If you live in or around Mobile, AL, then please stop by for my booksigning on Saturday, April 11.  🙂  I’ll be signing copies of my newest release, IMMORTAL DANGER, from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. at the wonderful Books-A-Million store (3960 Airport Boulevard, in the Pinebrook Shopping Center).

(Thank you, Katie! I really appreciate all of your help with this event!)

And, hey, when you head inside the store, this is what you see:

Again, a big thank you to Katie (and to all of the great staff) at Books-A-Million for arranging this event.

The winner (from my recent newsletter contest) of the autographed Advanced Reader Copy of MIDNIGHT’S MASTER is…Tina Brunelle!  Congrats, Tina! Please check your in-box for a message from me.

And thanks to everyone who entered my contest!

So I’m going to shift gears a bit and not talk books on my blog today.  April is National Autism Awareness Month.   Have you ever visited the Autism Society’s of America’s webpage?  If not, well, it’s certainly worth the visit.

I don’t normally get too personal on my blog, but today I’m breaking the rules.  🙂  I have a family member (my brother) with an autism diagnosis, and I want to push awareness this month as much as possible.

Did you know that 1 in every 150 American children will receive a diagnosis of autism?  Or that, when you narrow that pool down to just boys, 1 in 94 will be diagnosed? That means that every 20 minutes, a child is diagnosed with autism. Twenty minutes. Seriously, that scares me.  A lot.

With autism, there is no magical cure (if only).  Instead, the key is early diagnosis and intervention.  Here are some signs to watch for (as taken from the Autism Society’s website):

• Lack of or delay in spoken language
• Repetitive use of language and/or motor mannerisms (e.g., hand-flapping, twirling objects)
• Little or no eye contact
• Lack of interest in peer relationships
• Lack of spontaneous or make-believe play
• Persistent fixation on parts of objects

This weekend, why don’t you visit the Autism Society’s webpage?  If you happen to be doing some Easter shopping for a little one in your life (say you’re heading to Toys R Us like I”ll be doing later today), then why  not make a donation at the register to Autism Speaks?

Spread awareness this month.  Thank you.

Yep, I do. I can admit it–I’m afraid of the walking dead. Or, by their  more popular name, zombies.  I don’t like the zombie movies because the idea of someone eating my brains just creeps me out.

I don’t suffer from Sanguivoriphobia.  Oh, no, not me.  I don’t have a “fear of blood eaters.” I tend to like the vampires.  🙂

And in case you were wondering, I’ve found a cool page that lists all of these unusual fears–so I had to blog about it!  Unfortunately, I can’t get the main page to load up for some reason today, so I have to link to the cached page.

Here are some more fun fears (fears that paranormal romance readers probably don’t have):

Spectrophobia–fear of ghosts

Wiccaphobia: Fear of witches

Teratophobia: Fear of monsters  (Now this is one that the site said lots of people suffered from. Remember when you were a kid and you were afraid of the monster under the bed? Uh, huh.  Teratophobia.  When Jack starts telling me there is a monster in his closet, I’ll say, “Oh, son, of course there isn’t.  You’re just letting your Teratophobia get to you.” He’ll totally understand.)

Phagophobia: Fear of eating, or being eaten  (Okay, I fear being eaten.)

Spakafobia: Fear of aliens  (ET! Ack!)

Capgras Syndrome: Fear of an individual being replaced by an imposter  (The old body switch)

Oh, and this is a good one…

Automatonophobia: Fear of wax statues, ventriloquist dummies (Those dummies have always struck me as being a bit creepy.)

Santaphobia: Fear of Santa Clause (Now you know why children scream so when they are put on the red guy’s lap in December)

Bogyphobia: Fear of the boogieman  (Been there.)

Do you have any of these fears?  Or other unusual ones you’d like to share?

And, hey, today is my last day of hanging out over at Candy Ready’s place.  Be sure to comment for your chance to win an autographed books (I’ll be giving two away.)

Have a great weekend!

I love secondary characters in books. The characters that help to twist and turn the plots, the characters that test the hero and heroine.  The characters that sometimes just be…fun.

One of my all time favorite secondary characters appeared in HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT.  The guy I liked so much?  The demon Niol. I liked him so much that I couldn’t just leave him hanging in the wind. I needed to write more about him.

And, with my new release, IMMORTAL DANGER, there are a few other secondary characters that I sure did enjoy.  One character in particular appeared in a not-so-good light (shifter Lucas Simone), and I’ve already had folks asking what will become of him.  (Thank you for asking!  I love it when people contact me about characters!)

If you haven’t read the book (What? Come on, get thee to a bookstore!), and you want a snippet of Lucas Simone’s life, then you can read an excerpt about him over at Lori Devoti’s blog.  I posted the excerpt a few days ago, but click this link and it will take you there (and you can enjoy Lori’s Full Moon of Werewolves fun).

Don’t forget–I’m participating in Candy Ready’s Godiva Week–that means she is posting excerpts and interview responses from me all week. Tomorrow, two commenters will be selected (from all the comments she has received this week), and those people will receive autographed books. So if you get a chance, drop by and comment.

Have a great day!  We’re due for more storms down here, so I’m just going to try to keep dry!