Susan Stephens: Happy New Year!

Hello and a very Happy New Year to everyone!

I’m here in the fabulous Canary Islands, researching my next Presents, which will feature an impossibly sexy Spanish Grandee, and a young housekeeper who gives Xavier more than a headache when they shock the world by jointly inheriting a private island!

January 2016 began with such a thrill for me, when the fabulous Sharon Kendrick alerted me to the fact that I’d made this Harlequin list…

Thank you everyone! I can’t tell you how honored I am to be included in a list of such fabulous authors.

Next up, is my delicious Tuscan tycoon, with a young, determined gardener who works on his country estate, and a man who is as arrogant as he is sexy…and Tuscany, one of the most beautiful places on earth—so beautiful, the setting is like another character in the book…

Available next month! Bound to the Tuscan Tycoon.

Nine months to claim what's his!

For gardener Cassandra Rich, working in the foothills of Tuscany is the perfect way to escape her past. Until the man of the manor graces the villa with his presence and Cassandra with his attention.

Marco di Fivizzano can't take his eyes off the delectable Cass. So when he requires a plus one for a gala, Marco will uncover who this fiery blonde is-- over dinner, or in his bed!

In Marco's arms, Cass blossoms, finding the freedom she's always craved... until she discovers she's pregnant and bound to the billionaire forever!

I’ll be back again in February with more news. Meanwhile, my very best to you and yours,

HAPPY READING!

From your friend and author,

Susan

The Wrong Heirs and Mommy Swaps

When I sat down to write the duet that eventually became The Wrong Heirs, I wanted to pay a small homage to mothers everywhere, especially the ones who helped me raise my own children.

Parenting is hard and the earliest years of parenting, when you're not good at it yet, are the hardest. (They were for me, anyway.)

I was lucky enough to have two neighbours who became fast friends. Their children were about the same age as my own and they had similar values and styles of parenting. Without them, I would have been a far more stressed (and far less skilled) mom.

I should mention that I hold their husbands in high regard, but female friendship, especially when it's forged in child rearing, really stands the test of time. As did the children's friendships.

This photo is my daughter with one of those childhood friends. I love that years after they were drawing on the sidewalks themselves, they're still walking side by side, sharing secrets.

I could wax for a whole blog post about the beauty of these children and their eternal friendship, but today I'm extolling the one that mothers share, especially when they hold another's newborn and feel not just warmth and love, but the tribal 'this one is my own' feeling.

I had that for these other women's children and have always trusted them with my own, knowing that they would not only care for my children for an afternoon, but guide them and even provide them that little bit of mentorship and fresh perspective that would enrich my children's experience beyond what I could provide.

This very special feeling between mothers was something I wanted to capture when I wrote my baby swap books. Sorcha and Octavia have shared an experience of being handed the wrong baby. They held that stranger's baby and felt the well of protectiveness. It leaves them with an indelible need to be part of that child's life forever, to be a standby guardian of sorts.

Here's a snippet from The Marriage He Must Keep showing their connection:

Octavia had apologized to Sorcha when they had a moment alone, saying, “I’m so sorry this awful situation happened, Sorcha. I feel terrible—”  

“Oh, I don’t hold you responsible!” Sorcha reassured her, but admitted on a quivering whisper, “But Cesar didn’t know about Enrique. At all.” The stress of dealing with his discovery was visible in her pinched nostrils and white cheeks.  

Octavia didn’t judge. She was far too preoccupied with her own problems and the sordid reason her husband had married her. Part of her wanted to spill it all to her new friend, but it was so personal, so lowering.  

Before she left, Sorcha made a point of exchanging contact details so they could stay in touch. “I’ll be going to Spain,” Sorcha had said, a conflicted expression torturing her beautiful face. “I don’t expect it’ll be a warm welcome from his family. I’d appreciate having a friend, even if you’re in London.”  

“I’ve been in London for medical care. I live in Naples,” Octavia had said, not bringing up her reservations about going back there. Alessandro hadn’t said another word about their plans, but she hadn’t stopped thinking about how ruthless and arrogant he’d been the other night. It hurt. She felt as if she was back in her childhood, expected to do as she was told. And why not? She virtually always had.  

“I’d like a friend, too,” Octavia said with a touch more vehemence than she meant to reveal. “I’m very attached to Enrique,” she added, reaching out to stroke Sorcha’s son’s tiny closed fist. “I’ll need regular updates. I’m going to miss him. He was almost mine.” It was true. She felt a strange connection to the boy.  

“I feel the same,” Sorcha said, eyes shining with emotion. “I’ll feel so cheated, not seeing Lorenzo every day.” They hugged it out and Sorcha was gone when Alessandro settled Octavia in the back of his town car.

Do you have a fast-friend who became your child's Other Mother? Is there a family friend who isn't related, but you call Auntie? What do you think about these bonds?

The Marriage He Must Keep is on shelves now! Or grab it from one of these online retailers:
Amazon: US | CA | UK | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay | BAM | Mills & Boon | Harlequin

The Consequence He Must Claim is a Feb 1st title, available now at Mills & Boon and shipping from Amazon Feb 19th. Preorder here:

Amazon: US | CA | UK | Aus | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay | BAM | Mills & Boon | Harlequin

Dani Collins is the USA Today Bestselling author of two dozen sexy, witty, vibrant titles for Harlequin Mills & Boon, Tule's Montana Born, and herself.

Find her here: 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Join Dani's newsletter and receive Cruel Summer, a free short story ebook romance as a welcome gift. Get Dani's Free Book!

“Hard work beats talent that doesn’t work hard”

The quote pinged into my inbox this morning and I thought to myself – how apt. I am a big  believer in persistence and trying. I do like thinking that those who work hard do get rewarded. I also have just finished the first draft of my latest Viking and it is a huge stinking mess. It won’t be however when I send it into my editor next week. A lot of hard work will have gone into making it the best it can be.

It is very easy before you are published or before you even attempt to write to think that writers are far more talented than you could ever be.  It is why many authors suffer from imposter syndrome. As an author, you always see your own failures. You know what the bright shiny idea looked like in your brain and what it comes out as on the page.  However in the end, it is not the talent that counts so much as the time and effort an author is willing to put in.  And a reader rarely sees the unfinished work or the machinations inside an author’s brain.

Half of the trick of being an author is staying in love with the mess that is on the page so that you mould into shape. I can remember my former critique partner being very depressed when I said great books are not written, they are rewritten…until the penny dropped and she realised that she only had to get it written, she did not have to get it right.  It is in future drafts when you get i

t right. Then when you think you can’t get it any more right, you start sending it out.  Oftentimes you are given another chance to get it even closer to your original idea. Holding the idea in affection does make it easier through out this process.

Writing novels is not a soft option. It is actually hard work. It can be tiring and mentally taxing. It is (unfortunately) not physically taxing (there are reasons why I exercise) but oh how it can fry your brain. Try going from the 8^th century to 21^st century in the matter of seconds because there has been a sudden crisis. Or spending several hours writing a fight scene. You haven’t gone anywhere but your imagination has.  It really is 99% perspiration with the 1% inspiration. The inspiration is what gets me through the hard bits.

I also love the Estee Lauder quote -- "I didn't get there by wishing for it or hoping for it but by working for it."

Anyway right now faced with a first draft, I am currently chanting “Hard work beats talent that doesn’t work.” and I know I have to work hard to get it right and to make my dreams come true.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance in a wide range of time periods. Her latest Viking Summer of the Viking was out in June 2015 and she is hard at work on the next one. To learn more about Michelle visit www.michellestyles.co.uk 

Christina Hollis: Three Ways To Give Your New Year A Great Start

Here's how to raise your spirits from their post-holiday slump...

Feed The Birds...A plague of grey squirrels meant we had to temporarily stop using our bird tables. Watching birds is a big part of our everyday lives, and suddenly the wintry garden was still and quiet. 

At least finding stocking fillers was easy this Christmas. We all bought each other squirrel-proof bird feeders! It’s lovely to welcome back the local winged hoards. 

Our new feeders hang from smooth, squirrel-proof metal poles, but in this battle of wits I’m sure those pesky egg-thieves won’t be put off for long. Most of these feeding stations are close to the house, but a good distance from bushes where our cat might hide. He spends a lot of his time indoors and has always preferred catching furry critters to birds, but you never know...

Give A Bit Back...another way to raise your spirits is by helping out your local food bank  They will be grateful for donations of dry goods like pasta, rice and dried potatoes, tinned food and long-life goods such as UHT milk. Toiletries, deodorant, toothbrushes and toothpaste aren’t glamorous, but they’re needed and always welcome. And rather than throw away unwanted presents in the post-holiday clear-out, see if a charity shop would like them. Hand on decent copies of magazines to the waiting room in your local clinic or hospital. They'll make hanging around a bit less stressful. 

Find out more at http://bit.ly/1iNf2Gw

Be Good To Yourself... get some fresh air. During the shortest, darkest days of the year, things always look better in daylight. Even if the weather’s foul, get outside the four walls of home for an hour or two. The sun’s still up there somewhere, and exposure to natural light will raise your seratonin levels to increase your feel-good factor.  If you feel the need for company, there are bound to be other people out and about, trying to work off all that good holiday food. Once you've had some exercise, you'll have earned some time alone with a good book!

What’s your favourite way of lightening the post-holiday gloom? Comment below for the chance to win a copy of my latest release, Heart Of A Hostage. I'll draw the name of the winner at random on 21st January.

When she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping, Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women.  Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she’s sold nearly three million books worldwide. Her latest book, Heart Of A Hostage, has just been released. You can catch up with Christina at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, and see a full list of her published books on her website.

Lights, Camera, Action...

It turns out I spend a lot of time on social media talking about books...and food.  So many people have asked for recipes that I've decided to make some cooking videos.

I made my first Cooks and Books video in December.  My holiday Christmas Candy.  And in January, I made one for dinner rolls, then remembered how I make cinnamon rolls out of the dough and did a second video.

In the 2.5 I also gave a quick tour of my kitchen because so many people asked.  Yes, we have a lot of antiques...a lot of them relating to my hometown, Erie, PA.  I set most of my books here because...well, because I love Erie.

Hope you enjoy the videos.  There are more on their way!

BTW, Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great holiday and the new year has started with a lot of glee!!

Holly

My 10 'determinations' for the year

Happy New Year  - rather belatedly.

 But then everything has been rather belated recently. What with Christmas and New Year  - which were preceded by an unexpected and unwanted stay in hospital  - convalescence  that took longer than I expected – then a family birthday – and revisions on the latest book . . .  everything has  become chaotic and  disorganised  as a result.  I’ve only just managed to catch up on anything (not quite everything yet!)

Anyone who’s read my posts at this time of year regularly knows I’m not a fan of New Year ‘resolutions’. I don’t like the thought that we’re telling ourselves that what we are is not good enough. That  we need a whole ‘new me’  and to reject the person whose got us this far in life. So my DH and I had one resolve – no resolutions.  

But we did have a talk about the way we’d like the year to go  and  the things we’d like to include in our 2016 as it unfolds. I found that I was on the same lines of thinking as another writer when I read in the Sunday papers of her determination to have  small positive  steps of happiness. I can go along with that.

So here are my happiness steps for 2016

1.     1,  Spending more time with family and friends. The loss of one very dear friend two years ago taught me that we need to hold on to the people we value in our lives – they’re not always here for ever.

2.   2    Work will never love you back – see #1 to reinforce this. Another book – or two – is an achievement I’d like to enjoy  but not at the expense of people I love.

3.  3.     Getting out and about  into nature if possible helps boost my mood – and goes some way towards dealing with the curse of writers’ bottom. (I went someway towards dealing with these 3 points at the weekend when the Babe Magnet and I spent the weekend with our son and his fiancée and the new member of the family – the ‘grand-dog’  Lola a 17 week old golden retriever. Taking her out for a l

Lola on the beach

ong walk on a blustery, rainy beach ticked off all those 3 points in one!)

4.   4    Writing etc keeps my mind open and busy – but I love to challenge it in  other ways. So the Babe Magnet and I want to keep up our Saturday morning coffee shop and cryptic crossword dates! We have a record to keep up – with almost 3  years undefeated  completing it now.

5.   5    Reading – I’ve not read as much or as widely as I would like for a time. Writing tends to get in the way of reading. And I want to read different things. The unexpected time in hospital might have been unwanted but it made sure I had time to focus just on the book I was reading and nothing else. So I realised how much more reading I got through if I found the time.

6.  6     I’m going to put this in as a separate point though really it’s part of #5 Reading again – but I want to find new authors I can try and  maybe fall in love with. This will also mean that I can hope to reduce my TBR piles  ( the one by my bed and in my office ) – and my TBR library (the one on my Kindle.)  So far this year  I’ve read  the new to me Kate Mosse The Taxidermist’s Daughter  and the psychological thriller Only We Know by Karen  Perry whose The Boy That Never Was, was one of my favourite reads of 2015.

7.  7     Teaching – courses and workshops.  I love meeting new writers  - and past students who have become real friends  after coming on one of my courses so I want to keep teaching as much as I can. But I need to keep a balance so that  teaching doesn’t take over from my writing. But the courses I run for Writers’ Holiday and Relax and Write boost my ideas and the discussions and retreats revive

my interest in writing too. My 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is still helping would-be writers and they keep sending messages to let me know how much they've learned from it. That makes me happy when I can reach the writers who can't get to my classes.

8.       8.Theatre – 3 years ago my DH and I resolved  to see as much live theatre as  we could fit in and we’ve kept to that.  The last trip was to Nottingham to see a production of Mack and Mabel and we’ve mixed classic plays with musicals, London productions with local theatre and provincial tours. Now I have the fun of studying the new theatre programmes for 2016 and planning where we’re going

9.     9.Food – no I’m not talking about diets or restrictions or clean eating or  paleo or whatever is the latest  wonder plan. Just to keep on enjoying what I eat  - but making sure it’s ‘real food’. Luckily I don’t suffer with a sweet tooth and I’m really happy with lots of veggies – so this will be no hardship.

110.   Looking after me. This includes several of the points above – food, exercise (I can’t wait to walk Lola again) but also those little pampering treats that we can often forget. I was shocked to realise that some on the perfume I was given last year was still unopened, the same with a lovely body lotion that was a birthday gift.  My husband’s grandmother once had a chest of drawers filled with things that she ‘kept for best’.  I’m not going to head that way.  So – the best time to use these treats is now.  Because as that saying goes :

Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present

And -  I know I said my 10 points but here’s the last and perhaps most important one – to value the present and everything it brings. I’m still not making resolutions to make myself ‘better’ some time in the future.

What are your plans and hopes and reams for this coming year?  I don't think you need to list losing ten pounds or running every day - I think you're fine as you are!

My most recent book is Destined For The Desert King  - out in Harlequin Presents in December.  I'm busy finishing the revisions on the latest novel

where my brooding Spanish hero meets up again with Rose  the girl who knocked his life off balance ten years ago,

And I'm thrilled to be able to say that my other 2015 title,  Olivero's Outrageous Proposal has been re released in the Mills & Boon collection The Best of 2015.  That's a way to start my new year off just right!

If you want to read all my latest news then visit my web site here   and there's my blog too (when I get caught up and organised!) That's here 

Read any good books lately? ~ Anne McAllister

 A few years ago I got an ebook reader that has pretty much changed my life. A part of my life at any rate.

Now that I don't have to worry about where I'm going to put a book on an actual physical shelf in my already over-run (by books) house, I buy more books.  I take a chance on authors I haven't read.  I don't always read them right away.  But there usually comes a time when I prowl through my earlier purchases to see what "sounds good" and start reading.  Sometimes I go back and re-read my 'virtual' keepers -- just as if I were pulling them off a real shelf.

I have quite a few I haven't read yet, but in case anyone's resolution is to read some good books this year, here's a half dozen I've enjoyed:

Elizabeth the First Wife, by Liane Dolan, charmed me.  Elizabeth, a college professor in Pasadena, made me laugh at the same time I nodded my head at the foibles of her family, her dreamy self-absorbed ex-husband, the potential new man in her life, and her summer at the Shakespeare festival in Oregon where it all came together in a perfect storm of enjoyment (for me. Not so much for Elizabeth).  I liked Dolan's Helen of Pasadena, too. I hope she writes more. Soon.

A Bad Boy for Christmas, by Kelly Hunter. I have pretty much never met a Kelly Hunter book I didn't like, so I was really looking forward to Cutter Jackson's story. It didn't disappoint.  Kelly has a way with words, with characters, with family dynamics that always keeps me reading.  And Cutter, who was trying to hold things together for everyone in his family without a lot of help from anyone, in the face of a new, unexpected potential threat to his family's well-being, while at the same time falling for the woman accompanying that threat - who was, let's face it, the last woman he wanted to fall for, completely drew me in.  She also set me up for Nash's book which she had better hurry up and write.

The Short Drop, by Matthew Fitzsimmons.  This was not an immediate grab for me. I like thrillers, but I knew nothing about this book save a few good reviews.  I could have got it for free, but I didn't. I bought it. I would buy it again in a minute. Gibson Vaughn was a man with a past that seemed out to get him. He'd weathered bad times, and confronting more, he was a reluctant hero at best.  The book grabbed me from the beginning and pulled me right into his world as after ten years, he tried again to find a childhood friend gone missing. Things were never quite what they seemed, and the deeper he -- and I -- got into the mystery, the messier things got.  There's a new Gibson Vaughn book in the works. I can hardly wait.

Necessary Restorations, by Kate Canterbary.  This is the third book in her series about the Walshes, set in Boston about a family of siblings in business together. I started with it rather than book #1 and I'm glad I did.  I enjoyed all of the books, but Sam was a hero unlike any other I've met in romantic fiction.  Sam had Issues, with a capital I, so many I wondered how she would ever manage to make me fall for him.  He was his own worst enemy on top of all the other things that plagued him.  I simultaneously wanted to slap him upside the head (a pretty much common reaction in his family, too) and cheer for him as he  overcame his demons -- or at least found a way to live with them that didn't destroy him.  Reading Sam's story took me into all the other Walsh books which I have enjoyed. But none as much as Sam's.

Peak by Roland Smith.  I raised a mountaineering son so Peak was a natural for me.  Peak (that's his name) was the fourteen year old offspring of a self-obsessed climber currently leading an expedition up Everest and a woman who had once climbed, too.  When Peak ran afoul of the law for a little climbing foray in New York City, he went to stay with the father he barely knew, a father who saw him more as a publicity opportunity than as a son.  It's up to Peak to navigate not just  the slopes of Everest, but the very human foibles which he faces as he learns what it means to become a responsible adult.  Smith followed Peak with The Edge, another story about Peak's mountaineering adventures, just as good as the first.

The Spring Bride by Anne Gracie.  I had the pleasure of reading, oh, a dozen or so beginnings of this book when Anne was writing it.  I heard about it.  But then she went off with it and wrote the whole thing, and I never got to read the rest until it came out as a book.  I wondered -- I always wonder -- how she's going to do the things she says she's going to do in a book.  I think, "I couldn't do that," and it's true. I couldn't. But Anne does. Every time.  Jane and Zach are wonderful together.  They don't have it easy -- the getting together part.  They both have plenty to overcome before the happily ever after.  But that's the joy of well-written, witty romance novels, isn't it? Watching the dance in progress, not the end.  I always eagerly await an Anne Gracie novel, even if I've had a chance to read a bit here or there in the process. It's always better. It's always more satisfying. It's always moving and enlightening and, at the same time, great fun. Jane and Zach were all of that and more.  This coming year I'm counting on Daisy to be a terrific Summer Bride!

So, what do you recommend for our reading pleasure?  Share some of your favorites of the past year in the comments or tell us about the ones you've got planned for reading this coming year.  

Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride - Kandy Shepherd

I’m a sucker for books and movies about princes and princesses—particularly when a hero or heroine is incognito royalty. Roman Holiday starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck is one of my very favorite movies. Though its ending is bittersweet for a romance lover, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I’d always had a yen to write such a story myself and had the chance with  Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride—my March 2016 release for Harlequin Romance.

I’m sharing the cover here for the first time—I think is beautifully romantic!

Here's the blurb:

The people's princess! 

Chef Gemma Harper is on a dating break, so the last thing she needs is gorgeous stranger Tristan tempting her into a fling…especially when he's revealed as the crown prince of Montavia! 

Gemma knows forever isn't possible with duty-bound Tristan, but swept off her feet by this charismatic prince, she's determined to make every moment count. And when Tristan throws out the royal rule book, a happy-ever-after could be within Gemma's grasp…if only she's brave enough to say "I do!"

Australia seems a long way away from royalty and castles and centuries of European tradition, doesn’t it? In fact, Sydney might be the last place you’d think of for a prince and a commoner to meet and fall in love. Truth is, Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, met lovely Aussie, Mary Donaldson, on a night out with friends in Sydney. One day Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, will be queen...

So I felt it was quite believable in Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride for gorgeous Crown Prince Tristan, to be incognito on vacation in Sydney when he meets party planner and chef Gemma Harper (whom readers first met as one of the Party Queens in the first book in the Sydney Brides mini-series, my November 2014 release Gift-Wrapped in Her Wedding Dress).

Tristan is enchanted by her, and Gemma, despite all resolve, falls for him. But everything is stacked against these two—protocol, custom and Gemma’s own fears. It seems the meeting between prince and party planner can only lead to heartbreak...

I’m very taken with the idea that it just takes love to turn an ordinary life into a fairy tale. Gemma and Tristan have to navigate some twists and turns in their journey to their fairy-tale happy-ever-after.

Do you enjoy a royal hero or heroine? I’ve mentioned Roman Holiday as a favorite movie—any movies or books you’ve enjoyed? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Make a comment if you’d like to be in the draw for a advance paperback copy of Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride. Please include your email address if you want to be in the draw.

Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride will be released on March 1, 2016 and is available for pre-order now.

Kandy Shepherd is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook and Twitter

How UnPC are sheikh romances?

I once wrote an article on the appeal of the sheikh as hero; there's a link here if you're interested.

I also once  - somewhat tongue in cheek - described the sheikh as a cowboy who was wearing a different hat (it has recently been quoted in a serious book on the subject!)

Actually, it's not a bad comparison, at least in terms of the romance. They are both usually loners, damaged, outsiders who need the one woman who can touch their soul and rescue them. It's his power, the ability to command and answer to no one but himself that gives the sheikh the edge for me.

I've lived in the desert, met these men and I know that, like the cowboy hero, they are fantasy figures, straight out of a fairytale. That is their enduring appeal for me; that an the silence and emptiness of the desert. Oh, and yes, I saw Peter O'Toole as Lawrence at an impressionable age!

I'm battling through the final stages of the work in progress (it's been a bit of a pineapple - or maybe even a porcupine) so just for now I'm giving away one of my favourite sheikhs. Just click on the link to my Facebook page, give a "like" and leave a comment to be in with a chance. It's international an I'll be drawing the winner onf Saturday morning.

Roxanne Snopek: Two Tips for a Healthier 2016!

I’ve got two great things to share with you today: one fitness tip and one recipe. How great is that, being that it’s the first week in January and we’re all focused on starting the new year off right, and aren’t yet depressed because we ended up eating the last of the Christmas fudge instead of throwing it out, like we told ourselves we would?

Anyway, I’ve promised myself for the past several years that I’d get more exercise, particularly yoga, which you’d think would be easy, because I love yoga. Unfortunately, going to yoga class involves leaving the house, a barrier many work-at-home-borderline-kleenex-box-slipper-recluses may recognize.

But recently I discovered a great way to bring the yoga class to me, via apps! Whoo-HOO! All you need is a quiet spot with a mat or carpet, and your favorite device. You get the soothing voice of an instructor, pictures of someone in the postures and voila, you just follow the instructions to bliss and great abs. Or so I tell myself.

Doing yoga – even on vacation - makes me feel better about ...

Here are the three I’ve found:

Down Dog http://web.downdogapp.com/ This has options for your level of experience, the kind of music you want and the length of practice. I’ve done it several times already and really like it. I’m using the free version so far, but there’s also a monthly membership I might upgrade to, if I get bored.

... eating on vacation...

I’ve also downloaded Yoga Studio. http://yogastudioapp.com/ Billed as “The #1 yoga app for iPhone” this one has many more options, making it more customizable to your own needs. As it’s only $3.99, I downloaded it but haven’t tried it yet. Early days.

There’s also All-In Yoga http://sport.com/all_in_yoga.html As I love to have options, I downloaded the free version of this one on my phone too, because, why not, it’s free. I haven’t played around with this yet, to say whether or not I like it.

So far, my “do more yoga this year” resolution is going great, thanks to these apps. (You’ll notice I kept my resolution fairly vague. It’s the key to success.)

As for the recipe, it’s called 5 Minute Magic Green Sauce and it comes from Lindsay of Pinch of Yum. http://pinchofyum.com/5-minute-magic-green-sauce

Or indulging in the occasional Krispy Kreme...

It’s basically a pistachio-avocado pesto. Lindsay says she could eat it every day for the rest of her life and I GET IT. It’s delicious! Here’s the recipe:

5 MINUTE MAGIC GREEN SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

1 avocado

1 cup packed parsley and cilantro leaves (combined)

1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed

2 cloves garlic

Juice of one lime (or two – get lots of limey goodness in there!)

½ cup water

½ cup olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup shelled pistachios

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.       Pulse all ingredients – except pistachios – in a food processor until incorporated.

2.       Add pistachios and pulse until mostly smooth (depends on what consistency you want.)

3.       Serve as a dip, spread or sauce – or add additional water or oil to thin the sauce for use as a dressing or a marinade.

Lindsay adds that you can sub walnuts or almonds for the pistachios and it’ll work, but she doesn’t think the taste is quite as good. I *LOVE* the pistachio version; those babies are expensive but worth it for this stuff. (I suspect pine nuts would also work but I have no data to back this up at the moment.)

Magic Green Sauce will cancel this out. Right??

I mixed this Magic Green Sauce with cooked farro, spinach and halved cherry tomatoes for a hearty and delicious salad. You could use quinoa or couscous, probably and it would be just as good.

I could eat this up with a spoon. (Actually, I did!) I’m with Lindsay on this: it’s AWESOMELY YUMMY!

Anyone else have current favorite recipes or fitness tips to share? I’m off to do some yoga, followed by some Magic Green Sauce salad. I hope to see lots of suggestions when I come back! J