As promised, I'm turning over a new leaf--or maybe turning over an old leaf. I'm going to start blogging regularaly again--so everyone out there can learn what it's like to live the exciting life of a small publisher and bridge bum.

Saturday was a zoo. I was supposed to be at the Dreaming In Dallas romance writers conference, at a black belt test for one of my students, and at the first round of the Grand National Team bridge tournament. I actually made it to all of them--although not to all of any of them. The writers conference was all day and I went in the morning, then headed out a bit before noon. I hated to go. Some conferences are really negative--I found the last RWA National (San Francisco) to be negative. Dreaming was positive and energizing. At noon, I was at the start of the black belt test. I was able to stay for all the Kata (these are perscribed forms, almost like a dance where a martial artist goes through a series of techniques, as if fighting an invisible opponent), the one-steps, and self defense. I left right before the sticks came out. The Grand National Teams was something of a bust. I was there with the rest of my team--and we were it. I think we qualify. We paid our $24 each--and then we sat down and played some bridge just among ourselves. This was fun.

I spent most of Sunday getting FIRST CONTACT ready for paperback publication. Generally I publish the eBook first, then add the paperback afterwards. But Kenneth E. Ingle, the author, has a book signing scheduled for May 9. So, I'm rushing the paperback so he'll have something to sign. I've tried doing signings of CD-ROM versions of my eBooks and, quite frankly, it doesnt' work very well.

Today, I worked on taxes. I know--not exactly the romantic life of the book publisher you were looking for, but it's half of the death and taxes obligatorium. Depressing--I made more money from bridge than I did from writing/publishing. Neither of these adds up to enough to support the high-class lifestyle, however. I did get some editing done on A Deadly Sting--the next book in the Deacon Bishop mystery series, as well as a little work done in my current WIP--the werebunny book.

I'm reading THE TRAITOR by Steven Coonts, and MISTRESS OF PLEASURE by Delilah Marvelle. Delilah is a delightful woman whom I met the year we were both RWA Golden Heart finalists and I'm enjoying her book.

Okay, back to the book of the day. Because it's been a LONG time since we had one, I'm going to make my free book, PRIVATE LIES (writing as Amy Eastlake) the www.booksforabuck.com book of the day. An FBI agent and his beautiful suspect team to track down her parents' kidnappers--and cyperterrorists. FREE--can't beat that price. Here's the URL: http://www.booksforabuck.com/rompages/private_lies.html (available in HTML, Adobe Acrobat PDF, eReader, Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, Sony Reader and ePub formats). Here's the cover (cover design by Jane Graves):

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