With A Little Help From My Friends

Happy Sunday!

I'm getting ready for my two college kids to come home today. They're taking time off work and squeezing in a visit before school starts up again, and I couldn't be more excited. It's been more than 7, count 'em SEVEN months since I've seen my oldest! That's the longest ever. He's ready for some home time, and I'm ready for him to be home! My youngest, too. I saw him in May but even that's too long! So I'm putting sheets on beds, getting ready to stock the fridge here in a minute, etc. My oldest will meet Marge, my new puppy, for the first time. She's going to love him and vice versa. We're still working on some bad habits -- we keep the carpet cleaner out and plugged in if that gives you any clues -- but other than that and her love of barking at birds, she's loads of fun and so cute. My old dog, Tia, even likes her now, though she'd never admit it. She refuses to go to bed without Marge! Here they are sleeping in the back seat of the truck on a recent road trip. (Well, darn, can't get Blogger to download it. I'll try again later! Check back!)

While the guys are home I know I'll be tempted to set the writing aside, but I can't do it. I'll have to get up early and make my page count. The story is rolling along and I'm into it. Don't want to lose momentum! I love it when things start to click and the characters come completely alive!

I had my first booksigning for OFF HER ROCKER yesterday. It was great! I have so much support from friends and family members and that means so much to me. Also, loyal readers I only see when I have a new book out. It's like a reunion when I have a signing here in my hometown and everyone comes in. The signing was even more fun because my friend and fellow author Linda Castillo (www.lindacastillo.com) autographed with me. Her new romantic suspense novel, out this month, is called A Whisper In The Dark. Nobody writes chilling suspense mixed with a sexy love story like Linda. If you haven't read one of her books, you should! Be prepared to lose some sleep though!

I'll be guest blogging on Romantically Inclined for the next couple of days, the 14th and 15th. I hope you'll drop by there and check it out!
http://romantically-inclined.blogspot.com/

Have a great week ahead!

Jenny
www.jenniferarcher.net

Back In The Swing

Though I didn't bring home the gold, the Rita Award Ceremony in Atlanta was great fun! Writers spend a lot of time in p.j.'s and/or ratty sweats (at least this writer does!), so it was fun to get all glamourous for a change. Here's a photo of me with my good friend and fellow Rita finalist, Candace Havens before the ceremony began.

And one of my friend Jodi Thomas accepting her third Rita and an induction into the Romance Writers Hall of Fame! Very exciting! I was so happy for her.
To see more photos of the ceremony, stop by my website www.jenniferarcher.net and check out the News & Events page.

Barbara Samuel won in my category for her novel Lady Luck's Map Of Vegas. She is a fantastic writer and very deserving of the award. I've enjoyed her books for many years. I was just thrilled that Ally, Nick, Sonny and Warren, the characters in my novel The Me I Used To Be, had their moment in the limelight. I love them all -- they seem outside of me, is that weird? Writers tend to be weird, too, in case you didn't know!

Back to the real world of the ratty sweats. My new release Off Her Rocker is in bookstores this month! Walmart and other such stores, too. I hope you'll look for it. This story is one with "humor and heart," as my editor says. It's about a woman who, after 22 years of raising kids, feels like she's going crazy when she faces an empty nest -- until she reinvents herself while stranded in a little Colorado mountain village as lost as she is. You can read an excerpt at my website www.jenniferarcher.net.
Other great news! Off Her Rocker is available in audio from audible.com . You can download it onto your iPod, MP3 player or other audio device, including CD, for about half the price of buying an audio book in the bookstore.



And in other news, my novel My Perfectly Imperfect Life is available in large print hardcover this month, too. Check out the beautiful new hardback cover at www.jenniferarcher.net at News & Events.

I've updated my website with new movie and book recommendations on the Kickin' Back page, a new contest, and much more news. Hope you'll click on one of the links above and stop by. Meanwhile, I'll be hard at work on my latest work in progress. It's turning out to be quite different than I expected, which is ironic in a way since the title is What She Never Expected!

Happy Reading,

Jennifer