Hello to all my readers: Summer has finally landed in New York, and we’re enjoying a muggy, thunderstorm-y, but nonetheless warm and full of fun season so far. To spice up the idle summer hours, I wanted to hold another giveaway, this time for my latest novel, Lone Star. Lone Star takes place in tempestuous, passionate, life-changing summer, and I think you’ll see why it’s my favorite season. I’m giving away 10 signed copies of Lone Star to anyone who writes in between now and Thursday, July 10th, with the answer to this question: What’s your favorite love song, and why? Music evokes the strongest of emotions in human beings, and that’s certainly true of Chloe Divine and Johnny Rainbow. Please write your answers to paullinasimonscontest@gmail.com. We will announce the winners Friday, July 10th.

Dear fans, Some of you remember my memoir of my trip back home to Russia being published a little while ago, just in ebook. I’m happy to tell you that it is now available in print copy as well, new and improved and revised, with a new afterword and with lots of pics inside to make us all cry. Well, at least make me cry.  Six Days in Leningrad is my real story of a trip to Leningrad (now St Petersburg) with my Papa.  It was a research trip for a book I’d only just begun to write, and those six days changed my life and became The Bronze Horseman.You can buy the new version in Australia/NZ and Poland right now, and in the U.S.

Dear Everyone, This was one of the funnest contests for me. It took a delicious forever to sift through the hundreds of entries and to listen to the songs. Many I knew (“Hey There Delilah” “Romeo and Juliet”), some I did not (“Say You Love Me” “In Da Club”).  Some were my own favorite songs (“Nothing Else Matters” “High and Dry”). But each one personal and beautiful. Out of the songs you submitted, “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol came in four times as a fave, “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers three times, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith and “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt twice, but the rest were all glorious and unique. I love them all. It gave me such joy to see inside your hearts. It was like going on a mini-tour and meeting you face to face. Thank you for the wonderful opportunity to get to know you better. My daughter thought ten was brutally insufficient, so she finagled another three out of the summer bucket because she said thirteen was her favorite number (because she is thirteen, and her favorite girl in all the world was born on December 13).  Without further ado, here are the lucky thirteen, and heartfelt thanks so each and every one of you for participating. I’m going to go make a reader playlist and put it on my phone, and carry you and your love songs with me wherever I go. Winners: Please email me your full name and address so I can send out your books pronto. The winners are… • Malinda Dickens – “Try” by Colbie Caillat. • Rachael Jesko – “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol • Nicole Karlson – “There’s a Light that Never Goes Out” by the Smiths • Adam McHugh — “505” by Arctic Monkeys • Maria Kavvatha — “Love Me Tender” by Elvis • Jenny Belk — “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” by Rod Stewart (this one happens to be my own wedding song, lol) • Samantha McLaughlin — “Addicted to You” by Avicii • Lisa Grimes — “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls • Shura Herondale — “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5 • Mirielle McMillin — “The Best Day” by Taylor Swift • Sarah Heaton — “Annie’s Song” by John Denver • Tanya Birman — “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues • Francesca Grizancic — “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles Thanks again! Love to all.

Hello to my patient and wonderful fans! I know you’ve been asking me for an update on the film adaptation for The Bronze Horseman, and I’ve wished I could give one to you.  And now,  I finally can! So happy to tell you we’ve signed with Getaway Pictures for the series.  Here’s that trailer I mention as well.

Next to hit your bookstores and hopefully your bookshelves is the children’s book that’s been ten years in the making.  I’m not exaggerating. I’m not using my Russian hyperbole to make a point. I mean, these one hundred and fifty words you will read about a mommy and her baby have taken over ten years to reach you. I wrote them when my fourth baby was 18 months old.  She recently celebrated her twelfth birthday. In the intervening decade, I have written nearly a million and a half adult words. So now we know.Children’s books are much harder to write! The book is called I Love My Baby Because. I hope all the mommies out there love it, and their babies too. You can preorder it here and here for the US and UK, and it is out on July 31st, 2014.

I wanted to tell you all about the next novel I’m writing, a book I’m very excited about, called Lone Star. When I was a young girl growing up in Russia, I saw a movie called “Ballad of a Soldier.” I remember very little about it, except there was a girl, and a boy who was going to the front. They were on a train together. Then he hopped off.  He sang for her and played his guitar. She loved him. Lone Star is the Paullina version of that general theme, except in book form and with all the things I love in it, and I fervently hope the things many of you will love in it. Hint hint, wink wink.  I say no more.  I’ve said too much.

My friends and readers, My head peeks out briefly out of the water of my writing life. I take this welcome respite to tell you about a few things. I can’t wait for you to read Bellagrand. It is a heartbreaker, at the very least, the breaker of this writer’s heart. I love my heroine Gina, a passionate, strong, good woman, who wants nothing more than to love and to be loved.The book is about all the things that stand in her way. In this story, you will also meet Alexander, and you will witness the love that had made him and in the end that saved him, the love that offered him, years hence, the possibility of a new life. It was all borne out of Bellagrand, out of the lifelong love affair between Gina and Harry, Alexander’s mother and father. Bellagrand will be published in print in Australia and New Zealand in early December, just in time for Christmas—and in e-book. The print edition for the United States and Britain will hit the stores in February/March. I’m not going to Australia and New Zealand on tour this year—surely, you’ve seen enough of me?––but perhaps I can come back next fall.It’s the highlight of my year, talking to you great people face to face. As far as Six Days In Leningrad, thank you all, who have bought and read the e-book edition. We are working to publish the print edition for Father’s Day 2014, and it will come complete with many photographs of my life-changing trip to Leningrad in 1998.Until next time, keep reading, keep writing, keep coming back.