We have a play date with Carly Phillips!!

I have a special guest today! Carly Phillips has been rockin' the bestseller lists (Can you say NYT, USToday, Waldenbooks and. . . well, pretty much everything) for several years now. She writes funny, sexy contemporary romance and you all know that works for me! Her latest is Hot Property.

But rather than have me talk about Carly, let's do something more interesting and let her speak for herself. Oh, but first--not only do we have a cool guest, but she comes bearing gifts! Carly's going to autograph a copy of Hot Property for one lucky poster, so check back tomorrow night to see whose name was drawn.

Welcome, Carly!!

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Giving Birth to and Raising Children
(the human kind and the kind made of paper)

Just last week, My husband and I had a very tough time with my oldest teenager. Without going into details, thank goodness she is OK. We are very grateful and hope lessons were learned. This experience led me to think about how children don’t come with instruction manuals and as parents, all we can do is our very best. The same can be said of my other children – my books.

Unlike my real children, who I hopefully can continue to teach and grow and mold into healthy safe and happy adults, there reaches a point in the birth of a book, when we must send them out into the world with no further say in who they are and what they become. We put them out to there and expose them to the world, virtues, vices and all. Just like our kids, only they never change.

HOT PROPERTY is my current book out now. It’s the last book in the Hot Zone Series of books (Hot Stuff, Hot Number, Hot Item and now Hot Property) and it forces me to say goodbye to this set of children and begin the process of raising/creating new ones.

Unlike some authors, I am able to move on to a new book fairly easily because I get a rush of excitement each time I start something new. That is, until the hard part of actually developing the characters begins!

And as a reader, when my favorite author finishes a series or a book, I’m sad – but I’m already excited for the next one – regardless of what they’re writing. (Unless it’s a complete genre switch but that’s for another blog, since I tend to only read romance!)

So I’m wondering … Authors out there – do you move from ending one book or series easily and jump into the next? Or do you angst?

And Readers (the people we, as authors, count on) – as much as you know you will miss the end of a series of books, do you get excited by the start of a new one by your favorite author? Or do you need to read it and see if it will strike you before the excitement kicks in?