Book Signing

If you happen to live in the vicinity of Austin, Texas, it would be a pleasure to see you at my one and only book signing for Private Arrangements.

B. Dalton Booksellers (Highland Mall)
Saturday April 5, 2008
1-3pm

Here is a map.

For a reminder for my book signing, e-mail me and I will do the remembering for you.

ARC Contest!

To participate in this contest, purchase a copy of Private Arrangements in the first 2 weeks of its release (3.25.08—4.7.08). Send me a scan of your receipt to writersherrythomas@gmail.com, with the subject “ARC Contest”, or send me a physical copy of your receipt to Sherry Thomas, P.O.Box 201372, Austin, TX 78720-1372. Three winners will each receive an advance copy of Delicious, my August 2008 release. The drawing will be held on May 1, 2008.

There is another contest exclusive to subscribers of my newsletter and wouldn't cost you a penny to enter--though the prizes are different. :-) To subscribe to the newsletter, click here.

Private Arrangements Trivia

PA’s original title was Schemes of Love. Bantam’s marketing department came up with a list of new titles. My inner prude almost died at the thought of telling people that my book is called Sleeping Arrangements. We entertained Not Quite a Husband and The Perfect Marriage. But Private Arrangements won and I have to say I like it a lot.

PA takes place around the turn-of-the-century, a relatively little-used time period for romances. If you are unfamiliar with the era, here is a quick-and-dirty introduction to the period that I wrote for Fresh Fiction blog. One of my favorite reasons for setting my stories in this era? Good personal hygiene!

I rewrote PA from scratch from August 2005 to July 2006. Before that, there was an original version, which was my first manuscript, completed in 2000. That version was set in the 1830s. Because I loved the locales from The Sound of Music, the 1830s version of PA featured a long road trip through Austria—which I modeled after the journey of novelist Frances Milton Trollope, as recounted in her 1838 book Vienna and the Austrians : with some account of a journey through Swabia, Bavaria, the Tyrol, and the Salzbourg(sic). I think in that version Gigi and Camden visited Mozart’s house in Salzburg. :-)

Book Recommendations

Like most book lovers, I am always looking for that next fabulous read. This months I read several books that I really enjoyed. Allow me to share them with you.

The Mediterranean Rebel's Bride by Lucy Gordon. A short book that packs an amazing emotional wallop.
Ruggiero once spent two weeks with "Sapphire", a fascinating woman who disappeared on him. He is still desperately in love with her. Polly, an English nurse, is "Sapphire"'s cousin. She comes to Ruggiero with the news that "Sapphire" has died and left behind a toddler son: his son.

"Sapphire" was not the perfect woman Ruggiero believed her to be. He must come to grips with not only the loss of the person he loved, but the loss of his vision of her. With both firmness and tenderness, Polly guides him on this difficult journey. The characters are unexpected and unexpectedly smart. This book has great heart.

Deliver me by Farrah Rochon. It has heart; it has spirit; it has sass. It has a hero and a heroine who are both ace physicians and hot and likable. And it has a heartbreaking secondary romance that is beautiful and unusual. Reminds me of Susan Elizabeth Phillips's books.

The Other Sister by Lynda Sandoval. A young man returns to the town he fled ten years before when his best friend died in a fiery crash on Prom Night. I love the mountain town location. And once past the first chapter, I was either smiling, laughing, or crying, all the way to the end. A wonderful read.

May your shelves always overflow with great books to read.

Best,
Sherry
SherryThomas.com