My third novel is out???? Really???

Yep, there they are on the shelf at the Barnes & Noble in Fresno. Never been to Fresno, but my friend Sharon Lathan sent me this picture. She was amazed that I'd never taken a picture myself, but it's true. I never have.

It isn't that I didn't have the opportunity; I just never thought of it. One of my favorite pictures of Marie Force is the one of her grinning from ear to ear next to Line of Scrimmage, so you'd think I'd have one of my own, but I don't.

Perhaps it's because the idea of my books being on the shelf with all the others is still something I haven't quite grasped yet. I know they're there; I've seen them, signed them--even bought them--but it still seems like something that is happening to someone else.

My friends are all great for publicity, which is a good thing, because I'm not much use as a self-promoter. By the time we left Nashville this past Wednesday morning, salesladies, guitar pickers, hotel employees, and a waiter or two had been given the news: "My friend Cheryl Brooks has not one, but THREE books published!" I didn't have to say a word. They're very proud of me and say they're living the life of a famous writer vicariously through me. But I don't feel famous--perhaps because I'm not.

Rogue might be the one that does it, though. Someone told me (I think it was our dear Danielle!) that the third and fourth books are the ones that can make or break a series, and if so, early reviews are foreshadowing success. Outcast, the fourth book will be different from the others because it's written in third person, but Rogue is different because for the first time, my heroine has two hot Zetithians, Tychar and Trag, to choose from. She can have one, or the other, or both, but you'll have to read the book to find out what Kyra Aramis, a timid piano teacher from Upper Sandusky, Ohio, will do.

Marie recently asked if you'd ever had to choose between the tried and true and the one who really tickles your fancy, but what if they were both irresistible, and what if you didn't have to choose? These two slave boys haven't had sex in tweny years and have virtually no chance of ever doing so again unless Kyra is willing. What would you do? Choose one and deny the other, refuse them both, or take them both? Inquiring minds want to know. . . .