M+L 4VER M&Ms in the mail!

Apologies, apologies. I disappeared this week, but I had a good reason--look what finally came? YAY!!!

I spent the rest of the week sending them out into the world. All the book prizes finally went out, too. They should land on your doorstep soon.

I didn't want to order the M&Ms until we were back from our vacation in July. I had nightmares of the shipment sitting on my doorstep melting into a puddle in the 107 F Phoenix summer sun. Then I had nightmares of sending them out in their pretty organza bags and having you open the packet to find a melted pink and purple disaster. 

So I bought special foil envelops and mini-icepacks to go in in them to keep them cool. 

But what if the ice pack causes condensation gets the organza and M&Ms wet? So I put the favors in Ziplocs before sealing them up.

It's August, so it's humid here instead of desert dry like the rest of the year. The icepacks caused condensation on the outside of the package. A few mailing labels shriveled a bit. I worried they'd all fall of, but they stayed stuck.

The clerk at the post office was really nice. He patiently weighted out each packet and printed postage stickers because we were sure stamps wouldn't stick to the foil. This ended up to be far more complicated than I dreamed when I created the giveaway. I hope it works! And you love them. If you go to your mailbox and find a foil packet with melted pink and purple M&Ms in stained organza bag, I'm sorry!

I hope you open the packet and find beautiful pale pink, dark pink and deep purple M&Ms with "M+L 4VER," my name, and Michael and Leesie's faces from their first cover smiling at you. Can you make them out? That's as close as my camera would get.

Phew! Now I can get back to the final photos for CAYMAN SUMMER. I'll post them Monday. I promise. And give you a sneak peak of SLIPPED--the book I'm revising right now. 

Love you guys! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest and has been with me through Michael and Leesie's CAYMAN SUMMER journey. Stay tuned. I bought extra M&Ms so I can send some in my next contest. Maybe Christmas--when it cools off around here. 

Romance Workshop Tonight!

I'd like to invite all of you in the Valley of the Sun to a Free Romance Writing Workshop tonight at Barnes and Noble Shea on Tuesday August 16th, 2011 from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM. The address is 10500 N. 90th St. in Scottsdale, located on the SW corner of Shea Blvd. and the 101 Freeway. Presenters include; Fantasy romance author Lisa Finder of Black Sand, YA romance author Angela Morrison (THAT'S ME!) of Sing Me to Sleep and the three books in the Taken By Storm Saga; award winning Regency Romance writer Donna Hatch, author of The Stranger She Married, Guise of a Gentleman and Queen in Exile; and multi-award winning YA and Sweet Romance author Janette Rallison who has sold more than a million copies of her 17 books, also published under her pseudonym - Sierra St. James. Hope to see you there!

I did find some pictures of our old lake front property that I used for the setting of Michael's and Leesie's first date and the big finale in CAYMAN SUMMER. My brother, Dave, has one of the family's old photo albums and scanned them all. I couldn't download them, so I'm waiting for him to send me good res digital copies. They are quite old and some are blurry, but priceless. Thanks for your patience. Check back tomorrow.

Today, please stop by Daph's Loving Books. She's having a huge birthday bash extravaganza, and she invited Scott from SING ME TO SLEEP. Way cool! He did a great job in the interview. She's also GIVING AWAY a copy of SING. You can get a sneak peak of the song I wrote from Scott and Beth to sing together in the second scene of SING ME TO SLEEP, the musical. Please stop in and wish Daph a happy birthday and give Scott some love! Michael and Leesie won't mind, I promise.

EPILOGUE PHOTOS--SPOILER ALERT

I'd like to invite any of you who are close enough to Scottsdale to drop by the Barnes and Noble at Shea and Hwy 101 Tuesday night, August 16th, 6:30-8:30 p.m. I'm on a panel about writing romance with the amazing Janette Rallison and Lisa Finder. I'd love to see some of you there. For GPSers, the store's address is 10500 N. 90th St. Scottdale. We're going to chat about our books, read the most romantic scenes, and then answer questions. Feel free to bring daughters and students--anyone you know who loves to write or read.

Okay, if you've just stumbled onto my blog for the first time and haven't read TAKEN BY STORM or you've just read the first book, stop reading now. This post is a massive spoiler. But for those of you who've read the whole saga . . .


Here's some pictures of the Spokane Temple, so you can imagine Michael and Leesie coming out of it--him in a black tux and her in a princess-style wedding dress (with sleeves)!

This first one features me with a really red face. We stopped at the temple and my brother, Dave, took some pictures after I spoke at Tekoa High School. That was so cool. You can see photos of that on my website. Notice, I'm wearing a fringy leather jacket. In my presentation, I shared with the students that I kind of strangled the life out of poor Leesie at first--forcing way too much me into her character. Never a good thing. Then I pull out the jacket and tell them the things I did to change her up so she could grow into a fully-rounded, independent character--gave her long hair that smells like bananas and mangos and a cool suede jacket like one of my son's friends wore. When I was getting ready for my launch tour, I found this jacket on-line. It has turquoise beads that match the front cover. I just had to buy it. My kids were aghast when they saw pictures of me wearing it. "What do you have on?" was the reaction. Oh, well. I still love the jacket.

This next photo is the simply beautiful, amazing photo David took of the Spokane temple at night for me. It fits the scene in the middle of TAKEN BY STORM when Michael and Leesie go to the church dance and wander over to the temple. All it needs is snow falling. 

Dave and his lovely wife, Jennifer, were amazing support when TAKEN BY STORM launched. I don't know what I would have done without them. I am so excited that Jen's book--oh, I mean--Jennifer Shaw Wolf's book, BREAKING BEAUTIFUL, will be out early next year. Your going to love it. It's gripping and heartbreaking. I couldn't put it down. 

Okay, now I need to find some photos of Windy Bay and our old lakefront property. Tune in Monday for that. 

PICTURES OF CAYMAN BRAC

Look what I found! With a little help from Google, I found images of Cayman Brac. We visited the Brac before we had digital cameras, so I borrowed a few shots from generous sites around the web. This gives you a feel for the end of the book. Tomorrow I'll share photos re the epilogue.

This is typical Cayman Brac.

The island is made of coral.

This reminds of the resort where we stayed. 

Awesome wreck diving!

Here's the airstrip. We flew there on a tiny plane. The ride back to Grand Cayman was so bumpy the lady behind us was screaming. There were only about eight seats on the plane. The flight there was bigger--a Dash-8 if I remember right.

This is the Bat Caves where I sent Michael and Leesie and friends to ride out the hurricane.  The caves really are the island's hurricane shelter.

This picture shows damage after a hurricane. 

Back from SCBWI-LA

Sorry to disappear on you last week. I flew over to LA to attend the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators big annual conference. I'll be speaking at Arizona's yearly gathering on October 1st. This year we celebrated SCBWI's 40th Anniversary. Wow, they pulled out all the stops. In three days, I got to listen to Bruce Colville, who spoke about how our work is like throwing a stone into a pond and the ripples move out and change people's lives in unexpected ways, Jerry Pinkney, Libba Bray, Donna Jo Napoli, David Small--who was amazing, I want to read STITCHES now--the legendary Judy Bloom, who was one of SCBWI's first members, Jon Scieszka, as hilarious as his books, Norton Juster, who is celebrating THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH's 50th anniversary, Mary Pope Osborne, creator of the Magic Treehouse series, 3X Newbury winner and industry legend, Gary Paulsen, Richard Peck--always the most elegant speaker, he said, "Unless you find yourself on the page very early in life, you will go looking for yourself in all the wrong places." Amen! And, finally, Laurie Halse Andersen, who quoted T.S. Elliott, "Do I dare disturb the universe?"  Yea. It was quite the weekend.

Here's a few pictures to prove I was really there.

Here I am with SING ME TO SLEEP at the reception they held for published authors attending the conference.

Dessert at the 40th Anniversary Golden Kite Award Luncheon. 

Here's my agent, Erzsi Deak, on the far right, with a couple of my coop-mates. Ann Jacobus, the lovely blonde on the left, writes original, gut-wrenching YA. I hope you get to read some of it soon. She and Erzsi put on the Sequester at the royal abbey north of Paris where I met my editor! 

Here I am--closing my eyes like I did in all the other pictures--with Barbara Younger, another  writer at with Hen & Ink. She's published over 20 books with Abbingdon Press. 

That's Richard Peck--take my word for it. It's really is him. 

I know I owe you final pictures from CAYMAN SUMMER. And I've got a TAKEN BY STORM out-take that I haven't shared before. Tune in tomorrow. Thanks for your patience. 

I've heard from most of the contest winners. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Prizes will be in the mail before the end of the week! I was hoping the trailer for CAYMAN SUMMER would be done by now, but alas. No such luck. 

AND THE WINNERS ARE . . . !!!

Drum roll, please. . . . I'm thrilled the announce the winners of the M+L FOREVER CONTEST!!! Cheering, jumping up and down, dancing on the table!!!

Nyra, Margaret Larsen, and Bonnie Harris won the three book sets of the TAKEN BY STORM saga. Congrats, girls. Please email me your mailing addresses.

Nichole Giles won the signed, first edition hardcover copy of TAKEN BY STORM! 

PrimaryMary, Kristy, Mary Walling, Tiffany Drew, and Susan Jensen won paperback copies of TAKEN BY STORM!

Yel of Itzel Library, Andii, Diana, Delaney Howerton, and Bee won copies of the new edition of UNBROKEN CONNECTION.

Rebecca, Selene, Rachelle, Jenna, and Betsy Love won CAYMAN SUMMER!! YAY!!!

Winners: I will also email/or message you a notification. If I have your mailing address already, I'll send your prizes out next week. If I don't already have your mailing address in my database, I need you to claim your prize and send me your mailing address by August 20th. I'll redraw new winners for any unclaimed prizes on August 22nd. 

As promised, the first 30 contest entrants will receive Michael and Leesie Forever M&Ms!!! I need mailing addresses for you, too. The thirty winners are . . . 

Jackson Fernandes

Susan Haws

KatieB

Nichole Giles

Bonnie Harris

Selene

Gayle

Niii

Sandra

Rebecca

Nyra

Canda

Bee

Mary Walling

PrimaryMary

Betsy Love

Margaret Larsen

Jessy

Anne Marie Jenner

Wendy

Rachelle Christensen

Tiffany Drew

Sharli

Donna K. Weaver

Chaleese

Lynette

Lissa

Emily

Taffy

Sarah P.

Congratulations everyone! I hope you enjoy your prizes. Thanks for entering the contest and loving MICHAEL AND LEESIE FOREVER!

FINAL CAYMAN FAVORITES and FINAL DAY TO ENTER M+L FOREVER

Hurry, hurry. Today is the last day to enter the M+L FOREVER CONTEST!!! And if you like my FB author page, you get an extra entry.

And I'm sharing with you a few final Grand Cayman favorite places. I hope I can find some photos of Cayman Brac where Michael and Leesie go in the end, and I might be able to get some photos scanned of sites from the epilogue, so stay tuned.

I'm announcing the contest winners, Wednesday, August 3rd and I SHOULD have a big new surprise for all of you Michael and Leesie lovers. Maybe even two surprises.

Here I standing in front of the most famous blow holes on Cayman. This is where Michael stops and asks "the universe" that critical question! That's one of the best scenes I've ever written. 

This is the roadside stand by the blowholes where you can get yummy chicken.

Ah, the turtle farm. In that awful hurricane, Hurricane David if I remember right, the original turtle farm got washed out to sea. It was cool to dive after that. Huge turtles all over the place. They built a new, fancy turtle farm across from the beach where the old one was--complete with petting tanks.

Last, and probably least, let's drop by Hell. This is their actual post office. Tourists stop by to mail postcards to their friends from Hell. Kind of a hoot! It's on the north shore--not far from the turtle farm, DiveTech free diving, and Aunty Jazz!