AAAAHHHH!!!

I'm so excited right now I can hardly stand it. I just checked Romantic Times online and found out that Lessons Learned is the RT Top Pick for Contemporary Romance this month!

Of course, since I don't have a subscription, I can't see the actual review until I find a copy in the store (April issue), but it's right at the top of their Top Picks page, which is so cool I can't stop grinning!

Here's to a fabulous weekend, all!

Book BIN Tuesday -- A Month From Miami

It's print release day for Samhain! And one of the great titles now available in print is Barbara Meyers' A Month From Miami. Here's the blurb:

Kaylee Walsh escapes small-town Tennessee only to find herself stranded in tiny Perrish, Florida, where single dad mechanic Rick Braddock reluctantly agrees to swap car repair for babysitting. But there’s a secret stash in the gas tank, an ex-con hunting Kaylee, and the FBI knocking at the door. Now Rick must decide: Does Kaylee deserve his love and trust? Or is she taking him for a ride?

Looks like fun, doesn't it? Why not head over to My Bookstore and More and Buy It Now?

We have a winner!

A week late, I finally have a moment to announce the winner of the What Would You Choose contest. Congrats to:

EdgesAngel23!

Please send me your address off-blog so I can mail out your heart-shaped wine charms.

Welcome to My World of Dreams: What, When, Where, Why, How with Kate Davies

I just found this interview from a few weeks back. I didn't know it had gone live!

Welcome to My World of Dreams: What, When, Where, Why, How with Kate Davies

MTA Monday/Book BIN Tuesday -- A Vivi Andrews Twofer!

Sigh.

You'd think I could get the "post-it-later" function to work on this thing, but noooo...

So instead of MTA Monday yesterday followed by Book BIN Tuesday today, I'm putting them both together in one, big, fantabulous post! (And, erm, apologies to Vivi.)

First, let's Meet The Author...

NAME: Vivi Andrews
WEBSITE: http://www.viviandrews.com/
BLOG: viviandrews.blogspot.com

TITLE OF FIRST BOOK: The Ghost Shrink, the Accidental Gigolo, & the Poltergeist Accountant

RELEASE DATE: February 17, 2009

FAVORITE WRITING STORY/SAYING/MEMORY: Many moons ago, while sitting in a Kumbaya circle at a writing workshop, the presenter asked us each to write down three sets of three. 1) Three things that, if you could wave your magic wand and give them to everyone on the planet, would make the world a better place. 2) Three things that you would eliminate with your magic wand to make the world a better place. 3) Three things that make you happy, just because. Then we went around and shared our answers. They ran the gamut from Money to Puppies to Self-Respect. We were granting people Freedom and Understanding and taking away their Guns, Bigotry, and Embarrassing Bodily Functions. We got completely (and passionately) off the topic of writing, and then the presenter stood up and said, “The Threes are the things that really matter to you. If you aren’t writing about them, why aren’t you?” So whenever I start to drift, I sit down and write out a new set of Threes. Then I know what to write.

FAVORITE NON-WRITING STORY/SAYING/MEMORY: “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” -Mark Twain

COMFORT FOOD: My dad’s spaghetti & chocolate cupcakes – though not at the same time.

COMFORT READ: Anything by Jennifer Crusie or Julia Quinn. Or Christopher Moore… Or Jasper Fforde… Or Stephanie Rowe… Or D.H. Lawrence. Or Jane Austen.

YOUR PERFECT DAY: Wake up. Swim out to the rocks at Ala Moana beach. Write. Hike Blueberry Loop with my family. Play with my niece and nephews. Ski Alyeska. Write more. Watch the sunset from my grandma’s lanai in Manoa Valley. Watch a baseball game with my dad. Catch a movie with my best friend and then spend three hours discussing it. Go for drinks and pub quiz awesomeness with my friends (at the mythical pub at the intersection of Washington D.C., Madison, Chicago, Minneapolis, Anchorage and Seattle). Curl up in bed and read until I fall asleep.

Now all I need is the ability to bend time and space to my will and I’m good to go.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?: At the moment, I’m putting the finishing touches The Ghost Exterminator: A Love Story, which features my Ghost Shrink heroine’s cousin, who also has a special relationship with the dead.

And to continue with the awesomeness that is Vivi Andrews, here's a peek at her new book!

It’s not smart to piss off a poltergeist…

It’s bad enough to be sexually frustrated. But as a medium, it means until Lucy Cartwright gets some, she’s doomed. Oh no, not to death. Worse. To nightly visitations by recently deceased, wanna-be Cassanovas without the bodies to back it up. Then a living, breathing fantasy arrives on her doorstep, and Lucy thinks her dry spell is at an end.

Much as he would like to be Lucy’s personal gigolo, PI Jake Cox has a job to do. He’s been sent to prevent her from getting laid until a particular horny phantom—and key witness in his mob investigation—pays her a visit. The real challenge? Keeping his own hands off Lucy long enough to get the job done.

Or the lonely, geeky ghost of a murdered mob accountant could rip a hole in the fabric of the universe…

*****

I don't know about you, but that book sounds like a *hoot* -- and hot, to boot! Why not stop by My Bookstore and More and Buy It Now?

And thanks, Vivi, for stopping by the blog!

Which Would You Choose?

So scuttlebutt is that the Inn BoonsBoro, a fabu new bed and breakfast in Boonsboro, MD, opens next week. You may have heard of the owner -- name's Nora Roberts -- or the fact that a year ago it survived a fire caused by a defective propane tank, requiring them to start over on the renovations.

But survive it did, and the doors open on Tuesday.

I like the idea of locally-made soaps and lotions. I love the fact that an author I like and respect owns it.

But what I adore? Each of the rooms (except for the Penthouse) is named and decorated after a romantic couple from literature.

The problem, though, would be choosing which room to book. Think I could convince my hubby to travel to MD with me and room-hop our way through the entire Inn? :)

CONTEST QUESTION:

If you were staying in Nora's Inn BoonsBoro, which room would you choose? Post your answer in the comments by Sunday midnight. One winner will be selected at random to win a set of six wine charms, all heart-decorated in honor of Valentine's Day (and the uber-romantic Inn BoonsBoro, too!).

The Options:

Nick and Nora from The Thin Man

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice

Jane and Rochester from Jane Eyre

Marguerite and Percy from The Scarlet Pimpernel

Titania and Oberon from Midsummer Night's Dream

Buttercup and Westley from The Princess Bride

Eve and Roark from the In Death series

Samhellion Swag Hunt -- Visit my site!

The newest edition of the Samhellion Swag Hunt started today, and I'm participating! Here are the deets:

Samhellion Valentine Swag Hunt

Readers, can you help our authors?

Valentine's day is around the corner and the Samhellions have lost their swag! Their significant others will be very unhappy if our authors can't find their gifts and we all know what its like when our S.O. is cranky. :)

The mission is simple, go to the author websites below and search for the missing gifts. Each gift is an icon that will say, Samhellion Swag Hunt. Once you locate the gift, come back here and enter the item (jewelry, candy, etc) not the URL - for each author then click submit.

You're now entered into a drawing to win a free ebook! For each participating author, we will draw one prize so if you have nine authors on your list then you have nine chances to win! All winners will be announced on the Samhellion Blog.

Rules

One entry per household - You must be 18 to enter - Void where prohibited by law.

I'm participating, so drop by my website. And a quick hint: My swag is on an excerpts page. It's also just one click away from the front page of the site, so you don't have to dig to find it.

Book BIN Tuesday -- Dark of Night

I just have one question.

How long do I have to wait before I can read it again?

I mean, I already killed Saturday night and most of Sunday devouring it for the first time. (The scheduled basement cleanup from the Great Flood That Didn't Happen of 2009? Uh, yeah. That.)

And I'm just itching to dive into it again.

Loved it.

Loved.

It.

I'm not going to get into the spoilers (others have done so far better than I would), but for the record I was totally Switzerland regarding the whole Dave/Sophia/Decker thing. I just trusted that Suz would make it work, whatever direction she took the storyline. And boy, did she. DON is easily one of my favorites of the Troubleshooters series so far. And I had no expectation of that happening as I picked up the book Saturday night. Yee-haw.

So if you've been on the fence about DON, or, like me, trapped in the "printing error meant we sent all our copies back and have no idea when the corrected version will be available" nightmare -- in FOUR DIFFERENT BOOKSTORES -- do yourself a favor and hunt a copy down. You won't be sorry. So go. Go Buy It Now!

Reception Retread

Every once in a while, a song will come on the radio and my husband or I will look at each other and say, "that should have been our dance."

You know, the dance. The wedding reception dance.

There's a lot of pressure related to picking the right song, the right tempo. What if you pick a flash-in-the-pan song that you'll be sick of in a year? What if you pick something everyone else is dancing to that year? Thank God there wasn't YouTube back when we were planning our wedding -- those videos of people performing fabulous dance routines probably would have totally freaked me out.

But I digress.

Our first dance was to Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight, which was nice, but there are still times a song will hit me and I'll think, "that would have been a perfect first dance song!" Songs like At Last. When You Say Nothing At All. The Way You Look Tonight.

How about you? If you've had a first dance, what was the song? Would you change it if you could? If you haven't gone through that particular ritual yet, what song would you pick?

And Now -- The Winners!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog to help me celebrate the release of The Devil Inside. And huge thanks to everyone who's bought a copy, helping it reach #4 on the Samhain/My Bookstore and More bestseller's list.

But it's time to announce the winners of the Blog Party contest, so without further ado (and in no particular order):

LJ White!

You've won a download of The Devil Inside.

Stephanie!

You've won the Winter Vanilla pampering set -- body butter, body scrub, and lip gloss, plus some yummy scented candles.

Stacy~!

You've won the Warm You Up gift set -- an oversized Hot Cocoa mug (that my kids begged me not to give away -- LOL), Hershey's Goodnight Kisses hot cocoa mix, and a box of Walker's shortbread (my favorite!).

Winners, please contact me off blog with your address (LJ, I just need your preferred e-book format) so I can send the gifties out.

And thanks again, everyone, for participating!

Stay tuned to the blog, too. I've got some Valentine's gifts to give away next week that I think you'll like.

And keep reading!