Valentines Treats With Tawny Weber

Okay, I know it’s only the 3^rd, and Valentine’s Day is 11 whole days away.  But hey, it was just July last week and as soon as I blinked, I was taking down the Christmas tree.  Did time fly for you, too?  Or was it just me?  Either way, I figure I’d better get focused on Valentine’s now!

You’d think Valentines is an easy holiday, right?  It’s pretty well defined as a Romantic Holiday (oooh, I love romantic holidays!) Heck, from grade school when we exchange cartoon greetings in white paper bags colored in red and purple crayon (again, was that just me?) to the jewelry commercials flooding the networks right now, the message is clear...  Valentine’s Day is a big deal.

And I know this.

So why am I coming up blank and struggling to think of a gift or fun way to celebrate???!!!!  (picture me pulling my hair out, because that’s what I want to do whenever I try and think about it.  You can see why I need 11 days to figure this out, right?)

Now we do have some traditions.  My husband always gets the girls and I each a box of Sees chocolates.  I always make his favorite dinner that night, even if we do a dinner out together a different night (reservations and crowds are always a pain on Valentines, so we usually do another night the same week).  Usually he brings me flowers.  Always I make him a card.

And always I struggle to come up with some gift or celebration idea that will tell him how much I love him.  Or what it is I love about him.  Or make him feel loved.  Or amused.  Or wishing he’d bought me diamonds.

The problem is, I’ve never come up with that perfect gift.  I’ve come up with some pretty good ones, though.   I’ve gone the chocolate route, and even baked my husband a giant heart shaped chocolate chip cookie.  I’ve made sassy gift certificates; one year I got him a teddy bear.  But I’m tapped out.  I have no idea what to give him this year.

Ack!   11 days!!!  If I’m going to make something, I have to get started.  If I’m going to buy something, I have to get shopping.  If I’m going to cop out, I really should chill.

Hmm... Well, whining aside and as much trouble as I make it, I do love Valentine's Day. So much so that I wanted to end my Under cover Ops series with a Valentine's wedding. Now that's romantic, right?


Well, it is if you ignore that the best man is home under FBI duress, his 'girlfriend' is an agent, out to bust his father, and his brother is now the town sheriff...

Available: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, eHarlequin

SEX, LIES AND VALENTINES 

Con artist Gabriel Black just got busted. By a babe. Drool-worthy (and clearly sneaky) FBI agent Danita Cruz is forcing Gabriel to choose between hard time and scamming his own family for an undercover sting. Now he has to present Danita to his family as his girlfriend. And it's the perfect opportunity to get wickedly even with her....

But Danita has some tricks of her own, and Gabriel's control begins slipping away as raw sexual energy takes over. Their sham relationship starts feeling a lot like...well, the real deal. The Big Question is, will overwhelming desire be enough to make a liar go legit?

Here’s a peek at Gabriel’s first day back in Black Oak, just after he hears the news of his brother’s upcoming marriage: Except 

Yeah... I think there’s plenty of romance to be had on Valentine’s Day. J

So, how about you?

 

• Are you a fan of Valentine’s celebrations? 
• Any clever gift ideas or fun ways to enjoy the holiday I can add to my list of maybes? 
• And do you have a favorite Valentine’s memory? 

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 & MIDNIGHT on her website, too – all you have to do is join the Reader LoveFest!  Be sure to follow Tawny on her Holiday Survival Tour as she celebrates these three books with tons of fun and a chance for readers to win a $100 giftcard!  

PATRICIA RICE—ROMANCE ADDICT

It’s my pleasure to have romance author, Patricia Rice. I fell in love with her writing when I read Cheyenne’s Lady and Lord Rogue. I still have a copy of Moonlight and Memories and have read it several times. I have quite a few of her books in my personal library.

Any who have followed Pat’s writing career will tell you it’s impressive, her books seem to get better and better whether historical, contemporary, or with a touch of paranormal. Always, Patricia feeds my need of hot strong heroes, feisty heroines, all set in a good solid storyline and romance. Lots of romance, contented sigh…But, Patricia does have one small, um, problem. But I'll let her tell you about that. 

From one Missouri writer to another, hi Sia! And to your readers—Hello, I'm Patricia Rice, and I'm a romance addict.

Really, I've been hooked on love stories since I read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE in fourth grade. I enjoyed the mysteries of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, but I also read them for the boyfriends, the romances, and the mysterious lovers. No one introduced me to Harlequins, so I had to hunt love where I could find it:  in Zane Grey (where the wretched hero always rode off with his horse!) or the Brontes. No author was ever as satisfactory as Austen, but an addiction is an addiction. You feed it where you can.

Not until I was in my twenties did I discover Kathleen Woodiwiss and Patricia Veryan and truly got sucked into real romance novels. They were my mind candy as I completed my accounting degree, took CPA exams, worked what jobs I could find, and raised two kids while my husband was overseas or in school. And then he took a job in a rural area where I had no transportation and no job and no bookstores. I quickly read everything in the library, and I was left with no love stories (and no money!) with two young kids and a craving for adult conversation.

Instead of whining, I took action—I wrote my own books. I’d been reading history since high school history courses had left me unsatisfied and needing more. I had an entire library at my disposal and knew how to use it. This was pre-internet, so I learned inter-library loan. And I started out by writing what I knew, which was Western KY, the area I was living in. That made researching setting much easier.

Back then; I had no way of knowing about Romance Writers of America. I knew no authors. I ran across Writer’s Digest magazines and pored over those. I found lists of agents and began sending them my crazy stories. I copied the names of publishers from the front of books and sent blind proposals across the portal of anyone publishing romance. And once I finished one book, I began another, and started another round of proposals. Did I mention I’m also arrogant and stubborn? I learned a method I still employ today—I draft one book while editing another and sending out a third. Mass production! 

But it all ultimately worked out and by now, I have over fifty published romances under my belt, with no intention of stopping any time soon.  Yes, the market reeks and bookstores are collapsing like old toadstools. Bestseller lists are meaningless and Kindles are taking over the world. But I’m still stubborn, still arrogant, and still writing.

Sia said she’s adding a link to an excerpt of my new book, THE LURE OF SONG AND MAGIC. If you’ve not read me before, I hope you enjoy this sample of my two conflicted lovers. And if you’ve read my MAGIC series (Sourcebooks will be reissuing all of them), you’ll know what I mean when I say the couple in LURE are descendants of the magical Malcolms and logical Ives. I hope to spend many more pleasant days feeding my romance addiction and hope you will, too!

·       How long have you been reading romance? Is it your favorite genre? If not, what is?

·       And is there a particular reason you enjoy reading love stories?

A couple of commenters will win free books, so have fun!

You can read an excerpt, sign up for my newsletter, follow me on Twitter and Facebook or connect with my blog (http:www.patriciarice.blogspot.com) by stopping by my website at http://patriciarice.com . A list of all my books, including e-book reissues is available there. I love hearing from readers, so please feel free to stop by and say hi. And if you prefer DRM-free books, my backlist is available at http://bookviewcafe.com/ebookstore/ and http://backlistebooks.com/ with new volumes going up regularly.

THE LURE OF SONG AND MAGIC 

Her voice was a curse… 

When Dylan “Oz” Oswin’s son is kidnapped, the high-powered producer will do anything to get him back. Desperately following an anonymous tip, he seeks help from a former child singing sensation called Syrene, only to find she’s vowed never to sing again. Immune to her voice but not her charm, Oz is convinced she holds the key to his son’s disappearance—and he’ll stop at nothing to make her break her vow.

Only he can make her sing… 

She knows the devastation her talent can bring. There’s more than a child’s life at stake, but Syrene cannot unleash her dangerous siren’s voice upon the world, even for a man who is impossible to deny…Excerpt

BUY: AMAZON, BARNES n NOBLE, BOOKS A MILLION, CHAPTERS INDIGO ca

With five million books in print and New York Times and USA Today’s bestseller lists under her belt, Patricia Rice’s emotionally-charged contemporary and historical romances have won RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards and have been honored as Romance Writers of America RITA finalists in the historical, regency and contemporary categories. 

A former CPA, Patricia Rice currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri. For more information, please visit http://www.patriciarice.com/ or follow her on Twitter, @Patricia_Rice. 

MONDAY MUSINGS: The Quiet Life—Except When Its Not

I'm in a hot spiced tea mode today :-)

My week is off to a good start. I had a quiet, house all to myself, Sunday. No TV going, which tends to drive me nuts. I could think and putter around doing various needed things. It was wonderful. I’m a person who loves my quiet time. It refreshes me.

To top it off, it was a beautiful sunny day. Mild temperatures that made me think of spring which is a good thing because I’m planning out my herb garden, a small corn field so we can be assured of corn without nasty GMOs and built in pesticides—I’ll take bugs, thank you very much. I’m also planning some vertical gardening with tomatoes near my climbing roses. I’m going to try planting my crookneck, acorn, and butternut squash vertically. Did you know that every part the squash plant may be eaten, including the leaves and tender shoots, which can be cooked in omelets or made into soup?

Planning involved new rabbit hutches going in, and where; I need to prepare the area where the lambs and beef steer will be, and make the chicken laying area better and safe from possums and pesky predator types.

What can I say? I lead a rather quiet life, lol! Oh, it has its spurts of excitements, like times when I have a house full of teens, or a weekend of them (such as this past one).  Friday afternoon to Sunday at 10 am. Friday night movies and about anything they can get their hands on to eat and it gets loud and boisterous with guitar hero contests (I’m stuck on medium), water rifle battles, in January no less, I passed on it. Catch me in April, guys.

 

Picture from IMDb

Saturday, we (hubs and I) fixed popcorn and tea and watched Abduction (teens were in another room watching some scary flick). Very good movie. Good cast, great action, and probably a sequel will come to the screen. While I don’t watch a lot of movies this was one that sounded intriguing and would keep my interest and it did. I also want to see: Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman, Unknown, Liam Neeson.

And now you understand why I appreciated having a quiet Sunday.

I've finished up two great reads, The Avenger, a thriller by Jo Robertson, where a very smart serial killer has to be brought down.  Getaway (not yet released), another thriller, by Lisa Brackmann, set in Mexico involving an American who inadvertently gets caught up in a battle between good guys and bad guys set around the Mexican drug cartel trade. If she could only figure out which side really are the bad guys. Both are well written and kept me turning pages.  I also started a very good book, Cassa Fire, by Alex Cavanaugh (thankfully in print form as my Kindle has mysteriously disappeared). I can tell you, I’ll be reading more of his books. I love sci-fi set around space travel and exploration. This one is feeding that love. Contented sigh. Then again, I guess it’s not a big surprise, as I love Star Trek—all except Enterprise, which I couldn’t get into. So Alex’s story fits right in. 

Like I said, my life isn’t exactly the most exciting to most people but it suits me fine (Hey, I did my time living in cities, suburbia, and being on the go a lot).

Honestly, I love the country life and I enjoy peace and contentment that come with it.

• What about you? How was your weekend? 
• Any good books or movies you want to recommend?