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Drink of the Month

Monday, May 7th, 2012 · Comments (9)

This month’s Drink of the Month is brought to you by the request of several Darlings of The Dungeon in honor of the Southern-set ON THE VERGE OF I DO.

The Perfect Peach Bellini

Ingredients:

2 oz. peach nectar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 oz. peach schnapps
3 oz. chilled, dry Champagne
1/2 cup crushed ice

Directions:

Mix the peach nectar, lemon juice, and schnapps in a chilled glass.
Add half a cup (or more) of crushed ice, stir, and add the champagne.
(Serves 2)

Want your Peach Bellini frozen for those hot-hot summer days when a cool drink just won’t do? Simply prepare ingredients in a blender!

Enjoy!

Comments (9)

Categories : drink of the month, On the Verge of I Do

Happy Sunday

Sunday, May 6th, 2012 · Comments (21)

Happy Sunday! How’s your weekend going so far?

And what are we HAPPY about this week? Hopefully, a lot!

I AM HAPPY with the beautiful, warm weather that’s finally moved in, but be prepared for a Monday Moan & Groan (see the HappyBookers YahooGroup) if it gets too much warmer. I like sunny & warm, but not hot & sweaty.

I AM HAPPY that I discovered Veronica Mars via repeats on SOAP Channel. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s been cancelled for years now & I probably should have caught it when it was originally on. For some reason, it just didn’t appeal to me back then. But I’m trying to rectify that now & am really liking it. I don’t even mind the angsty high school setting (which I think is why I avoided it to begin with) because the mysteries & characterization is so good.

Are any of you Veronica Mars fans? Who’s your favorite—or least favorite—character?

I AM HAPPY, too, that I got to see all the way to the last episode of Season 1 (of Veronica Mars) before my DVR has a thunderstorm-related fit & messed up my recordings. I must wait now for those episodes to repeat before I can pick up again & start watching Season 2, but I’ve got a great season ender to reminisce about in my head until that happens.

And I AM HAPPY that some stuff is going on behind that scenes that’s bound to send me into a stress-induced near-nervous breakdown. (Or should that be nervous near-breakdown? ) It will be in a good way, & I’m kind of excited about it, but still…there will be stress, & probably no small amount of hair loss & hallucination before all is said & done.

Your turn! Tell us all the great stuff going on with you this week…the stuff that makes you smile or chuckle or feel grateful to be alive. And then we can do a funky little chicken dance to help you celebrate.

Now to announce the winner of Friday’s Free Book Friday giveaway—The Alibi by Sandra Brown…

Quilt Lady!!!

Congratulations, Quilt Lady! Please contact me with your name & mailing information, & I’ll get your book out to you as soon as I can!

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Categories : gratitude, pop culture, prize winner

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Saturday, May 5th, 2012 · Comments (10)

Comments (10)

Categories : holiday

Free Book Friday (with a side of Funny)

Friday, May 4th, 2012 · Comments (20)

A FRIDAY FUNNY

More Southern-themed funnies to celebrate the setting of ON THE VERGE OF I DO!

Photobucket

FREE BOOK FRIDAY

Another South Carolina-set romance I read while working on ON THE VERGE OF I DO is Sandra Brown’s The Alibi. Really liked this one, & it’s actually set right smack-dab in Charleston, SC…as is ON THE VERGE OF I DO. (Hint, hint. )

To enter the giveaway for this book, simply leave a comment to today’s post that includes the code FBF—for “Free Book Friday,” of course—to let me know you’re interested in the drawing. (U.S. residents only for the prize, please, but everyone is welcome to chat.)

Photobucket Winner will be announced during our Happy Sunday post on…well, you know, Sunday.

Winner is responsible for contacting me with her mailing information—i.e. I will not be contacting you—so be sure to check back in or you might not even know you won!

(If prize isn’t claimed within 14 days, another name may be drawn or item may be tossed back into the goody bag to be re-used for a future giveaway.)

Comments (20)

Categories : easily amused, giveaway, On the Verge of I Do

did you know…?

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 · Comments (9)

I just love sharing behind-the-scenes tidbits about my new releases. Sometimes the writing goes pretty smoothly, so I don’t always have deleted scenes to post, but I can usually come up with a few fun factoids related to the creation of my books.

When it comes to ON THE VERGE OF I DO, did you know…

…I used pictures of actress Anne Hathaway as my inspiration for Kara Kincaid & pictures of Patrick Dempsey (dressed in Versace ) as my inspiration for Eli Houghton. I also sent photos of the two to Harlequin when it came time to design the cover. How do you think they did?

…I feel like I practiced for writing ON THE VERGE OF I DO by working on my previous tso Harlequin Desires, INHERITING HIS SECRET CHRISTMAS BABY & HER LITTLE SECRET, HIS HIDDEN HEIR.

Why?

Because Kara (I DO) & Hailey (XMAS BABY) are both event planners—an occupation provided to me by Harlequin for both because both titles are part of an ongoing continuity series.

And because…fresh out of the over from HIDDEN HEIR, I apparently couldn’t stop myself from making Kara a bit of a whiz in the kitchen, just like Vanessa (of HIDDEN HEIR) was.

And on a lesser scale, both Trevor (XMAS BABY) & Eli (I DO) used a bit of bribery to get their respective heroines to stick around & help them plan big events at their multi-million-dollar resorts.

…for the first time—ever, I think—I didn’t show or mention the hero & heroine using protection during sex without needing it for a future pregnancy or pregnancy scare plot point. It just didn’t feel right within the scene & to make it an issue, so I skipped it & hoped readers would simply assume they were practicing safe sex. Because, of course, they did.

…to get into a Southern frame of mind, I watched a lot of Designing Women & The Golden Girls. Neither is actually set in South Carolina, I realize, but they still have super-strong Southern overtones, don’t you think? And sometimes all you really need is a bit of that accent in your head to firmly ground you in the “y’all come back now, hear?” disposition.

…during Season 6 of Project Runway (which was running new while I was working on ON THE VERGE OF I DO) I rooted for Carol Hannah almost exclusively because she was from Charleston, South Carolina. Well, okay, I also thought she was quite talented, but the Charleston thing put her over the top.

So what do you think—did you notice some of those pieces of trivia in the book? And can you think of anything else in ON THE VERGE OF I DO that I might have sneaked in with a little bit of a story behind it?

Of course, if you haven’t picked up your copy yet, you know what you need to do…