Cruel Summer - Free Download!

I'm excited to tell you about this free short story I'm offering!

Cruel Summer is a reunion romance around a wedding in California and reads a lot like all my other books: sexy, emotional, even funny at times. I wrote it to encourage sign ups to my newsletter list and for some reason, that made it feel like a huge gamble.

For starters, it's only my second self-publishing effort. I paid people to help the first time, so a lot of tasks were new to me. (I successfully formatted it for Kindle and ePub, but forgot about PDF until after all the pieces were in place. If you want PDF, email me.)

Also, even though everyone loves to get something for free, I still went through the 'What if they hate it?' phase. (We authors spend half our life there, I sometimes think!)

Setting things up with my website helpers and my newsletter helpers was also a small challenge. I did a lot of hand-wringing. They said a lot of, "There, there," but it's finally available and so far the response has been amazing!

I sent it out to my fans and this was one of my favourite reviews:

Normally, short stories or novellas do not work for me. There is just not enough time to fully develop the story or characters and I am left frustrated by that lack. Not so "Cruel Summer". It was perfect and I felt as if I were reading a full novel. I felt I really knew Chelsea and Gavin and loved all the pain and pleasure of their story.

Here's the blurb:

“Is there anything I could say or do to earn your forgiveness?”

Website designer Chelsea Parks grew up believing she would marry her best friend’s brother. In college, she gave him her virginity and he broke her heart. She knows she’ll have to face him, now that she’s maid of honor at his sister’s wedding, but she doesn’t expect to sit next to him on the plane to California. Good thing she’s so completely over him.

Architect Gavin Fairfield knows he screwed up, but he’s matured since then. Standing in as Father Of The Bride because his dad recently passed, he’s reassessing his future, realizing how short life is and how much he misses Chelsea. He can see now that they’re meant for each other. Too bad she’s so completely over him.

Staying at his family’s summer home, revisiting their old stomping grounds, burns Chelsea alive in old flames. Gavin is as easy to love as ever. She’d like to be friends again, might even succumb to a fling for old time’s sake, but real relationship aren’t built on a weekend of nostalgia. Are they?

If you'd like to read the opening pages, they're posted here: #SampleSunday - Cruel Summer.

Would you like your own copy? You can Get Cruel Summer Here. This will also sign you up for my newsletter. You can unsubscribe anytime, but I'd love to hear what you think of Cruel Summer so please drop me a line or leave a comment here!

Meanwhile, I hope you're have a fantastic summer. I'll admit, at times this year our summer has been cruel. Forty-plus Celsius (One ten Fahrenheit.) Fortunately we have this:

I took this shot on my evening walk/swim, around eight pm a few nights ago. Bliss!

I'm leaving for New York and the Romance Writers of American conference in a couple of days. I may not answer your comments right away, but I'll be taking lots of photos, planning to post them for you next month! Take care!

Dani

Freebie Friday!

Summer has taken a long time to reach us in the UK. We’ve had the coldest May for 50 years. But the sun has been shining for four days in a row and the dh – catching up in the garden — has “caught” the sun. 

In the spirit of the season — and aware that everyone needs something fun and flirty to read when they’re lying in a shady spot, something long and cool within easy reach — I’ve set Eloping With Emmy free this weekend.

It’s yours for a click of the mouse to download from Amazon (wherever you are in the world!) right now and until Tuesday 11^th June.

Emmy and Brodie each have a clear cut goal in mind — she has a stated objective; he’s determined to thwart it. She’s smart, but he’s smarter – and having made the mistake of aiding her getaway, he’s not about to repeat his error. There is the added problem that Emmy is deeply attracted to Brodie. This is particularly awkward as she’s supposed to eloping with someone else. A someone else she has to convince Brodie she’s determined to marry.

Eloping With Emmy is a classic road trip romcom and as I was writing it, the chase across England and France played out like a movie in my head. Actually, if tbere's anyone out there who would like to turn it into a movie I own all the rights so do get in touch! Any ideas who should play the lead parts (and links to gorgeous blokes and lively women) gratefully received. J

There’s a taster on my website

Meanwhile, here are the links – just one click and the book will be on your reading device before you can say Jack Robinson. Don’t keep the news to yourself. Emmy is counting on you tweeting about her, sharing the news on Facebook, or just about anywhere to be honest.

Also available in English here - 

 Canada
 Germany
 France
 Italy

What people are saying about Eloping With Emmy ...

"I caught myself thinking half way through the book this is like a madcap comedy with Cary Grant in the lead... only to have the hero think the exact same thing within the next 2 pages. One for the keeper shelf."   5 stars, Amazon Review

"Wow!  The story was so well written, the characters came alive and everyone knows an "Emmy". The twists were well planned and the dialogue vibrant and cleverly written.  Highly recommended, it's one of the best books I've read in a long time."  Smashwords, janebaylis1979

"...non-stop action with dynamic scenes and vivid characterization."  Romantic Times

I've been a Liz Fielding fan for years now and she never disappoints. Eloping with Emmy has all her trademark wit and original plotlines and it fizzes along like a vintage 50s rom com yet - has an undercurrent of heartfelt emotion.  5 stars, Amazon Review

A Valentine's Present...free short story

Book 1

Book 3

  I didn't plan on writing for Avalon Books, but I met their editor at a conference and she asked if I had any unsold books stuffed under my bed.  Well, it just so happened that I had a story about a couple who got involved with a radio station's contest and were living in a truck.  Whoever managed to stay in it the longest, won it.  I know, you're shocked that a book that's set almost entirely in the front seat of a truck was a hard sell.  LOL  Well, she bought it, and three others afterwards.

Book 2

Book 4

It was fun writing about the radio station whose motto was, Where Love is More than Just a Song.  A friend is a local DJ and Craig Warvel (Star 104 Erie, PA) let me come out and hang out with him in the studio one morning.  I went on to write the second book in the series about two disc jockeys.  Then another disc jockey with an Old English Mastiff (we had one at the time, and other than a slime problem, he was a marvelous dog).  The only edits my editor asked me to do on that book was to deslime it.  I told her that I'd already toned down the slime...my dog slimed a lot more than I'd portrayed in the book.  She told me slime wasn't romantic.  Who knew?  So, I deslimed it and went on to do one last book.  A book that featured a bit of stand up comedy.  And I said goodbye to WLVH.

Book 1

Book 2

  I'd started writing more serious books for Harlequin.  I loved pushing my writing to something other than humor, but I didn't want to stray too far from my comedy roots.  So when I finished the WLVH Radio series, I pitched another series that had been languishing under the bed.  This one had a Hungarian grandmother who accidentally cursed her family to bad weddings.  I'd planned it as a trilogy.

Book 3

When I finished the trilogy (she'd broken the curse), readers told me they missed Nana Vancy, my Hungarian grandmother.  And frankly, so did I.  So, I called and pitched another book.  After breaking the curse, Nana Vancy was bored and wanted to try her hand at matchmaking....to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas.  It sold.  So did the fifth book, and once you had two, it was easy to come up with one more story and make it a trilogy.

Book 4

Book 5 

This last book, Everything But a Dog, was especially fun because I put my two dogs, Ethel Merman and Ella Fitzgerald, in it. Of course, I renamed them because...wait for it...wait for it...they didn't want the puparazzi to hound them! Yeah, go ahead and roll your eyes.  My kids do every time I say it!

I'd finished writing the book when I heard that Avalon was sold to Montlake Book.  They told me they'd not only be releasing Everything But a Dog, but they'd be rereleasing the backlist of both series as eBooks and paperbacks.

Book 6 

Short story, Book 1

Well, I wanted to do something special for my readers. I also wanted introduce new readers to the two series that had originally been available mainly in libraries (Avalon's market).  And I thought I'd give away...a short story.  A story that merged the two series.  So, for Christmas, I put up Nothing But Love on Amazon.  I started my career writing shorts and it was fun to go back to it.

That's the story of ten books that came out from under my bed, went to a bunch of libraries, and then got a second life as eBooks and paperbacks.

And so for Valentine's, I'm offering the second short story, Everything But Heart. It's free for Valentine's on 2/13, 2/14 and 2/15.  The first book, Nothing But Love is still available as well.

Nothing But Heart...free at Amazon 2/13, 2/14 and 2/15

So, happy Valentine's!!  I hope you enjoy my 'gift' and the story of how it comes to be.  And keep an eye out on St. Patrick's Day.  This Irish girl might have a bit of a gift for you then, too!

Holly