St. George Reef Lighthouse

High points (and pun slightly intended) were the lighthouses. Sigh. First, Point Cabrillo, just north of Mendocino, California. Darlingest little beacon. No tours (the tower was chained off) and the main floor is now a gift shop. DD and I romped around taking photos and complained because I’d left my wallet with DH, down the road.

Next was Battery Point in Crescent City. We stayed at (where else?) The Lighthouse Inn. Lovely people, and a lobbyful

The Glamorous, Success Author at Battery Point

of lighthouse pictures and artifacts. INCLUDING a huge wall mural of St. George Reef Lighthouse, which figures prominently in my new book, CAPE SEDUCTION! How hauntingly apropos. Staff was lovely. They agreed to display my rack cards!

Battery Point is a beautiful lighthouse, accessed only at low tide. DD and I took a tour. The docents were volunteers who get a month of lighthouse keeping at a time, and the waiting list is LONG. I passed out bookmarks and postcards to two very giddy lighthouse loving ladies.

Last was one of my favorites, Heceta Head Lighthouse in Yachats, Oregon. One of the most photographed beacons in the U.S. Another tour, lots of good info.

The Astonishing Heceta Head

Great gift shop (had my wallet this time!!) Could have stayed here all day. This lighthouse is on the cover of POINT SURRENDER. Heceta Head, by the way, is on tap for a major facelift next year. Needs it, badly.

Couldn’t see them all. Passed several up on the way, hopefully to be visited another time. I’ll be traveling back to my brother’s house in late August, at which time we’ll visit Point No Point Lighthouse. Can’t wait!

St. George Reef inside The Lighthouse Inn!

Evidence of decay. Still beautiful

Hollywood was wooing back the public with blockbusters like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo and The Three Musketeers. The beautiful people were “seen” at the Brown Derby and held their not-so-secret trysts at Chateau Marmont. They drove fishtail-finned Caddies and flew in the luxurious Douglas DC-6.

Darla Foster wanted to be in pictures. Just 21, she worked the circles, attached herself to the arm of any available actor with connections. On this night, March 20, 1948, one of her dreams came true as she sat at Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre watching Hollywood’s brightest accept their coveted Oscar statuettes. Later, at the Derby with her date, she met one of Tinsel Town’s favorite sons: the suave, slick headliner, Jordan Kent.

Darla’s life was about to take a sudden left turn as she found herself cast in Jordan’s next big film, about star-crossed lovers, a lighthouse and murder. Exciting fantasy, or true life?

CAPE SEDUCTION… available now for your reading pleasure!  BUY IT HERE:

Chicago 2007

It’s been three years since I last attended Printers Row in Chicago. It was hot but pleasant. Hoards of people. There I met fellow Echelon Press authors J.R. (Jenny) Turner, Luisa Buehler, Robert Goldsborough, Marc Vun Kannon, Margot Justes, Mary Welk and of course our fearless leader, Karen Syed. This year, we’ll be joined by Norm Cowie, Nick Valentino, Sam Morton, Joel Fox, L.J. Sellers, Beth Solheim, Kieryn Nicholas and Marlis Day.

Here’s the press release for my appearance this year.

I’m not packed. I’m leaving the house at around 6:30 AM tomorrow. Mentally, I have my list:  bookmarks, postcards, banner; stickers, pens, Altoids. My standard signing kit, which includes sunscreen, scissors, granola bars, change, lip balm, more pens. Bookstands—new ones this year.

Technology-wise, I’ll have my laptop. My Blackberry. My nook. My iPod. Numerous AC adapters. I’ll be wired for sound.

Also toting some new things. A very pretty necklace with a USB drive hanging from it. Some mini-coloring books with pictures of lighthouses. A hat. Yes, I am wearing a hat.

And I will be seeing my new release for the first time. CAPE SEDUCTION will “pre-release” in limited quantities at this event. I’m so excited about that! I love this book and can’t wait to see/hear the response. Official release will be in August. Ebook is a few days delayed, but should be online for purchase any day now.

Technology slows things down. Yes, that’s what I said – new formats take longer to prepare. We’ve waited this long, a few more days won’t matter!

Come by booth #FF if you’re in town. If not, hang out and read the excerpts while I’m gone.

Will report in when I return. This is going to be a great weekend, thunderstorms and all!

Coming Soon! (Honest)

Aside from the notion that I am, in fact, going mad, everything seems to be fine.

Everyone is quick to say, “2010 will be better!” Even in the bank today, a customer—a stranger to me—called out the same, asking for my concurrence. I do believe that people everywhere are ready to feel better. They are ready for recovery, and their attitude may just be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I hope so.

About 2009? What do I remember? What influenced me?

John. Although most things take no particular precedence, one event does stand out above all the others: the death of our friend John. Nothing quite so profound has happened to me before. Nothing pervaded my mind so completely for so many weeks and months. The shock notwithstanding, the empathy I felt for his widow—my best friend—was, and is, enormous. Unbidden, the memory of her phone call still haunts me. It’s not something you can forget. Nor was John someone you could forget. If a man’s wealth is truly measure by the love and grief of his survivors, John was a very rich man.                               Other things….

Going back to school. So proud of myself for doing it. I enjoyed my classes, I worked very hard, was rewarded with good grades. 2010: Will resume classes in February.

My family. Hubby had to change jobs, but is working and fully recovered from his health scare of a year ago. Major thankfulness on that front. Kids are now working (yes!), and happy at their jobs. Daughter went missing, alien teenage girl took her place. Still looking for the original, but the replacement turns out to be not so bad.

My writing career.  Finished two novels, nearly finished a third. CAPE SEDUCTION is a great book, probably the best I’ve written, has a wonderful cover I had the pleasure of designing myself, and will be released soon. OLD ENOUGH, another middle grade mystery, is yet to be submitted. (My bad.) My WIP, UNMASKING PAULIE BINGHAM, is nearing completion and at the moment is a long book. Of course it will be shaved down, eventually, and I don’t look forward to that prospect. JUST LIKE JAY, a short story for Sisters-in-Crime/Los Angeles’ upcoming anthology, MURDER IN LA LA LAND, will be published this spring. Huge, puffed-out-chest-pride on that one. 2010:  Will finish Paulie’s story, will start third paranormal lighthouse mystery. Will try to work on getting OLD ENOUGH at least submitted…

Part Two to follow…..

Sandie & Dolce

Was it a hoax? It’s kind of looking that way, isn’t it? Would a six year old manifest anxiety over lying by being nauseous? Could happen. If it was a scheme, how sad. People can be so pathetic in their obsession for notoriety. If it truly was as presented, it’s still a sad commentary on many levels.

I don’t usually write politics or religion. I have to admit, even with my (self-imposed) minimal exposure to the media, I am getting sick to death of Obama bashers. And let me say this not about Obama himself or his platforms, his actions, his family, his speeches, etc. It’s just about the depths to which Americans, in general, have sunk. This country has lost its ability to debate, to be civil, to think independently. Manners and dignity have become passé, attributes to be dismissed as archaic. People say whatever they feel, whenever they feel, without regard to anything but their own opinion.

I have a problem with my animals. Until recently, we got by with our big ol’ lovable hulky Golden Retriever, Sandie. Not the sharpest dog in the drawer, but a real lover. Moesha, our feral Tortie cat, tolerates Sandie and barely, the rest of us. She’s a tough kitty, not afraid of anything. Enter Dolce, an almost 2 year old, American-Bred German Shepherd. Dolce is possibly smarter, and definitely better trained than our stubborn Sandie. She minds well, does tricks, has puppy-ADD. And an overt fascination with the cat. If Moesha is even in the house, Dolce can’t function. We are a foster home for this sweet (pun intended) doggie, but I must keep her and the cat separated. I’ve tried and tried to socialize them, to no good result. The cat ends up chasing the dog through the house. It’s become a nightmare. And now, the once-perfectly trained puppy is pooping in my living room. Argh!

For you die-hard, loving, loyal fans, a word:  CAPE SEDUCTION will not release on November 1. Not sure the exact date, hopefully by the end of November. My editor is backed up, and we are not through the edits yet. No worries.

I spoke too soon about our fickle California weather. We are back to warm! Looking forward to a fun, relaxing weekend, hope you are too.

Moesha.

Suffering. I made some kind of mistake, not knowing (well, if we knew when we were making mistakes, we wouldn’t make them, duh!) and now I am trying to fix it. It’s not an easy thing to fix, either. My day was going pretty well, too. The thing is, I’m the kind of person that doesn’t take mistakes that easily. I know people who basically just shrug it off when they goof. Life’s too short for regrets, right? Yeah, but.

Moesha is not my mistake, but she is kind of a mistake, hence her photo here.

We’ve had great weather the past two days. Excellent weather. We are neither sweltering, nor under water. Breezy, 72 degrees, the kind of weather the rest of the nation thinks we have all the time. We don’t. In a matter of days, it will be either HOT again, or the pre-Halloween cold snap will settle in. But I’m okay with it, I really don’t want to live anywhere else. Not permanently. I think I’d enjoy London for a few months. Kahana, too, would work. (That’s in Maui, FYI.)

I’m probably 2/3 or 3/4 through my oddball book. This book will need serious editing. I may consider self-pubbing this one, as an experiment, since the story itself is experimental. My cross-cultured characters are struggling, and I am trying to help them find peace. We shall see.

I caught up with George this week. BOY GEORGE to most of you, George O’Dowd to some and just plain George to me. Although he doesn’t yet know it, we have become good friends as he unwittingly helps me to write my story. Although there have been periods where he has tried to shed the “BOY” part of his moniker, it does have a bit of franchise with it and likely serves him well even now. Unfortunately, his good name has been hi-jacked, used as a somewhat derogatory nickname for conservative British Parliament member George Osborne. (While I’m sure you laugh it off, dear George, I’ll bet you hate it, wish you’d trademarked it way-back-when.) Anyway, George is looking good, sounding good, and I’m happy to see he is busy and productive.

Saturday I’m heading out to the Duarte Library Festival of Authors. Fellow Echelon authors Gayle Carline, Jeff Sherratt and I will be participating in a mystery panel as well as hawking our books to hungry readers. On Sunday, I’ll be signing with Sisters in Crime/LA at WEHO – West Hollywood Book Fair. Should be a fun weekend!

Los Angeles Times reports that ebook readers are expected to be a hot item for holiday sales this year. Great news for all authors, I think. Since CAPE SEDUCTION comes out in November, I’d say that’s very good timing.

Okay, back to obsessing about my mistake. Back soon.

My New Cover!

My upcoming release has a face! I am so delighted with this cover. The lighthouse is none other than St. George Reef Lighthouse, the inspiration for CAPE SEDUCTION. This photo, taken by the delightful Lighthouse People, perfectly captures the dark, broody mood of the setting in this novel. The young woman represents Darla Foster, a young starlet whose terrible plight is central to the plot, which takes place in both 1948 and in present day.

Cover artist Nathalie Moore did a wonderful job in matching the artwork on my previous book, POINT SURRENDER, also created by Nat. I can’t wait to hear what people think of this cover.  Oh no! Here comes the commercial…

“In 1949, up-and-coming starlet Darla Foster goes missing after the release of Cape Seduction, a tragic romance filmed in a California lighthouse. Now, sixty years later, the long abandoned lighthouse is causing trouble for its present-day owners. Has the sexy, eccentric actress returned to avenge her stolen life? CAPE SEDUCTION by ANNE CARTER, November, 2009, from Echelon Press!”

Whew. End of commercial. For now.

I have a vested interest. CAPE SEDUCTION is slated for a November 1st release in electronic format. Fourteen formats, to be sure. And you can bet LOTS of people will be getting digital readers, iPhones and Kindles for Christmas this year. Forrester recently released a report that is paraphrased at BNET. Apparently, “from 2008 to 2009, Amazon sold an estimated 600,000 Kindles. But Sony sold an estimated 400,000 of its e-readers.” That’s a million readers, folks. And it doesn’t count the number of iPhones, iPod Touches, PDA’s, laptops and other ebook reading devices already in use. Now that Sony has lowered prices on devices and ebooks, and has determined they will support the ePub* format, we will start to see them pull ahead of Amazon. Mark my words. (*See great WSJ article about ePub and DRM here.)

Speaking of Cape Seduction, I’m ecstatic to say that cover art is in the works. We have obtained rights to photos that will be mysteriously ‘Shopped into a spellbinding cover! So stay tuned on that front.

My calendar says my next personal appearance will be at the Duarte Festival of Authors. Have never done this particular festival and am looking forward to sharing some space with fellow Echelon author Gayle Carline. Gayle and I met at L.A. Times Festival of Books in April, when she was selling her new release, FREEZER BURN. We get along great except for when it comes to horses… she’s an equestrienne extraordinaire and I’m more the type that likes the wooden ones that go ’round and ’round in the mall. Is there a 12-step program for equine-o-phobes?

Good news/bad news department:  We now think our guinea pig has a benign lipoma. A fat bump. Not dangerous in itself, and should just be watched for awhile. The bad news? Son is not coming home now.   He did assure me he’ll be home for Christmas (why do I hear Bing Crosby’s baritone in the background?) Ugh. Sadness. Why does Singapore have to be so far away (and so expensive to commute?)

Have started a new story. Don’t know yet if it is a full length book or not. Takes place in the 1980’s, about a glam rocker and a makeup artist. Has to do with gay performers hiding their sexuality (or not). Not sure how readers will take this topic. Not really worried, either.

Haven’t fired up the new Pink KitchenAid Stand Mixer yet. Will plan to do some whirling this weekend and will, of course, share the results, if only virtually. Daughter wants to paint flames on the sides, like Alton Brown’s. I told her I have enough trouble with burning food.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, something likely only interesting to me and my stalkers. Oh well. It will wait.