Well once again, I forgot to bring my notepad and pen with me to the book club dinner table. I did have it with me….just not at the table when we first started chatting with Robyn Carr (this month’s Plano book club author). Luckily one of the other ladies was able to run to the other room to get it for me. Thank goodness especially since I am getting to this so late. My evil day job is keeping me from everything lately. My apologies. As I said, Robyn Carr was the Plano book club’s author for our August get together. Anyone who has read her Virgin River series will be pleased to know she did spill the beans about characters in upcoming Virgin River books. The series could go on and on with the current area residents and Jack’s five unmarried marine buddies. Book 4, likely to be released in late 2008/early 2009, will center around Paul & Vanessa. Book 5 will center around a retired Army blackhawk helicopter pilot who owns several cabins in the area and a young caregiver named Shelby who was briefly mentioned one of the existing Virgin River books. Book 6 is Ricky’s book…

Meeting with reader groups and bookclubs has been my favorite thing for a long time, and when I had more time I belonged to two bookclubs of my own. From the author’s perspective, at least this author’s perspective, these are readers who are so focused on the story and characters, I learn more from them than they learn from me. It’s always great fun to hear what readers like about your work, that goes without saying, but the value to me as I continue to write is learning from them where the story didn’t jive for them, where they wanted more and they are never shy about telling you what they want to see next. A favorite bookclub selection of mine has been The House On Olive Street – and one reader group took issue with the beginning, which several agreed was hard to get into. My immediate response was, “Oh yeah? Well you should’ve tried writing it!” There have been some fun surprises. I was asked to join a church bookclub as they discussed my book, Runaway Mistress. Runaway Mistress for the church ladies? Oh man, I thought, they’re going to chew me up and spit me out. While…

The invitation to blog here today came at a perfect time – the third installment in the Virgin River series – Whispering Rock – will be released in a few days. And I’ve just experienced the most amazing couple of months. When I started Virgin River, beginning like I always do – on page one, flying by the seat of my pants – I was writing one story, one romance. I became acquainted with Mel Monroe, a nurse midwife in search of peace and meaning in her troubled life. Enter Jack Sheridan, a retired marine who built a small country bar and grill in a town of six hundred because it was the perfect place for him to hunt and fish and wind down from a life far too adventurous. I was getting acquainted with a couple of remarkable people. By the time I was a hundred pages in, I knew there was more than one book in this town. When I met the marines who still hung tight after serving in combat together, frequently gathering in the pristine beauty of the redwoods to hunt, fish, play poker and rally around their leader, Jack, I knew they would be the…