Best of 2012 Giveaway Hop

This blog hop is officially over and all of the winners have been contacted.  Please check out my Events page to find more blog hops going on in the coming months.


Welcome to the Best of 2012 Giveaway Hop organized by the wonderful team at IAmAReaderNotAWriter.com  who are keeping romance flourishing. Below is my list of top favorite books of 2012 either published this year or ones that I have read in 2012.   

1) Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran
Though the romantic aspects of Moran’s fictional interpretation of Madame Tussaud’s life is down played, the story of the 18th century wax modeller crafted by Moran is intriguing making the story engaging and stimulating emotions.  Moran creates a credible back story for a woman that few people know much about, but the museums around the world with her namesake are known widely.
http://michellemoran.com/books/index.html

2)  Firelight by Kristen Callihan
A historical/paranormal romance that keeps readers entranced page after page absorbed in the worlds of the supernatural and human desire.
http://kristencallihan.com/firelight.html

3)  Mistletoe Fever by Jennifer Snow
Published in 2011 by the Wild Rose Press, this is a novella I read this year and found delightful.  The building up of Piper and Alex’s romance is a fun ride that leaves a lasting impression about finding love.
http://www.jennifersnowbooks.com/Current-Releases.html

4)  The Devil’s Thief  by Samantha Kane
Published in 2012 by the Loveswept imprint, this Regency romance entangles the reader in the lives of Julianna Harte and Alasdair Sharp as the two argue over who is the rightful owner of the Stewart Pearl, a gem which Alasdair inherited from his family and agreed to give to Julianna if she slept with him.  How these two resolve their argument comes to a happy ending for all involved.
http://samanthakane.us/www.samanthakane.us/Books.html

5)  Lord Midnight by Donna Cummings
Sensual and suspenseful, this historical romance is a true page turner never missing a step to hold the readers attention.
http://www.allaboutthewriting.com/donna_j_cummings/available-books.html

6)  Montana Dreams by Jillian Hart
A modern western with a touch old fashioned, gentlemanly courtesy, which has seemed to have gone out with rotary phones.  It’s love American style or what was once American style.
http://jillianhart.net/bookshelf.html

7)  One Knight in Brooklyn by Casea Major
A time traveling tale with a romance that can weater any storm, overcome any obstacle, and keep the reader soaring.
http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=360&osCsid=jpj72sc07mlt3d80tkc9f3e8p0

8)  Bound by Night by Naomi Clark
A historical paranormal romance that incites the imagination and stirs carnal desires.
http://www.evernightpublishing.com/bound-by-night-by-naomi-clark/

9)  Sword and Lute by Cate Rowan
       A fantasy adventure that brings together the mortal lute player Amara and an immortal Taso who possesses magical powers.  This love story brings a tear to the reader's eye in the sweetest way.
http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Lute-Novelette-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00ACVKIQS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356569858&sr=8-2&keywords=cate+rowan


You can enter my own contest and have a chance to win an ebook copy of Her Heart’s Desire by Anne Hope by going into the Rafflecopter below.  
a Rafflecopter giveaway You can also leave a comment on this blog about which books were your favorites this year to enter my contest if you don’t want to use the Rafflecopter widget. Your comment will also be entered in the main Best of 2012 Giveaway Hop contest.  

To move onto the next blog on the Hop, go to:  http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=169384

All ebooks on sale at Champagne Books

Champagne Books is holding its Snowvember sale from November 12-26, 2012 offering readers 45% off all ebooks with coupon code novsnsee12

Check out titles here:
http://www.champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php

Happy Shopping!!

My romance novel The King Maker (ebook) can be found here:
http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&manufacturer_id=117&product_id=558

Howloween Blog Hop

This contest is officially over.  All winners have been contacted.  Please go to the events page to find more blog hops.


Howloween Blog Hop (October 26 - 29, 2012)

(The Moonlight Masquerade Blog Hop post is below)

 

Halloween Stories

Welcome to the Howloween Blog where All Hallow’s Eve is celebrated with impressions about the holiday from romance authors found   http://thebloghopspot.com/event-page/

One of the most famous Halloween stories is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow written by Washington Irving and published around 1790.  The story’s main character, a school teacher named Ichabod Crane is smitten with a teenage lass named Katrina Van Tassel.  But another man Brom Bones from the New England vicinage of Tarrytown wishes for Katrina’s hand in marriage too.

After the Halloween Ball at the Van Tassel’s home, Crane returns on horseback to his home only to come face to face with the headless horseman believed to be a Hessian soldier from the American Revolution whose head was blown off by a cannonball during the war.  Now, his ghost haunts the bridge in Tarrytown’s Sleepy Hollow.  Ichabod Crane is never seen again after Halloween. 

The story has kept children wondering for centuries if the ghost of the soldier was truly the headless horseman or if Brom Bones had pretended to be the legendary rider to frighten Crane away.  It’s a story that lives on.

Most readers may have seen the 1944 movie Arsenic and Old Lace starring Cary Grant, but few know it was a play first written by Joseph Kesselring in 1939.  The entire story takes place on Halloween in Brooklyn Heights entering as newspaper critic Mortimer Brewster, whose skepticism about the institution of marriage is widely known, is at the Justice of the Peace where he is about to marry Elaine Harper, the daughter of a Reverend who lives next door to his aunts, Martha and Abbey Brewster.  The surprises don’t stop there.

Between Mortimer’s two elderly aunts who poison homeless gentlemen as an act of mercy and give them a proper Christian burial in the basement of their Brooklyn home, his uncle Teddy who thinks he’s President Teddy Roosevelt, and his demented brother Jonathan who returns to his aunts home to hide from the police wanted for several murders, the story keeps audiences agape from one page to the next.  This Halloween-inspired tale never tires and makes people take a second look at their next door neighbor.

The popular 1990’s TV series Charmed  made celebrating the traits of Halloween a weekly escapade with the three sisters, Prue (short for Prudence), Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell being modern day witches on the quest to keep their sleepy suburban New England town safe from malevolent entities. 

The season 3 episode “All Halliwell’s Eve” written by the show’s creator Constance M. Burge takes place on Halloween when a pair of Grimlocks visit the sisters posed as trick or treaters.  A time portal opens and sucks the sisters into it taking them back to Colonial Virginia in 1670.  The sisters were not born yet so they don’t have their magical powers in this time warp.  They learn that they were sent there by a group of good witches who needed the sisters help to save a magical baby from being destroyed by the evil witch Ruth and the dark sorcerer Cole Turner.  The same Cole Turner who, in the sisters modern time, has an affection for Phoebe.  His affection for her does not wane in Colonial Virginia.

The sisters must save the baby using what resources are available to them, which are primitive but they do the job.  The sisters discover that the baby they saved is their great grandmother.  They return home triumphant, though Cole returns disappointed but not defeated.

These are a few Halloween stories penned by writers who enhance the folklore enmeshed around All Hallow’s Eve.  It’s a day when magic is believed to be alive and anything can happen.

 

What is your favorite Halloween story?  Post a comment and include your email using [at] and [dot] in the address to enter the Howloween Blog contest to win an array of great prizes.  One commenter on this blog will win an ebook copy of Once Upon A Nightmare by Mckelle George. Good luck to all!

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My romance novel The King Maker is available at Lendink.com for a free read.  Go to:  http://www.lendink.com/ebooks/B0064XDKLS/The-King-Maker

Print and ebook copies can be purchased from the publisher, Champagne Books here:  http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/manufacturer&manufacturer_id=117

Moonlight Masquerade Blog Hop

This contest is offiically over.  All winners have been contacted.  Please go to the events page to find more blog hops.

Moonlight Masquerade (October 25 – November 1, 2012)

Welcome to the Moonlight Masquerade Blog Hop.

You may have noticed that moonlight is a vital element in romantic fiction.  Authors have used moonlight to create an intimate setting for characters to conduct lover’s interludes or to engage in clandestine activities.  Storyteller’s have yarned urban fantasies that tell under the light of a full moon, werewolves come out both literally and figuratively.

In Kristen Callihan’s paranormal romance Moonglow, Ian Ranulf the Earl of Northrup literally transforms into a wolf known as a lycan when he’s touched by the light of the full moon.  Authors like Callihan take a literal meaning of the urban fantasy.

Other authors have used moonlight to transform characters into wolves figuratively.  Adele Ashworth uses this figurative meaning in her novel Winter Garden.  Thomas Blackwood the Earl of Eastleigh shows the animalist lust of a wolf when he makes love to French spy Madeleine DuMais in the glow of the moonlight.  The figurative meaning of the urban fantasy demonstrates an unbridled passion symbolic of a romantic lover. 

In my novel The King Maker, moonlight is the setting for a lover’s interlude bringing out the passionate features of the story’s hero Cullen Danes.  The lunar light is also the backdrop for clandestine activities when crime leader Thor Kossich plots to kill Cullen Danes.

Moonlight allows characters to conduct activities in secrecy and free of restraint.  There is something about the glowing reflection of the moon that makes the behavior it’s shrouding to feel intimate and driven by passion.  There’s a certain charge ignited by the moonlight that incites images of fantasy.

Which fantasy do you like the moonlight to bring out in your favorite romances, the literal wolf or the passionate lover?  Post your comment and include your email spelling out [at] and [dot] in the address. 

Winners of the my blog will receive an exciting ebook from Ellora’s Cave Publishers

When finished posting here, go to the next blogger found here  http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=174656

 

Your post will also be entered in the Moonlight Masquerade Blog Hop’s contest.  Winners for the grand prize are chosen by mysecretromancebookreviews.com

Good luck to everyone.

Sale at Champagne Books

All ebooks at Champagne Books  are 45% off until October 20, 2012.

Use the coupon code: TGTK2012 at checkout:
www.burstbooks.ca  

www.carnalpassions.com/store

www.champagnebooks.com/shop

The link to my ebook The King Maker is here:  http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&manufacturer_id=117&product_id=558

Howloween Blog Hop (October 26-29, 2012)

Howloween Blog Hop (October 26 -29, 2012)

Discover romantic authors and their books during the Howloween Blog Hop (October 26 -29, 2012) at:  http://thebloghopspot.com/

Sale at Champagne Books until Sept. 10, 2012

All ebooks are 50% off at champagnebooks.com/shop, burstbooks.ca, and carnalpassions.com/store.  You must use coupon code BTS4FALL to receive this discount at the checkout.

Although the print books are not discounted, there is free shipping using the coupon code FREESHIP  All discounts are available until September 10, 2012. 

My romantic adventure The King Maker from Champagne Books is available in both ebook and print found here:  http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/manufacturer&manufacturer_id=117

Romancing the Hop

Romancing the Hop (August 31 to September 3, 2012)

http://www.carrieannryan.blogspot.com/2012/06/sign-up-for-romancing-hop-blog-hop.html

Writers Fun Zone

My article on Romance Writers Romancing Their Readers has been posted at http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog/2012/07/31/helping-the-romance-writer-romance-her-readers/ 

If you would like to be a guest blogger at Writers Fun Zone, follow the submission guidelines here:  http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog/guest-columnists-welcome

The Log Line Blog Spot

My book The King Maker will be showcased on July 27, 2012 at the Log Line Blog Spot found here:  http://theloglineblog.blogspot.com

From now until Aug 1, 2012, Champagne Books is having a 50% off sale on all ebooks at each of their online stores.  Use the coupon code: XeJul12 when making your purchase to take advantage of the sale.

You Gotta Read

Enter to win a free ebook copy of The King Maker at Yougottaread.com by posting a comment on my blog about "Body Language" found here: http://yougottaread.com/welcome-trisha-fitzgerald/

Coffeetime Time Romance Sale

Coffeetimeromance.com is having a summer sale on ebooks.  The King Maker is 25% and can be purchased here:  http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&zenid=8a3bafdb15f59319641af8a5e12ac98e&keyword=susan+frances&x=51&y=6

Mo's Book Buzz on March 21, 2012 at 9pm EST

Join me on Mo's Book Buzz  at RomRevToday.com for an exciting chat about new romance authors.  I will be discussing my new book The King Maker during the chat this Wednesday, March 21, 2012 from 9 pm to 10 pm EST.  Hope you can join us.

Go to www.romrevtoday.comand click on the Chatroom link.  Sign into Mo's Book Buzz and you're in, or copy and paste the following link into your web browser:  http://client0.addonchat.com/sc.php?id=102122

See you then.

Champagne Books Blog

The Champagne Books Blog has posted my article on Dime Novels.  Check it out here:  http://www.champagnebooks.blogspot.com/