Joy, please email me your address, and I’ll get the books in the mail to you this week.

Thanks to EVERYONE who entered. The next prize package, Spring in the South, will be given on May 15. Click here for more details, including links to the books.

More to come.

Prizes include:

* A Murder Among Friends, The Face of Deceit, and The Taking of Carly Bradford, autographed
* Field of Danger, autographed
* New Hampshire: A Living Landscape, Peter E. Randall
* Assorted teas in a gift basket
* Assorted chocolates

Just email me at ramona@ramonarichards.com with CONTEST in the subject. Everyone who has already done so will be entered.

Thanks!

Liz Bemis, writer and webmistress extraordinaire, asked me to take a short break while she made some much needed changes to my website, including the blog. A lot of it had to do with stuff you’ll never see on the surface (servers, programs, email location, etc.), but it put a halt to that side of things for a bit.

The good news is that the website is back up, with a new layout on the home page, new blog topics (including book reviews and health issues), more links . . . and best of all, NEW CONTESTS. You can also sign up for a newsletter, or follow me on Twitter or Facebook.

I’m thrilled with the changes, and I hope you’ll stop by to check it out. Come, set a spell in my world.

I have to admit I was a little blown away by how many people (here and via email) pitched Jeffrey Donovan. I had no idea Burn Notice had reached the level of popularity it has. Very cool for a show that has (IMHO) excellent scripts and casting. I can’t believe how often my TV is turned to USA these days.

Now for the winners of those five books, drawn from my names bowl by the truly impartial two year old who’s hanging out in my daughter’s bedroom. (He actually didn’t say “NO!” for once…).

Kaye
Audry
Jordan
Carol
Lori

Congrats!

I’ll be giving away another five with June’s casting, so stay tuned.

If the winners will email me their mailing address (ramona01@ramonarichards.com), I’ll make sure you get a copy of FIELD OF DANGER in October. The books have to be claimed by July 15th.

Finally, I’ll be blogging tomorrow (July 7th) at the Love Inspired Authors site. Please check it out!

Which he gets in a proposal I’m sending to Steeple Hill, working title The Murder Next Door.

I wasn’t really surprised that Ray tried to take charge of the first book. That’s the kind of guy he is—smart, people savvy, and probably the most alpha male I’ve ever created. Even the way he moves is precise, not an ounce of wasted energy.

What did surprise me is how fast I started to crush on him. THIS is a necessary element for me to complete any romantic story. For one thing, if SH buys it, it’ll make the book much easier, and faster, to write. I am already “hungry” for the next scene with him.

Now…to cast him. Ray is late 30s/early 40s. His look and actions still reveal that he was once a Marine, although he hasn’t been in the service for about 10 years. Short hair, dark to salt-and-pepper. Think a much younger Mark Harmon as NCIS’s Gibbs.

For some reason, WordPress no longer lets me post photos, so you can go here to see three ideas that I had—but I cheated on one, in that he’s a “morph”—a combination of two actors. The others are actors Campbell Scott and Jeffrey Donovan.

But I’m open to suggestions. If you were casting him, who would you pick?

There’s a reward involved here. Post or email me your ideas before July 6th, and I’ll send five folks (drawn at random) a signed copy of Field of Danger.

So . . . who would be your ideal Ray?

Thanks, too, to the folks who’ve continually supported this blog with comments and emails. YES, the contest is still active. My winner of the first contest never responded, so Eva’s book is still up for grabs. The second contest will be up on the website soon.

Now…the “next show” is Field of Danger, coming in December 2009. The page is already up on CBD and Amazon, although there’s no description yet. So just for my blog readers, here’s the preview.
—————–
“Who killed my father?”

Eyewitness to a murder, April Presley wants to answer the deputy sheriff’s harrowing question. But she can’t. She barely caught a glimpse of the crime through the deep Tennessee cornfield, and cannot recall anything to help the investigation. Or can she? Daniel Rivers is certain that April remembers more of his father’s death than she realizes. And the killer agrees.

In the race to uncover April’s missing memory before the killer finds her, Daniel is the only one she can trust to keep her safe. Yet will he stay by her side when the shocking truth is unveiled?
——————
I’ll be sending out influencer copies in October, so if you’re willing to feature the book on your blog or post reviews on the book-buying sites, please let me know so I can get you on the list.

Thanks, again. Y’all are awesome!

Next week, I’m off to Shreveport to the Written in the Stars conference, and I’m starting my promo work on CARLY as well. And I’m open to new ideas.

For instance, in CARLY, my hero and heroine, Dee and Tyler, have lunch at Portsmouth’s Cafe Nostimo. This is a real restaurant, which is run by two friends of mine, Dean and Nancy Zottos. Nancy and I are working on some ideas to promote both the restaurant and the book, so if you’re in the Portsmouth area, stay tuned for that.

That’s it for now. Life is complex. Rejoice in it.

I certainly believe it. In less than three months, The Taking of Carly Bradford releases and conference season starts. I spent much of this weekend getting the conference stuff organized and the marketing efforts started. I feel somewhat “scrubbed” since a lot of the tasks were items hanging over my head for months – emails needing answered, reservations made, books sent, etc. I have a bunch of stuff to take to the PO tomorrow.

And, if Steeple Hill is true to form, I’ll receive my author’s copies in early March. So I’ve started to line up influencers – folks who will read the book and post reviews on their own blog (if they have one), as well as on the major book sites, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If you’re interested, please email me at ramona01@ramonarichards.com with your name and mailing address, using the subject head CARLY INFLUENCER.

The first 10 people to sign up will receive a book from my first shipment. The next fifteen will receive them from the second, which will come in May.

Just as a reminder, here’s what Carly is about:

A blue sundress and white sandals. That’s what eight-year-old Carly Bradford was wearing…right before she disappeared. Three months later, Dee Kelley spots the sandals in the woods and knows she’s uncovered evidence. Dee lost her husband and child—she won’t let another mother suffer as she did. She will help police chief Tyler Madison find Carly, whether he wants her assistance or not. But Tyler isn’t the only one determined to keep Dee off the case. And evidence isn’t all that she’ll find waiting for her in the woods.

And don’t forget I have a new contest running, even though the new books aren’t on the site yet. If you want to be entered, include that with the email.

And those conferences? Upcoming events include:

Written in the Stars Conference, Shreveport, LA, March 6-7
Heart of Dixie Readers Luncheon, Huntsville, AL, May 2
Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, May 17-21

If you’re going to be at any of these, stop me for a chat. I’d love to hear from you.

More later.

Just as a reminder, the details of every quarter’s contest will be on the website’s contest page. The prize basket will include gourmet chocolate, a gift card from Starbucks, copies of my latest books, a coupon for my next book, a “Guest Book.” This time that book is a new one from my friends Eva Marie Everson and Miriam Feinberg Vamosh, Reflections of God’s Holy Land. This is an awesome book, now a Gold Medallion finalist for the ECPA Book of the Year award.

And the winner is . . . Marsha Hanzel. Congratulations!

If you entered the contest late in December or early in January, I did add your name to the hat, but I’ll also keep it in for this quarter’s contest. The guest book for this quarter is Colleen Coble’s, Abomination.

More to come, folks. I have a new blog in the works, which I’ll post tomorrow night or Monday. I hope you’ll stay tuned.

Thanks, again, for everyone who’s asked, sent wishes, or good prayers for Rachel. She’s improving, bit by bit. I’ll post some pictures soon. With Rach, getting well always takes a long time because it occurs so slowly. But I do think she’s past any immediate danger, which is a huge step forward.

Finally, you remember all that dreaming I did on the 20th? Well, a lot of it was based around a new celebrity crush. The result was a 3,000 word synopsis that I wrote last weekend. Sometimes, I cast a book after the plot forms in my head – sometimes I start with the hero and work my way out. The time, the look came first, then a combination of characters, and finally my own twists on the hero resulted in the birth of a Nashville detective who’s temperamental, vulnerable, ambitious, and more than a bit driven about the one case he just can’t get out of his head.

How do you create yours?