So this is what it feels like to relax...

Well, I'm in Phoenix -- which I can never spell. Does our country not realize our school system is in trouble? What were they thinking when they named our cities? That everyone could afford private school? Oh speaking of which, my darling son wrote a creative writing paper, and it took place at the gasstayshun (gas station). Seth, what a dreamboat.

I got off track, sorry. So I'm in this city I can't spell and staying with Colleen Coble's daughter. Colleen, Carol Cox and I brainstormed yesterday and I really started to get fired up again about writing. I have a new idea that I think will really work. It's a little over the top. A lot of fun and I'm anxious to get working on it after the last Spa Girls book.

We went to Barnes & Noble yesterday and there was a magazine put out by "Writer's Digest" called "Spiritual Writing" and inside is an article on writing for the Christian market by Debby Mayne and under the heading DEVELOPING STRONG CHARACTERS is a mention of Ashley Stockingdale, my character! How exciting is that when you're not expecting it? At BN, we also met their fabulous fiction manager Phyllis. What a great gal, with LOTS of knowledge and recommendations. You just can't beat a fellow book lover. We waxed poetic on the beauty of the hardback.

So I have found the cure for writer burnout if anyone is interested: Take one pedicure, lots of fattening meals out, espresso until you want to be sick, and stir them with a really, really, really bad TV movie about the earth ending -- which is actually a very poorly- written religious tract for how global warming is ruining our planet and we will all die because of it. (The four of us: Colleen, Colleen's daughter and friend hated the characters so much we were rooting for the storms.) Now that was fun.

I'm ready to hit the keyboards again. I'm setting my next book in Orange County, so Jeana, my lovely agent, if you're reading this it means you can scare me again with your L.A. driving! South Coast Plaza, here we come!

Oh I'm doing a booksigning in Sacramento if anyone's in the area. I think it's the 19th, I'll have to look it up when I get home. But I'll be in the Camino Sam's Club signing "She's All That". Please come by and say hi, and get a vat of pickles while you're at it! : ) Kristin