I’m having one of those “oh my god, now it starts” days. Because today, ICE COLD goes on sale across the U.S. Yes, it’s an occasion for celebration and giddiness that the new book will be in bookstores everywhere. But it also makes me want to crawl into a cave and not come out until it’s all over. I’ve gone through this many times before, and I know that in the weeks following a book’s release, an author rides a roller coaster of emotions. Moments of sheer joy that your book is out there. Worries whether those copies are selling.

But instead of writing a fret-filled post (I always seem to get into trouble whenever I write about author anxieties) I thought I’d blog about my trip to Hollywood instead.

(Sasha Alexander and me!)

You can read about it over on Murderati.com — photos included!

A fun look at the new TV show:

I made the astonishing discovery today that Jane and Maura are now on Twitter! (Honest, I have nothing to do with it.) My characters really have come to life and are now tweeting to the world. If you’re on Twitter, you can find their tweets @JaneRizzoli and @MauraIsles.

(review by Sarah Weinman)

“Ice Cold” by Tess Gerritsen (June 29)

At first it seems counterintuitive to read a thriller set in the thick of a snowstorm in the middle of nowhere during the summer, but what better way to create the illusion of escapism than to reverse weather course? The publication timing of Gerritsen’s newest novel featuring Boston cop Jane Rizzoli and her friend (and city medical examiner) Maura Isles has more to do with the July 12 premiere of the TNT show (starring Angie Harmon as Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander as Isles), but “Ice Cold” works well as a series introduction. The normally staid, buttoned-up Isles — nursing romantic difficulties with her boyfriend, who also happens to be a priest — indulges in an impulse wilderness trip with an old high school acquaintance while playing hooky from a medical conference. The snow accumulates, stranding Isles & co., but Gerritsen has several more tricks up her sleeve, raising the suspense stakes with a secretive cult, home-brew surgery under the most appalling circumstances, and the possibility that Isles might not make it home. Gerritsen paces “Ice Cold” with surgical precision but doesn’t neglect her main characters, even if Rizzoli’s trademark fire doesn’t kick in until the second half of the book.