So, where have I been for the last ten days or so, you may be asking. The answer is simple — I was on the Atlantic coast of Florida doing research for the Olympic Cove series, which turned out to be incredibly useful and will inform the three remaining books in the series. After that, I took my sister on a 3-day Disney cruise to see how well she could handle it, as she has a tendency to get terribly motion-sick. Turns out she handed it just fine (“It felt like the ship was rocking me to sleep at night. Now I understand why cradles are made the way they are,” she marveled), loved having a room with a verandah where we could sit, drink Mexican beer, and watch the water go by, and generally adored everything about sailing with the Mouse. She is now musing about the possibility of a cruise next year, so I must start saving my shekels now.

After the cruise I returned home and succumbed for a few days to a rather nasty chest cold which is finally resolving itself although I still sound a bit like a wheezy comedy concertina when I breathe. I did arise from my sickbed long enough to go vote on Thursday for Hillary (why, yes, I live in the clavicle of Texas and am a Democrat. I am nothing if not a delightful bundle of contradictions), and today I’m working on Intersection (Pacifica Rising Book 1, aka the SF erotic romance series) for NaNoWriMo while Ramón is off gaming with his D&D group. Because NaNoWriMo does not wait for chest colds.

Oh, speaking of voting, I have two requests for you. One, go vote in our upcoming national election. If you can still do early voting, do it — it really saves time and stress on Tuesday, and you can spend the evening sipping the refreshing adult beverage of your choice instead of staring at a line of humanity in front of you and wondering if it’s ever going to move. If early voting has ended and you weren’t able to take advantage of it, do go and vote on Tuesday. Your vote counts, even if you’re the only member of your party in your entire town. Do it anyway. And no, I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, although I will indulge in a private hope that you’re voting for Hillary as well.

Two, the Goodreads Choice Awards 2016 are now open, and you can nominate your favorite book of 2016 (such as, say, Palace of Scoundrels) in a wide variety of genres (including Romance). So go vote and make an author very, very happy!