Search This Blog

November 30, 2013

Plotting Princesses ~ holiday newsletter issue. Check out great stories, links, and fun!





Our 2013 Plotting Princesses newsletter is packed with all kinds of goodies:
 
Holiday releases!
New releases!
Street Team information!
Blog Talk Radio!
Great Articles!
 
with lots of links and information.
 
 
Click here: http://ymlp.com/zQprwo
 

November 21, 2013

Vicki Batman ~ Shop-a-rama Begins!


Shop-a-rama Begins


Five Weeks! FIVE WEEKS!! Til Christmas.
Let the shopping begin.

Or if you are like me, you shop year round and probably overbuy. Lol. I stash boxes and bags in a secret spot until one day, when I really need to verify what I bought everyone. I sort it into piles, label a shopping bag with a name, and put that person's gifts in the bag until Wrap-a-thon Day.

My secret spot has so much in it already and I've hardly begun. I have a stack of pages from catalogs by my monitor to buy things on line. Online shopping maybe easy, but when there's a stack—I see an hour or two-ish in my future.

November 19, 2013

Michelle Miles on Thanksgiving: The Forgotten Holiday

I love Halloween. But not for the gore and gross stuff. I love it because it’s FUN. Because the decorations are fun and it’s officially FALL in my book.

What I don’t love is that Christmas decorations start to creep into the stores before Halloween is even over. I’m sure you’ve noticed this disturbing reoccurrence. It seems like it gets earlier and earlier every year. For Christmas and then for Valentine’s. There will be chocolate hearts on display by January 2 – you watch.

But I digress. It seems like we jump from Halloween to Christmas. We start the Christmas shopping madness earlier and earlier every year. This year, we get the added bonus of having stores open ON Thanksgiving morning. Before we know it, stores just won’t CLOSE for Thanksgiving.

November 14, 2013

The Scandal of Holiday Creep



The holiday creep is back. No, not that guy who hangs out at my local hardware store and offers to carry my bags for spare change (yes, I’m a softie and I always let him), but the slow push to make the purchasing period for the December holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza begin well before the first frost is on the pumpkins, or the hay is in the barn. 

The signs are everywhere: red and green decorations in the local chain stores; advertisements on the television with bright red cars plowing their merry way through the snow; gorgeous magazine layouts with tips for holiday decorating; and stacks and stacks of catalogues jamming my mailbox. And just last week, while empty candy wrappers from Halloween were still blowing across the lawn, the neighbors had a professional company come install their Christmas lights. Me? I haven’t even ordered a Thanksgiving turkey! 

My first reaction to this year’s holiday creep as a mom and harried head of household, was the frostiest of cold shoulders—I’ll get to the holidays when I get to them, and not a minute sooner, thank you very much! I will not be made to feel guilty because I am not out on a buying or decorating spree, instead of sitting at my desk writing the books my readers count on. 

But then I had a terrible revelation—I’m part of the problem! I have a Christmas e-novella, THE SCANDAL BEFORE CHRISTMAS, which became available in mid-October. 

November 12, 2013

DO YOU HAVE A NOTORIOUS AUNT? by Kathleen Baldwin

Do you have a Notorious Aunt?

This week I am launching my award-wining Regency romantic comedy as an eBook. LADY FIASCO was voted best Traditional Regency by the cataromance readers, and won 2nd place in the prestigious Molly. It’s book one in the series, My Notorious Aunt.

It about and unusual heroine. Fiona Hawthorn grew up running free. Without a mother to restrain her, she spent her days riding her horse neck or nothing across her father’s fields and swimming like a sea nymph. But in a sitting room she’s bound to overturn the teapot or accidentally trip the footman. Her notorious Aunt Honore decides to takes the hoyden in hand, but amidst the strictures of society, Fiona is a fish out of water.

When she was younger, Lord Wesmont was her hero. But he came home from fighting Napoleon a hardened man. Nothing can breathe life back into his cold heart, nothing except, perhaps, the love of an unusual young woman who regularly turns his life upside-down. Can a lady with a reputation for disaster, stumble into love?

November 7, 2013

Karilyn and the Flat Tire by Karilyn Bentley

 #car problems #flat tire

I've got to admit I'm recycling this story. It's a couple of years old but still cracks me up. Hope you enjoy!!!



Growing up my dad owned an auto salvage with his dad and brother. I used to spend summer days out there learning all sorts of things. Mainly my twin cousin and I would take the Green Machine - a Pinto minus the hatchback, the hood and the doors - and drive it up and down the rows in between wrecked cars. Our fathers, who were supposed to be watching our 12-year-old selves, thought this would be a safe activity, considering we couldn't really damage the GM and the rest of the cars were already wrecked. The GM didn't go very fast and supposedly taught us how to drive (if you ever saw Cousin drive, you'd think twice about this assessment).

Little did they know what we did with it.

At the time, Dukes of Hazzard was a really big show (I've dated myself, haven't I???). Not the cheesy movie either, but the real Mccoy, with Bo and Luke Duke. Hoo-wee. Gotta go get my fan. Okay, I'm back. Anyhoo, since the Dukes could leap into a traveling car, Cousin and I figured we could too. So one of us would hop behind the wheel of the GM, gun the puny engine until it whined in protest and the other one would run as fast as her legs could carry her and leap, mostly gracefully, into the car. The driver would then tell the other how fast she could run.

Lots of good old-fashioned fun.

November 5, 2013

Is Black Friday Out of Control?


It’s November, and already the black Friday buildup has begun.  Amazon is advertising Countdown to Black Friday deals. I signed up for an ad from Book Blast for their Holiday advertising. Put your tennis shoes on and be prepared for the holiday races to begin. 

Our family is small, and we have to travel to San Angelo to spend Thanksgiving with my parents who live about thirty miles out of town. There are main roads into town, but at night or early in the morning you have to watch for deer. In the past, on two separate occasions, my parents have hit deer crossing the road at night, which does considerable damage to your car. When we drive out to their place, my husband, and I are always watching for those rascally deer who run right in front of you. Once we’re there for Thanksgiving, we usually don’t go anywhere in town until it’s daylight.

Plus, I find it very hard to get up at three in the morning and go shopping just so that I can get some great deals. I’m snuggled up under the covers, dreaming of Ryan Gosling and how I can persuade him to appear on my next book cover. But a lot of people enjoy this early morning shopping spree. I know women who pour over the sales ads and plan their shopping excursion.

November 2, 2013

#PlottingPrincesses ~ 2013 Holiday Newsletter issue is packed with goodies

 
 
 
Our 2013 Plotting Princesses newsletter is packed with all kinds of goodies:
 
Holiday releases!
New releases!
Street Team information!
Blog Talk Radio!
Great Articles!
 
with lots of links and information.
 
 
Click here: http://ymlp.com/zQprwo