Message to Ros

This is a message for Ros: I tried to find a way of contacting you via your blogs and blogger profile but not having much success. Can you email me at tumperkin [at] tiscali [dot] co [dot] uk so we can arrange for me to send you Laura Vivanco's book?

Thanks

T

A winner, holiday wishes and .... a nap

First of all, the winner of Laura Vivanco's book is Ros. Ros, I will email you separately re delivery.

Second of all, this is me over-and-outing for 2011. I don't intend to blog again till the new year, and I include in 'blogging' reading others' blogs. Since my Google Reader will be overflowing with posts by the time I check again, the only thing to do will be 'mark all as read' and begin 2012 afresh. I'll probably miss a few interesting posts, but I know I need to switch off.

The last two months have been gruelling. I'm more burnt out than I've felt in a long time. I can't remember the last time I felt the need of some R&R so badly.

Tonight I worked late, came home just in time to kiss Mr T goodbye for his night out with his good pal and then put the kids to bed (for the second time) before having a late dinner, my mind still picking over the draft letter I'd sent to a client just before I'd left the office.

But then, I poured myself a glass of Beaujolais, sat down in front of the TV (for the first time in ages) and watched Young Victoria while wrapping the presents.

It was really nice. And I want a bit more of that.

Tomorrow the in-laws arrive. I have to work again but hope to be home early for once and then there's all the chaos of picking up the turkey and making up beds and putting the sprouts on the night before the big day, natch. But you know what? It'll be great.

And I'm going to sleep a lot.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas, in whatever form you prefer.

See you in 2012!

I'm joined today by Rachael Blair whose latest release is One Perfect Night which you can buy here.

ONE PERFECT NIGHT is a Christmas one night stand story about two people who have been burnt by love. It deals with a hero who suffers from night terrors and a heroine who have lost her faith in her womanhood. But of course, there’s a happy ending for both of them.

I told Rachael that I had a deep and abiding love of Scrooge stories....

Rachael: Well, if you like Scroogey stories, Joanna, then ONE PERFECT NIGHT should be right up your alley. The hero is VERY jaded towards Christmas and loathes having to attend both his work and family Christmas functions.

I can’t really recall whether the characters or the Christmas theme came first when I decided to write ONE PERFECT NIGHT. I think I wanted to write a Christmas story – because I ALWAYS adore reading them – and I had this image of a heroine dressed up as a Christmas fairy when she meets the cynical hero.

To me Christmas is about family, friends and having parties, so what better place to start the story than at a party where the hero and heroine both have to attend? Although Christmas is a warm-fuzzy time for many people, it can also be a time of deep sadness and discomfort for other people. This is the case for both my hero Cameron and his heroine Peppa. I think setting their story at Christmas gave me the best opportunity to explore their dreams, desires and conflicts.

Both Cameron and Peppa have encountered heartbreak and loss in the previous year but they face Christmas with a different outlook. Cameron wishes he could get out of the celebrations but Peppa still embraces them, believing Christmas can help her overcome her hurts and disappointment.

Peppa’s joy for the season and the way she interacts with his family despite her disappointments, makes Cameron rethink his own attitudes. And in the end, Cameron is the best Christmas present Peppa has ever received!!!

I hope if you choose to read ONE PERFECT NIGHT, you enjoy reading the Christmas element as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Thanks Rachael, and just to see us out, let's enjoy a little bit of classic Scrooge(d)....

Giveaway .... Just tell me your favourite category romance

Full of the Christmas spirit as I am, I am giving away an e-copy of Laura Vivanco's book, For Love And Money: the Literary Art of the Harlequin Mills & Boon Romance.

Just think, the next time someone gives you a funny look for reading a category romance on the bus, you can give them quelling look and ask them if they know anything about Northop Frye's theory of mimetic modes. I've been feeling very smug since I found out (and actually, it does make wonderful sense to the romance reader. You will be amazed and empowered to find out how nimble you are as a reader, skipping between modes).

To enter, just post the name of your favourite category romance of all time - it doesn't have to be a HQ/M&B (for all you Loveswept readers out there...)

Very difficult to choose but I think mine has to be Frustration by Charlotte Lamb, a paean to whose perfection you can read here.

Good luck!

Did you know.....?

... that Laura Vivanco's book on the art of category romances has just come out? See preview above. You can buy it as an ebook here or at Amazon/ lots of other eretailers and in print from Lulu.

I will be gifting this to myself for Christmas. Have already read the introduction and it promises to be an very interesting and richly rewarding read.

Shelley Munro shares the sounds and tastes of Christmas

I'm joined today by Shelley Munro who has written a fab post about the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas. Shelley's latest release is Christmas is Coming (which you can buy here and read more about below...).

Hi everyone, and thanks to Joanna for inviting me to visit today. Christmas takes place during summer in my part of the world, New Zealand. Think sun and blue skies with sometimes a helping of rain on the side. Since my new release CHRISTMAS IS COMING takes place during the run-up to Christmas, I thought I’d tell you about some of the sounds and taste of the season. Our heroine Gaby lives in the small fictional town of Sloan, and these are some of the things in her day.

There’s the scent of pine from the Christmas tree in the square.

The strident chant from the Children of Nature cult as they picket the Fancy Free condom factory.

There’s the whisper of gossip in the local café.

There’s the rich, fruity taste of the Christmas mince tarts.

The fruity scent of fresh strawberries and the sweet, tart taste when Gaby, our heroine bites into a berry.

The ho-ho-ho of Santa Claus at the Christmas parade.

There are the excited shouts and screams of the children watching the Christmas parade, especially when Santa arrives perched on a fire engine.

The push and shove at the lolly scramble.

The faint buzz of a vibrator, because this is an erotic romance after all!

The fruity taste of the lube—still an erotic romance, people!

There’s the loud, off-topic chatter at the Fancy Free board meetings.

The protesting complaints about the culprit who ate the last bit of banana cake, leaving only crumbs. Also at the Fancy Free board meetings.

The stern call to order by James, the company director.

The smack of kisses between lovers.

The bite of red chilli lip gloss.

The tinny sound of piped Christmas carols. Nowhere to escape!

The putrid scent of rotten tomatoes pelting Gaby, our unfortunate heroine.

The meaty smell of steaks cooking on the barbeque.

The tart flavor of vinaigrette dressing on the salad.

The clink of beer and wine glasses at The Thirsty Cricket pub.

The almost silent whirr of a UFO flying overhead.

The shocked voices on seeing the UFO.

The soft whispered, I love you.

The ah of happy ever after.

What are your favorite tastes of the Christmas season? Your favorite sounds?

Shelley Munro lives in New Zealand with her husband and a very naughty puppy. She writes romance (mainly erotic) for Ellora’s Cave and Samhain Publishing and romantic mysteries for Carina Press. To learn more about Shelley and her books visit her website http://www.shelleymunro.com/.

More about Christmas is Coming:

Gaby’s roommates Liam Richardson and Fletch Darcy both want a serious relationship with Gaby, and now that she’s free, it’s time to make a move. But how do they decide which one will date Gaby? Fletch finally suggests they share her. Liam is skeptical but agrees the scheme might work, which allows Fletch to move on to step two of his romance plan. Fletch doesn’t just want Gaby, he wants Liam as well.

The loving is hot, their days full of fun product testing, exquisite pleasure and laughter. Everything is perfect until the outside world intrudes, putting their budding relationship under stress. This time their love and friendship might not stand the pressure.

Publisher’s Note: Want to have more fun with the characters in this book, including finding out more about those spaceship sightings, then pick up Fancy Free along with the books in the Talking Dog series. They’re an out-of-this world experience.

I'm Deal of the Day!

Hey! The Lady's Secret is 'deal of the day' at Diesel eBooks today - 10 copies for $.80 11am EST - first come first served!

Why Lone Star by Josh Lanyon is like good chicken soup

I feel like I've not blogged for ages. I should have been linking to the guest blogs I've placed about The Lady's Secret and to the reviews I've had but I've been very remiss. (I did post excerpts from some reviews on my author website but since then there's been Liz Mc2 and Hilcia and Dear Author and more stuff on goodreads). Even one from Japan and one from France!) Of course this is endlessly fascinating to me. I can imagine, however, for anyone reading this, that it's getting old.

So let me talk about someone else's book for a change.

I've been really looking forward to this anthology, Men Under the Mistletoe, each story featuring old lovers reunited at Christmas. It's rare to get an anthology where you want to read every single story. But I enjoy all four authors featured in this antho. Today, however, I want to talk about Lone Star by Josh Lanyon.

This has been the year of Lanyon for me. I have glommed Lanyon pretty well obsessively in 2011. Well, that's what I do when I like something! If it's a writer, I devour all their books. If it's a musical artist, I play their albums over and over and over. (In fact, as I'm typing I'm listening to John Grant again, having played his Queen of Denmark album hundreds of times since I bought it a few months ago).

Telling you why I enjoyed Lone Star might help explain why I love this writer since the things I enjoyed about it are typical of his books.

Lone Star is like a really good chicken soup, made properly.

There's lots of ways you can have chicken soup. You can go and buy a can of chicken soup and heat it up and sometimes that's nice. Or you might buy one of those 'posh' soups in a carton - fresher tasting and better but not home made. Or, if you want to make your own chicken soup, you might use a stock cube to give it flavour. Or you could do this: strip the carcass of a roast chicken, use the bones to make stock, chop fresh vegetables, sweat them down, add a little barley and that lovely home made stock and cook slowly till perfect.

And that, my friend, is good soup.

This is what Lanyon's books are like. They have that strong core, like good stock. And you see this clearly with his novellas and shorts which lend themselves particularly well to the exploration of a single idea.

In Lone Star, Mitch Evans is a successful ballet dancer. His father - who Mitch has been estranged from for many years - has died a few months prior to the story's beginning. Mitch has known he needs to return home to clear his father's ranch and put it up for sale but has been putting it off. However, after discovering his partner cheating on him, he finds himself returning to his Texas home where he meets old lover Web Eisley again. Web and Mitch split up 12 years previously when Web wasn't willing to come out for Mitch. Now that Web, a Texas Ranger, is out might things be different?

On one level, this is a lovely short romance about two men getting a second chance at love, reconciling themselves with the past and finding a new happy future together. But Lanyon makes more of it with pleasing touches and thoughtful use of language and images.

The title of the story, Lone Star, is meaningful and he puts it straight into the reader's mind with the opening line of the book: A lone star blazed in the midnight blue sky.

I loved the whole 'lone star' thing. Obviously the book is set in Texas, the lone star state - and Lanyon makes quite a bit of the setting in a low key way. But the real - and literal - lone star of this story is Mitch. A brilliant and successful dancer, Mitch achieved his ambition by cutting himself off from everyone he cared about. He's never really let anyone get close since Web. He's often described as a control freak who never lets his discipline slip, and as someone who is not sociable or good at communicating. He may be successful but he has paid for that success.

As a boy, Mitch only had his father, a cold, disapproving parent. Thankfully he also had Web Eisley - first as a friend and later as a lover - and Web's warm, happy family. When Mitch returns, he discovers the Eisleys haven't changed. When he goes there for dinner, he is swept along on the golden tide of the Eisleys to the big front room, persuaded to relax his iron-clad no-alcohol rule and tempted to eat rich foods. If Mitch is a cold star, alone in the dark, the golden Eisleys are all bright warmth and sunshine.

Over the course of this short book, Mitch uncovers a few things about the past that help reconcile him to his memories of his father and to what happened between him and Mitch. But what is so pleasing is that there are no great revelations here. No big misunderstanding that explains that he was wrong all along. Just nuances really. The discovery that his father was not as cold and uncompromising as he believed. A better of understanding of how Web felt when he was 22. And the discovery of how close Web was to giving Mitch what he wanted just when Mitch left.

There's another star at the end. Not a lone one this time. I don't want to spoil the ending by saying more than that. Suffice to say I really appreciated that little touch. It wrapped up the 'lone star' idea rather beautifully, and left me with the thought that, in a way, Mitch had never really been alone at all because Web had never forgotten him.