Yes . . . I'm extra busy right now, but it's such a good busy, who could complain!  And gosh, where to begin?

Well.........things are really rolling along well in the process of getting SPINNING FORWARD into the hands of the reading public.  As you know, I have my gorgeous cover, the book is available for pre-order on Amazon and I'm waiting on my galleys. 

One of the biggest things going on right now is that I'll be flying to Washington, DC on July 15 for the huge RWA conference.  This year is proving to be quite exciting for me!  I'm now on board with the Nancy Berland agency as my personal publicist and I've been invited to a VIP party at the Hay-Adams Hotel in DC (yesssssss! the VERY same one where Obama briefly lived before moving into the White House and OH, yeah! I'm excited!) hosted by Nancy and her staff.  The party will be attended by some very important and influential people in the book industry and there's a fair amount of prep required by me.  All details will eventually be revealed here at Island Writer.  But this is one of the items requiring my time right now.

I also received a very nice invitation the other day from Kensington to attend the cocktail party that they're hosting for their authors at the RWA. 

Am I excited about all of this?  Nah!  (Terri, you lie!)  But these are two very posh parties that will require cocktail dresses and the glam that goes with it and to be honest, I haven't had the need to wear a cocktail/special occasion dress since my daughter was married over twenty years ago!  So guess what else Terri is doing in her "spare" time?  Yup.......shopping for not one, but two cocktail dresses.  Details to follow.

And in addition to all of the prep for DC, I am now focusing on that second contract I recently received from Kensington..........writing a novella for the Christmas anthology with Fern Michaels.  So it's also back to "work" (is it work when you love what you do?) for me.

But all work and no play is never good and I've always been one to know and respect this.  For me, reading and knitting is my "down" time but I also have to say that both reading and knitting is extremely valuable and beneficial to my writing career.  Actually, for me, I feel they go hand-in-hand and I devote some time each day to both.  I don't think it's possible to be an author without being an avid reader.  It's one of our tools, plus a way to always get better and keep learning.  As for the knitting.....my novels have a theme of knitting and I'm working on some scarves right now that I plan to be wearing to my book signings, etc. 

So I think this brings you up to date and also explains why, all of a sudden, my time has become even more precious. 

I'm going to leave you with a link RIGHT HERE that will take you to Kensington's book page for SPINNING FORWARD.........I'm absolutely thrilled with the synopsis blurb they've written on the back cover for my book!  So go ahead.....right now........go read it.......I'll wait.

Back?  Isn't it great?  I was blown away by how they "GOT" it......my message, my story, all of it and yet........they gave nothing away.  There's so much to my story and it's all only hinted at.  I love it!  It's called "pull in those readers" and I sure hope I've pulled YOU in.

Well, I'm off to Gainesville today.....yup, you guessed it!  Shopping for cocktail dresses.  So I'll see you here next time................