Wild Thing is Out!

By Robin "Red Hot" Kaye





I should be more excited--my fifth book is being released today, making me a confirmed career author! Did you hear a lack of enthusiasm despite the exclamation point?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled about Wild Thing. I think it's my favorite book so far. I love Toni and Hunter. I had such a hard time doing my galleys because I kept forgetting I was supposed to be working and ended up getting so sucked into the story, before I knew it I'd read three chapters and had to go back and re-check them.

My lack of excitement stems from the fact that now, with five books under my belt, I'm considered a career author. Did you know it takes five published books to be considered a career author? Well, supposedly it does, I'm just not sure who is doing the considering. In my mind, I was a confirmed career author the day I finished my first book--after all, I had a product to sell and was actively selling it. To me, telling an author they're not a career author until after they've published five books would be like telling Ray Kroc he wasn't a career restauranteur until after he sold a billion burgers.

Now that I'm a confirmed career author I thought I would feel different. I thought people take me more seriously. Yesterday I dressed seriously, I had the whole black on black thing going (a black turtleneck, black jeans and an awesome long sweater I picked up at Chico's.) It didn't work. I might as well have been running around in sweats--I still had to go to the pharmacy and then to the school to drop off the prescription to the school nurse in case Mini-Me has an allergic reaction to her new antibiotic. Unfortunately Mini-Me is also Worst-Case-Senario-Girl, something else she picked up from me. After that I had a lovely meeting at school to go over some testing. No change there either. I had an hour to kill and went to a restaurant to have lunch--I ate over my computer while desperately trying to get my email. It was the same-old, same-old. No sign of a Nora-esque moment. My life hadn't changed a bit (well, except I didn't end up with a spot on my new black turtleneck, but that I think was more dumb luck than a sign of the change). I also ran Mini-Me to the doctor's office. The nurse mentioned that she buys my books for Christmas presents and heard one was coming out. I'm thinking cool! Here's my moment! She asked who the hero was and seemed upset it was Hunter and not Trapper. A total crash and burn. No Nora-esque moment there either.

So I ask you, am I expecting too much now that I'm a career author? Should there be a change? The only change I see are the few coins ratting around in the bottom of my purse. And if there were a change what should it be?

I'll give away a couple copies of Wild Thing to lucky commenters (US only please--which is not my decision but that of my publisher, just so you know) so be sure to leave your email addresses--just spell out the at and the dot so weird people don't get them and send you spam.