Dani Collins: His Blushing Bride - Free!

I've been in a small fluster lately. My parents moved in with us back around Mother's Day.

Coincidentally, that was my husband's birthday this year. That's pretty much what every fifty-something man asks for his birthday, isn't it? That is mother-in-law move in with him? Actually, Mom has been doing a lot of the cooking, so he's genuinely quite happy. (I do next to zero, so...)

And it's not a health issue that caused this, so we're all grateful for that.

No, it was flooding. My parents came to us one night as a precaution. My dad was angry with himself that he didn't 'stay and fight it,' but that turned out to be a good thing. Those who stayed were evacuated in the middle of the night, some of them sound asleep and unaware that their bedrooms had an inch of water on the floor until they stood up.

My parents' house was surrounded by water for about twelve days. No injuries, no fatalities in the entire area, so that's another win! But my parents have a few more steps before they're approved to go back in. It's proceeding, slow but sure. As disasters go, this has all been fairly manageable. We keep focusing on the bright side and today I have another one.

I get to offer you a free eBook!

His Blushing Bride is a sweet and sexy romance between a playboy nerd and a virgin school teacher.

Piper and Bastian think they can have a no strings affair and promptly trip into love. I have a lot of favourite scenes in this one, but one of them is when Piper tries to lock Bastian out of the bathroom. I adore when a confirmed bachelor realizes he's an idiot. Don't you?

His Blushing Bride is free on all platforms for a limited time. Here are all the quick links:

Amazon:

US | CA | UK | AUS | Nook | iBooks | GooglePlay | Kobo  

His Blushing Bride is Book Four in my Love In Montana series. If you like to read in order, they go like this:

1) Hometown Hero

2) Blame the Mistletoe

3) The Bachelor's Baby

4) His Blushing Bride

4.5) Scorch*

5) His Christmas Miracle

*Scorch takes place in Glacier Creek, not Marietta, but Piper and Bastian come for a visit. 

Read more about this series here and enjoy!

Dani Collins is a USA Today Bestselling author of forty titles for Harlequin Presents, Tule's Montana Born, and herself. She lives in Canada with her husband and parents. So much for empty-nesting, but she's making the most of it! 

Join her newsletter and you'll receive a link for Cruel Summer, a short ebook she wrote for you, Dear Reader. 

Susan Sands: We Have a Trilogy!

Forever, Alabama is out at long last!! My third in the Alabama trilogy released March 20th.

Forever, Alabama

Ben and Sabine's story was such a labor of love and I've been a little nervous about its reception with readers because of the story's slight change in feel. My books thus far have included mostly women's fiction and romance elements with a goodly dose of humor mixed in. This one began with more a feel of general fiction. Both my hero and heroine had some complex, soul-deep backstory they brought to the table that prevented the lighter coming together as a romantic couple. Their "together" takes a little longer to really take hold, but there's a lot of interesting story that occurs between them before they become an item. So far, the response has been fantastic!

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of fun, family, and small town shenanigans here to keep the lover of small town romance tickled pink. Ben and Sabine have fantastic chemistry. Some books are, by nature, more difficult to write, and don't fit within the genre as perfectly as others.

I attending a wonderful writer's conference over the weekend and sat on several panels. I think the discussions on story, plot, and setting were more helpful to me than to the attendees. Sometimes in hashing things out with other writers, the proverbial light bulb flickers on.

Many many thanks to the Tule Publishing team for all their support and guidance in getting this book baby out into the world! And a huge thanks to Lee Hyat for her help in wrangling this fantastic cover! I greatly respect those who do the things so well that I know would challenge me far beyond my humble writing skills.

I love to connect with my readers! You can find me at the following places:

snsands@gmail.com



Susan Sands

Susan Sands: Cover Reveal

Dear Friends,

I'm so excited to share the new cover and blurb for my upcoming novel, Forever, Alabama! This

Forever, Alabama

book has been a tough one, I have to say. I've written it through busy and emotional times, so it's a victory just seeing it come to fruition.

I believe the story reflects some of the angst I've lived while writing it, so if it's slightly different, that might be the reason. Personal struggle shows up in an author's work, no matter how we try to maintain continuity. There's a little more independent character development, both with the hero and heroine. They've both got some stuff going on separate from the other. But they come together to help one another with the other's struggles and find something special together. Isn't that what we're supposed to do? Be there for each other? I hope you'll give Forever, Alabama a try. 

Oh, and isn't the cover fantastic? Lee Hyat, my cover designer did a fantastic job, as did the rest of the Tule team. I can't thank them enough for the time and effort they put into helping my work out into the world.

Blurb:

Everybody loves local attorney and favorite son, Ben Laroux.  Well, at least everybody of the female persuasion–until he meets Sabine O'Connor. She loathes him and makes no secret of her feelings, even when he pours on his famous charm hoping to thank her for helping his family. Ben has never been told no, and if there's one thing he's never walked away from, it's a challenge.    Sabine hopes she’s finally found peace and safety in the small town of Ministry. She’s changed her name to escape her painful past and her shameful family secrets. Ben Laroux is a gorgeous and sexy complication she can’t afford, but also can't resist. However, when her past threatens to derail her present and future, Ben might be the only man she can trust.

I would love to connect!!

Susan

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Susan Sands: Birthing a New Book

It's all beginning again! The exciting process of birthing a bright, new, shiny book baby is still a pretty new one for me and I wonder if other authors still get as starry-eyed as I'm feeling right now. I signed the contract, turned in the manuscript, and I've just received the cover art fact sheet asking all the questions about my setting, story, and characters. I love that my input and opinion really matters to my publisher, and thus far, they've knocked it out of the park when it comes to creativity and beautiful cover art.

Now, I wait for my fabulous editor to read the book and get back to me with her thoughts and suggestions. That's the hard part, isn't it? The waiting. And hoping. Hoping she will connect with my story the way I've written it. Hoping once again I've done my characters justice and didn't let it get too far off the rails. Will this one be too suspenseful? Sexy enough? Too sexy? So, I wait...

The self-doubt creeps in every time the book leaves my hands and goes across the net into someone else's court. (I just lost a tennis match today in three sets, so tennis is my analogy for the moment).

I can't wait to see the mock-ups for the new cover. It's like waiting for Christmas! Oh, wait, it's really almost Christmas too! I love the big reveal on social media to my friends and readers. I think I love almost everything about the steps in the process. When one works as hard and for as long as I did to realize this dream, I don't see how I could ever not appreciate all of it. Yes, it's hard most of the time, but this is the fun of it--seeing the fruits of your labors come to life.

Thanks so much to the team at the Tule Publishing Group, Lee Hyatt, who publishes this blog and has designed my covers, and to Sinclair Sawhney, my lovely editor, who took a chance on me. I'm just all full of giddy today as I await the next steps toward book #3!!

Hopefully, I'll have a title and cover to reveal next month!

Have a safe and very happy holiday season!!

Susan Sands

                                                                 

Susan Sands: Beautiful Book Covers

I'm working on my third book in the Alabama series for the Tule Publishing Group. Tule took a big chance on me by publishing my debut novel, and I'm forever grateful! I have to say that of all the things there are to obsess about when releasing one's first novel, one of my most anxiety-producing moments was laying eyes on the mock-ups of my very first cover. I was so worried I would hate every single one. I'd been sent a cover art fact sheet by the publisher to fill out, of course. There were questions about the hero and heroins' hair color, eye color, skin tone, and body type, etc. Also, they asked for specifics about the setting and tone of the story.

But I had ideas for my cover. Lots of fantastic ideas that would convey my story perfectly in a snapshot. It was my first book, and the beginning of my brand. A brand that would define me in a very specific way to readers. Was I a commercial romance author? Was I Southern lit? Was I women's fiction? Well, I was all three. I hoped and prayed my covers would set that tone. It was a tall order, I assure you. And I wanted to be welcomed in all the circles. To literary festivals in my area, to romance panels at conferences, and taken seriously as I move at times toward women's fiction issues. Book covers define your work to everyone.

I love and own all my genres, even though they are inside one book. I know we can't be all things to all people, and I was asking a lot of a cover designer: No faces, no embracing couples, nothing too contemporary, nothing too country. But Tule listened to me, and they had a secret weapon. They had Lee Hyatt.

She pulled it off, not once, but twice!! And let me tell you--it was perfection. I've had readers and other authors go on and on about how they love my covers. Have a look!

Again, Alabama

Love, Alabama

Small town, Southern, romantic women's fiction never had a prettier and more appropriate cover!! Thanks so much Lee for finding the right balance and setting the tone for my brand. I'm in your debt.

Susan Sands

The 78th Copper Mountain Rodeo

By Jeannie Watt

Hey everyone and Happy Wednesday! I am so totally excited for the upcoming Tule Publishing Copper Mountain Rodeo series! The 75th Copper Mountain Rodeo was the first series published by Tule and were the books that had me coming back for more.  Now I'm part of the more! Crazy how things work, eh?

The 78th Copper Mountain Rodeo series goes on sale in September and I want to share the fantastic covers-- which Lee created. I'm a little in love with all of them.

Catch Me, Cowboy by Jeannie Watt  - September 8


She will not be his second choice…

When champion bronc rider Ty Harding returns home after four long years on the road, the first thing he does is look up Shelby O’Connor—the woman who begged him to stay. The woman he still loves.

Horse trainer Shelby O’Connor truly believes she’s over Ty—until he shows up on her family ranch and turns her world upside down. Shelby isn’t a big one for second chances, but she’s all about proving that she and Ty are done. But when she discovers that Ty plans to head back out on the rodeo circuit, despite his injuries, she has to come to terms with the fact that maybe she isn’t as over him as she thought she was. And now she has to decide what to do about that.

Will history repeat itself, or will Ty and Shelby get another chance at love?


Protect Me, Cowboy by Shelli Stevens -- September 15

With his competing days behind him, Wyatt Marshall has settled into ranching life in Marietta, Montana. But with the Copper Mountain Rodeo, his only exception, just around the corner, the last thing he needs is a distraction – especially one in the form of a pretty, yet vaguely familiar country singer.

For Claire Miller, it’s been almost a year since she fled Las Vegas with only her purse and the clothes on her back, and she’s been laying low in Montana with a new image. When she and her country band travel to perform in the small town of Marietta, she doesn’t plan on getting stranded there for several days. Or for an innocent offer to stay at a nearby ranch to turn out to be more than she bargained for: she recognizes its owner to be the same sexy cowboy she got hot and heavy with – then stood up – in Vegas.

With the passion flaring between them and Wyatt getting closer to putting the pieces together, Claire is ready to run again, not knowing the danger that sent her fleeing in the first place is close on her heels. 

Want Me, Cowboy by Sinclair Jayne -- September 22

All around cowboy Luke Wilder only came into Grey’s Saloon for a beer. Instead he ends up in a fight with a brother he never met and dumped by a fiery red haired bull breeder he only asked to dance. So much for keeping a low profile. But Luke is stubborn. And no woman’s ever said no to him twice, in business or pleasure.

Tanner McTavish is more focused on breeding bulls at the next level of IBR than in making out with cowboys, unless that cowboy is Luke Wilder. She’s secretly pined to catch his eye at several rodeos, but this Copper Mountain Rodeo is Tanner’s chance to chase a stock deal with the IBR. Things look to be all business, but looks can be deceiving, and Tanner’s never played it safe…

Can Tanner lasso her cowboy home for good?

Love Me, Cowgirl by Eve Gaddy  -- September 29

Disillusioned with love, Dr. Sean Gallagher returns to Marietta to join its expanding medical facility. Marietta’s newest, most eligible bachelor isn’t looking for long-term involvement – especially not with his brother’s much-younger former girlfriend, Honey Jordan. But short term? That’s another matter.

Escaping a toxic relationship with her father, barrel racer Honey spends as little time as possible in Marietta. Home for the 78th Annual Copper Mountain Rodeo, a brief fling with the town’s hottest new doc might be just the thing to distract her until she can leave again.

But when a riding accident strands Honey in Marietta, an affair meant to last a few nights turns into something much deeper, leaving both Sean and Honey torn between the safety of saying goodbye and the heartache of losing what they dare not admit they’ve found — one true and lasting love.

Does anyone have a favorite out of these four? I have a hard time choosing, so I'm going to go with my own. Thanks, Lee, for such a great representation for our stories!

Susan Sands: Busy Times

There's always something shaking around here at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs. I love all the fun topics and favorite authors who appear almost daily!      

Hopefully, I can keep up.

My debut novel, AGAIN, ALABAMA, was released back in June from Tule Publishing Group, and let me tell you, it's been a wild ride. Wild for me, anyway. I used to be a stay-at-home-waiting-to-be-published mom. I'm still a mom, and I still stay at home--a lot. But now it seems like I'm constantly begging someone to buy my book. Between Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Twitter, etc., it feels like a hamster wheel of non-stop self-promotion. It isn't for the faint of heart. I miss just writing. But I'm not ungrateful--just busy.

My oldest son recently graduated from college and moved home, the other is a senior in high school, and the girl just started driving--alone. And I'm supervising home improvements in preparation for putting the house on the market. Granite, tile, plumbing. Today I called 9-1-1 because the gas line we ran to the new stove was leaking. Yeah, that's the kind of fun we're having at my house.

I hope y'all are having a better kind of fun today.

I'm looking forward to connecting with new readers here now that I'll be a regular contributor!

(Here's a little more shameless self-promo) Great news!! AGAIN, ALABAMA will be on sale for only .99 beginning Saturday, October 3rd for a week on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and iBooks.

You can find me at all the fun places on social media:

email:  snsands@gmail.com
Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/susannsandsauthor?ref=hl
Blog:  susansands.com
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25594783-again-alabama
Twitter:  @susannoelsands

My Friend, My Co-Author

By Joanne Rock

Catherine Mann & Joanne Rock at RWA

I’m so excited to be writing a book with my critique partner, Catherine Mann, this month. We’ve worked together—reading every sentence one another has penned—for almost eighteen years. I can always keep track of the date since I’d just had my second son the first time I went over to Cathy’s house for lunch and we embarked on the coolest partnership and friendship. The baby I’d been rocking over that lunch turns eighteen in April and my critique partnership with my fabulous friend has spawned a fun new creative direction—writing a series together.

Like all great ideas, it seemed to jump from our brains simultaneously. We might have been talking about the pressures to write more and faster in the current marketplace. Or we might have been discussing stories we’d love to write and hadn’t found the time. But something prompted the spark of an idea—what if we co-wrote some stories for fun?

Snapped this pic on a long ago road trip 

Because at the heart of the business still rests the creative joy of writing. It's a tricky balance when you turn your creative outlet into your work. New pressures are applied. Deadlines become important, looming beasts. “Productivity” enters your vocabulary and makes you wish you’d never heard it. So it’s important to peel away the work environment around our beloved craft sometimes and remember why we started in the first place—for the sheer joy of telling a story and entertaining a reader with the effort.

Before either Cathy or I sold our first books, we dreamed about what it would be like to have readers who sought out our books. We worked hard to tell the best stories possible—to make our writing engaging and our storytelling unique so that an editor had to buy our manuscripts. We’d share fun books we’d read and dissected what made them great. But over the years, as we’ve each pursued our writing dreams, we have less opportunities to call one another and blurt out a story premise because it’s so new and exciting. Part of that is because we've each been blessed to find readers and audience so we blurt out fun ideas to them! But it’s also because our storytelling fell into a rhythm and pattern.

That’s good, of course. Yet it’s always fun to mix things up as a creative person. To dig deep. To reinvent yourself—if only a little facet of yourself—and see what else you can do. To try a new process and find out what it yields. Working on a story together has done all of those things for me. Cathy called me yesterday and the ideas she brought to the work-in-progress were so exciting. She took the story in new directions, added fun levels I hadn’t thought of, and forced me to up my storytelling game. Even eighteen years into our professional partnership, she’s teaching me things. I hope I’m inspiring her right back.

All of this is to say, I’m really excited about the new Runaway Brides series Cathy and I are rolling out on April 7^th (would you believe that’s my middle son’s birthday? Kismet!). Tule Publishing is working on gorgeous covers for us that we’ll share soon. But first, we have some finishing touches to put on a series that has pulled from the very best of us and given us a chance to savor the creative fire of something new.

***Have you ever had the pleasure of working with a good friend? Or has your work led you to important people in your life? Share with me today on the boards and I’ll send one random poster a copy of my upcoming Harlequin Superromance, NIGHTS UNDER THE TENNESSEE STARS!