I’m celebrating today because I finished my latest book and it will shortly be winging its way to my editor.

So, just for fun…name this hunk!

Here we go again. You know the drill…

1. Caught up in the action I’ve
been looking out for you
2. An invisible man sleeping
in your bed
3. But somewhere sometime
when you’re curious, I’ll be back
around
4. I know her love is true but
it’s so damn easy makin’ love to you
5. Oh mother dear we’re not
the fortunate ones
6. And incidents arose from
circumstance
7. You know I like my girls a little bit older
8. You always live your life never thinking of the future
9. Now we’re sharing the same dreams, and our hearts can beat as one
10. She don’t need a man’s touch
11. She’ll get a hold on you, believe it
12. You’re everywhere, but you’re so hard to find
13. You want your percentage, but I’m the fool paying the dues
14. No April rain, no flowers’ bloom, no wedding Saturday within the month of June
15. There’s a skeleton chokin’ on a crust of bread

Answers posted later today.

And I’m practically in tears. Happy tears. Blown-away tears. Joyous tears.

Go see.

I’m getting bound galleys and have enough to spare for three reviewers (whom I haven’t already promised them to)…the first three to contact me gets’em.

Send your request by email, please, and I’ll get them off to you as soon as I get my hot little hands on them!

Email: cgs at colleengleason.com

EDITED: They’re gone! Thanks so much for all your interest. I may have some more ARCs later, so if you’re interested, do drop me a line.

Also, I plan to give away some copies of the book in December, so stay tuned!

Does anyone miss those good old gothic romances like I do?

The ones where the young (usually orphaned, usually destitute) girl has to move into a big, old (usually creepy) house and there are strange goings-on. And two men. Yes, the good ones always have two men.

I love romances as much as the next romance reader, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve always thought why–why only one man? Why can’t she have two? Or even three? (Vicky Bliss has three men after her in Trojan Gold. And my own Victoria Gardella has three very strong men that she contends with in The Rest Falls Away….)

Which is why I like the gothics. The two men usually fit one of two stereotypes: the tall, dark, brooding, often-sarcastic guy, and the handsome, charming, often-blond one.

We’re supposed to think the blond guy is The One, because he’s so kind and charming. But it’s really the brooding guy who saves the day. Sometimes the blond guy is the villain, even. But other times, he’s just Not the Right One.

I miss those books. I devoured Barbara Michaels’ modern gothics–and still do, still reread them all the time. Why aren’t there more books like them now? Is it because there are two men, and in the romance novels world, you’re supposed to know who the hero is right away? (’cause in a good gothic, you don’t. Not until you’re well into the book, and even then you might still not be sure. Michaels’ The Love Talker almost had me fooled till the very end.)

I must admit, when I first saw Star Wars at the tender age of…nine or ten, I guess…I fell for Luke Skywalker (the blond, charming guy). (I can’t believe I’m admitting this in public!) I was really ticked when Leia said she loved him in Empire Strikes Back instead of Luke. It took me until I was in high school before I “got” Han Solo (the dark, sarcastic one).

But now I understand and love the heros that kind of sneak up on you. I’d like to see more of them. I know there was a line of gothics awhile ago–Candleglow I think it was called, and I did really enjoy Christine Feehan’s two that she wrote for the line (Lair of the Lion and The Scarletti Curse), even though they didn’t have the two requisite heros. They were lush and sexy and gothicky and suspenseful, and I enjoyed them nevertheless.

And Eve Silver’s Dark Desires was very gothicky in tone and setting, and you weren’t really sure the hero was a good guy (well, because he was the hero, you knew he had to be…but he was luscious anyway). I really enjoyed it…but there was only the one hero. (I guess I have a thing for letting the gal have a choice, already!)

But why? Why don’t we have any more traditional gothics being published? I hear people talk about how much they loved them….but no one’s publishing them. (Or am I missing them?)

Maybe they wouldn’t be published in romance, then. Maybe they belong, as Barbara Michaels’ books do, in the horror or thriller section.

What do you all think? Any Barbara Michaels fans out there (besides you, Rosario!) Am I missing some good gothics?