We interrupt this week’s birthday celebration to bring you a bit of fun news about my next vampire romance with Kensington Brava.

As you may recall, I had been calling my current work-in-progress VAMPS IN VEGAS.  And I liked that title…but The Powers That Be at Kensington didn’t.  At least not so much.  They wanted to downplay the Vegas angle a bit & play up the vampire angle.

Okay, I can get on board with that.  So it was fangs engaged & long, flowing goth capes on as we tried to come up with something fabu that we would all like.  And I don’t mind telling you that I had a really good time thinking up fun new title ideas.  Some of them were corny, but some of them were awesome, if I do say so myself. :yougogirl

It seemed to take forever for the Sales Department to make up their minds—of course, that could have just been my extreme eagerness shining through—but when I got back from NJRW, there was an e-mail waiting for me saying that they had finally decided.

And the new title is…

[drum roll, please]

MUST LOVE VAMPIRES

Do you love it as much as I do?!  Because I do, I really, really do!  I even think it was one of my original suggestions, which for some strange reason makes me even happier. :dancing

So mark your calendars.  It will be a while yet, but the newly re-named MUST LOVE VAMPIRES will be out October 2011 from Kensington Brava & Your Truly. :surrprisse

It’s my birthday week, so I can do whatever I want.  And what I want is to tell you about the newest fang-tastic giveaway I’ve come up with.

The “Fang-tastic Vampire Swag Bag Giveaway” was such a success that Mistress Heidi & I decided to dig around in her super-secret goody bag & come up with an even better collection of swag.

This one is jam-packed with holiday & vampire bling, so you definitely don’t want to miss it.  Be sure to check out the full list of contents, as well as the official contest rules…  (And even though the contest info in the sidebar hasn’t been updated yet, don’t let that stop you from entering right this minute!  It will count toward the new goodies.)

So allow us to introduce…

A Bloody Good Holiday Giveaway

CONTENTS

Naughty & Nice fleece throw

It’s a Wonderful Life DVD (to go with “It’s a Wonderful Bite,“ of course)

Twas the Night Before Christmas DVD (one of my favorite Christmas specials ever…& to go with THE BITE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, of course)

To All a Good Night anthology by Donna Kauffmann, Jill Shalvis, & HelenKay Dimon (the Jill Shalvis story in this one is so good!)

Naughty & Nice bedroom slippers (complete with jingle bells!)

Betty Boop “Naughty is the New Nice” t-shirt

Halloween cookie cutters…bat, spider, jack-o-lantern, ghost, black cat, tombstone, & coffin (It’s cookies for Christmas, but with a decidedly dark twist—what could go with my holiday vampire collection better than this? )

bloody fangs necklace

vampire fangs whistle

rubber glow-in-the-dark fangs (for the vampire who’s afraid of the dark)

Naughty or Nice pin

peppermint & cinnamon Before & After Mints

plum-scented Vampire Blood anti-bacterial hand gel

Gal Talk holiday sticky notes…”it’s too late to be good,” “naughty or nice,” “i want it all”

Happy Holidays Swankie hankies

two Christmas ornaments…”On Dasher, on Dancer, on Amex, on Visa!” & “When you stop believing in Santa, you get underwear!”

RULES

To enter, you must sign up for my Newsletter. (And remain subscribed, of course.)  (Note:  If you think you might already be signed up, but aren’t sure, please sign up again…a major catastrophe has wiped out all previous subscriptions prior to October 2010.)

Contest will run until Sunday, December 26th. Winner will be announced on my WIPs and Chains blog that same day.

U.S. residents only, please.  (For the prize only, because of the high cost of overseas postage rates.  But everyone is welcome to sign up for my Newsletter!)

If the winner doesn’t contact me with her mailing information within seven (7) days, another name will be drawn & a new winner announced.

Good luck & Happy Holidays!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

I hope you remembered to re-set your clocks for Daylight Saving Time. Remember, we’re falling back, which means we actually gain an hour.  (Yeah, I know…do we really?  But let’s just go with it, shall we?)

Since it’s Happy Sunday, that means it’s time to list all the things we’re grateful for this week, & I’d like to say I’m grateful I got to sleep in an extra hour this morning.  But I can’t, because I didn’t.  You see, cats don’t subscribe to the whole “Daylight Saving Time” concept.  Their internal clocks run more on when the sun comes up, when it goes down, & how empty their bellies are.  The good news is, if my alarm ever malfunctioned, they would make sure I was still out of bed on time. :coffee

So what else can we be thankful for?  Well, we missed last week’s Happy Sunday because of Halloween, so I’ll start by saying I’m thankful I had a good time at the NJRW conference…I’m thankful I had a save trip there & back…I’m thankful so many people are loving THE BITE BEFORE CHRISTMAS…I’m thankful my kitties did so well while I was gone…

I’m extremely happy about the lovely 4 1/2 star review INHERITING HIS SECRET CHRISTMAS BABY got from RT BOOKReviews.  I can’t wait for it to come out; I’m already starting to wonder how soon I’ll get my author copies…& then realizing they’ll probably be a while yet. :mad

I am also excited about one other small thing, but I’m not going to mention it yet.  I’ll share that will you a bit later…maybe this week, if I can fit it in with all the other birthday celebrations taking place here in The Dungeon.  (Yes, that’s right…the very young Mistress Heidi’s birthday is swinging around yet again, & we’re going to have a blast ringing it in. :party )

So how about you?  What wonderful things have been happening in your lives this week?

We also have a winner to announce for Free Book Friday’s triple play—autographed copies of The Return by Sharon Sala, Virgin River by Robyn Carr, & CEO’s Expectant Secretary by Leanne Banks.

Mary K.!!!

Congratulations, Mary! Please contact me with your mailing information, & I’ll get your prizes out to you as soon as I can.

Also, because there was a little glitch in the Contact Form here at HeidiBetts.com, I have not received mailing information from the winners of our last several giveaways.  If your name is on this list, please contact me again & I’ll get those in the mail, too.

10/31 — “Fang-Tastic Vampire Swag Bag” Giveaway — Lori Patterson

10/29 — Free Book Friday (autographed copy of HOTTER THAN HELL) — Throuthehaze (claimed!)

10/22 — Free Book Friday (autographed copy of THE BITE BEFORE CHRISTMAS) — Dee (claimed!)

10/10 — Free Book Friday (Life Lessons Learned While Shopping) — Laura J. (claimed!)

And if anyone farther back than that won something & hasn’t yet received it, do let me know.  I’ve got a checklist, but that doesn’t mean it’s as updated as it should be. :ouch

Also, since the Contact Form is once again working, if I don’t hear from the winner of the “Fang-tastic Vampire Swag Bag” Giveaway by this time next week, I’ll draw another name for that fang-tastic prize, per the contest rules. :dracuulla

Thank you!