Welcome!!! Happy Holidays fellow readers! I'm so excited to be taking part in the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway Hop. It's so fun to see what everyone else does and gives away. Hope you get some awesome prizes. Be sure to enter the draw for mine! I am both a contemporary romance author and a cozy mystery (with a dash of romance) author. My books are on the sweet side and I especially love to write holiday stories. To celebrate the hop, I'm going to share some of my Christmas traditions via my favorite Christmas poem! Enjoy and have a wonderful, happy holiday.
'Twas the week before Christmas,
And all through the house, There's trimmings and trappings, And a spirit you can't douse. The presents are wrapped Tucked under the tree And every night we settle in for A Hallmark movie. Our children are wired Like cats on caffeine Watching every Christmas show We have already seen There's squares and cookies Red and green krispee treats It all tastes so good Who needs to see their feet? We hang with the in-laws, The cousins, and good friends, We stamp every envelope for The cards we might send. Late nights and good food, Blissful moments in the cold Traditions might be ancient But, they never get old. Christmas Eve at home They all come right here Then Christmas Day we go To my parents, quite near. I welcome it each year This holiday season I love it so much, But then for some reason, I feel a bit blue As the days start to fade I hang on fiercely To the memories we've made. Merry Christmas to all Wishing you the best May you be a lucky winner, In this hop book-fest. I'm so excited to be part of Entangled's Under the Mistletoe event. There are some excellent titles on sale this month and More than Friends is one of them. What I love most about this is the timing. This time last year, I was just getting ready for the release of Owen and Gabby's book, unsure how anyone would feel about the first book in my first series with Entangled. It's been an excellent and fun year in the book world, which included the second and third books in the series. If you didn't get a chance last year, start your holidays with a sweet story about unrequited love that ends up being not so one sided after all. More Than Friends is an exceptional and fun, holiday romance novel. The timing and pacing of these relationships just felt right; the family interference appropriately stifling and #goalsworthy and, most importantly, the connection between geeky (*swoon* I love a geek!) Owen and artsy Gabby simple and genuine. As you can see from the book covers above, I kind of have a thing with Christmas and romance and especially, romance at Christmas. I'm participating in lots of fun events over the next several weeks leading up to Christmas so I thought I'd share a calendar of events this month and next so you can stop by the different blogs I'm visiting.
Tomorrow I am releasing my SIXTH Christmas title in four years. You might think I'm a little obsessed, but I can't help it. There's something so perfectly harmonious about romance during the holidays. It's that time of year when we believe more, care more, and feel more. Not for everyone, obviously, but even those that find the holidays difficult can use the smile that comes with a sweet story meant to do nothing other than make you feel good. Tomorrow's release is very short and very sweet. It features Ellie and Cooper who I hope you'll enjoy meeting. I plan to have three more mini stories about them over the next year, culminating in the fourth and final mini next....you guessed it, Christmas. It's never too soon for a season that inspires us to be a little kinder and be more aware of the impact we can have on the lives of others. The world needs more happy and writing these stories pulls me away from all of the reasons why. Other holiday titles...Want a bonus, not available online, Christmas short? If you sign up for my newsletter here, you'll get a free mini story featuring Sam and Anna from Forever Christmas. It's called Forever Plus One. The Romance Chicks are one! To celebrate, we're having a great party all week on Facebook with giveaways, guests, and games. Come join the fun! And on Saturday, there will be bonus giveaways! Click on the picture below and it'll take you to the awesome rafflecopter draw that we're doing! You could win $50.00!
I've been working on a book for a couple of months now. I tend to write quick so when I'm dragging on words, it makes me kind of antsy. I don't think writing quick is better than not. Every author has their own style and I'd say, with some certainty, that writing quick often leads to needing heavier edits-- at least for me. However, it is what I'm used to so I get frustrated when the words stumble over each other instead of making coherent sentences. So what do you do when something is bugging you? Walk away. Or, if you're me, write a mini short story about your favorite holiday season. Make sure that it's super full of sappy, emotional, holiday spirit and voila, you have a side project. Then, you ask the lovely and talented Tanya Baikie if she'll make you a cover. I don't know if this path will work for everyone, but it's the one I took and because of that, I'll be releasing a very short, very sweet story on November 6th from Amazon. It will be the first in a series of four shorts about the same couple. I'm very excited about this. And the best part, it got my words moving around again. More news!Mystery/Crime Jody Holford's debut DEADLY NEWS, the first in a new series featuring a woman who arrives in the sea side town of Britton Bay to take over the role of newspaper editor, ends up headlining in a major story after finding one of her not so friendly reporters dead, and gets to know the residents in town by poking around to find out who wanted the crotchety old man dead and why, to John Scognamiglio at Kensington, in a three-book deal, for publication in Fall 2018, by Frances Black of The Literary Counsel (World). I am absolutely thrilled to be working with Kensington and with Mr. Scognamiglio. I am eager for you guys to read the first in my trilogy: DEADLY NEWS. I'm working on book two right now. Speaking of books...My first book in a new series from Entangled Publishing will be out on January 29th, 2018. I love Megan and Adam. They are a quirky, opposites attract, meant-to-be couple that I think you'll enjoy. Can't wait to share the cover and more for this one. One last thing...the group I'm part of, The Romance Chicks, has been having fun on our Facebook page and we're ready to celebrate our one year anniversary. We hope you'll join us!For the past four to five years, I've written in multiple places. Mostly at the kitchen table, but I've also started and completed novels on the couch, in my bedroom, sitting in bed, on the floor, and in my car. At the start of summer, we moved and after a series of decisions that are never really as simple as they seem, my beautiful office became an actual thing.
I have a Pinterest board titled if I ever get an office. I truly wasn't sure I'd ever have one and because I'm a big time self-doubter, I wasn't sure I needed/deserved one. After all, an entire room in our house dedicated to me putting words down on the page not only sounded indulgent, but...nerve-wracking. What if I put time and money into a beautiful space and couldn't write anymore books! Yes, my husband and best friend rolled their eyes as well. We decided, that should that happen...which so far, thankfully, it hasn't, we'll use this space as a lovely little library. Which, of course, means I need more books. A lot more books because my "library" is now on my kindles. I do have several of my favorite stories on my gorgeous shelves, but nowhere near the number I used to have. I need to remedy this situation because what better inspiration for writing than being surrounded by books? It's not quite done, but for those of you who follow my author page on Facebook, you've seen the small steps from beginning to middle to...almost close to the end. It still needs a few things: pictures to go up, a couple more shelves over my desk, and as I mentioned, more books, but it is definitely a dream space, even as is. I love it. My cozy couch arrived last week which allowed me to display my cool bookish pillows (also need more of those). So if you ever wonder where I spend my time while typing out the words, now you know. Though I can't promise that I won't sneak up to the kitchen table now and again out of habit. Happy Fall everyone. Seven Ways to Lose Your Heart
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo 99¢ for a limited time only! â EXCERPT: âYou havenât drowned in there, have you?â I yell to Annabel, noting that the sound of running water stopped about fifteen minutes ago. âNo, just relaxing,â she calls back. Just relaxing. Naked. In a bath. I scramble from the bed and knock gently on the door. âAnd would you like some company to help you, you know, relax?â âDid you finish?â She sounds more like a scolding teacher than the girl who ravished me last night. But this is Annabel Lee weâre talking about. Itâs all about priorities. âYes, I finished. Now, can I come in?â I ask, pulling off my shirt in anticipation. âRead it to me.â âHuh?â I ask, my shirt not completely removed from my head yet. âI want you to read it to me.â Of course she does. Why did I expect any less? I pull my shirt the rest of the way off on my walk back to get my computer. When I go to open the door, her voice halts me. âI didnât say come in. I said I wanted you to read it to me.â âAnd may I come in when Iâm done?â âOnly if itâs good,â she sings. Sheâs enjoying every bit of this torture. The lovable vixen. And so I read it to her sitting on the floor outside the bathroom door. Even I have to admit itâs good. Itâs, like, fucking fantastic. When I get to the part about us dancing up there together, the whole crowd making us feel like gods, she makes me read it again, and I smile knowing it meant as much to her as it did to me. âYou can come in now if you want,â she says, sounding a little shyer than I expected to hear. Gone is the bravado of the schoolteacher, replaced again by the girl who still doesnât know the power she has over me. How does she not realize sheâs had power over me since that first dare when she made me switch out Mrs. Petersonâs peanut butter sandwich with kitty litter? My heart starts beating a little faster, knowing whatâs waiting for me on the other side of this wall. My breath catches in my throat when I open the door and see her sitting there, staring up at me, and waiting.
GIVEAWAY! It might be early to be wrapping up the summer, but it's passing quicker than I'd like and with a trip to Disneyland coming up, I figured better now than never. Summer 2017 has been a blend of sweet and sad. We said goodbye to one house and hello to another. We were very sad to say goodbye to our sweet little dog, Lola shortly after we moved in. Which left our other little pup (and us) feeling pretty down. So very soon, next week actually, we'll be bringing this tiny bundle of fur home. We've spent our time reading, baking, writing, unpacking, organizing, painting, lazying around and settling in. Another bittersweet moment was the excitement of my final book in the Kendrick Place Series releasing. I do have another series coming out with Entangled: the For You series, which I'm excited about. And, in the completely unexpected category, I went up in a hot air balloon! So what now? Well, I have some very, very exciting news to share that I can't say anything about just yet. But when school starts up, I hope I can share some news about something a little different and a lot fun. I hope the rest of your summer is great. Anyone have any plans to go anywhere? Any must-reads on your list before summer is gone? My next few reads are below :)
There's still plenty of time to enter to win a $15.00 Amazon gift card through the blog tour. Plus, when you sign up for my newsletter, you'll get not one but TWO short stories. If you like free money and books, it kind of seems like a win-win situation. It's the big conference weekend again and there are already tweets and posts all over social media that are making me want to book a trip to Florida. I feel sort of like this: Even though, if I went, I'd look like this: And since there'd be socializing, I'd feel like this: So it's probably better that I'm home, working on a book, hanging out with my family, all the while: In between those things, I'll continue to unpack boxes (it's like they just won't go away) and read. What about you? What are you up to for the rest of the week and this weekend?
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