My deepest thanks!

Hullo you lovely lurkers, you!

First, I want to thank everyone who's made, and will be continuing to make the Teatime Ten interview series so exciting!  I'm grateful to all those who have and will participate (keep an eye out for Jennifer Becton appearing this upcoming Tuesday!).

In the meantime, you can read all of the Teatime Ten interviews here!

Second, my many thanks to those who took part in the Letters of Love & Deception book give-away!  And to those who have generously retweeted about my little collection of Austenesque short stories.  If you haven't already, check out the interview I did over at Girlebooks.com about what went into writing those short stories.  A small snippet! 

Regarding literary monster mash-ups: I'm not against monsters, but I'm against using them poorly OR arbitrarily.  Monsters are a metaphor; hence if you employ that monster, you are employing all their metaphoric meaning.  You can't have a sea monster just because your title has an "S" in it.  You can have a sea monster if you're at sea.  And even then, there's a variety of sea monsters.  Are you interested in exploring creatures that look charming but kill you?  Go for mermaids.  Are you interesting in exploring creatures that look human but are emotionally distant?  Go for selkies.  Are you looking for something that's all consuming and toothsome?  Have a kraken.  But for pity's sake, sea monsters aren't scenery; they're action.

You can read the full interview here!

I would also like to thank those who have encouraged me to keep revising my novel Presumption, about the romance between Colonel Fitzwilliam and Maria Lucas.  In particular, many thanks to the Indie Jane ladies for their Dueling Fitzwilliam series, with the most interesting set of questions for our Colonel yet!  As well as Jennifer Becton's continuing support for the project.  (And if you're looking for something Maria Lucas-y, make sure you check out her short story!)

You can read the first chapter of the Presumption here.  And the doodle of that moment is to the right.

Most of all, I want to thank the Austen community for all their warmth, silliness, and support.  In a particular way, thank you to Mags who believed in Nachtsturm when I didn't, Laura at Girlebooks.com who is everything one could hope for in a publishers, Meredith who invited me to the Austenesque Extravaganza, Nancy Kelley for loving Col. Fitzwilliam, Jennifer Becton for publishing know-how and general awesomeness, and the Regency Ladies for friendship - and you, you know who you are.  Have a lovely weekend - wish me luck as I interview to direct Macbeth in Boston tomorrow! - make sure you pick up a copy of my novels (shameless plug!) - and may your day be full of frolic!