Looking Forward to 2007

2007 is starting off with some changes here at the Rider’s blog.

No one is exactly sure how it happened, but one minute we were pulling over at a truck stop and giving our orders to a gum-chomping waitress named Shirley and the next minute we found a note from Candace tucked under the windshield wipers saying fare thee well and promising to occasionally stop by the blog for a visit.

All she left behind was the faint scent of Chanel #5 and … Cracker Jacks? Kathy thinks Candace ran into a good-looking truck driver on the way back from the restroom, and the rest is history. Darn it! How can us gals compete with smooth talkin’ and a shiny, big rig?

We love you, Candace. Hope that truck driver’s treating you right. Drop us a note every now and then.

Funny thing was, when we got back to the convertible after searching high and low at that truck stop for Candace, guess who we found riding shotgun, buckled up nice and tight.

Yep, that’s right. Cindy Gerard! Apparently she had so much fun stopping by for a visit last month that she’s decided to cruise along with us permanently. (We promise to keep the truck drivers away from Cindy! Though, sadly, we can’t promise to keep Lois away from the truck drivers.)

We’ve also made a commitment to bring our readers more guests, publishing professionals, authors, special interest folks, we're up for anything. Keeps things interesting, right?

For starters, on Wednesday, January 10^th, Kathy Eagle will be interviewing Leslie Wainger, executive editor extraordinaire with Harlequin. An icon in the industry, Leslie is bound to have lots to say about the romance genre and publishing in general.

On Thursday, January 25^th, Jay Gilbertson, author of the delightful series, Moon over Madeline Island and Back to Madeline Island, will be guest blogging. (It’s about time we get a man over here, don’t ya know. And doesn't he have the best covers!)

Then on Wednesday, February 21st, Helen will be interviewing her editor, Johanna Raisanen, about all kinds of stuff. She’s as sweet as they come, so you can ask her anything about Harlequin, publishing, queries, writing, whatever.

Other authors planning to hitchhike a ride in the coming months are Roxanne Rustand, Maureen McKade, Patti O’Shea, Tate Hallaway/Lyda Morehouse, and more in the works. We might even be able to coerce—er, invite Deborah Smith back for another joyride.

On top of all that, Lois is hosting a contest on Wednesday, January 31^st, near the release of her next book, Unscrewed, and Helen will be doing one on Tuesday, February 13^th. We have no clue what we'll be giving away, but promise something fun.

We'll be converting to the new blogger system soon, as well, and plan on updating the look of the blog a bit. And last, but not least, Michele put together a STORE, "Reading in the Fastlane," where you'll be able to easily access both current and prior releases for all our authors.

There are bound to be more wonderful surprises, so keep driving by and tell some friends! The more the merrier. And if you have any suggestions, we’d be glad to hear them.