If you've signed up for my author Newsletter..........then you already know what my breaking news is.  As I've promised, I'll always release important info in my Newsletter first before putting it "out" there on Facebook, my blog or my author website.  So Newsletter subscribers knew about this last evening, but for the rest of you..........

I got a phone call from my editor at Kensington yesterday morning.  She has offered me another contract to write in the next Christmas anthology, headlined by NYT best selling author, Fern Michaels!  And OH yeah, I'm still walking on air!   My editor said, "This is an amazing opportunity to expose your name and storytelling skills to hundreds of thousands of readers---and right about the time when your second novel will be coming out."  So YES......book #2 will be released Oct. 2010.

What this new contract will involve is writing a novella, 20,000/25,000 words.  She wants a contemporary story with a Christmas theme and wants me to tie it in with my first two novels for them.

Two other authors will also be involved and doing their novella, so they'll be four stories.  My deadline to my editor is Feb. 1, 2010.  It will be Zebra mass-market paperback, Nov. 2010.  Territory is World, all languages.

I still have to pinch myself that this is actually happening to me!  It's been a long, disappointing and tough road to get where I am right now.......but I believed in myself and I never gave up.

If this wasn't quite enough good news for this week.....I have more!  My personal publicist has been in touch and I've seen the promotional plan they've put together for me.  It's incredible and I'm beyond pleased.  We're having a conference call tomorrow morning to finalize everything.  As things develop and become confirmed, I will share them with my readers.  But I have to say, they brainstormed based on what my book is about and oh! wow!  They've come up with some pretty unique ideas for promoting and marketing me nation wide.

I finished editing my copyedited manuscript about 4:30 Monday afternoon.  I won't lie....I was  mentally drained, but after three full days of going over it, it was such a feeling of accomplishment to have it finished and it got mailed back to my publisher yesterday afternoon for my deadline of this Friday.

I haven't forgotten about blogging on the theater production of To Kill A Mockingbird.  As soon as my feet resume staying put on the ground, I'll be back here to tell you all about it and share the photos.  It's just been an incredibly busy, yet joyful, week for me.

(And the photo above is my writers studio.....where all of my inspiration and creativity comes together in the form of my novels, along with the company of my four-legged furry friends)