Dear Reader,

It's conference time for me again, and as I write this, I'm at the end of my first day at the Romance Writers of America Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. It was a productive day, and I learned some new things to help me in my writer's journey. It was also grand to network with new people and to meet old friends. Don't worry, I wear a mask for everything except eating. Tomorrow, Linda and I will present for the first time at a national conference on our process as writing partners. Wish us luck!

I've always loved conferences. They're my chance to get away from my family for some 'me time' that is related to my work as an author and that involves something more than sleeping. Does that make me a bad mom/wife? Sorry, not sorry! If the well runs dry, not only will my writing suffer, but so will my family.

In other news, I am an award winner! *Insert image of me doing the dance of joy*

My novel His Christmas Love won an Emma Award for Best Interracial Romance at the RSJ Convention that ended on July 16. Yay me!

It was also nominated for Favorite Heroine and Favorite Hero by the Readers panel. Additionally, A Catered Affair was nominated for Best Women's Fiction and Best Cover.

As you can imagine, I'm excited and humbled by these accolades, and I'm so grateful for them, particularly this month. I can only hope that this joy will buoy me up for the next few months, as I will be heading to Jamaica for my father-in-law's funeral in mid-August. I have a third conference to attend in September in Niagara Falls, Canada, where I will also be a featured author. Being busy is not only necessary but good for my soul!

I have several projects which will come due soon, including the third book in the Serendipity series, titled Back At Last, and a novella for the Christmas anthology, Wanted: Mistletoe. Click on the title to find and pre-order the anthology on your favorite digital platform. And for a bit of a visual, what do you think about this ad? I quite like it, and no, I didn't design this one. The image for the actual cover is the same as this ad, and if you're like me, six-pack abs are always a win-win!

Have you read any Christmas-in-July novels so far this month? Care to share their titles? I'm always up for new reading material and would love to hear from you. In the meantime, I need to go to bed because the workshop that I'm co-presenting starts at 9:30, and Linda and I need to be ready to do our thing. I hope you'll give my award-winning novella a try, and if you haven't already done so, please 1-click to pre-order the anthology, from which all the proceeds will go to charity.

Until next time,

À bientôt,

K. T.