I got some fun news this week. The nominations for the Romantic Times BOOKreviews Reviewers’ Choice Awards are out, and Risk (Best African-American Romance category) and Just About Sex (Best Kimani Press Romance category) are nominated.

To say that I’m thrilled to be nominated alongside such a talented group of writers would be a HUGE understatement.

Congratulations to all the nominees! Check out the complete list.

Today I’m hanging out over at Dear Author, reviewing Lisa Kleypas’ Sugar Daddy, which was one of my favorite books of 2007. Come visit.

I’m thinking of updating my author tagline which is, in case you’ve forgotten, as follows:

Provocative lawyers. Overwhelming problems. Undeniable passions.

I’m feeling very lukewarm about this tagline, I must say. It seemed fine when I made it up years ago, but now I’m thinking … meh.

Part of the problem is that my new book, Sweeter Than Revenge, isn’t about lawyers. It’s about publicists.

A problem, as you can see.

For my new tagline, I’m thinking of something with … I dunno … the words emotional, sexy, and funny in it. Can you tell I’m not big on this sort of brainstorming thing? It’s really hard and painful to describe your own writing and, to tell you the truth, I’d rather stick pins under my fingernails.

Anyway, under the guise of looking to other authors for inspiration about taglines when I was, in fact, wasting a great deal of time, I stumbled across Tess Gerritsen’s blog, wherein she uses donkeys and scary trails to make a point about author’s careers. Since I’m feeling angst-y about the upcoming book, this is right up my alley.

You should check it out.

I’m hanging out with Sybil and the gang over at The Good, the Bad, and the Unread today, talking about scenes in romance novels that made me squeal (it’s not what you think!) Stop by and say hi…

If you’ll be in the Cincinnati area tomorrow, please join me at the Streets of West Chester Barnes & Noble for the annual Romancing the Holidays Book Signing featuring many local authors, including Lori Foster and Patricia Sargeant. It’ll be from 1-3 p.m., and we’d love to see you there.

Come join me over at Lori Foster’s blog, Ohio Romance Authors, where I’ll be hanging out today and tomorrow, talking about imperfect characters, and giving away a copy of my January release, Sweeter Than Revenge.

My next book, Sweeter Than Revenge, comes out next month.

This, as you probably know if you’ve spent any time hanging around this blog, means I’m spending lots of time:

1. Not sleeping;
2. Worrying about the book’s potential success or lack thereof; and
3. Generally feeling nauseous.

So when I ran across Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life the other night, I snatched it right up. I have heard other writers recommend this book many times, both for its humor and insight, and I figured that’s what I needed. I had high hopes that Lamott would reassure me that I’m not insane for being this nervous about a book when there are so many other things to be anxious about like, say, the war, global warming, and my children’s latest shenanigans.

I was, therefore, thrilled when I came across this sentence in the Introduction:

I believed, before I sold my first book, that publication would be instantly and automatically gratifying, an affirming and romantic experience, a Hallmark commercial where one runs and leaps in slow motion across a meadow filled with wildflowers into the arms of acclaim and self-esteem.

Whoa, I thought. This woman gets me. I can’t wait to see what else she has to say.

So I will be spending this rainy Sunday in Cincinnati reading Bird by Bird and trying to reassure myself about the whole book thing.

And, all you writers out there, if you don’t have this book, you should go to Amazon right now and order it.