Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Okay, there are only 10... but it sounded good as a title. Here are the answers: 1. leprechaun on the left from Genie Knows Best blonde mermaid in the middle = Angel from Catch of a Lifetime crystal and brass lantern lower right from Genie Knows Best 2. golfer merman. No named characters are golfers in the stories, but I have to think there's a course in Atlantis, so this could be from any of the Mer books. 3. 2 mermen in this picture. One with a cocktail in the upper left and another one on the bottom center in a red tshirt with weights. Again, could be from any of the Mer series. 4. in the center in the back is a mermaid in a shell. You have to look very closely to see it. There is also a genie bottle on a gold cord to the right of her, but the genie bottle decided to turn when I took the picture, so you can't really tell what it is. On the right upper corner is a purple and blue hummingbird butt. sigh. I know. But it's from I Dream of Genies. 5. Okay, trick q...

I have several silk trees in my house. I think they make the place look nice, especially with little white lights in them (which make great night lights), and, as opposed to real trees, these actually look good all the time for me. (I do NOT have a green thumb, unfortunately.) And the lights makes it feel like Christmas all year. I even have one in my office and, as you can see from the picture, it's a favorite hangout for my animals. Vixen insisted on being in this picture. Yes, she takes after me. :) What's nice about the tree in my office is that I have ornaments on it all year--that I've received from readers and friends to celebrate my stories. I've posted 5photos below. Let's see how many you all can find. A copy of Genie Knows Best to the person who gets the most! Bonus points for knowing which story they represent. Happy Holidays from under the sea and sands! 1. (3 in this picture) 2. (1 in here) 3. (2 in this picture) 4. (2 in this one) 5. (3 in this one...

My "Call" story starts long before the book was even finished. Deb and I met at the 2007 National Conference when she had been a Golden Heart judge and LOVED Robin Kaye’s finalling (winning) manuscript, Romeo, Romeo . She offered Robin a contract AT National. Robin and I, not knowing a whole heck of a lot about Sourcebooks, went to their Spotlight and were blown away by Dominique and Deb’s enthusiasm and publishing history. Robin was thrilled to accept the contract and I was thrilled for her! What does Robin’s sale have to do with mine? Well, Deb hung out with us a lot during National. I got to know her; she got to know me. I had already submitted a time travel to her so that was sitting in her queue. She got to it a few weeks after National, sadly, rejecting it. But that was okay. Flash forward to October 2007 at the New Jersey Conference . Deb was there. We chatted. She sat at my table for lunch and I proceeded to drag pitches from everyone at our table b/c I kne...

Motherhood. What a topic. I am a mother, so I could wax poetic (but I don't write poetry, so why should I?) I could write about my mom, but then we'd get all teary-eyed and who wants that? I could write about my GRANDmom, but she's dealing with oncologists and that'd bring up MORE tears, so, again, why should I? I think I'll take the safe route and let the mothers in my book have her say. Everyone, I give you Kai, mother of Rod, Reel, Mariana, Angel and Pearl Tritone, followed by Ceto, the mother of all sea monsters. Hello everyone and thank you so much to Judi for having me here today. It's been a real adventure these last few months, what with Reel finding love with a Human, Rod taking over my husband's position, and Angel... ah, Angel. That woman does have a mind of her own. As those of you who are mothers can attest, raising kids isn't the easiest job in the world, but I like to think of it as the most rewarding. When your son can share his darkest f...

And the sad thing is, I don't care. Yes, it's true. I'm hooked on LOST. But the question is, why ? I keep asking myself that. Why do I keep coming back? It's annoyed me no end that they cut off the season in half the time as other series. It's annoyed me that every time I think there's an answer, there are two more questions. And it's annoying that they seem to have thrown everything but the kitchen sink in there (that would be because the black cloud monster probably bashed the kitchen sink to smithereens). They've annoyed me with this whole time travel thing and jumping into the "what if" situation of the castaways being back in the real world without giving me answers. Yet I still keep coming back. How do they do that? Why is this working? Why has this show become the phenomenon it has? They're giving us crumbs and yet we still come back for one more tiny little miniscule morsel. And we enjoy the ride. Since I've been writing for pub...

Actually it's in the sea. And on land. But definitely not in the air. (I'll save that for the Genie Series.) But it's now official - my third book from Sourcebooks has been released - and there's something about " Catch is Released" that just tickles my funny bone. When I think back to June, only 7 months ago, my first book was coming out and how excited I was about that, I remember how nervous I was. Would people like it? Would they embrace the world? Was the suspension of disbelief enough to let them "go" with the idea of mermen? It definitely helps to have an editor who loves your work, so that nervousness was taken down a few notches, but you know what? It never goes away. And even with such great reception to the first two books, I'm still nervous. And then I get emails from readers who I've come to know over the past 7 months, who say things like, "I'm so excited for you," or "I can't wait to read this story!...

If you've read my bio, you know that I'm a big fan of fairy tales. Heck, if you even glanced at my website, you'll see my tagline, fairy tales with a twist , in the header. But I don't just mean the traditional Cinderella , or Sleeping Beauty . I also love the classics, of which Wizard of Oz is one of them. In elementary school, we had the whole L. Frank Baum series in our library. And I read 'em. Boy, did I read them! And when the show would come on, once a year, it was a huge event in our house. Popcorn and pjs, sleeping bags on the floor in front of the tv, and staying up late. I was terrified of Elmira Gulch (who, sad to say, had more than a striking resemblance to my late music teacher who came to my house every Wednesday night for organ lessons), loved Glinda the Good Witch's dress, wished I was one of the ballerinas, and wanted a Toto all of my own. (Later got him, by way of a miniature poodle that Mom insisted we name Jamie. But he was THE best dog!) And...

Yes, you've guessed it. I'm talking about what you say when someone sneezes. Okay, can I get a collective eye roll, please? I can hear you all now: "Only Judi would blog about sneezes." Actually, I'm not talking sneezes; I'm talking SNEEZERS. With an R. As in "one who." Why in the world am I talking about Sneezers? And why am I capitalizing it? At this month's chapter meeting, our speaker mentioned Sneezers - people who will "sneeze" about your stories. You want Sneezers. And you want them Sneezing big, honking Sneezes. Think about what happens when someone sneezes (with the lowercase s ). Polite society requires the use of a handkerchief or tissue so the sneeze is contained. And, yes, please use them. But when it comes to book Sneezes, I say, "Fie on those handkerchiefs!" You don't want anyone containing their Sneeze. Case in point: one of our chaptermates had a real estate agent put something about her, a local author, ...

If you had the chance to read my Wickedly Romantic post on Monday, you know that I had a wonderfully delightful surprise on Mother's Day when I opened an email from a bookseller: Dear Judi, I've just finished an ARC of In Over Her Head and had to write to let you know how much I enjoyed the book. It was hilarious and total fun throughout. I'm been telling my cutomers and fellow booksellers how much I loved the book What a great sense of humor you have!!!!!!!! All I have to tell them is that it's a Little mermaid type story but instead of a little mermaid you have a big hunk of Mer man. Please note that I didn't refer to Reel as a merman. Wouldn't want to get him ticked of with me.........LOL. I can see why Sue Grimshaw encouraged you. This is a great story. I'll be sending Sue an email letting her know how mcuh I enjoyed you story and to be sure she sends me enough copies. There's nothing worse than wanting to recommend a book and not having it in stock!...

Yesterday, as most of the romance writing and reading community knows, was the day the Rita and Golden Heart finalists were announced and I had a cyber party on my blog where people could "squee" about their finals, their friends finals, or just release the tension of waiting to hear. I did this because I had such a GREAT time doing it last year. (And I'll be doing it again next year.) Luckily, I didn't have a pony in this race, (next year = whoooole other story) but I was rooting right along with everyone and hoping to see names I knew. But I was also celebrating. Because what most people didn't realize was, it was the day my next 2 covers, for Wild Blue Under and Catch of a Lifetime were making their public debut. And now I'd like to share them with you:

While writing my blog for Wickedly Romantic on Monday, I went on a Hero-Hunt. What is a Hero-Hunt you ask? One of the best parts of being a romance author. But it can also be one of the toughest. I have Logan, the hero of Catch of a Lifetime , in my head. I know what he looks like, how he sounds, how he smiles. I know his backstory, I know all his emotions with the opening of the book. I know this guy. But I like to have the visual. The first two heroes were easy: Reel is Matthew McConnaughey from Failure To Launch , and Rod is a combo of Matt and Hugh Jackman (since Rod and Reel are twins). But Logan doesn't look like a celebrity, so how to find him? A lot of internet research is hit or miss. I scored a hit with this one. Googling didn't quite work when you plug in characteristics, or "sexy guy," or "hot guys." (You get some pretty interesting pictures though when you do...) So I thought, let me check models. Again with the interesting pictures. It took me...

Hello, everyone! Chumley Masticar here again! I thought I’d pop back in for a bit since my author is In Over Her Head , heavily at work on Rod’s story edits and Angel’s story creation—not to mention getting that strange, non-waterfowl ready for the big day tomorrow. Thank the gods you Humans go for the winged type for your celebrates. I’ll tell you, those Italians and their Feast of the Seven Fishes have the Undersea World in an uproar every December. But at least in November we can rest somewhat easily—although I did hear of one instance where someone actually brought salmon to a turkey dinner. Can you imagine? How un-American! (Though the salmon was from Alaska, not somewhere out in the Wild Blue Under , so perhaps that counts? And, no, Sarah Palin was not the culprit!) Sadly, too, the salmon was not the guest... I don’t know. You all have such strange holidays. Crushed cocoa beans mixed with sugar cane that you pass out in plastic wrappers at night, in the dark, in the cold? I don...