Great Readers and Obsessing...

Okay, so I should be writing. I know that. Book on deadline and all that.

But I'm obsessing.

SUGAR AND SPICE comes out in a few days (on Halloween). This is the BIG book. Big because three bestselling authors are in it (Fern Michaels, Beverly Barton and Joann Fluke) and then there's little old me :-). It has potential to do big things. And so that means I am obsessing over its sales rank on BN.com and Amazon because that's about the only thing I can do right now until it comes out and I can obsess over its sales rank on the lists. Or whether it even makes the lists. As of this morning, it was at #134 at BN.com, a measly 34 books away from BN's top 100.

My stomach is totally in knots. I mean, that's close. THIS close. And the book's not even out yet. (When it comes out on Tuesday, I hope everyone in the entire country goes and buys, oh, ten copies ;-). Of course, it does come out on Halloween, when most people will be out with their children, collecting mini Snickers bars, or on the other side of the door, dispensing said Snickers bars. But still, I hope they manage to be near a store that week all the same so they can push that book up onto the lists and I can stop obsessing and maybe breathe and get back to writing and...

Okay, I have to find something else to do in my spare time. Like check e-mail ;-)

(yeah, yeah, I know...write the silly book, Shirley!).



So, I get the best e-mail this morning from a woman with a great first name -- Shirley. And no, I didn't send myself an e-mail. She's from Minnesota, and she's already bought and read THE OTHER WIFE, which is apparently out early in some places (it's not supposed to be out until November 7th, but hey, who am I to complain about a couple early sales, the more the merrier, in my book). And she just made my day:

"I just finished reading The Other Wife. Thank You so much for writing this most enjoyable book. You write the greatest books, hard to put down, and I don't get much done when I start one of your books, but that's ok, there is always tomorrow. LOL"<<

I think she is my new best friend :-) For her sweet, nice e-mail, I had to send her a Shirley Jump goodie (I just got new ones in, so those of you who enter my contests at Writerspace will have some new things to win next year) and I'll be awarding prizes here and there to fans who e-mail and to bloggers who e-mail. Indiscriminate, just when the whim hits me, here's a prize kind of things. :-) I love out of the blue things like that.

Okay, I'm going back to writing. Really. I promise not to check my BN.com rank for at least an hour.

Because they only update once an hour ;-)

(oh yeah...I better go back and read my own Deo Volente post, huh?)

Shirley