The Cover Gods Strike Once Again!

I was going to wait until my next website update on May 1st to unveil the new cover for THE RECRUIT, but of course, guess what? Yep, Amazon already has it up (I guess Random House has already had it up for 2 weeks!). I mentioned on FB how much I love this cover. I think it's my sexiest yet--and that's saying something! I love the pose, and it really feels like there's movement to it. Oh yea, the abs aren't too shabby either :) So what do you think of Kenneth?

How much do you know about your heritage?

One of the benefits of writing about real historical figures is that I receive emails from readers who are related to some of the people/clans I've written about. I've even received emails from Bruce descendants--which is really cool! (I've also had to apologize to a few Comyn and MacDougall descendants, LOL). Sometimes, the books have inspired readers to go digging deeper into the family genealogical charts.

I went through a period, probably around fifteen years ago, when I became really interested in genealogy. My aunt is the resident family historian, and using some of her information I filled out a fairly extensive family tree using Family Tree Maker software. Unfortunately, as that was about 5 computers ago (when floppy discs were still being used), I don't have the info at my fingertips anymore. I do recall that we could trace one of my ancestors back to early 16th C. Sweden. Since I didn't realize I had any Swedish ancestors that was pretty neat. :)

Alas, I was disappointed to find no illustrious relatives. Nor--I'm sure you will be shocked--am I the long lost grand-daughter of a prince, duke or earl. Sadly, I don't think I'll be inheriting any long lost family castles.

I did find out a few things:

--One of my great grandfather's fought in the American Revolution

--Another was a semi-professional baseball player (given that I married a baseball player I thought that was cool)

--My father's Irish ancestors did not come over during the potato famine, rather my ancestor was the younger brother, so when the family farm went to the elder, he took a boat to America.

--My mom's grandmother fled Mexico to get away from Pancho Villa. She made it over the border because she was blonde-haired, blue-eyed and could say "coca-cola." (Passed for American).

My father's mother was Scottish (Ferguson), but I don't know much about where they came from. That's on the list of things to research at some point. Ironically, there was a Ferguson who fought with Bruce and was reported with him when he fled to the Western Isles. I wanted to write about him in THE HAWK, but ran out of page space :)

Are you interested in genealogy? Do you have a resident family historian? How much do you know about your family? Any cool relatives?

The Saint is a NYT (#23) and USA Today (#72) Bestseller!

I'm cracking open the bubbly tonight--well, actually a Guinness--to celebrate THE SAINT's hitting the bestseller lists! Thank you all so much for your support. It's such a wonderful marker for an author, but it couldn't be done without you guys. So to all of you who have recommended the books to friends, spread the word on review sites or social networking, pre-ordered, ran out and bought a copy right away (or downloaded!), I truly appreciate it. Cheers from me!

It's Here!

I'm thrilled to be able to say that THE SAINT is now in stores! I hope you guys fall in love with Magnus as much as I did! As always, I love to hear where you see the book if you are out an about. I'm blogging over at Romance at Random today to celebrate the release, stop by if you get a chance.

Is there such a thing as too much reading?

One of our inside family jokes to our daughter is taken from the brilliant musical Matilda that we saw in Stratford-upon-Avon in Nov. 2010. Our 12 year old daughter has her nose in a book so often, we ask her why she can't be like a normal kid and watch telly (you can hear part of the song here).

Talk about ironic timing. I was thinking about writing this blog yesterday, and I opened up Yahoo this morning to see that Matilda has been nominated for 10 Oliver awards! We've been talking about it (raving!) since we saw the opening preview shows of the premier two years ago at the RSC. I think I've mentioned it on the blog before. It's the first musical I've ever been to where I hadn't heard any of the songs before, but absolutely fell in love with it. Really brilliant writing. If you've read the book or seen the movie with Danny Devito it's even better. When it crosses the pond to NY next year, I'm sure we won't be alone in my enthusiasm. We feel very fortunate to have caught it when it first opened (literally first few shows).

Anyway, back to reading. I did a poll on FB to see how much you read. I probably average 1-2 hours a day (average--some days will be much longer). Do you think it's possible to read too much?

And the Winner is . . .

(Insert drumroll) Sabrina Tyndall! Congratulations to Sabrina, and thank you all for the wonderful posts on the covers. I truly enjoy hearing everyone's favorites, and it's fun to see the love spread around.

Sabrina, to claim your prize please email me ASAP at the contact email on my website: http://www.monicamccarty.com/contact.php with your mailing address.

Guess what I have to give away?

Yes, waiting for me when I returned from Tahoe was a beautiful hot-off-the-presses copy of The Saint! I know it's only two weeks until release day, but I thought there might be someone out there who wouldn't mind an early copy? :)

Just tell me this: What is your favorite cover of mine? (Here they all are.)

All the normal contest rules apply (http://www.monicamccarty.com/contest.php#rules). To be eligible to win, you can leave your answer here on the blog, on Facebook, or on Twitter. I want to get it out soon, so you will only have until Wednesday at 5 pm PST. I'll choose a winner Wednesday night and (hopefully) pop it in the mail on Thursday.

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!