Before everyone’s day gets started with revelry, gluttony, and football, I just wanted to pause and wish you a wonderful new year. Last year I used the Irish Marriage Blessing, and it’s so lovely I think I’ll use it again—maybe make it my yearly tradition.

May God be with you and bless you.
May you see your children’s children.
May you be poor in misfortunes
and rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
from this day forward.

See you in 2007!

Santa has hit the road—sky, rather—and is winging his way to the houses of well-behaved children everywhere. If you’d like to check his progress with your kids, here’s a really cool program called Santa Tracker.

I’m wishing you a wonderful Christmas, filled with peace, love, good food and, of course, good books.

The other week I mentioned attending a holiday romance signing at a Barnes & Noble here in Cincinnati. Well, I finally got around to installing the software from my new digital camera, fiddling around with it, and, finally, in a triumph of perseverance, figuring out what the &^*#!! to do with all the pix I took. The upshot is that I can now show you a few images from that fun day.

Here’s my friend, Dafina romantic suspense author Patricia Sargeant.

From left to right, back row: B&N bookseller extraordinaire, Linda Keller, Patricia Sargeant, Paige Cuccaro, me. Front row, left to right: Elizabeth Bevarly and Toni Blake.

Elizabeth Bevarly, Toni Blake and Billie Warren Chai.

I’ve posted an excerpt from my March, 2007 Harlequin/Kimani Press novel, Just About Sex, over on the site. Check it out if you have time. Oh, and feel free to pre-order six or seven copies for all your closest friends…

Hey! A girl can hope, can’t she?

Yes, you’re in the right place. Don’t adjust your computer screen. I’ve updated my blog.

Like it?

It occurred to me that everyone else’s blog was fancy-schmancy, with lots of pretty colors, fonts, smileys, and pictures. And I thought, I want one of those. So I e-mailed my intrepid web person, Frauke at Croco Designs, and, bada-boom, bada-bing, she hooked me up.

Love Frauke.

Now I’ve got all the bells and whistles. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I’m hoping that now we’ve got all these smiley face choices, all you readers—and I know you’re out there—will comment a little more often.

Let’s start right now, shall we? Tell me… what do you think of the blog’s new look?

Being a newbie author myself, I love to read and promote books from other new/young authors.  Last week, you’ll remember, I mentioned Patricia Sargeant’s first romantic suspense, You Belong to Me, and posted a review over on my What’s Ann Reading page:http://www.annchristopher.com/reading.htm

This week, I read Maureen Smith’s novel from Kimani Romance, A Legal Affair. In it, P.I. Daniela Roarke, in an attempt to collect dirt on his family’s alleged criminal activities, goes under cover as a law student in Professor Caleb Thorne’s class.

Sparks fly, of course, and Smith does a great job of maintaining the sizzling sexual chemistry between Daniela and Caleb.  Daniela’s deception, as you can imagine, leads to a big blowup, and I kept flipping pages to see how the lovers worked things out.

Smith has a great voice, and I think we’ll be seeing much more of her work in the future. Pick up A Legal Affair when you get a chance.

Yesterday I participated in a holiday romance signing at the local Barnes & Noble, along with such luminaries as Lori Foster and Elizabeth Bevarly. A bunch of authors chattered, laughed, ate chocolate candy, drank lattes from the café and signed the odd book here and there.

It was lots of fun, and I took lots of pictures with my cool new digital camera. Later, I will try to upload (download?? Upload??) the pictures from my camera to the computer, and then, if that goes well, from the computer to my website. Wish me luck.

One of my great new author friends, Patricia Sargeant, was there. I’ve mentioned Patricia before. Her first book, You Belong to Me, a romantic suspense for Kensington/Dafina, is now out, and you’ll want to pick up a copy. I read it this week, and posted a little mini-review over on my What’s Ann Reading page. Check it out if you have time.