News and signings

I always love getting good news and a couple of weeks ago my editor gave me the news I was waiting for, the news I was hoping for. The manuscript I had submitted has been accepted. Royal Secrets, a spin-off of Royal Target, is expected to come out in February, 2012. Yeah!

I know a lot of people wanted me to write a true sequel to Royal Target, and I did try. But then there were these two other characters, Prince Stefano and Alora DeSanto. They're very interesting characters, both in the way they developed as well as the way they hijacked the story. I had planned on them being minor characters, maybe part of a fun subplot. They had other ideas. So needless to say, this story isn't quite what I had planned, which only proves that I shouldn't try to plan what I'm writing. It never turns out the way I expect anyway.

My other news is that I'm heading to Utah in a couple of days and will be doing three book signings while I'm there. For anyone who is local to them, I'd love to see you. Here are the details:

Friday, September 30: 1pm - 3pm at Seagull Books, 1720 S. Redwood Road, Salt Lake City, Utah
Saturday, October 1: 12pm - 2pm at Seagull Books, 1625 W. 9000 S., West Jordan, Utah
Saturday, October 1: 6pm - 8pm at Deseret Book (Ladies Night), 989 S. University Ave., Provo, Utah

Books and things

Obsession is out and has been spotted in Utah. I still haven't seen the book in person, but I have pictures, or at least the cover art. I have received a few emails from people who have read it and so far all of them have been positive. (I love those kinds of emails!)

I am also excitedly setting up my visit to Utah for Conference weekend. I will be at the Seagull Books on Redwood Road in Salt Lake City (1720 S. Redwood Road) on September 30th from 1pm to 3pm. There are a couple of others that I'm still in the process of setting up.

If all goes well, the Christmas book I contributed to will also be available. It's a collection of true Christmas stories from fourteen authors who all publish with Covenant Communications. Most of the authors are probably familiar names to most, although I know at least one is probably new to most people. I believe Krista Jensen's first novel with Covenant is slated to come out sometime next spring and she has several more that have been accepted so her name will become familiar sooner than later. Having met Krista a couple of times, I'm excited to see what she brings us. She is a lot of fun and since we share the same editor, I know how excited everyone at Covenant is about her upcoming projects.

Now, one last thing before I go back to work on the novel I'm supposed to be writing right now. My friends with the Whitney Awards asked that I (and my other author friends) remind everyone to nominate their favorite 2011 novels. The rules to be eligible for a Whitney are listed on the Whitney Awards website, but the basics are that the book has to have been published in 2011, be over 50,000 words, and have been written by an LDS author.  The button to the left will take you straight to the nomination page. The deadline is December 31, 2011, but the earlier the nominations get in, the easier it is for the judges. Hopefully you've read lots of books worth nominating!

I'm on You Tube

For the past few decades I have happily stayed behind the scenes as my mother, Dianne Hunter, spent more than 25 years in front of the camera with her television show, The Home Hunter. My sister joined her on the show about 10 years ago and except for a couple of cameo appearances on Mothers' Day, I have avoided having a camera pointed in my direction. Until now. My publisher just happened to schedule author interviews during one of my trips to Utah. Here is the result:

And yes, you can tell me what you really think.