Happy holidays!

I love this time of year because of all the festivities, the food, and especially the chance to revive traditions. For us, that includes listening to Christmas carols, watching holiday movies, and bringing out boxes and boxes of decorations.

One of the first boxes we open each year is the one with our Christmas mugs. We have a tradition of using them near Thanksgiving to start the season off right. They provide just a little reminder each morning – and during the rest of the day – that good times are on the way. They also make us think of all the other traditions we love.

For us, and probably for many people, the biggest decorating tradition is, of course, trimming the tree. We used to do that the day after Thanksgiving as we didn’t have much free time from then on. Now I work from home, we can usually wait until closer to the holiday.  But no matter when we do it, it’s the same special event every year.

My husband does the lights, I do the tinsel, and between those two chores, we put up the ornaments – while we keep our Christmas mugs of hot chocolate handy!

I don’t know about you, but we have certain ornaments that have to go in certain places, like the First Christmas Together ornament my mom and dad gave us when we were married. The photo-frame ornament that has a family picture on the front of it. The little beaded angel, about an inch tall, that I once bought at a Christmas craft sale.

Each ornament is special it its own way and evokes so many memories – which is what tradition is all about, isn’t it?

Have you got a family tradition or decoration you look forward to every year?

In a couple of my books, the hero and heroine get wrapped up in Christmas festivities whether they want to or not – and unfortunately for them, they don’t.

In my brand-new release, The Lawman’s Christmas Proposal, Andi and Mitch have agreed to a fake engagement for the holidays to escape her scheming, matchmaking grandpa. But in this scene where they’re decorating the family tree at the Hitching Post Hotel, the closeness becomes too much for her:
Andi didn’t know how she was going to make it through another minute of being around Mitch. She had had as much as she could take of seeing his smile, of hearing his laugh. He had done a lot of both during lunch in the dining room, then even more since they had spent the afternoon in the sitting room decorating the tree.

“Cole,” he said now, “you call yourself a wrangler? I could’ve done a better job of roping and tying that garland to the tree, and I haven’t worked this ranch in years.”

He sat on the couch with Missy on his knee and the boys and Rachel close by on the floor near his feet. All afternoon, he had talked with them and teased them and treated them as if they were his own kids.

She’d had enough of keeping up pretenses in front of her family. But he continued playing his role. He had brought her into conversations, too, when she would rather have been quiet. He had taken every chance available to put his arm around her. He had smiled at her like a man in love.

It all made her heart hurt.

In my earlier Christmas book, Court Me, Cowboy, it’s the hero who has a lot at stake in the tree-decorating scene. His ex-wife recently showed up on his doorstep to tell him they have a baby on the way. And he’s trying to get through the holidays without upsetting her so she’ll l allow him future contact with his child…

He frowned, a heartbeat away from backing out on this crazy idea. Pride pushed him forward. He took a long deep breath and let it out slowly. “Look, what I’m asking for is a truce. Why don’t we just start over again, like you said the other night.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re serious?”

“Darn right, I’m serious.”

Judging by the way her fingers twisted themselves together, she didn’t entirely believe him.

“Come on,” he urged, waving toward the corner of the room. “We’ve got a tree over there needs decorating, so why don’t we just start with that, see how it goes?”

“Well. . .I guess we could try it.”

A mite begrudging, but he’d take what he could get.

“Good.” He headed to the tree before she could change her mind. “I’ll get going on the lights.”

She moved to sit cross-legged on the floor and began threading silver hangers onto ornaments. She focused on her work, not looking at him, but her mouth had curved upward at the corners in the sexy smile guaranteed to get him hot. His fist tightened, driving a star-shaped light into his palm. He barely noticed.

She was so damn beautiful.

And he’d promised not to touch her.

*~*~*

I hope you’ve enjoyed the clips.

To celebrate the holiday, I’m giving away an autographed print copy of one of my available backlist titles (US mailing addresses only, please). To get your name in the hat:  share a special holiday tradition with us.

Leave your comment by Friday, and a winner’s name will be posted in the comments over the weekend.

Again, happy holidays to everyone!

*~*~*

About the Author:

Barbara White Daille lives with her husband in the sunny Southwest. Though they love the warm winters and the lizards in their front yard, they haven’t gotten used to the scorpions in the bathroom.

Barbara’s new series, The Hitching Post Hotel, features a matchmaking grandpa determined to see his three granddaughters wed. The series began with The Cowboy’s Little Surprise and A Rancher of Her Own, and The Lawman’s Christmas Proposal debuts today. Additional books in the series will be coming up next year.

Find Barbara online:

Website  https://www.barbarawhitedaille.com
Newsletter  https://www.barbarawhitedaille.com/newsletter
Twitter  https://twitter.com/BarbaraWDaille
Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/barbarawhitedaille

The Lawman’s Christmas Proposal:
Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Books-A-Million
Harlequin  IndieBound  Kobo

Court Me, Cowboy:
Amazon  https://www.amzn.com/B00EM36HD0
Barnes & Noble  https://bit.ly/BarnesandNoble-CourtMeCowboy
Harlequin  https://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=28380

Update: The winner of the free download is…Kristin Arpin!

* * * * *

I wrapped up Bad Moon Rising yesterday, and it’s in my editor’s hands. This time next week, it will be available at Amazon! This story was one I wrote and offered free, by the chapter, until life caught up with me and I had to scurry to keep up. For those of you who read through chapter five, I will send you chapters six and seven for free. Otherwise, it will be just $0.99 for exactly one week before I jump it up to $2.99 where it belongs—just so you have a chance to read the rest if you’d like to read the final, edited version!

Today, I have bits to catch up on, two stories to put down some notes on, because I have to begin writing them right away.

And did I mention I’m in the midst of teaching the Rose’s Write 50 Books a Year class? It’s a freebie and lasts all this week. If you need help planning, or just need a kick in the butt to get ‘er done, come join us. It’s not too late!

So, for the question…

For my next SEAL book, do you have any celebrity
recommendations for a light-haired hottie?
Answer for a chance to win one of these recent releases. 

Cinephile:  a devotee of motion pictures ~ Merriam Webster

I’ll make an admission that most writers won’t. I don’t read very much for pleasure. Between my own writing and editing jobs, I don’t want to spend more time looking at the written word for pleasure. But I consider movies a legitimate alternative to reading.

They really do help me fill my writer’s well. Last night’s movie night with my daughter is a case in point. We watched the movie Mud—not because we wanted so much to see a gritty depiction of life on the Arkansas river. We watched because it was filmed in Arkansas and a friend of ours sold a pickup truck to the film crew that was used by one of the film’s characters. 🙂

The acting was very, very good. Especially that of Matthew McConaughey, who played a man hiding on a tiny sandbar of an island in the middle of a river while he waited for his girlfriend (Reese Witherspoon) to join him on the run. He was wanted for murder. And even though he stole every scene he appeared in, he wasn’t the protagonist, the main character, of the story. This was a boy’s coming of age story, and the boy who was at the center of the story shared many parallels with MC’s character. Both characters had strong arcs, both had problems to work through and events to overcome before the end of the movie, and that’s what makes for good fiction.

I’ll admit this kind of realism isn’t my usual cup of tea, but I recently watched another truly amazing movie—also about “real” folk from my region of the country. In Winter’s Bone, Jennifer Lawrence plays an Ozark Mountain girl who hunts for her drug-dealing dad to make sure he shows up for his trial in order to save her home. I never appreciated her as an actress before this film. But she was so real, so dead-on in her performance as the girl who had so many hurdles to overcome in her quest, I now count myself as a fan.

The point is, I watched those movies, but used the same eye I would have reading a book to dissect the story/craft elements. I studied the director’s transitions from one scene to the next. In Mud, I noted the symbolism of Mud’s lucky shirt—that he wore it until it was rags, that he discarded it when he gave up on himself, and that he tore it into strips to save the boy’s life. I paid attention to their dialogue, their voices. There can be poetry in “real” dialogue. And I find that when I need to “hear” a Cajun voice in my ear, I reach for movies like The Big Easy and Little Chenier. When I want gritty and real for a K&R rescue for a book, and a hero who has issues but needs to reawaken his heart, I reach for Proof of Life. Not to imitate, but to climb into that world and pull the rich, visual and aural details around me.

And if I need to wind down and want straight entertainment, which is mostly why I watch movies, I want the latest Star Trek or Fast and Furious. I love the cheap thrills like anyone else. And those are mostly what fill my DVD rack.

Have any movies inspired you lately?
Answer for a chance to win one of these recent releases. 

Are you in the holiday mood? I have two Christmas books out—one new and one a little older. My earlier one, CHRISTMAS AT ANGEL LAKE, is on sale for only 99 cents! It’s book 2 of my Rescued Hearts series, and like all the books in the series, it stands alone. If you’re a dog lover, there’s a dog story in it that will touch your heart as much as the hero’s and heroine’s story. (There’s a cat, too, but the dog story is the one that will make you sniffle.) Get the book while it’s still on sale!

A LOVE & MURDER CHRISTMAS, book 3 of my Love & Murder series, is also a stand-alone. I just published it last week, and I’m so happy with it. This series is my contemporary romance/romantic suspense series. No paranormal. But early on in the book, I went to bed at night, and a word popped into my head: POOKA

I jumped out of bed, rushed to my office, and scribbbled down pooka. Sometimes you’ve got to listen to the crazy voices in your head. I’m so glad I did. I love the way this book ended up, even if it will be the only book with a five-foot cat pooka in my series.

Thanks to Delilah for inviting me to her lovely blog. 🙂

Below are the blurbs and links to the books, but I’m wondering what your favorite Christmas stories or movies are. I still love the Christmas scenes in LITTLE WOMEN, and my favorite Christmas movies are Love Actually and the original Christmas on 34th Street. What are your favorites? I’m giving away an ebook of A LOVE & MURDER CHRISTMAS to one commenter.

A LOVE & MURDER CHRISTMAS

Good will to all, and peace on Earth. Even to those trying to kill you.

Adam Donahue lives in the perfect vacation place – Door County, Wisconsin. But his life isn’t perfect. His wife was killed by a drunk driver three years ago, and his twelve-year-old daughter has type one diabetes. Now his daughter claims a mythical pooka, in the shape of a giant cat only she can see, is living in her bedroom. It scares him enough to do something he hates – ask for help from his late wife’s best friend.

Lauren Finney’s insurance agent husband disappeared four and a half years ago. Good riddance. Her Irish wolfhound is better company than he ever was. And she misses her best friend more than the missing husband, though Adam – her best friend ‘s widower – makes her heart beat faster. Now it’s time to initiate divorce proceedings against her husband, before the prenup restrictions expire and he comes back to claim half her considerable assets.

As soon as she starts the proceedings, bad things happen. Very bad things.

Then Adam asks her help with his daughter, and good things happen. Very good things.

It might be their very best Christmas … or it might be their very last.

Amazon | AmazonUK | iBooks | BN | Kobo | GP

CHRISTMAS AT ANGEL LAKE

A kitten saved her…

Broke, pregnant and deserted by her boyfriend, Maddie Barrymore swerves to avoid a kitten while driving in a Wisconsin blizzard—and her life takes another turn. Like Puss in Boots, she stays in an empty house. She has the baby, the kitten, gets a job and a degree…yet every day she’s ready to flee if the real owner shows up.

Five years later, he does…

Dumped by the woman he loves, film producer Logan MacLeesh’s heart is as dark as one of his movies. He plans to hole up in his grandmother’s old mansion and throw himself into his work…until he discovers the sexy squatter and her four-year-old son. Before he can call the sheriff, Maddie’s tale of how she ended up there entertains him. They make a deal that as long as she tells him a story every night, she and her son can stay. Even the cat, though Logan’s always been a dog person.

A dog in need of saving…

Far away in another state, a homeless dog lifts his head, sniffs…and smells him. The human who’s meant for him. As he heads through the snow toward the scent, his journey seems impossible, even though it’s Christmas, a time when miracles happen.

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Angel-Rescued-Hearts-ebook/dp/B00FG92FOE/?tag=ediram-20

Amazon UK | iBooks | BN | Kobo

Thanks for stopping by! You can find me at www.edieramer.com, my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/edieramer.author/ or Twitter https://twitter.com/edieramer.

UPDATE: The winner is…Catherine Maguire!

* * * * *

It is never too late, in fiction or in life, to revise. ~ Nancy Thayer

I love that saying. It’s so simple and so true.

I love the thought of new beginnings. Today’s the beginning of a new month. I have a bright shiny new schedule prepared to help me step out with vigor. Whether I finish everything listed on that plan is still up in the air, but I have hope.

This is the first of December, which means there’s just one more month to go before a shiny new year begins. December is always filled with planning activities for both personal goals and writing goals. I take New Year’s resolutions seriously. One resolution my sister and I shared at midnight, December 31, 1999, was to become who we were meant to be. Which led us to writing. We stepped out smartly in January 2000 with very specific goals, and look at where we are now. We performed the ultimate revisions of our lives.

My question to you is whether you make New Years resolutions or not.
Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card. 

Guilty pleasures… We all have them, don’t we? Whether it’s putting off that boring but important task you know you need to do (ahem…taxes!) in favour of watching reality TV, or eating the last double-choc chunk cookie you were trying to save for your spouse.

One of my favourite guilty pleasures is sneaking off at a party, and hiding out in an upstairs bedroom with a good book! Yes, all the other introverts are high-fiving right me now…

Speaking of books, I have a scorcher for you – Rachel Kramer Bussel’s latest erotica anthology, Dirty Dates: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, which is full of pleasures, both guilty and not-so-guilty.

Cleis Press has generously offered to give away a copy of the book to one lucky reader!

Just tell us in the comments what your favourite guilty pleasure is, and on Tuesday 1 December I’ll draw the winner’s name out of a hat.

And now, because I like to tease, here’s an excerpt from my story “Switch”, included in Dirty Dates. The naughty little snippet below is the start of a reunion between two lovers…there’s a twist in the story, too, but I won’t spoil the suprise!

From “Switch”, by Mina Murray

“You’re early!”

I don’t mean to sound accusatory, but I’ve been practicing a new dance routine and am not exactly dressed for a sexy reunion. The yoga pants I’m wearing have bleach stains around the hems, and my tank top has also seen better days.

“Yeah? Well, you’re sweaty,” he says, and drops his bag in the hall.

“Sorry,” I say, grimacing. “Let me take a quick shower and I’ll welcome you properly.”

Grady kicks the door shut behind him and tugs me into an embrace.

“I’m just teasing, Cass,” he murmurs against my throat. “You smell amazing. You smell like woman.”

I groan at that. He always knows the right things to say, the things that get me wet.

Strong hands grip my hips and heft me up against the wall. I have no choice but to wrap my legs around his waist, unless I want to fall. My arms loop around his neck and I lean in for a kiss, but he holds himself just out of reach.

“I missed you,” he says.

“Oh baby, I know,” I purr, and rub myself against him. “I missed you, too.”

He lets me kiss him then, light brushes of my lips against his that gradually build into something deeper and more consuming. It’s been so long, I feel like I could almost come from this alone: from his tongue in my mouth, his breathless kiss, the pressure of his hips rocking against me. But it’s not enough, and eventually we have to break for air.

I unravel myself from around him. Even before my bare feet touch the floorboards, I’m reaching for his belt.

“Not yet.” He stills my hand. “Not till after I give you your present.”

“Grady, you shouldn’t have.”

“It’s something we’ll both enjoy.”

He smiles, a sly look that does nothing to warm his eyes. That’s when I start to get nervous.

See, Grady has this uncanny ability to change gears, right when I least expect it. One minute he’ll be all sweet and solicitous, then some hidden switch will trip inside him and he’ll become this domineering bastard who’ll make me crawl to him, make me beg. He’ll drag me to my limits and then make me take that final step into the void, alone—and fully conscious of what I’m doing. And when I’m on the other side—after I’ve fallen—he’ll praise me and tell me he’s proud of me, and that’s what will make me cry.

Sometimes I don’t know which version of Grady I love more. But I know which one I’m getting this afternoon.

About mina murray

Mina Murray is an Antipodean, whisky aficionado and (part-time) smut-peddler. Her work is published in anthologies by Cleis Press, Tempted Romance and Mischief Books, including Seductress: Erotic Tales of Immortal Desire; Best Bondage Erotica 2013; Brief Encounters: Tales of Fast Love; Sudden Sex: 69 Sultry Short Stories; The Mammoth Book of Quick & Dirty Erotica; Baby Got Back; The Big Book of Orgasms; Dressed to Impress; and Lords, Ladies, Butlers and Maids. Mina’s sexy stories for 2015 appear in Three of Hearts, Conquests: An Anthology of Smoldering Viking Romance and Dirty Dates. Visit Mina at her blog | twitter | pinterest

I’m a fan of mythology in general, from Roman to Greek to Egyptian to Norse. I’m intrigued by the gods and goddesses, the mysticism, the magic and the creatures unique to different cultures and/or religions.

Most recently, I put pen to paper inspired by the myths and legends of the Norse people.

What is it about the Northmen that fascinates us? Is it their voracious appetite for violence? Their long hair and beards? Over the last year, I teamed up with a talented group of authors to answer those questions with fiction. In RISE OF THE NORTHMEN, each of us presents our take.

RISE OF THE NORTHMEN brings forth five stunning tales of sex, love, violence and triumph. From Vikings to Krakens to Berserkers to Valkyries, there is something for anyone who is a fan of Norse mythology and the mighty Northmen of days gone by.

This heart-stopping erotic anthology features Saranna DeWylde, Paul Goat Allen, Alyssa Breck, Mark Henry and Annice Sands.

Amazon: amzn.to/1QhbOK3
B&N: https://bit.ly/1iRsSHV
iBooks: https://bit.ly/20Kc4Vm

For a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card, tell me what mythological character captivates your attention. The winner will be selected randomly from all commenters.

About the Author

Alyssa Breck is an author of horror/urban fantasy, paranormal romance and erotic fiction. She grew up reading Stephen King and V.C. Andrews. The Shining changed her life and sparked a love of all things scary, spooky and spine-chilling. Add some romance to that and she found her niche weaving paranormal and erotic romance stories. Alyssa hangs her hat in the South with her family of humans and fur-babies.

You can learn more about Alyssa by visiting her website www.AlyssaBreck.com and by following her on Twitter @AlyssaBreck and Facebook.