great summer weekend---



Kristin
PS: In the endless quest to master this whole blogging photo thing, I've sent along a photo from my book tour this year. This was a great party/book night put together by two great bookstores--Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo and Eagle Harbor Books. As you can probably tell, we had a lot of fun...