Leave it!

Inspiration for a book I'm not going to write.

Tom and I suspect that we have the only untrained dog in St. Petersburg. We also suspect that all of these straight-walking, command-hearing dogs have been trained by the same person. As we do our morning walk and our dog strains at his leash for every squirrel, every bird and every sniffable butt, the other dog walkers pass saying, “Leave it!” And the weirdest thing is, their dogs just leave it.

If we brought beer on our morning walk, this would be a drinking game. It happens so frequently that the phrase has worked its way into our daily lexicon. Last night after a long and annoying day of being a person, I was complaining to Tom about some petty way I’d felt slighted, and he stopped walking and said, “Leave it.” We laughed all the way home.

Which is why I’m offering it up here, for free, to Mel Robbins. Anyone know her? LEAVE IT would be a perfect sequel to LET THEM, which I’m currently listening to. Her book is about letting people thrive by letting them do for themselves. My proposed sequel is about letting yourself thrive by making fewer trips to the complaint department. There should be a box in the park, maybe monitored by squirrels, where we can leave our if onlys and it’s not fairs. Hurt feelings, quiet resentments, revenge fantasies: leave it. I don’t have time to write this book, so someone take it. Up for grabs.

Writing update

I wrote a draft of a book that I liked, but it didn’t really work. I’m not quite starting over, but I am changing every single thing about it. Have you ever taken everything out of your closet to organize it but then halfway through sat and wept in the mess? That’s where I am. It only gets better from here.

Unreal March Events

I almost typed unreal in all caps. That’s how great March is going to be. I am thrilled to be moderating the romance panel at the Barnes and Noble Book Festival in Union Square, NYC. It’s March 15 at 6pm, and I’m mentioning it now because there are only 275 seats, and tickets go on sale at 9am EST TODAY. (Me, with the all caps.) It will sell out so please get yours…

The panel is called Love Between the Lines, featuring this mind blowing romance crew:

Jennifer Dugan - PLAYING FOR KEEPS
Emily McIntire - BENEATH THE STARS
Tinx - HOTTER IN THE HAMPTONS
Tia Williams - A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE

I know. Take a minute.

I’m in the midst of reading all these gorgeous books now, and there’s so much to discuss - the essence of romance, personal growth through love, sweaty palms and butterflies. Baseball and the Hamptons.

This will surely be a highlight of my year. Please come, books are for sale and signing. Bonus: I’ll get to see my kids for dinner after!

---

The next day, March 16th, I’ll be at the Oxford Exchange in Tampa, FL to talk with Jill Santopolo about her new novel, The Love We Found. It is the LONG awaited (caps again, but seriously I’ve been waiting for this book forever) sequel to her New York Times Bestselling heart-ripper The Light We Lost. If you haven’t read that, you have a month. Get on it.

---

I’m going to get back to work before the sun comes up and I have to get out there with the dog people. Anyone else feel like tossing out a title for a book they’ll never write? LEAN OUT? CONFESSIONS OF A…? I could do this all day.

lots of love and happy Valentine’s Day,

Annabel

PS - IT’S A LOVE STORY was a bestseller at the Barnes & Noble preorder sale. Thank you, truly, to everyone who preordered!

Did someone forward this to you? Did you happen upon it on your own? Please subscribe - it’s free and worth every penny!