Housekeeping and Other Dirty Words - Dani Collins

I'm on deadline as I write this. Sort of.

I'm taking some time off this month and want to send my WIP to my editor before I go. I reached The End last night after a marathon writing sprint. It needs polishing before it's fit for submission, but it felt good to finish. The downside is that my house is a pig sty, mostly because I'm trying to get a book in early. Also because the unending wildfire smoke has left a fine layer of soot on every surface, especially since it cooled off enough to open some windows.

Naturally, with all of that hanging over me, I spent the day on making travel arrangements for December, catching up on emails, pre-writing blog posts and going for a walk in the sun...

It's been a day of mental housekeeping and, for me, it's as necessary as the real kind. When I'm pushing for those final eight or ten thousand words, it's very common for me to go on complete strike where being human is concerned. Cooking? Forget it. Shower? Meh.

Last night, as I was pounding out a terrible epilogue just so I could go to bed after writing those final, magical two words, my husband came into my office. He was on the phone to his mother. And he kept coming back. I near about lost it. "No. YOU text our daughter and get her postal code for your mother. What makes you think you can come in here? Read the room."

I have arrived back at the station of 'rational' now, but my post-sprint brain demands I catch a breath and look after everything I ignored while I was making that final push. Bills. Crumpled notes that read, "I never fit. Knew why she left. Broken."(Your guess is as good as mine.)

Tomorrow I'll do my edits and get the manuscript off before I leave.

And this blog post will come out while I'm away, hopefully enjoying some nice pub food with my sister and her husband or maybe taking a selfie with a Viking statue in Gimli, Manitoba. Yes, these are the glamorous rewards for the hard labor of finishing a book--early, no less.

The truth is, I have no use for housekeeping until I need it to distract me from other things. Like writing. So I will go attend to some actual, physical housekeeping, but before I go, I'll take care of one more task here...

Watch for 
His Mistress With Two Secrets 
to go to 99c Sep 18-23.

His Mistress With Two Secrets is Book Two in my Sauveterre Siblings quartet about two sets of identical twins. This one has, you guessed it, another set of twins on the way!

Pregnant with the billionaire’s babies! 

After the painfully public demise of her intense fling with renowned tycoon Henri Sauveterre, Cinnia Whitley discovers she’s pregnant…with twins!

Cinnia burns with the memory of his touch, but bearing a new generation of the Sauveterre dynasty will bind her to Henri forever—unless she keeps it a secret…

Henri is infuriated when he discovers Cinnia’s deception. His little sister’s abduction ended all his intentions of having a family—but any Sauveterre deserves his full protection. Henri must make Cinnia his wife, and he’ll show her just how pleasurable their reunion can be! Buy Links are here.

Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with some laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life.

Mostly she writes contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule’s Montana Born, but her backlist of nearly fifty titles includes self-published erotic romance, romantic comedy, and even an epic medieval fantasy.

When she’s not writing—just kidding, she’s always writing. She lives in Christina Lake, BC with her high school sweetheart husband who occasionally enters her attic office uninvited.

Christmas Treats

A flying visit between hospital visits - the dh is not well - to wish you all the very happiest Christmas and a peaceful New Year

In the spirit of the season I'm tossing out all these books that are on special holiday bargains offers at the moments.

Wild Fire  and Eloping With Emmy are just 99c in the US  and For His Eyes Only is just $1.99 in the US.

In the UK there are quite a few of my books available for just 99p - Vettori's Damsel in Distress, Her Pregnancy Bombshell, Secret Baby Surprise Parents...

Grab a handful for your own Christmas stocking and spoil yourself after the holidays when you have time for a little toes up.. :)

In the meantime, I wish you and all your loved ones -

Goodbye summer...

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It’s not often that I say I’ll be glad to see the back of summer, but this one has been so stressful that I’m looking forward to a change of seasons, a change of pace and hoping the chill will cut down all the bad vibes that seem to have made this year such a stressful one both personally and internationally.

Special thoughts for everyone affected by floods in Texas and Louisiana.

I’ve had to put the book I’m writing on hold while family concerns come first but I have finally managed to launch one of the books for which I reclaimed the rights from Harlequin a while back. It’s been re-edited, freshened up, given a little bit of an update and a fabulous new cover and at the moment it’s available for a re-launch price of just 99c (99p if you’re in the UK, or 99c anywhere if you use the Smashwords link - download to any device).

Trouble in Paradise was originally published by Harlequin Mills and Boon - for marketing reasons that had nothing to do with the story - under the title All She Wants for Christmas.

It has now been given a facelift and it's original title, so grab it now at the special launch price of 99c (US), 99p (UK).  Actually if you use the Smashwords link (they cater for all ebook platforms) you'll only pay 99c wherever you are!

* * *

Hugo Griffin thinks Maddy Osborne is a spoiled little rich girl. She thinks he's a gigolo who is after her vulnerable godmother's fortune.

Stranded alone together on Paradise Island, forced to work together to survive, they have all the time in the world to discover that first impressions can be misleading...

Taste test here.

Here are the links -

Amazon US
Amazon Australia
iBooks
Smashwords
Nook
Kobo

All Work, No Play?

We ran away from home on Sunday.

Both my husband and I worked non stop last week. I was trying to catch up in my Fortress Of Literature. That's what my son calls my attic office. My husband worked a bunch of overtime.

Sunday was his only day off and he still has some winterizing to do, wrapping taps and tying trees. It's been a remarkably warm November. Normally we have snow by now, so that outside work really, really needs to be done. He's playing chicken with the weather, he really is.

Me, I'm always on deadline and I have about a million emails I have to answer so I couldn't really afford a day off.

He did have Monday booked off, but that was because he had to drive three hours for a specialist appointment. Small town is wonderful until you really need something, like carpal tunnel surgery. Then you're feeling the distance to civilization.

You also feel it when you want to see a new, big screen movie. Everyone was raving about The Arrival and our little theatre is usually a few weeks behind.

So there we were, drinking coffee Sunday morning, talking about all the things we had to get done, and somehow decided to play hooky from all of it. (We did manage to take out the garbage, since it was garbage day.) Then we left a day early for his appointment, got a hotel, saw the movie (which was wonderful and thought provoking and poignantly beautiful), then saw his doctor and drove home in the sunshine, rejuvenated and not feeling the least bit guilty.

Now I'm back at my desk and my eyes are crossing at my To Do list, but sometimes you have to make hay while the sun shines, right? Also, it's been my goal for a long while to find a better work/life balance. Having fun with loved ones keeps your relationships strong.

Face-time (the real kind) is also how you build a relationship, which is what Nicki does when she helps Quincy connect with his son, Atlas, in His Christmas Miracle. She designs an Advent calendar of activities they all do together. One reviewer on Netgalley said:

"His Christmas Miracle is such a loving, family romance. Sound strange? Not really. This isn’t about a man and a woman falling in love. This story is all about falling in love with a family. Father and son. Man and woman. Woman and child. Family love."

I hope you'll check it out. There's even a link to download your own Advent calendar included in the back of the book.

ON SALE!

Also look for Blame The Mistletoe, Book Two in my Love In Montana series, on sale for a few more days at 99c. (All of my books can be read as stand-alones, but you'll visit with Liz from Blame The Mistletoe in His Christmas Miracle.)

How do you like to spend time with friends and family? Have you had any fun, impulsive getaways lately? Even for an hour?



Bio:

Dani Collins is the USA Today Bestselling author of thirty romances for Harlequin Presents, Montana Born and herself. She lives in Canada with her high school sweetheart. Join Dani's newsletter list and receive Cruel Summer, a short ebook romance, as a welcome gift. Sign up here.

Got the January blues?

The jury is out on exactly which day of the year is the most depressing, but most agree it's definitely in January. Some say it's the first Monday of the first full week back to work after the holidays. Others say it's the day that the Christmas purchases arrive on the credit card bill.

January probably isn't too bad for those of you in the southern hemisphere. At least you're getting your Vitamin D. Most of us in the Great White North are slogging along under grey skies, through snow, bundled tight with our muscles aching from bracing against the chill. And then the credit card bills arrive on top of the heating bill and, oh yeah, we had those new snow tires, too. Ouch!

To combat that gloom, I've lowered the price on my zaniest, most laughter-filled title, Hustled To The Altar, to a very affordable 99c.

It's a silly caper with con artists and a game designer hero who really does not know when to quit, plus loads of twists and turns all taking place the day before the heroine's wedding.

Ironically, I wrote this story long before I started writing for Montana Born, but it's set in Montana--at a hot springs resort.

There is a cure for the January blues. Now that I've thought of it, I might have to talk to the husband about heading to the ones nearest to us. Here's a photo from when we celebrated our twentieth anniversary at Halcyon Hot Springs.

We had quite a laugh as we read the brochure on this one. It said the secret ingredient in the water that makes it so relaxing--and such a cure for depression--is lithium!

I have to admit, however, that I'm a bit like my hero Con. I don't sit still very well so about fifteen minutes after I begin to cook, I start getting restless.

How about you? Do you enjoy visiting hot springs? Any recommendations? How is your January? Got the blues?

Blurb for Hustled To The Altar:

One Con Artist Bride...

The last thing Renny O'Laughlin wants to do on the day before her wedding is see her eccentric ex-boyfriend--the one with more dollars than sense who provokes the thrill-seeker inside her. But his grandmother just got duped. Renny has to tell Con before she marries another man and leaves forever.

One Innovative Ex-Lover...

Games-inventor Conroy Burke won't buckle to convention, especially marriage. He's crazy about Renny though. She's the only woman able to keep up with him. When she explains how Gran was tricked, he sees an opportunity to convince his wildcard she doesn't really want to settle down.

One chance to sting a professional thief...

Renny agrees to identify the swindler to the police, not expecting a caper with inept kidnappers, an ambitious reporter chasing the story--or her old feelings for Con to resurface. Marriage will make an honest woman of her, but getting Gran's money back would prove it too. It all makes for...

One hectic day before a wedding. 

Buy now:

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Kobo | Nook

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Catch up with the classics

This four book boxed set of classic Liz Fielding romances has just been released at a special introductory price of 99c (77p if you're in the UK).

It's only going to be that price for a couple more days so grab the offer while it's going.

Here are the links -

Amazon
iBooks
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

And while I'm talking books, I've just downloaded the first of Donna Alward's wonderful new Jewell Cove series, The House on Blackberry Hill. Reviews suggest that it's one for fans of Debbie Macomber.

Can't wait to read it!

Finally, we're on the last few days of the Chocolate Box Spring Blog Hop. If you haven't yet entered to win a whole clutch of prizes then check out my blog

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