A Year in the Life of an Author: June

June is a blur. Deadline month. So much so, that I didn't realize it was the 29th and my blogging day until this morning and I happened to glance down at my calendar.

Crikey! Where did the month go?

At SeaTac during a four hour delay. (Reading!)

I'll tell you: into my first real book tour for Along Came A Duke, (Tulsa, Chicago and Dallas) and then getting home and planting myself in front of my computer to get caught up. It was sort of the pinnacle of a writer's life and the hell that is deadline.

Deadline means all you do is work. Truly. Ask my family. I came out of my office the other day and had to reintroduce myself amidst cries of "stranger danger." Well, it's not that bad, but it is close. Let's just say having a book coming out and a book due in the same month is like having the earthquake and then the tsunami. My life hasn't' fallen down, but it feels like it is being washed out to sea. You are tugged in every direction and none of it is given your full attention. 

Good Morning Tulsa!

The highlight of the month truly was the book tour, which was so much fun--and made more so by the inclusion of Rachel Gibson, Julia Quinn and Pamela Palmer.  Lots of laughter and jokes, dinners out and odd cab rides.

Rachel and I were on Good Morning Tulsa, which was my first TV appearance as an author. I suppose the JP Patches show when I was six does not count.

The events were all packed--full of lots of fun people, some coming to our events in Chicago twice!

And please, if you come to a group author event, don't ask the sex question. If it is the end of the tour two things may happen:

The first time I saw one of my books in the airport

1) The authors will have placed a wager on what time the question will come up and you'll make one author happy and the rest annoyed with you.

or

2) You'll just annoy the authors to no end. And you'll get our now stock answer: The Nature Channel.

There are so many great questions to ask. That is not one of them.

Now back to finishing my book. I am in the part where I am so buried in revising and plugging up scenes, I go to bed every night with a headache from juggling so many layers.

Next month, I'll talk about the post-book assessment I always do to decide what worked and what didn't on the book. And all the parts that come after you turn in a book: edits, copy edits and page proofs. See you in July!