Wow–finally, I’m getting back into the swing of things. Let me just say this…my move was hellish. Hell-ish.

I hate moving. It really sucks. But, after a week, I’m in the new house and I now have a solid Internet connection (switching Internet service providers so did not work for me, so I had to return to my old buddy, Comcast).

Here are a few moving highlights (for those who are just really bored):

Highlight #1: After oh, the thirtieth trip to the moving van, I returned to my old kitchen, huffing, sweating. My husband looked up, then pointed to the kitchen counter-top. He said, “I just found some really big magnets on top of your laptop. Just so you know, you may have lost all your files.” What? What? Like I needed that stress right then. Luckily, all was fine–and the magnets were thrown away.

Highlight #2: After the moving van arrived at the new house (the first of many brutal trips), my husband met me in the front yard. This time he said, “Uh, yeah, honey, one of your drawers fell out and everything in it got tossed on the ground.” Okay, so some of my clothes dropped on the grass. No big deal…at least that is what I thought, until I walked around the corner and saw my underwear scattered for the world to see. Not cool.

Other fun highlights: Nick thought he broke his hand (luckily it was just a sprain). I thought I broke my back (didn’t, just felt like it), and we finally got into the new house, all semi-safe and sound.

Now, I just have to finish unpacking the twenty or so boxes that are currently taking up every bit of space in my garage. Grr.

I’ll be back later with some pics of my house (okay, not the house, but the yard), and you’ll see why I decided to brave this horrible moving hell.

Until then, I have a few announcements to make:

1. My lovely agent Laura Bradford has a fantastic new website. I really think the site looks wonderful–and big congrats to Laura. The lady is one serious deal maker–in fact, in the list of PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY TOP DEAL MAKERS OF 2007, Laura was ranked #4. Pretty sweet, indeed.

2. Huge congrats to my Bradford sister Lauren Dane on her new book deal with Berkley Heat. Yay, lady, you rock!

3. The new eRedSage site is officially live now. Previously, Red Sage had only published print books–the popular Secrets anthologies–but now, Red Sage has ventured into the land of ebooks. Check out the site for some great, sexy reads.

Okay, well, that’s all for now. I plan to get back in the writing groove tomorrow, and I’ll put up some writing-related posts this week–so, stay tuned!

I’m moving this weekend (finally!) so I’ll be away from the computer for a bit. It will take a few days for my Internet connection to get set up at the new house, so if anyone sends me an email and I don’t respond right away–well, that’s the reason why. I’ll respond to all messages as soon as the connection is up and running again.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Do something fun (cuz I sure won’t be!).

So, of course, that means I’m blogging over at The Bradford Bunch. I’m talking about the similarities in selling a house and selling a manuscript. Come on over!

One of the questions that Dee asked me in the ParanormalRomance.org interview (see previous post) was:  “In your opinion, how far can you go with erotic content and have it still be considered romance?”

Now, I’m going to take a step back, because right now, I want to talk about just what I think makes a romance. If I buy a book that is labeled romance, and I spend hours reading the tale, I get emotionally involved, and then I do not get my happy ending–I’m not a pleased consumer. For me, in order to be classified as a romance, a book needs to have a happy ending. Very simple. No, I’m not saying the couple in the story need to get married, but there does have to be a satisfying emotional connection that makes me think, “Ok, I can see things working for these two.”

As far as Dee’s question goes…in erotic romances today, boundaries are certainly being pushed. What do I think makes an erotic romance? First, I want a strong emotional connection between my characters–and then (you probably already guessed this) I need a happy ending. Erotic romances are highly sensual (hot!) but they do require strong character connections, just as other romances do. When I write my stories, I specifically focus on one couple–my hero and heroine. Other authors focus on different character sets. Angela Knight wrote Soul Kisses in SECRETS, VOLUME  14 which featured two heroes and a heroine. Would I still consider that tale a romance? Absolutely! Angela’s execution of the story was brilliant and the ending definitely qualified as emotionally satisfying.

But what about you? What do you think qualifies a book as a romance?

I was recently interviewed for the “Hot as Hades: Spotlight on Erotic Paranormal Romance” paraphernalia feature at ParanormalRomance.org. Other authors interviewed for this feature include: Mechele Armstrong, Lucinda Betts, Jaci Burton, Amber Green, and Sunny. If you get a chance, chest out the spotlight and let me know what you think!