Vicky Dreiling
How to Marry a Duke
Best First Book
Regency Historical Romance

Vicky Dreiling
How to Seduce a Scoundrel
Regency Historical Romance

Linda Warren
The Texan’s Bride
Contemporary Series Romance

Deeanne Gist
Love on the Line
Inspirational Romance

Amanda Stevens
The Restorer
Paranormal Romance

Lara Chapman
Flawless
Young Adult Romance

Golden Heart

Jan Nash
Powerless Consent
Inspirational Romance

Kay Hudson
Bathtub Jinn
Paranormal Romance

Shana Galen is pleased to announce the sale of a new book, connected to Lord and Lady Spy. This one is tentatively titled True Spies, and it’s the story of a secret operative who has kept his job from his beautiful, bored housewife for years but is forced to reveal his identity when they are both kidnapped by a diabolical villain. Release is set for Fall 2013.

Brandie Nickerson is proud to announce that her short story, Locke between Loyalty and Love was picked as one of Best of The Cynic Online Magazine 2011. You can read the story at http://archive.cynicmag.com/author.asp?author=Brandie+Nickerson

Joan Reeves received her countersigned contract the day before Christmas so she feels free now to reveal that she sold world French rights, print and ebook, to Bragelonne, the largest publisher of paranormal novels in France. A French editor obtained a copy of one of Joan’s ebooks, the romantic comedy Jane (I’m Still Single) Jones, and fell in love with the book! In one day, Joan had a big contract offer and a NY agent who negotiated a fabulous deal with Bragelonne who, by the way, wanted not one book, but three of Joan’s romantic comedies!

Kerrelyn Sparks will be appearing on a panel at the American Library Association’s midwinter meeting in Dallas on January 25. She’s also scheduled to speak at the Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, VA, in March. Her next release, Wanted: Undead or Alive, goes on sale March 27th. New wallpapers featuring the covers of past Love at Stake books can now be downloaded from her website at www.kerrelynsparks.com

Joanna Wayne’s Cowboy Conspiracy debuted at #27 on Bookscan.

Vicky Dreiling signed a new 3-book contract with Grand Central.

Cheryl Bolen and her editor at Love Inspired Historical came up with a new title for her 2012 release: Marriage of Inconvenience. At this writing, Cheryl’s humorous Regency romantic mystery, With His Lady’s Assistance, was No. 4 in New Releases (Regency) at Amazon, and her Regency Christmas novella made it to No. 33 – on the day of its release. It’s titled Christmas at Farley Manor. All three releases are G rated!

Vicky Dreiling and her debut novel How To Marry a Duke, a Regency era version of The Bachelor, were featured in a Publisher’s Weekly article entitled Romancing the Reader about self-promotion.

Tied With a Bow, the holiday anthology containing the launch of Kimberly Frost’s paranormal romantic suspense series, debuted at #23 on the New York Times Trade Fiction Bestseller List.

Forever Mine, Donna Grant’s Indie novella became an Amazon #1 Bestseller.

Donna Grant also agreed to another contract with St. Martin’s Press to continue her Dark Warriors series with four more books, but also for three novellas being released in 2012 back to back to begin another spin off series.

Mary Lindsey’s debut young adult romance, Shattered Souls from Philomel/Penguin, releases December 8, 2011.

Joan Reeves published her 7th ebook Old Enough To Know Better, a contemporary romance. This book was designed to be Book 1 of The Good, The Bad, and The Girly, a novella series, but ended up a full length novel because even though Joan, as a writer, is old enough to know better, she just can’t write short.

Kerrelyn Sparks is thrilled and honored that RWA has asked her to be the Librarians Day luncheon speaker at the national conference this summer in Anaheim. She’ll also be speaking at ALA’s midwinter conference in Dallas this January. To find out more about her Love at Stake series, please visit www.kerrelynsparks.com.

Colleen Thompson is delighted to announced that her first book for Harlequin Intrigue, Capturing the Commando, was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Intrigue of 2011.

Linda Warren is excited to announce she’s been nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times Magazine.

Sandra Worth is excited to be a nominee for the RT Reviewers Choice Award in Historical Fiction for her novel Pale Rose of England and honored to be in illustrious company (among them, Sharon Kay Penman, Diana Gabaldon, Philippa Gregory, Anne Easter Smith, and Karleen Koen) She wishes everyone a wonderful Holiday Season, and hopes 2012 brings good news.

Sharon Forret’s manuscript, LAST TIME, is a finalist in the paranormal category of the unpublished Beacon Contest, hosted by the First Coast Romance Writers. It’s now off to final-round judges Courtney Miller-Callihan of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates and Lauren Plude, editorial assistant with Grand Central. LAST TIME is also a finalist in the Valley of the Sun Romance Writers’ Hot Prospects Contest. Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal category. Final judges for this one are Deborah Werksman, Sourcebooks, Inc., and Jenny Bent, The Bent Agency. This marks Sharon’s “return to writing” now that her son is a year old, and she is happy to get back out there!

Kay Hudson was delighted to learn that her work-in-progress, Bathtub Jinn, is a finalist in the Golden Network’s Golden Pen contest. She has sent in the revised final entry (with thanks to the low-scoring judge who caught the problems in the hastily written synopsis); now all she has to do is finish the book by the Golden Heart deadline.

Heather MacAllister has published her Golden Heart winning YA manuscript–exactly as it was entered in the contest–as an ebook. Picture Perfect, a historical contemporary, is available for Kindle, Nook, and through Smashwords. It took her nearly as long to figure out the formatting as it did to write the book in the first place.

Amber Shah (writing as Amber Skye) is excited to share that her manuscript, ASKING FOR IT, finaled in both the San Fransisco RWA Heart to Heart Contest 2011 and in the First Coast Romance Writers Unpublished Beacon Contest 2011 in the erotica categories. She also received a request for a full from one of her dream agents and so she’s currently working furiously on edits and polish.

Kerrelyn Sparks’ eleventh book in the Love at Stake series, Sexiest Vampire Alive, went into a second printing a week after release. It debuted on the New York Times list at # 12, Publishers Weekly at # 10, and USA Today at # 36. For more information, please visit her website at www.kerrelynsparks.com.

Colleen Thompson is happy to announce the publication of two Australian Reprints, Capturing the Commando and Phantom of the French Quarter, as part of the Mills & Boon Intrigue line. In addition, her novella, Lethal Lessons, was part of a recent Mills & Boon Intrigue edition of Deadlier Than the Male in the United Kingdom.

Cheryl Bolen is thrilled to announce she has seven Regency-set romances ranked in the Top 75 Regency historicals at Amazon, including three in the Top 10. My Lord Wicked has held steady at Number 2. During August, My Lord Wicked was Number 1 in Hot New Releases, Regency.

Vicky Dreiling sold Japanese translation rights to How to Seduce a Scoundrel, and How to Marry a Duke made Booklist’s Top 10 Romances for 2011.

Delphine Dryden released her ninth novel, The Lamplighter’s Love, this month for Ellora’s Cave. She also celebrated the release of a short in the Cleis Press anthology Girls Who Bite. Del’s big news for the month is signing with Courtney Miller-Callihan of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, a stellar literary agency whose client list includes such names as Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code).

Sophie Jordan (Sharie Kohler) is thrilled to report that she’s an international bestseller! Firelight hit the German’s bestseller list at #13!!! Firelight also made the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults list.

Joan Reeves has started a free subscription newsletter Writing Hacks. Writing Hacks will be emailed every week and will contain tips, shortcuts, tricks, how to instructions, and more with an emphasis on ebooks of course. The signup form is on her blog http://SlingWords.blogspot.com.

Kerrelyn Sparks celebrates her latest release, Sexiest Vampire Alive, with a contest and a book tour. Please check her website (http://www.kerrelynsparks.com) to enter her contest and see where she’ll be signing. To attend the Author Dinner with Kerrelyn, Beverly Jenkins, and Toni Blake on October 25th, please contact Katy Budget Books (281-578-7770) for tickets.

Lynn Lorenz’s second book in her Rougaroux Social Club, her Louisiana bayou werewolf series, Bayou’s End, comes out on Oct. 4th from Loose Id. http://www.looseid. com The first book, Bayou Dreams, was a bestseller at Loose Id and at ARe, staying in the top 10 romance books for two weeks. Also, she has a gay sci-fi novella, Duty Bound, coming out from Amber Quill Press’s Amber Allure imprint, as part of a PAX (buy all 5 novellas and get a 25% discount). Lynn is one of the organizers of the first Gay Literary Romance Retreat, held in New Orleans Oct 16-19th, and she’ll be signing books there and hosting some lucky readers to lunch, breakfast and is also hosting a Cafe Au Lait and Beignet party with several other authors. She’s really looking forward to meeting readers and spending time talking to them about gay romance. This is the month 2012 RT convention announces its panels and workshops and Lynn will be in several panels. One with Belinda McBride—Writing the Future: This Isn’t Your Brother’s Sci-Fi—will be a discussion about where the genre is headed and how to give it a fresh twist. Another panel on craft, Making the Cuts to Strengthen Your Manuscript, a panel discussion with Belinda McBride, ZA Maxfield and Catherine Snodgrass, will discuss various editing methods for producing tight, fast-paced stories. The convention will be held next year in Chicago, in April.

Cheryl Bolen is delighted to announce a sale to Harlequin Love Inspired Historicals. The tentatively titled Love With the Proper Earl will be published in Fall 2012. And two of Cheryl’s ebooks hit the Top 50 Regencies on Amazon.

Thanks in part to West Houston RWA, Shana Galen won the Long and Short of It Reviews Book of the Week for Lord and Lady Spy. The site nominated the book because it received a 4.5 star review.

Kerrelyn Sparks’ novella, A Very Vampy Christmas (which formerly appeared in Sugarplums and Scandal), will be available as a 100 page e-book on Sept. 6th for only $1.99! And her next full-length book, Sexiest Vampire Alive, goes on sale Sept.  27th. The launch party will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 28th at Murder by the Book. Kerrelyn would love to see you there! For more information and to read an excerpt, please visit her website at www.kerrelynsparks.com.

Colleen Thompson is happy to announce two new sales, Relentless Pursuit, to Harlequin Intrigue, and Firestorm Face-Off, to Harlequin Romantic Suspense. Both will be Fall 2012 releases.

Natalie C. Markey will put her speaking talents to use in a month long, online workshop through Write It Forward Workshops with Who Dares Wins Publishing. In October Natalie will teach Writing Moms: How to do it all without losing your mind! For more information visit www.whodareswinspublishing.com

Gerry Bartlett was happy to receive a top pick and a five star review from Night Owl reviews for Real Vampires Don’t Wear Size Six. This is book seven in her vamp series and hits shelves August 2. Meanwhile she is off to England and Scotland to research for book 9, so far untitled, date to be announced.

Cheryl Bolen’s A Lady by Chance is in the Top 10 romance sellers for Amazon UK. Its best showing has been Number 5. This is an electronic reissue of her 2000 Kensington Precious Gems book, selling for 99 cents. Sadly, the book has only made the Top 100 in the larger selling U.S. market.

Also, for Cheryl’s __th birthday, No. 1 son (who treated the family to a weekend in New Orleans) read her 2002 book A Fallen Woman as a present to his mom! It was the first time he’s read one of her books. (He says he doesn’t like to think about his mom knowing about sex stuff.) Following her custom of dedicating each book to a loved one, she had dedicated that book to him. He’s now decided Lifetime TV movies are missing out by not making the book into a television movie.

And one more thing for Cheryl. . .look in the Take Note section of the August edition of The Writer magazine for Cheryl’s mini article on Moleskines.

Sophie Jordan just landed her seventeenth foreign sale for her Firelight trilogy, selling to Taiwan. And she also just learned that Firelight is in its fourth printing. Also, her August historical romance, Wicked in Your Arms, earned a 41/2 stars TOP pick from RT BookReviews and a K.I.S.S award.

Vicky Dreiling’s historical romance How To Seduce a Scoundrel debuted at #45 on Nielsen Bookscan’s Top 100 Romances.

Shana Galen’s September release, Lord and Lady Spy, is on Publisher’s Weekly’s Top 10 Romances in their Fall preview edition.

Deeanne Gist’s historical novel, Maid to Match, won Book Buyers’ Best and National Readers Choice in the Inspirational Category. She has been acquired by general market agent David Vigliano of Vigliano Associates, who is listed by Publishers Marketplace as one of the industry’s top deal makers and whose client list includes Jackie Collins, Larry King, William Shatner, Rocco DiSpirito, and more.

Lynn Lorenz’s first book with her new publisher, Etopia Press, will be released August 5th. The book, a space Regency called The Ambassador’s Daughter was described as “24 meets Jane Austin in space, with a female Jack Bauer.” She’s also thrilled that her novella, C’est La Vie, set in New Orleans and Provence, France, is also releasing in August from Amber Quill Press—Amber Allure. Currently, she’s working on several deadlines and is on a first name basis with the folks at her local Specs.

Joan Reeves is testing the nonfiction ebook waters. Last month she added an ebook that’s a “best of” compilation from SlingWords, her popular blog. Written Wisdom, Quotation-Inspired Essays, 2005-2010, is inspiration, motivation, and encouragement disguised as an ebook. If you want to know how to persist, this is the book that illustrates that allimportant skill by an author who’s been in the trenches for a long time. In the end, she’s not only survived the slings and arrows of publishing, she’s finally prospered.

Joan Reeves is loving the ebook life and buying way too many bottles of champagne! The most recent bottle was opened in mid-July to celebrate the sale of more than 80,000 ebooks in less than 4 months. This month she publishes her fifth romance, the second book in her Texas One Night Stands series: Romeo and Judy Anne. Of course that means,more champagne!

Linda Warren’s book Skylar’s Outlaw won The National Reader’s Choice Award for Long Contemporary in New York at the national conference. A weekly online read by Linda Warren, The Cowboy Next Door, is available at www.eharlequin.com. http://tiny.cc/8hpo6

Joanna Wayne just signed a 3-book contract for books to be released in 2012. The series is Big D Dads, and the titles are: Son of a Gun, Live Ammo, and Big Shot.

TJ Bennett reports that the memoir she co-authored, At the End of the Day: How One Man Learned to Live Like He Was Dying, is a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association contest in their Non-fiction/Memoir category (winners to be announced in August). In addition, she’s received news of another foreign sale of her historical romance, The Legacy, to Spain.

As announced at the June meeting, Cheryl Bolen has gotten the rights back to her Brides of Bath series of sensual historicals set in the Regency and has put them up at Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. The middle book, With His Ring, was a runner-up for Best Historical novel in 2003 by Texas Gold. Also, her Precious Gems Regency historical that was only available in Wal-Marts, is now available digitally. It’s a fun read titled A Lady by Chance and sells for 99 cents. You can visit her website at www.CherylBolen.com.

Vicky Dreiling (How to Seduce a Scoundrel) and Sophie Jordan (Wicked in Your Arms) will be signing and discussing their newest historical romances at Katy Budget Books on July 30th 3:30-5:30. http://www.katybooks.com/event/sophie-jordan-vicky-dreiling-event Shana Galen has a new Facebook fan page. She really wants you to LIKE her. http:// www.facebook.com/pages/Shana-Galen/211315085575366

Kristi Gold is thrilled to announce that her first Superromance, His Best Mistake, is a finalist for the National Reader’s Choice Award. Winners will be announced at the RWA conference in New York on July 29th.

Alison Kent sold her contemporary westerns to Berkley Heat on an unofficial exclusive May 31st. The tentative release schedule is 11/12 and 02/13.

Joan Reeves had her most exciting day ever on Amazon this month. All four of her romances zoomed onto the Top 100 Paid list. Her first ebook Just One Look had been on that list for more than a month, and all 4 had been on the various romance bestseller lists. In one 24 hour period, she sold almost 3,000 books. When the dust settled, one book had slid off the Top 100, but three remain on.

Kerrelyn Sparks survived her first keynote speech at the Heart of Dixie Romance Readers’ Luncheon in Huntsville, Alabama. She’s also done workshops at the Comicpalooza event in Houston and the NOLA summer conference in Shreveport, Louisiana. Meanwhile, both her 2010 books, Eat Prey Love and The Vampire and the
Virgin finaled in the Colorado’s Award of Excellence contest. Eat Prey Love went on to win! And The Vampire and the Virgin won an Award of Merit from the Virginia Romance Writers HOLT Medallion contest. For more information please visit www.kerrelynsparks.com or find her on Facebook.

Linda Warren is proud to announce her Book, Skylar’s Outlaw, has won the Holt Medallion in long contemporary given by the Virginia Romance Writer’s. Also, the book has won The Bookbuyer’s Best in category series.

Sandra Worth is just back from a book signing in La Jolla with Margaret George. From La Jolla she went to San Diego to attend the Historical Novel Conference. She was particularly delighted to meet old friend Karleen Koen, and to get to know Persia Woolley (The Guinevere Trilogy) and Donna Cross (Pope Joan).

Natalie C. Markey launched her author website and appreciates feedback. www.NatalieCMarkey.com

Brandie Nickerson’s short story, “Locke between Loyalty and Love” was published in the June 1st edition of Cynic Online Magazine

Linda Warren’s Skylar’s Outlaw is a finalist for National Reader’s Choice Award and The Reader’s Crown Award.

Jessica Trapp has updated both of her websites–the one for the medieval books and the one for the ladybug picture books. www.jessicatrapp.com and www.jessiefern.com

Jo Anne Banker’s Golden Heart finalist, Lost and Found, was requested by one of the three final editor judges. Jo Anne won’t find out who requested it until after the conference, but she sent it off to RWA® to be forwarded
along.

Lara Chapman, Tera Lynn Childs, and Sophie Jordan will join a group of Texas YA Authors for statewide book signings this month. Check their schedule and stop by for some great reads! www.chillsandthrillsteenbooktour.wordpress.com.

Linda Barrett is delighted to announce that her book, QUARTERBACK DADDY, is a finalist in the Write Touch Readers’ Award contest – Long Series Contemporary category. The Wisconsin RWA chapter sponsors the contest.

Kerrelyn Sparks is thrilled that her latest release, VAMPIRE MINE, has survived three weeks on the USAToday and New York Times bestseller lists. Kerrelyn is the keynote speaker at the Heart of Dixie Romance Readers’ Luncheon in Huntsville, Alabama, and she’s also scheduled to appear at Comicpalooza at the George R Brown convention center in May.

Linda Warren reports that Skylar’s Outlaw is a finalist in Long Contemporary Romance for the BookBuyers Best Award, the Oklahoma Reader’s Choice Award and the Colorado Award of Excellence.

Sarah Andre finaled in the 2011 Golden Heart- Romantic Suspense for LOCKED, LOADED and LYING. She double-finaled in the Sheila LOCKED, LOADED and LYING – RS (Leis Pederson, Berkley); WINDBURN -ST (Emilia Pisani, S&S), and she finaled in the Wisconsin FAB 5 LOCKED, LOADED and LYING- ST (Latoya Smith, Grand Central).

Colleen Thompson is happy to announce that her June release, CAPTURING THE COMMANDO (her first book for Harlequin Intrigue) has received 4 1/2 stars and a Top Pick from Romantic Times.

Joan Reeves has taken the ebook challenge. At times she feels as if she’s suffered a TKO due to the technical aspects of formatting, which differ from platform to platform, but she’s weathering the storm with 2 ebooks, JUST ONE LOOK and THE TROUBLE WITH LOVE, published and a third to be published before the end of April. Just One Look has proved to be immensely popular on Kindle, and has landed her on the Fiction Bestseller list on the English platform of XinXii, European Digital Publishing.

Natalie Cook Clark, writing as Natalie C. Markey’s book, “Caring for Your Special Needs Dog” comes out in May from Who Dares Wins Publishing.

Vicky Dreiling sold translation rights for her historical romance HOW TO MARRY A DUKE to Turkey.

Lynn Lorenz has a new publisher – EtopiaPress http://www.etopia-press.net/ who has contracted two books from her. One is a space regency, due out in June and the other a romantic suspense, due out in Aug, both traditional romance. She’ll also have her first gay romance ghost story, Cemeteries, out with Amber Quill Press – Amber Allure this summer, along with another novella. Both are set in New Orleans.

Sandra Worth is excited to report Lady of the Roses and The King’s Daughter: A novel of the First Tudor Queen have sold foreign rights to Germany.