THANK YOU!

Because I don’t say it enough, this is a big, giant post to say THANK YOU to all my readers out there! You make all the blood, sweat, and tears totally worth it! Especially when you catapult my colleagues and I to a major best seller chart. Thank you for making our dreams come true!!

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Trivia Day & Giveaway!

Come on over to Lady Scribes today and test your knowledge of our novels!! Any answer will get you an entry in the Amazon Gift Card Giveaway, but the right answer(s) will get you even more entries!! There will be 4 rounds, so keep checking back throughout the day to keep playing! 🙂

Participating Authors:

Catherine Gayle

Erin Knightley

Deb Marlowe

Hanna Martine

Andris Bear

Marquita Valentine

Jerrica Knight-Catania

Samantha Grace

Ava Stone

Jane Charles

Suzie Grant

Christi Caldwell

Olivia Kelley

Julie Johnstone

Twelve Days of Christmas: Suzie Grant

Love and Laughter
by Suzie Grant

“You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.” Bill Cosby

Christmas is a big affair in my family. Walk into the front door of my mother’s house and you’re immediately assaulted — err welcomed by Christmas music and blinding — err brilliant lights.  Pack in a dozen people into a moderate-sized dining room and you get total chaos.  Our family is fairly heavy on Christmas tradition and you know I wouldn’t change a thing.  Despite the disorder, extremely loud brother, — I mean family members — and the warring toddlers who’re battling it out to see who gets to sit in the rocking chair first. It all makes the holiday’s complete for me and even though I return home feeling like I’ve just been in a brawl with WWE’s Stone Cold Steve Austin, it’s completely worth it.

I happen to love the chaos actually.  It’s crazy but it’s fun.  Although I will say that I can’t handle more than a day or two before I’m ready to return to my mundane life back home.  The greatest moment is that brief swatch of silence while we gather to hold hands and say a prayer before we eat and then the entire gathering swarm the table like a herd of starving elephants to a vat of peanuts.  Christmas to me is about family and fun.  If you can’t laugh and be silly during these times, then when will you?

Which is one of the reasons why our favorite Christmas movie is Home Alone and we never fail to watch it.  Whether it’s a week before Christmas or the day of Christmas, I always end up piling onto the sofa to watch it with my kids.  It’s become a Christmas tradition for us and one that I love.  Laughter heals the soul in my humble opinion.  No matter what you’re experiencing in life, laughter is the key to staying healthy.  And nothing is as funny as Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern trying to outsmart an eight-year-old kid.  It’s great and it makes me giggle every year.  Best of all my kids love this movie and it makes for great snuggle time.  What could be better than that?

So I’m leaving you with two clips of my most favorite scenes in the movie and hopefully, it’ll give you a good chuckle and bring back some good memories for you.

I wish I could write humor into some of my stories but I’ve always said I’m the guy at the back of the bar who’s sober and laughing at all the drunks.  That’s me.  So I’ll leave the entertainment to those who do it best.  But I love to laugh and I hope it’s a trait I’ve past onto my children and I leave you with this little reminder: “A day without laughter is a day wasted.” Charlie Chaplin.

Always remember to take a minute to laugh.  Have a wonderful Holiday Season, no matter how you celebrate it, and from my family to yours, Merry Christmas.

Home Alone Clip one: http://youtu.be/4DgbUBoxa48

Home Alone Clip Two: http://youtu.be/2Lb92tL6R4A

Leave a comment for Suzie and be entered to win a $25 gift card to the book seller of your choice!

5960704A Caribbean Jewel for Christmas: Blackmailed by a British Naval Commander, Captain Randall Whitton, a smuggler with a penchant for gold is rescued by Jewel Derington, a feisty plantation owner and the very woman who betrayed him in the jungles of Barbados. Escaping danger has never been so thrilling. Together they are drawn into a political game of winner takes all from which only his grandfather, the Duke of Danby, can rescue them.

 * Fascinated by the glitter of his Caribbean Jewel, Randall’s lust for gold soon fades. His quest to tame this fiery treasure catapults them both into an adventure where the stakes are higher and the prize greater than either of them have ever dared dream.

Available NOW at…

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
And other ebook retailers!

**All of Suzie’s books are on sale for .99 cents for the Holidays from Dec 15th – Jan 15th 2013. Enjoy!**
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Twelve Days of Christmas: Christi Caldwell

Oh, Christmas Tree

by Christi Caldewll

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a New England Christmas.  Every year since I was a toddler, I’d bundle up (or in those days BE bundled up) and go tromping through the snow, up a mountain to find the perfect tree.

If you’ve ever seen one of those mini-Christmas scene villages that’s what we always thought our Christmas tree expedition would be like.

The reality was always something  different altogether.  Those days my father had to work two jobs to support our family.  The only way we’d be able to get our tree home was not by pulling it by a horse-drawn sleigh — or even in a spacious truck or mini van — but atop the roof of our two door red Ford Escort.  Then there was our family of four; our poor dad was outnumbered 3:1 in the female to male ratio.  So what did this mean for Christmas tree hunting?  It meant that each of us hsd different views on the perfect tree.

I liked them tall and fat.
Then of course my bleeding-heart sister wanted to save every last small, sorry looking tree.
Lastly you have my mom… who, as long as it was loaded with tinsel, any tree would do. That is as long as she could be the one to pick it out.

We always imagined the perfect tree-hunting day but the reality always turned out something more like Chevy Chase’s Christmas vacation.  Family bickering over the perfect tree, my poor dad struggling to load that tree onto our tiny car while the three girls all sat inside, bundled up and warm.

But the laughter we have over those Christmas tree expeditions is so much greater than the perfect miniature Christmas village!

What about you? Are you particular when it comes to your Christmas tree?

Leave a comment for Christi and be entered to win a $25 gift card to the book seller of your choice!

5960704

Winning a Lady’s Heart…

For Lady Alexandra being the source of a cold, calculated wager is bad enough….but when it is waged by Nathaniel Michael Winters, 5th Earl of Pembroke, the man she’s in love with, it results in a broken heart, the scandal of the season, and a summons from her grandfather–the Duke of Danby. To escape Society’s gossip, she hurries to her meeting with the duke , determined to put memories of the earl far behind. Except the duke has other plans for Alexandra….plans which include the 5th Earl of Pembroke!

Available at…

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
And other ebook retailers!

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!

Tonight is the live chat with all 12 authors of the Regency Christmas Summons Anthology! And TODAY is the last day to enter our massive drawing! Come to Lady Scribes and leave a message there to be entered to WIN!

Lady Scribes

And then be sure to join us tonight for the live chat from 8-10pm EST!

Prize Extravaganza!!

A Danby Regency Christmas Summons Prize Extravaganza

Presented by: Lilia Birney, Christi Caldwell, Phyllis Campbell, Jane Charles, Aileen Fish, Catherine Gayle, Samantha Grace, Suzie Grant, Julie Johnstone, Olivia Kelly, Jerrica Knight-Catania, and Ava Stone, in honor of the release of our Regency Christmas Anthology, consisting of A Summons from Yorkshire, A Summons from the Duke, A Summons from the Castle, and A Summons from His Grace.

In celebration of our release on November 1, we’re hosting a six-week-long prize extravaganza. Follow us on Twitter, like or friend us on Facebook, visit our websites, and look for announcements of ways to enter. Any time one or more of us blogs about the Regency Christmas Anthology, comment and leave your email address for an entry in the drawing. If one of us hosts a Twitter contest, follow the rules outlined on Twitter for your chance to enter.

What can you win?

  • 1 $79 Kindle from Amazon
  • 1 of 3 $50 gift cards (2 from Amazon, 1 from Barnes and Noble)
  • 1 of 3 $25 gift cards (2 from Amazon, 1 from Barnes and Noble)
  • 1 complete set of Catherine Gayle’s LORD ROTHEBY’S INFLUENCE series
  • 1 complete set of Ava Stone’s SCANDALOUS series
  • 1 of 2 copies of Jerrica Knight-Catania’s THE ROBBER BRIDE
  • 1 copy of Suzie Grant’s FOR THE SAKE OF SIN
  • 1 copy of Suzie Grant’s THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER
  • 1 copy of Suzie Grant’s WRONG KIND OF PARADISE
  • 1 complete set of Jane Charles’s ONCE UPON A TIME trilogy
  • 1 copy of Jane Charles’s TO WALK IN THE SUN
  • 1 copy of Aileen Fish’s THE MISTLETOE MISHAP
  • 1 copy of Aileen Fish’s THE CHRISTMAS DRAGON SCHEME
  • 1 copy of Phyllis Campbell’s SPANISH EYES
  • 1 copy of Phyllis Campbell’s QUEEN OF HEARTS

Entries will be accepted and collected from November 1 through December 15, prizes will be drawn on December 15, during a live chat event at the Lady Scribes blog (8-10 pm, Eastern), and winners will be notified by email or Twitter if not present in the chat. You do NOT need to be present in the chat to win.

Lilia Birney: Twitter, Blog

Christi Caldwell: Twitter, Website , Facebook

Phyllis Campbell: Facebook, Twitter, Blog

Jane Charles: Facebook, Twitter, Blog

Aileen Fish: Facebook, Twitter, Website

Catherine Gayle: Facebook, Twitter, Website

Samantha Grace: Facebook, Twitter, Website

Suzie Grant: Facebook, Twitter, Website

Julie Johnstone: Facebook, Twitter, Blog

Olivia Kelly:  Facebook, Twitter, Website

Jerrica Knight-Catania: Facebook, Twitter, Website

Ava Stone: Facebook, Twitter, Website

Introducing Cindy Loo

For those who haven’t met my good friend, Cindy Loo, she made her web debut the other day…and today, she’s talking about romance! So I thought this would be a good time to introduce her on my blog…just follow the link to the video… Enjoy!

Cindy Loo Talks Romance!