Tag Archives: Fun!

Birthday Twins! Birthday Bash with Maisey Yates and Vivian Arend!

A few months ago I was looking at future ALBTALBS scheduling, and I saw March 2nd was free. I then thought “hey I know something…” so being mischievous I poked at Viv and Maisey and was like “HEY! It’s your birthday ON THE SAME DAY!” And they were both like “huh, so it is!” Then I was all MAJOR BIRTHDAY BASH! Being good sports, they responded with “let’s do it!” So here we are. Everyone wish Maisey and Vivian an awesomely wonderful birthday!

Serendipity: a “happy accident” or “pleasant surprise”; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it.**
**from Wikipedia

Used in a sentence: It’s very serendipitous to discover that Maisey Yates and Vivian Arend share a birthday.

~~~**~~~
It is easy to understand this discovery is a ‘happy accident” and a “pleasant surprise”. Maisey and Viv are friends as well as writers who face each day armed with their trusty computers and a plethora of ideas, and in the end they create stories.

How is this good? Well. Between them they have 25 (Maisey’s books number, not all released yet) + 30 (Viv’s book number) which equals a whole of stories to make you smile, laugh, cry or shake your fist in the air when appropriate.

How is this useful? Well…. Since we’re talking about birthdays, there are usually presents involved. So how about some presents for this post?

—–birthday word association, Maisey and Viv style—–

PRESENTS:
HARLEQUIN! (well, I mean, come on…I write Presents!)

Wrapped up…unwrapped…belt removal…abs…sexy shifters…Viv’s Takhini Wolves

CAKE:
Frosting…abs…cowboys… Maisey’s Silver Creek series!

Cowboys, Angel, Kissing, Environmental issues…Viv’s Rocky Mountain Angel!!

CANDLES:
Wax…burn…sexy burn…kinky stuff…silk scarves…Maisey’s April release Heir to a Desert Legacy

Wax…burn…sexy burn…kinky stuff…oh wait, is there an echo in here? We’ll just stop at the kinky stuff then, and find Viv’s newest release, out this coming Tuesday, March 5, High Risk

ICE CREAM:
Abs? Any of Maisey’s books.

In Viv’s house they have ice cream every Friday. Friday night is also pizza night. Pizzas are round. Knobs are round. You turn knobs. The Turner Twins are two books by Viv!!! Turn It Up and Turn It On.

~~~**~~~
Viv: So Maisey, I just have to point out that you seem to have a bit of an obsession with abs. Not that there’s anything wrong with it per say, but… 😀

Maisey: it’s probably because I don’t have them…. Honestly though, you can eat birthday cake off a plate, but wouldn’t you rather eat it off abs?

~~~**~~~

BIRTHDAY BASH PARTY PRIZES
Leave a birthday wish and be entered to win one of six ebooks. Three winners names picked for Viv, three for Maisey:

Viv: Winner’s choice of any ebook in backlist

Maisey: E copies of Maisey’s Secret Heirs of Powerful Men series, Heir to a Desert Legacy and Heir to a Dark Inheritance!

Sounds good, right? I’ll start off the birthday wishes – may you both have a fabulous day with good food, good company, lots of fun, cocktails (virgin if you prefer!), cake, and sculpted abs to use as a plate for your ice cream. 😉

Calling All Indie/Self Published Authors!

Hi everyone! So you know that I love doing new things. I mentioned it a little bit ago, but finally I’ve got the comment form and ideally a few more things with the new site figured out. Accordingly, I’m doing a new blog feature starting in 2013.

A quarterly post where I spotlight an author who has self published. Either exclusively so, or whatever. I’m not picky. (And I want to be as inclusive as possible.)

I don’t know which to go by – Indie Author, Self Published, whatever. Frankly I think it’s for the person to decide what they prefer. As a non-author/writer, I don’t see one over the other as being preferable or “lesser.”

Anyway! If you’d like to participate, please email me. I’ve got that handy dandy contact form. 😀 And… I promise. You can call me Limecello. Really. I won’t mind. (I prefer that to “hey!” etc. Sidenote: I’ve got a lot going on, so I might not get to your email immediately. I ask that you have patience.)

But I’m excited about this and I hope you are too!

For those of you who are readers – anyone in particular you’d like to see spotlighted here? Any questions you’d want to ask them?

Not to spill the beans but >.> … the first person  – the special author who will be kicking off this feature is none other than the awesome Bella Andre! Whee!!!

Weddings. Of Doom. (A Guest Post with Laura Hunsaker)

*ETA: This was supposed to have gone live on Saturday, April 14. I didn’t have all the pictures though (totally my fault) – and then I had no internet… so obviously that didn’t happen. But now I’m home and have pictures – so here we go! Yay!

Friends, you might remember I’m out of town. If you know anything about romance-land, you’ll know that the Romantic Times Booklovers’ Convention is taking place this weekend, in Chicago. I’m not in Chicago. I’ve been bitching about this trip for quite some time. (Those of you who follow me on twitter… well first of all – thanks and kudos, because I probably would have unfollowed me way long ago… Or those I chat with know. I’m not a happy camper about it this weekend.) Anyway, I was bitching about this dress. And Laura Hunsaker was all “I have a bridesmaid dress. That never was. And I’m wearing it everywhere.” So I was all ZOMG WOT?!

I totally admire her, and I think it’s pretty awesome. I’ve always wanted to wear my prom dress to random places. Unfortunately I can’t fit into it now… (Although now now I might be able to…) and I’ve always lacked the courage. I also didn’t want to do it alone. And none of my friends are adventurous enough. Also maybe they’re all bitches. I don’t know. But anyway, here is Ms. Laura to talk about her dress!

What, This Old Thing?

In every single wedding I’ve ever been in, the bride tells the bridesmaids “Don’t you love the dress? And the best part is, you can wear it again.”

How many of you are groaning at that line? I’m rolling my eyes and thinking of the peach, satin, ruffled confection that made me look like an 80s version of Little Bo Peep.  When on earth would I ever wear that again?

Well, I have a fabulous black gown, that unfortunately, I will never wear. The wedding was cancelled, and I’m stuck with a gown. Being that I live in Las Vegas, I thought, there has got to be somewhere I can wear this thing, right? So with a husband pushing me to sell the dress, and me pushing him to take me out to a show in the dress, I took matters into my own hands. I will get my money out of this gown.

I decided to do all of my normal activities in this gown. I am writing this post in THE GOWN.

I went to my daughter’s riding lessons in THE GOWN. (note: I tried to ride sidesaddle, but I kept slipping off. It’s too dang hard to climb up in a floor length dress to ride astride! Notice my lovely paddock boots?)

I got my hair done in THE GOWN.

I got a coffee in THE GOWN.

I babysat my nephew in THE GOWN.

I went down a slide in THE GOWN.

So tell me when (if ever) you’ve worn a bridesmaid gown after the wedding. Or where else you think I should wear my bridesmaid gown?

I want to hear too! (I also didn’t look half as good as Laura in what I affectionately called “the magpie dress.”) Laura has also very generously offered up a copy of her ebook, so let us know if you’d like to be part of the drawing too! I can’t wait to hear about any bridesmaid dresses. Or dresses you’ve bought in general for an event. Or where Laura should wear hers – cuz you know we’re going to demand pictures!

Guest: Theresa Romain Talks Dating, Conflict, and the Careful Application of Crazysauce

Lookit! ;D (I figured I needed to mix it up a bit, right?) Today we’ve got Theresa Romain back again! We didn’t scare her off! (Ok, ok, I didn’t. I know it’d be down to me. :P)

Dating, Conflict, and the Careful Application of Crazysauce

On this day, mumble mumble years ago, Mr. R and I went out on our first date.

It was ok. Pretty good, I guess. We went to a sports bar and played one of those networked trivia games. Mr. R wiped up the geography section—but then came a slew of questions about the human skeleton, and a look of dread crossed his face.

Fortunately for him, I learned some weird things in third grade, including the names of most human bones. The third grade part made me O_o – that’s quite a memory! So, we won. Mischief managed! Mr. R was so impressed that he called me for a second date a mere nine days later. That was ok with me, because we were both grad students and we had some giant research papers to complete during the nine days.

Does that make for an interesting story? If it weren’t for the skeleton, I’d say: not really. Dating may be the one area of life that’s less horrible AS WELL AS less amazing than it appears in fiction. Most real-life dates don’t make for good reading, because there’s no conflict. Both people want the same thing: to meet someone they’ll like spending time with. And conflict is what propels a story along.

For this reason, a lot of first dates in fiction aren’t between the hero and heroine. Instead, the date is with someone else so that it can serve as a source of conflict; that is, a reason for the couple not to be together.

I’ll give you some examples in a table, because I love making tables (I was dropped as a baby). Here we see some sample events from my first date with Mr. R, as compared to totally made-up equivalents in contemporary and historical romance.

I don’t know why the lines of the chart won’t show up : sorry.

Actual First Date with Mr. R First Date in a Contemporary Romance First Social Encounter in a Historical Romance
Site of date An average-looking sports bar A sports bar that is 1000% seedier than the heroine expected A mad crush of bodies in the most anticipated ball of the entire London season
Heroine’s date Hero Man with comb-over, dressed in leisure suit, who bears no resemblance to photo on dating site Noble nincompoop sent by heroine’s mother to dance with her
Behavior of heroine’s date Sadly ignorant of human skeletal terminology; otherwise nice Much loud laughter at own jokes; inappropriate touching Unable to remember dance steps; presumes too much upon slight acquaintance
Location of hero In vicinity of heroine Seated on nearby barstool, smirking at clueless behavior of Leisure Suit Man Standing with bored pack of alpha males, all deriding the latest debutantes—until heroine catches his eye as she dances with Lord Nincompoop
Circumstances of kiss At end of date, hero says goodnight and kisses heroine* Leisure Suit Man goes in for a smooch, heroine falls off chair in attempt to avoid Lord Nincompoop lures heroine into garden and plants one on her—in view of notorious gossip
Aftermath Nine days of radio silence, during which time serious-grad-student-type research papers were completed Heroine chokes on gum, turns purple. Hero swoops in and successfully performs Heimlich Hero intervenes to prevent hasty betrothal; ends by spiriting heroine away for three scandalous days of passion

See? There’s much more conflict when the hero and heroine are kept separate by something more than research papers. (Also, that was kind of fun calling myself a heroine.) While we love it when a date goes smoothly in real life, in fiction we love heaping scoops of conflict, sometimes with a sweet crazysauce topping.

In my romance debut, Season for Temptation, the hero and heroine’s first meeting isn’t like the one in the table above. There’s no garden, and no ballroom, but there is a giant source of conflict. James and Julia meet when he comes to visit her family—because he’s in an engagement of convenience to Julia’s stepsister, who’s also her closest friend.

In real life, this is the kind of situation that gets you on The Jerry Springer Show, and even in fiction, it has the potential to cross lines of betrayal that I wanted to stay away from. I was looking for conflict, but not a crazysauce level of it. So in my story, all three people involved in the triangle are motivated by duty to their families, and they’re all trying to act in an honorable way. As it turns out, this puts even more barriers in the way of James and Julia’s romance.

Have you read a book, or seen a movie, with a first-date scene that you really enjoyed? Share, share! I’m offering a print copy of Season for Temptation to one random commenter. International entrants welcome.

BIO: Theresa Romain pursued an impractical education that allowed her to read everything she could get her hands on.  She then worked for universities and libraries, where she got to read even more. Eventually she started writing, too. Her historical romance debut, SEASON FOR TEMPTATION, was published in October 2011. The sequel, SEASON FOR SURRENDER, will be published in October 2012.

Theresa lives with her family in the Midwest and lives online. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

*He still says I kissed him. But I disagree, and I’m the one writing the blog post.

Who Is This “Liz”?

You’ll notice everyone is more on top of… well frankly everything than I am. So, whatever. That’s not new. I asked Liz to write up a bio because I don’t think we’ve ever done a “spotlight” thing on her. So here’s her “about me” all done up nicely.

My Bio:

I always wanted to be a homebody and live in one place for my entire life, but fate had other plans. In the past 12 years of my married life, we’ve moved 7 times, including from one coast to the other. Southern New Jersey is home now and I love it. I have two young children, a husband who begrudgingly pays for my ebook addiction, and two dogs that think they’re people. After college, I spent eight years as an executive assistant before “retiring” at 27 to become a stay-at-home mom. I have a soft spot for Kindle freebies, self-published authors, Ghirardelli chocolate, muscle cars, and men with tattoos. Most people who know me don’t know I have a tattoo of a tiger on my hip or that I have an unhealthy obsession with The Simpsons.

I’m a published author, a blogger, an avid reader, and a home-style cook. I love sunsets, a cup of hot tea in the morning, and I absolutely cannot live without my kindle. When I’m not cleaning up after the kids and dogs, you’ll find me sitting at my messy desk working on any number of projects, including beta reading for other authors, reviewing, and writing.

You’ll notice she’s already written some reviews (and an awesome write up on her project with her daughter for Pine Ridge) for ALBTALBS – so everyone say “hi” to Liz [you know, officially!] and give her a warm welcome, please!