“Pick a fight with cancer” was the slogan at today’s Lance Armstrong Foundation LiveStrong Challenge bike ride, which my hubby trained for and finished (yay!). All proceeds fund the war on cancer (double yay!).

 (the starting line)

If you’ve never participated in or even watched an event like this, you should. It’s awesome. 3800 riders, including many cancer survivors, and an atmosphere that makes you feel all is right with the world. It was a beautiful day and people were happy, cheering, united in their support for a great cause as well as for the athletes who worked so hard to make this happen. And the smiles of the riders when they crossed the finish line—oh, sweet accomplishment!

(the first wave of riders takes off—look at the giant crowd still waiting behind the line!)

I got a little teary-eyed being surrounded by so much positive energy and inspiration. (Or was I crying because I seriously wanted to be one of those riders but had already picked running over cycling..?)

(Stud crosses the finish line after 45 miles)

All I can say is wow, and I wanna do that, and wow, and this was a very cool experience which will be repeated—and next year, I’m doing the run and the ride. Place your bets now. (Hint: you will lose. )

(Lance Armstrong’s behind…really, I wasn’t aiming for this. He rode right past me at the start and finish, but I was a bit slow with the camera.)

According to the announcer, this guy rode 90 miles in less than 4 hours, averaging over 30 mi/hr. Now you know why he won all those big races in France.

Special proud-of-you shout-outs to hubby, and congrats to everyone who finished the course!

Well, not really a pan, but a PAN. What does this mean? Absolutely nothing, if you don’t write romance and have no idea what RWA means. But since you asked…

It stands for Published Author Network, Romance Writers of America’s division for, uh, published authors (duh). On one hand, it’s like leaving behind senior status at your high school to become part of an enormous college campus where you’re a wimpy, newbie freshman. There are authors who make gobs of money in this PAN thing and I…am not one of them. The great news, however: this is one of those steps on the l-o-n-g road of publishing that deserves a few shakes of the pom-pom—or better yet, champagne and flowers and dinner out (ahem). It’s like the GH final, the book contract, the RITA nomination or hitting the bestseller list. For most writers, these moments are few and far between, and must be shouted from the rooftops (yay!!!).

The point is, my contract wasn’t enough—I had to sell some books to qualify for this. So to everyone who bought a copy of my May release, Sexy by Design, thank you. Thank you so much for making my first book a success, for nudging me to the next level of my career, for making it clear that last year’s decision to broaden my publishing horizons was a good one.

And thanks to Tera, my editor, for recognizing my genius enjoying my writing and giving me a shot.

Okay, back on hiatus (see below). See you in a couple of weeks, when For His Eyes Only hits the virtual shelves!

Busy and stuff…

In the meantime, if you had to choose between an author’s blog, Twitter, or Facebook, which would you prefer? Thinking about a redesign. Not sure lengthy blogs are necessary anymore. Thoughts?

~

The best part of this article, a top story on CNN.com: ”there’s a mass market for e-books”.

Work it.

(Of course, if you’re a traditional reader, I’ll be in print next spring. )

over at Nobody Writes It Better. (No, not those toys. Kid toys, from back in the day. Who’s ready for the holidays?)