Super Bowl Sunday Giveaway!

On Sunday, February 7, Super Bowl Sunday, I'll be giving away a Kindle copy of THE PRINCE OF VAL-FEYRIDGE as part of The Romance Reviews Mega Anniversary and Valentine's Day Party.

To enter the contest, you'll have to log into the TRR site and correctly answer a trivia question about the book. (Hint: the answer is found on my PRINCE page for this blog. Look to the right column for the link.) To get to the TRR site from this blog, look to my left column and click on the Mega Anniversary and Valentine's Day Party icon or click on this link: http://www.theromancereviews.com/event.php.

Cheer for your favorite team and enter for a chance to win my book and many others on Feb. 7. Best of luck!

Winter Wonderland

Winter has finally arrived in our neck of the woods. It arrived on Christmas Eve, just in time for the traditional White Christmas, with about an inch of pretty white fluff. About seven inches of snow came down just before the New Year. That should be our base for the rest of the winter—unless El Nino magically makes it disappear.

The cold temps and snow are about a month late, so most of us haven’t gotten around to complaining about it yet. Today, there’s a thick hoar frost on everything, making the trees in my yard look like something out of a fairy tale (the Dancing Princesses, maybe?). Recently, I went out at night and I was transported back to my childhood.

My friends and I used to walk to the movie theater, escorted by one or more of our parents, and I recall quite vividly a magical snowy night when we walked home after the feature. The air was completely still. A couple of inches of snow had freshly fallen. Trees and bushes were decoratively draped in it. Our boots crunched and squeaked in the silent air. The temperature must have been near 30 because I don’t remember being cold at all as I breathed in that uniquely fresh air that’s present only after a snowfall. All around us, in the light of the streetlamps, the snow sparkled and twinkled. It looked as though a rainbow had frozen and sprinkled the snow with colorful crystals. I fancied they were jewels, scattered by a giant’s hand for us to enjoy. (I was about eight or nine then and already a great fan of fairy tales.)

When I went out at night recently, snow had freshly fallen and it, too, sparkled with a multitude of colors. The air smelled fresh, uniquely clean. My boots crunched, and I stood for a moment enjoying the fantastical spread of jewels and remembering.

Pages From the Heart Winner!

I'm positively thrilled to announce that my work in progress, THE LORD OF DRUEMARWIN, is the winner of the Pages From the Heart Published Author Fantasy category. I entered to get a 'cold read' of my first 24 pages, so I was suitably pleased when it made the finals, not to mention over the moon to have it win.

The book is a sequel to my debut novel, THE PRINCE OF VAL-FEYRIDGE, and I've been enjoying immersing myself in the world I created a long time ago to occupy my imagination on long car trips, etc. I've also been enjoying making my hero and heroine suffer all the twists and trials that same imagination can conjure up for them. And they--bless them--have been revealing all sorts of little tidbits about themselves that I can use to torment them farther.

On a side note, be sure to enter The Romance Reviews Year End Splash Party month-long contest. A Kindle copy of BLOODSTONE is up for grabs on Sunday, Nov. 22. Click on the Splash Party link to the left to go to the contest, then come back to my BLOODSTONE page on the right to find the answer to the trivia question. Good luck!

November Giveaway and Author Appearance!

I'm setting up for The Romance Reviews' Year End Splash Party November-long giveaway contest. For my part I'm giving away a Kindle copy of BLOODSTONE. Pop over to The Romance Reviews on November 22, answer the trivia question correctly, and enter for a chance to win!

Coming next weekend, Nov. 6-7, is the Southeast Wisconsin Book Festival at the UW-Waukesha campus: http://www.sewibookfest.com/. For the first time ever, I'll be visiting the festival as a presenting author. Book sales and signings will be held on Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m. I'll be part of the The Odd Squad, a panel by Wisconsin Romance Writers' fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal authors to be held from 10:30-11:30 a.m. 

Stop by and say, "Hi!" Attendance is free. But, being as it's a book-oriented event, you'll probably open your wallet anyway. I know I will. What's not to love about books?

99 cent SALE!

For two weeks only! Friday, Oct. 16-midnight Thursday, Oct. 29, THE PRINCE OF VAL-FEYRIDGE e-book will be on sale for just 99 cents.

The Wild Rose Press will begin the action, but other e-retailers should quickly follow. Here are some links:
The Wild Rose Press
Kindle
Nook
All Romance E-Books 

This is my first sale, so I'm excited to see what attention it brings to my debut fantasy romance.

Coming Soon!

I'm thrilled to announce that on September 1st, BLOODSTONE will debut as an AmazonEncore edition.

AmazonEncore has picked up exclusive rights to the e-book version from The Wild Rose Press and will distribute it under a new ASIN: http://amzn.com/B0145P8JC6. The print version will continue to be available from The Wild Rose Press, Amazon, and other retailers.

This is a grand experiment--and quite an honor--for me to have my book chosen by Amazon as one that they plan to put the weight and might of their promotional machine behind. I'm excited to see what they have planned!

Anxious August

Did you know that it’s possible to have an emotional reaction to a calendar month? According to an article I recently saw on Yahoo, it’s true. Depending on what events or emotions we individually associate with a particular month, we develop a long-lasting aversion to or affinity for a particular calendar month.

August has always made me anxious. Most parents are cheerfully—or desperately—looking forward to carting their young off to school. Those youngsters are enjoying the balmy days of summer tans, swimming pools, and sleeping in. It’s usually a glorious month in the Midwest, full of corn on the cob, county fairs, and summer trips. But I’ve never fully enjoyed it. Once July becomes August, my sense of unease stirs.

Now I’m finally able to pinpoint a reason—or reasons—for it. My emotional calendar has recorded an inordinate number of disturbances in the month for as long as I can remember.

I’m a military brat. Almost every August I was eyeballing a new school, another set of classmates’ and teachers’ names to learn, a new locker combination to decipher, a new address and phone number to memorize, another walk home or bus number/stop to remember.

After all that, you’d think I’d know better, but I went into teaching. So, every August, I’d dread the in-service prep days because there was never enough time during them to actually prepare my classroom and lessons, so I’d have to go in days earlier. That would shorten my last bit of summer. Plus, even if I didn’t change schools, every year brought new classes to teach, lots of new names to learn, new colleagues, new administrators, new policies and procedures.

And the back-to-school sales would come earlier and earlier every year, reminding me summer would soon be over and all that stress would begin again at the end of August.

Gee, is it any wonder the turn of the calendar gave me the August anxieties?

This is my second August without a classroom looming at the end of it, but I still feel the August trembles. I’m working at it, but it’s going to take me awhile to reeducate my emotional calendar.

What about you? What’s your emotional calendar say?