Category: Blogosphere

Holiday Goodness Challenge: Yes, We Can! We…Did!

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To borrow President Elect Obama’s campaign slogan, “Yes, we can!” Even better, we did.

Many thanks to the following generous souls who participated in my Holiday Goodness Challenge to benefit the ASPCA by giving a gift of $10, in some cases, more to support formerly homeless companion animals.

A once homeless pet has something to purr about--because of you. Image courtesy of www.aspca.org.
A once homeless pet has something to purr about--because of you. Image courtesy of www.aspca.org.

Debbie J, Levittown, NY

Jessica D, Arlington, VA

Jennifer K, Ashburn, VA

Madelina R, Parlin, NJ

Jacquie D, Atlanta, GA

Heidi B, Kylertown, PA

Mary R, Brentwood, NY &

Kay A, Blaine, MN.

Because of you, we reached our goal of $100–and saved the life of one dog or cat this holiday season. I mailed your signed copies of Vanquished over the weekend, so hopefully you’ll receive the books sometime this week.

Romance fiction writers are some of the kindest, most generous folks on the planet, ever ready to lend a helping hand to a good cause, and my Holiday Goodness Challenge was no exception. My heartfelt thanks go out to the following publishers, online communities and authors: Romantic Times BOOKReviews Magazine, The Rebels of Romance (Liz Maverick and Marianne Mancusi), Romance Vagabonds, Medallion Press, Jacquie D’Alessandro, Leanna Renee Hieber, and Heidi Betts.

Finally, I have a new contest posted, with copies of Strokes of Midnight and cover flat keepsakes of Untamed as giveaway prizes. Please check back later in the week when I post last month’s contest winners. The latter might just include…You!

Happy Tales/Tails,

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

Romance B(u)y the Book Wrap-Up

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Despite Mercury apparently refusing to come out of Retrograde, yesterday’s Harlequin Blaze Historicals blog bash at Romance B(u)y the Book was a huge success as well as bunches o’fun. What a party we had! Bestselling Blaze Historicals authors Jacquie D’Alessandro, Jade Lee, Betina Krahn and our latest addition to the series line-up, Patricia Potter joined blog host Michelle Buonfiglio, Harlequin Senior Editor, Brenda Chin and Moi in steaming up the Blogosphere.

As promised, we all got a little bit naughty, a lotta bit bad. I got the proverbial ball rolling talking about size and how sometimes it sorta kinda matters. Jade Lee dissed on tantric sex, virgin monks, and how in her latest Blaze Historical, the two come together (so to speak). Thanks to Jade, I now know there’s even more to want–as in 9.5 hours more. Thanks a lot, Jade!

And we all agreed that while you can’t keep a good man down, with the right slip knot you can surely keep him horizontal. 😉

The blogging went on hot and heavy until almost 9 PM ET, with more than 140 of you stopping by! My heartfelt thanks to Michelle Buonfiglio and her Bellas for making us all feel so welcome we didn’t want to leave–literally. If it wasn’t for Richard Armitage of “North and South” waiting for me in my DVD player, I might still be over there.

And while even the good things in life must come to an end, in this case we’re not done yet. You can still catch the blog transcript with yes, my interview and juicy excerpt from Bound to Please at Romance B(u)y the Book.

Happy Weekend,

Hope

Blogging Today at Lifetime TV’s Romance Buy the Book

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Okay, chicks, I’m over today blogging with my editor, Brenda Chin, at Michelle Buonfiglio’s Romance B(u)y the Book at LifetimeTV.com. We’ll be visited throughout the day by bestselling authors Jacquie D’Alessandro, Jade Lee, Betina Krahn and latest Blaze Historical author, Patricia Potter.

The post topic: When Size Matters. I’d say more but really, doesn’t that sort of say it all? 😉

And bonus, we’re running a contest. Six separate winners will each receive signed books by Jade Lee (The Tao of Sex), Jacquie D’Alessandro (Jinxed) and Strokes of Midnight and It’s a Wonderfully Sexy Life by yeppers, Yours Truly.

So if you can, hop on over and join Brenda and I as we dish on what’s next for Harlequin’s sexy Blaze Historicals with Michelle B and her “Bellas.” Actually, if you come on over, that makes you a Bella, too.

On the Blogosphere Homefront i.e., “here,” look for upcoming posts on “Life According to Alda,” uber fab actor, director and yes, author Alan Alda whom I got to meet and yes, even actually touch last night and “Dating and Darwinism, The Old-New Frontier.”

So much to blog on, so little time…

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

Blog-o-licious

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Hi All,

Tomorrow, August 26th, I’m over at Elizabeth Kerri Mahon’s “Got It Goin’ On” blog–and boy does she ever. Along with being an uber-talented author, British history buff, and president of the New York City chapter of Romance Writers of America, Elizabeth finds time to blog–every day. Her Scandalous Women blog is one of my favorite places in cyberspace, especially on those days (and you know “those days”) when I really need to remember that “Well-behaved women don’t make history.”

And then repeat it like a mantra.

Also, I posted more photos from my Ireland trip to my Facebook page, so when you find two ticks, check it out.

Happy Monday,

Hope

Back from the Big Apple

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Yes, I’m back from New York and though the impetus for the trip was work-related, you guessed it–I had a fabulous time. Following in the (spiked heeled) footsteps of my romance writer heroine of Strokes of Midnight Becky Stone (AKA Rebecca St. Claire) I took an off-Broadway detour to Rosie O’Grady’s for a drink and a nosh. Unlike Becky, I was spared the confrontational encounter with any “Elliot”-like bad boys though I definitely checked out the bar’s dark-suited “inventory.”

As to that dreaded “work” stuff, it wasn’t dreaded at all but totally fun. Morgan Doremus and her hubby, Nick, owners of Pacific TV, graciously opened their Murray Hill filming studio to interview me. Prior to me sitting down with Morgan to dish on the book, they indulged me with a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility. The equipment room alone had more buttons and knobs and blinking lights than the console of the Starship Enterprise! Sitting down in front of the camera in the celebrity hot seat, my nose dusted with shine guarding powder and my posterior warming the same seat occupied by Jerry Seinfeld the month before when he stopped by to promote his blockbuster, “Bee Movie” was…well, pretty heady stuff.

My fifteen minutes of fame, winnowed down to ten, will “air” from the newly launched Romance Writers of America-NY website later this month. In addition to a few juicy not-yet-released Behind the Scenes details on the book, I include some hopefully helpful tips for aspiring writers on how to best use the Internet as a research tool to “keep it real” in our books. As they say, stay tuned…

I also hope you’ll join me on Thursday, December 20th when I “sit down” with LifetimeTV.com “Romance Buy the Book” host, Michelle Buonfiglio, to dish on Enslaved and the future of unusual historicals. Visit my Media & Events page for details on how to sign up and participate.

Welcome

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Welcome to the launch of my new and first-ever blog. It’s been a year of “firsts” for me personally and professionally. Per the latter, It’s A Wonderfully Sexy Life is my a) first ever contemporary, b) first ever Harlequin, c) first ever paranormal and d) first ever Christmas book.

And I’ve just finished my second paranormal for Harlequin’s Extreme Blaze line. The Haunting will hit bookstores, both brick-and-mortar as well as online, this April 2007. The book begins with my heroine, Dr. Maggie Holliday, discovering a 150-year-old diary buried behind some loose wallboard in the attic of her newly purchased historic home in the Fredericksburg, VA historic district where I’ve made my home coming on six years now.

Having just moved from an historic home that (amazingly!) resembles my heroine’s Victorian dream house, I’ve been struck by all the miscellaneous “stuff” you discover when you’re ramping up to pack. I’d always seen myself as a neat nick but the whole house purge in preparation for packing indicated otherwise. In The Haunting, Maggie finds the diary, which happens to have been penned by her previous Civil War era incarnation, Isabel Earnshaw.

What hidden treasures (or terrors) have you found when ramping up for a move? Maggie’s move from the Washington, DC area to Fredericksburg, VA went considerably more smoothly than mine did. What was your worst ever absolute nightmare move? Or, on the perkier side, what the best move you ever made and why?

Whether we get there by the short, smooth easy road or the long, prickly bramble-riddled one, it’s my personal belief that we’re all always exactly where we’re meant to be.

Here’s wishing you a safe, joyous kick-off to the winter holidays…
Hope