Valentine's Giveaways!

Happy Valentine's!!!  I hope tomorrow's a lovely day for you.  And in case your SO (significant other) didn't get you anything…I have a gift and a chance at a free book.

You can enter a drawing for a three free Kindle copies of my Maid in LA Mystery series' first book, Steamed, by going to https://www.facebook.com/RMSwriters and liking the page, then liking my post about the contest.  I'm giving away the copies to celebrate not only Valentine's, but the release of the 4th book in the series, Swept Up.  

And free for the taking:

You can pick up a copy of my Valentine's short story, Nothing But Heart, for free for Kindle today!  The Nothing But… short story trilogy is part of my award winning, Everything But… world.  The books and the shorts all feature my Hungarian grandmother, Nana Vancy.  In the first three books, she tries to break a curse she accidentally put on her own family.  In the next three books, she's broken the curse and she's bored, so she tries her hand at matchmaking.  It the three short stories, she's given up matchmaking people and is matchmaking dogs to their forever homes…and accidentally helping a three couples find love while she's at it!

Nana Vancy has become a reader favorite.  The books were originally hardbacks, but last year, they were released as Kindle eBooks, and it's been so much fun to see a whole new set of readers join in Nana Vancy's adventures.  I'm thrilled she's got a cameo in a whole new series this fall, starting with the October release of Christmas in Cupid Falls.

I know it's not flowers or candy, but I hope my 'gifts' give you a bit of enjoyment on Valentine's!

It's been a busy couple weeks here for me.  I always say that Valentine's is a romance writer's Christmas!  Even if the holiday is 'made up' as I've heard some complain, there's something nice about a day that's designed to celebrate love!

Wishing you the best!  ~Holly

And I Would Walk 10,000…er Steps

So what's new with me in 2014??

My husband bought me a FitBit for Christmas.  He bought it because he knows me so well.  Not only is it techy, which he knows I love, but it also tracks steps and miles.

For the last year, I've been trying for three mile walks every day. More when I can get them.  I have an app for that.  But sometimes I forget to turn it on.  This solves that.

Now, the only flaw with those long walks every day is I live in Erie.  According to the Golden Snow Globe site, we're #1 right now with 77.4 inches of snow.  I don't mind walking in the snow, but that Polar Vortex kicked my butt.  So even though I still wanted those 10,000 steps, I wasn't going out in -36 degree wind chills.

So I got creative.  I walked in place while I talked on the phone.  I put clothes away, one item at a time, leaving the basket in the sitting room and walking back and forth.  And finally, I watched a television show and walked in place.

Needless to say, I've made it to 10.000 steps each day.  Some of those steps were creative, but I got

them in.

I'm the mother of four, so finding a creative way to meet a goal is something I've done for years.  When I first started writing, my youngest hadn't started school yet.  Let me tell you, writing with four kids under foot takes a lot of creativity.  I called those years my "Vampire Years."  I wrote after they went to bed.  I wrote until my eyelids wouldn't stay up another minute.

And here I am, years later, more than fifty books.  Those Vampire Years paid off.  So, I'll be as creative as I need to be in order to get those steps in.

Oh, and my word of the year?? (I don't do resolutions—I pick a word to build my year around.) This year, my word is…you guessed it, STEP.  It sort of ties in nicely to my goal of 10,000 steps a day, and really does apply to my writing, too!  At the moment, I'm a bit swamped.  My desk is groaning.  But I'm simply taking things one step at a time.  The day before yesterday I finished galleys for June's Just One Thing, and yesterday I did a fact sheet for October's Christmas in Cupid Falls.  Today, I'm planning to work on a new article that's due in Feb and working on February's final Maid in LA Mystery, Swept Up…step by step, I'm crossing items off.

How about you??  Do you have a word of the year, a resolution, or simply some goal you're working toward?

Wishing you all a very happy 2014!!

Holly