WARNING SIGNS cover art is here!!!

And it's gorgeous!

Thank you, everyone in the art department at Berkley/Jove, you guys rock!

Mark your calenders, WARNING SIGNS will be out January 27, 2009. Or you can pre-order here.

Talk about Sex!

Thought that would get your attention, lol! Jordan Dane, Toni McGee Causey, Roxanne St. Clair, St. Martin's Publisher Matthew Shear and I did a panel at RWA National Conference called Sex and the Single Title.

It was in one of the larger rooms (I'm told there was seating for 75) but we had folks sitting on the floor, standing in the back, it was jam packed and one of the most talked about (and praised!) sessions of the conference....and now it's highlighted in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Writing sex scenes

Meanwhile, behind the doors of a nearby conference workshop, a panel of best-selling authors gave tips on how to write sex scenes - explicit and otherwise. Among their observations:

-- "A sex scene is an action scene," said Toni McGee Causey. Her latest "white-trash romance" is "Bobbie Faye's Very (Very, Very, Very) Bad Day."

-- "Younger romance readers have a higher tolerance for sex," according to editor Matthew Scheer of St. Martin's Press.

-- "It doesn't need to be a how-to guide," said Roxanne St. Claire, author of the Bullet Catchers trilogy. "A sex scene must be emotionally true to character - and it has to make the conflict worse."

Audience questions ran to the technical. This one busted up the room: "Do you practice your love scenes before you write them?" an aspiring author asked.

"Well, I don't recommend the spin cycle," Causey quipped.

Fellow panelist CJ Lyons, who writes medical-suspense, had a quick rejoinder. "I told you!" she said. "It's the dryer, on low."

Yes, probably the first and last time I'll ever get the last word in a conversation with Toni!!!

Read the entire article here and enjoy!
CJ

New CJ Lyons video!

My cup...er, to-be-read-pile, overfloweth

So, before I left for TFest, I took a week off and gave myself the ultimate treat: a reading binge!! (If I sound like a book junkie, well, yes, Hi, I'm CJ and I love books...)

Here are the ones I indulged in that week:









BUT....here are the ones I came home with and that now sit tempting me everyday:

Oh my, just a taste, please--but once I start a book, I know the perils, it's so hard to stop!

Anyone else with this problem?

Hmmm....maybe I could give up cleaning the house to find more time to fit in reading? Whoops, I already do that to find more time to write!

TFest Fan-Girl moment: Me and Harlan Coben!

Thanks to Barbara Vey from Publishers Weekly for posting this "drive-by" video of me and Harlan Coben.



I can't believe I was coherent, I've been a huge fan of Harlan's for years and years! And Harlan was so sweet to mention my books! Just goes to show you the caliber of writers ThrillerFest attracts.

ThrillerFest Festivities!

I'm too exhausted to recap the entire week all in one post, so will start with some of the highlights:

Lee Child accepting his gift from the ITW Debut Authors--yes, it's a artist's rendering of Lee being chased by a hoard of 40 zombie-mutant-crazed debut authors for cover quotes!





What were they thinking? The very nice (and very cute!) ATF guys let me hold a M-5 submachine gun, woohoo!


Me and ITW president, Steve Berry, looking James Bond cool at the Awards Banquet.


Fun, friends, books, guns, readers--who could ask for anything more?

Anyone get Sirius?

I'll be appearing live on Doctor Radio (Sirius Channel 114) with Dr. Billy Goldberg, author of Why Do Men Have Nipples on Thursday, July 10th from 8am-9am.

Should be a fun time, so if you Sirius, tune in!