Spies during July 4th

It's the fourth of July weekend and yes, I have family in the D.C. area. Sure...you're just home for some fireworks, says the Pentagon guy sitting by me with a knowing twinkle in his eye. As usual, i was stuck in the Delta Hub in Atlanta (which stands for Don't Ever Leave The Airport, btw) and I spent hours getting to know the carpeting at the concourse. It's good way to meet people, don't you know?

It's tough to blog when you're traveling, especially if it's to be with family. I spent wayyyy too much time eating and playing with my newest little niece, a sweet little girl who just had the best time with her first birthday cake. I think there is a reason all uber-spies, uber-writers, and uber-roofers are loners...all those happy distractions won't get any work done!

Here's a cute Beijing tradition that my sister did. On the baby's first birthday, it's a custom to place four items in front of the little one: fruit, cash, pencil, and toy. These things signify the "future" that baby will go after, i.e., whether she will be motivated by food, working, writing, or playing. My darling niece picked up the pencil! Hurrah. She's going to be influenced by books and writing, yeeha! ;-) Like I said, cute tradition.

I did an online interview: www.theromancereadersconnection.com.
Click on the author of the month link. I managed to keep out some spoilers from The Hunter ;-) and still couldn't make myself say the title of the next book (Sleeping Elipses).

This is going to be a problem, sigh. I showed the cover art with the title to my sister here and the look on her face (and she doesn't read romance) was exactly like the one on all the booksellers' faces at the conventions. She thought the title was tawdry-sounding. Tawdry. Even my computer-programming sister understood how awful that title was for a romantic suspense. Ah well. I now have a standard answer to everyone who first laughs, then comments about the awfulness of the title: you cannot fight against the gods of marketing. Especially when your editor loves the title too. You just have to grin, bear it, and slurr the words of the title when you're promoting it (Sleeping *cough *cough elipses).

On the bright side, I love the cover art, and so does everyone I showed it to. See the pattern ;-)?

Ah well, uberspies can't think of consequences. Just do your job. Isn't that Jed McNeil's favorite line?

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