March 26 is a pretty good day for vampires this year. Not only do we get a new Jeaniene Frost (TWICE BURNED) and a new J.R. Ward (forget the title but I think the most eagerly awaited gay pairing in romance history is finally coming to pass,) and Kristina Douglas’s final book in her Fallen series, REBEL, is out. You know, I’m not sure that was the smartest pen name to pick. My name is Anne Kristine and I go by my middle name, aka Krissie, so the Kristina was a no brainer. I chose Douglas as a tribute to my father and my brother, but since they both lived a life of doomed excess and died young of alcoholism (my father at 58, my brother at 40) maybe I should have chosen something a little more auspicious. Ah, well. I loved my father and brother, and I’m proud to use their name.
Cain, the hero of Rebel, would be proud too. He has a lot in common with them, though without the addictions or self-doubt or tragic end. He’s a charmer, a liar, a trickster, never to be trusted. He’s also bewitching, as my very practical heroine, the widowed, uptight, not very good psychic Martha discovers. Unfortunately Pocket Books and its parent company are in the midst of a hissy fit with Barnes and Noble (though it does sound like B&N are the ones with the hissy fit) so the book will be scarce, but you can always get it on-line. God knows I love my kindle and the fact that I can have all of Georgette Heyer and Laura Kinsale on board and it doesn’t make a dent in the memory, but good old fashioned paper is nice too.
Nevertheless, since Pocket has cold-heartedly decided it doesn’t want any more Fallen books, and Lucifer’s still MIA and things can’t be resolved till he comes back and marries a nun, why don’t you all go out and buy it and make Pocket Books hang their head in shame?
It’s been an amazingly busy time. Last month I had the lunch hour read out: RISK THE NIGHT, which admittedly would give you a very steamy lunch hour. Maybe it’s better for a cocktail hour read with some pretzel goldfish on the side. Again, another reject from the PTB, despite my great passion for it, and hey, you can’t beat the price.
ON THIN ICE was another reject: no matter how well every ICE book had done (and the last one had made 21 on the NYT list and the one before won the RITA) my publisher didn’t want any more. Much as I love them, they never did figure out the series, so I put on my big girl panties and wrote the damned book without a contract, giving it to Amazon to publish. Finally, finally it’s available in physical form for those who don’t have Kindles or don’t like e-readers, though it’s kind of pricey. Apparently these things cost a certain amount to do.
And finally we come to A ROSE AT MIDNIGHT, my very first historical (if you don’t count the period gothics I wrote earlier), it was very different. The heroine was a blood-thirsty Frenchwoman whose first act in the book is to poison the hero (she stabs him later on as well). Like all my heroes, he deserves it. It’s one of my absolute favorites, long out of print, and how it’s finally available again for Kindle and the various Kindle apps that go one all your technology. And I’m in love with it all over again
Plus I’ve gotten a rough draft of the cover for NEVER KISS A RAKE and it looks delicious.
So clearly I haven’t been just sitting on my butt. Old books, new books, romantic suspense, historical romance, novella, paranormal — I oughtta just settle down and do one thing, but I’ve always been creatively restless.
Okay, no more advertisement. Next week I’ll show you the tremendous improvement I’ve made in the pigsty of an office. Your mind will be boggled.

You know, as a full time writer I often find myself at odds with publishers and what they perceive as the marketplace. Sometimes they simply don’t want to spend money on something that won’t bring them a big enough return (boutique publishing) and sometimes they’re simply wrong. Many many many years ago, when I was first writing for Harlequin American Romance, I suggested that for December they change the covers (which had red, blue and silver stripes at the time) to red and green stripes and have Christmas-themed romances. The idea was poo-poohed as too expensive to change the colors and not enough interest in holiday-themed romances. (Of course that was long before someone was finally brave enough to try it and now we’re inundated with holiday-themed romances). For ten years I’ve asked to do a vampire — no, maybe it’s fifteen now. Every time I did a Christmas anthology people said I couldn’t do a vampire Christmas, that vampires were passe, that …
Well, I don’t think vampires have ever been passe, and there’ve been some great vampire and shapeshifter holiday romances.
People just don’t trust me.
I really do know what I’m doing.
I think that’s the main reason I want to be rich and famous — so publishers make so much money from me that they simply let me do what I want.
Ah, well. If wishes were horses etc.
But the great thing about electronic publishing is there are ways around all the “no’s.” The publishers said no more Ice books, so I went ahead and wrote ON THIN ICE simply because I wanted to, and gave Amazon an exclusive on it.
And when I wanted to write a spin off of the series I wrote the opening act, only to have my agents and my critique group tell me it didn’t work. But I loved it! So instead I cut it down, rewrote it and turned it into my contribution to www.lunchhourlovestories.com. As of now it’s gotten all 5 star reviews from Amazon, and I’m waiting for it to get up at Barnes and Noble and Kobo etc., but in the meantime at least I didn’t have to take no for an answer.
There are always ways to get around the word no (creatively speaking. When it comes to sex “no” means “no.”). I had a friend who loved futuristics — the world-building, the space cowboy stuff. So she simply switched to western romances (which at the time were doing well). I’ve been able to float from gothics to series romance to romantic suspense to suspense to historical romance to romantic adventure to paranormal romance to … well, anything I want. Because at the core of almost every book is a gothic/romantic suspense sensibility, even with fallen angel vampires, Regency rakes, Medieval wizards and modern assassins.
Flexibility is a good thing.
There are two things that keep me going, give me energy and hope for the future.
1. Never take no for an answer.
and
2. Never be afraid to try something new. You can turn disaster into triumph when you least expect it.

Thank God it’s almost over. 2012 sucked in many ways, though there were moments of glory as well. But so many of my friends went through such buckets of crap that I’m sincerely hoping that 2013 will magically improve things. And I think the change just might.
For one thing, attitude is half the battle. If you think that 2012 was a horrible, terrible, no good very bad year, and that 2013 has got to be better, then you’ll view things with a little more equanimity. You’ll be looking for improvements, not more disasters, and bring more positive energy into the world, and with luck that will multiply.
I don’t know how many people were seriously thinking the world was going to end in 2012, but we’ve passed that as well, and I don’t know when the next Armageddon is predicted. Not for a few months, at least. Ooops, forgot the fiscal cliff. Well, it’s out of our control and up to those idiots in Washington to sort it out. Nothing we can do but vote them out next time around.
Last year I decided it was time to Reinvent my own Fabulousness, so Jenny Crusie, Lani Diane Rich and I started a blog at www.reinventingfabulous.com. And I have to say I made a lot of progress. I cut back my intake of Diet Coke from 6 to 8 a day down to one in the morning. I eschewed fast food. No sugar or desserts. More exercise, so I lost 30 pounds and kept it off. Here are before and after photos: and then
I went swimming at least a couple of times a week through half the year (until my mother died and things got thrown off). I stopped isolating — I went back to church, I took a part in a local production of Sound of Music (I’m the one in the middle) and worked hard at spending time with people. I wrote a book and a half, plus wrote a chunk on a new idea I fell in love with.
So I did many of the things I wanted to do. Found a way to work in a healthy way, socialized, lost weight, got healthier, gave up unhealthy habits.
But I slid back a little at the end of the year. And I still need to work on saying no to my children. Sorting through the challenges life throws at me. Exercise more, lose more weight.
The good thing about only losing 30 pounds is that it’s more likely to stay off. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last decade. Losing slowly and then maintaining at a lower weight.
This year I’ll get below 200 and hit a milestone birthday.
And hell, maybe I’ll rule the world in 2013. It would probably be a better, fairer place.
So, in the end, happy new year to all. How did you manage your resolutions/determinations/plans? What have you got for this year?

‘Morning, my children. We’ve got snow! We’re cutting our own Christmas tree later today, my daughter is home, the house is cleaner (it’s never clean), I’ve even done some baking. Ho ho ho.
It’ll be a quieter Christmas this year, without my mother. I’ve been doing the dance of depression, forward and back, and that includes avoiding the news. Part of me feels guilty about that. Attention must be paid.
But not right now. I will honor the losses later, when it won’t make me curl up into a fetal ball and not emerge until the new year.

I dreamed about fellow Broads Pat Potter and Maggie Shayne (aka Mort). We were wandering around a conference hotel — I often dream about being lost in a conference hotel. I think I must have unresolved issues about conferences. No unresolved issues about Pat and Maggie — they’re both fabulous.

So here’s what I’m trying to do for Christmas.
Shake things up a little. Put out fewer decorations (I usually go overboard) but more lights.
Fewer presents (finances dictate that).
Don’t take the Christmas dishes out (just the mugs) because of septic issues that can’t be fixed until spring and the ground unfreezes.
Just take it easy. Try not to expect to much or be too jolly. Count my blessings.
So it’s not a blue Christmas, but a quiet Christmas. Not to celebrate it, not to take joy in it, would be the worst kind of tribute to the unspeakable (literally) tragedy. Attention must be paid. But joy cometh in the morning.

How are you guys getting through Christmas? Is the craziness making you crazy, or are you zooming through with a zen-like appreciation? Probably a lot of that has to do with how old your kids are.

It doesn’t matter. Life, in the end, is all we have, and despite everything, life is good. Go out and enjoy it.