Seducing Mr. Darcy: Rip its wet, white shirt off and have your way with it.

Hi, everyone.

I hope you're enjoying the fall. I've been sitting on my back deck, trying to wring the last little bit of good weather out of the year. My deck is high on the hill upon which my house sits, so the branches of the big trees surrounding the deck end up at eye level, and one gets a very a tree-house sort of vibe while sitting here, which I love. That's a picture of my view. It's heaven, folks.

The back deck also happens to be a great place to write. So, rain days excepted, when I adjourn to my local library, I've been pumping out a lot of pages here. And I've really fallen in love with the new hero. He's a wealthy, successful artist in the seventeenth century who runs a large studio with numerous apprentices and a large staff. Every noblewoman wishes to have her portrait painted by him. But despite all the trappings of success, he is unhappy. He blames himself for not marrying the woman loved before her unexpected death. He's very troubled, one of my favorite things in a hero, and meeting my heroine--who wings her way into his life from the future and happens to look remarkably like his dead lover--makes him face the reality of both his loss and his renewed desire. It's the most romantic book I've written, and I think you'll really enjoy it. The working title is Stripped Bare. My friends call it "the painter book." Pocket Books hasn't named it yet, but as soon as they do, I'll pass the title along to you. Look for it in late 2009. Click here to view one of my hero's paintings.

NEW SURVEY
In September's survey, you chose Kate and Leopold as the best time travel movie. October's survey is also about movies. Click here to choose which romantic movie is the most "cry-able."

SEDUCING MR. DARCY NEWS
As for Seducing Mr. Darcy, it continues to get some lovely coverage. Click here to read the lovely review Stephen Knezovich wrote on it in this month's issue of Pittsburgh Magazine.

OUT AND ABOUT
I've been making a number of appearances, and fans have really been supportive. My talk on "Jane Austen, Time Travel and Becoming a Writer" covers a lot of ground and gets a lot of laughs as well. I also enjoyed doing an author panel with writers Gaelen Foley, Susan Gable, Barbara Sheridan and Holly Jacobs. Here's a picture of us at Borders in Bethel Park, PA. A special thanks to Karen Rumbaugh for arranging this.

OCTOBER CONTEST
This month you can win a signed copy of Seducing Mr. Darcy as well as a beautiful necklace by artist Cathy Engstrom, who sells her work at Pendantflair on Etsy.com. It's a lovely lead-free soldered glass pendant, topped by a black faceted bead, that reads "I dream of" on one side and "Mr. Darcy" on the other. It has a 24-inch ball chain. You'll be the talk of your friends. Click here to enter.

BEST NEW REVIEW
I want to thank the Darcy Wars Blog for their quote on Seducing Mr. Darcy, which also serves as the subject line of this email. You just can't buy a review like that.

Well, that's about it for me. In a month full of good news, the highlight for me was getting a text last week from my twenty-year-old son, who works in Washington D.C, saying, "On my Metro ride home tonight, I was sitting next to a woman reading Seducing Mr. Darcy." My heart soared, not so much because the stars aligned in such a way--though that is very cool--but because when I asked what he did, he replied, "I said, hey, my mother wrote that." If there are any parents of teens or twenty-somethings out there, you'll know why I was excited.

Celebrate October with a really big pumpkin and drop me a note anytime.

Best,

Gwyn
www.cready.com
gwyn@cready.com

P.S. As you know October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I have two friends fighting breast cancer right now, and I lost one of my bridesmaids to it two years ago. The DesignHerGals.com Gal-to-Gal Foundation raises funds to women with Stage IV breast cancer. Last year they raised $150,000. This year their goal is $250,000. Three hundred thousand women will succumb to breast cancer this year. Here's what you can do to help. Go to https://www.galtogalwalk.org/ and sign up to join the virtual walk. You'll find me there (Gwyn C, Pittsburgh PA.) Let's show our friends what we can do to help. Thank you.

Playing on my iPhone
>"Radio Nowhere," Bruce Springsteen
>"Walking on Sunshine," Katrina and the Waves
>Post Captain, Patrick O'Brian
>"I'm Gonna' Be (500 Miles)," The Proclaimers
>"Flashdance," Irene Cara
>Cell Phone Concert Lighter, Motorcyclelife
>"Welcome to the Working Week," Elvis Costello
>Flight of the Conchords, Season One
>"Come Fly with Me," Frank Sinatra
>To Catch a Thief, Alfred Hitchcock