Will the third time be the charm?

Terrific news! A WOMAN WORTH LOVING, the first book in my CONLANS OF TRILLIUM ISLAND trilogy, has been nominated for a RITA award. This is my third nomination in the prestigious contest and the thrill remains the same. I'm over the moon! Keep your fingers crossed that I'll win the golden lady this time.

Watch for these titles!

After their battle with infertility nearly destroys their marriage, can Reese and Duncan learn to love again? If you like emotionally charged stories, then check out THEIR VERY SPECIAL GIFT. It's out in stores in March 2007 and available online and by order at your favorite bookstore after that. Go to my books page to read an excerpt.

In August, September and October 2007, watch for the SECRETS WE KEEP triology. I'm thrilled to be part of this unique series. I got to work with Liz Fielding of Wales and Barbara Hannay of Australia -- two incredibly talented Harlequin Romance authors -- on an exciting transcontinental trilogy about three women, their secrets and the men they fall in love with (sometimes again) while trying to right past wrongs. Liz's book, REUNITED: MARRIAGE IN A MILLION kicks off the trilogy. Barbara's NEEDED: HER MR. RIGHT comes next. I'm last with FOUND: HER LONG-LOST HUSBAND. I hope you'll pick up all three books.

And there's more ...

COMING IN 2008

What is Jaye Monroe to do when her father dies and her stepmother sells the family's Leelanau Peninsula vineyard to a California vintner? She proposes a business partnership with the very sexy Zack Holland. He agrees, but is business the only thing on his mind? MOONLIGHT AND ROSES (Harlequin Romance, January 2008

I also have two other Harlequin Romances due out in 2008, and a novella in a June anthology that appropriately enough is wedding-themed. The other writers are Jill Marie Landis, one of my all-time favorite authors, and Jo Leigh. More on these projects to come ...

Signings and appearances

I'll be signing copies of my THEIR VERY SPECIAL GIFT at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Genesee Valley mall from 7-9 p.m. Thursday May 10. Come out and say hello!

Still a bridesmaid

Sad to say that when it comes to the RITA and the National Readers' Choice Awards, I am still a bridesmaid. But it was one heck of a wedding! I had a great time in Reno at the Romance Writers of America's annual conference. This was the writing organization's 25th year and we celebrated that milestone in style.

The Game Show Bride

If you're wondering what happened with Stephen and Catherine Danbury from Her Stand-In Groom, you can visit with these characters again in The Game Show Bride, my December 2004 Harlequin Romance. This book also takes place in Chicago. New Vice President Sam Maxwell has stepped in to run the Danbury Department Store chain while Stephen is taking a leave to dote on his wife and their new baby. But if Sam thinks running one of the nation's oldest retail businesses is a challenge, he's in for a real surprise when he meets single mom Kelli Walters. Thanks to a reality TV show that promises heaps of free publicity for the foundering chain, Sam agrees to swap lives and jobs with Kelli. While she's sitting in his big office calling the shots, he's scraping by in her tedious warehouse job. Kelli sees the show as a way to improve the future for her and her two young daughters. But when Sam ups the stakes with his heart-stopping smiles and smoldering glances, she realizes that winning it all may not have anything to do with winning the show.

Awards

That's me, second from the left, with authors Marion Lennox, Lillian Darcy and Liz Fielding at the Rita Award Finalists Reception in New York in 2003.

Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America

Clockwise from top: Authors Dana Corbit, me, Laurie Carroll, Sue Charnley and Nancy Gideon represented the Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America at the Women's Expo in Flint, Michigan, in August 2003. It was right after the big blackout that left a good part of the country in the dark, so the facility had no air conditioning. The event itself, though, was pretty 'cool.'