To all my wonderful readers, friends, and prospective readers:

If this is your first visit, welcome! If you've been here before, thanks so much for your loyalty and encouragement through the past three years, during which I've moved, had double knee replacement, and written two books that weren't exactly what my wonderful editor had in mind. Now, at long last, I finally have some great news!

GREAT NEWS!

Three major rewrites later, I've come up with a funny, heartwarming book for women of all ages. Wedding Belles, the third novel of my Red Hat Club trilogy, will be coming out this September second! Please help me spread the word by contacting any of your friends, fellow bloggers, and e-mail friends who might enjoy my books. Even if they haven't read the first two red Hat Club books, they'll still enjoy this one. And as always with my women's fiction, my readers will laugh a lot, cry a little, learn something, and end up feeling good.

Here's the scoop on the story: After Georgia Baker's precious only daughter Callie completes her PhD in theoretical mathematics at GA Tech, she delivers a New Year's bombshell by announcing that she's getting married. Since Callie just broke up with her tepid boyfriend, Georgia and John worry that this seems awfully sudden. But Callie explains that it's okay; they've all known and loved her fiancé for years: She's going to be wife number three to her father's best friend— "Wild Man" Wade from their old fraternity days, who's been in rehab at least twice that Georgia knows about!

Georgia will be younger than her son-in-law, and live-wire Callie has no idea what life will be like married to a fifty-nine-year-old! When Callie refuses Georgia's plea to delay the wedding, the Red Hat Club swings into action to help their old friend get through the nuptials, complete with a surprise reluctant-mother-of-the-bride shower and a geriatric stripper at the lingerie shower!

And for my RED HAT CLUB fans, every few weeks on this web site, I'll be offering flashbacks to each of the Wedding Belles characters' weddings that didn't make it into the final edit. Just click on the preview link to access the current offering and read the previous ones.

As soon as I find out what my tour schedule will be, I'll post those to the appearances link.

MORE GREAT NEWS!

Inspired by the topic of Wedding Belles, I've written a practical, funny, and heartwarming little handbook titled The Twelve Sacred Traditions of Magnificent Mothers-in-Law—a great read or shower gift for any woman who has a mother-in-law, is about to become one, or is one. I was blessed with a wonderful mother-in-law in Margie Smith, who lived across the street from me for thirty years and provided plenty of great examples for my down-to-earth traditions, combined with anecdotes from friends who were similarly blessed (names have been changed to protect the guilty), for a positive take on a usually negative topic. So get ready to laugh and learn next spring in time for Mother's day and the wedding season.

Those of you who have awful mothers-in-law can send them a copy anonymously.

The price will be under ten dollars. If you'd like to preorder a copy, just click on haywood100@aol.com and contact me with BOOK ORDER in the subject line (you won't need to pay till we ship your copies to you), then I'll e-mail you when we have the particulars so you can purchase yours in advance of the regular distribution.

UPCOMING BOOKS

As for what's next, I'm currently reworking Ladies of the Lake for release in the fall of 2009, a funny Southern Gothic sister book about life, love, and family secrets. Old alliances and old rivalries quickly surface when the four Barrett sisters must spend the entire summer with just each other, completely out of the contexts by which we women define ourselves, at the beloved lake of their childhood summers in order to inherit and sell the valuable acreage. But the sisters get far more than they bargained for, including love in a most unexpected package for one; a new understanding of their late, self-absorbed grandmother for all of them; and two mummified dead bodies—one in a WWI doughboy's uniform—walled up in the root cellar in great-granddaddy's masterpiece hand-carved chairs!

The practical sister says they have to call the police so they can find out how the men died. The touchy-feely sister says they have to notify the police so the men's families can be found and told what happened to them. The desperate divorcee says they have to get rid of the bodies so the sale can close in time to keep her Buckhead home from foreclosure. And the sweet, garage-sale queen of a baby sister calls, "Dibs on the chairs." As a compromise, Andromeda Strain meets "I Love Lucy" when the sisters carefully transfer the bodies into decorated heavy-mil Christmas tree bags (the closest they could get to body bags) then deposit them on a remote park bench—the dancing Santa bags tied with big red bows—and call the cops with an anonymous tip. Things just get wilder from there. By summer's end, they all come away with far more than money.

I also have two other projects in the works to follow Ladies of the Lake.

SPECIAL THANKS!

So thanks for your loyalty and encouragement. As always, I love to hear from readers at haywood100@aol.com. Just click on the address to reach me. God bless each of you. Every single book sale means so much to my career. Thanks to all of you, I am living my dream. (Which is great, because I'm not fit for anything else.)

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

On the personal side, I am living across the street from my son and fabulous daughter-in-law and precious grandson and granddaughter, with another granddaughter due on June 28, 2008, God willing.

Every week, I get to bring each of my grandchildren up to "Gogo's" house for the most fun I've ever had. (Please indulge me in a little bragging.) My baby granddaughter is a real live wire, interested in everything, who reminds me of her daddy when he was little. And thanks to my brilliant daughter-in-law, my grandson (three in May) already knows his numbers, colors, shapes, left from right, plus his letters and the sounds they make. I'm floored. I didn't know any of that when I went to kindergarten!

Every day, I thank the Good Lord for the chance to be right across the street from them, the way my wonderful mother-in-law was for my family. And I do my best to be as good a mother-in-law to Courtney as mine was to me. As for my shortcomings, read The Twelve Sacred Traditions of Magnificent Mothers-in-Law. I don't spare myself.

Lastly, I promise to be better about updating my web site, especially now that I finally have concrete news to tell you, so please feel free to check in often.

YOU'LL SOON BE HEARING FROM ME:

I'll be sending out a test mailing soon to make sure I have your e-mail addresses correct and to offer you the chance to opt out list if you don't wish to receive the newsletter I'll be sending just before each book release, with info about discounts and personal appearances. I promise, I won't clobber you with e-mails. Once the e-mail list is up-to-date, I'll be sending the newsletter with information about my Wedding Belles fall book tour, so you and your friends can make plans to come visit if I'm in your area. I LOVE meeting readers.

And when I'm on the road, I really enjoy having breakfast or dinner with book clubs, Divas, Ya-yas, and Red Hat chapters. (I'm a pushover for a free meal.)

PERSONAL APPEARANCES

As always, I waive my usual speaker's fee when I appear at large women's charity fundraisers and regional Red Hat get-togethers (with a minimum of 250 pre-sold tickets, the proceeds of which are all yours). All I ask is that my hosts bring me in, put me up in pet-free, smoke-free accommodations, feed me something I can eat (I'm a cheap date; I don't drink), pay my basic expenses; and have a local bookseller provide copies of my books to offer after I speak (no pressure). Many booksellers will donate a portion of the sales to your favorite charity, which makes it a win, win, win situation—my favorite kind.

For trade shows or professional events, contact me well in advance at haywood100@aol.com, and I'll have my assistant send you specific terms and requirements. I can only do two out-of-town events a month, so my calendar gets booked up pretty quickly, but I have occasional cancellations (like the New Orleans event that was supposed to be right after Katrina), so even if you're not booking for next year, e-mail me anyway and I'll see what we can do.

To inquire about personal appearances, just contact me at haywood100@aol.com.

INFO and PHOTOS:

To request a signing or an e-mailed photo, please contact John Karle (Car'-lee) at St. Martins Press at John.karle@stmartins.com.

Thanks again for visiting my web site.

I remain your fan and friend,

Haywood