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News From Suz Brockmann, Romance Writer PO Box 5092, Wayland, MA 01778 www.suzannebrockmann.com 04/23/04 ****************************************************** I'm back in Boston and getting ready to finish writing HOT TARGET (Navy SEAL Chief Cosmo Richter's story, due out from Ballantine in November!), but before I disappear from the internet for a while, I wanted to give a shout out to all of the readers and booksellers I had the pleasure of meeting on my recent FLASHPOINT book tour! I had such a good time making new friends and renewing acquaintances, too! We sent literally dozens of boxes of books and supplies to my Marine captain friend's unit in Iraq! The goal was to send a box (and a greeting card!) from every city on my book tour -- we ended up sending more like an average of three or four from each of our 27 stops! What a success! Although when I emailed my friend to warn him that way more than 27 boxes were on their way, he just laughed and told me that mail was moving at the roaring pace of a... snail. <g> He also said to send his sincere thanks to all who donated used books or other items. He and his Marines appreciate it so very much! And I had fun visiting parts of the country I'd never seen before, too! We didn't have a lot of time for sightseeing -- although we did manage a 25 minute visit to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. Funny thing about that -- every time we mentioned our plan to visit the Alamo, the response was, "Oh, I hope you're not disappointed. It's much smaller than you'd expect it to be." So okay, by the time I got there I was thinking, "Jeez, I hope I don't step on the Alamo by accident, because, you know, it's so tiny..." LOL! Seriously though, I'm tall, so I imagined having to hunch over to get through the door. Kind of the Alamo as Harry Potter's closet room under the stairs. Of course that was not the case. And, truth be told, as we went inside, my mouth dropped open and I said (honest!) "Wow, it's much bigger than I thought it would be!" <GGG> It just goes to show how expectations can color your impressions! I've got a few news items to bring to your attention today. Here are the headlines: 1) My official FLASHPOINT discussion chat will be held online at http://www.writerspace.com on Thursday, April 29th from 9 - 10:30 p.m. ET. 2) NIGHT WATCH (book #11 in my Tall, Dark & Dangerous series about Navy SEAL Team Ten's Alpha Squad from Silhouette Intimate Moments -- Wes's story!) is a RITA Award Finalist in the Long Contemporary Romance Category! 3) Plans are already afoot for a weekend-long party celebrating the release of HOT TARGET this coming November! Location possibilities include... Florida? Here are the details: 1) My official FLASHPOINT discussion chat will be held online at http://www.writerspace.com on Thursday, April 29th from 9 - 10:30 p.m. ET. Note: We'll be talking about this book in detail -- this chat will be filled with spoilers, so those who haven't yet read FLASHPOINT be warned! And, as I've mentioned in the past, if you haven't attended a writerspace.com chat before, you should probably visit their website a day or two in advance to register! (It's free and easy to do!) Come and join me on Thursday night! 2) NIGHT WATCH is a RITA Finalist! You know that old saying, "It's an honor just to be a finalist?" Well, it's very true! I'm in good company -- Virginia Kantra and Catherine Mann (among others!) are also finalists in this same category! You can see the entire list of RITA finalists on the RWA website at http://www.rwanational.org 3) So I started making plans for the HOT TARGET Reader Weekend Release Party even before the dust settled after our FLASHPOINT DOES DALLAS event in Hurst, Texas! I had the opportunity to sit down with some enthusiastic readers on the Sunday evening after our Saturday night dinner. We talked about how to make a weekend-long reader gathering even more fun! We started talking about the possibility of having a party up near my home town of Boston, Massachusetts for the release of HOT TARGET. But when I got back to Boston all my friends said "Boston in November?!?! Suz, are you NUTS?!?" LOL! (Apparently I am!) But I'm not completely crazy, so lately I've been thinking it might be better to plan to have our next weekend gathering in Florida. Much nicer weather in Florida in November, don't you think?! We don't have a date for this weekend event just yet, and probably won't for several months. We're waiting to see what the official release date will be for HOT TARGET. As of right now, HT is scheduled to be in bookstores on October 26th, but that could shift. The gang of readers I spoke to thought it would be nice to have a couple of weeks between the release date and the date of the weekend event -- so that we could actually discuss the book! (There were lots of times during the dinner and party in Hurst where someone asked a question about FLASHPOINT and others started shouting "Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert!!!" LOL!) Whatever date we decide upon, we're looking to set up a reader gathering at an affordable hotel (similar to the Hampton Inn we selected in Hurst, TX), with scheduled events and activities (meals, Q&A sessions and other workshop type programs, signings, book discussions, local tours of the area, other entertainment) that would begin on a Thursday night and go through all the way to Monday morning. People can participate in as little or as much of the weekend as they want. If you have only Saturday free, then you're welcome to attend only on Saturday! All events will be optional, and those that cost money (any meals, tours, or other entertainment) will be available in an "a la carte" style. Registration will be required so we can get a head count, but the goal here is to be as inclusive as possible! Stayed tuned both to my website appearances page -- http://www.suzannebrockmann.com/appearances.htm -- and to future editions of this e-newsletter for news about the HOT TARGET weekend. As soon as we find an exact location and a definite date, I'll make sure you hear about it! Okay that's all the news for now! Oh, except -- for those of you who didn't hear, Dick Higgins was the winner of my LADIES' MAN charity fundraising raffle! He won a copy of this very hard to find book, and together we all raised $2,371. The money will go directly to promote and distribute the documentary film ONE IN EIGHT: JANICE'S JOURNEY, about a young woman's fight against breast cancer. Find out more about this wonderful film at http://www.oneineight.net As usual, please post this newsletter wherever romance fans gather! Please forward it to friends, post on BB's and lists, and print out and post in your favorite bookstore! Thanks again, from the bottom of my heart, for all your support! To sign up for my email newsletter, visit my website at www.suzannebrockmann.com/mailing_list.htm To change your email address, please go directly to yahoogroups.com, or hit reply and send a message saying "unsubscribe." Love, Suz Brockmann http://www.suzannebrockmann.com Available now: GONE TOO FAR, Ballantine Paperback release EVERYDAY, AVERAGE JONES, Mira (Reissue of TDD # 4) FLASH POINT, Ballantine Hardcover Coming soon: HARVARD'S EDUCATION, Mira (Reissue of TDD # 5), July 2004 EMBRACED BY LOVE, Ballantine Paperback Reissue, Fall 2004 FLASH POINT, Ballantine Paperback release, October 2004 HOT TARGET (Cosmo's story!) Ballantine Hardcover, November 2004