Yesterday was one of those perfect days . . .

Except for, you know, the part where my fridge had evidently died sometime Tuesday while we were gone so I spent a couple of hours cleaning it out and throwing everything away. But - talk about LITTLE DETAILS!!!

First, I opened my e-mail and received a review for NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST that made me a little teary. You know, from a reviewer who TOTALLY GOT what I was going for in the book? She said (and sorry to post so much of it, but come on!!):

NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST is a hoot! This book is funny, entertaining, and heartwarming -- a well-written, fast-paced story all wrapped inside one little bookcover. The alternating first person points of view between these two contrasting protagonists make an exciting and wonderful tale that we all can identify with. Kirby's take-charge attitude has helped her escape her childhood. Although she really is a nice person at heart, she has taken the path so many of us take on the way up the corporate ladder: wrapping ourselves inside a metal casing, lest we break something in the process of learning to stand up to people. Brianna is Kirby's opposite. She's learned to be the nice girl: always smile, and never, ever, be disagreeable, even if it means her own feelings get trampled in the process.

A plethora of secondary characters are also special, but it's when Brianna and Kirby decide to work together and help each other that the book becomes magic. While each of them wishes to be in the other's shoes, they find out that sometimes the grass is not greener on the other side, but that they can cultivate their own worlds for happiness. Kirby learns some valuable lessons in people management that no one but a small child can teach; and Brianna finds that her dream of singing opera is more within her reach than ever before, if only one person will believe in her. NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST is a top-notch story for a summer beach read, and one not to be missed.
- Diana Risso, Romance Reviews Today

THEN, as if the day needed to get better, I found out that my first novel, AMERICAN IDLE, won the Beacon contest!! First place in the chick lit category! Huge congrats to my fellow finalists, Lynda Sandoval and Lori Avocato, too!

Finally, I talked to my darling editor and she said she loved my novella for my November anthology, THE NAKED TRUTH! The evil fortune cookies cracked her up!

Really, compared to all of that, what's a couple hundred dollars' worth of spoiled food???