I live in one of the most beautiful areas of the country – northern Vermont – and autumn is amazing. The leaves have the most astounding colors – crimson, orange, flame, coral. Everywhere you go there is enough color to make your eyes bleed, and we all talk about when “peak” is – the day when the color is at its height. Once that’s past and the color starts fading and leaves start falling to the ground people tend to think it’s all over and nothing but winter ahead. But that’s when one of my favorite times come – what I call the Golden Time. The bright leaves turn gold, half of them end on the ground, the rest still on the trees, the tamaracks, which normally just look like evergreens, turn a rusty gold, and when the sun hits it gold everywhere. It’s a more subtle beauty, but gorgeous nonetheless, a perfect time for walks (the deer hunters aren’t out there yet) with the smell of woodsmoke in the air.
Which brings me to the big push I’ve been working toward. In the next month we’re doing a massive group of releases of what I call Krissie’s Greatest Hits (well, Anne Stuart’s Greatest Hits). We started with CINDERMAN, which we released today. I rewrite and expand the books, taking out clunky stuff and adding (usually more characterization and more sex), but when I read them it’s almost like reading something new from a favorite author. Obviously I write to my own fantasies, so Anne Stuart knows exactly what I like. And CINDERMAN was an absolute hoot! It would make a terrific tv movie, with the t-shirt wearing heroine, the grumpy professional, the paranormal comedy. We’re starting this at a $.99 introductory price, to be followed by THE SOLDIER, THE NUN AND THE BABY (it’s original title – Harlequin changed it to THE SOLDIER AND THE BABY), BLUE SAGE, NIGHT OF THE PHANTOM, and ONE MORE VALENTINE. CINDER MAN, THE SOLDIER AND THE BABY and ONE MORE VALENTINE were all RITA finalists. NIGHT OF THE PHANTOM was one of the 10 Best Books of the Year (RWA did that for a few years in the ’90s).
Then, towards the end of November, Belle Bridge Books will released BREAK THE NIGHT, another RITA finalist and my Jack the Ripper story for the late lamented Silhouette Shadows imprint.
These are some of my finest books from one of my most fertile periods, and I’ve had a blast going through them – a happy respite from the political news that churns my stomach (I shall say no more. At least, at this point).
So grab CINDERMAN while it’s cheap – it’s sexy, funny and ridiculous. The hero and heroine get slimed in a lab accident and he becomes a super-hero, of course: he’s invisible for two hours in the morning and the evening and when he wiggles his nose and blinks he can set things on fire. They have to go one the run from the bad guys, keeping low as he practices his fire-starting skills in the forest of northern California (it wasn’t a drought back then). And think of the sexual possibilities of invisible sex!
