Happy New Year! Almost...

Bring on 2012! Did you make any resolutions for the New Year? I have. I'm gonna bust out of this awful literary constipation I've got going on, or die trying. Hopefully I won't have to die to get through it.

The holidays were nuts around here. Little weasel was really sick the week leading up to Christmas, and the two nights prior (including Christmas Eve), he woke up screaming and writhing around in his bed, holding his head. Fever, vomiting, the whole nine yards. I wound up having to take him to Emergency on Christmas Day, and our whole day fell apart.

I'm beginning to think it's normal to spend Christmas Day at the hospital, since it was six years ago to the day when I hemorrhaged and wound up in the maternity ward while I was six months pregnant with him, then put on total bed rest thereafter. As it turns out, that's when I started getting serious with my writing and wound up publishing Out of Her League because of it. Had I not been bedridden, I don't know if I'd ever have taken it so seriously. Isn't life strange sometimes? Little weasel's okay now, but this was not a fun Christmas for any of us. Hope you all had a better holiday!

On a brighter, happier note, in celebration of the New Year, my amazing pal Katie Reus has a humongous contest starting January 1st and running through mid-February. She's got a romantic suspense release on January 2nd (His Secret Past), along with that naughty Callie Croix's newest erotic romance (Touch Me), and then the first of her major New York published books comes out from NAL on February 7th. Alpha Instinct is the first of at least five books in her Moon Shifter series, so if you love paranormal romance featuring kick-ass shifters, you're in for a real treat.

Katie's giving away all kinds of prizes, including books from authors like me and Cynthia Eden. The grand prize is the newest Kindle from Amazon. To see the details and find out how to enter, go here. I hope a lot of you will sign up for this awesome contest!

Callie Croix Release Day

That naughty Callie Croix has another release today. Dillon's Claim, the sequel to Deacon's Touch, is officially out and this eldest Dumen brother is quite the sexy alpha cowboy!

There are a couple of contests going on with giveaways for the book, so you can check out the info on Callie's personal blog.

Hope all of you are ready for the upcoming holiday madness! I've got all my shopping and wrapping done, so that's a huge relief. But if my Callie persona lands me on Santa's naughty list, I'm going to be ticked :) (You won't tell him, right?)

Let the Countdown Begin

Less than three weeks until Christmas! My kids are tearing through their advent calendars each morning and hubby has the front yard looking as festive as the inside of our house. My shopping is essentially done, and all I have to do is my baking and wrapping.

We're hosting Christmas dinner on Boxing Day this year, because it's hubby's side of the family's turn, and a few relatives can't make it on the 25th. There'll be 15 of us, so I'll have to do up lots of dishes to make sure everyone has enough to eat while ensuring we have lots of leftovers.

I got a lovely email yesterday from Rhonda Penders (editor-in-chief) of The Wild Rose Press, and I had to smile. Meeting her and my TWRP editors at that Texas dude ranch was wonderful on both a personal and professional level. It makes all the difference when you meet and actually spend time with the folks you work with, and it's no different in the publishing world.

Callie Croix has another release next Friday, the sequel to Deacon's Touch. Dillon's Claim features Dillon (yeah, you'd never guess that from the title, right?), the eldest Dumen brother. He's quite the alpha male :).

Hope everyone out there is handling the December chaos well! Happy holidays to everyone.