But please, don't despair! (Yes, I'm sure you were on the verge of tears at the thought of no longer reading my ramblings, lol. Unfortunately, I'm not going to make it that easy for you to get away from me.)
You see, I've made an executive decision (and since I'm the executive of my writing career at this point, I'm the decider!) to use my Jackie Barbosa pen name exclusively going forward. At the time I contracted my first Jackie Barbosa book to Cobblestone Press, writing under two pen names appeared to make sense. But increasingly, the only manuscripts I'm working on are Jackie Barbosa books, and that's the name and the brand I want to build on going forward. (And I really must give special props to Maven Darcy Burke here for coming up with Barbosa for me. It still rocks!)
Plus, it's a lot less work! I've noticed the frequency with which I'm blogging has decreased exponentially in proportion to the number of different blogs I have to maintain.
Before the holidays, I mentioned that I would be holding a contest to celebrate my 200th post, and I still intend to do that. I also have another sale to celebrate, because two days after Christmas, Cobblestone contracted my latest novella, a contemporary first person called The Gospel of Love: According to Luke. This novella is scheduled for release in June, hopefully to be followed in quick succession by its sequels (bonus points to those who can guess the titles).
(You're all welcome to throw confetti, toot your blow-ticklers, and happy dance with me at this moment if you like!)
A final bit of news: I am scheduled to appear as an author-guest on The Spiced Tea Party blog tomorrow. I'm very excited about this opportunity and hope you'll come visit me there. But even more, I want to give you an incentive, so...here's how the contest will work:
1. Come visit me on Jackie Does Dish and post a comment on today's post (which will be virtually identical to this one!).
2. Come visit us at the Manuscript Mavens blog any day this week and post a comment on any of our posts. (We are blogging our writing tips, so it's a great week to drop by if you haven't before.)
3. Come visit me at The Spiced Tea Party and comment on my post there.
Anyone who manages to make comments in all three places between today and next Tuesday, January 15th, will be entered in a drawing to win one of the following three fabulous prize packages:
1. A $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com and a free copy of The Gospel of Love: According to Luke (which will be sent to you on release day, whenever that turns out to be).
2. A one-pound box of See's Candy (chocolate...yum!) and a free copy of According to Luke.
3. Any three of the following books (some are signed by the authors, some are not) and a free copy of According to Luke.
Books:
- The Duke in Disguise, by Gayle Callen
- A Study in Scandal, by Robyn deHart
- The Rest Falls Away, by Colleen Gleason
- The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell, by Samantha James
- Spell of the Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning
- On the Way to the Wedding, by Julia Quinn
- From London with Love, by Jenna Petersen
- Bite Me If You Can, by Lynsay Sands
And happy 2008 to everyone!
P.S. The Manuscript Mavens blog is a nominee in the Preditors and Editors Readers' Poll. We're hugely honored to have been nominated, but we'd love to win even more. So please, hop on over and vote!
