Lynn Raye Harris

You have until November 2nd to enter the latest Harlequin Presents competition! Here is a current post from the new Harlequin Blog about it, and you can also, of course, find much info over at the I Heart Presents site.

Best of luck to all entering! And remember, you don’t have to win to see your dream of selling to HP come true.

But if you DO win, oh my. Enjoy that ride. It’s great.

I love paper books. The heft, the smell, the covers, etc. I have TONS of them. My office is lined with books, and I’ve gotten rid of many books over the years when weight considerations forced me to do so (military moves restrict you to certain weight limits). Just before we left Hawaii, I had a big purge. It hurt. I still regret some of the choices I made, and wish I’d kept the books. Others I look at now and wonder why I kept them in lieu of the ones I miss. Who knows?

I resisted ebooks for years. I don’t want to read on a computer. Don’t like it at all. I write and read my own work on a computer all day, so why would I want to sit and read a book? I don’t.

But then came the ereaders. I resisted, mostly because there were still kinks to be worked out, and nothing really appealed to me.

Until the Kindle. Oh, I coveted that from day one. Why? Because of the wireless downloads from the bookstore. The fact I could send myself a sample chapter, and then download the entire book instantly if I liked what I read. Sure to be a bad thing for the wallet, but very good for my book obsession.

I finally got one in August, and I love it. Yeah, I knew there was a war coming, and that B&N was about to enter the market and that Sony was about to go wireless — but I was tired of waiting, so I took the plunge.

Am I sorry? Not at all! I love this darn thing. Just the other day, I downloaded a friend’s book on the day of release! (Pamela Hearon’s The Timestone Key, which if you like time travel and Arthurian legend stuff, you should not miss!) I love that I can carry several books with me and switch between them when I want a break from the one I’m reading. I used to read books straight through, but college kind of got me in the habit of reading many books at once. Sometimes I can’t put a book down and I’ll read straight through, but just as often I’ll switch between books.

The Nook, B&N’s offering, looks really cool. But Hubby has always told me not to buy the first model of anything, so I’m not sorry I bought Kindle instead. I’ll wait and see how the Nook performs and what people think of it. And maybe I’ll switch eventually, but for now, Kindle does exactly what I want. It delivers books instantly, it’s highly readable, and it travels well.

What are your thoughts on ereaders? Do you have one? Planning to get one? Do you read ebooks on your computer?

I have author copies of Cavelli’s Lost Heir! Tell me why you want one, and I’ll pick a winner from the comments. This book isn’t out until January so don’t miss your chance for an advance copy!

UPDATE:
I simply couldn’t pick just one winner, so I decided to giveaway 3 books! I trotted over to the random number generator, and this is what it told me:

First winner: Pearl!
Second winner: Lynne!
Third winner: Lois!

Send me your contact info at contact AT lynnrayeharris DOT com and I’ll get your books on the way to you!

And if you didn’t win this time, keep checking back because I simply can’t resist holding contests. And if you click over to my Contest page, you’ll notice I’ve put up the next contest for a book and goodies!

Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments. I enjoyed reading them all! You quite made my day!

I’m getting immersed in my sheikh novella — or, more appropriately, in the setting for the novella. My mother has a book on Arabia and another on the Bedouins that I’ve borrowed, and I’ve been viewing photos of deserts and tents and etc. And I’ve reviewed my copy of T.E. Lawrence, which is water-logged and has sand in the binding (due to reading on the beach in Hawaii). Things have changed over the years, of course, but it’s wonderfully atmospheric.

In case you think the title of this post is poetic, it actually comes from a joke my husband tells. He’s been telling it since I met him, in fact, but the only part I remember is ‘desert winds and caravans’. There’s also something about Timbuktu, though I’m purposely not remembering it….

Do you like sheikh stories? Which are some of your favorites? Know any good desert jokes? (Or do you know this one?)

I had a very exciting weekend! First, I typed The End on Book 4 on Thursday afternoon, an entire week before my deadline. My plan was to let it sit for a day or so, and then start reading it again for any last minute changes. I honestly can’t remember what I did on Friday — this is typical after I finish a book. I know I went to the post office to finally mail prizes to a couple of you! And I may have gone grocery shopping.

Friday evening, bolstered by the knowledge I need to write a sheikh novella very soon, I talked the hubby into watching Lawrence of Arabia for the gazillionth time. I do love that movie. The desert, Omar Sharif, the horses, the camels, the locations (the buildings were actually Moorish buildings in Spain, but the desert scenes are in Jordan). Gorgeous scenery, fabulous story. I’ve actually read the book on which the movie is based — twice. Lawrence was quite a wordsmith. (There’s a whole other side to the story about the Arab perspective, which he does not necessarily portray accurately, but that’s another topic.)

On Saturday, we had planned to go to dinner with my parents. We’d arranged it earlier in the week, and once I remembered we were doing so, I was quite excited about it. We have discovered a wonderful German restaurant in town that has authentic food and decor. It’s like being transported to a German cafe! (And no, for the locals reading, I am NOT talking about Olde Heidelberg.)

While waiting for my parents to arrive, I decided I wanted to get my Autumn wreath out of the attic. Big mistake. I have never gone into the attic for a reason, I later realized.

The repairman assures me that people stepping through the ceiling is quite common, in fact. I now have a large hole in my kitchen ceiling, and I scared the bejeebers out of myself when I took a step and there was no floor beneath me. My leg punched through, I fell on my wrist, and my kitchen looked like it had snowed because of the insulation everywhere.

Fortunately, aside from the hole, there was no lasting damage. My wrist is doing better, and my thigh isn’t as bruised as I thought it would be. I scared my poor hubby to death, and he informs me that he’s never seen the cat’s tail that poofed out before. Apparently I scared her too.

Sunday was quite normal in contrast, and yesterday I sent my book to my editor. How was your weekend? Any adventures? Have you done something so dumb as step through the ceiling before? Come on, make me feel better! Tell me your embarrassing or silly adventures.

I bet you’ve been wondering where I went to! Well, I’m in the home stretch of Book #4, and I hope to finish it sometime today if I’m lucky. So the last few days have been spent hunched over the computer, my fingers trying to keep up with what was happening in my head. Thank you so much for all the comments and congrats on my one year anniversary of The Call! And it’s been great seeing what kinds of events you’re celebrating.

We’ve had, I believe, two new home purchases, a couple of anniversaries, and some celebrations over finishing a manuscript and getting a full request! Everyone has a lot to celebrate it looks like!

And now, the winner of a copy of Cavelli’s Lost Heir is Fatima! Fatima, send me your contact info and as soon as I get my author copies, I’ll pop one in the mail to you. You can use the contact page, or email me at contact AT lynnrayeharris DOT com.

Everyone else, there will be more chances to win, so keep checking back! And keep an eye on that contest page of mine. I’ll be launching a new contest soon — but because they’re so fun for me to do, I’ll still have impromptu blog contests as well. Another way to win is by following me on Twitter where I’ll tweet chances to enter for books and other goodies as the mood strikes!

Thanks for reading this blog, and thanks again for being readers of my books.

I realized this morning when I woke up that today is the one year anniversary of The Call. One year ago today, at 7:27 AM, my lovely editor called to buy Spanish Magnate, Red-Hot Revenge and one other book from me. In February, my second book was accepted, and then my editor called to buy three more books. She also recently called to buy a novella.

It’s been quite a road since that day one year ago! I can remember the excitement, the heart-pounding inability to concentrate on anything other than the fact I’d just sold a book. It was an amazing day! Best of all, my poor patient long-suffering husband was at home when I got the call. Five more minutes, and he’d have been out the door on the way to work. But he was here, and I didn’t have to scramble around trying to find him so I could tell him. You know how you always read call stories where someone was at home alone, and then she couldn’t get her husband or any of her family on the phone?

Thankfully, that wasn’t me. I can’t remember the order in which I called people after. I may have called my mom, and then my dad at work. And my in-laws. After that, it’s a blur. My hubby had to trot off to work, and later that day, he had to leave town on a business trip. I remember that my celebratory dinner that evening was a Lean Cuisine pizza and a glass of wine. But when my hubby returned at the end of the week, we went out for a proper celebration! And of course he brought me flowers and a card before he left for that trip.

It was a great day.

One year later, I’m hard at work on Book #4, which is due in a little over a week, and thinking about the novella I have to write next. It’s been fun, busy, stressful at times, but I wouldn’t trade this job for anything.

Most of all, I want to thank my readers for all the wonderful comments and emails you’ve sent to me over the last year. Your support when my book came out meant so much to me. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you’ll enjoy the next one. You landed me on the Waldenbooks/Borders Bestseller list and on the Bookscan Top 100 Bestselling Romances list. I thank you all very much. I write because I love it, but I also write because I hope you will love it.

Now, because I feel so celebratory today, I’m going to give away a copy of Cavelli’s Lost Heir to one lucky commenter! You’ll have to be a little patient, however, because I don’t have my copies just yet. I expect them soon, and when I get them, I’ll pop it in the mail.

So tell me what you’ve celebrated recently, or what you will celebrate soon! Any milestone or event counts.

PS You will have noticed I have a new Contest page on this site. Stay tuned for a new contest soon….

The winner of Kimberly Lang’s signed book is Angela T! Congratulations, Angela! Send me your contact info, and I’ll get the book to you ASAP! (You can use the contact page, or email me at contact AT lynnrayeharris DOT com.

Today I’m giving away a signed book by my friend, chapter mate, and line buddy Kimberly Lang! It’s amazing how much fun it is to live right down the road, in the same town, as another person who writes for the glamorous and gorgeous Harlequin Presents line. This means lots of lunches and plot talk.

Kimberly’s books are called Modern Heat in the UK (mine are Modern), so we definitely aren’t writing the same thing. When I want fun, sexy, and glamorous all at once, I pick up one of Kimberly’s books. And this book definitely lives up to that promise! (In fact, I emailed Kimberly from under a dryer at the salon because I was cracking up over a line she’d written. Too funny.)

Browse this book

Add to your site

Buy this book

Tell me why you want to read Kimberly’s book! On Sunday, I’ll pick a winner from the comments. Go!