TAH DAH!! The last book in the Turnbridge Sisters trilogy is now out on the bookstore shelves. THE DUKE'S PROPOSAL is the story of shy, animal loving Fiona and the dashing military surgeon-slash-Duke of Dunsford, Ian Cabott. The professional reviews have been good. The reader feedback so far has been... well, reaffirming.

It's so nice to know that I'm not the only one tired of the seemingly endless spate of sex-sex-more sex books. Everyone is entitled to their preferences, of course, but I don't read that sort of stuff and the idea of spending six months of my life writing it.... No way. I went out on a limb with Fiona and Ian's story. I put character development before market trends, staying true to their natures and actually ::::::gasp!::::: blowing out the light. It's what one reviewer called a "quiet" story.... Which I think is an accurate, fair description.

Now, as to whether or not I've slit my professional romance writing wrists with this decision... Frankly, I don't know at this point. I do know that I want to write stories with interesting characters and plausible plot lines that have some real substance to them. There is, of course, a market out there for such work; it remains to be seen if there's room in it for mine. Time will tell.

In the meantime, I'm certainly not lacking for creative tasks. I still have two sequels to GRIN AND BEAR IT to write. And a series Desire for Harlequin, as well.

The Peabody Project — the rehabbing of the Turkey Red building at present — is rolling right along. Not without its surprises, of course. Some of them are good. The 12 inch wide tongue and groove paneling in 12 foot lengths under the battered drywall was definitely an exciting moment of discovery. Finding the grossly substandard wall framing under the paneling fell into the 'bummer' category, though. (Not to worry, we salvaged every scrap of the paneling we could.)

I've also recently accepted the position of Design Chair for the Peabody Main Street Association. It's my job to get the entire historic downtown of our little burg whipped into showplace shape. If I can actually get this done in the next year, I'll qualify for service in the US diplomatic corps.

And I'm also theoretically in charge of planning for Peabody's Christmas Parade and all day extravaganza this year. At the moment, in true small town fashion, we're raising money to buy holiday banners for our downtown light poles. If you're into quilts, we're raffling one for banner money. And yes, I was one of the three women who designed and made it. (Yeah, my creative talents know no bounds. <g>) If you want to see it, visit the Main Street pages of the city's website, click here. I think it turned out very well.

Oh, and in case you were wondering... the son did NOT graduate early and go off to play college lacrosse. The college folded the team for financial reasons just before the end of the fall semester. He wasn't at all disappointed, though. It turns out that his parents weren't total idiots in picking a new place to live and he had a great senior year, graduating with his 44 other classmates two weeks ago. (Although I survived throwing a bar-b-que for 70 friends and family members to celebrate the momentous occasion, I'm still recouping and trying to get the loaned tables and chairs back to the fire department.) He'll spend the summer working on the Peabody Project to pay off his cell phone bills and then go off to school this fall, part of the "major: unknown" masses of college freshmen.

All in all.... Life is good these days. Very good. I'm enjoying it. Thoroughly and completely. I hope your life is a pleasure, too. And that reading THE DUKE'S PROPOSAL adds to it.

All the best, always,

Leslie

Past newsletters
Fall 2006
Spring/Summer 2006
Summer 2005

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