Changelings with Delilah Devlin

Hello, darlings!  Today I'm visiting the delightful Delilah Devlin at her blog and talking about family and how insanely different we can be from the people who share our genetic source material.  Sometimes it boggles the mind that my sister and I share DNA.  Swing on by and say hello!

Getting in the Spirit

Do you like Christmas books?  Those cheesy Hallmark Channel Christmas movies?

For the last few days I've been working to get into the holiday spirit - blasting carols, decorating the house, spending like crazy at le shoppes - but it hasn't really caught yet.  I think next week when my family is around me again and we're getting a tree together and shopping together, then it will feel more like the holidays, but in terms of "spirit" I'm off to a slow start this year.  That's where the books come in. 

I'm always looking for a few new schmalty, feel-good stories of the season to get me in the mood (and I'll also revisit some of my old favorites each year).  This year I've tripped across a few holiday reads and since the holidays are all about the sharing, I'm sharing them with you, lucky darlings.  Let me know if you know of others and we'll add them to the list!

Catch That Santa by Karen Doctor (free today for Kindle)
Perfect by Autumn Jordon
No Exchanges, No Returns by Laurie Kellogg
The Spirit of Christmas by Liz Talley
Last Chance Christmas by Hope Ramsay

And if you like the paranormal, it's a couple years old but still full of Christmasy good: my No Angel and the whole Winter Wishes anthology are still available. 

Giving Thanks For More Than Words

Tis the season to go shopping... and to remember those who may need a hand.  Harlequin is currently hosting their More Than Words event, which is designed to raise awareness (and award funds!) to deserving charities.  There are five nominees in the running this year and you can vote for your favorite cause HERE.  (Voting ends Sunday, November 26th!)  You can help someone out just by clicking!  Go forth and get involved, ladies and gents!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, boys and girls!  The sun is shining, the snow is sparkly and crisp, and I'm thankful for YOU.  I won't be cooking today (unless you count the cinnamon rolls that come out of a tube which will be consumed for breakfast) because I am almost legendarily lazy in the kitchen.  But I will be eating.  Oh yes, I will be eating. 

I hope your day is filled with joy, your holiday season is filled with love and your year is filled with laughter. 

Until the Mayans kill us all.  ;)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Dani Wade & Snowbound

Today I'm over at the Ruby blog interviewing Dani Wade about her heating-up-the-wintertime debut release Snow Bound.  Snowed in with a killer on the loose, it's good to have a studly neighbor feeling neighborly...

Swing on by and comment for a chance to win one of two Amazon Gift Cards. 

Karma Day!

I mentioned this in my interview on Friday, but because I'm all gushy excited I want to share it again here.  It's official, boys and girls, the seventh and final installment of the Karmic Consultants series, featuring the puppeteer proprietress herself is going to be released in the Fall of 2013!  Naughty Karma, a paranormal novel full of the usual Karmic hijinx, is on its way!  You can expect romance, a battle of wills, cameos from your favorite consultants, and maybe a few surprises...

More to come as soon as I have more details to share!

The Inside Scoop

Today I'm being interviewed over at the Ruby blog about all things Finder's Keeper.  Swing on by and say hello!  You may especially want to drop by and check it out if you're wondering when Karma will get her day as the heroine of her very own Karmic Consultants book. (Hint hint...)  

Happy Friday, boys and girls!

TRR Year End Splash Party!

Hear ye, hear ye! Do you like free books? Gift certificates? You DO? Well you're in luck, boys and girls. It's time for TRR's Annual Year End Splash (or YES!) Party!

This event runs from November 15, 1200am EST to December 15, 1159pm EST. You have to register to win, but registration is free and easy.  And if you're looking for a testimonial, my mom loves TRR.  She won a book doing one of their quizzes once and has been hooked ever since.  So, you know, Vivi's Mom Approved! 

The Romance Reviews.  Go forth and win stuff!

Mia's Obsession

So yesterday, Finder's Keeper released (and I'm still having these random surreal whoa, dude, people could be reading it RIGHT NOW moments - yes, I still get them with every book).  As I've mentioned (ad nauseum) the heroine of Finder's Keeper is a science nerd.  A brainiac.  And she's obsessed (I don't think that's too strong a word here) with figuring out how the brain works.  The chemistry and electricity of it all.  The hormones and the synapses.

It just so happens this is an obsession I share with Mia.  How cool is the brain?  Extremely cool, boys and girls.  Grey matter, white matter, cortexes and lobes!  And you know who else loves the brain?  Nova Science Now. 

As I believe I have mentioned once or twice her at Das Blog, I have a thing for Nova Science Now.  And it just so happens they've had a couple episodes on the brain & smarts.  So here they are - How Smart Can We Get & How Does the Brain Work.  Come share Mia's (and my) obsession!

Finder's Keeper Has Landed!

It's here!  Happy release day, boys and girls!  Finder's Keeper, the sixth book in the Karmic Consultants series (which can be ready in any order, so if this is your first Karmic, don't be afraid to dive right in), is now available for download to your favorite e-reading platform, be it Kindle, Nook, or any other form you can think of available directly from Samhain (where it is on sale for just $3.85!).

Love isn’t a science. It’s pure chemistry.

Karmic Consultants, Book 6

True love? For neuroscientist Dr. Mia Corregianni, it’s just an unproven hypothesis. But when she loses the heirloom watch her family believes is enchanted with a potent love spell, she fights superstition with superstition by hiring a psychic finder to track it down.

Chase Hunter is a human compass, homing in on whatever the seeker wants most—that is, when he isn’t surfing or actively avoiding anything resembling a real human attachment. Such has been his life since an accident took his family.

Unfortunately, Mia’s case isn’t a simple insta-Find. The catch? To disguise his real mission from her romance-crazy family, he has to pretend to be her boyfriend. He could deal with that if her complicated emotions weren’t blocking his abilities—or if her innermost desires weren’t walloping him upside the head every time he opens himself to his gift.

As the case wears on, their fake romance begins to feel all too real. Scary stuff for a man who’s reluctant to let himself live again. And a woman who doesn’t believe in magic…or love.

Warning: This book contains meddling grandmothers, magic watches, and a surfer with a body so hot it can teach any scientist the true meaning of chemistry.

Today, to celebrate release day I'm over with the Nine Naughty Novelists discussing my all-consuming adoration for the genus Nerd-icus Maximus.

AND I will be visiting the Samhain Cafe this afternoon to share excerpts, answer questions, and yes, there might even be a giveaway running.

Happy reading, reader friends!

The Right Canvas

I'm over at the Ruby blog today, talking about how Finder's Keeper started life as a promo freebie that turned into a full-on novel of its own.  And gabbing about writing and finding the write "canvas" for your work.  It's a very labored art metaphor.  You're welcome.  ;)

Very Superstitious

I've been talking about superstition lately and since it's SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY and I'm sitting here biting my nails for the 49ers, I thought I'd ask about sports superstitions.  Like, a commentator saying the words "He hasn't thrown an interception yet this game" is the kiss of death.  Next play?  Interception.  Baseball curses are my favorite (the poor Cubbies and that damn goat!), but I think just about every sport has crazy superstitions.  They bring the fan into the game.  We may not be able to tackle that rusher for you, but with enough concentrated energy, we fully believe we can sway the luck.

Here's my favorite football commercial this year: 


And, since I'm a baseball junkie, I just had to include this quote from Bull Durham.  Respect the streak, baby.

Crash Davis: I told him that a player on a streak has to respect the streak. You know why? Because they don't - -they don't happen very often. If you believe you're playing well because you're getting laid, or because you're not getting laid, or because you wear women's underwear, then you are! And you should know that!

Do you have a favorite sports superstition? 

This American Life - Meet Mia's Clan

When I sat down to write Finder's Keeper, the upcoming Karmic Consultants release, I knew it was going to be about a battle between magic & science - and that my uber-scientific heroine was also going to be going head to head with her family superstitions.  She's Italian-American, has an adorable Nonna who is the matriarch of the family, and she's dealing with a pervasive family superstition about a magic watch that grants the bearer true love.

Little did I know at the time, how closely my art was imitating life.  Yesterday at Nikki Duncan's blog, I mentioned a radio piece I'd heard - a piece that might as well have been about my heroine Mia's family.  It wasn't until a couple weeks ago, long after I'd been through edits and put my book to bed, that I heard this story on NPR one Saturday.  A This American Life tale about an Italian-American family with a very specific family tradition.

They mail pants and/or little dresses to expecting mothers in their family - and whichever one the mama gets, that's what she has - boy or girl.  Apparently it's been going on for generations and over twenty babies.   You can listen to the story HERE.

My family doesn't have any big traditions like that.  We spin the kitchen table during card games to turn the luck, but other than that, I can't think of any superstitions we hold to.  I kind of wish we had more!  The Rubies - a writing group I'm a member of - send "heel clicks" to one another for good luck (like Dorothy clicking her heels three times). 

Do you or your family have any superstitions?  Do you buy the one about the magic pants/dress?

Let the Finder's Keeper Release Fiesta Commence!

Okay, first off, WOW did this week ever get away from me.  It's Friday?  Already?  And what's this?  I have a super awesome kickass Karmic Consultants release (WOOHOO!!!) coming out on Tuesday?  Why yes, I do!  That's right, boys and girls, FINDER'S KEEPER will be here before you know it.  And today, I'm guest blogging over at Nikki Duncan's place where commenters will be eligible to win an Advanced Reader Copy of the book before it releases! We're talking about wacky family traditions and superstitions.  Come play and you could go home with a book or a $15 gift card!

Confessions of a Book Hoarder

I'm a book hoarder.  Now that doesn't mean I'm going to end up on a TLC show with my family staging an intervention for my own good.  It means I have this weird tendency in my reading habits.  The literary safety net.  My fiction security blanket.

If there is a series or an author I love - like really hardcore love - I have a pathological need to keep one book unread in reserve until the next one comes out.  I'll buy the book, but it will sit there on my shelf, comforting me with the surety that if I need an Eloisa James or a Nalini Singh or a Kristan Higgins, it's there for me in my hour of desperation.  So I'm always one behind, reading the next-to-latest release as soon as the new release hits stores.  So, for example, I can finally read Archangel's Blade because Archangel's Storm is sitting next to it on my shelf.  And just last week I finally read Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones, because Fourth Grave had hit the shelves. The only exception to this is when it is the acknowledged last book of a series (like Mockingjay).

I know that I do this.  I know why.  And I know that it is weird.  So my question is not so much, whether anyone else out there hoards books for a rainy day, but more in the spirit of confessions, what are YOUR weird reading habits?  Spill, boys and girls!

Can Someone Splain Cloud Atlas Plz?

Okay, so I went to see Cloud Atlas, and I don't think I got it.  I have friends who have been all gushy gushy about how great it was and all I could think was, "I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from that.  What's the point?"  So could someone please explain it to me?  I consider myself a pretty smart cookie and I'm a very attentive movie-goer - I tend to pick up on visual hints and foreshadowing and whatnot - but I just could not figure out what message I was supposed to be receiving from Cloud Atlas.

**Warning: Spoilers, but not very coherent ones, because I just didn't get it...**

If it's about how our actions in one life carry over into the next (karma, reincarnation) then I need someone to explain the causality between the story lines, because I didn't see it.  Why was the Tom Hanks storyline so all over the place, with the only apparent connection between his characters being the fact that they were all played by Tom Hanks, while the Jim Sturgis characters were all exactly the same from one life to the next?  Was the Hugo Weaving character even supposed to be a person?  Because he seemed to be this caricature of evil rather than an actual human soul.  Did the composer who committed suicide ever come back into the later storylines?  Because I didn't see him (though sometimes they were hard to pick out).  So is the message, don't take your own life because then you won't get another one?

The movie was interesting but not satisfying.  So could someone please satisfy my curiosity and tell me what the hell all that meant?

Book Porn!

Guess what, boys and girls, it's Samhain's Seventh Anniversary! Lo, these many years ago Samhain began publishing ebooks, and today, to celebrate, they've released a video with Mr. Sexypants here showing us all how to download from their website. Enjoy!  and Happy Anniversary, Samhellions!