Best of Harlequin office visit: Meeting the art director Blake and Connie, the marketing product manager. It was so COOL! We walked into Blake’s office and he had the computer cursor on a cover model’s bicep and was clicking to make it bigger. I immediately asked if I sent him a picture if he could “click” me on a waistline and a pair of Angelina Jolie lips. :x It was fascinating to move through their initial concepualization for our covers to the final product. Also rather enlightening to discover that they do actually read and use the Art Fact Sheets that I often breeze through. They’ve done a great job of individualizing the covers and really reflecting the stories within, IMO, in the last several months, especially when I think of my covers for Daring in the Dark, Anticipation, and Highland Fling. I swore on the spot to do a better job of filling out those art fact sheets.

Second Best of Harelquin office visit: Not making us totally late getting into the office. Yours truly, Jen the Bright One, rolled out of bed at 6:15 for a run that morning. Before starting out, I duly noted the intersecting streets…and then I managed to get myself lost, sort of. It would stand to reason that what looks like a major thoroughfare between two parallell major thoroughfares would connect them. Not the case. I wasn’t precisely lost because I knew if I backtracked I could get back, but it was a long way and I was running out of time…literally. All I could think was that I was going to make us late into the office and I didn’t dare stop running and walk it because that would take too long. At the point that I had run about 4 miles, I knew if I ran the rest of the way back, they’d be hauling me into the office on a stretcher, I decided to do something I’ve never done before — hitch a ride. :o As a rule, I really dislike generalizing, but I think it’s fair to say that Canadians are a fairly conservative people. You should’ve seen the nice woman’s face when she walked out of her house, got in her car and I ran up to her passenger window and knocked on it, sweaty and desperate, and pleaded for a ride.:d

Worst Moment at Harlequin office: Spilling my cup of earl grey tea on me on the way in and arriving tea stained.

Best Moment Otherwise: This is a tie. Sea kayaking on Lake Simcoe was wonderful. Gorgeous weather and the water was beautiful. Especially a pleasure when I managed to enter and exit the kayak without upending it. (I haven’t yet, but it’s always a distinct humiliating possiblity) The other best moment was the canopy tour where Brenda was jumping up and down on the 10-inch swinging walkway with an evil grin and Rhonda was shrieking behind me, “Is she doing that on purpose?” Uh…Yeah.:[

Worst Moment Otherwise: My editor’s beloved cat Puddinhead hated me which is quite confounding considering I love animals and they usually like me in return. At one point, Puddy cornered me and had me doing an Irish jig to keep my ankles out of reach. Apparently from Princess Rhonda’s vantage point on the couch it appeared that I kicked the cat. Between howls of laughter, at my expense I might add, she gasped, “You idiot. You just killed your career when you kicked that cat.” I shrieked, “Quit!” at the cat but I swear I didn’t kick her. (@) HTG.