Harlequin Superromance Group Author Blog

The other day, I happened to look through People magazine’s last dozen or so covers of their Sexiest Man Alive issues. What a feast.

One thing led to another and soon I was checking out good-looking male movie stars all over the Internet and dividing them into three categories, which dictated how attractive I would find them.

I started yoga recently, which in addition to encouraging my body into positions it stopped willingly going after childhood, also invites participants to quieten their mind and simply experience the present moment.

Kids do it naturally but we grown-ups lose that ability real quick.

For the Sake of the Story             

With each book I write, I wonder why simple ideas to enrich the story always  morph into something complicated.  For example,  a brief mention of a lighthouse  led me to learn about Fresnal lamps.  Have you ever wondered how fruit farmers spend the winter? I can tell you because I used an apple orchard as a setting. I also learned about renting bee hives for pollinating those orchards and also discovered the year-round life cycle of apple trees.  In various books I’ve introduced a voice-over announcer for radio ads, a breast cancer survivor, a runaway teenager in New York City, a professional singer/songwriter, a man who needed a high school diploma, a Texas innkeeper, and many other characters in a variety of professions.  I’ve needed to research a variety of facts from divorce laws in Massachusetts to the vocabulary for downhill skiing.             

I love having February releases!  I mean, February is the month of love...how appropriate!  But despite the fact that A One-of-a-Kind Family is out now (yay!) this blog isn't about my new release, but about love.  More specifically, about gestures of love!

Happy Thursday, everyone! I’m so very glad to be here. Ah, my first blog on the Superromance blog…what shall I talk about? Me? No, that’s a serious no-no on a first date. The weather? No, everybody's tired of the weather. Sex? Okay, I’m not quite that bold :)     

So instead, let’s talk about men. That’s what we like to do anyway, right? They are often on my mind. I identify with the heroine in a book - I get cramps in my toes from wearing high-heels, I deal with PMS, and I’ve rubbed cocoa butter on my stretch marks. I totally get women. But those heroes? Well, they’re a little harder to figure out. And that’s mostly because I don’t understand men. At all.     

Okay. Admittedly I’m a whole lot older than Macaulay Culkin was in the movie and much better prepared to take care of myself, but a realization struck me a few weekends ago when I found myself home alone. It marked the first time in more than eighteen years I’d been by myself overnight!

We’ve been having very strange weather for January in Minnesota.  It actually rained Friday night and all day Saturday.  Sounds like a nice reprieve from cold temperatures, but in truth I’d take below zero temps any day rather than this turns-to-ice-the-instant-it-hits-the-ground mess.   As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing worse than ice stor

Even the most common things can be a fun date.  And how much better is it if it's free?

I love my grocery store.  Seriously.  When visitors come from out-of-town, we always take them to see our grocery store.

Most of them are, like you probably are right now, skeptical.  I mean, after all, what's the big deal about a grocery store?

For the past two years, I've been posting this challenge in my blog (originally stolen from my friend, Diana Holquist's blog). I've thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic book recommendations and conversation so I'm going to post a new round!

How does it work? You post 12 books you're planning to read in 2010. Doesn't have to be all romance--it's tons of fun to see the range of reading we all do. Then we all sit back and enjoy the conversation.

Here are my 12.

I've always thought that our entertainment choices say more about where we are in our lives as opposed to who we are as people. I look back at the books and movies I loved in my 20's and honestly - you could not pay me to read those books or see those movies today. Could. Not. Pay. Me.

I do! Not literally—I’m still wildly in love with my husband, thank you very much—but in romance novels, I definitely like the idea of the heroine marrying a millionaire. Or at least someone with a ginormous disposable income.

One of the great things about being an author is when readers write to tell me they enjoyed one of my books and include a tidbit about themselves. With Welcome Home, Daddy, a reader shared that she could relate to how Annie met Drew.

We had no school on Friday or Monday. Geez, they were just off two weeks for Christmas....but I digress. So, Friday morning, since there was no school, I ran youngest daughter to a friends. They were going to spend the day skiing. While I was out, I stopped at the Mall to go to the bookstore. I had a coupon and there are always book I NEED.

A Difficult Woman was my first sale and the second story in which I wrote past chapter three. That might sound impressive—selling one’s second complete manuscript, but you have to understand just how many chapters 1-3 I wrote before that.   It was not time wasted. I learned so much in those chapters—voice, grammar, flow, dialogue. What I didn’t learn was how to plot. I’d have these spectacular set-ups and then at chapter four it all fell to pieces. Why? Because I didn’t have a clue what happened next. Or why. So I’d start a new story thinking this would be the one in which I would surge on past chapter three...Nope. Not this one either. Rats. 

Since it’s the beginning of a new year, I thought I’d take a minute to update my list of Favorite Sexy Stars! It’s funny how this list evolves and changes and yet there are a few guys on here who’ve made my top 10 for the past few years now *g*

It's 2010. I'm so glad. I had a rough year in 2009 and I'm looking ahead with hope. And with faith in the concept of Happily Ever After. Faith restored by a very special love story I'd like to share with you.

JV, you were the random winner from my Fudge Day post. Please contact me at cj@cjcarmichael.com so I can send you your book!

Well, Christmas is over, which usually makes me sad. Back to work. Back to boring. I love the holidays so much that, the minute the season starts, I begin dreading the day it will end! So this year I decided to do something about
it.I decided that my New Year’s resolution would be to try to make the feeling last.

Today's blog is about wishes...about magic...about glee! 

Apologies Elaine for dropping in on your blog but the spam filter's been out to get me. Can MarcieR email me on karina@karinabliss.com?

Marcie, you won my blog draw, email for details. And now back to Elaine!

Karina

Oops, the blog slipped up on me!   Then as I sat down to think about what to say, the cookie timer went off and...

My daughter is twenty-five today and she sent me an email telling me she felt old. I had to tell her that wasn’t allowed in our family because of one person…one tiny ball of fire—my mom.

My mom has never liked to hear the words “you can’t.”  Just tell her she can’t and she’ll show you a thing or two.  She’s five-feet one-half inch of feistiness and fire and every year she thinks of something new to do.  She promised me at the age of seventy that she was done riding colts.  No more young horses for her.  How old is her newest

Today's my birthday.  I know you're all too polite to ask my age.  But certain birthdays make you stop and say, HUH?  What?  I'm HOW old?  How the heck did that happen??

December in New Zealand means a southern hemisphere Christmas. Our native Xmas tree – the pohutakawa (see pic) is in bloom. December here also means weather that sees me dragging out my summer wardrobe one day and then putting it away again the next in favor of a warm sweater.

I spent a good part of the day yesterday in an oncology waiting room,
waiting on someone very dear to me to undergo tests.  I keep learning from this experience, and I keep finding things to admire about the nobility of human nature when stripped to its essence.  Observations:

Hi,

I pulled HSheryl's name from the comments on the Design Your Perfect Room blog. Please send your postal address to ellen (at) ellenhartman (dot) com.

Thanks again to everyone who shared a room with us!

Cheers,

Ellen

How many of you know what thirty below zero feels like? For those who don't live in Canada  let me tell you it's cold enough to hurt! Here in Calgary, where I live, we've been enduring lots of snow and frigid temperatures.

Thanks, everyone, for visiting with me and others on the blog this last Wednesday!  The winner of THEN COMES BABY is ... MarcieR!

Please email me at helenbrenna@comcast.net with your address and I'll mail it out.  If you already have this book, feel free to pick something from my backlist.

Helen

I really need an office. For a long time, I wrote in bed. My husband, Rick, would sleep next to me and I’d stay up half the night typing on my laptop. The trouble is that I ain’t as young as I used to be and my back can’t take this situation anymore.

I recently moved my laptop to the living room. I sit in the recliner which Rick insists we keep even though it’s from his long ago bachelor apartment and doesn’t match anything we own. (A very good thing. I’d be appalled if my taste matched this recliner.) Once I’m settled in the recliner, I put my headphones on and attempt to be productive while all around me the children pester each other, practice the viola and the cello (with varying skill levels), and are generally delighted that Mom is Right. There. This isn’t working for me either.

I dream about my office. Here's my current wish list:

I think it's ingrained in us from a very early age that wishes can make things happen. Nothing brings that point home better than the concept of Santa Claus. Talk about magical thinking!  We write down our Christmas wishes and, low and behold, they show up under the tree!  Well, maybe not always, but sometimes.

On my personal blog I’m counting down my Twelve Faves of Christmas.

Papaya!  Congratulations!  If you e-mail your mailing address to me at carrieauthor @aol.com (no spaces), I'll mail out your autographed copy of Welcome Home, Daddy. 

Thanks, everyone, for stopping by and participating!

Carrie

I've always loved stained glass windows, and I've always wanted to learn how to make one. When I was in college, I had no money for the materials. After I graduated, I couldn't find any classes or the time to take one. That all changed a couple of years ago–and I got a book in the bargain. 

Last night DS and I settled in on the couch and watched my all-time favorite TV Christmas show – Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Talk about a timeless classic!

            My friends are constantly asking when they're going to appear in one of my books. Um, never. My characters are fictional, people! That doesn't mean bits and pieces of the stories my friends spin won't be loosely incorporated into the lives of my characters.

Thanksgiving was very quiet here.  My youngest traveled to Philly to sing in the parade.  Two of my other kids were there.  The oldest, a nurse, lives there, and my son is in college there.  So, three of my kids were together at the other end of the state.  There were just four of us at dinner.  I don't think I've had such a quiet holiday meal since...well, it was a whole other decade!

So here's my Thanksgiving dinner update!

I don't have any pictures (who can take pictures when gravy must be made?) but the turkey and dressing I made this year was the best ever.

In my family, we all take turns hosting a holiday dinner. My Mom does Christmas brunch, my older brother (okay, actually his wife *g*) hosts New Years’ Day dinner and my sister and I take turns with Easter and Mom’s birthday (yes, Mom deserves her own holiday) and my other brother and his wife handle Thanksgiving.

Just in case you're taking timeout from the turkey, I want to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's been a tough year for so many people, but today is a chance to reflect on the good stuff.

For various reasons we have both my family and my husband’s family that are in Minnesota to our house every year for Thanksgiving, so in two days I’m going to have a houseful of people here expecting all the traditional favorites. I don’t know about you, but I can’t count how many years I’ve made turkey and dressing over the years. And I can’t tell you how many years I’ve been

Thanks to everyone who posted on my blog. The winner of the draw was Linda Henderson aka seriousreader. Linda if you email me privately with your address & choice of book to karina@karinabliss.com I'll get it in the post to you.

Karina 

A few months ago, our grown daughter moved back home, bringing her two house cats. We worried how our two big ranch dogs would deal with their new roommates.

When I was a struggling wannabe romance writer I once said to a published author..."I’m so tired of being ‘close’. When’s it going to happen for me?" Her answer was: "When you’re good enough." At the time I thought that was a little harsh, but you know what? She was right.

I got a reader letter this morning, and she commented on the fact that she knew she'd love Unexpected Gifts the moment she read my "Dear Reader" letter. She also commented that I was lucky to have my husband! I'll confess, I couldn't remember exactly what I wrote, so I went and checked it out.

Minna and Yenastone! Please send me your addresses to molly @ Molly -okeefe.com (without the spaces) and I will get your books to you in time for a little Christmas reading! Thanks to everyone for the fabulous fabulous recipies!

I had my son pull the names of two winners for the drawing from the Life: Not What I Expected blog. When he was finished he asked me what the drawing was for and I said a book. He got all depressed and started unfolding the other names and saying how sad it was that I couldn't give a book to everyone.

That made me sad.