The home stretch

I'm off from work through July 13, during which time I am going to be working mercilessly on Naked Edge, with the goal of finishing it by July 15, at which time I must start another project. I tried putting up a countdown clock here for fun's sake, but I couldn't get it to work.

So rather than leaving you with a countdown clock to stare at for the next two weeks, I thought I'd share a video of some of the most amazing powder skiing I've ever seen. Remember, I grew up in Colorado. Skiing lessons were part of PE in junior high. So when I say this is fantastic skiing, believe me, I know what I'm talking about.

I have no idea who these guys are, but they ski like powder demons. Why is this relevant? After all, it's July! True, true! BUT, Gabe Rossiter, the hero in Naked Edge is a mountain parks ranger and loves to ski. Not only does he love to ski, but he's amazing at it. None other than Julian Darcangelo says that Gabe is hell on skis. And now that you've got this video to watch, you can see what that means. These guys ski deep powder, taking face shots all the way, and they ski a couple of cliffs. (In ski lingo, "face shots" means having the power fly into your face. Outside of skiing, it's a porn term, and you can figure out for yourself what it means.)

In his younger years, Gabe chased powder. That is to say, he traveled wherever the powder was deep and the skiing was good. A lot of young guys live that way here, mostly sleeping in cars or vans and driving anywhere in the Rockies where the snow is dumping.





If you want to catch some of Gabe's other activities, you can search YouTube for heliskiing. He and Marc Hunter out of necessity go heliskiing, something I have actually done. I went heliskiing with a group of friends near Telluride. Heliskiing is where they fly you into the wilderness to some crazy high ridge in the mountains and drop you off in the snow and you ski down the mountain in deep powder. I suck at telemark skiing, so I kind of fall down the mountain while wearing skis. But, hey, I still went heliskiing, right?

After watching all of this snowy activity, hopefully you'll feel cooled off and refreshed.

I'm five chapters and an epilogue away from finishing Naked Edge. I'll check in if I can. If I'm focused on the story and can't come back to the real world, then you won't see me for a while. But do enjoy that crazy ripping in this video. I watch in awe.

And if I don't see you all again before Saturday, have a wonderful, safe Fourth of July!

AAR Favorite Books by Favorite Authors results

The results of All About Romance's Favorite Books by Favorite Authors poll are up, and I was surprised.

Here's the order in which you, my readers, put them:

1. Hard Evidence
2, Unlawful Contact
3, Ride the Fire
4. Untamed
5. Surrender
6. Extreme Exposure
7. Sweet Release
8. Carnal Gift

I'm not surprised by the last one, but I am surprised that Hard Evidence placed first, ahead of Unlawful Contact and Surrender. I'm also surprised that Untamed placed ahead of Surrender.

On Amazon, Surrender has by far the most reviews — 47 — and most are very positive. (Believe it or not, my mother and I don't post reviews for my books, and I don't know most of the people who do.) Unlawful Contact comes in just behind Surrender with 30 reviews, most of them five-star.

Hard Evidence, by contrast, took some serious knocks from reviewers, who found Tessa to be an irritant and TSTL. (To which I've always wanted to say, "I'm an investigative reporter and I've done some of those things. Am I TSTL?") Of course, Julian is pretty popular with all of you. No doubt about that.

And speaking of Julian, someone sent me this photo today to cheer me up, and I thought immediately of Dark Angel...



You should check out the Faves by Faves page at AAR because it has a pretty substantial list of authors whose books readers have ranked according to which they liked most. It's a great way to get acquainted with a new author and reassure yourself that you're not starting with her worst book.

I fully expected Surrender and Ride the Fire to be at the top, along with Unlawful Contact, with Untamed coming in at No. 4, perhaps.

And thanks to all of you who took the time to vote!

I told Lee Brewer, AAR's publisher liason and pollster, that I feel like a real romance novelist now that I'm included on the Faves by Faves page. She very generously replied that having a single book published makes a person an author.

So what do you think? Did the vote go the way you expected? How would you change it if you didn't. I know what Kristie J will say...

More Flowers/Naked Edge update

What it's like right now in Colorado's high country

I thought these photos were kind of fun and wanted to share them with you. A couple weekends ago, I went for a drive in the mountains with my younger son, Benjamin, and his girlfriend, Lucy. We drove along Trail Ridge Road to give Lucy a view of the real Rocky Mountains. She'd never seen mountains like this before. And although it was technically late spring, up there it was still winter. We got caught in a bit of a snow storm, which made me nervous. Anyone who has driven on Trail Ridge Road will understand why.

We drove Lucy to an overlook where she'd be able to see where I almost died — but the clouds were so thick and the snow falling so heavily that the entire mountain range was obscured. D'oh!


A look at the snowpack along the Continental Divide

The photo above shows where ploughs cut through the snow to clear the road. Just to give you some perspective, my son is six feet tall.

Meanwhile, down at 5,000 feet elevation, my garden is in high bloom. It's so lovely I could sit out there all day.



Here's a glimpse of our King Arthur giant delphinium, which just popped. It's so majestic. I tried to get a close-up so you could see the details inside the blossoms.


Click on photos to enlarge for more detail

This is a shot of the middle bed in my front yard rose garden. You can see the King Arthur delphinium in the background. Anne Bolyne and Heritage are the pink roses toward the front. Beside them is lavender, which is just starting to bloom. There's penstemon, a Rocky Mountain wildflower, and purple coneflower, which hasn't yet bloomed.

Update on Naked Edge: I saw that they've moved the release date till March 2010. The book is due on July 15. If I can make that deadline, there's still a chance the book might be bumped to April or May. Hopefully not. So I might not post again after this until the book is done. I really need to focus every word my brain can conjure on the story.

I am taking vacation from the newspaper in the beginning of July and can't wait! I'll spend the time writing and sleeping and sniffing roses.