Yep, that’s right!

KISMET’S KISS will be published by Dragon Moon Press this summer.

(Holy schnikeys, that’s fast–and lucky!) Dragon Moon is a Canadian publisher specializing in fantasy and science fiction.

KISMET’S KISS has been through the war and lived to tell the tale. It got me three agent offers. It’s an eight-time contest finalist (including twice in the prestigious Romance Writers of America Golden Heart®) and a three-time contest winner. And I love it like hot and damn.

Here’s part of the description I used to pique Dragon Moon’s interest last summer:

On a faraway world in the medieval, Middle Easternesque realm of Kad, a deadly epidemic strikes the royal house of Sultan Kuramos. Only a magical healer from an enemy land may have the skill to save them. He doesn’t expect that healer to be a woman.

Varene, too, finds surprises in Kad. The feisty healer anticipates the sultan’s arrogance, but not his courage or his selfless care of the ill–or the possibility that the epidemic is the curse of a vengeful goddess.

Varene’s mystical talents are condemned by Kuramos’s culture and her presence triggers a plot to overthrow the sultan. Yet as he and the healer toil for the cure, he loses his heart to her. She falls for him as well, but how can she relinquish her homeland and her principles for the sultan—especially when he already has six beautiful wives and his family may be cursed?

There are so many people who have helped KISMET’S KISS along the way, and despite not wanting to leave anyone out (or bore the universe with an insanely long list, and thank goodness for all of you!), two of them I have to thank right this minute: my wonderful critique partners Shelby Reed and Kendra Leigh Castle, who helped KISS shine. You rock, ladies.

And my head is still spinning about the release date. Only a few months to go before KISMET’S KISS is out. Wow, so much left to do… I’d better get cracking!

2009 was a very weird year for me. My hubby and I (and the felines) moved across the state twice in five months due to his job. No other way to say it except That Sucked.

And yet, I also got my first contract offer. That Did Not Suck. In the end, I turned down the contract due to a sticky clause in the contract that the publisher wouldn’t negotiate. That was a tough call, but I know I have to be smart and keep an eye on the future.

Now it looks like I’ll have an offer from another publisher. This pub has a good reputation and may be a very nice fit for this book.

My mother has a saying: “It’s not real until it’s real.” She was referring to real estate deals where things could fall apart at the last minute. Nothing was real until the contracts were signed. I think I’ll be patient and follow her lead.

But given the suckage of 2009, I’d like to think that no matter what, 2010 will be a better year. And that’s what we all want at the beginning of a shiny new year.

So I hope that no matter how 2009 treated you, 2010 will rock your house in fantastic ways.

Onward!

Must pass along this hilarious music video geekdom on fonts. (I love Gill Sans!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHCu28bfxSI

Ever fantasize about a fantastic writing office / reading area / home office? Me too. I’m blogging about what would make the perfect space at NobodyWritesItBetter.com today, so come visit. :-)

Just found out that KISMET’S KISS is a finalist in the 2009 Spacecoast RWA “Launching a Star” contest. Winners to be announced in mid-December. Let’s see, that’s eight finals for KISS and three wins (so far). Go KISS!

I just found out that my manuscript KISMET’S KISS–an otherworld fantasy retelling of The King and I, but with an actual happy ending for all, mwa ha ha!–won the Paranormal category of the New Jersey Romance Writers‘ Put Your Heart in a Book contest. The final judges were Penguin editor Jhanteigh Kupihea, agent Roberta Brown, and multi-pubbed author Judi McCoy. W00t!

My thanks to Gwynlyn, one of my sister Golden Heart 2009 finalists, for passing along the lovely news. :)

That’s how I felt as soon as I bought my Kindle last year. I love that ebook sales are exploding and that ereaders are the next big thing. And let me tell you, I was never an ebook fan–until I had my Kindle and “got” the experience.

I don’t buy paper novels anymore, unless I have zero choice and I *must* get the book–which is exceedingly rare. 99.9% of the time, I’ll buy some other book that’s available for the Kindle. (Hear that, publishers? Once a book’s available in print, don’t make me wait for the ebook, ’cause I’ll just go somewhere else!)

The only kind of books I still buy in paper are nonfiction writing books. Since those are reference guides and I tend to use many at a time when I’m wrestling with a story problem, I like to have a bunch out in front of me at once so I can quickly flip between sections of each book. But no doubt that will be solved by e-technology someday, too. It’s going to be an electronic world.

Bring it on!

No, not our new home. Still too many unpacked boxes. (g) But I’m blogging today at NobodyWritesItBetter.com, the website of the 2007 RWA Golden Heart® finalists. It’s my first post there, and in it I give thanks for “The Biggest A-ha” I had while at this year’s RWA writing conference. It’s probably not what you think. :-) Hope you’ll stop by.

So, Hubby and I sold our house (quite a feat in this crappy market), packed all our stuff in a 26-foot U-Haul truck and moved out at closing, chewed our nails for a week while we waited on several pending job offers for Hubby, received a great offer and drove selves/U-Haul/stressed-out cats 500 miles, found a great apartment, got the utilities turned on (mostly–the gas for the stove, clothes dryer and hot water goes on tomorrow, YAY for showers) and are now in a space almost as big as our house for less than half the monthly payout. And I still have mountains out my window.

Am v. happy. Except for all these damn boxes of stuff around here. Where’s my Unpacking Fairy?

More from moi when I resurface above the cardboard sea.

Has nothing to do with writing. Well, it does, actually, but only in the comedic sense.

And if you’re a Child of the 80s as I am, this is a must-see!