Dog Days of Summer Sweepstakes from Tor/Forge

My publisher, Tor/Forge, is running an end-of-summer sweepstakes where you can enter to win NINE titles!
Just sign up for their newsletter and you'll be entered.

HOVER is included, along with titles from Hank Phillippi Ryan, Renee Patrick, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Katie Schickel. Here's the link!

The contest runs until Aug 29th.

HOVER East Coast Book Tour Highlights!

My editor, Kristin Sevick, and I at R. J. Julia Booksellers

My time spent on the East Coast to promote HOVER was amazing in so many ways.


I started with a talk and signing at R. J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT, where I had the privilege of being introduced by my very own editor, Kristin Sevick! I can't tell you how special that made the event for me.

The historic Flatiron Building -
Home of Tor/Forge and other
Macmillan imprints

I also spent a day touring the offices of my publisher, Tor/Forge, in the historic Flatiron Building. I learned that most of the building is occupied by Macmillan Publishing and its imprints. And the building itself? It's, well, flat.

During my tour, I had the distinct pleasure to meet Mr. Tom Doherty, the head of Tor/Forge. You might not know this, but Tor is the most successful science fiction and fantasy publisher in the world. The Forge side--where I'm published--encompasses the other genres, like women's fiction, thriller, crime fiction, etc.

View from Tom Doherty's office window - Broadway
on the left, 5th Avenue on the right

Mr. Doherty's office sits right on the spine of the Flatiron Building, about 12 or 13 stories up. This is his view of Broadway (on the left) and 5th Avenue. Pretty cool.

View from Patty Garcia's office - a loooooong way down!

Building codes were different way back when, I guess, because you can open the window completely in Patty Garcia's (Tor/Forge Director of Publicity) office. I leaned over, stuck the camera out the window and aimed down.

Emily Mullen, me, Kristin Sevick

I also met my publicist, Emily Mullen, in person for the first time. This is a photo of Emily, Kristin, and I in front of the Flatiron Building (the building is behind Bess Cozby, who was taking the photo). Next time, Bess, we'll make sure you're in the picture, too! Nice to have the Empire State Building as a backdrop.

Kristin and I editing on the beach!

The highlight of the day, believe it or not, was the commute between Madison and NYC. I had the rare experience of doing "live edits" with Kristin. We sat on the train, Kristin had her computer on her lap, and we walked through my entire manuscript (the one scheduled for release this next summer). Even though we had a three-hour train ride one way and a three-hour train ride back, we still weren't finished. So we found a spot on the beach in Madison and finished the edits there. Unbelievable experience.

Signing books at the U. S. Naval Academy
in the Midshipman Store during
Parents' Weekend

I spent a commuting day driving to Annapolis and then did a signing at the U. S. Naval Academy Midshipmen Store on Saturday, August 15th.  That was a surreal experience, to be sure. It was Parents' Weekend and I saw many of my 89 classmates, who were their for their children (Class of 2019). Crazy.

Fountain Bookstore owner, Kelly Justice

I finished my tour in Richmond, VA, at Fountain Bookstore. This is a photo of the owner, Kelly Justice, and me. Kelly has been a professional independent bookseller since 1989, the same year I graduated from Navy. Great karma! Oh, and Kelly's name is just too cool not to use as a character name in one of my future novels.

My touring partner, Laura Seidelman!

And finally, my touring partner and navigator for this trip was my super cool mother-in-law, Laura Seidelman. Thank you, Laura!




Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better tour experience. I met so many great people, while re-connecting with old friends. It's my hope that I'll be able to return next year!

Thanks are in order!

I would like to dedicate this first blog post to three people who are making my author dream a reality.

The first thank-you must go to my literary agent, Barbara Poelle, of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency in New York. For those of you unfamiliar with the publishing world, finding a literary agent to represent you is a major hurdle. You send scores of query letters to various agents pitching your  manuscript, and in turn, receive scores of rejection letters. It’s almost a rite of passage for an author. How long can you hang on until someone takes that leap of faith? But as the rejection letters piled up, I continued to focus on those five little words that every author in search of representation clings to—it only takes one yes. Well, Barbara was my yes and it would take another blog article entirely to describe this indefatigable human bundle of energy to you.

Next, thank you to my editor, Kristin Sevick, at Macmillan – Tor/Forge. We just completed our first round of edits on HOVER, and she is a gem. She has helped me to shape and lift the manuscript to another level entirely. And again, for those of you not familiar with the world of publishing, editors carry insane workloads. In a word, they’re buried.  But for someone who has to juggle so much, Kristin has been nothing short of gracious with her time.

And finally, you wouldn’t be reading about Barbara or Kristin or know anything about me as an author if it wasn’t for Maddee James, the designer of my website. Maddee is first class all the way and a dream to work with. You can find her at www.xuni.com. And for you authors, she specializes in author websites.