Sunday, December 30, 2012

KRYSTAL BROOKES IS IN THE CRIB TODAY!!!

Well, I'm pleased Krystal honored me by revisiting my crib again. Yay!!! This time she's bringing her latest release--Highland Hogmanay. She'll be doing a giveaway for a free PDF copy of the book to the random winner who leaves a comment. So don't forget to leave some love for Krystal at the end of the post.


Hogmanay at Granny's

First I would like to thank Cynthia for having me back so soon.

My Granny Dickson had a world view that was a complete mix of realism and superstition. She died when I was seventeen but I never forgot her superstitions which were mixed in with a realistic outlook on life coming from having been brought up in Glasgow in the 20s.

Her first husband was killed in the Second World War and her two year old daughter died of meningitis some time later.  Then she met my Papa.  She seems to have had a happy life with him and she had two daughters (my mother and my aunt) both of whom had good childhoods.

But it is the new year celebrations that always brought out her superstitious nature.  Granny loved New Year.  But woe betide you if you even considered wishing her a Happy New Year before the bells. (In Scotland we used to wait on the bells from Big Ben in London sounding on the radio). It was terribly bad luck.  Generally if a Scot sees you on Hogmanay, they'll say “have a good one when it comes.” Not in my Granny's hearing we didn't.  You just said bye to her if you were leaving before the bells.

Then there was the thing with the calendar. You daren't put a calendar up before the bells.  This was also bad luck.  It's a tradition I have kept to.  I won't put my 2013 calendar up until after midnight on January the first.

In Scotland it is the tradition to be first footed by a tall, dark, handsome man bearing gifts.  Thus the first person through the door on New Year's day had to fit that description.  Luckily for Granny, my aunt had married a tall dark-haired man. My poor dad, being just 5 foot 8, didn't quite cut the mustard.  So at 11.58pm on Hogmanay, Uncle Harry was sent out the back door of the house with the dog, a box of shortbread and a bottle of whisky.  It was his job to walk around the block and come in the front door and first foot us. In all those years, I suspect Uncle Harry never heard the midnight chimes of Big Ben at midnight on Hogmanay.
I miss my Granny's new year celebrations.  She's the only person I know of who drank red Martini. And she always gave us a snowball (advocaat and lemonade) to bring in the new year. If I tell someone to have a good one when it comes this Hogmanay, I will be able to feel her disapproval.  It's tangible to me.

If you want to read about a traditional but slightly different Hogmanay, with another tall, dark handsome stranger, Highland Hogmanay is now available at http://pinkpetalbooks.com/Highland-Hogmany-by-Krystal-Brookes.html. It will be available at Amazon etc. within the next week or so.


Blurb:

The week between Christmas and New Year is always dreary and for single mum of two small children, Isla, it's doubly so. A toddler throwing a tantrum and an over-inquisitive four year old are stressing her out. The broken carrier bag spilling her shopping out in the wet street is the final straw. But handsome Mark Ferguson turns up out of the blue to help her.

The New Year may be looking up, until she finds out that Mark owns one of the biggest computing firms in the USA. Can they make a long distance relationship work and can Mark stop trying to make their relationship into a business venture?

Excerpt:

“Well I see you worked out how to put on the shirt. I suppose that’s something,” said Isla as she walked over the threshold of Mark's cottage and stamped the snow off her Wellington boots. She pulled them off and removed her coat before following him into the living area. The curtains were closed and the kilt outfit was lying over one of the leather chairs.
“Even I can manage a shirt,” he groused.
“OK, first things first. If you really have Scottish blood in you, you need to take the boxers off.”
“No.”
“No, you’re not taking them off and are therefore proving yourself to be a soft Yankee, or no, you’re too shy to take your breeks off in front of me.”
“What the hell are breeks?”
“Pants or underpants—it kind of depends. In this instance, we are definitely discussing underpants.”
“I’m not taking them off in front of you.”
“I thought we were leading up to sleeping together. You did have your hand inside my pants last night. Mark, you are single, aren’t you?”
“Of course! Do you think I would cheat on someone else? I’m not your ex, Isla.”
“I know. It was just when I told my friend about you, she asked whether you were single and I had to confess that I hadn’t actually asked and had just presumed.”
“You presumed right,” he said as he cupped her face. He touched his lips gently to hers and kissed until she opened to him. Then he slanted his mouth, pressing his tongue into her mouth. She moved closer, snaking her arms around his neck as he claimed her butt with his hands.
As he rocked gently against her, he began to harden. She kissed him harder, plunging her tongue in and out of his mouth in time with her leg, which she was now rubbing up and down his thigh. She wanted to lift her skirt and let him take her, there and then, over the back of the sofa. But she also wanted to wait until New Year. It seemed appropriate to let this year finish, complete with its problems, and start a new year with someone new—even if it was just a short fling. Besides, if they had sex, she’d never want to go back to the party and he’d never see his relatives to first foot them.
She moved her hands round to his collar and started to undo the buttons.
“Isla, do we have time?”
She planted light kisses on his neck, causing him to dig his fingers deeper into her butt.
“I’m just relieving your tension,” she said into the wall of muscle that was his chest. She only had a couple more buttons to go as she licked around one of his nipples. Her hands nudged the top of his erection, and he groaned.
“Believe me, honey. This ain’t relieving anything. I want to carry you upstairs right now and make love to you all night, until you can’t walk.”
“How terribly romantic.” She pulled his boxers down with one swift movement and clasped his long, thick cock in her fist.

Links

Thanks again for stopping by Krystal! Hope to see you again soon. 

Thursday, December 27, 2012

I WON 3RD PLACE!!!

Well, this was a surprise!!! I found out one of my favorite book trailers I created won third place in the You Gotta Read Reviews Video Contest for December 2012. Thank you to everyone who voted. I appreciate your support.




Monday, December 17, 2012

THE 12 BOOKS by 12 AUTHORS FOR CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY BLOG HOP GIVEAWAY!!!


                                       JUST FOR FUN! 

An easy and fun way of winning an ebook bundle from twelve different authors. You have to leave comments on all 12 blogs to be entered into the grand prize drawing. You can also win a package from me as well, and all you have to do is answer the following question. I will draw a winner randomly and then your name will be entered for the Grand Prize Package. You can't win, if you don't leave a comment.


My question: What's the naughtiest gift Santa brought you?

The Prize for answering AND following me on my blog, Twitter, or Facebook is a PDF of my other Christmas story, A Gift of Love!

BLURB:


Christmas Eve. Jennifer Perkins needs the perfect gift for Sir and time is running out. Tough economic times have put a drain on her bank account, but she’s determined to give her lover something special. Short on cash, she sells a treasure, plus more than she bargained. Love—more precious than diamonds and gold.


Christmas Eve. Chris Bryant needs the perfect present for his live-in submissive, Angel, and he can’t wait until tomorrow. He may have lost his job of choice, but the New Year looks promising. Tonight is the night to make a change. The gift has to be extraordinary, and the only way is to give up his prized possession. Love—more precious than objects.


The two lovers are wrapped in a world beyond their control. Selflessness is the ultimate gift of love—one relinquishes a valued treasure, the other sells part of themselves for the special gift.



The Grand Prize winner will also receive a gift box from Swiss Colony along with the 12 books! 
(something similar)

Readers
each author will post one question about the holidays
leave your response in the comment box along with your email address
move on to the next blog 
winner announced 12/24




    Author Blog Link List -












BOOK BUNDLE for GRAND PRIZE

Cris Anson
Sandra Sookoo

Naomi Bellina
Karen Stivali

Tory Richards
Taryn Elliot
Vonnie Davis
         
       
Lily Harlem
Lynne Marshall
Cynthia Arsuaga
                       
Fiona McGier
Karenna Colcroft
Thanks for joining in the fun!!!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

AMBER KALLYN'S BIRTHDAY BASH BLOG HOP!!!



This is one of the stops for celebrating Amber's Birthday!

Welcome to Amber Kallyn’s Birthday Bash. We’ve got some great giveaways for you to win!



I love the holidays, but not necessarily having my birthday fall smack dab in the middle of them, LOL. But this year, I’d like to do something special for my readers. Over 25 authors and bloggers have come together to celebrate my 24th birthday (I won’t mention how many years I’ve turned 24 again ;)



We have some wonderful prizes, and all you have to do is leave a comment at the participating blogs to win. Easy.



And don’t forget, Bloodstorm (Heart of a Vampire, Book 1) is currently free right now for an early present : )




Grand Prize



One commenter will win their choice of a NOOK Simple Touch™ with GlowLight or a Kindle Paperwhite (Up to $140 value)



Ebooks from the following Authors

Paloma Beck (Coming Home, Contemporary romance)

Jami Grey  (Shadow’s Edge and Shadow’s Soul, Urban fantasy)

Zrinka Jelic (Paranormal romance)

Christine Fairchild   (An Eye For Danger, romantic suspense)

Marian Lanouette    (If I Fail, Mystery)

Sylvia Hubbard        (5 Ebooks)

Kenra Daniels          (Safe Heart and Kassern, Paranormal romance)




A $40 Gift card to either Amazon or B&N



Plus, there will be giveaways at some of the other blogs : )

 

How to win

The contest is open from Dec 19th to Saturday the 22nd. Hop to all the blogs. The winner will be chosen from the commenters on all participating blogs. Leave a comment at each blog for additional entries to win. That simple : ) Winner will be drawn on Sunday the 23rd.

Enjoy meeting new authors and book bloggers, and good luck on winning the Birthday Bash Prizes.


Blogs































Friday, December 14, 2012

HOLIDAY GIFTS OF LOVE BLOG HOP




Welcome to the Holiday Gifts of Love Blog Hop!!!

It's a Happy Holiday from your favorite Authors and Bloggers. While we know everyone celebrates a different way, we wanted to make sure that you guys knew how much we treasure you all. So from Dec 14th to Dec 17th, all 200 or so of us will be blogging about the holidays and what they mean to us. We may talk about our favorite holiday traditions, recipes, gifts, reads, heroes, and so much more. We want to hear about what you do for the holidays, what you read, and who you'll spend it with. We hope to see you here and happy hopping!

And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.

But that's not all....

We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize: A $200 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!
Everything but the swag prize is international.

What do the holidays mean to you? To me, it is family and especially for the little ones. Faith, peace and love all the way. I grew up in a large family and we'd get together with extended family during this time as well. Now that my mom and dad are no longer here, and my siblings are spread across the country, time is mainly spent with the immediate family. Since my daughter and her daughter (my granddaughter who is 8 years old), we concentrate our efforts on the little one. We have a nice breakfast and then later a hearty dinner. We deviated a couple years ago and took a trip to London, U.K. for a week and that was a blast, although a bit cold. Larrna, the little one, had a very memorable time and two years later still talks about the trip. Maybe one day will do something that extravagant again, but this year we'll spend another quiet time enjoying the day watching movies and eating good food.

Now for some fun! I'm giving away a PDF of each of my Christmas stories, one from last year and this year's. A Gift of Love and A Vampire's First Christmas can both be yours by commenting below and answering the following question:

What is one of your holiday traditions, if you have any?

Drawing will be by Random.com and announced the next day after the blog ends. Remember you can't be entered into the Grand Prize Drawing unless you commentSO PLEASE WRITE IN YOUR POST TO COMMENT WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!!!!  
Good luck and Happy Holidays!!!