Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Have you ever had a moment in time you wish you could do over? I have a looming deadline to submit my next manuscript, so I decided to take my laptop with me to write on the go. I had the laptop in my purse and left it on a table just for a second and...imagine one of those slow motion moments when you see a priceless item fall and you dive to catch it just in time...except I didn't catch it and my brand new laptop hit the floor.    Noooooooooo! I rushed the patient to the computer repair folks and got the bad news. The motherboard was cracked. Maybe they could retrieve the data. Maybe not. And the laptop was dead. Oh, and it would take several 2-3 days just to see if my data was retrievable. Time to panic! I begged the computer repair folks to work on it faster. I begged them to revive the computer. I may have even offered a ritual sacrifice (yeah, ok, this was not my finest moment). I left the store in a daze, hoping it was all just a bad dream and I would wake ...

by M. L. Buchman There are good days, great days, and Amazing Days! I've just had an Amazing Day (which I'll get to in a moment). But the day has had a lot of odd baggage in it that I've found to be an excellent reminder to put everything into perspective. Or better yet, kept it there. There were three events in the M.L. Buchman household today of varying importance. Event 1: A new sofa and chair  The last sofa and chair survived over a dozen years of kid, cats, and general living. As the couch decayed, so did the nation's economy and our own finances. There were times, while unemployment was tinkering with my corporate career time after time, when a cup of coffee wasn't in the budget. When the extra two tanks of gas to go visit our kid in college wasn't really happening either. Today we bought a brand new couch and chair. Nothing exotic, but it marked the end of an era in so many ways. This new furniture, and the fact that we were simply able to writ...

A few days ago I was on Facebook checking out a post on the upcoming Authors After Dark Convention. AAD is among the best conventions for authors and readers to meet and party. Anyway, I commented on the post that I hope to attend in 2015. I decided to pop my Convention cherry at RT because I desperately want to visit New Orleans. Anyway, you know how when you comment on a post, you're alerted to other comments? Well, later on someone was talking about how wonderful AAD is because she loved meeting her favorite authors, but then she went on to name a few authors who are no longer her favorites because of how poorly treated their fans. The stories of such rude, ungrateful behavior made me gasp in outrage and brought tears of disappointment to my eyes. It made me remember the few authors that are no longer my favorites. But mostly, it made me think of the authors who have always been gracious and kind. I still remember jumping up and down when Eloisa James messaged m...

Last week I was on my way home from Albany, New York after a long and successful day of training. For those of you who don't know, in addition to writing romance, I own a business called Taney Speaker Training that runs corporate workshops in public speaking, leadership, communication skills, team building and more. At any rate, during the two and a half hour drive home, I got a call from my dad. My mom saw a post on Facebook about the video trailer of UNCLAIMED being featured on USA Today --which was super fun--and in typical Dad fashion, he wanted to call and congratulate me. He then proceeded to ask me about the training and how business is going for TST. I then launched into the litany of things coming down the pipeline. Even though I'd just completed a fantastic day of training and got booked for another before the day was through, I was already thinking about what I had to do next. My dad then did the best thing anyone could have done for me in that moment. He in...

As I write this blog, I’m trapped inside glaring at the snow. I just finished reading my daughter’s account of the snow plow that got stuck outside her apartment building. Yes, welcome to winter’s fury. I've listened to my Texas and Florida friends moan about the cold, and I've seen the pictures of Ann Arbor, MI and their 20+ inches of snow. I’m in Illinois where it’s below zero outside and my Christmas decorations  aren't  coming down until spring. Here are the things I’m grateful for: 1. I’m warm inside the house which means I've got it way better than many. 2. I remembered to buy more toilet paper along with more food. We’re fully stocked! 3. I work at home, so I don’t have to slip-n-slide my car to an office. 4. My cats spend at least an hour every day sleeping between bouts of: I’m stir-crazy, so let me rip apart the furniture. 5. Some intrepid photographer braved the cold enough to get me this real-life pict...