Release day for CHRISTMAS BRIDES

It’s release day for CHRISTMAS BRIDES!

Huzzah, huzzah! I am so very excited!

And, I'm so very, very sorry!

Yes, that’s right—my delight comes with reservations, because  this means that the Christmas book season is now officially open. Which is why I am sorry. Because I’m not ready for it to be the Christmas Season, either. I’m not even ready for it to be Halloween, much less Thanksgiving or the Yule! 

So to assuage my guilt over having to force the holidays upon you, and to get into the proper spirit of the season, I am giving away five (5) copies of CHRISTMAS BRIDES, the marvelous anthology of four Christmas stories from historical romance authors Suzanne Enoch, Alexandra Hawkins, Valerie Bowman and me! 

#PlottingPrincesses welcome author Bonnie Dodge Writing her Mom's stories #MFRWorg

Please help me welcome my friend and fellow writer, Bonnie Dodge to the Princess Palace today. Bonnie lives and writes from her home in southern Idaho. Her award-winning fiction, poetry, and non-fiction have appeared in several newspapers, magazines and anthologies in the Pacific Northwest. For more information about Bonnie visit her web page at http://bonniedodge.com/ and follow her on Twitter @BJDodge. So take it away, Bonnie.

Today my mother would be eighty-four. If she were still here. For twenty-one years I’ve survived without her, and today I could be sad, but instead I’m feeling grateful.

The day before my mother died, we spent the morning traipsing up and down southern Idaho ditch banks looking for wild asparagus. Mother called this “free” food because we didn’t have to pay $2.99 a pound for it in the local grocery store. As we combed the ditch banks I told her I wanted to be a writer. I told her about the stories I was creating.

.#PlottingPrincesses interview: Katherine Grey & is her favorite movie despicable? #MFRWorg

The Plotting Princesses put Katherine Grey under the microscope. So what is her despicable movie? Read on!

Let's get to know  her: When Katherine started talking to her friends about the characters in her head as though they were real people, she decided it was time to start putting all those people populating her mind along with their exploits down on paper. Friends have gotten used to Katherine's imaginary friends but still often ask, "Wait, is this a real person?" whenever she mentions someone they don't know.

Okay, Katherine, let's get down to the nitty gritty:

.@VickiBatman - The BIG Goof #LongLiveLongmire #MFRWorg #PlottingPrincesses

The BIG Goof - #LongLiveLongmire

A few weeks ago, word filtered through that the superb Western, Longmire, had been cancelled at the end of three seasons.

I was shocked! So were a lot of other folks.

I began watching this superb show because it wasn’t about Housewives, or chef cook-off, or a badly behaving bridezilla. Nope, Longmire was about a sheriff, his staff, family, and friends who lived in a small Wyoming town. The series is based on the books written by Craig Johnson.

The show averaged 5.6 million viewers. Isn’t that a lot of people? More viewers than “Mad Men” and “Justified” according to a Wall Street Journal article. Wall Street Journal

Yes, but it seems the viewer-ship is primarily older viewers—the average age of 60 versus 48. According to the Wall Street Journal article, “Longmire’s fate is reflective of two growing trends in the television industry-the obsession of advertisers with younger viewers and the desire of TV networks to own as much of their content as possible.” An executive at the network said, “...we genuinely loved the show, but the audiences in the key demographics just weren’t there.”

Michelle Miles: Hello, the 80s called. They want their movies back.

At my house, Saturday night is “movie night.” We’ve been doing it consistently for a month or so now. The kid LOVES it. And even when he’s not there, the Man and I have movie night. But with popcorn – Kid has braces and can’t eat it so we try not to have it in front of him cuz that just mean.

Anyway, he recently turned 13. Aside from him joining the land of social media and instant communication, it also means he gets to catch up on all those 80s movies that we loved at his age.

Aside from Ghostbusters (1984) which he’s already seen, we introduced him to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). He loved it. I’ve never heard the kid laugh as hard as he did at that one. This past weekend, we watched Crocodile Dundee (1986). After we watched it, I got to thinking about thin the plot was. And they kept saying he was a poacher but…we never really saw him poaching anything. Well, except for the one crock that he stabbed in the head to save the girl stood by the water, scantily clad, and dipped in her canteen. It was pretty easy to see she was going to fall for the Aussie after he “boyfriend” was such a jerk to him (and her) at dinner. There really didn’t seem to be a lot of character development, either. I guess I’m jaded. ;)

.@PlottingPrinc1 - Anna Jeffery teases us with The Cattleman #MFRWorg #westernromance

Today, the Princesses welcome long-time friend, Anna Jeffery, to the site with some good...hot...stuff from her new book, The Cattleman. Howdy, Anna!

THE CATTLEMAN, a contemporary romance, is Book #2, of the “Sons of Texas” series. It’s a sequel to THE TYCOON that I released about a year and a half ago.


In THE TYCOON, the oldest Lockhart son, William Drake Lockhart, III, is the star character. He’s smart, good-looking and is the master of all he surveys. In the CATTLEMAN, I tell the story of Drake’s younger brother and middle son, Pickett Charles Lockhart. 

SUPERSTITIONS: ARE YOU A BELIEVER? by Kathy Ivan

I grew up in South Florida and spent many a happy vacation going to the beach and/or visiting with family and friends along the Florida Keys and Key West.  Imagine my surprise when I found out that after a day combing the shore for spectacular seashells that I wasn't allowed to bring them inside the house.

Why?  Because it's bad luck to have real shells in your house.  Bet you didn't know that (unless you were brought up by a very superstitious grandmother and mother.) 

Most of you know the superstitions or omens which are fairly common. 

Watching Loved One's Age

This month my father will celebrate his 83^rd birthday. It’s hard to believe that’s he’s that age and I still remember him as a young man working hard to earn a living for his family. My mother is 78 and she still gets around really well, but my father is starting to struggle.

Aging is just part of life’s journey and I know that eventually we all die, but until the last five years I never realized how difficult the journey could be. Unfortunately, I fear that I haven’t seen the worst yet and know that eventually there will be a time when my family members will be gone.

In the last five years, we’ve lost my husband’s mother, my grandmother, my aunt and an uncle. And I know that this is just the beginning. All my family is aging and for that matter, so am I.

Before my mother-in-law died at the age of 88, she told me she was ready to go because all of her friends had passed on. She said you reach a time when you no longer have funerals to attend and you’re the only one left. That statement has stayed with me and I know that there could come a day when that will be the case with me.

At first this really bothered me, but the logical part of me says that this is just part of life. This journey we call everyday living will someday come to an end. The optimistic side of me says that’s why we’re to love each other and enjoy our time together. Live each day to the fullest.