I must be dreaming! “A Creed in Stone Creek” is number 1 for a second week.
How do I feel?
Amazed.
Somewhat numb.
And grateful as all get out.
Among many other reasons to be thankful, I have the best publishing team (Harlequin) and editor (Joan Marlow Golan) and agent (Irene Goodman) and personal publicist (Nancy Berland), in the business. I’m getting lots of kudos these days, but I didn’t do this alone by any means. All of these people played a big part. Donna, Loriana, Tara, KO, Michele, you believed in me, all along. (The team is actually much larger, but I’m afraid I’ll leave someone out if I try to name everybody!)
The Harlequin sales force is downright dynamic.
The marketing people come up with a new and amazing promotional idea every five minutes–and then follow through. 🙂
Margie Miller, the art director at Harlequin, along with her great team, is responsible for those wonderful McKettrick and Creed videos, as well as the covers. Margie has an eye for a cowboy, all right.
Here on the homefront, Mary Ann the Trail Boss keeps the herd rolling, with the help of her husband, Larry, aka the Canadian Wrangler. Jenni, my niece and assistant, does all sorts of things, including getting Sadie-beagle to her trainer three times a week. (Now to get ME to a trainer three times a week. Insert sigh here.) Debbie Korrell, down in Colorado Springs, balances the books, and Nicole Blint answers emails. Without my crew, I wouldn’t get anywhere near as much writing done.
This is beginning to sound like an Oscar speech, a result I didn’t intend, but there are so, so many people deserving of a shout out and a big thank you. My mother, Hazel Lael, gave me my love of books and writing, my dad, the late Skip Lael, taught us all solid western values, and then there are my sibs, my vast collection of cousins, and all my friends, old and new.
Everything went into the mix.
So my sincerest thanks to all.
