October & November 2004

--Lori Avocato's humorous mystery novel, A Dose of Murder, is now available.

--Barbara Gale just sold a Silhouette Special Edition to Harlequin entitled The Emissary, to be released March 2006. "Picking Up the Pieces" will be released March 2005.
--BOOKLIST Magazine named Barbara Metzger's WEDDED BLISS as one of the top 10 romances of the year!

--Trish Hubschman got a letter from Dorchester Media. True Confessions is buying her short story REGAINING SIGHT. It's scheduled to be in their January 5th 2005 issue.

--Dawn Thompson just learned that her historical paranormal, THE RAVENCLIFF BRIDE, has finalled in the "spooky" category of the Smoky Mountain Romance Wrtiers "Sweet, Spicy & Spooky" contest. The winners will be announced on Christmas Day.

September 2004

-- Lori Avocato just found out that her book, A Dose of Murder, is in it's second printing...and the book doesn't even get released until Sept. 28.

--Bertrice Small's October Outing will be held on Saturday, October 23rd. We're doing the Southold Historical Society, and do remember that Southold is the oldest English speaking community in the state of NY, plus the new Rafael Winery. It's built like a 15th century Tuscan monastery. And our last stop will be Krupski's Pumpkin Farm. Lunch on your most faithful author is included. She's still deciding that destination. We'll meet at the Moore house on Main Road in the village at 11 a.m.
--Bertrice Small has delivered her first book to Harlequin's HQN line. Titled LARA it is currently scheduled for June 2005.

--Edith Layton reports that THE RETURN OF TH EARL, comes out from AVON Books on September First! THE TWO DANCING DAUGHTERS in Signet's REGENCY CHRISTMAS MAGIC, comes out October 5.

--Pam Burford taught a four-hour romance-writing class at Writers & Books, Rochester's literary center, on Aug. 21. She's been asked to return during the winter session to teach again (maybe a novel-writing class with the Good Twin). The Evil Twin and Good Twin were given a combined 100th birthday party the same day. As their dad used to say, they are now half a goddamned century old. Now that the class is over, Pam can resume work on her first mainstream book.

--Dawn Thompson reports that The Farris Agency has requested a partial of my Haunted Heart winner, THE RAVENCLIFF BRIDE.

August 2004

--Dawn Thompson's non-traditional Regency, THE PRIVATEER, won honorable mention in the Beau Monde's Royal Ascot contest. The prizes were announced at National. :-)

--Bertrice Small is finishing up LARA, her first book in The World of Hetar series for HQN. And NAL is so tickled with PRIVATE PLEASURES they want another erotic contemporary and more historicals. I keep trying to slow down, but no one wants to let me. Thank heavens!

--Barbara Metzger is happy to report that her last Regency, THE DIAMOND KEY, (Signet, 2003) won the 2004 Madcap Award for Best Historical Romantic Comedy.

--Roberta Gellis is happy to report that her new soft science fiction book, OVERSTARS MAIL: IMPERIAL CHALLENGE will be published in August by Five Star. It will be a hardcover, but she hopes the members of LIRW will ask their local library to buy it. It's a real fun book. Details are available on her website: http://www.robertagellis.com/.

--Shirley Hailstock has been notified by Affaire de Coeur Magazine that her Silhouette Special Edition, A FATHER'S FORTUNE, is the winner in the Affaire de Coeur Reader/Writer poll in the category of Best Contemporary Novel With Hero and/or Heroine of Color."

July 2004

--NAL has sold PHILIPPA, Bertrice Small's October trade book to Bookspan, and PRIVATE PLEASURES, her July erotic novel to J'ai Lui in France.

--Roberta Gellis has finished DESIREE, a new book in the Roselynde Chronicles, and sent it off to Harlequin. Sadly,she expects it will need major revisions because the book ran about 20,000 words too long.

--Dawn Thompson just learned that her Regency-set gothic historical, THE RAVENCLIFF BRIDE, has tied for first place in Gothrom's "Haunted Hearts" contest. It also won the Haunted Hearts Gold Pendant Award for best of contest, and the final round judge, Susan McCarthy of Berkley, has requested to see the full manuscript. At the luncheon, Serena Jones of NAL requested a partial of THE RAVENCLIFF BRIDE, and Paige Wheeler of Creative Media requested partials of all three of her historicals that have won awards this year--THE MARSH HAWK, THE PRIVATEER, AND THE RAVENCLIFF BRIDE.

--Trish Hubschman is scheduled to have cochlear implant surgery at NYU in NYC on September 8th, 2004. She gets activated 4 weeks later.

--Liz Slawinski won second place in the Dixie First Chapter contest with her romantic suspense IN TOO DEEP.