Sorry I vanished from the face of the earth. I blame the Pilgrims. They started this whole stuff-your-face tradition a long time ago, meaning that we, their decendents, must do the same each year. So I went out of town and spent the Thanksgiving holiday with my parents on Colorado's Western Slope. Then because I'd actually had time off, I had to catch up at the newspaper. The thing that stinks about working at newspapers is that you can't just say, "That's enough news," and publish whatever you feel like writing. You have to fill the entire paper. Every time. No blank pages allowed. It's irritating.

Anyway, here we go, catching up...

Kalt Wie Der Tod — Cold As Death. That's the German title of what I think is actually Hard Evidence. It could be Extreme Exposure, but who knows? I find out about these things after everyone else. A friend from Germany let me know about this one. I guess when I get copies I'll know which book it is. What the heck? I'm just the author.

Still, I think it's a pretty cool cover. I'm not sure how they got Angelina Jolie to agree to pose, but she looks great.

And now for something completely different...

A reader, Jennifer Johnson, sent me a few emails and we ended up chatting back and forth. She told me she'd started with my second book, Carnal Gift, and then worked her way through my titles. I told her how Carnal Gift had been cut dramatically in order to comply with an arbitrary maximum page length and how the cover had always bugged me because it looks like late summer in the Louisiana Bayou and not winter in Ireland.

Then one day I opened my email, and found this....



What do you think? (You can view the original further down on the right side of this blog.) I absolutely love this! Carnal Gift is going to be reprinted in October, and I wish they could use this as the new cover. I love the blue colors. I love the Irish castle. And that castle is from Meath, the county where Jamie and Bríghid spend most of their time before fleeing Ireland.

But Jennifer was on a roll. One day she sent me this....



A nice and very sexy bit of art that she said I might want to include on the website. It reminds me of Kat James and her Mountain Parks Ranger lover Gabe Rossiter. I haven't written their story yet. It's up next.

Then Jennifer sent this:



It's perfect for my contemps, with the Rockies in the background and nice little bullet hole in the foreground. It makes me think of Julian and Tessa because of the blonde hair.

Here's what Jennifer did in honor of Unlawful Contact:



And the above image doubles as a fun bit of wallpaper. So if you'd like this image for your computer screen, let me know and I'll email it right over! It's on my desktop right now. I love staring at those biceps. I think a bit of fireplace sex is the perfect thing for the holidays.

Jennifer also took the cover for Surrender and tried to put something together that was more like what I had wanted for the book. If you recognize the face, that's because I told her I always thought of Iain and his brothers as resembling Duncan McLeod of the Clan McLeod.



So thanks, Jennifer, for all this fun and wonderful art!

I'm guessing most of us look at some of the covers on these books and wish they were different. What is your favorite romance novel cover?

And while you're at it tell me about your holiday plans!

I'll take what she's having.

Unlawful Contact isn't out until April 1 — that's 149 days from today. It would be 148 days from today, but I have a birthday this year. Please don't begrudge me that single day. I like having the occasional birthday.

So, Unlawful Contact will be out on April 1, but to thoroughly enjoy the story one probably ought to have read Hard Evidence. The stories stand alone, of course, but there's this Julian character in Unlawful who plays a pretty significant role. Unless you know him, you won't "get" everything I've written into the story for you to enjoy.

In honor of that — and to get your hormones flowing — I've got a special contest. If you haven't read Hard Evidence, simply post and tell me that you'd like to read it. Yes, you can enter on behalf of romance-reading friends who you believe ought to have read it. I'll pick a winner at random and send that person an autographed copy of the story. If you're new to this blog and have only lurked, welcome and please don't hesitate to post.

For those of you who have read Hard Evidence, I have this contest to offer: Tell me why you liked Julian so much. I'll pick one winner at random and send that person an autographed HARD COVER copy of Hard Evidence.

Now only Aimee is left out because she already has a hard-cover edition. Sorry, Aims, but I guess the consolation is that Julian is yours.

To whet your lust for prose, I offer the following short excerpt from Unlawful Contact:

“You should have come to me with this, Sophie.” Julian stood in the doorway dressed entirely in black—black leather jacket, black turtleneck stretched over Kevlar, black jeans, black boots, black scowl on his face. His gaze passed over her and settled on Hunt, who was already on his feet, weapon pointed straight at Julian’s chest.

“No!” Heart pounding, Sophie jumped up and put herself in the line of fire between them. “Please, don’t do this! Please don’t!”

“Sophie, move!” the two men barked in unison.

“No! I won’t let you shoot each other!”

Julian looked past her. “He’s not going to shoot me.”

“You willing to bet your life on that, cop?” Hunt’s voice was ice cold.

“I already have.”

And then Sophie saw.

Julian wasn’t holding a gun.

“He’s unarmed, Hunt. You can’t—”

“Like hell he is! He’s got a piece in a shoulder holster, and I bet he’s lethal on the draw.”

“If you wanted me dead, Hunter, I’d be dead.” Julian stepped sideways, making himself a target again. “You’re one hell of a shot. Set a new record for your sniper unit, didn’t you? Eighty-five confirmed kills.”

“Eighty-six.” Hunt held the gun steady, his gaze unwavering.

“Yeah, that’s right—eighty-six. Including that Taliban leader you took out from a hillside three-quarters of a mile away. God knows how you were able to adjust for wind speed and bullet drop at that distance. That was one in a million. You’re deadly, Hunter—stone cold.”

----

And the winners are...

Paperback version for a new reader (I drew two instead of one) — Elli and Sara

Hardcover version for an FOP (that's "Friend of Pamela") — Cheryle

The drawing was blind with strips of paper in my son's fedora, and Ben drew the names. I couldn't draw two names for the hardcover version because I only have one to give. There are a few used hardcover editions on Amazon, I think.

Congrats to the winners! Please email me at pamelaclare at earthlink.net (remove spaces, add the correct symbol), and give me your mailing addresses, and I'll get these out to you. Then be sure to pop back in and tell me what you think of Julian. Oh, okay, and of Tessa, too!