We have winners! Carol L. you’ve won a copy of Highland Surrender and Katie, you have won A Touch of Scandal. Congrats! Please send your snail mail to us at riskies AT yahoo.com

I’m in the midst of packing for a few days away (yay!), so this will be a bit of a jumbled/housekeep-y sort of post…

First of all, on Saturday at 2:00 I’ll be doing a booksigning at the Uptown Borders in Albuquerque (2240 Q Street NE) along with authors Celeste Bradley (who was our guest here at Riskies just a few weeks ago!) and Sarah Storme. If you’re in the area come by and say hi! I’ll be wearing my Laurel and Amanda hats, signing copies of Countess of Scandal and To Catch a Rogue (which has a nice new review here! And I also spotted copies in my local Wal Mart last week…). Also on the 10th I’ll be guest blogging at the Pink Heart Society.

If you’re in the UK, I have a release there this month as well! A Sinful Alliance, set at the Court of Henry VIII, is out in the Super Historicals line, and can be ordered here. (I actually like the cover better in this close-up view!)

And I have two new re-issue covers from Signet! Rogue Grooms will be out in June, and Improper Ladies doesn’t yet have a firm release date, but I do love the heroine’s hair!

What else I’ve been thinking about this week: dresses! I went shopping last weekend to find some clothes for the RWA conference this summer. I found a couple of cute little cocktail-type dresses (on sale!) for publisher’s parties and things like that, but couldn’t find just the right thing for the awards ceremony (except for one dress that cost about 3 times more than I wanted to spend). I was whining to my mother about it, and she said “Why don’t you wear one of the fifty or so dresses you have hanging in your closet?” Because that would be no fun, of course! (She also refused to make me a new gown on the grounds that she is still working on my costume for the Beau Monde Soiree. Modistes these days! LOL). But I did start sorting through my closets and found a dress that would work perfectly and which hasn’t seen the light of day in a billion years because it happens to be my gown from the senior prom. (Quick note: this is a very classic ballgown-style dress, with an off-the-shoulder black velvet bodice and big black satin skirt, not an early-90s shiny monstrosity with giant sleeves!). The problem–it will only zip up to just below my shoulder blades. So it is now in my mother’s sewing room getting surgery performed on its seams. Stay tuned…

What else I’m thinking about–books that come out in a series. As you know, my “Muses” books are coming out in April, May, and June, and while I’m very happy about this it’s posed a bit of a “doing promo” confusion. I asked Nicola Cornick (whose new trilogy is coming out in consecutive months at the end of this year. I’m so excited about this!) and Michelle Willingham (whose “Accidental” books just came out in two consecutive months) how to let people know about these books without boring them to death. I am still pondering this, but I have to say as a reader I do love this practice of a series coming out close together. I tend to avoid the Massive Series (where there are approximately 253 relatives who all need their own stories) because I am very easily confused and then spend the whole book trying desperately to remember what happened in the previous books. But I love series of 3 or 4 books, because it feels like there’s more time for a whole world to be built and explored. When the books come out months apart, I tend to collect them all before I start reading (to avoid that confusion) so it’s nice to get them quickly.

I was also thinking about this as I watched Vampire Diaries last week. (Yes, I know, another CW show I have grown obsessed with! I have a problem…). This show recently went on a hiatus of more than a month after a slam-bang episode where many plot threads came together. The vampire tomb was opened at last–and Catherine wasn’t in it!!! Stefan almost got trapped in the tomb, and Elena’s brother almost got killed! Bonnie’s grandmother died from opening the tomb! Elena felt sorry for Damon, who actually looked a bit sympathetic for once, having lost his one true love! But then there were no shows for weeks, and when I watched the new episode last week I had completely lost the thread of the plot and had no clue what was going on or who half the characters were who were running around doing–well, not much of anything. I think jumping right back into the series without even showing us a re-run of the tomb-opening episode was a mistake.

Also, the two new episodes have kind of been–dull (despite numerous near-stakings). The spectacle of a drunken, lovelorn Damon in a bachelor auction was hilarious, as was the thought of going on a double-date with your high school friends and a 150 year old vampire boyfriend, but other than that it feels like things have stalled a bit. One of the things I’ve liked about Vampire Diaries is that each episode has something important or unexpected happen and the story leaps forward accordingly. I also like how the characters are actually rather complex (for a CW show anyway) and don’t always act in the ways we expect. So I hope things pick up next week. But I have learned an important lesson from this show–keep the series moving, don’t confuse readers with big info dumps and unfamiliar characters popping up all over (especially when the characters who are already there are interesting enough!), do the unexpected whenever possible, and it’s great when the bad-boy hero is undone by an even badder girl.

So watching TV is not wasted time after all! It’s Very Important Research.

What are you thinking about this week? Are you going to RWA and if so do you have your clothes all planned? What did you wear to your prom? And what’s your favorite TV show right now–have you learned anything important from watching it? (So many questions today!)

Last year, Jennifer Haymore visited the Riskies to talk about her debut book, A Hint of Wicked! Now she’s back to introduce the sequel, A Touch of Scandal (an RT Top Pick review for April!). Comment for a chance to win a copy of A Touch of Scandal or a copy of her Dawn halliday release Highland Surrender–she’s giving away one of each! (Just let us know which you’d like in the comments…)

Riskies: Welcome back, Jennifer! Since I read A Hint of Wicked I’ve been dying to know what would happen to poor Garrett! Finally we have his story in A Touch of Scandal (and a heroine in disguise, too). Tell us about this book! What was the inspiration for the plot?

Jennifer: I’m so excited that Garrett is finally able to meet and fall in love with the woman who will be at his side forever! I think he really meets his match in Kate, and Kate is one of my favorite heroines. She’s so exuberant, honest, and full of life just thinking about her makes me smile.

Here’s the blurb for A Touch of Scandal:
The last thing Garrett, Duke of Calton, expects to find while tracking his sworn enemy is the delectable, mysterious Kate. This beautiful servant girl rouses a longing the battle-scarred ex-soldier had never hoped to feel again. But when she turns out to be the sister of the man he seeks, he’s convinced he’s been betrayed.

Kate knows her duty to her family, yet how can she ignore Garrett’s powerful pull on her heart? Or the heady temptation of his stolen and sizzling kisses? Scandal has followed the duke since the war. Now the greatest shock of all is on its way–the one that can seperate Garrett and Kate forever…

Riskies: And this is not your only new book on the shelves! Your other self–Dawn Halliday–laso has a new release, Highland Surrender. Tell us a little about this story.

Jennifer: After writing 2 books centering on love triangles, Highland Surrender is my attempt at a “love square.” There are 2 couples matched up at the beginning of the book, but they end up with different partners in the end!

Here’s the blurb for Highland Surrender:
Determined to put his roguish past behind him, the Earl of Camdonn arranges to marry the proper Lady Elizabeth. But when an accident lands the earl in the expert hands of a beautiful Highland medicine woman, all well-laid plans are thrown to the wind–and just as in the old days his passions run high…

Ceana MacNab has terrible luck with men. Resigning herself to the healing arts, she has steeled her heart against love. Then fate sends Cam her way. Even though he’s a well-bred Earl, and Ceana a low-born Highlander, their all-consuming passion may lead the way to lasting bliss.

Riskies: How do the two names differ?

Jennifer: I was Dawn before I was Jennifer! I think they’re both a lot alike, even though Dawn is (usually!) much spicier than Jennifer. But ultimately the reasons behind the two names had to do with contractual considerations…

Riskies: Did you encounter any interesting research tidbits for these books?

Jennifer: Too many to name! One that comes to mind is researching the industry of Glasgow in the early 18th century (well, okay that might not be interesting to some people, but it was to me, LOL!). One of the big ones was whale hunting…and I’ve read some pretty gruesome descriptions of how men hunted whales back then. Fascinating stuff!

Riskies: What’s “risky” about these stories?

Jennifer: A Touch of Scandal is risky because so much happens to the characters I worry the readers’ heads will whirl…

Highland Surrender deals with some edgy situations and relations between the characters that could definitely be called risky!

Riskies: And what’s next for “both” of you?

Jennifer: I’m finishing up edits on Jennifer’s next book, A Season of Seduction which is the final book in this trilogy. I’m so excited about this story! Dawn isn’t sure what’s next–she’s dreaming up her next project as we speak and hopefully it will be something containing more hot Highlanders!

You can visit Jennifer at her website here and Dawn at her site here!

I am way, way behind on my winner-picking duties this week! The winner of To Catch a Rogue is–Cynthia! Please send your snail mail address to us at Riskies AT yahoo.com

And be sure and join us tomorrow when our guest will be Jennifer Haymore! Comment for a chance to win a copy of A Touch of Scandal…

Just a reminder….I’m blogging on my own new blog today and giving away a signed copy of Michelle Willingham’s The Accidental Princess to one random but lucky commenter.

Just click below! But don’t forget to come back to Risky Regencies!!! Megan will be blogging today!

Diane