Wallowing in the happy stuff

You guys cracked me up all weekend long with your comments about how you'd show the Making Waves ARC a good time.

As a newly-single girl, I've gotta admit I'm jealous of my ARC. The last time someone asked me on a date, it was an invitation to go shopping at the Dollar Store.

My amazing agent and I pored over the responses and had a tough time picking just one winner.

So we didn't.

As it turns out, Michelle has TWO advance reading copies of Making Waves, so we got the pleasure of choosing more than one winner. It was still difficult, but it came down to the following fabulous responses:

Teri Anne Stanley said...
I feel kind of like a contestant on The Dating Game!

I would like to take your ARC on a tour of Richwood and Union, towns in Boone County, Kentucky. Why? Because these are all real places:

We'll start of with a bang at Big Bone Lick State Park (the home of American Paleontology, honest), which is located on Beaver Road, and around the Corner from both the Beaver Lick Church of God and the Big Bone Baptist Church.

We will drive down Frogtown Road on our way to Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, although the mayor, Junior, a laborador retriever, passed away not too long ago. Not sure if they've yet sworn in the horse to replace him. But we can stop at the General Store to ask. Rabbit Hash is also a weekend destination for lots of bikers, so we can totally pimp you there.

Unfortunately, the street sign for the town of Sugar Tit keeps getting stolen, but we can maybe find a copy of an old map to prove we've been there.

Gosh, I only just realized it, but I guess we could get metaphorical with "Richwood" and "Union", too, if we wanted...

Michelle said that response had her humming the Dating Game theme song all weekend, and I was particularly fond of all the delicious innuendo.

And then there's this entry, which won us over both for its romantic allure (engagement!) and for the whole boat thing (which is obviously a big part of Making Waves):

Jess said...

I think I'm a little late, but I had to try because geez, the only book I want to take on vacation is MAKING WAVES!

I'll bring the ARC on a week-long cruise to and vacation in Bermuda. We'll soak in the sunshine, take walks on the beach, go snorkeling (well, MAKING WAVES will have to wait on the boat), and rumor has it that it might even witness me getting engaged!

Congratulations to both Teri Anne and Jess. Email me at tawnafenske at yahoo dot com with an address where you'd like the book sent and we'll get those out ASAP!

On an unrelated note, it dawned on me over the weekend that I never shared some exciting news we got a couple weeks ago. Blame it on forgetfulness, or on the fact that I'm a little uncomfortable with things that involve tooting my own horn (unless "tooting my own horn" is a euphemism for something dirty, in which case I'm totally OK with it).

Anyway, the big news we got a couple weeks ago is that RT Book Reviews magazine gave Making Waves a 4 1/2 star review in the August issue. I'll confess, I didn't know much about the publication, so I didn't realize at first what a big deal that is. For starters, I was the only contemporary romance author this month who received that many stars. Secondly, they don't actually give 5-star reviews, so that 4 1/2 doesn't mean "you suck by half a star."

And apparently, RT Book Reviews is a pretty big deal. I keep getting congratulatory email messages from other authors who are positively giddy on my behalf, which is making me giddy in return.

I'm probably not allowed to reprint the whole review, since they want people to actually buy the magazine, but I can probably share the first couple swoon-worthy lines:

This delightfully witty debut will have readers laughing out loud at the antics of this dysfunctional pirate crew. Cookie, the All-Pro tight-end chef, is a riot, the secondary romance is a terrific bonus, and the chemistry between Alex and Juli is palpable.

You know what's weird? Having people talk about my characters like they exist someplace beyond the dented walls of my brain. I guess they do now, huh? I can't quite get used to that.

Anyway, congratulations to the contest winners, and thanks again to everyone who entered.

And thanks for squealing with me in unison about that review. Ready? One, two, three...