Lisa Dale: April Showers

This year has seen one of the driest springs on record. Last week, fires were breaking out all over New Jersey. One fire, in the meadowlands, set the fragmites on fire like piles of crumpled paper and sent huge black plumes into the sky.

It's very odd for spring to be so rainless. The flowers are blooming. The trees are working hard to turn green...but where's the rain?

Here's a Langston Hughes poem that felt particularly relevant:

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.

Langston Hughes

Wishing you a happy April.

Lisa Dale

P.S. A bit of good news... I'm honored this year to be among the RITA nominees! Slow Dancing on Price's Pier is up for best single title contemporary. Talk about thrilling!

Lisa Dale: Saying So Long To An Old Friend

In my current work in progress, my heroine is a somewhat insecure librarian. And when she’s around the hot Brazilian guy who keeps showing up to get her recommendations on kid’s books, she describes herself like this:

In the library break room, with Vic standing there so tall and built, she’d never felt more librarian-y in her life—as sexy as a set of recently outdated encyclopedias.

In my head, I was imagining the stinky, dusty Encyclopedia Britannica volumes (and they were voluminous volumes) that my parents had squirreled away in the basement thinking “they would be worth something someday.”

That my heroine would compare herself to a bunch of cumbersome, dusty books (in which the information isn’t really updated anymore) seemed perfectly fitting.

But because of a big change in the world this past week, the description became even more pertinent. If you didn’t already hear: Encyclopedia Britannica has quit printing books. They’re officially going online only.

I don’t know about you, but this news made my heart skip.

The EB has been continuously in print since 1768. To put that into perspective, in 1768 Sam Adams was drafting a letter to protest taxation without representation. Boston residents had started refusing to give quarter to British soldiers, who were there to keep the peace.

In 1768, your best bet for mid-week floor cleaning might have been to spread wet tea leaves then sweep them up (I prefer my Shark). To kill bed bugs, you would have doused the whole bedroom in toxic lime powder (today, exterminators freeze the little buggers). A letter to your cousin a few states of might have taken weeks to arrive (and now, email is instant).

So, the EB has been around since the dawn of time. Practically. That it is no longer going to be appearing in print has done a number of my heartstrings. Not because I ever fell in love with a set of encyclopedias, but because of what it means.

In my latest release, A Promise of Safekeeping, the hero (Will) is an antiques dealer and picker. He has a deep reverence for things that are old, dusty, a little broken down. I could see him having two reactions to the news from EB: 1) That’s really sad, 2) Hooray that the price of the printed editions will go up.

My heroine of that book, Lauren, wouldn’t blink to wave the EBs good-bye. She despises clutter and things that don’t have immediate practical function. She and Will are a very good match for each other, though they don’t initially think so (especially since Lauren had put Will’s best friend wrongly in prison).

Years ago, my husband (then a new boyfriend) bought me a gorgeous, compact Oxford English Dictionary. This thing is as thick as the cornerstone of a cathedral, and not less heavy. I wanted it because it had seemed fundamentally necessary at the time. And it was, for a while there. And still is when something I’m working on needs a formal citation.

But these days, when I need to look up a word, or a word’s history, for casual use, I turn to the Web. My Nook will even look up the word for me, and notate it. My OED is being used to press flowers from my wedding bouquet…and honestly that’s as much action as it’s seen in a while.

So what do you think? Good riddance to those bulky, dust-collecting encyclopedias?

Or did you, too, feel a weird little pang to hear they are going away?

Wishing you every good thing,

Lisa Dale

www.lisadalebooks.com/blog

Lisa Dale - A Little Contest To Celebrate My New Release

Happy New Year!

Hope your 2012 has got off to a beautiful start, with a fresh burst of optimism and many things to look forward to as the year goes on.

I'm having an especially nice new year because I've just released a new book, A Promise of Safekeeping!

Keep reading to see if this is the kind of story you're in the mood for.

A Promise of Safekeeping is a story of how the human spirit triumphs over darkness--even over itself.

Nine years ago, Lauren Matthews prosecuted the case of a lifetime. But her error in judgment sent an innocent man to prison. Now Arlen Fieldstone’s finally been released, and Lauren has only one thing on her mind: asking forgiveness. But how can she make up for nine years of his life?

To get to Arlen, Lauren must first get through Arlen’s best friend, Will Farris. Will hasn’t forgotten Lauren from those days, and hasn’t forgiven her for destroying his best friend’s life. He is Arlen’s keeper—protecting him from suspicious neighbors as well as from Lauren.

In the steaming summer streets of Richmond, Virginia, three people’s lives collide. Lauren needs forgiveness. Arlen needs hope. And Will? He needs something too, something that no one can know—especially not Lauren…

I'm really excited to share this book with you. As I wrote, the characters became deeper and deeper, the story taking on new shades and colors...it was mesmerizing. I hope it will be the same for you.

Will might actually be my favorite hero ever. He’s strong on the surface, but he has a deep vulnerability that I can’t give away here. When the book opens, every woman he’s ever dated has run away from him. He is wary of Lauren at first—with good reason, since she put his best friend in jail. But when he warms to her, he begins to wonder if she might be the one woman who is strong enough to bear his secret, if he can bring himself to tell it.

There's a second love story in A Promise of Safekeeping too. It's between Arlen (the ex con), and the wife who divorced him when he was pronounced guilty. Although it seems as if his wife gave up on him, there’s hope: As much as Arlen is thinking about Eula, she’s thinking about him too.

To celebrate the release of my new book, I'm giving away a copy of Slow Dancing on Price's Pier, my release from last year that was a Top Pick and Barnes & Noble and Bookpage magazine. U.S. addresses only, please.

To enter, just answer this question:

In A Promise of Safekeeping, Will is an antiques collector. What do you collect?

Good wishes for every blessing in the New Year,

Lisa Dale
www.LisaDaleBooks.com

Life's Too Short For Holiday Stress - Lisa Dale

The holidays are upon us. And there seems to be an amazing phenomenon that happens in my house only in December.

I can spend three hours cleaning the house, going from room to room, shuffling misplaced things, ferrying dishes to the sink, corralling wayward books, etc... And the moment I think "I'm done" and I look around, it's as if the Cosmic Magician snapped his fingers and BOOM! Somehow, the house is a disaster again!

It's swift as the transformation that happens when you go to bed on a clear night and you wake up to a foot of snow.

I don't know about you, but I'm in up to my eyeballs. The tree is up (finally) but the presents under it "wrapped" in plastic bags.

The phone rings off the hook (literally off the hook, which means I have to run around lifting pillows and pulling out chairs to see where I left it!).

I also have a new book coming out in two weeks! Talk about crazy busy! (Note to self: Next time publisher says "release date around Christmas time" say "can we reschedule?") It's exciting--I can't wait to share it!--but it's also demanding of a lot of time.

I got a great bit of advice when I got married--I wish I could remember who gave it to me--that applies to the holidays.

"Breathe. Or you'll miss it."

I repeat this mantra all the time. Busyness is a good thing, if you remember to notice that joy that underlies all of the busyness. I for one want to remember. To take time and notice. To pause and savor the blur of life in December.

Wishing you all much happiness and deep breathing,

Lisa Dale

P.S. I'm hosting a contest for you to win a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card. Details here! http://bit.ly/vW0hN6.

P.P.S. Today, on my blog: Ugly Christmas Trees You Have To See To Believe. Comment and enter to win my December LOVE TO READERS prize.

Lisa Dale: Couponing Grows Up

I was at a baby shower recently in my hometown when a woman piped up.

“I remember you,” she said. She was looking at me. Her eyes were bright. “I was your preschool teacher!”

I laughed. I remembered her too—not her face or her hair, but a general “her-ness.”

She went on: “You’re that kid who used to cut coupons out of the newspaper all the time.”

I laughed. “Yes that was me.”

My favorite thing to do the year before I went to kindergarten was to cut coupons out of the paper. God knows why. And if there were no coupons, I cut out the classifieds ads because they looked like coupons. I said it was for my mom. Really, I just liked to feel helpful. The woman used to pull me out of class so that I could sit with her and cut coupons while she read the paper. I’m thinking she must have been on her break.

The woman said, “You were the weirdest kid I ever met!” At which point, there was a round of laughter and I’m sure my face turned red.

Flash forward, oh, a couple dozen years. After preschool, I got bored with coupons. As an adult, I’ve never been a couponing person. I run to the store, grab what I need, and flee. Actually, I’ve been known to throw coupons away. Too much of a hassle to save thirty cents.

But TLC’s couponing show, Extreme Couponing, really got me thinking.

What if I just gave this coupon thing a try?

Well guess what?

My first trip out, I saved $42! Talk about awesome. And since that first trip about a week ago, I’ve saved about $150 more. Just yesterday I picked up a $100 super duper electric toothbrush for just $30! That’s seventy bucks saved! That’s a nice dinner with my husband. That’s a trip to a theme park. That’s a whole lotta books!

Granted, I’ve had to get organized. Dedicate a bit of time. I have to buy things now and store them until later. No more shopping on the fly. Plus, I’ve had to go to multiple stores to do my shopping, whereas before, I was one and done.

But so far it’s really been worth it. The key, apparently, isn’t just cutting coupons from the Sunday paper. It’s pairing those coupons with retailer deals. Actually, you can get quite a lot of stuff for free when you combine them.

I suspect the people featured on Extreme Couponing area bit showy for the cameras (seriously, how could a person physically use 60 bottles of allergy medication before they expire? You'd die trying!). But still…there are rewards.

QUESTION: Are you on the coupon train? Too much hassle? Or worth the while?

Best,

Lisa Dale

P.S. Comment on my new blog post to be entered to win my LOVE TO READERS prize (which is a gift card of your choice to a book retailer)!

Lisa Dale: Hedgehog Day!

Hi All!

It's a fun weekend here at my house. There's a new member of the family! Her name is Cleopatra and she's an African pygmy hedgehog. She's also the cutest thing in Bergen County NJ.

So far, she's just been sleeping (she is nocturnal) and adjusting to her new home (which is to say, when she isn't sleeping she's an angry, spiked ball of death). I'm looking forward to the day she turns back into the adorable, playful, sweet little girl she was when I met her at the breeders. One must be patient with these babies!

I got interested in hedgehogs when, funny enough, the main character in a new book that I'm putting together had a cat who--in a later draft--turned into a hedgehog. A hedgehog fit the character's personality better than a cat: quirky, adorable, and a little protective of herself. I thought: If my character can have a hedgehog for a pet, why can't I?

So I started looking into it and found out that I could. Hedgies aren't really easy pets, but they're cute as all get out. And they can be quite sweet.

Cleo's pretty much the highlight of my weekend. So rather than blog about her twice, I'll ask you to pop over to my blog to see more cute pix of her!

Lisa Dale Blog

And if you leave a comment you'll be entered to win my LOVE TO READERS prize.

Good things,

Lisa Dale

Lisa Dale - Not Before I've Had My Coffee

Hi all!

Hope that those of you living in the Northeast are enjoying the beautiful weather. Here is a quote about autumn that just broke my heart:

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. George Eliot

But I haven't popped on this morning to blog about autumn. I want to blog about morning.

Here's why: Every darn morning my husband and I participate in what I like to call The Glockenspiel Hour. Chimes galore.

For one hour, we both lie in bed, half-dazed and paralyzed by sleepiness, listening to our alarm clocks. And lest you think this is a SMALL feat, I will tell you that we have no fewer that FOUR alarm clocks (two cell phones, my alarm [which has two different individual alarms set], and his alarm).

We've tried everything--putting the alarm clocks across the room. Setting only one. Trying to give each other a "time to get up" pep talk...nothing works!

At least, not usually.

But yesterday morning, I was able to get myself up at the fragile hour of six a.m. to head off to Panera to do some writing on my new project (which is desperately due). And I was reminded: I love early morning. I love watching the bathroom get brighter while I'm brushing my teeth. I love the strange light before sunrise. And I love writing first thing in the a.m.

So why, if I love morning, do I suffer The Glockenspiel Hour?

I also love my husband, who often works late at night. I like when he's all sleepy and cuddly. I like to hear the sound of him grumbling when the alarm clocks go off, the pulling me closer. And I like getting up at the same time as he does--instead of rising early--because I like hearing him putter around: the buzz of the razor, the water falling in the shower, and the smell of his skin when he gets out.

So what's a writer to do?

If you're an early morning riser, I would love to hear your tips! I may have to make a concerted effort at forfeiting the GH so I can focus on my new book. But I'm not a morning person and need your help!

Ideas?

Good things,

Lisa Dale

www.LisaDaleBooks.com/blog

P.S. I posted honeymoon pictures (with goofy commentary) at my blog! Comment and enter to win my Love To Readers prize.

Lisa Dale: Tips For Reading People

Hi all!

I’m back from my honeymoon. My DH and I went to California—Napa and San Fran, then to Monterey and Yosemite. Soon, I’ll be posting some pictures on my personal blog.

But in the meantime, I’m finishing up the last of my edits for my book that’s coming out in January, called A Promise of Safekeeping. It’s about a woman who reads people—you know, like on the show Lie to Me.

Lauren, the heroine, is a body language expert who has become quite well-known when the book opens. A case she’d tried when she was a very young lawyer has come back to haunt her. A man that she’d helped put in prison for nine years is found to be innocent. Now, Lauren must make amends.

I’ve had to do a lot of research about body language for this book. And I’ve found out some really fun, surprising things. Even though the book is just about done, I’m still reading about body language—just because it’s fascinating (and because, as a writer, it helps to make any story stronger when you really grasp the nuances of nonverbal communication).

Here are a few tidbits from a book called What Every Body Is Saying, by Joe Navarro.

• Think that the eyes are the window to the soul? Navarro says: Wrong. It’s the feet. Yep—the feet are the window to the soul. He says people can be quite conscious of controlling their expressions, their arms, their torsos—but that leaves the feet and legs to their own devices. Interesting, right?
• Jurors at a trial will apparently turn their feet toward the nearest exit if they are responding negatively to a witness. It’s a vestige of our flight instinct—preparation to get away.
• All people have pacifying behaviors when they’re stressed. Women will tend to cover suprasternal notch (that little dimple at the base of the neck) by either touching it or playing with a necklace. Men may stroke the area above their Adam’s apple—a gesture that apparently reduces blood pressure and heart rate.

Neat, huh?

Yes—I know I’m a nerd.

I’ve also been learning a bit about human courtship—and discovered some pretty peculiar stuff! But I’m not going to include any of that here (or in A Promise of Safekeeping) because, let’s face it: Sex becomes kinda unsexy when looked at in a clinical light.

And now it’s back to work on my last little revisions!

Happy (people) reading!

Lisa Dale

Lisa Dale: Weddings and Writers

Hi all!

It's official! I'm happily married! I don't have wedding pictures for you yet, but I will post them as soon as I do.

The wedding itself went well and I think everyone had a good time, which was what was most important to us. And Matt and I had fun too--more fun even than we expected to have (though honestly we didn't eat a bite and I can hardly remember the reception it was such a whirl!). It was so nice to see both of our families all gathered together in one place.

There are so many stories with weddings in them, it's impossible to even count. Ever wonder why? It's not just because weddings are great for visuals.

For writers, it's important to make private conflicts public at some point. If you can have the hero or heroine stuck in the most critical point of the story while he or she is in a public place and has a lot at stake, you'll increase the tension level.

A writer could make a scene where the hero confesses his love in private--and if the heroine rejects him then he simply skulks away with at least some of his dignity intact. Or the same writer could have the hero confess his love when it really matters--in public, at a celebration of love, in the face of wild optimism and huge risk. Then, if he's rejected, he's shattered both publicly and privately.

I think Frank Capra probably gets a lot of credit for this trope of "the big reveal at a wedding." Remember It Happened One Night (the movie, not my book of the same title)? At the end, there's a huge wedding--the heroine is about to walk down the aisle and marry the wrong man while Clark Gable is scrambling to stop things...

I love the movie It Happened One Night because it established so many strong techniques of storytelling for romance. But I think that having had my own wedding gives me a whole new understanding of the wedding as a plot device!

People have been asking, "Does it feel different to be married?" And the answer is, yes and no. Every time I look down at my wedding ring I feel all warm and happy. And when I hear Matt on the phone with someone saying "my wife and I..." I'm thrilled that he's talking about me.

My own happy ending. And luckily, there were no last-minute life changing reveals at my wedding!

QUESTION: What do you think? Are wedding scenes in movies overdone? Sick of them? Or love them?

Cheers,

Lisa Dale

http://www.lisadalebooks.com

Lisa Dale: Two Weeks Until The Big Day

Hi all!

Life's a bit frantic for me just now because my wedding is in just two weeks! If you wanted to see more pictures from my bridal shower, click here (and leave a comment to enter my love to readers prize!).

I have to admit; I'd thought that getting married would give me time to ponder my relationship with my fiance, time for reflection and thought...but instead, I'm running about--late for everything--and Matt and I barely say a word to each other that doesn't involve the wedding!

The good news is, if there was anyone I'd want to plan a wedding with, it would be him. We've been working side by side--Matt generously picking up the slack when I get surprised by unexpected deadlines or other emergencies.

Being this close to marrying the guy I love is a crazy time, but it's a blessing too. There's lots to do, and that's just how I like it.

And in other news: RWA is coming to New York! If you want to meet, I'll be at the Berkley book signing on Friday morning. Hope to see you then!

I'll post wedding pix once I'm back from the honeymoon!

Wishing you all good things,

Lisa Dale

www.LisaDaleBooks.com

Lisa Dale: My Weekend Adventure

Sometimes, it's hard to know which I like more: The writing, or the fact that writing is an excuse for so many other things: buying books, quiet evenings in, asking lots of questions that most people would have no use for, and of course, research.

If you know my books, you know I'm a curious person--always hunting up fun new facts. Yesterday, I went on a scouting expedition with my fiance, Matt, into the Hudson Valley. I wanted to share some pictures from our trip to Philipsburg Manor.

Here's a picture of me and a cooper who was kind enough to talk to us for half an hour about everything we ever wanted to know about barrel-making (like the fact that tool handles are made of hickory because it absorbs shock, or that there's a difference between a pail and a bucket). I didn't realize Matt was snapping pictures or I would have torn my eyes away from the bucket to smile.

And here's a picture of Washington Irving's grave (he penned The Legend of Sleep Hollow and other stories). We stopped for a moment, but since we weren't on a tour, we didn't linger. Still, it's very cool to stop a moment to honor one of the first American fiction writers.

And of course, here is a replica of the bridge where poor Ichabod Crane was driven out of town by the headless horseman in Sleepy Hollow.

And finally, here's one of me for good measure where you actually can see my face.

It was a great day in the Hudson Valley--very foggy and gray, but beautiful. The Hudson has such a funny magic about it.

When you're in the Hudson Valley and Catskills area, there's always a coincidence around the corner--like, a certain thing you've been looking for five years suddenly appears.

Or you stumble on one of the area's enchanting little towns, and you just have this feeling of having been there before.

Yesterday, we strangely ran into one of Matt's colleagues at Washington Irving's house--he'd said he'd never been there before in his life but happened to be there the same day we were. Odd, and yet somehow, totally right.

I'm sure we'll be going up there again soon!

Wishing you much happy traveling and reading,

Lisa Dale

QUESTION: What place in the world feels magical to you?

Lisa Dale: Here Comes The Bird...

Hi all!

It’s been a whirlwind kind of a week. My new book, Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier, has hit the shelves everywhere—and I’ve been so so so lucky.

It’s been selected as a Barnes & Noble book of the month, as well as BookPage Magazine’s romance of the month. Can’t really ask for better than that!

The second chance love story of my hero and heroine, Garret and Thea, really seems to be resonating with people—and that’s exactly what I hope for as a writer!

In the meantime, I’m already starting a new project and also trying to get my wedding invitations out.

Actually, I thought I was going crazy—that perhaps all this wedding stuff had once and for all gone to my head!

As I was sitting in my bed this morning writing (what can I say, I do all my best writing in bed), I swore I heard a little bird singing, da-dum-da-dummmm (which is an interspecies musical transliteration of “here comes the bride”).

At first, I just shook it off. I figured I’d misheard. Or that it was a fluke. I mean—the wedding plans really have been keeping me very busy.

But the bird kept singing…here comes the bride, all dressed in white!

I thought—no way.

So, like any good professional writer, I decided, “screw this scene. It’s much more important to find out if that bird really is singing ‘here comes the bride’ than it is keeping writing!”

So I popped on to Google, and discovered something so neat I had to share it.

First, I’m not crazy. J Not about this anyway. It turns out there is a bird that sounds like it sings “here comes the bride,” which is also known as Beethoven’s Fifth.

The white-throated sparrow sings the first few notes of Beethoven’s Fifth! Here is a link so you can hear it! The bird in this recording is a little off key and more trilly, but the one outside my bedroom this morning was spot on with Beethoven.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-throated_Sparrow/sounds

And maybe what’s more fascinating is this: Apparently Beethoven is said to have been inspired by birdsong to some extent. A little bird’s perfect fourths might have inspired Beethoven’s Fifth!

It felt so strange to think of that famous composer sitting in his study, listening intently to a little bird, and perhaps finding something inspiring in it—just like I was, though in a different way.

Anyway, eventually I got back to work. It doesn’t take much to distract me when I’m writing (that’s why I write with the curtains down, the shades closed, in a room with no “work stuff” around me, etc.). But the little guy singing outside my window was a good distraction.

So that about does it for me. I’m about to go to Michaels, then get ready for the book signing I’m doing tomorrow for Slow Dancing, then it’s back to invitations!

FYI—I’m hosting a contest for readers who check out Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier. The first 32 people to post a review on a book-related web site will get on my VIP list and receive a free thank-you-for-sharing-your-thoughts gift from me. So if you do read Slow Dancing, be sure to send me the link to your review (lisa dale books at gmail dot (.) com)!

All the best,

Lisa Dale

Lisa Dale: Slow Dancing, Plus Enter This Contest!

Hi ladies!

Only twenty more days until my new novel, Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier, comes out! You can guess I’m a little excited. I think it’s my best book yet!

If you haven’t caught wind of any of the buzz around it yet, here’s the basic plot:

Fifteen years ago, Garret Sorensen’s family, trust, and heart were destroyed when Thea Celik betrayed him and married his brother. Now they are divorcing. Garret’s ready to finally mend his relationship with his brother. But being back in Newport, Rhode Island, triggers a lot of memories—all leading back to Thea.

Thea’s not ready to let go of the Sorensens—even if it means being around Garret. As they cautiously circle around each other—finding themselves drawn together—they realize following their hearts could cast them adrift.

I loved writing this book because I got to do a lot of research about a) the history of coffee, and b) Newport.

Let me tell you—that cup of coffee that you (or your coworker) drinks every day has contained within it amazing stories of love, lust, betrayal, transformation, and intrigue (not to mention antioxidants and caffeine).

One little example of coffee lore, because I can’t help myself. This is from the book. Each chapter opens with a bit about coffee in a newspaper column written by the main character:

From “The Coffee Diaries”
by Thea Celik
The Newport Examiner

What I love about coffee is this: the dramatic change a coffee cherry goes through before it becomes a coffee “bean.”

If you’ve ever dumped out a bag of fresh-roasted coffee beans, you’ve probably stolen a sniff of that gorgeous, earthy aroma. You must have marveled at that glossy, dark sheen.

But that smell and those oils simply did not exist in the coffee cherry when it was little more than a hard green fruit growing on a mountainside.

It’s fire that forces the transformation from seed to bean. Roasting alters the seed’s makeup—an intense molecular restructuring.

In that way, I think coffee cherries aren’t much different than people. Heat and pressure change us. When we walk through fire—and we all do at some point—we come out the other side to find ourselves altered. If we’re lucky, we become richer, more complex, more alluring people because of our trials. But sometimes, we just get burned.

*

I had way too much fun with all this coffee stuff. The metaphors just fell into my lap!

Anyway—I’ve got to go back to writing now. But if you’re interested in Slow Dancing on Price's Pier, you can preorder it today and be one of the first readers to receive it.

And now, I leave you with that age old question: COFFEE or TEA?

Leave your answer and you will be entered to win a wonderful little book that I picked up: Jane Austen’s Little Instruction Book. It’s a darling purple mini-book of pithy quotes from Austen about life.

I’ll stop back tomorrow to pick a winner.

Love!

Lisa Dale

www.LisaDaleBooks.com

P.S. If you haven’t already seen this, you can find another excerpt from Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier here. Meet Garret and Thea, and get a peek into their chemistry. Check it out!

Lisa Dale: For love of junk!

Sometimes, I’m a little bit of a health nut, especially about food. I eat lots of salads, try to avoid anything heavily processed or instant, and mostly, I just try to go by the motto “if I can’t pronounce it, I don’t eat it.”

But…there are exceptions!

When I was in my early twenties, and I was at my then boyfriend’s (now fiance’s) parent’s house, I saw they had peanut butter chocolate puff cereal. I remember giving him a hard time about it.

“Don’t eat stuff like that!” I said. “At least, not regularly! And especially not for breakfast! It’s fake chocolate and fake peanuts…it’s toxic and gross!”

Matt did his usual patient thing of rolling his eyes and kissing me on the forehead.

Days passed, and I was at his parent’s house and got very hungry. The only thing to eat was this chocolate peanut butter cereal. So, I dove in. And it was like pearly gates of heaven opened. It was seriously the most delicious, terrible, wonderful cereal I’d ever eaten in my life.

So last week, fueled by PMS, I bought myself a box—which I haven’t done in a while. Talk about love! And Matt still teases me: “Remember when you gave ME such a hard time about that cereal?”

Next week, I’ll go back to my wheat bran and flax seed “oatmeal.” But this week…I’m tearing through the chocolate for breakfast.

What’s your go-to junk food?

Happy eating!

Lisa Dale

PS-this week on my blog, I'm asking what you're obsessed with. Comment to enter to win!

Lisa Dale: Contest! Plus What to do in the Winter

Hi all,

Winter is in full force here in NJ--and my fiance and I have managed a few days off together for the first time since last summer. But what does one do when it's freezing cold and there's snow everywhere?

We went on a fun little day trip yesterday, and I think the pictures are worth sharing! First, we went to a New Jersey diner that we hadn't ever been to before (we're slowly but surely visiting new diners one by one).

It was adorable! Here's a little picture:

Then, with our bellies full and warm, we headed further south, all the way down to New Hope, Pennsylvania. We drove past beautiful scenes of snow-covered farm houses, frozen tractors, and fields turned perfect white under a gray sky.

Then, we hopped an antique train (how cute is this?). It was like stepping into a different time!

Inside the car felt like something out of a movie! The train ride wasn't to anywhere. In fact, it went forward for about half an hour, then it went back.

We were treated to many beautiful scenes like this one (incidentally, this trestle's claim to fame is that this is where a famous train scene was shot in the 1918 movie The Perils of Pauline.

All this atmosphere...it's enough to make a writer's imagination go wild! Nothing inspires me to write more than a quiet, contemplative day spent with a loved one!

But these days, I have to admit, I'm not doing too too much actual writing. You see, my new book, Slow Dancing on Price Pier, comes out in three short months! Eek!

Two wonderful authors, Karen White and Jane Porter, were kind enough to give me absolutely glowing blurbs for this book! And I'm so pleased with the cover art. Here it is!

So here's the deal: Leave me a comment about what you think of my cover art or my trip, and I'll stop back tomorrow and pick one person to win a "surprise" gift from me! The winner will be announced in the comments section.

Thanks for reading!

Wishing you many happy and safe travels here in the deepest days of winter!

Lisa Dale

A Holiday Recipe For You - Lisa Dale

Just like your family, my family has its traditions for the holidays. And many of them are about booze and food. :-)

For example, every year since I was a kid, my mother’s very Irish neighbors, The Flahertys, make a mulled apple cider in a huge pot on the stove; it’s warm and sweet with rum, cloves, and cinnamon. We “kids” aren’t allowed to have any (still!), but every year they call my mother over for wassailing, and when she gets home, she’s inevitably rosy-cheeked and laughing. It’s good to see.

On Christmas morning, it's a family tradition to have cinnamon rolls hot from the oven with big cups of tea. It feels special--all that icing and gooey sweet bread!

And--okay--my brother and sister and I do get together to play a little drinking game with one of the holiday movies we've been watching once a year since we were kids.

Like I said: Food and booze.

This year, I wanted to share a family secret (simple) holiday recipe with you! This is a classic in our family, thanks to my mom. But she gave me permission to share it with you!

Candied Walnuts

½ cup butter

cup brown sugar

teaspoon cinnamon

pound of walnuts (4 cups)

In a casserole dish, melt butter. Add brown sugar and cinnamon. Microwave for two minutes (it will be bubbly and hot!). Add walnuts carefully and coat them in sugary goodness. Microwave 3-5 minutes (4 is probably right). Spread nuts on wax paper to cool, and as Mom says, “this part is like Napalm so be careful!” Don’t taste. Let cool—then enjoy or wrap in a little bag to give as a gift.

Delicious!

That’s it! Piece of cake! Okay…not actually cake. But still. It’s easy! I’m telling you—people will think you slaved over these for hours. If you try them, email me and let me know what you think (lisa at lisadalebooks. com).

And in the meantime, Happy Holidays!

Lisa Dale

PS Very soon I’m going to be giving away a hand-knit organic cotton scarf, made by yours truly! If you want in on this contest, please subscribe to my mailing list or my blog!

PPS -- One more tradition, unrelated to food, but it's funny and worth sharing. My sister has a tradition of waiting until everyone’s at the house, then putting the CD player on repeat for endless revolutions of “The Holly And The Ivy.” We take bets on how many times the song will play before somebody notices.

PPS The walnuts are calorie free. That’s right. Zero calories, zero fat, zero carbs. So enjoy!

Saying "Oops" to the Dress - Lisa Dale

So, I bought my wedding dress (yay!) and I adore it. It’s everything I wanted and an okay price. But for a while there, I was pretty nervous—fearing that I’d never find the right dress.

Certainly, there’s a lot of pressure surrounding buying a wedding dress. But I heard a story a couple weeks ago that was hands down one of the most memorable wedding dress stories that I’ve ever heard.

For those of you who read my blog regularly, just skip to the bottom of this post—you’ve heard this story already. Or, better yet, pop over to this link and leave a comment to enter to win my latest LOVE TO READERS prize.

But for those of you who haven’t heard this yet, you’re going to want to! It’s a crazy story and it bears repeating!

So, my boss’s mother went wedding dress shopping with her mother and mother-in-law. And they found a dress that the bride loved, so they bought it.

Flash forward a few weeks. The bride and her man are walking down the street—I imagine them arm in arm, and he’s wearing a fedora under a lamppost, and she’s got on apricot slacks (I don’t know why I imagine it this way)—when, lo and behold, the dress they see in a shop window is the dress that the bride had just purchased, the one she can’t wait to walk down the aisle in on her wedding day.

And what does the groom say?

“Ugh. What an awful dress. How could anyone wear that? It’s so ugly!”

Of course, the bride did her best to keep a straight face. But it wasn’t long before she was in the dressmaker’s shop, crying her eyeballs out. Can you imagine?

Luckily, the seamstress saved the day by fashioning the old dress to look totally new.

I’ve already told Matt—now that I’ve bought a dress, you’re not allowed to comment on any other dresses that you might happen to see.

But he’s assured me that if I walk down the aisle in a burlap sack, he’ll still think I’m beautiful. *sigh* And that’s why I’m marrying him.

Do you have any memorable wedding garb stories? I’d love to hear them! I’ll check back in this evening to respond to your comments!

Cheers,

Lisa Dale

Dreaming of Weddings - Lisa Dale

As many of you know, I’m getting married in July. I still haven’t found a dress yet, but will be dress shopping next week with my mother and future mother-in-law. I think it’s going to be fun!

But in the meantime, I’ve been having some crazy dreams about getting married!

One morning, I dreamed I was getting married in parachute pants—but everyone else was dressed formally! Another morning, I dreamed that the baker forgot to bring the cake, and instead loaded the party up with Entenmanns, still in their boxes.

It cracks me up—I can’t wait to see what crazy thing I dream next! When I wake in the morning, I turn to Matt and tell him “what happened at our wedding last night.” Normally, the dreams are about logisitics; I’ve never had a bad dream about marrying him—which is probably a good sign. :-)

Anyway, last night, I found a fun website and I figured I’d share a few pictures from it. It’s a sort of “funny wedding pictures” website that, frankly, could have come right out of one of my dreams. But if you’re sensitive, queasy, or easily offended, don’t head over there, as some of the pix are a little risqué.

Here’s a few that I hope will make you smile (or maybe just go “whaaaa?”)!

see more Wedinator

Hope you have a great day!

Lisa Dale
http://www.lisadalebooks.com/

PS—We’re giving away a copy of Wild, Wicked, and Wonton on my blog today. Go leave a comment to win!

Read One, Knit Too - Lisa Dale

Hi all!

Since I'm a writer, it's probably no surprise to you that I've got a lot of creative energy. Too much, in fact. I'm always wondering "what if?" And that can make it hard to relax sometimes.

When I watch movies or TV shows, I tend to get very twitchy--the urge to be busy and to create makes me antsy for whatever I'm watching to be over.

But then... I discovered knitting.

I admit it: I didn't want to learn how to knit at first. I'm not terribly handy around the house with things like cooking and crafts, so I figured that knitting was a no-go. But I had an aunt who knew me well enough to sit me down one day and say, "you're not getting out of this chair until you can knit." And of course, she was right. :-) Now, I knit all the time.

The parallels between knitting and writing are huge--focus, creativity, imagination, and an end result that you can see (and share with others). So I thought it might be fun to post some of my recent knitting projects here!

Above is a scarf that I made to look like salad--why not?--to give to my sister for her birthday. I decorated it with fake tomatoes and onions and carrots, then added a salad fork and voila! I can't take credit for the idea, though. It came from a knitter on Ravelry. But it was fun making it!

Here it is from the front:

And here's a project I'm not quite done with yet because it needs a face:

And here is my first attempt at a sweater!

At the moment, I'm working on a scarf for my mom and also a pair of baby booties (which take all of five seconds to knit).

But since I have a book due at the end of the year, I'm probably going to be cutting back on knitting soon.

Shout out to readers: How about you? Along with reading, do you knit or crochet?

Best wishes,

Lisa Dale

PS - Remember to drop by my blog, http://www.LisaDaleBooks.com/blog, to join the conversation and enter to win fun prizes. See you there!

Happily-ever-after…For Real - Lisa Dale

If I’d been a heroine in a romance novel when I was in my early twenties, I would have been the stubborn girl who vowed never to get married. Who put work and friends waaaaay before love. Who’d seen so many marriages break up that promising forever was as realistic as promising to sprout wings.

By the time I’d met my guy (when I was 21), I’d sworn off men for good in terms of real, meaningful romance. Of course, I’d sworn off men for good just about every other day that year, and yet I just couldn’t stop crossing my fingers that I’d meet “the one.”

I read romance novels by the dozens—the romantic in me needed something, and college guys weren’t it. I loved the idea of love—but it made more sense in novels than in real life. I vowed: No more dating for a while. Not ‘til I met someone who was worth going on a date with. And certainly, no more sports fans or business majors. They were off the list.

Then—there was Matt. At the bar with mutual, childhood friends (how had we never met before?). And of course, he was a sports fan and a business major. Totally off limits—but totally cute. I couldn’t help myself. I flirted with him a little, but I didn’t give him my number. I maintained self-control. Until his kindness, persistence, confidence, and soft heart won me over. Then, all bets were off.

Now, almost ten years after our first date, Matt and I just set a date to get married (July 2 of next year). And the little girl who never thought she’d find someone so perfect for her has grown up to be a woman who lives in constant gratitude for love that, at times, seems nothing shy of miraculous.

Now, we’re doing the fun stuff—picking out rings, calling DJs, and soon I get to go dress shopping. It all feels like something out of a dream!

And as for romance novels? I liked them before, when I didn’t know what this kind of love was. But now that I know firsthand, there’s so much more to appreciate.

SHOUT OUT TO READERS: What role have romances played in your life?

Best,

Lisa Dale

http://lisadalebooks.com/ (Come win cool books on my blog)