Links, leftovers, and a whole lot of wine

You ever have one of those lunches consisting of a hodge-podge of leftovers from four different meals you've had throughout the week? Sometimes it's delicious, sometimes it's...well, just interesting.

I'm not sure which this will be, but that's what I'm serving up on today's blog.

First up, have you ever wondered what happens behind-the-scenes during the acquisition process at a publishing house? I have. Well, "wondered" is probably too mild a word.

During my years on the submission train when my agent would tell me editor so-and-so liked my manuscript and was taking it to the editorial board, I would drive myself nuts trying to figure out what that meant. I'd cyber-stalk editors to see if I could determine the precise hour the meeting might take place. I'd check my website for unexpected visitors. I'd try to imagine how the meeting might go, or what sort of shoes they'd all be wearing.

Though I'm past that stage now, I never stopped wondering about the behind-the-scenes details. Lucky for me, my amazing editor, Deb Werksman, just did a blog post over at Romance University giving an inside glimpse into the acquisition process. Though she didn't mention the shoes, she covered pretty much everything else I ever wanted to know. Check it out HERE.

Next up, just a reminder that I'm blogging over at The Debutante Ball today. We've been discussing agents all week, and it's possible I got a little mushy discussing my relationship with Michelle Wolfson. You can read that post here.

Lastly, we get to pick a winner to receive Petals and Thorns from Jennifer Paris (a.k.a. Jeffe Kennedy). If you missed the post about the giveaway, go here.

I didn't have time to stage an elaborate selection process with the pets like I did here or here or here, and Jeffe wasn't too keen on swimming out into an icy pond to fetch a stick with a name on it.

"What's something Jeffe and I have in common?" I mused as I sipped a glass of Shiraz and instant-messaged her the other evening.

"Beats me," Jeffe mused back with her glass of Zin in hand.

Ah-ha!

I made a list of all 37 people who commented on the post to win a copy of Petals and Thorns. Then I made a list of 37 different varieties of wine. I'm kind of impressed I was able to do most of it off the top of my head (though I did have to consult a book for a few of them).

My apologies for skipping some of the accent marks and other unusual punctuation, but here's the list:

1. Chardonnay

2. Sauvignon Blanc

3. Semillon

4. Riesling

5. Gewürztraminer

6. Pinot Grigio

7. Pinot Blanc

8. Frascati

9. Chenin

10. Pouilly-Fuissé

11. Silvaner

12. Port

13. German Eiswein

14. Pedro Ximénez

15. Sangiovese

16. Cabernet Franc

17. Petit Verdot

18. Malbec

19. Cabernet Sauvignon

20. Syrah

21. Shiraz

22. Marechal Foch

23. Tempranillo

24. Mouvedre

25. Viognier

26. Merlot

27. Pinot Noir

28. Zinfandel

29. Chianti

30. Rioja

31. Grenache

32. Mueller-Thurgau

33. Baco Noir

34. Grüner Veltliner

35. Dolcetto

36. Liebfraumilch

37. Melon de Bourgogne

We briefly considered drinking a glass of each just to put ourselves in the proper frame of mind, but decided against it about halfway through the list.

Instead, I assigned each blog commenter a wine variety and then sent the wine list to Jeffe. After a bit of deliberation (and maybe a few more glasses of wine) she picked Zinfandel, #28.

That's the wine I assigned to Jami Gold, who just so happened to write her own blog post about our little experiment reading outside your comfort zone. You can read her post here.

So congratulations to Jami. You don't get the wine, but you DO get a pretty awesome book from Jeffe. She'll be in touch. She also wanted to thank all of you for making her feel like the belle of the ball the other day.

She said "ball."

That's it for me, kids. Were the leftovers good for you? Are you doing anything fun this weekend? Please share!