I’m so excited to share the cover for ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A DUKE! Valerie Bowman, Tiffany Clare, Ashlyn Macnamara, and I have joined forces in this Christmas anthology for Avon Impulse.
ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A DUKE is available on December 1st, 2015.
The Avon Art Department created a lovely cover, don’t you think?
I had a blast writing my novella, THE DUKE’S CHRISTMAS WISH, and I can’t wait to share this story with you! Look for upcoming previews in my newsletter, on my blog and on Facebook.
For years, I’ve been a proponent of the No-Gardening Garden Method. Simply put, this is a garden that appears without effort. In the spring, you just see what happens to pop up and flourish. It’s always a wonderful surprise.
You see, I’ve never been a good gardener when sweat, kneeling, and labor is involved. I don’t understand it, but whenever I try really hard to grow something—test soil pH, gauge water levels, fertilize, and weed—I end up killing everything. Every single plant.
However, if I happen to take the tomatoes or cucumbers that have gone wrinkly in the bottom of the veggie drawer, a sprouting potato, or even the remains of a Halloween jack o’lantern, and then toss them in the garden spot… something magic happens. Life finds a way.
In the harshest conditions.
Without testing the soil.
Somehow… I have a garden every single year.
This year, my favorite flower has become the pumpkin blossom.
Isn’t that big yellow blossom beautiful?
Then, of course, there’s the fruit that follows.
(Unfortunately, the pictures posted here were not taken from my garden. Because I’m posting this in the middle of the night, I had to Google-grab.)
This year, I’ve already picked five pumpkins and there are more growing in my no-gardening garden. I highly recommend it!
Warm wishes, happy reading, and happy no-gardening,
Yesterday, I sent out a distress call on Facebook:
“HELP!!! As you know, I’ve written a novella for the Avon Impulse Christmas anthology, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A DUKE. The only problem is… I still need to give my novella a title. Ugh! The good news is that my editor and I have narrowed it down to two, but we can’t decide. So we’re giving YOU the final decision.<3 Do you prefer: a). This Christmas Kiss, or b). The Duke’s Christmas Wish?”
And today we have a winner! THE DUKE’S CHRISTMAS WISH won by a landslide! YAY!!!
I’ll upload the cover for the anthology as soon as I receive it. In addition, when the link is hot for THE DUKE’S CHRISTMAS WISH, I’ll post it here. 🙂
Every year over the Labor Day weekend, my small town hosts one of the largest Midwestern festivals, the Blueberry Festival. Food trucks, craft-sellers, and carnival rides bring people from all over the U.S. Our population skyrockets from 25k to 200k. Our school system even closes for the Friday before Labor Day each year. And for those who live near the sprawling park, you are a virtual prisoner for four solid days.
I live near the park. Which essentially boils down to the fact that I typically do not have the freedom to run to Starbucks. For four solid days.
This year, however, I managed to brazen my way out onto the road, and drove the back way to my favorite beverage kingdom. And as a bonus, I still had a parking space when I made it home. Yes!
Not only that, but DH installed new windows in my writing cave. So now I’m ready to enjoy my new sound-dampened/ UV protected haven. <3
The tents in the park are coming down today and the neighborhood is quiet. It’s the perfect day for writing a new book. And… if I make my word count, I might treat myself to a grande chai with whip. 🙂
Today, you’ll find me at Lachesis Publishing Inc. The wonderful Joanna D’Angelo runs a Bestselling Author Q and A on Fridays and she picked me to be her guest this week! Isn’t that cool?
Her questions are wonderful and make the interview flow seamlessly. I really had fun!
I woke up at 3:30 a.m.. Apparently, my brain believed that 4 hours of sleep was plenty before proceeding to remind me that I’d planned to outline the next book today.
Oh yeah! The new book (aka Lilah and Jack’s story)! I’ve already fallen in love with these characters and can’t wait to get started. So, I mulled over the meet cute for a while until I felt like I might be able to drift back into sleep… which happened about 30 seconds before the alarm went off.
Then, like a zombie, I walked across the hall to wake up DS 2.0, only to have him mumble a reminder about “late start Mondays.”
Oh yeah! Monday start time is nearly an hour later than the rest of the week. So I went back to bed… but my brain had reengaged and was too excited about everything to sleep.
Now, here I sit with an extra large mug of tea, the motor skills of a zombie, while yawning like a guppy out of water. Yet, my brain is ready to split the atom. I’m afraid to think of what will happen when it finally realizes how tired we are.
The Maddening Lord Montwood comes out in paperback this Tuesday! Yay! To celebrate, I’m giving away an RWA canvas tote chock-full of mystery goodies from the conference. This is a HUGE PRIZE!!!
To enter: “Share” this post. You have all weekend to enter. I’ll choose one winner on Monday, 8/17. If you share this post anywhere other than via the link widgets below, just post the link in the comments of this post to increase your chances of winning.
Good luck, happy reading, and have a spectacular weekend!
For those of you who follow my blog, I’m giving you an exclusive scoop:
In the next week, I’ll be hosting a contest! Yay!!!
The prize will be a mystery bag, filled with an assortment of books I picked up at RWA! This contest is going to be BIG. I can hardly wait!
Right now, I’m in deadline mode, but as soon as I finish this novella, I’ll post the contest details here, on Facebook, and on Twitter. I just wanted you to hear it first. 🙂
For the month of August, I’m going to be giving away RWA “Goodies” during random contests. There might be one listed here, one on Twitter, and one for those who are in my Newsletter Crew. This weekend, I’m running a contest on my Facebook page.
The prize pack, this time, will be an assortment of ebooks from your favorite authors: When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James; Worth Any Price by Lisa Kleypas; What I Did For A Duke by Julie Anne Long; Claire by Ellie MacDonald; and One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean.
I’ll choose ONE random winner from the comments below the “angry bird” picture on my Facebook page. Contest ends Sunday, 8/2/15, at midnight (ET). Facebook is not responsible for this giveaway.
I’m completely over the moon about it! I found out when I was in NYC at the RWA conference. I was in one of the glass elevators when I read a Tweet of congratulations. At the time, I was surrounded by about 8 strangers, and none of them conference goers, but even so, all I wanted to do was jump up and down and cheer. I’m sure they would have understood, right? 😉
Anyway, I couldn’t be happier about the wonderful news. More than that, I received dozens of congratulations and warm wishes from my fellow writers, proving that romance authors are the best people on the entire planet. <3
Nearly normal writer of romance. Excels at drinking copious amounts of tea. Enjoys using dark sense of humor to torture family.
Love it Vivienne~ lol If we opened your refrigerator, what would we find?
Tea and milk. Everyone else has to fend for themselves.
I like how you think 🙂 What’s your favorite food to cook?
I love to bake scones and come up with my own recipes.
I’m a huge advocate for experimenting in the kitchen, too. I love making up recipes. What’s under your bed?
Fluffy carpet—the boogeyman likes a soft, clutter-free place to sleep.
I love choosing my character names. How did you go about choosing your hero and heroine’s names?
For THE MADDENING LORD MONTWOOD, I’d given Lucan his name in the first book he appeared, Winning Miss Wakefield (Wallflower Weddings Series, book 2). I wanted a character that was dark and charming, and I thought “Lucan” fit that description perfectly. The heroine I had in mind was slightly prickly on the surface, but passionate and driven on the inside. “Frances Thorne” seemed to fit.
Great name choices! What’s the first sentence in your book?
