Lisa Hendrix

That’s the question I’m asking today over on the Borders True Romance blog. Pop on over there and leave your answer for a chance to win your choice of one of the Immortal Brotherhood books.

Lisa at Borders True Romance

I’m over at Author Sound Relations today, blogging about one of the founding tropes of romance, the naïve virgin heroine—and whether or not it’s accurate in historical settings.  Come join the fun and comment on your own favorite or least favorite romance trope to be eligible to win one of my backlist books and an official Immortal Brotherhood mug like the one to the left.

The Historical Romance Writer’s Virgin Hussy

We left signed copies behind at every bookseller we visited along our route, so if you live in that area, you can check B&Ns and/or Borders in Oceanside, Westwood, Century City, Montclaire Mall, Rancho Cucamonga, Glendale, Bakersfield, Emeryville, Stockton, Sacramento, Redding, Medford, Eugene, and the greater Portland area.

But for the rest of the country, there are wonderful Indie stores who have signed books on hand and will do mail or phone orders.

Paperback Bookstore (Lisa only)
12845 Poway Road, Suite #108, Poway, CA 92064-4526
(858) 486-1440

New & Recycled Romances
143/145 Broadway, Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(949) 645-0529 ‎

Covina Book Store
234 North Citrus Avenue, Covina, CA 91723-2091
(626) 966-7434

and our featured Indie (where there will ALWAYS be signed books available from both Delilah and me

Jan’s Paperbacks
18095 SW Tualatin Valley Highway, Beaverton, OR 97006-3953
(503) 649-3444

I’m being a bum about posting here because I’m working like a fiend on Torvald’s story. But I am managing to write for other blogs.

Today I’m over at the RT Bookreviews Daily blog, where they asked me to talk about the 10 Worst Curses to Endure. Considering the misery I, er, Cwen puts my guys through, I had to think long and hard to come up with 10 even worse. Find out what I came up with and let me know which one you think would be worst.

10 Worst Curses to Endure at RT Daily Blog

Okay, so my effort to blog the tour failed miserably. Something about never getting to a hotel before 11pm, putting 3030 miles on the car, and visiting 41 booksellers in 9 days. Yeah.

But fortunately, my tour buddy, the ever energetic writer Delilah Marvelle, kept a video diary of the whole thing, and she’s edited it into a terrific 7 minute video full of booksellers, readers, bloggers, and other authors. Great fun. Enjoy!

I bombed down Interstate 5 today, making something around 700 miles before my butt gave out. Now I’m ensconced in a decent motel with a giant cup of tea, having done the now-obligatory bedbug check (my dad used to do bedbug and cleanliness checks, back in the day, so I was taught by a master). Tomorrow I’ll wend my way through the maze that is the LA freeway system, headed for Oceanside, where I have the first of several San Diego area signings Friday evening, 6-8pm, at the B&N Oceanside

Anyway, while I was contemplating life, the universe and everything in the car, I realized I should be blogging this little adventure, so here I am.

Images from the road:

Great Egret

Egrets, stately and milky white, standing by the side of the road with heads cocked, listening for their next meal to crawl by. Seemed to be one every two miles or so, all the way down.

Ominous looking banks of fog that turned out to be thin and light once I was inside them. (knock on wood they stay that way)

Oil refineries lit up like casinos southwest of Bakersfield. They may be dangerous and stinky, but they’re sure lovely off in the distance at night.

Straightest stretch of highway outside the North Dakota-Texas belt. Seriously, like a ruler.

First big traffic jam, on the Grapevine. Four lanes of cars and (mostly) trucks, backed up probably 15 miles. Not on my side of the road, thank Cthulhu.

All accompanied by an ever-changing stream of public radio stations, except in the Central Valley where for a time I couldn’t locate one and resorted to listening to Korean and Portuguese radio. (Apparently, there are 400,000 Portuguese in northern and central California. Who knew?) Of the two, the Portuguese station was by far the best: the announcer had a resonating bass voice, like Lt. Worf from Star Trek, and the music was lovely.

Today’s the official release day for IMMORTAL CHAMPION, and it’s a sign of how hectic it’s been aroundhere that I didn’t even get a post up. Bad Lisa. Bad.

And it’s still hectic, which means I’m not going to beat around the bush. Gunnar is one sexy Viking, and you need to get acquainted. CLICK HERE for an excerpt and a list of just a few of the places you can meet him.

Perhaps you’re wondering why I’m so crazed that I’m barely even up to blogging about my own book on release day. Well, it has a lot to do with working on the next one (Immortal Defender, due to my editor in February) and packing for an extended book tour.

BOOK TOUR. Those two words conjur a mix of excitement and dread in most authors, including yours truly. We are retiring, solitary types, we writers; if we weren’t, we’d be actors or rockstars.

But like those less shy types, we go on tour anyway. If we’re lucky, we get to go with someone.
(I’m lucky, btw. I get to go with Delilah Marvelle, who is the exception that proves the rule about retiring writers and who tends to bring out a less, ahem, shy side of me.

Which is the source of the the warning: WILD WOMEN ON TOUR.

If you live on the West Coast between San Diego (where I will sign at the American Library Association Winter Conference, among other places) and Portland, OR (where we will sign at Jan’s Paperbacks in Beaverton/Aloha), we may be signing near you. To find out, check out the official tour schedule on the Meet Lisa page.

It’s an incomplete schedule: We’ll be filling in gaps with tons of impromptu stock signings, where we find a nearby store and run in to schmooze the booksellers and sign stock on hand. If you can’t attend one of the formal events, follow one or both of us on Twitter to find out if we’re headed your way for a “drive-by” signing…And to offer your suggestions for good stores to visit along the way. (For that matter, if you know of a good romance-friendly bookstore along the I-5 corridor in California or Oregon, tell me below in comments and I’ll add it to our list.) (Booksellers can request a stop, too!)

We hope you’ll turn out to visit, perhaps buy a book, and have a good time. (I don’t want to start any rumors, but there may be a few prizes involved…)

See you along the road.

Lisa

PS: That’s Jan’s in the photo, and if you look closely, you can see Immortal Champion posters in the windows.