Four Things on Friday

1. 1. Apparently when my husband leaves town, not only do I end up eating lots of salmon, avocados, mangoes and mushrooms (and other foods he dislikes), and staying up far too late watching Felicity and Brothers & Sisters, but I get lots (and lots) of writing done. My husband flew to Oregon this week for business, and three days later when he returned, I had 20,000 words written in a new story. To put this in perspective, most of my novels are around 90,000 words in length. Needless to say, I feel accomplished! I can't wait to share more details about this story. Mostly, I can't wait to figure out what it's about, who these characters are, what they want and what they'll have to overcome. Right now there's a boy, a girl, and lots of sexual tension. That's it :)
   

2. 2. Let's talk about the SILENCE character-naming contest. I've been getting lots of queries on Twitter and Facebook, so here's the latest. I have NOT yet selected a winning name. There were nearly 3500 entries, and I'm still carefully going through each name. I promise I will announce a winner here, there and everywhere as soon as I can. Also, to answer another common question, yes I've found several names I like. It's going to be a tough decision!

3. 3. This week SILENCE cover proofs came in the mail! Aren't they gorgeous? An excerpt from the book will go in the red box on the back cover, but I haven't yet heard from my publisher which excerpt it will contain. Maybe some dialogue between Patch and Nora...?

4. Finally, I'll leave you with some pictures of CRESCENDO from around the world. It never ceases to amaze me that there are people thousands of miles from my home country reading my books, and in all different languages. It's incredible, and I feel so very lucky! The first two pics are from the Lisbon Book Fair in Portugal, and the second two are from Venezuela.