We’re having fun this week on the Romance Writers Weekly Blog Hop! A.S. Fenichel says: Leap Year! This is it folks - you get an entire extra day to do with as you wish. We’re always wanting more time and this year we actually get it. I got married on Leap Day in 2008, so this year I get a “real” anniversary. What will you do with your extra day? If you joined me from Leslie Hachtel, welcome! Leap Year has always had a special fascination for me. For one thing, I am AMAZED that hundreds of years ago someone figured out we needed to do this, in order to keep a completely arbitrary set of numbers (which make up the calendar we use today) on track. Talk about paying attention to your sun and moon! As for the extra day that we get this year, I look on it as “found money.” My mother always says that any money you find on the street (I have a vague memory she discovered a $20 bill in the gutter once) MUST be spent on something frivolous. In the case of Leap Day, that means it can’t be used to catch up on chores or get ahead on the tax return. It should be spent doing something you love that you haven’t had time for recently – and NOT feeling guilty about it! For me, that would probably be a day of reading, curled up on the couch with tea (or a glass of wine later in the afternoon). Yes, I read every day. But to “waste” a whole day doing nothing but that would be like a beach vacation for me. The other way to spend the extra day would be to do something completely out of the usual. I was talking with a cousin of mine yesterday and she and her husband have recently started going to the local climbing wall. For someone that dislikes heights as much as I do, I’ve always wanted to give rock climbing (in a controlled environment, LOL!) a try. That would also be a great way to celebrate Leap Day - doing something totally out of character! What about you? What are you going to do with your extra day? Leave a note in the comments, then move on to AJ Andersen to see how she’s using her bonus 24 hours!
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Oooh – I like this week’s topic! I’m going to be sure to hop around and maybe discover games I’ve never heard of. Jenna Da Sie says: I love game nights! Do you have a favourite game you like to play when you get together with friends or family? We are a BIG game playing family. Over the years we’ve played all different kinds. For board games, we probably play Pictionary and Scrabble the most, but we’ve been known to play Monopoly, Sequence and Risk. Our usual game of choice is some sort of card game, though. We know all sorts of different Rummy games, and May I? and Ugly Sticks are old favourites. Recently we’ve been playing a game called Golf. I have no idea why that name. Maybe it’s because you are trying to get the lowest score and you play 9 rounds. The rules are quite simple. Use a standard 52 card deck including jokers. Deal 4 cards to each player (works best with no more than 6 player and one deck of cards). Place remaining cards face down and start the discard pile with one face up card. Each player looks at ONLY TWO of their cards, then places all four cards face down. You can only look at the beginning of the round – no peeking later! The goal is to get the lowest score. Each card is worth its face value (Jacks and Queens are worth 10) except as follows: Fives are worth minus five, Kings are worth zero, Jokers cancel out the card of the highest value, and pairs cancel each other out. On your turn, you choose either the discard or the top of the facedown deck. If you choose the discard, you place it face up in front of you and discard one of your face down cards. If you choose the top of the deck, you can either discard it or replace one of your face down cards. But each turn you must turn leave a new card face up. Once a card is face up it is “locked” and cannot be discarded. Play continues until all players have revealed all their cards. At the end of the round, points are tallied, and at the end of nine rounds the person with the lowest score wins. The element of chance makes this game lots of fun, because you don't know if the two cards you didn't look at are good or bad, so sometimes make the wrong decision. What about you? What is your favourite game to play? I’d love to hear from you! Then, be sure to hop over to AJ Anderson (a new Romance Writers Weekly member!) to see what games she likes to play.
Now, I’d like to pass you on to a new member of the Romance Writers Weekly! Clair Brett is an historical romance author with three published novels who empty-nests in New Hampshire with her husband and various furry critters. Welcome, Clair! And to discover the best book Clair read lately, head to her blog here!
Leslie Hachtel has set a near impossible task this week: Which romance novel hero/heroine would you like to spend some time with and why? Really? Like I could pick just one? I don’t even know where to start, but I’ll try. I recently read “The Kiss Quotient” by Helen Hoang. The heroine has Asperger’s Syndrome, and the story is sweet and lovely. Stella has a unique view of the world, and I think she might be a very refreshing person to get to know. I might also like to meet Eve Dallas and Roarke from J. D. Robb’s “In Death” series. They are one of my favourite romance couples – but I might also be too intimidated! They are both such strong characters that I might be too starstruck to say anything (which, if you know me, is saying a LOT!) One of my all-time favourite writers is Courtney Milan. I love her historical fiction the best, and meeting any or all of her characters from those books would be amazing! Violet, from “The Countess Conspiracy” is a genius who is investigating genes and inheritance traits. I love that sort of science, and I think it would be a thrill to discuss that with her over coffee some day. How about you? Is there a character you’d like to meet? Tell me about it in the comments, then hop over to A. S. Fenichel and see who she who she would like to spend time with. I had the chance to apply to a summer-themed promotion with KOBO US. I won't know if I'm in it until Thursday (July 11) but I decided to put my two summer books on sale anyway! You can pick up NO LIFE BUT THIS and MOUNTAIN FIRE for just 99 cents, from now until July 21.
I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you, but most writers are also avid readers. This week on the Romance Writers Weekly Blog, Leslie Hachtel asks: What was the first romance novel you ever read and how did it inspire you? To be honest, I can’t remember the title or plot of the first specifically romance novel I ever read. When I was about sixteen, the wife of our next-door neighbour passed away, and I was given a large cardboard box of her Harlequin Presents. As I have always been a voracious reader - I’d read the labels on cereal boxes if there was nothing else available - I whipped through that box pretty quickly. I do remember the plot of the first Harlequin I read that made me sit up and and take notice. It was set in Australia, and the heroine was a seamstress. She was the first I can recall that didn't sit around waiting to be saved. She worked hard, often late into the night, to support herself and her child (chances are, the child was her niece or nephew - this was the mid-Eighties and virgin heroines were much more prevalent). I have no memory of the hero - that’s how impressed I was with the heroine. The story must have ended with the expected happily-ever-after, but I’ve always had the feeling that she would have been okay even without him. After that, I searched out books where the heroine took an active role in her success. While I am fairly certain the passive heroine is a thing of the past, she has on occasion been replaced by the Too Stupid To Live heroine. You know the one - she's a civilian with no knowledge of military operations, but refuses to take the soldier's advice? Or the one being stalked by a lunatic that goes in the basement without a weapon when she hears a noise? Reading passive and TSTL heroines made me determined to never write such a woman. While there's been some slips along the way, I think I've been successful at this for the most part. And for that I can trace my inspiration back to the first memorable plot. The seamstress story was also the first book that got me thinking about why I enjoyed certain others. Before that box of Harlequins, I read mostly mysteries and classics. Anne of Green Gables and Lord of the Rings are treasured favourites – but it is Anne’s relationship with Gilbert and Arwen and Aragorn’s romance that stand out for me in both of these. Dick Francis was my main go-to mystery writer, and my favourite of his is High Stakes, which has a well-developed romantic subplot. In fact, many of his books do, and those that don’t still have a strong relationship arc of some sort (Proof involves a widower coming to terms with his wife’s death that is wonderfully done). Robert B. Parker is another favourite, but the stories where Susan is either not present or has a minor role are the ones I re-read the least. Of course, there’s always the romance to end all romances, Pride and Prejudice. This is my desert island book, and it is a rare year that goes by when I don’t re-read it. I can’t remember when I first read it – I think I bought it with money from a prize I’d won in high school – but if the question had been what is your favourite romance, this would be it. How about you? What was the first romance you read? Do you still have a copy? I’d love to hear from you. Then hop on over to Leslie Hachtel to see what the first romance novel she read was. Maybe she can remember the title, unlike me! DON'T FORGET...
Reserved for You goes live tomorrow! You can still get it for 99 cents here. Thank you! We’re being silly on the Romance Writers Weekly Blog Hop this week. Jenna Da Sie asks: What do you carry in your bag/purse? What is in it right now? If you joined me from A.S. Fenichel, welcome! I very much dislike having a cluttered purse. I need to be able to reach into it and grab exactly what I want right away. I don’t even like a purse with multiple pockets – I invariably look in the wrong one first! So, right now in my purse is:
Hey – that was kind of fun! What’s the most unusual thing you carry in your purse or bag? Let me know in the comments, and then hop over to Leslie Hachtel!
This week on Romance Writers Weekly, Leslie Hachtel asks: If you could have lunch with any (living) author, who would it be and why? This is a tough one for me. There are lots of amazing authors out there, but I’m not sure if I’d want to risk losing the mystery by actually meeting them. You know how you feel when something you've looked forward to doesn’t live up to its potential? That’s what I worry about. I’d hate to ruin my enjoyment of an author’s books by a disappointing experience in real life. That being said, I think I’d like to meet Jill Shalvis. Her romances are funny and sweet (with plenty of heat, though!) and from what I’ve seen on her Facebook page she seems like a pretty down-to-earth person. Kristan Higgins also looks like someone who doesn’t take herself too seriously and would have some funny stories to tell! But in many ways, the authors I’d most like to have lunch with are other independent writers who are dealing with the same issues I am – getting noticed in the sea of self-publishing, struggling to work a “real” job while keeping up with writing, honing our craft in order to be better writers. While I have an awesome online community of just these kinds of writers (mostly through Facebook) there’s something special about being in the same room and talking face to face. How about you? Which author would you like to have lunch with? And do you have the same reservations I do, or would you not worry about that at all? Be sure to visit A.S. Fenichel and see who she'd like to do lunch with! Have you seen this, yet? The new cover for RESERVED FOR YOU (formerly Chef d'Amour). What do you think?I'll be releasing the updated book soon. If you want to find out first, sign up for my newsletter (there's a form on the home page of this website). It's where I share special news and bonus features about all my books.
How many movies do you watch in a year? I’m afraid we don’t go to see many, so this week’s topic is a little tricky for me. Jenna Da Sie asks: Have you seen any movies this year? If so, which one was your favourite and why? We haven’t been to any movies in the theatre this year (and maybe not even last year) but we have watched a couple at home – Bohemian Rhapsody and Can You Ever Forgive Me? I enjoyed them both. Rami Malek and Melissa McCarthy were excellent in their respective leading roles. It must be very difficult to play such a dramatic, flamboyant character as Freddie Mercury and not make him into a caricature, but somehow Malek does just that. And McCarthy plays a very unsympathetic character (at the start, her only redeeming feature is she loves her cat) but somehow you end up rooting for her to succeed. What about you? Are you an avid movie-goer or someone like me that usually sees them once they’re available on demand? Drop me a line, then head on over to A. S. Fenichel to find out what she's watched this year! Tomorrow's the big day!
Allegro Court goes live tomorrow, and you'll finally get a chance to meet Mattie and Marcus. If you pre-order it will automatically show up on your e-reader so you don't have to wait any longer. Buy links are here (you know, if you're interested). We had an unusually warm November, and while the weather is supposed to starting cooling off, there is not even a skiff of snow on the ground. But it’s easy to get into the Christmas spirit with decorations and baking, even if the weather is not cooperating. That’s why I chose this topic this week on Romance Writers Weekly: I’m not much of a baker, except for at Christmas. Share your favourite holiday treat recipe! This topic has become a tradition on RWW, and it’s a great way to discover new recipes. Here’s a family favourite, though, that’s great for people like me who like to eat treats but not spend half a day making them. This recipe comes from my aunt, who calls them “Oat Delights.” I can't remember when the name changed, but we now call them "Chocolate Haystacks." 2 c. sugar 6 tbsp. cocoa ½ c. butter ½ c. milk ½ tsp. vanilla 1 c. shredded coconut 3 c. instant or minute oats Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add vanilla. Remove from heat and stir in coconut and oats. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Chill for a few hours, then enjoy! Keep in a well-sealed plastic container as they will dry out otherwise. If you give these a try, I’d love to hear from you. To get your next recipe, head over to Leslie Hachtel's blog! The Christmas decorations are going up around the house this weekend as I write this, so Leslie Hachtel’s topic is very timely: What is your favorite holiday movie? Book? My favourite holiday movie really has nothing to do with Christmas at all. I’m not sure why it became a staple at this time of year, but the Sound of Music always appears on TV in December, and it has always been one of my favourite movies – at any time of the year, really. After all, it’s one of the most romantic stories ever -- the irrepressible Maria who changes the lives of an entire family by falling in love with the authoritarian Captain, all while escaping the Nazis. I’m also a big fan of How the Grinch Stole Christmas – the original 1966 animated TV special with Dr. Suess’ illustrations. Not to knock the newer versions that have come out (to be honest I haven’t even seen them) but the version I grew up with will always be my favourite. As for books, I can’t say I have a favourite holiday book. But I know for very many years one of my most anticipated presents was the newest Dick Francis novel. It was usually released in October or November, and the hardcover was a staple on my Christmas list. While I love my e-reader, there is nothing quite like the anticipation of a brand-new book, with its fresh pages and pristine cover. My parents also liked reading Dick Francis, so they would buy the book and both read it (being very careful not to crack the spine) then wrap it up for me to find under the tree. They kept that little secret from me for a long time! What about you? Any favourite Christmas stories? Then hop on over to Jenna Da Sie to learn what her favourites are! |