SquawkRadio

Dearest Friends,
During this, our last official day as Squawkers on a daily blog, we wanted to leave you with the most important information of all--a way to keep in touch!  So if you’ll scroll down, you’ll find a brief note from each of the chicks plus one last chance to win some amazing Squawk prizes!  (And just in case you’re already suffering from withdrawal the Squawk chicks will be giving one last hurrah over at Romance:By the Blog at http://romancebytheblog.blogspot.com/ on Monday.)

FROM TERESA:  When we first started SQUAWK RADIO, we thought it would be a great promotional tool for our careers.  We had no idea it would snowball into this extraordinary community that would spawn countless other author-driven blogs and make best friends of complete strangers.  The last thing I want to do is lose track of the friends I’ve made here.  I hope you’ll visit my website at http://www.teresamedeiros.com to keep up with what’s happening in my own little corner of the universe.  You can sign up for my bi-monthly newsletter on the home page or just click on the button below and leave your name and e-mail addy.  (Which I promise not to share with anybody else...not even Xtina...well, not unless she begs...)

I’ve also gathered every one of my blogs from Squawk Radio plus blogs I’ve done on other sites into my own blogsite CHARMED LIFE:  http://www.teresamedeiros.blogspot.com I have no plans to actively blog right now but if I ever get bitten by the bug again, I’ll have a place to post my meanderings.  And if you have a really lazy Sunday afternoon, you can find all of my non-fiction offerings gathered in one place for your enjoyment.  As the resident geek, I’d like to leave you with the words of Mr. Spock to Captain Kirk at the end of STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN:  “You are, and always will be, my friends.” May God bless every one of you.  See you in cyberspace!

Later this evening, Teresa will be privately contacting 2 lucky winners from our Member List who will win an autographed Teresa Medeiros book! 

FROM ELOISA: I find the idea of saying goodbye to all the Squawkettes incredibly sad.  I keep staring at this computer screen and not typing.  I guess I want to repeat what I said the other day:  friendship is never a mistake, even if it doesn’t last forever.  I truly believe that.  I also truly believe that many of you will find ways to hang out with us.  We’d love to see you at a signing or a romance conference.  We’d love to see you at our websites.  The Squawkers fully intend to be wobbling over to see each other in our walkers, a few years down the road (a leeetle earlier for Kitty maybe than for the rest of us)—so come to a booksigning with any Squawker and we’ll give you an update on the whole crew!  Plus I’ll try to drag the Squawkers over to my Bulletin Board whenever I can.

I wish I was as organized as Teresea and sent out a bi-monthly newsletter—but mine goes out at least twice a year, which is pretty good for me.  Please sign up.  I’d love to be able to tell you when I have a new book out, and what contest is happening on my site (right now there’s a lot of chocolate up for grabs!).  Plus, if you’re signed up for my website, your password will get you into my Readers’ Pages—full of extra chapters, free short stories, crossword puzzles (there’s a new one coming), and other fun things to do.  And I won’t share your address, even if Christina BEGS!

Eloisa’s Mailing List Sign-up

Finally, whenever I’m doing a signing, I post a meet-and-greet time, about an hour before, on my Bulletin Board.  New York and New Jersey this month, and then Texas in July—I’d love to see you!

FROM CHRISTINA: Yesterday I called a family friend. Lillian lived next door when I was born, she’s 92, and she never stops going. She has the best memory of any person I’ve ever met. She uses it to make people feel special — she remembers the birthdays of every person she’s ever met. At one of her family gatherings, they announced it was talent night, and she named the birthdays of everyone there. When we talked, she was fretting because this year, she didn’t manage send a birthday card to her grandkids and great-grandkids (and their spouses) and great-great-grandkids for their birthdays — and she has 19 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren (and 2 on the way.) A huge family? Yes, but she only had three children. It’s just that all three have been married twice, and she considers their exs and their exs’s families still part of her family. I’m part of her family. My husband and kids are part of her family. Think about it — she remembers the birthdays of every person she’s ever lived next to (she’s lived in different homes in Missouri, California and Alaska) and their children and their mates and their childrens’ children … and more important, she considers them all friends. Lillian just lost a friend of 78 years, a friend she visited every day. And once you’re Lillian’s friend, death is the only way she’ll lose track of you (temporarily, I suppose) because she always calls, always cares, always remembers.

Those are the kind of relationships we’ve formed at Squawk Radio, built from generosity, kindness, thoughtfulness, with bonds that will last 78 years. Squawk Radio’s legacy is that out of our friendships — Lisa, Connie, Liz, Terri, Eloisa and me — so many other friendships have formed.

Okay, let me toss my damp wad of Kleenex in the trash and give you the info you need so we can continue to see each other around the internet. Click here to see my new video for the DARKNESS CHOSEN series — very cool! — and while you’re there, sign up for my mailing list to receive news about my books, chats, and signings, play the games in my exclusive “Members only” section, and have the chance to watch the more book videos, including the upcoming videos for SCENT OF DARKNESS and TOUCH OF DARKNESS. Oh, and did I mention that one of our commenters today is going to receive an arc of both SCENT OF DARKNESS and TOUCH OF DARKNESS?

Dear Friends,

When my fellow Squawkers and I decided to blog together, I wasn’t altogether clear on what a blog was. But they told me it would be fun, and I believed them.

And they were right, it was definitely fun. Fun to be a chicken, and fun to engage in all the cheerful debauchery that was Squawk Radio. I sort of expected it would be like that.

What I didn’t expect was how personal this blog would become. We’ve all shared our experiences, our insights and feelings . . . and even when the subject was delicate, or potentially explosive, there was always respect and caring. Squawk Radio was something rare on the internet: a safe place to be.

So thanks for your generosity of spirit. Thanks for the gift of your friendship. And most of all . . .

Thanks for the memories.

--From Lisa, with love

FROM LIZ: Okay, appropriately, I tossed back a couple glasses of wine before writing this, so forgive me if I stray off into incoherence from time to time or start typing like Connie.  I am amazed, truly, at the adventure that was Squawk Radio. Of the six of us, I think I was most reluctant to get involved with this blogging thing, because I just didn’t think anyone would be interested in what I have to say that isn’t between the pages of a novel. I’ve been surprised by how much I enjoyed writing something from the heart that didn’t involve imaginary characters. And I have loveloveloved getting to know all of you.

It wasn’t until I started writing romance that I really started collecting women friends and enjoying the community of women.  And the community that has evolved from Squawk has been extraordinary. Frankly, I don’t want to let you go. So, like Terri, I’ve set up a blog of my own at Blogger.  But my hope is to keep actively contributing to it. Right now, I’m only going to post something new once a week, interspersed with old blogs from Squawk. Eventually--soon, I hope--I want to go back to a weekly music blog. So if you want to check in with me at my new digs, I’ll be at:  http://bevarly.blogspot.com At some point, too, I’ll be updating my web site that hasn’t been updated since...um, I really don’t want to say. But I hope to see you guys again SOON. And I thank you for making the last two years incredibly special.

FROM CONNIE: Hey. What’s wrong with typing like Connie? Connie intends to keep typing that way, and she intends to keep typing on her website at www.conniebrockway.com and when she is finally harangued into submission, she has a cool new medium to loose upon the unsuspecting cyberverse--- videoblogs! That’s right, Connie bought that MAC and now she is going ape with its fun and richly appointed video and graphic capabilities. She also promises never again to refer to herself in the third person if you are kind enough to sign up for my mailing list. However, I will not lie: if Dodd pays me enough, I will sell your name to her (and regardless of what she says, so will Terri) but only to Christina. See? Wasn’t that refreshingly above-board?  How can you resist such candor? You can’t! Why would you even want to? Please do visit. The only down side is that Kitty is taking hacking lessons and has threatened to “visit” me. Just ignore her if this happens. Finally, thank you for two years of being here. My life is the richer for it.