A nice little Christmas present from my German publisher, Blanvalet…the release dates and covers for the first three Gardellas. (Thanks to my dear friend Jan.)

The first book will be released in June, titled Bleicher Morgen, which basically means “pale dawn.” Here’s the cover:

The second book will come out in August, and will be called Schwärzeste Nacht, which means “darkest night.”

And the third comes out in October, and is titled Blutrote Dämmerung, which translates as “blue-red dawn.”

Aren’t the covers cool? I love them! I’m so excited!

It’s the end of the year, and Best Of lists are beginning to spring up all over. I’m totally geeked that both of my 2008 releases have made appearances on some of the lists!

First, Romantic Times BookClub, which is The magazine for the romance genre, has nominated The Bleeding Dusk for a Reviewer’s Choice Award (Best Historical Vampire/Werewolf Romance). The awards will be given out at the Romantic Times Convention in Orlando in April. (Am I going? I wasn’t planning on it…but now I’m really tempted!)

Then, Jia at Dear Author, which is one of the most intelligent romance-reviewing blogs out there, named When Twilight Burns on her Best of 2008 list. Yay! (here)

And this morning I woke up to find out that three reviewers at RomanceNovel.TV named When Twilight Burns as their favorite paranormal for 2008, plus a fourth gave it an Honorable Mention! (here)

Talk about early Christmas presents! I must have been a very good girl this year.

Now, Santa, about that vacuum cleaner I wanted….

More than twelve inches of snow already here, and Christmas vacation has started a day early. Wheee!

(I’d be more excited if I didn’t have so much to do and had planned on doing it while the kids were in school….)

So who else has a snow day today? What do you like to do when you’re snowed in?

Giggling here on a Monday morning. Had another Mr. Frodo incident over the weekend (pictures to follow), wherein he completely destroyed ScoobyGirl’s zippered-insulated lunchbox. Have a bazillion presents to wrap and have realized how much I dislike wrapping presents.

On a happier note, I’m winning all but one of the Scrabble games I’m playing on Facebook. (See how easy it is to make me happy?) And the scene in the new book I’m working on which was giving me fits last week has mellowed into something I’m enjoying. That’s good.

Speaking of giggling..last night Music Man and I watched Starsky & Hutch and laughed our butts off. I never watched the TV show, but this movie, starring Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller, is hilarious (if thin on plot). When I originally saw the show at the theater, it was before I really knew Wilson, Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell. Now I enjoy it even more, having loved The Wedding Crashers and others.

Here’s one of my favorite scenes, where S&H go to visit Will Ferrell, a bad-ass who’s in jail, in order to get some information from him. Hope it makes your Monday a bit brighter.

Why do they have to mess with perfect movies? Why? Why do they have to do remakes?

But, this just in: Beyoncé in a remake of A Star is Born.

No!!!!

Can you hear me screaming all the way over here in Michigan?

There is no way a remake could hold a candle to the Streisand/Kristofferson version. No way. No no no no.

I mean…the bath tub scene? *fans self* Holy crap. Even my twelve-year-old self was all aquiver.

The whole movie freaking sizzled.

I looooved this soundtrack. Favorite song: “With One More Look at You/Watch Closely Now.”

Please…don’t ruin it.

~~Colleen, signing off and cruising over to Netflix to add it to the queue. Haven’t seen it in years.

Have you?