HOW CAN I GET AN AUTOGRAPHED BOOK? 
Easy!  My wonderful local bookstore keeps a supply on hand, so if I'm not visiting your town when I tour, you can still have a personalized book.  I suggest you order by E-mail instead of calling the store since I coordinate this with the women who handle E-mail inquiries.  When you reach the web site, type in the title you're interested in and you'll find what you want.  Here's the link: http://www.andersonsbookshop.com 

WHAT'S YOUR NEW BOOK ABOUT AND WHEN IS IT COMING OUT? 
My new hardback, WHAT I DID FOR LOVE, will be on the shelves January 29, 2009.  I'll be telling you more about it soon.  For now, I'm in love with the main characters, and it's not a Stars book.  (Maybe the beginning of a new series?)  Keep checking back for more info.

WHAT ABOUT GLITTER BABY? 
You're in luck!  I'm overjoyed to announce that a newly revised edition of this book, which has been out of print for many years, will be published around January 1, 2009.  I'll post exact date as soon as it's final.  I've always loved GLITTER BABY, but I wrote it twenty years ago, and I've learned a lot since then.  I spent all of Fall 2006 rewriting the entire manuscript—sentence by sentence—and I'm delighted with the outcome.  I'll be posting more specific information soon, so keep checking back.  Until then, please be patient and don't pay those ridiculous on-line prices!

IS NATURAL BORN CHARMER REALLY GOING TO BE THE LAST BOOK IN THE CHICAGO STARS SERIES? 
I've finally realized this is a trickier question than it seems.  I know how much you love the Stars books and want them to continue, but I care too much about all of you to give you anything but my best, and at this point, I have nothing fresh to bring to the character of the football player hero.  That said, during the NATURAL BORN CHARMER tour, I had a surprising revelation.  In my mind, the Stars series really ended with THIS HEART OF MINE, the book that pulled all the pieces together and let everyone take a curtain call.  Yes, the Stars characters appear again in both MATCH ME IF YOU CAN and NATURAL BORN CHARMER, and it looks as though April Robillard might pop up in my current work in progress, which is most definitely not a Stars book.  That's because all of my books and characters exist in the same creative universe.  For example, Bobby Tom Denton from HEAVEN, TEXAS, makes an off-screen appearance in LADY BE GOOD.  There's a reference to GLITTER BABY's Fleur Savagar in NATURAL BORN CHARMER.  (Did any of you catch it?)  Will Dean or Blue wander into the book I'm working on?  I don't think so, but every one of my characters is real to me, and they all live in the same world, so who knows?  To summarize—there will be no more of what readers think of as "Chicago Stars books," but any of the characters from those books could pass through a new book.  (By the way, I have no plans to write suspense.  Neither the interest nor the talent for it.)

WHERE CAN I SEE THE MATCH ME IF YOU CAN PHOTOS? 
Click right here.

ANY PLANS TO TURN YOUR BOOKS INTO MOVIES? 
Every time I download my e-mail, I hear from a reader who wants one of my books to become a movie, but, think about it...  We want a movie that actually duplicates the book in our heads, and Hollywood doesn't do that.  The final scripts seldom bear any resemblance to the original book, and is that what you want?  I don't.  I'm too much of a control freak.  Over the years, I've declined a number of offers to have my books turned into TV movies, and I've slept like a baby afterward.  As for feature films…  That's very complicated and highly unlikely.

WHAT HAPPENED TO LUV U 4-EVER?? 
We changed the title to AIN'T SHE SWEET?!  I'm so sorry about the confusion.  After the paperback edition of BREATHING ROOM, which contained an excerpt from the new book, went into print, a number of people I adore at my publishing house started to get very nervous about the title, LUV U 4-EVER because of search engine problems with the weird spelling.  We talked about it for six weeks and, in the end, found the perfect title for a book with a heroine named Sugar Beth.  Those of you who are SEP Trivia experts will remember this was the original title of IT HAD TO BE YOU.  Not right for that book, but perfect for this one.

BREATHING ROOM MADE ME WANT TO GO TO TUSCANY. DID YOU REALLY GO THERE? 
You betcha!  Here's the story of the inspiration for BREATHING ROOM  Also, if you haven't seen the beautiful Altered Book of BREATHING ROOM that Patricia Bolton, the multi-talented editor of Quilting Arts magazine, did for me, click on this link. 

WHAT'S THE STORY BEHIND JUST IMAGINE? IS THIS THE SAME BOOK AS YOUR OLD HISTORICAL ROMANCE RISEN GLORY? 
Yes and no.  JUST IMAGINE is a reissue of RISEN GLORY, which has been out of print for many years.  It's not your ordinary reissue, however, which is why we changed the title.  I made substantial revisions—fleshing out the characters of Kit Weston (a total scamp) and Baron Cain (his name says it all), as well as adding new scenes.  The book has a special "Dear Reader" letter at the beginning that explains why I decided to polish up the original. 

WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS? 
A warehouse in Tulsa!  (quoting Colin Byrne, in AIN'T SHE SWEET?)  This is the question I dread the most because I don't have an intelligent answer.  Sometimes a premise will occur to me.  For example, what if a woman who knows nothing about football inherits an NFL team?  (IT HAD TO BE YOU)  Sometimes an idea for a character will start jiggling around in my brain, like a good ol' boy Texas golf pro.  (FANCY PANTS)  I love so many of the traditional elements of romance, but maybe my favorite is the marriage of convenience.  It's an extremely difficult plot device to bring off in contemporary romance, but I had to try.  (KISS AN ANGEL)  Frequently, a secondary character in a book will catch my attention, and I'll realize I have to tell his story.  This happened with Bobby Tom Denton (HEAVEN, TEXAS)  Gabe and Ethan Bonner (DREAM A LITTLE DREAM), Kevin Tucker (THIS HEART OF MINE), and DeanRobillard (NATURAL BORN CHARMER).  I've always been fascinated by child actors, and that led to HONEY MOON.  The only book I ever wrote with anything close to a real plot in mind was the incredibly challenging HOT SHOT.  A lot of the action in that book was dictated by historical fact.  Basically, my brain is a garbage dump.  Please don't embarrass me by asking this question again! 

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE A BOOK? 
Writing gets harder for me instead of easier, so it's taking me around two years now.  I know I write slowly compared to other writers, but we're all wired differently.  It takes me a long time to get to know my characters in-depth and understand their behavior. 

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WRITE ANOTHER BOOK LIKE [FILL IN THE BLANK]? 
AARGH!!!  This is the sound of me screaming, laughing, and kissing all of you opinionated readers.  I love the fact that so many of you have a favorite book of mine, but...and this is the important part...there's no one book that the majority of you pick as your favorite.  Readers bring a set of expectations with them, and my readers seem to be divided into three fairly distinct groups.  One group expects that I'll always make them laugh, and they don't want anything too serious.  Another group loves the more serious stuff and doesn't want anything too "silly."  The great majority of you, however, are blessedly adaptable.  You know you'll find a good love story and a happy ending, and you're glad to go wherever I want to take you.  (Confidentially, I love you best.)  How do I handle this?  The only way I know how.  I write only to please myself and pray you'll come with me on my journey. 

WHAT'S WITH YOUR MANY MUSICAL TITLES? 
Sort of happened by accident.  IT HAD TO BE YOU was Avon's title, not mine, and I think that got the ball rolling.  (I originally called the book AIN'T SHE SWEET—see above!)  Some books are easier to title than others.  HEAVEN, TEXAS came to me right away. KISS AN ANGEL had a ton of titles, none of which we liked, and we were, truthfully, a little lukewarm about that one.  I adore it now.  NOBODY'S BABY BUT MINE came to me out of thin air one day.  Absolutely effortlessly.  We all fell instantly in love with it.  DREAM A LITTLE DREAM didn't have a title until the very end.  Lots of trouble with that one.  LADY BE GOOD was titled even before I wrote chapter one because it was perfect for the story I had in mind.  I have no idea where THIS HEART OF MINE came from.  It just popped into my head.  BREATHING ROOM hit me one day when I came across the Oprah magazine feature "Breathing Space."  That phrase really resonated with me.  And...my darling husband came up with MATCH ME IF YOU CAN over one of my homemade bean burritos. 

ARE YOU EVER GOING TO WRITE LUCY'S STORY (From FIRST LADY)? 
See below. 

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WRITE TED BEAUDINE'S STORY? 
For those of you who don't know, Ted appears in both FANCY PANTS and LADY BE GOOD, which is a spin off of FANCY PANTS.  Many of you want him to have his own book, but it's taken me awhile to adapt to the idea.  For years I thought of Ted as my kid.  When I originally created him, he was in the same age group as my two sons.  I gave him a lot of their quirks and interests.  (The "dead insect project" in FANCY PANTS happened to our youngest son who is now, needless to say, a vegetarian.)  One of the joys of writing LADY BE GOOD was getting to see how "my kid" turned out.  It's taken me a while to get to the point where I'm ready to write a love story about a character I once identified with my sons, but I finally got a glimmer after I finished FIRST LADY and realized that Lucy, one of my favorite characters, was the only girl on the planet I considered good enough for my Ted.  Unfortunately, I have no plot, so I'm still not ready to do it. 

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WRITE CHIP AND ROSIE'S BOOK FROM DREAM A LITTLE DREAM?  (Or Hannah's story from THIS HEART OF MINE?  Or Heather from KISS AN ANGEL?  Or Pippi from MATCH ME IF YOU CAN?) 
No plans for any of them at the present time.  These characters need a chance to grow up.  (Chip, for example, is going to need a lot of maturity to deal with Rosie.) 

HAVE YOU WRITTEN ANY BOOKS THAT DIDN'T END UP IN PRINT? 
I'm fortunate never to have had a book rejected by a publisher, but in the early days of my career, I started two books that I abandoned. 

WHAT AUTHORS DO YOU READ? 
My reading tastes have changed over the years.  I tend to be drawn by "relationship" books, both by romance and literary authors.  (I don't read the depressing ones, what I call "dead baby books.")  I'm a big fan of Kristin Hannah and Patricia Gaffney.  Some of my favorite historical romances include Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels, Laura Kinsale's Flowers in the Storm, Jill Barnett's Bewitching, and Pam Morsi's Simple Jess.  I also love the work of Georgette Heyer and Mary Balogh.  (I'm a big regency fan.)  I adore Jennifer Crusie's work.  In the non-fiction category, I highly recommend Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers.  I bought it for my husband and, after hearing him rave about it, started reading it myself, even though I couldn't imagine being interested in the subject.  Wow!  Was I ever wrong.  You can't put this one down.  Other books on my "keeper" shelf:  Please check the SEP Bulletin Board for other recommendations and feel free to post your own wonderful discoveries. 

I'M STILL GETTING A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE AVAILABILITY OF MY OLD TITLES AND THE ORDER OF THE CHICAGO STARS BOOKS. PLEASE CLICK ON "BOOKSHELF" FOR THAT INFORMATION.