Hot Summer Nights Blog Hop

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Congratulations to RleeSmith, winner of the $10 Amazon Gift Card. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and shared summer memories!

Welcome to the Hot Summer Nights Blog Hop! 

When I think of hot summer nights, I imagine a collage of images, sounds and smells made up of the memories of summer past. There are the fireworks in my town, where we go and sit in lawn chairs watching colors explode on air.  And  teenage summers spent at dances by the lake, the music loud while a thousand stars sparkled overhead. And another, earlier memory of the same lake when I was a little girl, my mother slathering me in suncreen, the water cool and inviting on a hot day. There is the ocean beach, with a kaleidoscope of umbrellas and the smell of hot dogs and suntan oil mixing with the smell of ocean salt. And over there are the sunsets on Cape Cod Bay, my husband's arm draped over my shoulder as we watched the sun sink into water, the sky painted the most amazing shade of rose and lavender. 

What's your favorite summer memory? Tell me about it in a comment here between May 22nd and May 29th  for a chance to win a $10 Amazon card. (Be sure to include an e-mail where you can be reached if you win) You'll also be entered in the Hot Summer Nights contest, with a chance to win some wonderful grand prizes including a Kindle Fire and $100 Amazon gift card. Make sure to visit all the blogs along the hop. The more you visit, the better your chances of winning! 

Check out more Hot Summer Nights HERE

Swept Away Blog Hop

Congratulations to Veronica, winner of a copy of Afterglow. Thanks to all of you who participated in the Swept Away Blog Hop!

 

 

 Ahh, February. Month of hearts and valentines. Or, here in the northeastern part of United States, month of ice storms and blizzards. Maybe we all need some hearts and flowers to warm us this time of year. A good book can warm a winter's day faster than a blazing firelog.


Here's a little love to warm your heart from my new romantic comedy, Afterglow.
The heroine, India, has a bit of a crush on a much younger man. She's not so sure the feeling is mutual. Until this happens:

I was nearly too embarrassed to face Mitch. Upending a suture kit had been bad enough, but this… I mean, here we were having a friendly dinner. And here was Red, turning it into something sordid. I did face Mitch though. I owed him an apology.
“That bit about…You’re not a boy,” I said.
Mitch smiled. “Nice of you to acknowledge that.”
“And Red Lansing is an idiot. An idiot who jumps to conclusions.” I could feel my face go hot. Mitch grinned at me. “I guess it is kind of funny,” I said.
“I don’t think it’s funny at all.” Mitch took my hand and kissed the place where the cast had been. Which, had I wanted to delude myself, could have been misconstrued as a friendly kiss. The next kiss, though, was a direct hit. On the lips, with feeling, and there was no misconstruing that at all.
Mitch took my chin in his hand. “I’ve wanted to do that ever since you showed up in my ER,” he said.
“I don’t know what to say,” I stuttered out.
“Maybe you should think about it,” Mitch said. “I’ll go home and you can think about it.” He fished his car keys from his pocket and let himself out the door. Halfway down the stairs he stopped and turned. “Don’t think too long,” he said. Then he was gone.



More Swept Away Blog Hopping here

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Autumn's Harvest Blog Hop

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 Grand Prize Winners:

Kindle Fire Winner:

Tina B.

$50 Amazon Gift Card:

Sarah L.

Swag Pack:
Lynn Cahoon

 

                                                e-book copy of The Whisper of Time:
                                                                        Cass 

                              A big thanks to everyone who stopped by and hopped this weekend! 

Hi and welcome to the Autumn's Harvest Blog hop! Instructions for the hop said "Write a funny, entertaining, enjoyable post about autumn." Easy peezy lemon squeezy (or is that apple cider pressy?) said I. After all, autumn is a lovely season. There are colorful leaves and apples and...
      I sat down and started to write. A strange thing happened; I began to feel like a pupil in Mrs. McGillicutty's fifth grade classroom. Mrs. McG had just given us an assignment: write a theme about Autumn.  I stared at the empty blue book laid out on my desk, blue lines waiting for words. I chewed my pencil eraser.
     "Autumn? Autumn?" I thought to myself. My mind went blank and I began to panic. I stared out the window for a time. A small bird landed on the chain link fence and flitted away. Poetry! I thought. That was it! I would write a poem! A rhyming poem would impress Mrs. McG!
    I made a list: Autumn, Got em, Bought em, onion. I started to write:

There's apples in Autumn

The orchards they got em

The trees got red leaves on em

We're all out of onions

     Mrs. McG read over my shoulder and shook her head. "Ute, Ute, Ute. The orchards they got em? That isn't grammatically correct. It's barely English."

    I began to erase with my chewed down eraser, leaving skid marks and a hole where the poem used to be. I turned the page and began again. I'd use fall this time. Fall was easier to rhyme than autumn. I made a list: Fall, ball, small, tall, wall, brawl, sprawl. I could've gone  on all day. 

    Mrs. McG took off her reading glasses. "You're going to write a quatrain rhyme using fall? How very hickery dickery of you. If you're going to write a poem, write a real poem." I'd forgotten. Mrs. McG was a bit of a poetry snob. And I wasn't really in the fifth grade.

    A real poem. Okay. What do I associate with Autumn? Death. You know, short days, dead leaves on the ground, All Soul's Day.

              The end is near come, November

the last of the leaves is fallen,

withered and brown

darkness gathers

  Mrs. McG  sighed. "Did you not read the directions? They say light and funny. When did dead leaves become funny?"

     "It doesn't have to be funny," I told her. "It said entertaining."

      "Yes. Readers are always so entertained by depressed poets. Especially during a fun giveaway blog hop. "

     There's just no pleasing this woman. I turn another page. I write:

      I like the fall

the leaves and all

the trees so tall

and onions, too.

I close the book. Mrs. McGillicutty's going to give me an F. I know it.

Thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment for a chance to win an e-copy of The Whisper of Time.

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When fate offers Gwynn Powell a chance to start over, she jumps at the opportunity. Laid off and living with a husband whose gambling problem has eaten through a good part of their savings, Gwynn buys a farmhouse sight unseen, leaving both her marriage and her old home behind.
But fate has more in mind for Gwynn than just a new home. The farmhouse, tucked away in the Green Mountains of Vermont where even GPS can’t find it, is also a step back in time. And Slate Peck, the farm’s caretaker and part owner, is tied to Gwynn’s destiny in ways she never expected.

Be sure to stop by at the other hop stops. Leave comments here and at other stops for chances to win these great prizes: 

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains 10+ paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

With one chance at each stop and over two hundred stops, that's over two hundred chances to win!! Even Mrs. McGillicutty has said I'm good at arithmetic!

What's your chocolate? Chocolate Pots

What's better than Chocolate? More chocolate! Go ahead, be decadent. Click on the logo and check out all the great chocolaty chocolate blogs. 

Umm, chocolate pots. I first sampled one of these decadent little bits of heaven at a writer's retreat in Maine. Friend, fellow writer, and cook extrodinaire Deb Jelly made meals for us during our stay. She made a these for dessert one night. If you're not lucky enough to have Deb cook for you, here's a version you can make for yourself.


Chocolate Pots

Ingredients

2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup strong coffee
6 ounces of good dark chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon rum (optional)
6 egg yokes
1/4 cup sugar

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. In saucepan, heat cream over medium heat until it just begins to simmer
3. Remove from heat and add coffee, chocolate and rum. Stir until chocolate is melted
4. Whisk together egg yokes and sugar. Slowly whisk into chocolate cream mixture
5. Pour into six custard cups and cover each with foil. Place the cups into a baking dish and add enough hot water to cover halfway up the cups.
6. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until just beginning to set.
7. Take the cups from the water, remove the foil and put them into the refrigerator for two hours to finish setting. (Note: you can make them in advance. Just leave them in the fridge for several days)
8. Garnish with fresh whip cream and a few chocolate shavings before serving.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Blog Hop

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Nikki

The lovely Nikki Silva, shark researcher extraordinaire  and star of The P-Town Queen is being interviewed by Mary Contrary of the cable access show, Mary Tells it All about the love of her life, Marco Tornetti AKA Parker Bench.

Parker

Nikki's Theme Song: Tom Petty,  I won't back down

So, Nikki, can I call you Nikki? How did you an Marco first meet?
I hired him for a job that didn't exist. It's kind of a long story.

Ooh, intriguing.  It was love at first sight, wasn't it ?
Not exactly. I mean, yeah, he was a great looking guy. What with that dark hair and those green eyes. And a body Michelangelo might have carved. But for a long time, I thought he was gay. So I kept my attraction to myself.

Why did you think he was gay? And how did you figure out he wasn't?
He told me he was gay. He was using an alias, too. I knew he was lying about a lot of things, but I didn't figure he'd lie about the gay thing. My gay brother, Billy, figured it out before I did. Guess I'm not as good at observation as I thought I was.

Too, too, funny. It did all turn out well, though didn't it?
Yes, but it wasn't easy. You'll just have to read the book to get the whole story.

You heard it here first, folks! Get the book and learn the whole story!

 Visit Girl's Just Wanna have Fun for more!