Okay, before I get going, I need to get something out of the way that's been causing an international frenzy. Maybe frenzy is too strong a word. Let's go with international confusion. If you live in the U.S. and have been chatting with someone from Australia about Spirit Bound, you may have noticed something peculiar. The American copy of SB names Sonya's guardian/lover as Mikhail Tanner. The Australian (and UK and who knows what else) edition names him as Tomas Sanders.

Richelle, what up?

Well, plain and simple, a typo. One that's my fault. In the first VA book, Sonya's guardian is called Mikhail, and when I wrote SB, I forgot that he'd already been named. So, I called him Tomas and wrote all of Spirit Bound that way, all the way to final proofing. Later, when I realized the mistake, we were able to correct the American editions just barely in time. Unfortunately, it was so close to production (really, it's a miracle the U.S. got it corrected) that it didn't make it into the international editions. So, two names. I apologize for this, but here's the truth: I'm hardly a perfect writer. I can keep huge, complex and overarching stories in my head easily, but these little details sometimes totally slip out of my memory. Last Sacrifice, to my knowledge, will have Mikhail in all countries...but who knows? Maybe those publishers will choose to stick with Tomas. Regardless, I'm sorry again and hope this hasn't created too much confusion! Maybe we should play it safe and just give him a celebrity couple name, like TomKhail.

But here's some happier news to make up for my silliness. We are in a majorly productive work zone here at Casa Mead. Today, I finished Iron Crowned, book 3 of the Eugenie/Dark Swan series, which is also the fourteenth book of my career. Crazy talk. It'll still need editing, but that's nothing new. For now, it's off my plate, and tomorrow I'll jump into the third draft of Last Sacrifice for a couple weeks. After that...guess what? Back to Eugenie! Some of you may remember me saying that because Iron Crowned got delayed, the next Eugenie book was going to come right on its tails. And it is.

And finally, you know what else? Throughout all of this, plans are coming into motion for the VA spin-off series. I'm still quite a ways off from writing the first book (say, like, September), but those who've heard me at signings know that I have to have the whole series planned out before I start it. So, I'm now hacking away at that and finalized the preliminary premise for the series, as well as a rough outline for the first book today. I think it's going to be fun. It's different from anything I've done before, and there are two characters who are so awesome that I don't even think they need a plot. Coolness will just ensue whenever they walk onto the page. And even though the series is a long ways off from being written and published, we can expect info trickling in this year for the series title, first book title, etc.

So, yeah! Lots and lots of stuff going on around here, but don't worry--I have a NON-WORK vacation coming up, and it's going to be blog gold.

In closing, we have another international cover, sent in from the fabulous Maria. Shadow Kiss from Greece. It's Greek to me, but it looks pretty awesome in any language.