Author: Gina Wilkins

The news reports lately have been so depressing and distressing that it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sadness and tragedies in the world around us. I have to confess that sometimes it makes it hard for me to lose myself in the happy-ever-after stories I have wanted to write all my life.

Yet I’ve decided that those tragedies make it even more important for us to appreciate every day we have. To enjoy our family and friends — and make sure they know how much they mean to us. To take advantage of opportunities that present themselves to us. To strive to accomplish more, even in the face of obstacles and rejections. To live in such a way that our little corner of the world is a better place because we were in it.

The stories I write won’t change the world. I’m not trying to teach great lessons or deliver deep messages. I’m simply trying to entertain. To divert. I hope I’ve given all my readers a few hours of fun and escape from their daily problems. I know the pleasure I’ve found in other writers’ books has gotten me through many difficult times. Just this past week, Carla Negger’s wonderful THE ANGEL and the latest J.D. Robb thriller, KINDRED IN DEATH, provided me with entertainment and distraction while my husband was undergoing some medical tests (all is well with him, thank goodness)! Reading has always been my favorite escape.

I spotted the dog above on a trip to a beach in Rockport, Massachusetts. His human companion was throwing rocks among the seawood-covered boulders and the dog was chasing them and retrieving them for her. He was having a wonderful time. It was a damp, cool day, but he didn’t care. His only goal was to chase those rocks and savor every moment of the game. He ran so fast and so enthusiastically that it was all I could do to snap a photo of him, but I knew that was a moment I wanted to capture, to remind myself in days ahead of the joy this beautiful dog found in his simple activity.

We can’t live every day happily chasing rocks, but we can try to make time in our busy, often stressful lives for fun. For perfect moments of pleasure and gratitude. I hope you find many moments like that in the seven short weeks left of 2009!

Don’t forget to enter the contest! It’s easy. Just drop me an email with your name at gina.w@live.com. I’m giving away two Christmas-themed books this month in honor of the upcoming holidays. Click on the Enter to Win! tab above for details.

The winner of the drawing for the two connected Harlequin NASCAR books, HEARTS UNDER CAUTION and ALMOST FAMOUS is …

Jane Squires of Missouri!

Congratulations, Jane. The books will be in the mail this week.

We’re going to get in the holiday mood for the December 1 drawing. The prize will be two of my Christmas-themed romances, MAKE-BELIEVE MISTLETOE and THE HOMECOMING. Click the Enter to Win! tab above for details on how to enter.

Where do you get your ideas?

I hear this question all the time, especially after I admit I’ve written more than 90 books. Where do you get your ideas? As if there’s a store someplace just for that purpose.

But seriously, ideas are the most fun part of my job. I daydream for a living, and I enjoy sharing my daydreams with my readers. Ideas are everywhere. In the newspaper. On TV. On the radio. Walking through the mall, hearing snatches of conversation. Sitting in a restaurant, watching a couple across the room. I never know what will spark an interesting scenario that I’ll work into one of my books.

Arkansas has been “blessed” with an over-abundance of rain this year. We’re well over our annual average of rainfall, which has played havoc on farmers, road crews, golf courses, and so many other professions. Our annual State Fair was just in Little Rock, and attendance was down by a big percentage because of the downpours every day. But my husband and son and I were able to make it over one day for lunch at the fairgrounds and our annual stroll down the fairway, through the animal exhibits and into the Hall of Industry. Why is it that corn dogs taste so much better at the fairgrounds than anywhere else? We weren’t the only ones who took advantage of that relatively dry afternoon; the fairway was crowded with families, teenagers and couples.

As it happened, I thought of a scene for my current project while I was wandering down that fairway. Don’t be surprised if you see a fair scene pop up in book three of my Doctors in Training series! As I said, ideas are everywhere — and I love going out looking for them.

Don’t forget to enter the contest! I’ll be drawing on November 1, just a few days away. Click the Enter to Win! tab above for details on how to enter.

As you might guess from the photo above, I’m in St. Louis, attending a Novelists, Inc. conference. I’ve got a full day planned today of forensics workshops — coroners, FBI, trauma nurses, police detectives, all here to talk to us about murder and crime for use in our books. In the following days, I’ll be attending workshops about various issues in the publishing industry, meeting quite a few published writers I haven’t yet had the chance to meet, and catching up with some long time writer friends. Though I’ve only been here a day, it’s been a lot of fun so far and I expect to come home tired and better educated about my career.

Contest winner! I’ve drawn the name for the winner of the latest contest. Karen Owens of my home state of Arkansas has won the two-in-one-volume ONCE A FAMILY. Congratulations, Karen.

The prize for the next contest will be two connected books again. With the chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship winding down (and Arkansas’s own Mark Martin currently in the lead in points — woohoo!), I thought I’d celebrate by offering my first two NASCAR stories as a prize for November 1. The books are titled HEARTS UNDER CAUTION and ALMOST FAMOUS. Even if you know nothing about the world of NASCAR, I think you’ll enjoy these stories, which focus on two good friends and associates, crew chief Wade McClellan and race car driver Jake Hinson. More details are available by clicking the Enter to Win! tab above. I hope to see a lot of entries this month. Good luck!

And now, off to learn about murder and mayhem!