www.debbierigaud.com

Big news, guys! I’m super excited to announce that I’ve been invited to become a member of the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit (GCC). Haaay!

The GCC is a blog community of  fabulous YA authors like fellow Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies pals Jennifer Echols and Wendy Toliver. Being a member means that I get to go on an online tour that’ll stop at each of their popular blogs. In turn, I’ll be featuring interviews with each of the GCC authors here on my humble little blog.

This is a super huge boost for all the publicity I have to do ahead of PERFECT SHOT’s December 1st release. It’s also gonna be great fun interviewing all the impressive authors in the GCC community. I’m looking forward to playing host to them here.

I’d like to send a special “hey gurl” to Jennifer Echols who threw my name in the GCC nomination ring. Merci mucho much, Jenn!

Here’s the full list of GCC members: Melissa Walker, Diana Rodriguez Wallach, Lucienne Diver, Jennifer Banash, Linda Gerber, Teri Brown, Wendy Toliver, April Henry, Megan Kelly Hall, Eileen Cook, Stephanie Kuehnert, Sara Hantz, Carrie Jones, Jennifer Echols, Megan Crane, Shanna Swendson, Amanda Ashby, Laurie Stolarz, Kelly Para, Jennifer O’Connell, and fellow newbies Suzanne Young and Jeri Smith-Ready

My GCC tour week is November 29 – December 5th. Can’t wait!

Bill has left the building. Now he’s someone else’s problem.

Thankfully, the storm was mild and didn’t cause much harm to the island. The coast bore the brunt of the damage. I wonder if some of the sand erosion will be reversed in time. It would be a shame to see those gorgeous pink sand beaches shrink…

But all went well with my Honey and me. It was a fright-free evening. The power flickered a few times, but never went out. We slept like babies and woke up to a pleasantly windy day. No need for the A/C. Just slide open the glass doors and feel the nice breeze.

Hurricane Bill is making its way through Bermuda’s ’hood (read: the Mid-Atlantic) and the hubby and I are prepping for the storm. It’s our first hurricane so we don’t know what to expect. Bermudians are pretty low-key about the whole thing—but as newbies, we don’t have to be.

We’ve stocked up on ice, water, canned goods and first aid supplies, so now it’s all about seeing what happens. Earlier today, curiosity led me to the beach with my gurl Sonu (another ex-pat from Jersey). We just wanted to see these crazy surfs everyone was talking about. The storm was still hundreds of miles away, so it wasn’t dangerous to be out there. (Trust—as skittish as we are, Sonu and I would make the worst storm chasers. We wouldn’t have ventured out if there was any risk.)  I’m having trouble uploading the short video I made, so here’s the next best thing.

These photos don’t do the high surfs and sand-swirling much justice, but you get the idea. Grey storm clouds were moving in and Elbow Beach looked like it lost couple of inches around the waist. It’s usually a much wider stretch of sand. Very cool.

Friends and family have been calling/emailing, asking if the stom has arrived. Not yet. Later tonight through tomorrow morning is when we’ll be expecting the worst of it (hurricane-force to tropical-storm winds and most likely a loss of power). Fortunately, Bill won’t be hitting us directly. That’s great news, ’cause we don’t want no trouble with him. If anything, we’re in for a little adventure.

Now…let’s see who cries out for their mommy first–me or the hubby!

We’re a month into our Half-Year’s Resolution. How’s everyone doing? I admit, July was full of false starts. Really, I’m full of excuses, but the thing about excuses is that they’re…well, excuses. So I figure if I tell you what’s on my plate, I’ll be more dedicated to getting it done in a timely manner.

Full disclosure: I’m working on two new books—one romantic comedy and one paranormal tale. Right now I’m focusing on banging out a few chapters of the ro-com. Okay, maybe just one chapter. (Lemme stop frontin’ like I’m such a disciplined work horse. Neigh.) It takes a while for me to get going, but once I finally do, the words flow.

To be honest, a lot of days I feel like your boy Don Music. Remember him? Like me, you probably recognize Don’s antics, not his name. But I could totally relate to dude and his creative frustrations. This is how my process goes down most days:

My other Half-Year’s Resolution is to get in more reading each month. Right now, since I’m in ro-com writing mode, I’m reading Melissa Walker’s Lovestruck Summer. Perfect timing, too, because it’s a fun beach read. Melissa—a fellow magazine-editor-turned-author—signed a copy of the book for me at BEA. Lovely girl (with a cool blog and the rockin’ newsletter I Heart Daily). I have so many books that are waiting for my read. Not sure which one I’ll hit next. Maybe Kendra by Coe Booth (since I really liked her book Tyrell) or  The Lost Island of Tamarind by Bermuda’s own Nadia Aguiar. [deep sigh] So many reading adventures to go on…

The next thing on my list is a slight revamp of my website. I’ve got a much better illustration of me going up very soon. (One of them is already up on my bio page.) Check back very soon for a Q&A with the fabulous teen illustrator (and future YA author) Jhenne!

After my last post, friends have called to tell me what their Half-Year’s Resolutions are. Who else is with me? There’s plenty of room on this here bandwagon. Hop on!