Ultimate Sportsfan is reading this right now and thinking, whoa! She’s blogging about that? He always likes to give tours of our house and point to the bedroom and say, “That’s where the magic happens.” But this blog is about where the book-making magic happens.

For me that’s in Naperville, Illinois at the headquarters of Sourcebooks Publishers. I was lucky enough to get to tour the publishing house in April when I went to Chicago for the Romantic Times Convention. Dominique Raccah, who is the CEO of Sourcebooks, got us party limos and drove all the Sourcebooks’ authors to Naperville.

Here’s a picture of Barbara Vey, editor at Publisher’s Weekly and romance guru, trying out the stripper pole en route.

 

I was surprised at how unassuming the Sourcebooks’ building looked on the outside, but on the inside it was warm and welcoming.

Here’s the sign that greeted us when we walked in the door.

 

 We got a lovely tour and met all the important people.  Here’s my editor, Deb Werksman.

Here’s my publicist, Danielle Jackson (she’s the one that sends all those prize books out when I go on blog tour).

And here are just a few of the books on display in the offices. There were thousands more scattered throughout the building, and I really wanted to do some “shopping.”

Finally, here is the famous cow, with quotes from poets and writers from the Chicago-area. The rumor is that Dominique outbid Oprah for the cow.

Here I am with the cow.

And here is the author-part of the Sourcebooks’ family.

Going on a tour like this is every aspiring author’s dream, so this was truly a dream come true for me.