Book Contest WINNER!

And the official books read total for the long weekend?

:::drum roll:::

Three! Congratulations Pamela Keener for guessing right first!

I know it's not a big total, but my niece Ashlee decided to make this weekend a big Paula/Ashlee bonding weekend. We watched the whole first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD, so that ate into a lot of my reading time.

I finished the book I mentioned in the update, plus Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren (Harlequin Romance) and The Baby's Guardian by Delores Fossen (Harlequin Intrigue).

Pamela, I'll email you to discuss the prize options. Thanks, everyone else, for playing along. I'll be having a lot more contests in coming months, as I have two books coming out in August and September. :)

Yay, turned in a book! Now let's have a contest!

The April 2011 book is winging its way to NYC, so I have two whole days, plus a long weekend, to read! Whoo hoo! So in honor of my rare chance to read, I'm going to throw together a little contest: how many books can I read by the end of day Monday?

Here are the parameters: I work full time today and tomorrow (and I didn't bring a book with me today to read on my lunch hour, darn it), but I'm off Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I have 7 pages a day to write each day, Saturday through Monday, but 7 pages don't take me a full day to write. And most of the books I'll read this weekend are probably going to be Intrigues, so we're talking short-ish books.

Got the details? Start guessing!

The first person to post the correct (eventual) number in the comments wins your choice of an autographed copy of any of my back list books I still have (I think I have at least one copy of all of them except my first book, although some of the copies may be large print), or a $5 gift certificate to any online retailer (bookseller or otherwise) who sells gift certificates online. (Because I'm lazy that way) :)

I'll check back in on Monday night to let you know the number and who won. And if you have any book recommendations, Intrigues or otherwise, share them with the peeps!

UPDATE:

One book finished. A while back, I downloaded several of the free e-books Harlequin offered to celebrate their 60th anniversary (the books are still available for download in .pdf format here). I read one of them, Married by Mistake by Abby Gaines. Sweet, funny, charming book. A marriage of convenience book done in an innovative and mostly believable way. If you like your romances sweetly spicy with plenty of charm, this is a good one.

Now to pick the next book to read...

Final Blog Days of Christmas Winners

Congratulations to the final set of Blog Days of Christmas prize winners!

Marianne Arkins wins Julie Miller's December Intrigue BEAUTY AND THE BADGE. Kea wins Rita Herron's December Intrigue HIS SECRET CHRISTMAS BABY.

And as a freebie thank you, so that everybody who commented at some point this week wins something, Valerie Oakleaf, Margaret, Martha Lawson, Lelia, Dyeve, Angela, Naima Simone, Crystal-Rain Love, Debbie Kaufman and Chambers 35 will all receive an autographed back copy of one of my books, either FORBIDDEN TOUCH or COWBOY ALIBI. If I can find your email addresses through your blog profiles or other sources, I'll try to email you myself. Otherwise, please email me with your snail mail information so I can send the book to you. My email address is paulagraves@charter.net.

Thanks again for participating in Blog Days of Christmas. You all made it a lot of fun for me.

December Intrigue Spotlight

His Secret Christmas Baby by Rita Herron

Investigator Derrick McKinney's quiet bachelor life was shattered when the son he just learned existed was abducted right out from under the watchful eye of his beautiful guardian. And although she was left unconscious and heartbroken, someone feared Brianna Honeycutt saw more than she claimed, placing her life in danger. Working together, Derrick now had to push aside the long-buried attraction he'd always felt for Brianna. More determined than ever to end this nightmare and put a smile back on Brianna's face, Derrick vowed he'd stop at nothing to bring his baby home in time for Christmas….

About Rita Herron.

Recycled Christmas Tree

And by recycled, I mean this blog post. I posted the same thing in 2007, but I'm bringing it back for an encore because it's still funny and we still talk about it in my family.

My late father used to pinch a penny until it screamed, and then pinch it some more. So when it came to Christmas trees, there was no fun little trip to the Christmas tree lot or farm to be had. And back when I was younger, artificial trees weren't so much in vogue as they are now.

So one Christmas, when I was about 15, my father and my younger brother went out looking for a Christmas tree. What they came back with is the stuff of family legend.

I really have no idea what kind of tree it was. It wasn't a Douglas fir or anything like that. It also wasn't a typical southern long leaf pine sapling, if the needles were anything to go by. And speaking of its foliage, it was, to be generous, sparse.

The tree was about six feet tall, and very, very skinny. There was no gently sloping line from a narrow tip to a full bottom. It was the Olive Oyl of Christmas trees, one thin silhouette from bottom to top, with a handful of sharp, jutting branches like a dozen skinny arms. It managed to stay upright until we hung the first ball. Clearly, the tree was incapable of standing by itself. So my mother, ever practical and ingenious—and well aware that my father would under no circumstances admit that the tree he brought home was anything less that what it should be—decided that we could temporarily sew the top of the tree to the top of the draperies standing right behind it. The thread would keep the tree upright as we applied the decorations.

With the tree fortified, we finished decorating it. Of course, we used about half the decorations we would usually use, and no combination of decorations--more garland than balls, more balls than garland--made it look any less anorexic. But it was a Christmas tree, and there were presents under it on Christmas. And we had something to talk about for years.

Which we did on a regular basis, for the pitiful little Christmas tree had one particular feature that added to the longevity of its memory, long after the pitiful sapling was hauled away in the January garbage. It was quite a shedder, dropping needles at an alarming rate. And the needles were as sharp as sewing needles, stabbing into bare toes and feet like heat-seeking missiles. We vacuumed, hand picked needles out, vaccuumed some more, and yet for YEARS afterwards, some unsuspecting bare foot would happen upon a needle in the carpet and the owner would cry out, "Damned Christmas Tree!"

(originally posted December 21, 2007)

Do you have any Christmas tree stories? Comment and you could win a copy of Julie Miller's BEAUTY AND THE BADGE.

Blue Christmas

I know red, green and gold are the traditional Christmas colors, but I'm a sucker for anything blue. Blue trees, blue ornaments on a silver tree, blue ornaments on a green tree—if it's blue, I'm for it.

My family is not quite as enamored of blue as I am, alas, so it's hard to get much as much blue on the family tree as I would like.

I also love blue on my Christmas cards and Christmas wrapping paper.

Do you like have a particular color scheme you like to play with for Christmas? Metallics? Are you a green fiend? Or maybe it's a particular item that fuels your obsession, like Santas, stars or Nativity scenes.

Confess your Christmas fetish right here in the comments and you could win a $10 Barnes and Noble Gift Card.

And if you haven't commented on the other threads where prizes are being given away, it's not too late. I won't be drawing winners on any of them until late this evening. So get to posting--you could still be a winner!

Two of my favorite Christmas videos

I was going to do a Top 5 Funniest Christmas videos, but I couldn't really find five that I thought were THAT funny. So I'm just going to share a couple I love.

First up, Robert Earl Keene's "Merry Christmas From the Family." I think this one is probably a little funnier if you're from the South and don't exactly fit into the whole Junior League social set (like me)...



And one of my all time favorites--the infamous Straight No Chaser version of The 12 Days of Christmas. Hang in there past the 3rd verse. You won't regret it.



Do you have any fun or funny Christmas music videos? Share them in the comments, and I'll pick a commenter to win Debra Webb's December Intrigue, First Night!

Winners so far, plus a new chance to win

Three contests, three winners!

My email address is linked on my website. Click on the "Contact" link and send me an email with your mailing address, and I'll send y'all your prizes.

First up--the winner of Carla Cassidy's December Intrigue, Scene of the Crime: Bridgewater, Texas is Misty Wright!

The winner of the $10 Barnes and Noble gift card is Louisa Cornell!

And the winner of Cassie Miles' December Intrigue, Secluded with the Cowboy, is Kea.

Congratulations and send me your information so I can get your prizes out to you.

Now, in celebration of the Crimson Tide's Mark Ingram winning the first ever Heisman Trophy for the University of Alabama, leave a comment on this post telling me who you were rooting for in the Heisman race (or tell me you weren't rooting for anyone at all), and I'll draw a winner from the commenters for another $10 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Top 5 Favorite Holiday Foods

I've blogged before about my Weight Watchers journey, haven't I? Why yes, yes I have. (By the way, I've lost 115 pounds since last February).

So you can say I'm a fan of food.

And there's just something about Christmas food, isn't there? Some of it isn't even that good (coughfruitcakecough), but still, it flies off the grocery store shelves anyway.

So, in no particular order, here are my Top 5 Favorite Christmas Foods:

1. Candy Canes

You're no longer limited to the old red and white peppermint sticks. Now, candymakers offer the holiday staple in all sorts of flavors and colors. Yum.

2. Swiss Colony's Cheese Spreads

Back when I was still eating this kind of food, one of my favorite times of year was when someone would send a Swiss Colony basket full of these delicious flavored cheese spreads. Smoked Cheddar was a personal favorite.

3. Cornbread Dressing

Cornbread, onions, celery, sage, eggs, chicken broth and bits of turkey, baked to a golden brown. What's not to love?

4. Hickory Farms Gift Baskets

Summer Sausage! Smoked Gouda! Little Jelly Jars! It's a smorgasbord of holiday cheer.

5. Danish Butter Cookies

Even the crappy brands are worth a nibble. But the Royal Dansk brand? Yum, yum, yum.

That's a weird set of holiday foods, isn't it? But there you have it. Those are my favorites.

What are yours? Leave your list in the comments, and I'll draw from the list of commenters for a copy of Secluded with the Cowboy by Cassie Miles.

I'm Dreaming (Futilely) of a White Christmas, plus contest

As I was writing this blog post ahead of time, about a week ago, I had no idea that, ironically, this post would fall on the first snow of this season. It wasn't much; we have a very pretty dusting of snow on the ground and the trees outside. But snow is snow, and for what it's worth, there's some of the cold white stuff on the ground outside. But will there be a white Christmas here?

Unlikely.

I know I'm going to lose you northerners with this one, but here's the bittersweet truth about Christmas in the South: it almost never snows. In fact, the only reason I included the word "almost" is that I suppose it's remotely possible that somewhere, in some hilly hamlet of the South, it might have snowed on Christmas once in the last fifty years. But as a rule? Nope. No snow on Christmas if you live in the deep South.

Contrary to what today's weather situation might suggest, we rarely get snow at all. There's today's dusting. And we had about a half an inch here in central Alabama earlier this year; I even blogged about it. But there have been many years where we didn't see a flake. But snow is generally localized--you might get a band of heavy rain that hits just when the temperatures are low enough to produce snow, but it's never widespread, it's extremely rare, and it usually melts within hours.

Down here in the South, we get ragged a lot about not being able to cope with snow. Whole cities shut down even with an inch or so of the white stuff. But in our defense, snow of any significance is so rare that trying to prepare the city for dealing with snow would be cost-inefficient. Why buy snow tires or snow chains when you almost never get snow? Why purchase and maintain snow plows when there's never any snow to plow? And how on earth could a Southerner hone his snow driving skills when he can go years without seeing a single flake?

One of these days, maybe, if I live long enough, I'll see it snow on Christmas here in Alabama.

I'm just not holding my breath.

Does it snow for Christmas where you live ? Do you have any White Christmas stories? Share them with the rest of us.I'm going to randomly choose one commenter on this blog post to win a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card, so get to posting!


UPDATED:

Here's what our dusting looked like this morning:

If you're wondering what that tangle of vines is there in the bottom of the photo, that's what's left of last summer's tomato plants, left to go fallow over the winter. You can see a small orangish ball at the bottom right—that's a marigold bloom covered with a crust of snow.

Top 5 Most Interesting U.S. Christmas Traditions, Plus Contest

I think I've blogged before about how non-traditional my family is about Christmas, despite being religious and conservative. I think it's really that we're pretty no-fuss people, and celebrations get so elaborate and complicated.

But I do enjoy hearing about other people's traditions. So I did a little research about Christmas traditions in the United States, just to see what other Americans were doing for the Christmas season.

So without further delay, my Top 5 Most Interesting Christmas Traditions in America, in no particular order:

1. Las Posadas - New Mexico and Arizona



This 9-day celebration (Dec. 16th through Christmas Eve) commemorates the Biblical journey Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem, and their search for a place to stay. The event includes a candle-lit procession and a colorful pageant that usually features the children of the town, and culminates in a big feast on Christmas Eve.

More information on Las Posadas can be found here, here and here.

3. Reveillon - New Orleans

Reveillon, or "awakening" in French, was a Creole custom, borrowed from their French ancestors. After a day of religious fasting on Christmas Eve, the Creoles would come home from Midnight Mass and enjoy an elaborate feast to break the fast. The feast would go on through the night, ending in the early morning hours.

Though it's not celebrated the same way today, since not as many people observe religious fasts, many local New Orleans restaurants still offer Reveillon dinners during the Christmas season.
More here.

4. Christmas Luau - Hawaii

Mele Kalikimaka! The greeting is actually a Hawaiianization of the English "Merry Christmas," which the natives apparently had trouble pronouncing when Christian missionaries introduced the tradition to the islands back in the 1800s.

While most of Hawaii's Christmas Traditions were introduced by the Christian missionaries who arrived there in the 1800s, there was a New Year's festival already celebrated there by the natives, called Makahiki. When the holiday was Christianized to include Christmas, many of the food traditions of the holiday became part of the Hawaiian Christmas tradition.

5. The Mummers Parade - New Year's Day - Philadelphia



Though technically, this is a New Year's Day tradition, it comes out of a Swedish tradition of "Second Day Christmas," featuring post-Christmas visits to friends. The custom expanded to include New Year's Day as well, including a noisy and colorful parade to welcome the new year. There's a good history of the celebration here.

For Philadelphia, the Mummers Parade is as significant and distinctive as Mardi Gras is to New Orleans.

So, how about y'all? What are some of your favorite holiday traditions, here in the US or wherever you live? Please post all about them in the comments and share a little Christmas spirit with the rest of us. Or, if you celebrate a different holiday, like Hannukah, around this time of year, tell us about those traditions as well.

Need the pot sweetened a little bit? I'm going to select one lucky commenter to win a copy of Carla Cassidy's Scene of the Crime: Bridgewater, Texas, which I featured on yesterday's blog post.

So get to commenting!

2008 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence Details

The Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, sponsored by RWA chapter Southern Magic, was conceived in honor of multi-RITA Winner Gayle Wilson to award excellence in published romance fiction. The contest is judged by avid readers of romance, booksellers, and librarians. The winners of each category are awarded a bookmark engraved with the author's name and the book's title. Winners will also be included in a full-page RWR advertisement.

Eligibility: Participation is open to all published authors of novel length romance fiction published by an RWA-recognized publisher. Books must have a copyright of 2007; entries must be received by January 15, 2008. Electronic books may be entered provided they are presented in print book format, published through an RWA-recognized publisher and complete with copyright page produced by the publisher with print on both sides of the page.

Entry fee: RWA Members - $20 for first book; $15 for subsequent books. Entry fee: Non-RWA Members - $30 for first book; $15 for subsequent books.

Author must provide three copies of the entered book, which will not be returned. Finalists will be notified approximately March 3, 2008. Winners will be announced on April 12, 2008, at the Silken Sands Writers Conference in Pensacola Beach, FL. All finalists receive a certificate. Winners receive an engraved bookmark and inclusion in full page RWR ad.

Authors may enter more than one novel; however, the same novel may not be entered in multiple categories. If a category does not receive at least 5 entries, the category will be canceled, and the entrants' books and entry fees will be returned.

Categories for entry: Short Contemporary (Under 70,000 Words)

Long Contemporary (Over 70,000 Words)
Historical
Single Title Romantic Suspense
Series Romantic Suspense
Paranormal/Fantasy/ Futuristic/Time Travel
Contemporary Single Title
Young Adult
Inspirational
Novella (20,000 - 40,000 Words)

Judging: All entries are judged by avid readers of romance, booksellers, and librarians. The top two scores are added to form the final score. The lowest score is dropped. Ties are broken using the dropped low score. Books are given to the judges as a "thank you" for judging. They are not returned. Scores and finalist placement are not revealed. Score sheets are not returned. The decision of the judges is final.

Send entries (three copies of book, entry form + entry fee) to:
Jennifer Echols
Contest Coordinator
Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence
P.O. Box 190032
Birmingham, AL 35219

Make checks payable to Southern Magic.

Questions? E-mail: GWContest@southernmagic.org

Find details, past winners, and a downloadable entry form at http://www.southernmagic.org/gaylewilsoncontest.html