Lynn Raye Harris

Cynthia Gander, you won a signed copy of Cavelli’s Lost Heir last week! Please email me at lynn AT lynnrayeharris DOT com, or use the contact page, so I can send your book.

I turned in my revisions last night at about midnight. Since my editor is in the UK, that means they’d be sitting in her inbox when she arrived in the morning. What a relief to get them gone! The work isn’t done until she tells me it is, so no getting my hopes up that the book is finished yet. There may be some more work to do.

In the meantime, I have a sheikh novella to write! My lovely editor called me this morning to talk about him. I suspected there would be work to do there, and of course I was right. The novella is a new format for me, so it’s also a learning experience to try and pack all the power and emotional punch of a Presents into 25k. That story is due in about 3 weeks now, so guess who will be busy and scarce once more?

But I’m excited about the holiday this week! What American doesn’t love Thanksgiving? A day dedicated to eating and spent with family? Can’t wait. We’re going to my mother’s house, and one of my brothers will be there with his family too. I’m making my famous Cajun stuffing, and I believe I’m in charge of cranberry sauce too. Tomorrow, my mother and I are going shopping together for many of the fixins (a Southern word, for my international readers, that means ingredients).

Of course I’m going to have to find a way to write during all this festivity. And I will. I’ll write early, write late, and write whenever there’s a free moment.

I’m still looking for my winner last week! Cynthia Gander, where are you? Email me for your book!

And, speaking of books, Cavelli’s Lost Heir is officially out in the UK now! If you live in the UK, and you happen to see my book on the shelves, could you snap a pic? Email to me at lynn AT lynnrayeharris DOT com, and I’ll send you a couple of my lovely bookmarks!

My book is now mine on Amazon! They spelled my name wrong in the UK, but hey, I’ll take it. That’s easily corrected compared to them having the wrong author. Amazon is a behemoth, and they move at the speed of molasses, but they actually did this quite fast considering I started my complaint campaign on Friday. I’m pleased, because I am not just an author but also a frequent Amazon customer. I’ve spent tons of money with them over the years, and not just for books!

Here’s the US link and the UK link. It was quite disheartening to see my book attributed to someone else, and to get the run around as I tried to find a human being to communicate with, but it all worked out in the end. When I found a human, she was very helpful and apologetic and she followed through. And I don’t discount the involvement of Amy Wilkins and the Harlequin Retail Team either. I’m sure they were on top of this and helped to get it changed.

So, things work out when you’re patient and persistent. Thanks to everyone who emailed Amazon on my behalf! I’m sure those emails helped too, because you proved it wasn’t just one small author who insisted this book was hers. Your belief it was mine helped swing the balance.

Have you ever battled a behemoth? Did you get them to fix whatever it was they’d done wrong? (I did once get a 10 yr old television fixed for free because Hitachi gave me the run around.)

I am so irritated with Amazon at the moment that I can hardly write this post. I’ve recently found out what it’s like to be a published author with a book coming out that Amazon attributes to someone else. I keep trying to change the information, but so far they aren’t budging.

The Prince’s Royal Concubine is MY book, due out in March 2010 from Mills & Boon Modern. It will also come out in Harlequin Presents in the months after. Yet Amazon seems to think that my book belongs to Lee Wilkinson. How do these things happen? I wish I knew, but I’m having a heck of a time correcting it.

Want to see for yourself? Here’s the US link and the UK link.

Nothing like slaving over a book and having it attributed to someone else! How would you feel? I know they can’t forever call it someone else’s, like when the cover comes out and they can clearly see it’s mine, but I’m still pretty ticked off about this.

Amazon, give me back my book!

QUICK UPDATE: Thanks for all your words of support! I truly did not expect for folks to email Amazon on my behalf, but I do appreciate it! It seems as if they are in the process of correcting it right now. Hopefully it will be completed soon!

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?

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.)

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

My idiocy is your gain! I bought Trish’s The Ruthless Greek’s Virgin Princess on my Kindle and devoured it — without realizing I’d also bought it in print. I don’t need the print book, do I? So I’m giving it away to one lucky commenter!

Tell me what you love about ruthless Greeks, virgin princesses, or Harlequin Presents in general!

I’m still working on my Argentinian hero and his lovely jewel thief (does that pique your interest?), and their story is galloping to a close. Soon, I hope to submit it to my editor and wait for her suggestions on how to make it better. I promise you passion and seduction, glorious love, and a gorgeous setting in Buenos Aires and the wine country of Argentina.

But I also have a new project to work on and I’m excited to share it with you. As soon as this book is done, I’ll be working on a novella for publication in the UK. My subject? A sheikh! I can’t wait! I still have the next full-length book to write as well, and I’ve already picked a setting for it. I can’t wait to tell you about it, but I’m not quite ready yet! Let’s just say it’s not a place you usually read about in your Harlequin Presents!

Do you like sheikh stories? What’s your favorite thing about them? I’m envisioning a dark, ruthless hero, a desert setting, and lots of passion!

P.S. You can now read a complete transcript of the Harlequin Presents competition editor chat here!

In case you missed it, I have a cover for Cavelli’s Lost Heir! I’m very excited about this cover. I loved my first cover — who couldn’t love those abs on that guy, hmm? — but this one is even more special to me.

Cavelli’s Lost Heir was my first entry into the Instant Seduction competition last year. Except it wasn’t called that, nor was the plot anything like what it turned out to be in the finished book. (The Spanish Magnate’s Revenge, renamed Spanish Magnate, Red-Hot Revenge, was my second entry — in the first competition, you could enter more than once; now, that’s not the case.)

I loved my Prince Nico, but the heroine was less formed than she needed to be. Essentially, it was a forced marriage plot — but the reasoning for it was far more plot heavy than what it eventually ended up being. In the book due out in January (December in the UK), the story now centers on a past relationship and the secret child that was the result of that relationship.

Oh how I loved writing this book! I was worried about it since it was my second, yet I felt like I’d learned so much through my two revisions on the first book that I plowed through with a greater confidence. It’s still a few months until the book hits the shelves, but I’m so excited about it. I think it’s a good story and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Here’s a little snippet. I hope you enjoy.

A knock on the door brought his head up. “Enter.”

“The Prefect of Police has sent a messenger, Your Highness,” his assistant said.

“I will see him,” Nico replied.

A moment later, a uniformed man appeared and bowed deeply. “Your Serene Highness, the Prefect sends his greetings.”

Nico stamped down on his impatience as the man recited the ritual greetings and wishes for his health and happiness. “What is the message?” he asked, somewhat irritably, once the formalities had been observed.

Though it was indeed the Crown Prince’s duty to oversee the police force, it was more a symbolic role than anything else. That the Prefect was actually communicating with him about something filled him with an uncharacteristic sense of foreboding.

Ridiculous. It was merely the awareness of his loss of freedom that pinched at the back of his mind and made him feel uneasy.

The man reached into his inner pocked and pulled out an envelope. “The Prefect has tasked me with informing you that we have recovered some of the ancient statues taken from the museum. And to give you this, Your Highness.”

Nico held out his hand. The man stood at attention while Nico ripped into the envelope.

He expected the sheet of paper inside, but it was the photograph of a woman and child that caught Nico’s attention first. Their faces filled the frame as if someone had stood very close to snap the picture. He recognized the woman almost instantly – the wheat blonde hair, the green eyes, and the smattering of freckles across her nose – and felt a momentary pang of regret their liaison had not lasted longer. His gaze skimmed to the child.

Sudden fury corroded his insides. It was not possible. He had never been that careless. He would never do to a child what had been done to him. He would never father a baby and walk away. It had to be a trick, a stunt to embarrass him on the eve of his engagement, a ploy to get money. There was no way this child was his.

His mind reeled. He’d spent only a short time with her, had made love to her only once – much to his regret. Wouldn’t he have remembered if something had gone wrong? Of course he would – but the child had the distinct look of a Cavelli. Nico couldn’t tear his gaze away from eyes that were a mirror to his own as he unfolded the paper. Finally, he succeeded in wrenching his attention to the Prefect’s scrawled words.

Nico dropped the paper and shoved back from the desk. “You will take me to the prison. Now.”

You can pre-order the North American release at Amazon.com and the UK release at Amazon.co.uk.

I’ve had a great time this first week of my official release, with guest blogs and giveaways, etc, but nothing is more exciting than finding out that SPANISH MAGNATE, RED-HOT REVENGE debuted at #7 on the Waldenbooks/Borders Bestseller list for series romance and at #76 on the Nielsen Bookscan list of the top 100 romances for the last week.

It’s a great feeling for this first time author, and I thank you for helping me get there by buying my book and telling your friends to buy my book.

What are you celebrating this week (or month, etc)?