What I'm (not) reading

Okay, so today's Tuesday. Which, along with being publication day for my long delayed New Orleans romantic thriller, is the day I'm supposed to be talking about what I'm reading and share insights.

Well, here's the deal. After I jumped publishers in December, I started worrying that because No Safe Place was now going to be an orphaned book, it wouldn't be getting all the publisher support it might otherwise. So, although I usually shy away from publicity stuff, deciding I perhaps should do something to help, I started agreeing to all the late February, early March chats, guest blogs, website author of the month appearances, and interviews I was invited to participate in. While all that seemed like a good idea at the time, it didn't occur to me that the first book of a trilogy I thought up quickly (can we say overnight?) to pitch at publisher meetings in NY would be due May 1.

Of course, RITA books also arrived to be read. Then, last week NAL sales and marketing wanted numbers for previous titles to start preparing their big campaign push to announce my arrival at my new house and hopefully sell bunches of books. But I have not exaggerated all those times I've insisted that the only way I've learned -- for me -- to stay reasonably sane in this business is not to pay attention to the numbers. Any numbers. In fact -- and I am not making this up -- within weeks after verbally agreeing to a contract, I always have to ask my sweetie (a former math major whose career was in insurance and who actually LIKES numbers) what the total amt I'll be receiving and breakdown by book actually is. This questioning continues over the course of each contract.

Three more problems are 1) aol will no longer acknowledge my password, so I can't get to all my old agent and publisher email I left stored there when I switched to mac mail. 2) Did I mention I also switched agents last fall? Which means that all my old information is at my former agency, and although they've been very gracious about my leaving, there's only so much I want to bother them with. And finally, 3) Louise Burke, Pocket publisher, tended to send "real" letters rather than emails. So, finding the letters about print runs and ship numbers in the massive amounts of Pocket correspondence, has been, to put it mildly, challenging.

Fortunately, USA Today archives their bestseller list, and I did have print outs of the weekly numbers for all but one of the NYT books. This made my agent happy, so I assume it also made the NAL folks happy, as well. At least I hope so.

But my point. . . and I do have one!. . . is that although I usually enjoy two or three novels a week, reading for pleasure has pretty much become an unknown thing. On my bedside table right now are: Obsession, The FBI's legendary profiler probes the psyches of killers, rapists, and stalkers and their victims and tells how to fight back; The Anatomy of Motive; Sexual homicide patterns and motives; The Criminal Mind; Shadow Wars, Special Forces in the New Battle against Terrorism; and Roberts Ridge, a Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan.

Anyone want me to chat about these?
I didn't think so. *g*

So, here's the deal. Because I need all the help I can get, with a chat tomorrow night on Novel Talk, a day of guest blogging with the Fog City Divas, and a gala booksigning for Anderson News and Food City at the Knoxville Women's Expo yet to go, I'm going to invite y'all to share what you're reading.

Oh, and what will I be doing to celebrate No Safe Place's publication day, you ask? Since my sweetie has jury duty, I'll be -- sigh -- spending it with my dentist.