I’ve been doing a little prep work for Christmas day. No, not putting up my tree or decking the halls (though I need to get on that pretty quick). I’ve been dragging and dropping files from the PC desktop into Dropbox. Whether we’ve been good enough to find a shiny new iMac under the tree will be a last minute decision for Santa but, just in case, I’ve been throwing anything I want to save into the cloud. That way, if there’s an Apple under my tree, I don’t have to mess around. I can yank that PC and be done with it.

I’ve been using Dropbox for a while. My work is there not only as backup, but because I can easily pick it up on another computer or any of my mobile gadgets. My Calibre library is stored there, both for backup and for easily picking up books on my phone. My printer isn’t wifi, so to print from my Macbook, I just drop the document in Dropbox, pick it up on the desktop and print. This is the first time I’m using it to move files from one computer to another, but it definitely makes the process faster and less stressful. (It’s files/documents only, so no programs, but if I get a new iMac, there aren’t any programs from the 7 yr old PC I want to take with me.)

Now all I have to do is cross my fingers Santa loves me this year. Oh, and put up my tree. And decorate it. And shop. And wrap. And…*thump*

Don’t forget to stop by Reader, I Created Him!

Why did I grab a copy when I not only already have a copy, but have already read and loved it? To give away! It’s sitting on the top of the mailer, just waiting for a name and address to be filled out.

Here, have the back cover copy!

Enticed by His Forgotten Lover

“Have we met?”



Answer: a right hook! Because Bryony Morgan pulls no punches. Even when she’s very pregnant and facing down the father of her unborn child. She fell for wealthy hotelier Rafael de Luca when he courted her for her beachfront real estate. Then he disappeared. Now, she’s in New York for answers—and she won’t accept a brush-off.

But selective amnesia after a crash has Rafael puzzled. How could he ever forget a combustible beauty like Bryony? Solution: return to the island where they met, and relive the unforgettable nights in question—until he remembers everything….



Pregnancy & Passion: When irresistible tycoons face the consequences of temptation…

Here, have some handy-dandy, buy-it-right-this-second digital links! Harlequin | Kindle | Nook | Kobo | Sony

Or if you want to win the pretty paperback copy that’s sitting on my kitchen counter right now, tell me your favorite thing about autumn here in the comments. Or if you’re on the flip side of the equator, tell me your favorite thing about spring.

Tomorrow morning, between 9am and 10am eastern, I’ll check to see if anybody got stuck in moderation and then choose one random commenter to win.

I enjoyed reading the suggestions for Mary’s maiden name so much. And some of them even made me a little sniffly. I love family names. My oldest son: first name is my husband’s 3x-great-grandmother’s maiden name and his middle name is her daughter’s maiden name. Youngest: we wanted to name him after my husband’s father, who passed away when my husband was very young, but there was already a junior and a third and so on. Since the family came from Ireland, we used the Irish form of the name. His middle name is my husband’s name. So I love names that honor family history.

In the end, I chose the name that just sounded the most “right” to me (which is a weird writer thing almost impossible to explain other than “it just seemed right”) and Mary’s maiden name is Gifford.

So the first winner, who offered Gifford as a suggestion, is Corinne Bridges.

The second winner, chosen by random draw, is Melanie Findley.

Corinne and Melanie, please email me (shannonstacey@gmail.com) and tell me if you’d like your gift certificate to be for Amazon, Barnes & Noble or All Romance eBooks.

And thank you, everybody! There were so many fabulous names in the list!

Ashlea
angel Graham
Pam Asberry
Jean

Congratulations and I’ll be in touch with you shortly via the email address you entered when you commented!

I do hope everybody else will consider signing up (last session before the price increase!) because I truly believe it’s a wonderful investment in your writing career.

How good is this workshop? Angela and I have worked together for years and done many books together, but I still learned a ton when I took it last year. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re submitting books or you’re published or you’re a bestseller, if you can check your ego at the door and throw yourself into this workshop, I guarantee you will be a better writer at the end of it.

I’m giving away three registration fees for the 7/11-8/1 session of Before You Hit Send because it’s an amazing workshop and I’m very lucky to have Angela as my editor and I’d like to share the luck a little. How can you enter? Here in the comments, tell me what genre you’re working on. (Contemporary romance or thriller or science fiction or historical romance, for example.). That’s it.

I’ll draw three winners randomly at about 10am eastern on Monday, so everybody else will still have time to sign up. (And I’ll double-check for any in moderation before I draw.) Good luck!

Before You Hit Send workshop

Start Date: July 11, 2011
End Date: August 1, 2011

Join Angela James for a 3 week workshop as she shares some of the common pitfalls she’s seen in submissions and contest entries. She’ll give you:

Ideas, tips and tricks for polishing and self-editing your manuscript. Tips are delivered in daily individual lessons along with examples and assignments to help you get the most out of your workshop experience.

(Click HERE for full details.)

In celebration of our one year anniversary, I asked as many of our Harlequin team members and Carina Press freelance editors as possible to write a short blog post, talking about what the past year or so has been like for them, working on Carina Press. I deliberately didn’t provide any direction other than that, because I wanted to see what people came up with, in the spirit of Carina’s 1st anniversary. I was so pleased when I saw what they’d all come up with, and had to say (and some of these posts made me just a little teary)! I hope you enjoy the post, and look for your opportunity to win a Carina Press book at the bottom of this post. ~Angela James

Eleanor Elliott is the Director of Digital Properties and Social Media for Harlequin and Carina Press. As part of the Carina Press management team, she oversees CarinaPress.com and is a member of the acquisitions team, where she’s given the ‘thumbs up’ to almost 60 manuscripts. She’s an avid reader, television watcher, and sci-fi geek. You can follow her on Twitter.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been acutely aware of the duality of time – how things can seem to be both new and old at the same time. How, when I look at my toddler playing in the yard, I can’t believe that almost 3 years have gone by since his birth, while simultaneously feeling like it’s hard to imagine or remember what things were like without him.

As Carina Press celebrates its first anniversary, I am filled with those exact same emotions. The year since our official launch date seems to have flown by, but it also feels like I’ve always been working on Carina Press.

When Angela James asked all of us on the team to write a blog post as part of our anniversary celebration, I remembered the moment not when we launched, in June 2010 – but a moment about 9 months earlier, when Malle Vallik told me that our proposal for this new venture had been approved by the Harlequin Leadership team….I actually danced in her cubicle I was so excited. Back then, Carina Press was just an idea, an idea that a few of us were dangerously passionate about. To be here, on the 1 year anniversary of the existence of this business, well, to say it feels a little unreal is an understatement.

Carina Press is often the highlight of my work week. To be able to work with talented, creative, and enthusiastic people is a blessing. The word ringing through my head as I reflect upon the last year is gratitude.

So, I think it’s appropriate to say thank you.

Thank you, to the Harlequin Leadership team for letting us run with Carina Press.

Thank you, Malle and Aideen – my co-conspirators in this exciting idea.

Thank you, Angela James, for joining us at exactly the right time. Before you, Carina Press was a proposal – with you, it became a reality, and it wouldn’t be what it is today without you. You have become its heart and soul.

Thank you, to the wonderful, talented, and creative authors who have trusted us with something so dear to their hearts: their amazing stories.

Thank you, to the team of amazing editors, copy-editors, and cover artists who bring our vision for Carina Press books to life.

Thank you, to the amazing book blogger community who embraced Carina Press from the beginning. Your support has been invaluable.

But mostly, thank you to those of you who have purchased and read our books – for taking a chance on us, for writing reviews, for giving us feedback, for talking to us on Facebook, Twitter, and our blog. You are helping to shape Carina Press as we go.

From the beginning, we said that it was our job to connect authors with a story to tell to readers who want to read it. I hope we’ve done just that.

To celebrate Carina’s one year anniversary of publishing books, we’re giving away some prizes. Today, on each of the nineteen blogs our team members are featured on, we’re giving away a download of a Carina Press book to one random winner (that’s nineteen total winners!) All you need to do to be entered to win is comment on this post. You can enter to win on all nineteen posts. In addition, on the Carina Press blog, we’re giving away a grand prize of a Kobo ereader and 12 Carina Press books of the winner’s choice. Visit the Carina Press blog to enter to win, and to see links to all 19 of today’s blog posts.

And a sincere thank you from all of us, to our readers and authors, for making Carina Press’s first year a success!

First…the back cover copy:

Sean Kowalski no sooner leaves the army than he’s recruited by Emma Shaw to be her fake fiancé. Emma needs to produce a husband-to-be for her grandmother’s upcoming visit, and, though Sean doesn’t like the deception, he could use the landscaping job Emma’s offering while he decides what to do with his civilian life. And, despite his attraction to Emma, there’s no chance he’ll fall for a woman with deep roots in a town he’s not planning to call home.

Emma’s not interested in a real relationship either; not with a man whose idea of home is wherever he drops his duffel bag. No matter how amazing his “pretend” kisses are…

How do you enter? Emma’s a landscaper so, here in the comments, tell me your favorite flower or plant. Tomorrow, probably around noon eastern, one random commenter will win a copy of Yours To Keep!

From Twitter: @wrytersblock, who would shift into a mongoose.

From that site currently hating on contests: Keisha Talley, who would shift into a panther.

And from here on the blog: Lindsey Hutchison, who would shift into a wolf or leopard.

Congratulations! Email me (shannonstacey AT gmail DOT com) and I’ll get a copy shipped out to you!

I wish I could have given a copy to everybody, but if you didn’t one won, I’d highly recommend buying a copy. It’s such a wicked good book. And the second book, Storm’s Heart, is available for pre-order!

I guess it’s only fair I choose an animal I’d want to shift into.

I should probably go with sloth as it would be the least traumatic shock to my body, seeing as how it’s my natural state anyway. I’d be the Wyr-Sloth lounging in the trees watching your Wyr-Dragons and Wyr-Mongooses and Wyr-Jungle Cats save the world.

Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I rarely read shifter books. And by rarely, I mean almost never. And, of the ones I’ve read, almost all were written by friends. I pretty much ignored early mentions of Dragon Bound. The buzz grew, but I still skimmed over it. Shifters don’t really fire my engine and the word-of-mouth I was seeing included words like magic, Fae and such. Really not my thing.

It wasn’t long, however, before the buzz became a roar capable of penetrating even my thick skull and, when a bunch of people whose reading tastes I know and (mostly) trust are saying a book is amazing, I pay attention. But still I waffled. Wyr-dragon? Really? Then a friend gifted it to my Kindle and thus ended the waffling.

You guys, this book is amazing. The rich details created a world so complete and “real”, I fell into it and didn’t want to leave, without bogging down the pacing with long descriptive passages. The author’s voice is sharp and evocative, able to bring me to tears or make me laugh out loud with a just a few lines. Dragon Bound is populated by interesting characters I can’t wait to read more about.

The romance is truly swoon-worthy and the action scenes are so intense I caught myself holding my breath more than once. And did I mention the romance? Happy, happy sighs.

There are many reviews for Dragon Bound out there, written by far more analytical readers than me, if you want to know more about the premise and plot twists and such. But the bottom line: this book is wicked good. (And that’s the New England wicked good, which translates roughly to “astoundingly, astonishingly, unbelievably amazing”.)

Sometimes a book comes along that reminds that, while I might say I like reading contemporary romances or westerns or medieval romances, all I really want is a wicked good story I can lose myself in. Dragon Bound was that book.

Here comes the fun part: Because this wicked good book came to me as a gift, I’m going to pass it on and give away a copy of Dragon Bound. (Paperback, will ship from Amazon to US and from Book Depository to elsewhere.) How do you enter?

Tell me, if you could be a shapeshifter, which animal would you wish to shift into?

I’ll accept answers wherever I run amok: here in the comments, on my Facebook Page, or you can @reply me on Twitter if you want. (Only one entry per person, though. Going to all three doesn’t count as three entries. I just know different people like different social media platforms, so trying to include everybody.) I’ll be making a master list and I’ll draw a random winner at about noon eastern time on Friday.

So, which animal would you like to shift into?

Captain Joe Mendoza has wanted to be fire chief since he was four years old. And now he’s one step away from making assistant chief. But that’s proving to be one big step now that the chief’s daughter has joined his crew. He’s promised he’ll keep her safe — and promised himself to keep things strictly business.

Faith Peligni has battled her way back from an on-the-job injury in San Antonio, and she’s stronger than ever. Even if as the first female firefighter on the San Amaro Island crew — and the chief’s daughter — she’s expecting some heat. But with the impossibly distracting Joe Mendoza as her captain, who knew it could get this hot?

A romance hero with an armful of cute kitties! To enter, tell me if you’re a cat person or a dog person. Or both. Or neither. At about 10am eastern tomorrow, I’ll draw a name to win Burning Ambition!

(Also, I’ll be giving away a cool, yet-to-be-determined prize to one randomly drawn newsletter subscriber in June to celebrate the release of Yours To Keep, so don’t forget to SIGN UP if you want a chance to win the…something. But something cool. Promise.)