Tag: category romance novels

Holiday Goodness Challenge 2009

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Times are tough, times are hard, nobody’s denying it. And though purse strings may be tight, I’m convinced hearts are bigger and more generous than ever before.

Hope for the Holidays

In keeping with the holiday spirit of counting my many blessings, including the release of Twelve Nights, my Christmas Harlequin Historical Blaze, I’ll be giving away twenty copies of  Vanquished, the first of my “Men of Roxbury House” trilogy to the first twenty readers who donate a minimum of $10 to this year’s Holiday Goodness charitable recipient, Marian’s Dream: Philanthropy for Animal Advocates.

A Good Dream

Founded in 1981 as a memorial to Marian Rosenthal, Marian’s Dream is a 501(c)3 public charity with the mission of helping donors help companion animals through support of innovative programs and projects operating on the local, regional and statewide levels. Funding accessible, low-cost spay/neuter resources is a particular focus.

$200 will provide four feline spays or six feline neuters. If that sounds like a modest goal, consider that one female cat can birth two litters a year. That’s up to a dozen unwanted kittens, many of whom will have additional litters of their own.

Shelters and rescue groups are overwhelmed. The solution lies in prevention.

Goodness Spilleth Over

Hope holds Sweeney, once homeless, now very much homed.
Hope holds Sweeney, once homeless, now very much homed-and loved!

I’ll be running the Holiday Goodness Challenge now through January 1st. You can make your donation to Marian’s Dream online via PayPal or by check. For verification, I’ll need you to send: 1) a copy of your donation receipt, either photocopy or forwarded PayPal receipt, 2) the name of the person to whom you’d like the book inscribed if you’re giving it as a gift, and 3) your snail mail address to me at [email protected] or PO Box 1344, New York, NY 10276. If by email, please include “Holiday Goodness Challenge” in the subject header.

As we approach our $200 goal, I’ll be posting the glad tidyings here along with the first names, surname initial and home state of the first twenty generous souls to step up to the proverbial plate.

Thank you for keeping Marian’s beautiful dream of a world with no more homeless pets alive this holiday season.

Hope

PS: As always, please feel free to Re-Tweet or repost and pay the ‘goodness’ forward.

Sizzling Summer: New Contest

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Summer is beach read season. If you’re bound for the beach or even a beach towel somewhere outside, I want to give you a copy of Bound to Please to bring with you.

Look for TWELVE NIGHTS, the sequel, December 2009.

When I was a kid, summer meant smelling the charcoal of barbecue grills being fired up, getting to stay up that precious extra hour, and playing flash light tag until the neighborhood mom-on-duty all but dragged us inside. (“Mom, just five more minutes, pul-ease!“)

Since my move to Manhattan, summer has a different resonance but resonate it does–strolling through street fairs, picnicking in Bryant Park on free film nights, and lingering at outdoor cafe tables long after the plates are cleared.

Summer is for fun. And just for fun, every two weeks through the end of August, I will give away a copy of Bound to Please to one lucky commenter on my blog. Unlike my usual contest, there’s no excerpt to read, no right or wrong answer to give. Instead every two weeks I will post a new blog post calling out for a specific comment. All you need do is pipe up and post. Once the winner is announced–you–email me with your snail mail address, and I’ll send you your copy of Bound to Please. That’s it.

Hope (Far L) at Coney Island last summer with RWA/NYC friends, including Karen Cino & Elizabeth Mahon (Far R).
Hope (Far L) at Coney Island last summer with RWA/NYC friends, including Karen Cino & Elizabeth Mahon (Far R).

Already have Bound to Please? If so, let me know, and I’ll donate your contest copy to Share The Love and brighten the day of a woman transitioning from tough times.

As my friend and StL founder Maya Rodale says, “everyone deserves the pleasure of a good story.”

It’s a big online world made smaller when we all keep in touch.

Happy Summer!

Hope

Thanks for stopping by…

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Many thanks to the many of you who stopped by yesterday to talk books with me at The Pink Heart Society. As always the chat was lively, and I was in total awe of the eclectic reading that takes place within the romance community. Clearly I’d better get crackin’ to catch up!

I’ll be announcing my three PHS contest winners soon, maybe even later today, so please check back. And if you haven’t already, please take two ticks and enter my regular contest here on the site. The prize is a signed copy of Strokes of Midnight and a coverflat keepsake of Untamed. Like the slogan says, “You gotta play to win.”

Hope

Blogging at The Pink Heart Society

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I’m blogging today–all day–at The Pink Heart Society so please don’t be a stranger. The blog topic: What are You Reading?

I’m reading Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! The book is a humorous and helpful how-to guide on screenwriting from yes, a real Hollywood “insider.” How about you?

Giveaways are three copies of Strokes of Midnight.

Blogging Today at Fresh Fiction

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I’m blogging today at FreshFiction. The topic is one that seems to resonate with a lot of us: The One Who Got Away, so if you have two ticks, please stop on over and say hi. I’ll be giving away three signed copies of Strokes of Midnight to three winners who post.

Hope

Congratulations Contest Winners!

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Congratulations to my first contest winners of 2009: Elaine C-D of Ormond Beach, FL, Madelina R of Parlin, NJ, and Dianna H of Newark, OH, all of whom knew that Belmopan is the location of the resort in Belize where Cole and Alex stay in Every Breath You Take…

Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter. Prize packages with copies of my New Year’s themed Harlequin Blaze, Strokes of Midnight and cover flat keepsakes for Untamed, the finale to my “Men of Roxbury House” trilogy are on the way to the winners “as we speak.”

Didn’t win this time ’round? No worries. My new contest is posted with a new question but a repeat of the same fun prizes.

Hope

Happy New Year

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2008 has been an amazing year for me. Highlights include a move to Manhattan, my first but definitely not last trip to Ireland and yes, the release of two more novels, Bound to Please and now Every Breath You Take...

Many thanks to all of you who stopped by Book Talk with J&J yesterday to chat with me about Every Breath You Take… Among those who visited to cheer me on were bestselling writer buddies, Jacquie D’Alessandro and Tony and Lori Karayianni w/a Tori Carrington. Never doubt that the romance writing community harbours some of the kindest and most generous souls on the planet. And congratulations to my three prize winners: Elaine (Lainey), Sara H, and Sarah T. I hope you enjoy my New Year’s themed Blaze, Strokes of Midnight.

In the spirit of ringing in the new, I’ll be blogging at FreshFiction.com on Monday, January 12th, and yes, there will be at least one of my back list books offered as a give-away prize. Please check my web site’s Media + Events page for event listings throughout the year.

Finally, thanks to all of you who’ve taken up my Holiday Goodness Challenge to benefit the ASPCA. Donation receipts are rolling in, but we’re not to our goal of $100 quite yet, and I have copies of Vanquished still to give away. In these tough times, your generous $10 gift means more than ever before.

Wherever you are tonight and however you choose to celebrate…

May 2009 be a year of fairy tale dreams come-true.

Hope

Blogging Today at Book Talk with J&J

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Today (12/30) I’m blogging over at Book Talk with J&J and we’ll be giving away copies of Strokes of Midnight, my New Year’s themed Harlequin Blaze, too! If you can, please take two ticks and come over and say hi.

Hope

Congratulations, Contest Winners

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Congratulations to Tracey T of Gassaway, WV, Karen H of Colorado Springs, CO, and Jessica P of Norman, OK who knew that in Every Breath You Take, Cole saw that the old Alex was still there from the glimmer in her eyes.

The three winners will each receive coverflat keepsakes for my Victorian-set historical, Untamed and TWO signed copies of Strokes at Midnight — my winter holiday Blaze — one for themselves and one inscribed to a person of the winner’s choosing, perfect for a sweet and easy holiday gift.

And if you didn’t win this time ’round, don’t despair. Check out my new contest, which just started yesterday.

Let the merry making begin…

Hope

The One Who Got Away

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The One Who Got Away…We all have one, which is to say a “The One.” You know what or rather who I mean. The O-N-E. Maybe he was your first love or your first big love. Maybe he was both. Maybe you broke up with him–but I’m betting my next book advance he broke up with you. Maybe you never really had him in the first place…but again, I’m betting you did. At least long enough for a part of him to sink into your psyche and your soul. Like that tattoo you rethink years later, you can obliterate the image but not the experience. That shiny white scar is yours–for keeps.

Only by definition The One Who Got Away isn’t a keeper, or at least he hasn’t been so far. And yet who among us hasn’t been moved by those real-life stories of high school sweethearts who find each other on ClassMates.com or reunion night after years, decades apart and fall in love all over again, even marry, in mid- and sometimes late life?

In Every Breath You Take, my January Harlequin Blaze release, former FBI Special Agent Cole Whittaker and microbiologist Alexandra–Alex–Kendall meet again after five painful years apart. Like so many real life reunions, theirs is completely unexpected, the circumstances far from ideal. Alex is about to marry another man, the same man who’s hired Cole as a bodyguard to escort her on her upcoming overseas business trip. Crazy in love with her, Cole still can’t envision his life having room in it for more than The Job. And yet they have a chance, a slim one, to get it right this time: four days of 24/7, up close-and-personal togetherness in steamy Belize.

I hope you enjoy my newly posted sneak peek excerpt — it’s only going to be on my site for a blink of time, to be replaced by a more permanent excerpt in a bit, so don’t let it get away. When you get two ticks, please post a little note to let me know what you think. Or feel free to share a snippet of your One Who Got Away story, especially if he didn’t stay away forever. Happily Ever Afters, we like those around here. 🙂

Hope