Save me from the Ravages of The Fat Season

The Fat Season has officially begun. Help! I have a love/hate relationship with October, November and December. The love is obvious, but the hate is related to food, specifically sweets in my case. Halloween, Thanksgiving (a little, since the traditional holiday foods aren't my favorite indulgences--well, except for homemade rolls), and then Christmas with all the parties and cookies and alcohol and candy everywhere you go just about kills me.

I've maniacally exercised and been militant about staying lowish carb for the last couple months and I'm nearly my target weight.

Yet, I can easily slap on 10 pounds in the next month or so, while STILL exercising madly. Desperately need tips for controlling self at parties, etc., to not lose the ground I've gained. I'm watching THINtervention AND America's Biggest Losers in self defense.... Help!

I've threatened my husband if he brings home any of the homemade or high-end food gifts his patients bring him I will divorce him.

Gettin' Jiggy with a Kid Around

So, I'm writing a scene with a reluctant father observing his previous lover--the mother--giving their one-year-old a bath.

He's only just learned he's a father and the mother insists he isn't needed--or wanted.

I'm having trouble juggling his attraction for the mother looking so lovely there, with his being slowly charmed by the little boy.

Is it possible to feel sexy with a kid around? Or is that just too gross?

Personally, I think a dad caring for a child is quite sexy, but maybe I'm just...ahem...odd that way.

What do you think?

Everyone's a critic

I've been jittering like crazy about my first SuperRomance release, A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS, out in November. How will it fit among the wonderful offerings every month? I thought I fit nicely in the Blaze line. Also Temptations, Duets and Flipside.

This story, and the next three I've written or am writing, feel right for Super. My editor loves it, too, but you never know. Readers could be scratching their heads or shaking them or throwing the book at a wall or, worse, not picking it up at all. Who IS this Dawn Atkins anyway?


Then a cataromance reviewer, Deb Gruyette, send me the link to her review. She liked it, she really liked it. She said, among other lovely things, "Dawn Atkins pens a beautiful tale that leaves us all feeling A Lot Like Christmas."

Here's the full review if you're curious: http://tinyurl.com/2w646vd


Can I just say, whew? Of course, she's only one reader, but she's an experienced one, at least, and I feel a little less jumpy in the tummy as a result.

You can't take reviews too much to heart, I guess, good or bad. I have to say my niece's eager expression over an old Temptation of mine makes me feel good, too. She's reading now, but too young for my stories.

Reviews are double-edged swords. If it had been negative, I would have just gritted my teeth and hoped that readers disagreed. What do you think about reviews? Do they guide you or annoy you or do you ignore them altogether?

Let me know to be entered in my contest, with the prize being a copy of my new book. If you're reading from my Website, please note you have to click through to the blog to post
Best,
Dawn

Only Sixty Shopping Days Left

There are only sixty days until my first SuperRomance will be on the shelves and my heart is fluttering and my palms are clammy in anticipation.

This story, A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS was a long time brewing. I've had Sylvie in my heart for years--a girl who grew up in a mall, of all places, and makes it a home for everyone who works there. It was unusual, coming from a non-shopper like moi. I was happy to give Sylvie her happy-ever-after with the guy who learned to love the place as much as she did.

This is a Christmas book, too, which is also a first for me, and lots of fun, too. Nothing like playing holiday music throughout an Arizona summer as I wrote, let me tell you. We're talking serious imagination. Sweat and wool caps do not mix.

To celebrate the upcoming release, I'm giving away five early copies of the book when they arrive next month. Just tell me about your best, worst, funniest or most boring Christmas ever and you'll be entered in the drawing.

Until then...59...58...57...56...
All my best,
Dawn

Of Demon Dogs and Fresh Starts

I just saw the cover of my November SuperRomance and got that old jittery feeling from when my first book was on the shelves--that was 24 books ago, by the way. This is my first SuperRomance and though it's solidly a Dawn Atkins book, with the same sensuality, emotion and type of story, it has a slightly different flavor.

I love this story. It has a long and complex history and has gone through many changes over the years since it first popped into my brain and demanded to be written.

It's about a girl who basically grew up in a one-of-a-kind shopping mall and the man who's about to sell it out from under her.

It's about more than that, of course, but just to give you a taste. Shopping mall, Christmas shopping, threatened job loss, sabotage and, um, Satanic puppies. Sigh.

I'm nervous. Will readers of my Blaze stories pick up this new book? Do people even BUY Christmas books? How about new readers? Will they take a chance on a "new" SuperRomance author? And, perhaps most importantly, will they choose a cover with a demon dog leering up at the couple?

This made me laugh--the weird dog picture--since the reason a Cavalier King spaniel is even in the book is because I think they're the cutest puppies EVER. I mean, melt-your-heart, stuffed-animal darling. Where this possibly rabid beast came from is beyond me. Sigh.

So, somebody reassure me that even spawn of Satan spaniels won't scare away buyers, okay? And what do you think about new/old authors writing for different lines? Oh, and Christmas books? Do they get you in the spirit or are they overkill?

Anyway, watch for this book to hit shelves in early November.
Okay, time to lie down with an ice pack on my head.

Best,

Dawn

Good-bye and Hello to New Story People

I just sent HOME TO HARMONY to my editor! That's the SuperRomance that will be out in January. (A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS releases this November, by the way.)

It's set in an old Arizona commune called HARMONY HOUSE and it features a woman who returns to the Arizona commune where she grew up with her troubled teenage son, only to fall in love with a man and the place.

It was an emotional story for me, since it's based on the idea of letting go of expectations and accepting love and people as they come to you--a personal, um, issue of my own.

I have to say Christine, Marcus and David (the teenager) have been in my mind since I finished. I miss them, you know? I'd been working on that book off and on for five years or more. I'm so glad their story will be on the shelves. January can't come too soon.

So that means I've been working on new story ideas. My brain feels like a popcorn popper shooting out ideas right and left--some fluffy, some burnt seeds. It's always a relief that I have new ideas and can find characters I fall in love with whose stories I want to tell.

I'm excited about an after-school program in a mixed neighborhood and the man and woman trying to rescue it for different reasons and in different ways. Gabriel Golden is Mexican-Irish and tough as nails. He offers an athletic program that kicks ass. Blond and bubbly Felicity Sanders wants to change the program AND Gabriel... I'm talking SPARKS.

Then there's Tara Wharton dragged back to the small town named after her family when her sister and father die in a suspicious accident...that might have been murder. Her high school soul-mate, Dylan Ryland, now the town manager, seems to be protecting the chief suspect--his own father.

I'm starting to get attached to these folks and can't wait to fish their stories out of my fevered brain. It will be a struggle, I promise you. At times like this I need the address of that warehouse in Schnectedy--you know, the one where they store the good ideas?
All my best,
Dawn Atkins

No Man is an Island of Worry

There is an island somewhere in the Caribbean that two countries have been hotly fighting over. There was diplomatic tension, ongoing threats of attack, etc.

Enter global warming and last month the island dropped into the sea.Gone...glub, glub, glub. No more dispute. Case closed.

That got me thinking about worry.

(Of course. Everything gets me thinking about worry.)

Specifically thinking about all the things I've worried about over the years that never happen at all. What's the saying? Worrying about tomorrow only sucks the joy from today.

So true.

A friend of mine is very, very popular. She's on numerous on-line groups, is active in clubs, well known and beloved everywhere she goes. Recently, her mother, a psychiatrist, mused, "You know, if I'd know how popular you would end up being, I wouldn't have worried so much about you being lonely in college."

That mother endured hours, months and years of needless worry. And she was a shrink, who, no doubt, knew better!

Meanwhile, the real troubles slam us out of left field. We're wringing our hands and sweating in the completely wrong direction.

That means that when I worry about whether my son will do well in college, find a good job, be loved his life long, or whether my first SuperRomance, A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS, coming in November, will sell well, or if my editor will love the one I'm working on right now as much, I'm simply poisoning many lovely days, weeks, months and years. Right?

Absolutely. Gotta stop that.

Maybe I'll worry about how much I worry for a while...

What pointless worries do you have? How do you banish them?

My advice is Bobby McFerrin's: Don't worry, be happy.

I double dog dare you.

Best,

Dawn Atkins

www.dawnatkins.com

A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS, HQ SuperRomance, 11/10