October 2018

Pre-order Now!

Dear Readers,

SOLACE ISLAND is available now for pre-order! (To pre-order SOLACE ISLAND please click on a link below the book cover here, and THANK YOU so much!) I find it super exciting when people write to me on Instagram or Twitter to tell me they've placed an order. I wonder if other authors feel that little thrill of delight. Or if it's just me...

I had a wonderful time in New York with my sisters and brother last month. We went to the Harry Potter and The Cursed Child show on Broadway. It was amazing! For a moment in time, magic seemed real, as if it were just around the corner, waiting to alight on our unsuspecting shoulders.

When we were children, we loved magical books the best! The ones where ordinary lives are suddenly made extraordinary by a twist of fate. When walking through a closet door leads to a magical world. Or a when house picked up by a tornado is dropped down far away. When finding a worn talisman on the ground leads to wishes coming half-true. A clock strikes midnight, and, for a lonely boy, the garden becomes a door to the past. THE HOBBIT with talking animals, LORD OF THE RINGS, Anne McCaffrey's dragonrider series. These books made the hardships of our childhood bearable, because we were certain that someday magic would happen to us!

In a way, magic did happen to alight on my shoulders. I look back and can't believe all the blessings that have come my way. I have truly had such an amazing life. I have been so very lucky. All of us have, to varying degrees, but when we were at that Broadway show, and in the aftermath, I saw my sisters and gruff brother get young again, the shy glow on their faces, animated discussions that followed, the need for a Hufflepuff hat, a Gryffindor house scarf, a Slytherin wand, a quill pen.

Left to right, the Tilly siblings: Becky, Jennifer, Steven, and Meg.

It was like time faded away, and we were those barefoot kids with dreams in our hearts and hope in our eyes. I hope the memory stays with me for a long time.

I also attended a lovely party that Penguin/Jove/Berkley threw for me. This amazingly talented and supportive team made me feel so special. The next day we enjoyed a delicious lunch of fried chicken and honey biscuits and chatted some more. I recorded the character Maritza's chapters for the audiobook of SOLACE ISLAND, which was a lot of fun! And then we flew to Los Angeles to shoot a sisters portrait by the talented artist/photographer www.timhailand.com/ I will share the completed portrait with you once it is done.

Now—more magic! Berkley is publishing SOLACE ISLAND on November 6, but right now you have two opportunities to win this, my first romantic suspense novel:

• Through October 10, 2018, you may enter to win not only my SOLACE ISLAND but two other romantic suspense novels--Jayne Ann Krentz's WHERE ALL THE GIRLS HAVE GONE and Karen Rose's DEATH IS NOT ENOUGH. (One winner will receive all three books!)
  
  https://sweeps.penguinrandomhouse.com/enter/romantic-suspense-swat-fall-2018
  
  
• Through October 15, 2018, you may enter to win one of 50 copies of SOLACE ISLAND in a Goodreads giveaway.
  
  https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/284844-solace-island

Enjoy these cooler days of fall!

Meg