Lynn Raye Harris

It’s been a while since I’ve posted! But I’ve been so darned busy you wouldn’t believe. I finished a book, revised it, and had it accepted. You can read about Adan Al Dhakir’s brother Malik sometime next spring (Adan is from Strangers in the Desert, my May UK release). In the meantime, I’m working on another book that’s due in about 2 weeks. And in between all that, I sandwiched in the RWA conference in New York City.

It was my first ever visit to the Big Apple — and I’m in love! What a city! I could live there if only I wrote a mega-blockbuster and could afford to have an apartment overlooking Central Park or a townhouse in Greenwich Village. Alas, I think I’m going to have to remain satisfied with the occasional visit.

The Romance Writers of America conference was fabulous, as always. Not that I actually make it to any workshops these days. Before I was published, I loved workshops and hit as many as I could. Now, I seem to be booked up with editor meetings, agent meetings, meeting meetings, author get togethers, etc. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but the result is that unless I’m teaching the workshop, I don’t go to any. But I do buy the conference recordings so I get to enjoy the workshops later!

This year, I went a day early so that fabulous Presents author Jennie Lucas and I could go on a Greenwich Village food tour on Monday. We ate our way across Greenwich Village, I assure you. It was wonderful! And I even managed to buy two pairs of shoes. That night, I went to dinner with several of the Presents authors as well as Harlequin Historical author Michelle Willingham and Desire author Day LeClaire. Another fabulous evening!

The next day, I went on a whirlwind tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and had brunch at author Kate Hewitt’s lovely apartment. Later, I met with my editor. That night was the Literacy Signing, where I saw so many readers and friends — and got to meet Jackie Hussein who took the train up from DC for the event, and Pearl from Pearl’s World of Romance, who came all the way from Holland and also brought a Dutch copy of one of my books! After the signing, Sandra Marton held her famous pizza party for Presents authors. We ate pizza, drank wine, and talked and laughed. So much fun!

Wednesday was a meet and greet with the editors, lunch, and then tea at the Plaza hosted by the always elegant Jane Porter. Spent a lovely afternoon with Sandra Marton, Janette Kenny, Susan Stephens, and Carole Mortimer chatting in the concierge lounge, and then it was the PASIC party at the Algonquin hotel. Finished up the evening in the rotating bar above the Marriott.

The next day, Thursday, started with a meeting with my agent, the Presents author lunch (in which several of us commandeered a limousine to take us to the bistro) and then an agency party in a very posh suite on the 44th floor of the Marriott! Later that night was the Harlequin Black & White ball at the Waldorf Astoria’s very famous Starlight Ballroom. I felt like quite the star to be treated so wonderfully! And I brought home some of the white feathers that decorated the vases in the room. Of course I danced my fool head off, and shouted lyrics until I was practically hoarse — but there’s nothing like it and I’m always glad, even with aching thighs and burning calves the next day.

Friday was slightly more subdued. A Harlequin authors’ forum, lunch with Kimberly Lang and Faygie Levy (of RT magazine), then cocktails in the bar with several friends. My husband arrived that afternoon and managed to entertain himself for the entire evening since I dashed up to our room and changed for the RITA/GH ceremony and told him I wouldn’t be back for a while. It ended up being after 1:00 in the morning when I got to our room, and he was passed out asleep.

Hard to believe the conference went by so fast, but it did. Everyone was leaving the hotel on Saturday when my husband and I were gearing up to go touring New York City. We had a blast for 3 whole days before returning home yesterday. The fireworks on the 4th were incredible. We had a full view from our room on the 42nd floor. Six simultaneous displays going off over the Hudson River. Fabulous!

And that was my week in New York!

Times Square

Carole Mortimer, me, Sharon Kendrick

New York skyline from top of the Met

Sandra Marton, me, Caitlin Crews

Times Square

The Hubby and me on the Staten Island Ferry

NYC skyline from our room

Staten Island Ferry and the Statue of Liberty

Lady Liberty

Just a few minutes before the fireworks begin!

Fireworks over the Hudson!

My husband has been chastising me for not doing part two of my post. He’s right, of course. I get so busy that the days just sort of slip by and I don’t realize it’s been a week. I ended on the evening before the Association of Mills & Boon Authors’ luncheon. Now I’ll tell you about the luncheon day.

Jennie and I slept in as long as we could. We were still suffering the kind of jetlag that makes you wake up in the middle of the night and not sleep for hours while it’s dark. And, interesting note, but the building beside ours was an office building. When I woke up at 2AM, people were still working! Seriously. The building was mostly dark, but there were a few intrepid souls at their desks at that late hour. I have no idea what kind of business it was.

Anyway, Jennie and I got up and got ourselves dressed, then headed out on the Tube to the Charing Cross Hotel, where the luncheon was being held. I wore a nice dress and heels, but I admit to wearing flip flops until we reached the hotel. Then I pulled the shoes from my bag and transformed from short-ish to tall (4 inch heels will do that!). We climbed up the elegant staircase to the second floor where we could hear the sounds of women talking. There were so many authors gathered! And I met so many people I can’t even remember them all. I met Natasha Oakley, Nina Harrington, Julia James, Kate Hardy, and Elizabeth Power, for instance. That was within the first few minutes — it becomes a blur after that. (Kate Hardy is my new best friend – she told me she loved The Devil’s Heart, which made me want to follow her around pitifully and ask her to repeat it, but I refrained. TDH will be out in North America in April 2011, btw!)

At noon, we sat down in our assigned places and had a lovely lunch. After lunch, we moved seats for dessert (or pudding, as they say over there). There were speeches. There was wine. There were pictures.

Here’s a pic I snapped of two gorgeous ladies, Sharon Kendrick and India Grey. I’d met Sharon (in purple) in DC, but only met India the night before at the Presents dinner. Both women are so lovely and charming, aren’t they? (Though Sharon did steal my coat. She set me in a panic when my coat was missing after lunch, but I figured someone had thought it was theirs; I just hoped they would bring it back. She did, of course, and we had a good laugh.)

Then I met Lucy King, the Feel the Heat winner (the competition immediately after Instant Seduction, which I won). Lucy looked gorgeous, and she has the most seductive speaking voice imaginable. Kind of like Kathleen Turner back in the day.

Meeting Lucy was fabulous, but I’m really thrilled with this next picture. Me and Sara Craven, who I’d met at dinner the night before. She is a wonderful, hilarious, amazing woman. I hope I’m half so interesting when I get to be her age.

And here’s a reunion photo of me, Jennie, and Carole Mortimer, who I’d met for the first time in Orlando.

The luncheon lasted for hours, it seemed, and then we were off for a couple more hours before returning to the hotel for a champagne toast that Mills & Boon was giving us. Jennie and I walked over to Trafalgar Square, went book shopping, and meandered over to the hotel where Kate Walker and Michelle Reid were having several ladies to tea. We joined them for a while, and then it was back to the Charing Cross hotel for champagne.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur. I talked to so many people — and people I’d hoped to meet slipped away before I ever got to do so. I have to go back next year to meet the ones I missed! After champagne, several of us went out for pasta. Jennie, me, India, Heidi Rice, Abby Green, Fiona Harper — and I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, drat it. But we had so much fun. And I learned that the Trafalgar Square area of London is rocking no matter what time of night. Pubs are so busy that people are crammed on the sidewalks with their pints of lager or Guinness or whatever. No one seems to mind it either. That would never happen in America — liquor laws and all that.

But that’s why I love to travel and see how other cultures do things. It’s refreshing and eye-opening, and it makes the world so much more interesting than if we all did everything the same. Where have you gone lately that they did something differently? Doesn’t have to be another country — could just be the next town. I’d love to hear about it!

More on the London trip, with more photos, soon. Yes, I swear it: soon.

And the winner of a signed backlist book from the last post is Jami! Jami, send me your details at lynn AT lynnrayeharris DOT com.

Finally, I am getting around to telling what happened during my trip to London for the Association of Mills & Boon Authors’ luncheon! Fellow Presents author Jennie Lucas and I hatched a plan that worked perfectly. First, we planned our flights so we’d arrive and depart Heathrow within an hour of each other. Then we rented a flat with a gorgeous view of the Thames, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, and the Tate Modern. From our roof terrace, we could see the dome of St. Paul’s — though we spent so much time doing so many wonderful and fascinating things that we never actually spent any time on the terrace. Ah well!

Here’s the Globe at night from our flat, btw. There’s also a tour boat in the foreground.

The first night there, we had dinner at a restaurant where we sat at a window table and gazed out at this. Can you believe the view?!

Jennie and I were so tired, but we were determined to stay up as long as possible and go to bed at a decent UK hour. We sat here, eating, drinking wine, and talking about how tired we were and how glad we were to have finally arrived after such a long trip. Sitting with a view of St. Paul’s was completely surreal, and just what we both needed to feel like we were on an adventure.

The next day (Wednesday) was our trip out to Richmond. I’ve posted elsewhere about our time at the Mills & Boon offices, so will skip on to other events!

Thursday morning, Jennie and I met up with Kate Walker and Abby Green and took a train to meet the fabulous Sharon Kendrick. Here’s me and Jennie with the Winchester cathedral in the background.

And look at this marvelous lunch that Sharon cooked for us! It was absolutely delicious, and I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to sit around a table with these women I admire so much and talk writing and books and life. It’s like being admitted to an exclusive club that you’ve always wanted to be in. For those of you who adore Sharon’s books, I got to see her writing room where she makes all that magic happen.

After a great lunch and conversation, we caught the train back to London and headed back to our respective hotels/flats to prepare for the dinner that Kate and Michelle Reid were hosting for the Presents authors that night. I have no pictures of the evening, though I hope to get some from the others who promised to share!

We had a marvelous time, and I got to meet so many people for the first time. India Grey, Sara Craven, Michelle, Natalie Rivers, and Sarah Morgan to name a few. After dinner, the hotel gave us a private room where we were able to sit and chat until about midnight, at which time Jennie and I decided we were tired and needed to get back to our flat if we were going to be presentable for the luncheon the next day.

And that’s it for Part 1 of my London trip! Soon, I’ll be back with more photos and more adventures to share. Now tell me about an adventure you’ve been on lately! One lucky commenter will win a book!

And I had such a marvelous time! As soon as I download pics, I’ll put some up, but for now you can read a bit about the AMBA luncheon and see a pic of me at other sites.

First, Kate Walker, who is much more organized than I. She had her post up so quickly! Read about some of what we did here.

And then Kate Hardy, who I just met for the first time, posted a pic of us together! She also took pictures of the luncheon food, which I totally forgot to do. I took pictures of other food I ate while in London, but forgot this particular meal. You can read about Kate’s AMBA adventure here.

There will be an RT2010 post with pictures very soon, I swear. But today I’ve been recovering from the travel ordeal of yesterday (not to mention the non-stop pace of being at a conference, attending workshops, meeting people, having impromptu interviews, etc). Kimberly Lang and I drove up to Nashville, left a car, and boarded a flight on Tuesday of last week. You can pretty much figure out what happened on Sunday.

With the Cumberland River overflowing, the interstates shut down, and Nashville dealing with a torrent of water, flying into the city quickly became impossible. Kim and I had an evening flight, so we were spending our time in the Hyatt and the convention center in Columbus, surfing the web, watching the news, and waiting until it was time to go to the airport.

When we got the text message that our flight was canceled, we grabbed our bags and headed for the airport. The very helpful man at the Southwest counter, a gentleman named Russ, went into action when we told him all we wanted was to get close to Huntsville. Within moments, Russ had us booked into the last two seats to Birmingham, via Baltimore. He helped us rush our bags straight to TSA, told us there was a good chance they wouldn’t make it to Birmingham when we did, and then called the gate to tell them we were coming.

We made it to the flight, which was late boarding, made it to Baltimore, and then had another delay. Finally, the Birmingham flight boarded (both flights were jam packed) and we were on our way. We made it to B’ham in a driving rainstorm where Kim’s husband picked us up, then had to drive about an hour and a half home (did I mention the driving rainstorm?). I still have a car in Nashville; I’ve been told the long-term parking at the airport didn’t flood, so hopefully it will be fine when I can finally get it.

Kevin Smith may not like Southwest, but I’m very happy with them for doing their damndest to get us home. They succeeded–and the bags made it to B’ham when we did. I can’t complain at all. Southwest really does love bags. (You will notice there were no trains in the story, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if there had been. It was that bad trying to get home.)

I made it home by about 11, then fell into bed and slept like a rock. There’s nothing like being back in your own bed, is there?

This has been one jam-packed weekend! There was much packing to do, much shopping to get done, and an unscheduled trip to the doctor. The hubby made me go see a doctor about this cold. Turns out I have a sinus infection, and I now have industrial strength drugs to see me through the week. Thank goodness the hubby cares, right? Otherwise I’d have probably developed walking pneumonia or something during the next week, because I kept thinking it was just a cold that was going away soon.

This is my first RT Convention. I’m looking forward to meeting with readers and other authors, dressing in costumes, and getting to sign my books at the Giant Book Fair on Saturday. I hope I packed enough clothes. Hubby would say I over-packed, but you always need extra outfits, right? And shoes. I typically travel with at least 5 pairs. Not sure how many I packed, but it’s hovering around 5. Might be a little more when I finish tomorrow. I love my shoes.

But it’s not all play. I have a book due June 1st, and I will be taking my computer along so I can work on it. If you’re going to be at RT, look me up! I’d love to meet you.

Spanish Magnate, Red-Hot Revenge is coming out in Italy! In May, you can find Scottante Ripicca, which seems to translate to Hot Revenge, at the Mills & Boon Italian site.

I am *ridiculously* excited about it! First, the book came out in Germany, where I used to live, and now it’ll be out in Italy, a country in which I’ve spent many a lovely day. I wish I could go to Italy to celebrate. I could stand to hit the shops in Florence. All that lush beautiful leather! I’d love another gondola ride in Venice, and maybe dinner on the terrazzo of the Hotel Daniele. A stroll in the Piazza San Marco after would be nice too.

But, alas, I am here in the U.S., working on another book and enjoying the spring weather we are finally getting. If you could take a quick vacation, where would you go?

For the writers amongst you, I’ve put the links to my series on how to write a Harlequin Presents in the sidebar. Scroll down to the “For Writers” category, and all the posts are listed there to make it easier to find in future. Hope you enjoy.

I’m still buried in this Russian book, but things are looking better. I was browsing the web for images for my inspiration file, and I came across these that I want to share with you. (Yes, these were taken by talented photographers who are not me.)

I believe this is from the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, but I’m not quite sure. (It might also be from the Smolny Convent.) Years ago, and I won’t say how many, ahem, I had the privilege of traveling to Russia. We flew to St. Petersburg first (still called Leningrad, if that gives you an idea), and spent 3 days there before boarding an overnight train to Moscow, where we spent another 3 days. It was an amazing trip. The palaces are beautiful, and the landscape was prettier than I expected it to be. Fortunately, we were there in May, and it was quite warm. It also never got fully dark at that time of year.

This next picture is of Peterhof, Peter the Great’s palace on the Gulf of Finland. We got to tour it, and I have a photo of me standing on one of the bridges over the canal with this palace in the background. It’s an amazingly beautiful place, full of gilt and art and antiques. My hero also has a palace, but it’s not this grand. And of course he had to buy it back from the State after the fall of communism. But looking at these photos gives me an idea of what his palace is like, though on a smaller scale.

This is the Winter Palace, also known as The Hermitage Museum. It’s a gorgeous palace on the banks of the Neva river. We spent hours wandering through the galleries. I see this photo as representing my hero’s home. The Winter Palace is actually quite grand and vast, but this small slice of it makes it look like it could be a grand house on an estate somewhere. I especially love the snow capped trees.

More info on the Winter Palace here.

I love finding photos for inspiration. It’s one of the most fun parts of beginning a new book. Thank heavens for Google! You can have photos at your fingertips and start writing about a place you’ve never been in a matter of hours. Yes, I’ve been to Russia, but I’ve never been to Argentina (The Devil’s Heart, July 2010 UK) or the Arabian desert (Kept for the Sheikh’s Pleasure, Sep 2010 UK). As much as I’d like to go to these places for real, I’m grateful for the tools that bring them to my fingertips. Even with Russia, it’s been a long time and I needed a refresher.

My hubby recently got to go on a business trip to Rome. Talk about jealous! I would have gone with him, but for two things: first, it was last minute and flights were more expensive; and, two, I carelessly let my passport lapse quite some time ago.

I’ve had a passport since I was seventeen, and it’s always been current, but once we moved back to the States permanently, I didn’t feel any sort of urgency to renew it when it finally expired. Duh. I mean I filled out the application, had it with the passport, and kept planning to go get photos so I could mail it. But I never would get around to the photo portion. Finally, last week while Hubby was enjoying himself in Rome, I went and got those photos and marched down to the Post Office. The next time he has to go to Europe on business, at least I’ll have a passport! I may not be able to control the flight prices, but I’ve got half the equation covered now.

So, he was supposed to get back on Friday, but once he landed in Atlanta, he was stuck because of the snow. All flights to our neck of the woods were canceled, though we didn’t have a bit of snow here. He had to stay overnight and drive back on Saturday. But, he brought me lovely presents!

Though I didn’t get to go, I did get to do some vicarious travel though his photos. I’ve been to Rome before, but it’s been a long time, so these pictures really brought it all back for me.

Ahh, the Coliseum. When I was there, it was over run with cats. Hubby says there aren’t so many cats now. I don’t want to know what happened to them.

Don’t know precisely what it is, but it’s pretty!

Recognize this from “Angels and Demons”?

Remnants of an aqueduct.

Would a trip to Rome be complete without a visit to the Trevi Fountain?

No, this isn’t Chicago. It’s Atlanta. This isn’t supposed to happen in Atlanta. It’s the South! It’s Hotlanta! Where did all this snow come from?

I enjoyed my vicarious trip to Rome, but a real trip would be even better. Then I could think up a to-die-for Roman hero, give him a spunky heroine, and plop them down in Rome. What fun! Speaking of heroes and heroines, I better get back to the current WIP. It’s yucky and cold out, and we even have a little bit of snow on the ground, so it’s a good time to dream. Too bad I picked snowy Russia as a setting. Brrrr!

A friend sent me an email that basically said, “Hey, why aren’t you blogging?” Well, I am blogging, but I’ve had so many guest blogs recently (and another one coming on Saturday at the Pink Heart Society!) that I’ve not put up too many new posts. And yet, I’m also betting there’s a tiny bit of confusion with the contest post being at the top of the page. People see it and think there’s nothing new — but it’s a sticky post, meaning it stays at the top until I change it. And I don’t want to change it because I want people to easily find the contest. (Scroll down, my lovelies, scroll down!)

Perhaps I need to work with my web designer on a static contest page. It’s something I’m considering, but first we’ll see how this contest goes. Thanks for everyone who has entered thus far! I hope you enjoy the excerpt and the potential goodies you could win.

So what else am I up to? Well, I’m working on two books at once. Since I’m waiting to hear back from my editor on the proposal for Book 4, I decided to work on my idea for Book 5. I’ve written the first scene, and it was a blast! But I can’t tell you what any of it is about just in case my editor doesn’t like any of it. I’ll just say that #4 is set in Buenes Aires. I have ordered Argentina guidebooks and I’ve been having a marvelous time reading them! And now I want to go to Argentina. Who wouldn’t want to learn how to tango or eat beef so tender you can cut it with a spoon?

What is your fantasy travel destination at the moment? Where would you like to be if you could go anywhere?