Best Harlequin American--05 (or why you shouldn't be embarrassed to google yourself)

Okay, admit it. You've taken your name, stuck it in the google search bar and pressed enter. If you haven't, you should start.

As an author, I do a search of my name about every two months. I've also signed up for google alerts, but usually I get information about movies that star Michelle Pieffer and Faye Dunaway rather than something about me.

However, the other day I did a google search and discovered that cataromance.com named Emergency Engagement their best Harlequin American of...2005.

I had no idea. No one ever notified me, so it was a fun way to end what has been a pretty good month.

Google searches have turned up some other interesting things. I've found reviews of my books, foreign editions, my bio written in French, blogs about my books, and authors who have credited me for inspiring them to write something (which is always fun). Most things I'd never know, had I not "googled" myself.

I'll also admit to googling family members, exboyfriends, coworkers, etc. It's fun to see what's out there on the world wide web, and I've located former students via their posts on myspace, by finding it first on google.

So have fun. Don't be embarrassed. You might discover you've won something, or that someone with your name is "famous" too (the other Michele Dunaways are a painter and a newsbroadcaster).

Michele