has been very bad for the health of my credit card. There’s simply too much good shopping to be had here–although I will say it’s not the cheapest place on earth. But the variety…wow!

We have done more than shop, but I wish we’d allowed more time. Waikiki Beach, and Honolulu itself, is stunning, but we’ve barely seen all the sights here let alone the other islands. We took a day tour around the island and, of course, did the Pearl Harbor tour, but we haven’t had time for much more. I am definitely coming back here–and in April/May. The weather is stunning, the beaches are beautiful, the people friendly, and the food delish!

And now I have to go back to cold old Melbourne–and the weather there has gotten decidedly frosty! Temps in the mountains where I live have been hitting a low of 6 c (37 F) to an average of 16 c (60 F). Compare that to an average daily temperature of low 80 F here in Honolulu, and basically, I’m going back to freeze to death. Esp since we wont have decent heating installed until next Wednesday!

talk to you all later–if the fingers are capable of typing when they’re frozen, that is. lol

sorry for the lack of updates, folks, but the internet connections in some of the hotels we’ve stayed at has been somewhat unreliable (or too darned expensive) to use.

Basically, we’ve been having a blast here in America. We arrived in LA 2 weeks ago, and did the whole tourist thing–Disneyland, Universal studios, the Hollywood tour (including the Chinese Theatre, the walk of fame, and the Sony Studios), Seaworld, and of course, shopping.

Last Saturday we headed across to Orlando, and RT’s three day early bird tour. The tours usually take us through the less well known tourist spots, and this year they did the same. Sights we saw included a tour through the Harry P Leu gardens (stunning), a boat ride through Winter Gardens (the Toorak of Orlando, from what I can gather), the Charles Hosmer Morse museum (which houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of tiffany, including Tiffany jewelry, pottery, paintings, art glass, leaded-glass windows, lamps, and the chapel interior he designed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.) The next day we visited the Orange County History museum (which currently has the Jim Henson exhibit), the Lakeridge winery (sorry, your so-called sweet wines tastes like vinegar compared to the aussie stuff!) and the Ocoee bookstore (where we were greeted by the mayor!). The last day took us to Fort Christmas, the American Police Hall of Fame, and finally on an airboat ride through alligator invested waters (and where I tasted alligator tail. Which tastes a little like chicken)

Which lead on to Wednesday and the first day of the conference. And we skipped it in favour of Disneyworld. We did the whole park hopper thing, but after 13 hours and not many rides (the wait times for most were over an hour), we only managed to get around the Magical Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom, and Hollywoodland. Epcot will have to wait until another day.

Thursday was the start of RT for me, and it’s been a blast catching up with everyone and doing all the great panels (although we skipped the fairy ball on Thursday night to go see Cirque Du Soleil in Downtown Disney).

But the most amazing moment came on Friday, when we trundled along to the RT book review awards ceremony. I’d been nominated in two sections (for Destiny kills in best contemporary Paranormal as well as a career achievement award in the urban fantasy section). Given the quality of the other nominees, I really didn’t expect to win. And seeing they usually word winners up beforehand and I’d heard nothing, I figured I was pretty safe from the speech making. Even when Rosemary (from Rosemary’s Romance Books) congratulated me the day before, I didn’t twig, figuring she was just congratulating me on the nominations. So, there’s Kasey and I, sitting next to Miriam (who was almost didn’t make it–so glad she did!) in the main hall. We pick up the program and check it out, and after a moment, I lean across to Miriam and say, quite intelligently, “Um, that’s my name!”

That’s right, I’ve won a career achievement award! And I have a shiny, pretty trophy to prove it! Woohoo! Of course, I didn’t have a speech prepared, so I had to wing it. And while I thanked just about everyone I should have, I forgot the most important people of all–all you out there. Without all of you buying and reading my books I wouldn’t have a career, so I just want to say THANK YOU!!!

Miriam took some pics, but the little Acer I have with me is being a pain to use, so I’ll post them when I get back home. Till the next post, take care everyone.

as the title says, I’m heading off for the Romantic Times readers convention tomorrow (and also taking a bit of a holiday), so I’m going to be a bit hit and miss when it comes to blogging. I am taking my mini acer though, so I will try and update during my travels (depending on whether I can find a connection–and whether the acer will connect. Sometimes it decides not to.)

play safe while I’m away everyone!

with the world economy in the pits and everyone talking doom and gloom, it would be easy to believe the many dire predictions that abound for the book industry. Of course, history has repeatedly shown this not to be the case–that in fact, most people actually turn to books as an easy (and cheap) form of entertainment when money gets tight–but the naysayers would have you believing otherwise.  But today Publishers Lunch sends out confirmation that things are looking brighter for those of us in the book industry:

Focus on Romance Sales

First US News & World Report put “bodice rippers” at No. 3 on their list of 10 Recession Winners and now the NYT has a more detailed piece on continuing resilience in the market for romance novels and other genre fiction.

Parsing the numbers, though, is a little less clear than the article might indicate. Harlequin–which reported results over a month ago–is cited prominently though North American sales rose marginally in 2008, by $6.9 million CA. (As BookNet Canada has reported, overall book sales in Canada have continued to grow. And the sharp drop in the Canadian dollar last fall increased the value of the company’s sales for the fourth quarter by almost 13 percent.)

One of the more aggressive and inventive publishers in the e-book market, Harlequin says digital editions now comprise approximately 3.4 percent of sales. Company ceo Donna Hayes confirms to us that is a percentage of total worldwide sales, which were $473 million CA last year; if that rate maintains or grows during the year, that would equal roughly $16 million Canadian, or $12.85 million US. Parent Torstar forecasted “stable results” for 2009.

The Times reports that Nielsen Bookscan data shows a 2.4 percent rise in romance sales for the first quarter of this year in the outlets that they track, though their results do not include Wal-Mart nor do they cover many of the nontraditional outlets that carry mass-market books sold by the ID wholesalers. As previously reported, that market suffered serious supply disruption this year due to the bankruptcy of Anderson News and the legal and business battles involving Source Interlink.

The paper also cites a 7 percent increase in romance sales tracked by Nielsen Bookscan for 2008 compared to prior years, when sales had been relatively flat for four years. Reporter Motoko Rich underscores to us that this percentage gain is a baseline year-to-year gain that excludes the effect of Nielsen Bookscan having added Kroger (cited in the article as selling a lot of romance) and another nontraditional retailer to their dataset in 2008. (On a nonadjusted basis, the wider reporting for 2008 reflects romance sales 18 percent higher than 2007 because of the broader market coverage.)

Barnes & Noble vp of merchandising Bob Wietrak says “sales of novels with vampires, shape shifters, werewolves and other paranormal creatures were ‘exploding,’ whether they were found in the romance, fantasy or young-adult aisles.” But romance buyer for Borders Sue Grimshaw sees their customers “buying four or five instead of five or six books a week.”

So, if you’re writing romance, urban fantasy or young adult, take heart. Sales are increasing, not going down. Which means that publishers still need books and–more importantly–editors are still buying books. They may be slightly more picky these days, but the demand is there and there’s just as much chance of good books being bought in this clime as any other time. So if you’re writing, don’t let the gloomers get to you and keep submitting!

as promised, the UK and Australian cover for Bound to Shadows. Smashing, isn’t it?

Yes, I’ve been rather slack of late when it comes to updating this blog, but I do have a good excuse! I’ve been flat out (like a lizard drinking, as the saying goes) trying to get the edits for Bound to Shadows done. My editor loved the story overall, but thought the bad guy was too obvious (and as a result, Riley appeared a little too thick), so I had to re-jig the plot, taking out some scenes, adding others, and generally smoothing it all out. Which meant I had a whole lot of paper on my desk with notes scrawled all over them. Well, more than is usual, anyway Fingers crossed it all reads better now (or at least, isn’t quite as obvious).

In other writing news (those of you who read the Deadline Dames blog or who get my newsletter will already know this, so sorry for the repeat) my lovely agent and editor informed me last week that Deadly Desire will debut on the New York Times Bestseller list at number 6 this week. Which is flaming amazing and my first top ten showing! So, aHUGE thank you to you all! I think it’ll take weeks yet for the silly grin to be wiped off my face.

Also, Piatkus sent me the cover for the UK & Australian version of Bound to Shadows, and I have to say, it’s smashing! I really love the new direction the UK covers have taken. As soon as I get clearance to share, I will

Oh, and those of you in the Orlando area, I’m going to be at the Romantic Times Booklovers convention in April (22nd–26th). If you don’t want to go to the convention itself, they have a booksigning day on the Saturday–300 authors in one room, all of them signing books. It’s $5 to enter if you’re not a conference attendee, which isn’t too bad. For more details, check out romatictimes.com