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Excerpt: 

“And how did Blue Sapphire happen to catch Hollywood’s attention?” 

Miranda forced a smile. She’d prepared to answer that question. 

“The producer’s teenage daughter picked up the book and loved it. She left a terrific review, too.” Miranda chuckled nervously. “Anyway, she told her father she thought the book would make a great movie. He picked it up, read it, and agreed with her. Since the fantasy genre’s been ultra-hot the last few years and shows no signs of waning, he thought it was a good bet. He contacted me about a movie deal. I hired a lawyer to help with contract negotiations. And the rest is history.” 

“And the book?”

“It didn’t hit the bestseller list until after the movie came out.”

“What involvement have you had with the script or with casting?”

“None,” Miranda admitted. She smiled and said, “Although Mr. Høgensdal is an awesome match for the hero’s role and Gal Gadot makes an incredible heroine.”

Steenbarger raised an eyebrow. “I think you two are close enough that you could call Sindre by his first name.”

Her dry tone elicited chuckles from the audience and a light squeeze of Sindre’s hand on her thigh.

“I—I—” 

“Do not chase her away before I get a ring on her finger,” Sindre’s deep voice purred. 

Steenbarger’s eyes sparkled and she smiled with inspiration. “I have an absolutely fabulous idea!” She looked at the audience. “We’re in Las Vegas, right?”

“Right!” the audience shouted back.

“Surely, somewhere in the audience we have an ordained minister who has the authority to perform a wedding? Do we have somebody?”

Miranda’s heart pounded in her chest and she felt lightheaded.

I don't actually do a whole lot of crowing about my books in this blog, so I'll take a moment to focus on them.

I am considering entering a contest. My attempts last year met with disappointment, from contests that took my entry fees and didn't even reply with an acknowledgement thanking me for entering (much less return even the briefest of comments regarding my manuscript) to contests that returned less than favorable reviews. Last year I submitted The Falcon of Imenotash and Ulfbehrt's Legacy. 

Strangely enough, I consider Falcon to be one of my best works, yet it doesn't sell and hasn't received any reviews. On the other hand, Ulfbehrt's Legacy--which I think is good, but not as powerful as Falcon--achieved nominal sales, but at least has two reviews: both positive. Them's the breaks, I guess.

Therefore, before forking over money for another contest this year, I asked some folks whose opinion I can count upon to be candid as to whether either of two of my titles--Daughter of the Dark Moon and/or Bear of the Midnight Sun--has any chance of competing. I'm not looking for flattery: I want honesty. I don't expect someone who doesn't like the genres in which I write to like either of those books. After all, why compete if the foregone result is failure? If I'm going to enter, then I want to have an actual and real chance of winning. Or at least placing.

If you haven't read either Dark Moon or Bear, then do so and give me your opinion: good enough to compete or not? (And don't forget to leave a review.)

The great thing about this particular contest is that my entries would be judged against others in the same genre and/or sub-genre. My fantasy romance won't go up against literary fiction or mysteries. Since I read--pretty extensively in the genres in which I write--I think my books are just as good (if not better). Of course, I think that. If I didn't, I wouldn't publish them.

That's the nail-biting crux of the matter: what do others think of my work? Opinions range from "this is trash" to "this is magnificent."

And ... here's the plug! Bear of the Midnight Sun goes live tomorrow October 31, those of you who pre-ordered the book will receive it and those who haven't pre-ordered can get it right away. As I usually do to encourage enthusiasm and help my readers save a little money, I'm offering the e-book at a discounted launch price of only 99 cents ($0.99). That price remains in effect through November.

As for the next book ... well, I don't know. I'm still languishing amid a dry spell with nothing calling out to me. It's early days yet. After all, I once went a solid decade without writing so much as a short story. These periods come and go. I am considering rewriting a fairy tale, à la "Skeins of Gold: Rumpelstiltskin Retold," and posting it as a freebie in thanks to my readers--a little end-of-year gift as it were. If I do that, you know I'll choose one of the lesser known fairy tales.

In the meantime, I encourage you to read--even if it's not my stuff. Build your vocabulary, stretch your imagination. Read.

This week's blog challenge prompts participants to write about their favorite apps.

I associate apps with smartphones, something I neither have nor want. But apps, being the vernacular term for "applications," applies to desktop, laptop, and other handheld computers, too. So, I'll play.

• Adobe Creative Suite: I remember PageMaker. It was fabulous and a marked improvement upon the desktop publishing program I had been using. Now I use InDesign and flirt with Illustrator and PhotoShop. Acrobat is a treasure!
• Google Docs: Absolutely wonderful for sharing documents, it really comes in handy when I draft content for a client's review. No cumbersome swapping of files and getting lost in who's got which version.
• YouTube. Is this an app? Regardless, it's my own personal radio allowing me to listen to the music that suits my mood when I work.
• Calibre. This nifty program helps me know what my books will look like in epub and mobi formats.

For what it's worth, I dislike Microsoft Word, although I use it all the time. I really detest the way it assumes it knows what I want. I really liked WordPerfect, but that's just not a viable program anymore.

I'd included Amazon's Kindle, because that's how I read most books these days, but I've got the device and don't need to download the Kindle Reading App.

I have a love-hate relationship with Gmail. For some weird reason, it makes me login at least twice, if not three times, to access any of my email accounts. That's a nuisance and just darned irritating.

I do use social media, although I don't particularly like it.

Being more or less a technophobe, I have no  great affection for computers, regardless of how much time I spend using them. They're tools.