New Cover! Squeeeeee!!!

Woo-hoo! Samhain just updated their website tonight and a whole boatload of new covers are up -- including mine! I got the cover for Strip Tease just a few days ago, and I've been sitting on my hands since then, waiting for the go-ahead to post it.

Isn't it great? :)

Once again, Scott Carpenter has worked his magic. I just luurve it!

Oh, and in more exciting news, November has been added to the Coming Soon section, and Ritual Love has an official release date -- November 1st. (I was pretty sure about that date, but wanted to wait until official confirmation before blogging about it.)

Ritual Love is a bit of a departure for me, story-wise -- what with time travel, a little bondage, and that whole sixth-century-druid-priest thang. But I had a blast writing it, and I'm really excited to see it added to the Samhain site.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far! Thanks for stopping by!

Sales! Contests! Oh, My! (bookstore and more...)

Some exciting news here -- My Bookstore and More is back online! The site was down last week as it was being moved to a new server, so to celebrate, the Powers That Be are having a sale!

Want to pick up some e-books at excellent sale prices? Still haven't gotten your copy of Taking the Cake? :)

Head over to MBaM and enjoy some shopping!

Oh, and did I mention the daily prizes? And the e-book reader they're giving away?

Seriously, this is very cool. Check it out. :)

FABULOUS SALE & CONTEST AT MBAM!

Lots of prizes this week - all you do is make a purchase to be entered! Winners will be chosen to win a variety of print books!

ALSO, from now until September 30, 2006, every purchase will count toward a drawing for an ebook reader! The winner may choose between an eBookwise, a Palm Tungsten E2, or an HP IPAQ rx1950!

PLUS, you can enter the drawing without making a purchase by sending a postcard with your name, address, phone number, email address, and how you heard about MBaM to this address:

My Bookstore and More

2932 Ross Clark Circle #384

Dothan AL 36301

All postcards must be received by October 31st, winner will be announced on November 1st, 2006


Come see our SALE PRICES on ebooks! http://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/


All Trade PRINT books are ON SALE too! 10% off cover price plus FREE Shipping!


Presented by Millennium Promotion Services, Inc. http://www.millenniumpromotion.com/

Contest Time!

Is it really almost the end of the month? Man, time is just flying by. I keep looking at my To Do list and wondering what sprites are adding items each night while I sleep.

One of those items, though, is to let y'all know that I'm running a contest this month on my website, and you've got until August 31st to enter! In honor of the release of Taking the Cake, I'm giving away a fabulous showgirl-themed prize this month.

Showgirl Kisses Lip Lacquer by Showgirl Cosmetics is a luxurious lip color that comes in a fun lip-shaped bottle, and is packaged in a box with feathers, sequins and jewels. What better way to release your inner wild woman?

August's winner will receive one bottle of Showgirl Kisses in your choice of color -- Flamingo, Lady Luck, Topless Review, or 24Hr. Vegas. All you have to do is drop by my site and fill out this form.

Good luck!

Just Call Me Grace...

So I was heading off to the health club today, loaded down with gym bag, purse, keys, two bags of library books to return, and managed to miss the last step on my way down the stairs. My foot twisted sideways, I dropped everything, and I heard a pop.

Man, I went DOWN. Luckily (unluckily?) the only part of me that got hurt was my ankle. And my pride. Thank goodness our backyard is pretty private.

My kids, oblivious as only kids can be, didn't even notice until I'd crawled my way back up the steps into the house and started hollering for them to get inside instead of getting in the van. Not that I got much of a response. See, there were FLOWERS! On their PLANTS! Or maybe they were DEAD LEAVES that only LOOKED like flowers, but still really cool anyway! Finally, we were all back in the house and I called my DH, who said he'd come home early so I could go to the doctor's.

So I've got a Level Two sprain, and have to spend the next six to eight weeks wearing an air cast/brace. (The saddest part? I can't wear sandals again this summer. Lace-up shoes for support all the way, baby!)

Sigh.

Oh, well. At least something good came out of it. After picking up my brace, we did a little shopping, and DH came out of the bookstore with a get-well gift:

Big smooches, honey!

I'm Ba-ack!

Didja miss me? :)

Sorry I've been MIA the last few days -- I was whipping the-book-that-would-not-end into shape, and needed to stay off the 'net until it was done. (It's been shipped off to my editor as of this morning -- woo-hoo!)

I celebrated by letting the kids run through the sprinkler and spending a day not writing. But tomorrow, I'll be back at it, working on the next book.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

(I will, however, set aside some time to read Suz Brockmann's latest. I've been counting down the days!)

How about you? What do you do to celebrate the end of a project?

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I'm not much for redecorating. Oh, I love to browse through all those fancy magazines, the ones that focus on one or two rooms in the house and all the great ways you could spend oodles of cash to make them really stand out.

The closest I've come to having a fancy decorating look at my house is talking my DH into painting the bathroom walls light beige, with a white beadboard accent around the lower third of the walls. Woo-hoo! Just call me daring!

So it's kind of funny to see how many incarnations my website has gone through. I've changed themes, background colors and pictures, layout...the list goes on and on.

Which, I suppose, is just a fancy way to announce my redecorated digs on the web at kate-davies.com. I've changed the layout of the front page, added some new links, and tidied up a bit. Plus, I've added in snippets from the reviews I've gotten in the past few days (which have left me grinning from ear to ear).

I hope you'll stop by, take a look around, maybe have some cookies and punch. Let me know what you like, as well as what you'd change (or add). I may not be America's Next Interior Decorator (and if that's not a reality show yet, it should be -- and I volunteer my house for the test subject!), but I'm sure I'll be fiddling with my website for many years to come.

Completely Gobsmacked

Remember how excited I was to hit the bestseller list for Samhain with Taking the Cake? Well, I just got this pic from my editor:

Take a peek at the number one spot. :)

I am utterly shocked, amazed, and thrilled to find out that Taking the Cake is NUMBER ONE!!!!

According to my editor, this is the first time a book by a first time author has hit the number one spot in under a week.

Huge, huge thanks to everyone who's bought the book; obviously, TtC would never have made it this far without you.

I'm beyond thrilled that people are excited to read the book. Having the opportunity to connect with readers has been a longtime dream of mine, and it's finally starting to happen. I am truly blessed -- thank you!!!

Time to Celebrate!

I've got a couple of great reasons to celebrate today.

First, Taking the Cake is available from Samhain! I've waited years to be able to say I'm a published romance author, and now that day has arrived! Let me tell you, it's a wonderful feeling. :)

I love writing, and I can't imagine my life without being a writer in some form. But to know that what I've written is going to be read and, hopefully, enjoyed by readers -- well, it's a dream come true.

So the book is out, and people are buying it -- which brings me to my second bit of great news.

My fabulous editor, Angie, e-mailed a bit ago to tell me that Taking the Cake made it on the bestseller's list at My Bookstore and More, Samhain's bookstore. I was hoping down deep that maybe, possibly, I might hit the list sometime in the next couple of weeks -- but never dreamed I'd get there on release day! See, MBaM calculates its bestseller list based on sales over a three-week period, so most of the titles have been in release for a while before ending up on the list.

When Angie told me about it, TtC was at number six. I just checked again, and it's moved up to number five! In other words, only four other books at Samhain have sold as much in the last three weeks as TtC has managed in one day!

One day! I'm still over the moon!

My book may not be on the list for very long, but I'm sure enjoying every minute of it while I can!

So thank you, everyone, who's bought a copy. Thanks for every encouraging e-mail, for the good wishes, for the support. In so many ways, I couldn't have done it without you.

So thanks! And I really hope that you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Almost Showtime!

In two days, Taking the Cake will be available for sale!

Woo-hoo!

At the moment, I'm an interesting combination of excitement, nerves, anxiety, giddiness, and obsessive web-checking. I can only imagine the number of times I'll be hitting the refresh button on the Samhain website as the clock ticks down Monday night (sometimes the books go "live" a wee bit early).

Until then, I'm getting my newsletter ready to send (there's still time to join! Sign up before midnight PST Monday and be eligible to win a free copy of Taking the Cake and a $10 gift certificate to My Bookstore and More, Samhain's bookstore.), updating my website, following up on some promo, and -- oh yeah! -- finishing my next book, which has a swiftly-approaching deadline.

It's a juggling act, but for the moment I've got all my beanbags in the air. Wish me luck on keeping it that way!

Jigsaw Puzzles

My kids love jigsaw puzzles. They enjoy taking tiny pieces of random colors and clicking them together to make a coherent whole. The process is one they can do over and over, even with the same puzzle.

Me? Not so much.

At least not when it comes to my writing.

I've come to the conclusion lately that I'm a linear kind of writer. I like to start at the beginning and continue on until the end. I know there are writers out there who can write completely out of order and then tumble the scenes around until they make sense. More power to 'em.

But I get antsy when I realize that a scene I wrote early on would really work better later in the book, let alone tossing the whole thing up in the air and seeing where the parts land.

Right now, I'm working on my soon-to-reach-deadline time travel novella, Ritual Love. I've got about two chapters left to go. I think.

See, it's summer break, and that means we've been on the road a lot. Thankfully, I've got an Alphasmart Dana (thanks, Mom!), so I can write in the car as we cross the state (or several states, as the case may be). Unfortunately, I've written so many scenes, both at home and on my Dana, that I can't quite keep them straight in my own head. His POV! Her POV! Are they at the grove right now, or in the caves? How many times have they mentioned Columba so far, and what about the grandmother?

I thought I could just download what I wrote on the Dana into the file already on the computer and just cut-and-paste until they fit, but like a jigsaw that has too many pieces, I'm finding that I can't force the scenes together. So I'm printing it out, moving pages around, then re-writing the darn thing so it's coherent.

In the end, I think I'll be a stronger writer because of this process. But it doesn't mean I'm enjoying it at the moment! :)