Holiday Greetings!

Hello from deep within the bowels of the Deadline Cave. I'm busy, busy, busy, hard at work on book three of my Bibliophile mysteries, so yes, my blogging time has definitely suffered. :-(

So, what's going on in Kate's world? Well, in October I flew off to Indiana to attend my first Bouchercon convention. Indianapolis was beautiful and I had a great time attending workshops, meeting wonderful new authors and getting to know some fabulous booksellers and librarians.

Just a few weeks ago, I spent the evening with a fabulous group of fiction readers at the Barnes & Noble in Huntington Beach. What a great group!

I gave a workshop on self-promotion at my local RWA chapter. Isn't public speaking supposed to be more scary than dying? I think I might agree with that. But since it was my home chapter and lots of friends were in the audience, I guess you could say it was scary and fun, all at the same time.

I'm thrilled to have recently sold my second romance to Silhouette Desire! Yippee!

And by the way, have you seen my beautiful cover for IF BOOKS COULD KILL? This is book two of the Bibliophile mysteries and it comes out in February 2010!

I'm on Facebook now, so please come by and visit!

And finally, I just found out that HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER was nominated for an RT award for Best First Mystery! I'm so honored! Woohoo!!

I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful day, and I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season!

Cheers!

Washington D.C., here I come!

This week I'm in Washington D.C. to attend the annual Romance Writers of America conference. I'll be going to workshops and parties and seeing old and new friends -- and also taking part in a few book signing events. I hope you'll stop by if you're in the area.

Tuesday, July 14, 7:00 pm - Barnes & Noble in Reston, VA. I'll be signing HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER and with me will be New York Times bestselling author John Gilstrap who will be signing his latest thriller, NO MERCY.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 5:30 - 7:30 pm - I'll be taking part in the RWA "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing at the Marriott Hotel, Wardman Park, in Washington, D.C. I'll be signing HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER along with over 500 other authors, and the proceeds all go to literacy.

Cheers!

Library Event This Saturday in Burbank

I'm excited to be part of the Sassy Sleuths panel, an event sponsored by the Los Angeles Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

It takes place at the Burbank Library (Buena Vista Branch), on June 6, from 2 - 4 p.m. The library is at 300 N. Buena Vista in Burbank, and it promises to be very fun. Sassy, even! :-)

I'll be talking about Homicide in Hardcover and my sassy protagonist, Brooklyn Wainwright. Joining me on the panel will be authors Dorothy Howell and M.M. Gornell, with moderator Jackie Vick. If you're in the area, please come by to say hello!

Cheers!

Crawling from the Cave

Wow, has it really been almost two months since I last blogged? Hmm. Well, I have lots of good excuses. Really. A deadline. Then another deadline. A proposal due. Revisions to do. And more revisions. Then I traveled to San Francisco for a long weekend to attend several cool book signings and a very fun book launch party.

I even blogged! At Romance Bandits, and Orange County's RWA Chapter blog, and at the new Silhouette Desire authors' blog. But not here at Kate's Chronicles. Ah, well ...

I'm here now! And I want to say THANKS to everyone who stopped by the Sisters in Crime booth at the LA Times UCLA Book Fair on Saturday to say hello!

I’m still working on revisions to Bibliophile book two and feeling frenetic as I prepare to leave for Malice Domestic tomorrow. If you’re attending Malice, please say hello to the wide-eyed newbie who doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing or where she’s going. That’ll be me! I’m really looking forward to attending Malice for the first time and meeting readers and seeing lots of my favorite mystery authors. I’ll be on a panel Sunday called “I Hear Voices.” It promises to be a hoot!

I’ll also be signing Homicide in Hardcover at the Borders Book Store at Reagan Airport in Washington D.C. on Friday at 1:00 p.m. So if you happen to be cruising the airport—because who doesn’t love to do that?—or you’re between flights, come say hello!!

If you can't make it by the airport, you should still be able to find signed copies of Homicide at these absolutely fabulous independent bookstores:

The Mystery Bookstore, Westwood Village, California

Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, California

"M" is for Mystery, San Mateo, California

Cheers!

Author of the Month!

I'm thrilled to announce that I am one of the featured authors at the Mystery Club at Barnes&Noble.com this month! The Mystery Club moderator is the fabulous Becke Martin, so please come by and visit, leave a comment, ask questions about Homicide in Hardcover, tell me a joke, anything you want! Let's talk. I'll be there all through March!

I'm doubly excited because also featured this month is the marvelous New York Times bestselling author Karen Rose (fangirl moment--wheeee!!), so please stop by and say hi to Karen, as well!

Cheers!

This Week in My World

I'm blogging at Romance Bandits today! I hope you'll come by and say hello!

And if you're in the San Diego, California area this week, I'll be signing Homicide in Hardcover at Mysterious Galaxy Books on Friday night at 7:00 p.m., with Rosemary Harris, author of The Big Dirt Nap. Hope you can make it!

Cheers!

It's the New York Times, baby!!!

I'm absolutely thrilled -- and stunned! -- to announce that HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER hit the New York Times Bestseller List!!! (#34 on the mass market paperback extended list for March 1st, 2009!)

I received the call from my agent Christina earlier this week while I was at the mall. She asked if I was sitting down and, well, no, I wasn't. But as soon as she told me the news, I immediately found a bench and sat. My knees were weak and in danger of giving out. When I was finished screaming and laughing with her, I hung up the phone, looked up -- and saw a See's Candy shop right in front of me. Talk about good luck!

So, thank you to everybody who went out and bought HIH. Thank you to the booksellers and librarians and friends and family and all my online friends and family for buying the book and talking up HIH. Somehow, all your lovely talk and interest and purchases generated enough sales to land my little debut mystery on the NYT list! How does that happen??? It's like lightning striking! It's crazy. And wonderful.

And check out these photos that PJ took at the Barnes & Noble in Huntersville, North Carolina. There's my book, third row down, next to Rosemary Harris's PUSHING UP DAISIES, which is next up on my TBR pile. I'm thrilled and honored to be appearing with Rosemary Friday night, February 27, at Mysterious Galaxy Books in San Diego, California.

And just above my book is Diane Emley's CUT TO THE QUICK, the third in her Nan Vining series. I'd say I'm in good company, wouldn't you? :-)

And isn't PJ gorgeous? (I'm coveting that cute jacket of hers!) She also wrote a fantastic review of HIH for RNTV.com. You can read it here. Thanks, PJ!

And thank you, all! I'm so grateful. Shocked, stunned, thrilled and grateful!

Cheers!