Happy News Friday

I don't know about you guys, but I definitely have some happy news to share. I sold two books!!!

In February of 2012, THE RIGHT TO REMAIN MINE will be available at Champagne Books and (I'm pretty sure) some time in 2011 A MAN FOR MIA will be released from Black Lyon Publishing. Below are a couple blurbs to tell you more about both stories if you're curious at all!!

But first, tell me your good news for today.


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A Man for Mia
Sweet Adult Romance
(Or as my mom would say, "Thank goodness this one doesn't have any sex in it")
Black Lyon Publishing, LLC.
Available : 2011
In Ebook and Print

When Drew Harper catches his sister storming from her house with a loaded gun and murder in her eyes, he follows her to 410 South Elm Street, where she suspects her husband's mistress might live.

Who they find in residence is Mia Stallone.

Plagued with survivor’s guilt, Mia fully believes it’d be a crime to feel happiness again…until she meets Drew, a stranger who appears in her yard, asking about the house for sale next door. He ignites a spark of hope in her, and she begins to wonder if living a little won’t kill her after all.

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The Right to Remain Mine
Contemporary Adult Romance*
Champagne Books
Available : February 2012
In Ebook & later in print
*Sexually Explicit Scenes and Language

You have the right to remain cherished. Anything you read or scream out in ecstasy can and will be used against you in the bedroom of Willow DeVane. You have the right to enjoy a big, sexy cop. If you can’t find your own, one by the name of Raith Malloy will be provided for you to enjoy and explore thoroughly within these pages.

Tempers flare from the first moment divorce lawyer Willow DeVane crosses paths with sheriff deputy Raith Malloy. Both too stubborn and controlling for their own good, Willow and Raith butt heads until anger turns to passion, and they begin an affair despite their brewing hostilities. But more than one force works against them when they learn Willow’s being targeted by a dangerous stalker.

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Awards and Announcements

There are a ton of things happening lately, plus I've received a bundle of awards. So, please bear with me while I share all this amazing information with you. I'll start with announcements.

As you can see a little to the north, I already have a book cover for my adult contemporary romance story, The Trouble With Tomboys, which will be published by the glorious Wild Rose Press! WOW. It's surreal to actually see the faces of my characters. My editing process seems to be going at warp speed, so I have a feeling I'll be able to share a release date for this book with you in only a few months...if not sooner!

For my YA Romance, The Stillburrow Crush, I have a WIDGET up (as you can see to the LEFT there), showing the countdown to the release of my first book...right down to the very second. There's another big WOW in my writing journey. Oh, and feel free to share the widget with whomever you like!

The cover of The Stillburrow Crush was shown on The Story Siren's blog. I'll be giving away free goodies there after the new year. Plus, I'll be donating a copy of my book to The Princess Bookie Blog, for their "Around the World 2010 Debut Author Challenge." You might want to check that out.

Then...I've got a blog interview in the works for the end of February, plus I'll be interviewing the amazing romantic suspense author, Nancy J. Parra, at the beginning of February.

	In other people's news, My wonderful critique partner, Claire Ashgrove, had her second book (ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS...IS BIG BLUE EYES) released last week from The Wild Rose Press. Big round of applause for her. Then, Heather Snow--from my writing group--recently started her own blog called Heather's Historical Hodgepodge. I'm already an avid fan there. She posts every Tuesday, if you're curious. And the biggie: Tess Hilmo, a blogger buddy of mine, just announced she sold her first book, With A Name Like Love, to Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Did you hear that??? Farrar, Straus & Giroux!!! I'm so in awe.
Now for the awards.
Loyal Friend Award	I received the "Loyal Friend" Award from Robyn, over at Putting Pen to Paper. Thank you so much, Robyn! You're the sweetest!
Who Loves you Award	Then, or maybe it was before that, I received the "Who Loves You" Award from Laura Gerold, over at Laura's Reviews.
Super Comments Award	And both Laura and Robyn bestowed "The Super Comments" Award on me sometime during all that. Thank you, thank you, guys. You're truly TOO good to me.

And finally, Tricia J. O'Brien at her blog, Tailspinning passed the "Honest Scrap" Award to me at the end of November. For this award, you're supposed to tell five to ten "honest" things about yourself and then pass the award along to five to ten other bloggers for them to do the same.

I think I'm already taking up too much time and space here, so I'll do all the award passing along later (probably after the new year) and share some "honest" things about myself then!

So...Until Thursday. See you guys later!

Suddenly Bothered

I received my galley this week for my manuscript, and, of course, I was dazzled. But, hey, this is the first time I've seen one of my stories in the formatted version of how it's going to look once it's released. The copyright page really got to me. Seeing my very own ISBN number, though... wow. It was really something.

But, anyway, when my editor sent it to me, she instructed me to read through the story again, looking only for grammatical and formatting errors. The editing/revising phase was over. Except... as I started to scan through it, I "suddenly" became uber-aware of how many times I used the word "suddenly."

There's must've been a week back when I was writing the story that "suddenly" was my favorite word to type, because I found it used about five times within ten pages, and I wanted to delete every one of them. Except... the editing/revising phase is over and they can't be deleted. I'm not sure why I didn't catch them the other fifty times I went over the story. But now, they're stuck there forever and I bet they're really going to bother me every time I read my book.

In a couple other places, I found a few phrases where I thought, "Man, I wish I would've written this instead of that." Overall, I know the story is fine. But I still have my nit-picking hat on and there are things that could've been better. I just hope this is a normal reaction for authors, the worrying about minor details. I suppose it's like sending your kid off to school their first day of Kindergarten, finally releasing your baby to the world. You can only pray the other kids don't notice the scuff on their shoes or the dirt behind their ears.

Book Sale Celebration

Hi all, Help me celebrate the sale of my first book—a young adult romance called THE STILLBURROW CRUSH, which was contracted by The Wild Rose Press Climbing Roses Line—by entering my prize giveaway contest. Go to http://lindakage.com/contest.html to enter and win a $20 gift card to Amazon.com.

An Author's Biggest News

When you're talking with someone about your spouse or significant other, the most common question to come up, I think, is, "So, how did you meet?"

In the writing world, when you're talking about your book, the big question is, "So, tell us about THE CALL." The Call is when a publisher calls you up and says those magical words, "I want to buy your book," or "I'd like to contract your story."

Well, I can now answer the most-commonly asked author question. I received The Call. There's still so much dazed euphoria, it just feels... unreal. But I'll tell the short, yet fabulous (for me) story anyway.

My call came in e-mail format from The Wild Rose Press ePublisher with an attached contract, ready for my signature, for the selling rights of my story, The Stillburrow Crush, to be put into the Climbing Roses (Young Adult) Line of their publication. The End. Euphoria complete (see previous blog).

So, I say, whenever I settle details and things begin to feel real, we're all going to celebrate by finally having a contest on my website. Be on the look out for prize drawings.

More updates later.

New Story

I'm working on a new story, tentatively titled Disaster at 410 South Elm. It's about Drew Harper who (merely hoping to keep her out of trouble) goes with his sister to a house where her husband’s mistress just might live. But when he meets the supposed marriage-wrecker, Mia, he falls for her himself. Here are the first few lines.

He’d never tried to stop anyone from committing murder before. It was
definitely a nerve wracking business, Drew Harper realized as he sat tense in
the passenger seat of his sister’s six-year old Honda Civic while she blew a
four-way stop and careened around a corner, making the tires screech in protest.

He yelped out a curse and clutched the seatbelt strapped over his
chest. “What the hell?” he demanded.

“I told you not to come,” she growled, her murderous glare fixed
steadily ahead.

“Well, what do you expect me to do,” he retorted. “When I find you
storming out the door with a gun in your hand and muttering something about
killing a cheating bitch?”

The idea came to me after receiving a rejection letter from a publisher, telling me I needed to make my stories more realistic. So, while I was picking up a yard full of fallen limbs, I thought, "What's happening in my own life that's in any way interesting?" I came up with nothing... very typical. Still needing a realistic but engaging plotline, I moved on to other people in my life and hit a major jack pot when I thought of my husband's brother.

Though he's going through a divorce now, at the time, my brother-in-law was still trying to keep his marriage afloat until one evening, he received a cryptic phone message from a woman he didn't know, telling him if he really wanted to know what his wife was doing, he'd come to this bar in a town that was, like, five hours away, and he'd find out the truth for himself. So, my brother-in-law hops in his truck, and goes to find out. Long story short, he didn't find his wife that night. But the next evening, I found myself playing lookout girl as my husband helped load our car with stuff Brother-in-law didn't want his wife taking in case things went south.

And thus came my idea for Disaster at 410 South Elm. I've had more than one sibling go through a messy divorce. So, I can relate to Drew Harper's plight a little too clearly. So far, I've breezed through the first chapter. But now, the story's getting tricky. It's going to be a challenge.

My First Post

Currently, I'm waiting to hear back from two contests. In September, I entered the 2008 Golden Heart Contest. I'll hear back from them in March to see if I'm a finalist. I also entered The Big Finish 2 contest (sponsered by Harlequin) and will find out how I did there in... what do you know, March.

I'm querying two Publishers about two of my manuscripts. I've sent Harlequin Superromance three chapters for one story and The Wild Rose Press another query letter for a different story. More updates about those later.