It's Time for the Yearly Check-in on . . .

Social Media! Once again, I thought I'd tap your collective brain to get a sense of where readers are at on the social media front. I have a Facebook and Twitter account, but I am not active on either platform. I do, however, watch from the sidelines to see how they are being used by others and to what effectiveness. I have some thoughts on the matter, but I thought I'd see what you guys think. So here are a few questions:

1. Are you active on Twitter and/or Facebook?

2. What is your preferred way to interact with authors: a blog, Facebook, twitter, email (or it doesn't really matter)?

3. Do you follow all your favorite authors?

4. Have you ever bought/not bought a book because of an experience on one of the social media platforms?

If you have any other thoughts, I'd love to hear them!

And just to keep those eyes entertained, how about this picture of THOR's Christ Hemsworth. I guess hair color doesn't matter--blond or brunette looks good to me. Maybe he can inspire more than one Guardsman . . . LOL.

Three Month Count Down is on!

THE VIPER will hit stores three months from today in a special mid-month release. I just posted an excerpt on my website for those who want to get a little taste now.

Those of you who like surprises can stop reading now. :) I'd hoped to be able to wait a little longer to announce the next book, but amazon has had it up for a few days now. Tiffani, you guessed correctly: Book #5 will be . . . (insert drumroll) . . . THE SAINT! It will hit stores on 3/27/12 and is available for pre-order here. No cover yet, but should have one soon.

Do you want to be surprised?

I was reading the USA Today on my ipad today (best newspaper APP ever by the way) when my eye went to the picture of Sean Bean in THE GAME OF THRONES. If you haven't seen the show, you are missing out. It's right up there with SPARTACUS BLOOD AND SAND as my favorite. Season One just ended so you'll probably have to catch up with it on Netflix. Anyway, I digress . . . the USA Today story was about George RR Martin's release today of the fifth book in the series.

I'd read most of the first book by time the show started and am currently about 100 pages away from finishing the second (they are LONG books). So there I am reading the news story and before I know it, they're telling me what certain POV characters are up to. Ugh. The catch-me-unaware spoiler! The stories are told from multiple POVs and just knowing who is still around was kind of a bummer.

In books and movies I want to be surprised. Even in romances, where I *know* the ending, I never read ahead (I'm looking at you CP Jami Alden!). With series, I think part of the excitement is wondering "who's next." I've really tried to keep things secret around here with my HIGHLAND GUARD series, but with the book industry being the way it is (books going up for presale well before publication date), I can only keep it under wraps for a while.

I know some of you (cough, cough, Ing!) don't like waiting and want all the spoilers they can find.

What about you: do you want to be surprised or do you seek out those spoilers?

UPDATE: I'm blogging over at Borders True Romance Today about stories that keep dragging you back. If you have a chance, pop on over!

And the winner of the audio version of THE CHIEF is . . .

As picked by Random. org: Emily! Congratulations, email me your address, and I'll get it off to soon. I'll be giving away more copies on my website, so if you didn't win this time around there will be more opportunities. Have a great weekend!

Guess Where I was?

Yep, Rome (that's Trevi Fountain pictured) among other places. I know I mentioned it would be quiet around here, but I didn't want to broadcast exactly why. The McCarty family took a long planned vacation a little early this summer. We went on a Disney Cruise to the Mediterranean! It was spectacular. We traveled with a friend of mine from law school and her family (as well as Jenny Garth of 90210 fame and her husband Peter Fracinelli from the Twihard movies--no I don't know them, but they were on the ship). We sailed in and out of Barcelona and had 11 nights on board with a stop in Malta, four in Italy, and two in France, including Corsica. We were originally supposed to stop in Tunisia, but after the problems Disney changed the port to Sicily. I absolutely fell in love with Italy. Rome was amazing as was the Isle of Capri. I know it sounds cheesy, but Disney really is a great way to go with kids--they had a blast.

We were gone for two weeks, and then I flew directly to RWA so I've been "unplugged" for quite a while. Lots of fun things to tell you about. First off, I mentioned that my friends Jami Alden and Bella Andre and I were going to be on the cover of RT, well it's out! Here's the link: http://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (you can click on the cover to make it bigger). We also did a video. It's about 7 minutes long and talks about how we got together as CPs and why we think it's worked so well. I managed to watch it without cringing too badly. God, I hate watching myself on video.

And finally, I found out THE CHIEF won the historical category of the OCCRWA Book Buyer's Best contest as well as the Top Pick overall (page down) and the Reader's Crown contest for best Long historical. All the books have been doing pretty well on the contest circuit. You can check out all the finals/wins on my website in the "news and reviews" section of each book.

Hope you guys are all off to a great summer and happy Fourth of July!

UPDATE: oops, almost forgot to mention some other exciting news. I came home to a huge package of my very first audio book! I'm often asked if my books are available on audio and now I can say "yes!" THE CHIEF is the first, but I'm hoping there will be more. I have a copy to give away to one commenter. I'll choose a winner on Friday. Usual rules apply.