Cooking Up the Love

Thanksgiving is mere calendar days away, perhaps not much of a revelation and yet amazing to me all the same. The day after, November 26th also known as Black Friday in the retail world, officially opens the winter holiday shopping season. The prospect of standing in long lines in overheated stores can bring out the “Bah! Humbug!” in even the most cheerful of hearts.

The_Heart_of_CookingEnter the antidote. The Snap4Kids “Celebrity” Cookbook, The Heart of Cooking, offers holiday shoppers more than 170 recipes from 130 authors including Yours Truly compiled into an attractive keepsake cookbook at $12.50/each ordered online. Proceeds support Snap4Kids, a 501c(3) assisting families of children with special needs, especially the physically challenged, in helping their child reach his/her maximum potential through information, referral, education, and modest grants for medical and therapeutic equipment, not covered by health insurance or in the case of no health insurance, throughout the United States, from birth to age 22.

Good eats for a good cause. And my recipe contribution, reduced fat artichoke dip, is heart-healthy, too!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Hope

Happy Release Day!

christmas_350My Victorian Christmas novella, Tomorrow’s Destiny in A Harlequin Christmas Carol officially releases today, November 9th! Though copies have been showing up in selected online retail stores and brick-and-mortar bookstores for the past week, I’m so happy to be able to officially announce the anthology in plenty of time for the winter holidays. And I have plenty of celebrating planned, so please visit my Media & Events page for information on my winter holiday Blog Tour–first whistle stop is RT BOOK Reviews Blog on 11-12–and in-person appearances. The latter include my December 6th reading and signing at Lady Jane’s Salon.

Some readers got the  ball rolling even earlier by entering my monthly contest and reading the online excerpt from Tomorrow’s Destiny. Congratulations to Theresa D of Monticello, NY, my current contest winner. Like many of you who entered, Theresa knew that in Tomorrow’s Destiny, my heroine, Fiona’s birthday is December 25th. Poor Fiona! It’s hard to keep up the Scrooge act when you’re a Christmas baby. Here at HopeTarr.com, even a whisper of “Bah! Humbug!” is strictly forbidden. In keeping with the holiday celebration theme, Theresa’s prize is a signed copy of my Scottish Christmas historical, Twelve Nights.

Hope signing Twelve Nights & Vanquished at Lady Jane's Salon.
Hope signing at last December's Lady Jane's Salon.

My new contest opens today and the prize will once again be Twelve Nights, so if you haven’t yet read Alys and Callum’s sexy Christmas love story, take two ticks and enter.

Wishing you a holiday season brimming with mistletoe moments,

Hope

November 1st Lady Jane’s Salon

Joining us as guests for tonight’s Lady Jane’s Salon are the following four fabo authors: Stella Price, Terence Taylor, Allie Boniface, and Sarah MacLean. Bonus: we’ll be raffling off two copies of Lauren Willig’s Christmas release, The Mischief of the Mistletoe.

The Salon meets at 7-9 PM chez Madame X. Admission is $5 or one gently used romance novels, net proceeds and books to support NYC women’s charities. Cash bar.

Contest Winner!

christmas_350Okay, I’ll admit it. Sometimes life…make that Life gets away from me, if not a lot than certainly more often than I’d like. September was one of those months. What with promoting my Beer Gardens NYC iPhone app, Lady Jane’s Salon (October’s Salon was awesome!) and prepping for the release of Tomorrow’s Destiny in A HARLEQUIN CHRISTMAS CAROL a mere 30 days wasn’t nearly enough.

Consider the above as the preamble to a confession. I forgot to pick a contest winner for September. My bad–literally!

In the spirit of “better late than never,” belated but sincere congratulations to Marie E of Lathrop, CA, the winner of my September contest prize: a signed copy of my previous Christmas Scottish historical romance, Twelve Nights. As did many of you who entered, Marie correctly answered that in Tomorrow’s Destiny/A Harlequin Christmas Carol, my heroine Fiona’s eyes are green and blue.

For those who didn’t win, I hope you’ll take two two ticks to read the Sneak Peek of Tomorrow’s Destiny/A HARLEQUIN CHRISTMAS CAROL (due out November 10th) and enter my current contest. But lest we rush the holidays, for now…

Happy Halloween Weekend!

Tonight at Lady Jane’s Salon…

Tonight, at the October 4th Lady Jane’s…

Salon co-founder Leanna Renee Hieber will read from the next installment in her Strangely Beautiful saga, A Christmas Carroll, featured in A MIDWINTER FANTASY anthology.

We also welcome fabulous guest authors Janet Mullany, Donna Hill, and Sabrina Jeffries, as well as special guest Salon Emcee, Publishers Weekly’s Barbara Vey.

7-9 PM chez Madame X (94 W Houston Street). Admission is $5 or one gently-used ppb romance novel, net proceeds to support NYC women’s charities. Guest authors books available for sale and signing on site.

Read the rest of the story at the Lady Jane’s Salon blog site.

Beer Gardens NYC or How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Beer Gardens NYC, my first ever iPhone App, the fruit of my summer stay-cation, went live earlier this month at the iTunes App Store, and I am positively thrilled by the response.

app-storeThe App is a collaboration with my real life Prince Charming, Raj Moorjani. For five consecutive summer weekends, Raj and I braved soaring summer temperatures and the boos and hisses of booze-soaked World Cup watchers to visit 50 beer gardens across the city’s boroughs.

Selected venues received our soon-to-be coveted and unabashedly subjective “Top Pick” status–because when you hoof it to 50 beer gardens in the midst of a major heat wave, you should get to have your say. 😉

The App’s list of more than 900 unique international and domestic beers is search-able by brand and venue, giving the app legs long after Oktoberfest’s last hurrah.

I’m particularly proud of the detailed summaries of the scene for each beer garden, which called for me to set aside my romance writer’s tiara and put on my travel writer’s fedora instead. (No worries, though, I have a big enough head to fit both). 😉

So far, the media response has been tremendous. The cherry topping the sundae, or more properly the foam topping the brew, is today’s New York Times Diners Journal article!

To learn more about the app project, visit our website at Beer Gardens NYC. For fun factoids on beer gardens and upcoming Oktoberfest events in New York City, visit us at OktoberfestNYC.com

Happy Oktoberfest!

September Lady Jane’s Salon

The September Lady Jane’s Salon will take place on our usual first Monday of the month which happens to be the 6th…Labor Day!

We’re proud to host four great guest authors: Rebecca Rogers Maher, Cat Johnson, Cecilia Tan, and Michele Lang. Take two ticks, head over to the Lady Jane’s web site, and read Michele’s post on the thrills and chills of anticipating her Lady Jane’s reading. And, if you can, join us live on Monday, September 6th, 7-9 PM, at Madame X (94 W Houston Street). We’ll be giving away copies of Cecilia’s Ravenous Romance trade paperback release, MIND GAMES, to our first fifty guests as well as raffling two signed copies of Anna Campbell’s latest release.

Admission to the Salon is $5 or one gently-used romance novel with net proceeds to support a NYC area women’s charity.

Up Close and…In the Flesh

Hope reads from EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE at In the Flesh.
Hope reading at In the Flesh.

I may write the naughty bits, I do write them, but never ever do I read Those Parts aloud. Until last night, that is.

Last night I slipped on my stilettos and stepped out of my comfort zone to read at “In the Flesh,” New York City’s premiere monthly erotica reading series hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Orgasmic, Fast Girls, Please, Sir).

Fittingly, the group meets at Happy Ending Lounge (302 Broome Street) in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The bar, housed in a former massage parlor complete with tile sauna rooms, now party coves, is certain to fascinate both architectural history buffs and the purely prurient of heart. Or both.

In_the_Flesh_Guest_Authors_Aug_19_2010My fellow readers were Abigail Ekue (The Darker Side of Lust), Hilary Thayer Hamann (Anthropology of an American Girl), Yona Zeldis McDonough (Breaking the Bank), Tony O’Neill (Sick City), Michelle Janine Robinson (Color Me Grey), and filmmaker Therese Schecter (How To Lose Your Virginity).

Since the theme was “Sex on the Beach,” I read a steamy (for me) lagoon lovemaking scene from Every Breath You Take, set in contemporary Belize.

But first I had a glass of wine. Okay, two.

In_the_Flesh_Crowd#2Along with the sexy snippets, there were miniature Baked by Melissa cupcakes, candy and chips, all free.

After five years, In the Flesh is closing its boudoir doors after December 16th, so if you like erotica and you’re in New York City, definitely check out it out. Meet-ups are on the third Thursday of the month. Admission is free. Cash bar.

East Hampton Library Authors Night

Hope signs THE TUTOR at the East Hampton Library Authors Night, August 14, 2010
Hope signs THE TUTOR at the East Hampton Library Authors Night, August 14, 2010

On Saturday I participated in the East Hampton Library’s fifth annual Authors Night, a fundraiser for the library and its programs.

The weather was sublime, more like early spring than late summer. Seated beneath a massive tent set on the library lawn with the more than 150 other participating authors, I sipped wine and nibbled on tuna roll and sesame chicken, and of course signed copies of The Tutor.

Throughout I chatted with attendees, both readers and fellow authors, including romance writer, Barbara Metzger. And yes, I indulged in the occasional Fan Girl Moment with Alec Baldwin, the event’s Founding Chair, Candace Bushnell, and Lois Stern, to name a few. And before the crowd grew too crazy, I had the pleasure of meeting a charming gentleman from New Orleans, Bryan Batt. Bryan, who portrays Salvatore Romano on AMC’s wildly popular “Mad Men,” was there to sign his new memoir, She Ain’t Heavy. She’s My Mother. As a latecomer but passionate devotee of the show, I was thrilled.

Mad Men's Bryant Batt signs his memoir.
Mad Men's Bryan Batt signs his memoir.

After the signing, my handsome date and I were treated to cocktails and dinner on the water front terrace of bestselling author and former Letterman writer, Jill Davis. Biographer Robert Caro, whom I first met at the Empire State Book Festival in Albany this spring, was the dinner’s delightful guest of honor. Between bites of caviar dressed oysters, quail eggs, and tempura shrimp, we collectively picked Robert’s brain for behind the scenes details on Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, the subjects of his seminal works, The Power Broker and The Years of Lyndon Johnson (multiple volumes). Witty, wise, and infinitely charming, Robert did not disappoint.

Founding Event Chair, actor Alec Baldwin, was thronged with eager book buyers, especially the ladies.
Founding Event Chair, actor Alec Baldwin, was thronged with eager book buyers, especially the ladies.

Alas, my Cinderella evening ended far too soon for all that it began at 4:30 PM and didn’t end until well after midnight. Sunday morning began with an 8 AM eight-mile training run for the upcoming Hampton Marathon & Half, followed by a brief jaunt to the beach for a cool down wade. A quick shower, a hasty cup of coffee, and then it was on the road headed home to New York City and dare I say it, Real Life.

Now I’m back to work, plugging away on two new projects as well as promoting my newest release, A Rogue’s Pleasure, out today with Carina Press, Harlequin’s digital-first publishing imprint. Originally published with Berkley, the book has a beautiful new cover and a fresh new look overall, so if you didn’t read the original print issue back in 2000, I hope you’ll have a go at the e-book version.

Under The Big Top at the East Hampton Library Authors Night.
Under The Big Top at the East Hampton Library Authors Night.

As for the East Hampton Library Authors Night, I’ve already begun the countdown to next year!

Lady Jane’s Salon

The July 6th Lady Jane’s Salon saw a fabulous turn out despite the steamy temperatures and holiday weekend. In addition to co-hosting two fabulous guest authors, Dianna Love and Colby Hodge, I got to guest myself! Please check out my videotaped reading from The Tutor.

The August 2nd Lady Jane’s Salon aims to send off summer with a bang. Our guests will be Anna DePalo, Erica Ridley, and Alaya Dawn Johnson. As always guest authors books will be available for purchase on site.

Lady Jane’s meets at Madame X (94 West Houston) on the first Monday of every month, 7-9 PM. Cash bar. Admission is $5 or one gently-used paperback romance novel with net proceeds supporting local women’s charities.