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HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, everyone!!!
Stay safe (no firecracker burns or blown-off fingers, please)…toss some tea into the nearest harbor, stream, creek, lake, river, ocean, or bay (or, if all else fails, you could probably use a small cup of very hot water *vbg*) in celebration of what this holiday is really all about…& then enjoy your Independence Day weekend (hot dogs & all)!
A miracle has occurred. 
I have found my Louis Rich Turkey Franks.
And y’know what the problem was? Well, part of the problem is that they aren’t being carried anymore at the store where I normally shop & had always been able to find them before. But added to that is the fact that Louis Rich has apparently been bought out by Oscar Meyer. So while I was looking for Louis Rich in big, bold, giant lettering on hot dog packages, I should have been looking for it in teeny-tiny lettering on all the Oscar Meyer products.
Sigh.
But the crisis has been averted & Independence Day celebrations are back on! You may all return to your previously scheduled holiday weekend plans. You have my permission. 
And now that I’ve got my dogs for the grill, this means I can also whip up some potato salad & baked beans. Those are also 4th of July staples.
So what’s your favorite, can’t-do-without picnic fare? Hot dogs? Hamburgers? Potato salad? Potato chips? Deviled eggs?
Mmm, deviled eggs. Maybe I should make some of those, too. 
For years, Margred has gone without the touch of another. Now her need has driven her beyond her own world. For she is a selkie–a legendary being of the sea, able to shape-shift into seductive human form. Finally, she has found the man she wants . . .
A burned-out veteran of big city streets, Caleb Hunter takes the job of police chief on the Maine island of World’s End determined to find peace. Instead, he finds a woman who is everything he’s ever dreamed of. And more . . .
But when a murderer begins targeting women on World’s End, Caleb must face the terrible possibility that the killings are somehow related to the mysterious Margred–and that the power of their love may change the fate of human kind.
USA Today bestselling author Virginia Kantra credits he
r love for strong heroes and courageous heroines to a childhood spent devouring fairy tales.
A six-time Romance Writers of America RITA Award finalist, Virginia is the winner of numerous writing awards, including the Golden Heart, Golden Leaf, Holt Medallion, Maggie Award of Excellence and two National Readers’ Choice Awards. Her new paranormal romance series, “Children of the Sea,” debuts with the back-to-back releases of SEA WITCH (July 2008 ) and SEA FEVER (August 2008 ).
Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of three kids, Virginia is a firm believer in the strength of family, the importance of storytelling, and the power of love. Her favorite thing to make for dinner? Reservations.
###
I am positively vibrating with excitement over this month’s guest blogger. It is no secret that Virginia Kantra is one of my favorite people in the whole, wide world. Any time her name comes up–whether she’s there or not–my immediate reaction is, “Ohmigod, I love Virginia!” Not only is she sweet & funny & kind–& talented…mustn’t forget uber-talented!–but I’ve known her forever (okay, well, we’re both very young, so maybe only nearly forever) & we just have a blast any time we get together. I’ve also been working quite a while to get her here to chat with us, so I’m thrilled that our schedules have finally meshed enough to make it happen!
Did I mention that Virginia is also generous? [Scroll up. Skim text.] Nope, I forgot to mention generous. Well, she is. And this month, she’s being super-generous in offering prizes not just at the end of her official guest blog post on MONDAY, JULY 14TH, but at the end of her b
io & interview posts, as well.
Today, she will be gifting one lucky reader with a copy of her bestselling paranormal anthology, SHIFTER (with Angela Knight, Lora Leigh, & Alyssa Day). Virginia’s novella in this collection is actually connected to her “Children of the Sea” series, so this will be a real treat for whoever wins!
Next week, she’ll be giving away a second copy of SHIFTER after her interview post, and then for her official guest blog visit, she’ll give away a hot-off-the-presses copy of the first book in her “Children of the Sea” trilogy, SEA WITCH. How aw-aw-aw-aw-awesome is that?!? You’re the best, Virginia!
So cross your fingers & mark your calendars. You do not want to miss a single visit this month with the AbFab & truly delightful Virginia Kantra. It’s going to be a blast!
Remember, too, to visit www.VirginiaKantra.com to read more about SHIFTER, the “Children of the Sea” trilogy, & all of Virginia’s wonderful books!
I thought this one would be a perfect way to celebrate the release of my dragon novella, “CURSE OF THE DRAGON’S TEARS,” in this month’s HOTTER THAN HELL anthology…
Chartreuse Dragon
1 2/3 oz vodka
2 oz lychee juice
2/3 oz green chartreuse
1/3 oz blue curacao
1/3 oz fresh lime juice
7Up
Pour all ingredients, except 7Up, into a shaker with ice. Shake. Strain into highball glass filled with ice. Top with 7Up. Stir. Garnish with a fresh lychee.
It’s official, I am canceling the 4th of July.
Don’t argue with me. Don’t try to change my mind. 
You see, I’m not much of a meat-eater, & when I do decide to exercise my carnivorous side, I tend to be very, very picky. So at this time of the year, I of course only want a particular type & brand of hot dog for holiday grilling. That would be Louis Rich Turkey Franks. For one thing, they’re delicious, & for another, they’re the only kind of hot dog that doesn’t make me want to throw up. Sorry to all you wiener lovers out there, but most of them make me seriously nauseous. And no other brand of turkey frank will do, either; it has to be Louis Rich.
Sadly, my local grocery store seems to have stopped carrying these little gems. I’ve been keeping an eye out for the past few months & they’re just not there. So I’ve been shopping around. (Read that: stopping at every grocery store I can find, everywhere I go, praying desperately that my hot dogs will be there.)
So far, no luck, & I’m telling you, if I don’t find my hot dogs, I am not celebrating the 4th of July. I’ll boycott. I’ll lock myself in my room & watch very non-Independence Day television & movies, & eat very non-Independence Day foods.
Hmph. So there!
But I do have a few hot dog-seeking days left, so there’s still hope. I shan’t give up just yet.
And what about the rest of you? Are you looking forward to the 4th of July? What are your plans, & what are your favorite foods for this holiday weekend?
Just got off the phone with my St. Martin’s editor. It’s hard to believe, but we’re discussing ideas for the artwork for 
#2. Already!
Now, what you need to know is that I got the artwork for #1 a couple of months ago. I’m not allowed to show it to anyone yet–which is really, really hard, I’ll have you know–but it’s fabulous! It’s sexy & fun & colorful & just beeeeee-u-tee-ful! I love looking at it & can’t wait until I can share it with the world!
But I’m still working on #2, so it came as a complete shock when she called to ask me for ideas for its cover. Okay, in retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have been terribly surprised. I mean, I do know the publishing schedule (as it stands now, it’s going to be an August 2009 release) & I know how many months ahead of time they start working on covers. But still, it caught me a little off guard. 
We brainstormed some great stuff, though. Since I can’t tell you what these books are about yet, I can’t give you a lot of details, but I think it would be all right for me to mention that the hero of this book is built with a capitol B. Tall, dark, & extremely handsome. Major muscles. Hot, hot, hot. 
So we discussed what kind of clothes the guy on the cover should be wearing to show off those great muscles. (Personally, I prefer a nice, tight t-shirt with short sleeves that show off an amazing set of guns. But, you know, that’s just me. 
[wiping at excessive drool])
He’s also got a bit of a bad boy/Alpha streak, so there may be a motorcycle thrown in there somewhere. Oh, yeah. 
Aside from that, it’s entirely up in the air. But they did such an amazing job on the cover for the first book that I’m not at all worried. The goal is have a very connected, “this is a series” look to all three covers, so as long as they keep that in mind & kind of go with the format they’ve already created for Book #1, I don’t see how they can go wrong.
I’ll have to let you know how it goes…you know, if & when I’m allowed. 
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Although, I do have a couple of responses to that question:
If you’re my brother, I’m guessing your answer would be zero.
If you’re my agent, I’m guessing your answer would be nothing, you’ll be paying me. 
For everyone else, if you’re willing to chip in your pocket change…
Okay, enough goofing off. (Ha-ha. You wish.
)
I’ve been sitting on another wee piece of information for a while that I thought would be fun to share…
Recently, I donated a lunch/dinner/drink (whichever comes first LOL) one-on-one meeting at the Romance Writers of America National Conference in San Francisco to Brenda Novak’s annual auction for diabetes research. Well, the auction came to a close a couple of weeks ago, & our very own Pam Walters (Hi, Pam! 
) placed the winning bid.
Pam e-mailed me soon after discovering that she’d won, & I have to tell you that this gal is a hoot. She is apparently ga-ga over just about every aspect of my website…most especially the blog, Faves, & Links pages, which are (according to her) practically a carbon copy of her own personal list of favorite things. Mutts, Firefly, The Mummy, Ryan Reynolds…we may very well have been separated at birth. 
So at some point during the long week that is RWA National, Pam & I will be getting together over lunch or dinner, & almost certainly mass quantities of alcoholic beverages, to chat about…well, whatever the heck she wants to chat about. 
I hope you’re making a list of questions & topics for us to discuss when we get together, Pam. Otherwise you may very well end up staring at me while I look eerily like Chelsea Clinton in last week’s Friday Funny photograph. 
Believe me, I am just not that fascinating, despite the whips & chains.
I’ve been sitting on this for a little while, waiting for a nice free day when I could post & have adequate room for a full-out Happy Dance. 
I finally heard back from my editor about the novella I turned in for the I NEED A REAL MAN anthology I’m participating in for St. Martin’s Press next summer. And, yeah, let’s enjoy a little more name-dropping as I remind everyone that I will be in this anthology with Lori Foster, Lora Leigh, & Cheyenne McCray. (It’s one of those facts that bears repeating, wouldn’t you agree? And repeating, & repeating, & repeating… 
)
And the Snoopy Dance news is that she LOVED IT!!! She loved, loved, loved it & thought it was HOT! (It really was. I mean, I had to turn on the air conditioner a couple of times while writing it. *g*)
Squeeeeeee! I’ve been anxiously awaiting her input on this one because she’s not my regular editor & I’d never worked with her before. And because this story didn’t quite match the tone of the other books I am doing for my regular editor at the same publishing house. Personally, I loved it, but you just never know how these things will go over with a second party. 
So I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief, here…& also jumping up & down with glee. (That looks something like this: 
)
The second thing I get to report about my I NEED A REAL MAN novella is that she didn’t have a problem with the title I slapped on it, after all. That would be “WANTED: A REAL MAN.” This is good news for me…hehehehehehe…but not such good news for whoever might have won that little “I Need a Real Man” Giveaway I set up oh so many months ago.
Sigh.
But not to worry. If the title ends up being changed down the road to one that you guys originally suggested–which is still entirely possible–the contest parameters will still hold. And if not, I’ll just have to hold another “I Need a Real Man” Giveaway when the book actually comes out! That could be fun, right?
So, you know, stay tuned & we’ll see what happens. 
I will be gone all day today–at a doctor’s appointment (follow-up for my back) & then an orthodontist appointment (the braces are coming off today–woot-woot woot-woot!!!
)–so I thought I would leave you with this little snippet that I found highly amusing. 
I got a letter from my grandmother recently that included a copy of a letter she’d written to a friend when I was just a little moppet. And I have to say, I was one adorably precocious child. 
As proof, I offer up the details of the letter:
Our granddaughter is 7 years old, and last year she definitely came to the conclusion that there was no Santa Claus. Then this December she saw Santa in a store and said to her mother, “Mom, I think there is a Santa Claus because that one looked just like him.” A couple of days later, she said, “I know how I’m going to find out. I’m going to tell Santa Claus some things I want for Christmas that I don’t tell you, Mom.” That really should have settled it, but it didn’t because on Christmas Eve, Heidi set out cookies and milk for Santa and dog biscuits for his reindeer, (I was an animal lover even back then *g*) and on Christmas morning they were gone. But there was a note from Santa on the table, thanking Heidi for the goodies and telling her he just couldn’t bring all she wanted this year because his load was too filled up. Heidi was so excited when she found the note that she ran upstairs and woke her parents to read it to them before she even went near the tree to see what was there!
How cute is that? And how smart was my mother to come up with that little solution to her problem? 
Yes, I was a super-cute kid. So what the hell happened?
Though everyone has probably already seen Janice’s post in the comment section of her chat yesterday (Comment #49, in case you want to check 
), I thought I’d make a separate announcement here, just to be safe.
The winner of the Book Club edition of Janice Maynard’s THE PERFECT TEN is…
Cheryl S.!!!
Congratulations, Cheryl! Please e-mail Janice directly at JESM13@aol.com with your mailing address & she’ll get your prize out to you!
And because we dropped the ball just slightly with the last guest blogger, Jeanne Adams & I would like to announce the winner of her giveaway, a DARK AND DANGEROUS gift basket, complete with a $10 Starbucks gift card, a two-piece Godiva snack set, & a DARK AND DANGEROUS bookmark & autographed cover flat.
And the winner of that wonderful prize is…
Sabrina!!!
Congratulations, Sabrina! If you’ll contact me with your mailing information, I’ll pass it along to Jeanne & she’ll get your prize out to you just as soon as she can.
And that concludes our prize winner announcements for the day. Stay tuned for more guest bloggers & more fabulous giveaways in the very near future.
Hello, romance fans! And a special thank you to Heidi for inviting me to hang out in cyber space with all of you.
When Heidi asked me to blog, I remembered something that happened to me a long time ago (before I ever sold my first book). I was at a pool with my small kids and a friend of mine with her children. We ran into a woman we knew but hadn’t seen for a while. She was (and still is) a nice lady… somehow the topic of romance books came up and she told me that she had never read one. Her reason: she said that she knew a woman who became “addicted” to romance novels, and it ruined her marriage.
Hmmm. I was flabbergasted that day, and her reaction still stuns me. She said it with a perfectly straight face, and I knew she was completely serious.
In my experience, reading romance novels enhances a marriage. Let’s face it–it’s tough to be super mom and/or soccer mom all day and then magically morph into a sex goddess at bedtime. Reading a yummy romance before turning out the light always put me in a better mood for fun with my hubby.
This December I have a book coming out under my pseudonym, Elizabeth Scott. Three women have heard about the dreaded “seven-year itch” and decide to ward it off by giving their hubbies a free pass for a one-time fling with a stranger. The only caveat is that the women get to take a walk on the wild side as well. But when the free passes become reality, the outcomes surprise everyone.
FREE PASS is exactly the kind of a book lovers might enjoy together in the bedroom. Trust me–I would never give my dh such a pass! But this book (although it could happen) falls into the realm of romantic
sexual fantasy. Basically, I wrote the kind of book my dh and I always looked for in the bookstore, but could never find. A lot of what is out there is written by men, and it simply doesn’t touch the romantic chords that women need to feel sexually satisfied.
My July 1
st book, BY APPOINTMENT ONLY, is a traditional romance with a bit of a non-traditional twist. The hero is pushing the heroine to tie the knot, but she is marriage shy because of some very vali
d reasons.
She doesn’t want to lose him, so to buy herself some time, she proposes sexual premarital counseling, thinking it will make him back off on the whole “set the date” thing. But o
ur hero is determined, and he calls her bluff. The sexual sessions are completely private and are set up by a therapist ahead of time to tap into the man and woman’s deeply hidden fan
tasies. It a very sexy book, yes, but also very emotional and romantic.
If I’m addicted to romance novels, so be it. Please don’t make
me go cold turkey. It will never work. I’ll probably be an old shriveled great-great-granny on the way to the funeral home with a romance novel clutched in my hand. Just don’t make me give it up, or things might get ugly!
So tell me… I’m dying to know! Are any of you addicted to romance novels??
###
Ooh, I can’t wait to hear the responses to this one! Thanks so much for joining us, Janice, & for introducing such a fun topic!
And don’t forget, everyone, that Janice has graciously offered to give away a Book Club edition of her previous release, THE PERFECT TEN, to one lucky winner who drops by to chat with her today. (U.S. residents only, please.)
And, of course, you can visit her website (www.JaniceMaynard.com) anytime to read more about her & her fabulous books!
Happy Friday the 13th!
I love Friday the 13ths, but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t find a darn Friday Funny to post that had anything to do with today’s date.
This was the best I could do. (And you have to admit, it is funny. *g*)
I never touched her, I swear. 
It feels like forever since I last posted…I think because the constant, oppressive heat is beginning to melt my brain. Thank goodness Janice was here to keep the ball rolling, or we may have really been in trouble!
The good news, though, is that I’m feeling better. Cold symptoms are almost completely gone. (Still have a bit of a cough that occasionally makes me sounds like a four-pack-a-day smoker, but c’est la vie.) And my back is healing right up. Oh, there’s still a hole, but it’s getting smaller. And there’s still seepage (lovely, huh?), but it’s getting better. I’m down to a small piece of gauze held on with a couple of band-aids instead of giant pieces of gauze held on with massive amounts of tape. This is awesome improvement, in case you couldn’t tell. 
There has even been some talk about me feeling well enough to mow the yard. This is not as awesome, but since I’ve been putting it off since before the owie procedure, it really does need done. (My current defense is It’s too hot! & Isn’t it supposed to rain?)
The better news is that once the Percocet dizzies wore off & the worst part of my cold passed, I got back to work & the writing is going fabulously, dahlings. I mean, I am getting some really amazing stuff done. I’m still more behind than I’d like, thanks to the roller coaster ride that has been my life recently, but the story is great & at least curre
ntly, it’s coming right along. I’m having a blast! :danceb
an
But the bestest news is that I just discovered this morning that one of my favorite television shows, which was only on the air for, like, five minutes before disappearing in to the ether, is coming out on DVD at the end of the month.
Do any of you remember The Big Easy on USA? It was a spin-off of the Dennis Quaid movie & I loved it! I’ve also been happy dancing over the last two seasons of Riptide & the complete series of Sweating Bullets/Tropical Heat coming out.
Go ahead & laugh, I’m used to it. What can I say, I have eclectic
tastes. I also have a tendency to fall instantly head-over-heels in love with things & then become sentimentally attached to them. I mean, I’m still watching The Big Valley, for God’s sake, & loving every minute of it. And do you know how old that show is?!?
So am I the only one who’s crazy, or are there more of you out there? (Since this is the Mistress Heidi blog, complete with whips, chains, shackles, & bondage gear, I suspect there’s more than a little wackiness going around, but I want to be sure. )
What obscure television shows do you love? Are you obsessively waiting to get them on DVD? Or have you nearly wet yourself if you’ve found them repeating on television?
I want to know. Although I’m a little worried you might name shows I’ve forgotten about or didn’t know were out on DVD & then my obsessive-compulsive disorder will only flare up again!
Just when I thought I’d gotten it under control, too.
