Hullo! Here it is, January 2nd, the Christmas sales are over, the New Year’s Day buffet has been reduced to a neat stack of leftovers, and BOND OF FIRE, the Texas vampires’ trilogy volume 2, has finally hit the bookstores! Yes, Hélène d’Agelet, the French secret agent and firestarter, just made it into the Texas vampires trilogy. Need I mention that she’s usually very well-groomed, as in very, very fond of designer clothing? No? Yes, I thought you might have guessed that, since she’s a French aristocrat. She enjoys a glass of good sherry but is willing to explore Texas’s unique ways of drinking beer. She’s also very bookish and prefers her flirtations take place in libraries, which isn’t where you’d expect to find one of those rare lady vampires. Oh, and she’s passionately in love with Jean-Marie St. Just, Texas’s chief diplomat, spy, and assassin. They fell for each other across a crowded ballroom at Versailles over two centuries ago. They’ve suffered through a lot of trials and tribulations ever since, including major pieces of nastiness like the French Revolution and the Peninsular Wars. In fact, matters became so bad Jean-Marie and Hélène have spent the past two centuries…
A lot of readers have written to ask if Virgin River is based on an actual town, because they’d like to move there. Unpack those boxes – the town lives only in my mind, although I have heard from people who claim to live or have lived in such a place. They don’t usually say where. It might be all in my head, but I’ve been living there for a long time. I’m committed to delivering four more Virgin River novels. I’m not sure the actual release dates for these books yet, but when I know for sure, I’ll post them on my website. Meanwhile, I couldn’t ask for a better home. I get up in the morning, fire up the computer, and settle in with my old friends. When nothing much is happening with them, I bring in some newcomers who have their – uh – issues. I knew what it was about the town that appealed to me, and it didn’t take long for me to hear from readers what appealed to them. It goes without saying, my readers have fully enjoyed the strong, handsome, virile men of Virgin River; they’ve admired the beauty, inner strength and intelligence…
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…