Gifts

I know many things about myself.
I love my family and Himself.
I treasure my friends.
I have Medusa hair.
I do not truly wake up until I have hot, strong black coffee in my hand.
I love to read, play with ceramics, learn new things...
I feel most at home out in the middle of the woods at the cottage.
I am a busy sort of person.
I am not a patient patient...

Oh, that last one.
I've been having some ongoing issues since summer with my bad leg. It has put a bit of a hitch in my giddiup this summer and fall. Well, last week, they took out my decades-old hardware and we're hoping this last surgery is the LAST surgery. Yes, my bionic leg is screw and plateless. It's a regular old leg. And I'm on crutches for a bit while those screw holes in the femur heal.

Uh, remember that not patient patient Holly fact? It's coming into play. But I'm being very well behaved even if I'm not patient. I'm resting a lot and slowly rebuilding my strength. All my wood-splitting means my arms aren't doing too bad with the crutches. So I'm moving more slowly than usual, but I'm moving.

I'm setting small goals for myself. For instance, yesterday I made the bed and made the morning coffee. Poor Himself did pretty much of the rest of my daily routine, but darn that bed looked nice and the coffee was just the way I like it, hot, strong black coffee. Today, I've already made the coffee, I'm making that darn bed, and I'm going to find one more new thing to throw in the mix. Maybe unload a dishwasher. Anyway, that's how I'm going to measure my recovery...one new (regular) thing at a time.

My ultimate goal is to be back in the studio by the end of January. I've always been someone who likes to work with goals. I try to have realistic goals. It's almost time to pick my word for 2020. And I'm not going to wait until the new year to pick it. I'm going to pick it now. Patience.

I've always found it easier to be patient with others than patient with myself. There's so much in the world I want to learn and do. So many new things to explore. That hitch in my giddiup is slowing it all up. But slow doesn't mean stopped. So I'm being patient. Or at least trying to.

Here's the thing, goals are great. They give us something to move towards. But I think we have to be kind to ourselves and be patient with ourselves. Sometimes life happens. And our goals have to change. I might not be hosting my big Christmas Eve bash this year (thanks to my marvelous sister-in-law for taking that on), but darn the bed is made. LOL And I've read 600 pages in that 1,000 page book my son has been telling me to read (Brandon Sanderson is an amazing author) and I truly binge-watched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's new season. Yeah, most of the time I don't have the time to binge watch. My leg has derailed my plans, but it's also given me time to do things I wouldn't normally have time to do. Every obstacle comes with gifts in its hands!

So Ella and I are going to sit on this couch under my buffalo plaid blanket and read the paper today. (Well, she doesn't do much of the reading.) Then I'm going to make that darned bed and find a way to do one more thing from my normal routine today.

And by the end of January, I'm going back to the studio. In the meantime, I'm going to look for all the gifts this particular obstacle has in its hands! And I'm going to patiently celebrate and embrace each of those gifts! And while we're talking about gifts, let me take a moment to wish you all a wonderful holiday season! Talk to you in 2020!

Holly

PS. I have two Christmas books on sale, and the first two Hometown Hearts books are available for preorder!! I hope you'll check them both out. And check our the Dear Reader Letter on A Special Kind of Different's Amazon page. Celebrating our differences gives me glee!!

Christmas in Cupid Falls

Everything But a Christmas Eve

Crib Notes HH #1

Amazon, iBook, Nook, Kobo

A Special Kind of Different HH#2

Virginia Heath: What to Buy that Difficult Person?

My husband and I have reached THAT point in our lives. The point where you have a house filled with stuff. Stuff we have meticulously chosen to last for ages because our kids are older and we don't have to worry about finger-paints on the furniture any more. We both have wardrobes filled with clothes, a kitchen stocked with every labour-saving appliance known to man and a loft and garage crammed with more stuff we have no place for and should probably get rid of.

Which means buying Christmas and birthday presents for each other is a nightmare, especially as we managed to be born in the two worst months of the year- January and February. Birthdays so close to Christmas that it is practically impossible to buy a gift that is unique, wonderful and produces the eyes-wide awe you want to witness when somebody opens one of your gifts.

A few years ago, we started to gift each other memories instead. Experiences and moments which last far longer than that expensive bottle of perfume or yet another sweater. Some of our 'memories' have been expensive, but not everything has to coast and arm and a leg. So below is some ideas to inspire you to make a memory with that Difficult Person in your life...

Sunset on top of The Shard

Champagne on the top of things:
The world is crammed full of tall buildings and a great many of them offer packages with a glass of something fizzy. We like to book times as the sun is going down. I've seen sunset on top of No. 1 World Trade, the Empire State, the Eiffel Tower and my local skyscraper- the Shard in London. Each one has been amazing.

Sunset in The Hamptons

And on the topic of sunsets:
Just sitting somewhere and watching the sun go down with someone special is awesome and completely FREE!

The whole family and Hadrian at the British Museum

Making Memories at Museums:
Usually either free or very cheap, you can spend a fabulous family day at a museum and learn something in the process.






Special tours:

My kids on the usually fenced-off exercise yard at Alcatraz

I suppose it helps that we are complete history nerds, but we adore a special tour of a place. For historic sites or parks, these tours are usually inexpensive but give your a unique guided insight into  a place. The night tour of Alcatraz, for example, gave us access to areas of the prison which are closed off most of the time, but on special tours where numbers are limited they make concessions. The added bonus of this tour is you also get to watch the mist roll down the hills and cover San Francisco Bay from the deck of the boat out, and the twinkling lights of the cityscape on the way back.

chillin' in Central Perk, Warner Bros Studios LA

For a few measly pounds in London (so long as you book WAY in advance!) you can watch the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. A ceremony which has been performed every night for about 700 years. You also get shown around the Tower in the dark, which is eerie and spooky and beyond atmospheric. I also highly recommend the Houses of parliament tour and the Kennedy Space Centre Fly with an Astronaut tour (but that one isn't cheap!). The Warner Brothers Studio tour in Los Angeles is far and away the best of the studio tours and if you book it early enough, you can finish it with a live recording of a hit show like The Big Bang Theory.



The gift that keeps on giving:

Last year, Mr H bought me an English Heritage card for my birthday. There are similar schemes all over the world and this one gives me (for a small yearly fee under £90) free access to over 400 historic sites in the UK. Whenever we have a long car journey, instead of stopping off at municipal motorway services, we go and have a cup of tea at a castle or a stately home or Stonehenge!

And in case you are wondering what we did this year for our birthdays and Christmas, we went to Iceland to see the Northern Lights and swim in the Blue Lagoon. The Northern Lights proved to be elusive but it's a trip I will remember forever.

Virginia Heath writes witty, raunchy regency romantic comedies for Harlequin Mills & Boon. Her latest novel, Miss Bradshaw's Bought Betrothal is out now.

My Reading Manifesto

By Joanne Rock

Thank you for visiting the blog!

Today’s post was inspired by a blog post at Broke by Books, after I went looking for new ways to entertain you. (I do try.) I read a post about potential topics for blogging to a bookish community, and one of the suggestions was to write your Reading Manifesto. I was intrigued.

Of course, my first thought was that I don’t have one. I read so widely and eclectically, what could I possibly have to say that wasn’t too broad and general? Yet, the idea niggled. I went back and read the prompt more carefully, and Sarah, the author of the piece, suggested writing about “your identity as a reader, your challenges and personal missions, values, and where you see yourself in the reading world.”

Surely I could do that. So here goes…

The Olympians

As a reader, I am interested in fiction and non-fiction alike. I started reading to entertain myself, but educate myself. I took out mountains of non-fiction books, studying broad topics like ballet or western art, then narrowing my focus to art movements I liked. I studied wines for a summer in middle school (why, I wonder? And what did my parents think of all my books on wine making?) and was obsessed with learning as many pantheons as possible once I discovered the Greeks and Romans didn’t have a monopoly on interesting gods.

even in grade school, I turned to the library to

The Christmas gift I lobbied for last year.

For long stretches at a time, fiction took a backseat to my need to learn. And to this day, I still believe in scooping up lots of non-fiction for learning in the most fun way I know. Last year, for Christmas, I asked my husband for a copy Vatican: All the Paintings by Anja Grebe. It’s a gorgeous book that I keep at the breakfast bar, where I learn about the Borgia-commissioned artworks over my bowl of Lucky Charms.

My biggest personal challenge as a reader is the loss of brick and mortar stores. I really miss easy access to a huge bookstore. I love browsing the shelves to see what’s out and what other people are buying. It’s a different experience than a library and I miss it. However, one of my great reading joys has comforted me in the last ten years as bookstores declined. At the same time, my book club world opened up and I’ve learned a lot about the books I’ve read by sharing them with friends and talking about them afterward.

Tonight's dinner inspiration

My fiction reading serves whole other purposes, providing escape, adventure and greater understanding of human nature. I can’t imagine a life without books. My inner world is a place that comforts me when the real world lets me down. I lose myself in books. I learn from books. I explore new worlds in books. Even for the most practical of chores—like cooking dinner tonight—I open up a cookbook for inspiration.

There you have it, friends… my reading manifesto. Tell me what kinds of books populate your reading shelf and I’ll give one random poster a copy of my holiday romance 2-1 with Tawny Weber, Undercover Festivities.

Valentines Perfection

by Tawny Weber

It’s almost Valentine’s Day – just a few more hours until romance is given free reign for a day and chocolate is considered THE major food group of the hour. To me, there are three components to a perfect Valentine’s celebration...

The gift. These are some standards:

• · Bling is great, of course. Sparkles make for great gifts that last for years.
• · Flowers are wonderful. The wonderful scent, the velvety texture, gorgeous colors.
• · Chocolate is always a winner. The richer, the better. Sees Nuts & Chews are my favorite.

The Date:

• · A romantic dinner for two. Candlelight, soft music, delicious food, a delicious combination.
• · Dancing. Slow and romantic or fast and sexy, it’s the best way to do the sexy thing in public.
• · A quiet evening at home, cuddled up in front of a roaring fire. Add a fun movie on the screen, or reading aloud or singing sweet nothings to each other and its Valentine’s perfection.

And the last... Someone who makes you feel good! It doesn’t even have to be someone romantic – it could be a friend, your family or even a fantasy.

Like all holidays, we each have our favorites. For some, Valentine’s is at the bottom of their list. Like Danita Cruz, the heroine in SEX, LIES AND VALENTINES my Blaze that’s on the shelves this month.

For Danita, Valentine’s Day has never been more than a date on the calendar. Until this year, that is. She attends a Valentine’s wedding and gets more than she bargained for.

Danita took a deep breath and turned to face Gabriel.

“You look good, Blondie,” he said, his eyes eating her up like a dieter locked in a chocolate store. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Hunter made me,” she muttered, not wanting Gabriel to think she’d crash his family’s celebration.

“I asked him to.”

“Why?”

“We have things to settle.” He looked around the hall, festooned with red hearts white roses, then hooked his arm around her waist. “Let’s step out on the balcony.”

Needing to know why he wanted her here, terrified to hope, Danita let him guide her onto the chilly flower-festooned stone balcony. But once there, she stepped away. She had trouble thinking when Gabriel touched her, and she had the feeling she was going to need all her available brain cells for this conversation.

“I like this,” he said immediately, running his fingers over the soft cotton of her blouse, a concoction of ruffles and lace that went perfectly with the sedate, ankle length skirt and old-fashioned kitten-toed boots. “You look sexy.”

For the second time, Danita looked down to make sure she was wearing what she thought she was. “Sexy? Yeah, right.”

“You do. I like this look. It makes me think of how wild you are in bed.”

She resisted the urge to look around and make sure they weren’t overheard.

“This is the real you, isn’t it?” he asked quietly as his fingers combed through her soft curls. “The person who cares about others, who wants them to be happy. The woman who risks her life for her job, then risk her job for someone she cares about.”

Danita swallowed hard, trying to untangle her voice from the fear wrapped around her throat.

“I never said I cared,” she finally managed to croak.

“Oh, babe, you care.”

Al she saw was his cocky smile before he leaned in and took her mouth in his. The kiss was sweet with promise, acceptance and something she was terrified to identify. Her heart said it was love. Her brain screamed at her not think crazy.

Needing to know, even if it hurt, she reluctantly pulled away from those delicious lips to stare at Gabriel.

“Why?” she asked.

“Why not?”

That cleared the fog from Danita’s brain. She gave him an impatient look, not about to be charmed into sidestepping this discussion.

“Because...” he trailed off, looking over her shoulder at the celebration of wedding bliss. “Because I have feelings for you.”

Danita’s heart pounded so loud she couldn’t hear the music any longer. Hope bloomed. Even though she knew it was crazy. Even though she had no idea how they could make it work, she wanted to try. Wanted to believe that they could have a chance.

What are your three favorite things about Valentine’s Day? Any special plans this year?

Tawny Weber has been writing sassy, sexy stories for Harlequin Blaze since her first book hit the shelves in 2007. When not obsessing over deadlines, she’s shopping for cute shoes, scrapbooking or hanging out on Facebook and Twitter. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

In December of 2011 Tawny launched her Undercover Ops series with SEX, LIES AND MISTLETOE. The second book in the series, SEX, LIES & MIDNIGHT is on shelves in January 2012, quickly followed in February by SEX, LIES & VALENTINES. You can read the first chapter of SEX, LIES AND VALENTINES on her website, too!

Birthday celebrations

It was natural to blog about birthdays today as - you guessed it - it's my birthday today. It's also the date my latest US release: SCANDAL: HIS MAJESTY'S LOVE-CHILD is officially available in stores. It seems like serendipity. What a fantastic way to celebrate my birthday! I couldn't have timed it better.

Now, being past my twenties, I suppose I should be less enthusiastic about turning another year older. Believe me, I'm not that thrilled about the aging process. It seems harder than ever to shift that little bit of extra weight which just a little while ago seemed not a problem and now seems semi-permanent.

On the other hand, I've decided that birthdays can't be avoided. I might as well make the most of them. Not necessarily by demanding parties and presents but by treating myself, or planning with my family some sort of treat to celebrate the occasion. As my husband's birthday is the same month as mine, we've sometimes doubled up by having a weekend away with the family in the Hunter Valley vineyards. We don't do too much wine tasting but spend the time unwinding and getting to chat, as well as sampling some terrific food and going for country drives.

I have plans too, one year, to visit Paris on my birthday. I'm not sure I'll ever make it there to celebrate the date, especially as it means high season airfares from Australia, but that doesn't lessen the enjoyment of the dream. One day...just me and my husband...Sigh. It sounds fantastic.

In the past we've had memorable birthday celebrations, often when we had little cash to spare, but managed to organise a romantic celebration anyway. Picnics have featured from time to time. A surprise birthday dinner was another special treat (though at that time we didn't have a dishwasher, so there was a bit of dirty work to be done afterwards). A long leisurely brunch prepared by the family on the barbeque on a sunny day is another great memory, as was having my children bring in a tray of brekkie in bed.

Some of my other favourite birthday memories relate to other people's birthdays. My husband's grandma smiling at the head of the table on her 90th birthday. Making cakes for my children, with their help, in the shape of a rabbits or steam trains or castles. My daughter's 5th birthday visiting Longleat historic house and safari park in the UK. She was one very excited little girl!

I have a feeling this year's birthday will be memorable, especially as I have a soft spot for sheikh stories, and Tahir, my latest hero, is one of the most memorable heroes I've written. I can't wait to see what readers think of him.

Do you have a favourite birthday memory? Or maybe something you've always wanted to do either to mark your birthday or that of someone special?

To celebrate this special occasion, I'll give away a copy of SCANDAL: HIS MAJESTY'S LOVE-CHILD to one person who comments. Just check later to see who the winner is.

To find out more about this new story, pop by my web site. Or, if you want to buy it, (what a grand idea!) you can go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Happy reading! Annie

Giving Books - Susanna Carr

My family has a tradition when giving books as gifts. The person who gives the book inscribes a message on the inside front cover and then adds the date or occasion after the signature.

Sometimes the message offers hope and encouragement (I see this a lot in the cookbooks I receive. Hmm…are my relatives trying to tell me something?) Other times, the message will let me know why this particular book was special to them and why they are passing it on.

Just the other day I grabbed one of the cookbooks and saw my great-aunt's inscription. The spindly handwriting on the inside cover triggered a memory of the day she gave the book to me. It was decades ago and she passed away not long after, but I can remember the smell of her perfume and the sound of her laugh.

This tradition not only jogs my memory and gives me something to connect with my relatives, but it offers a part of family history that can't be found in scrapbook. Who else has a family tradition when it comes to books?

Susanna

http://www.susannacarr.com/