How I celebrate release days. @LeoRosanna

The author life is glamorous, right? We all sit around in comfy clothing, dictating salacious scenes to our secretaries, right?

Well, perhaps not. However, this is an image we've all seen. Truth be told, I've often dreamed of a Barbara Cartland-like existence, one in which I could recline on a chaise longue in an Englaish manor house while wearing lots of bling, my toy poodles at my feet.

It doesn't quite work that way. Take this week, for example. I had the pleasure of releasing another book, A Good Man, Handymen 1. How did I spend my release day?

I worked. When I wasn't acknowledging bloggers for mentioning my release, I was plotting another book. Later in the day, I worked at my day job at the library.

This is pretty much how I've spent all my release days. I've never really thought I had the luxury of basking in the glow of one book, not when there are still so many to write.

Now this doesn't mean I don't celebrate in my own quiet way but, for me, celebration comes when I read postive reviews or when a reader reaches out to me. Those quiet moments of triumph are what inspire me to continue in this crazy business. It's not about roses or champagne. Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe an author has every right to take a victory lap and celebrate properly. After all, we work hard on these books. We invest time and energy and money and it's okay to exult when we see things come to fruition.

I will freely admit I experienced a huge thrill yesterday when I awoke to find out author Larissa Ione had mentioned A Good Man in her "One-Click List" post. What a tremendous thrill that was! I'm still reeling.

But now I have to stop my hands from trembling and I have to get back to work. Perhaps at the end of the week, when I finally have some downtime, I will indulge in a bottle of beer and some vegan cheesecake. A girl's gotta have some pleasure.

Until then, you will find me at my laptop, scribbling as quickly as my cold hands can manage. And if all goes well, I will soon have another release day ... you know, another release day that I can spend behind a keyboard.

Not only is Michael a star on a successful home improvement show, he’s also seen as a local hero. But no one knows about the demons he carries inside him ever since the day he risked his life to save others.

All the accolades and honors only make the memories stronger and the pain unbearable. He would do anything to be able to forget, to put his past behind him and move on.

Michael takes on a new home improvement project, convinced it’s the perfect distraction. Little did he know that Emily, the woman who’s supposed to be nothing more than a client, would turn out to be a huge distraction…and engaged.

While Emily battles with her own personal problems, Michael is determined to keep his distance. The last thing he needs is woman trouble. But when it becomes clear that the attraction is mutual, he realizes staying away from her is not an option.

Now Michael needs to decide if he’s willing to risk exposing his weakness, and his heart…by giving in to temptation.

Buy Link for A Good Man

The Rules for November by @elle_rush #footballrules #Christmas #recipe #freebook

My dad had one football rule when I was growing up. It had nothing to do with watching the game uninterrupted. Nothing about cheering for Saskatchewan (I'm from Manitoba - it was a thing even back in the olden days). It was only one rule:

No Christmas decorations could go up before the Grey Cup. (That's the equivalent of the Super Bowl, for those of you outside of Canada.)

Snow in Manitoba starts after Hallowe'en which, using little kid logic, meant that Santa was coming soon! I didn't realize the Grey Cup is always played on the last weekend of November. Which meant I had to wait a whole 'nother month!

But now I have my own house, so I get to make the rules.

Sadly, this habit is ingrained, so the tree doesn't go up till the first weekend in December. However, it's November now and other stuff is sneaking into various rooms. There's a candy cane coffee mug in the cupboard, Christmas music on my computer, and holiday-themed books everywhere. (We won't even mention what my DVR looks like. Let's just say I should buy stock in Lifetime, W, and Hallmark channels.)

To prime the Christmas pump, I have a free gift for you to help get you in the mood. I am one of several romance authors who are participating in 12 Dates for Christmas to get your holiday season off to a good start. We have put together a free cookbook (download it here) with over a dozen family favourite recipes for the holidays. Each of the recipes was inspired by a Christmas romance, and the recipe book has sneak peeks at all of these books in case you need something to read while you are waiting by the oven for a batch of cookies to come out of the oven.

And because you can't have too much Christmas, we also put together a Facebook group where we are posting recipe, crafts, holiday disasters, and all sorts of fun stuff. (Be warned, I've got some horrible Christmas jokes coming up. I can't help myself.) Please join us for all things Christmas.

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Since Christmas is my favourite holiday, I decided I needed to write a romance series about it. So I did. Welcome to North Pole Unlimited! I'm launching the series this year with two novellas. Some of you may remember Decker and Joy from last year's Crazy Cat Lady anthology. It's been revamped, and now it's available for only $0.99! (Book 2 is coming out next month.)

Jaded P.I. Decker Harkness must track down a missing prototype if he wants a shot at a corporate security contract. Sweet cat-lady Joy McCall has her own investigation running after someone breaks into her animal shelter. When they cross paths during a triple kitten-napping, they’ll have to work together to close their cases. Will everyone make it home to celebrate a merry Christmas together?

Only Santa knows.

Available at Amazon - iBooks - Kobo - Barnes and Noble

Retreat! What I learned while on a writing retreat in Whistler, BC

Our Condo at Whistler had a lovely view

I had an opportunity to head into the gorgeous mountains of western Canada in late October with three friends and fellow Canadian writers: Zoe York, Elle Rush, and Sadie Haller. We hugged, laughed, and wrote our way through the days, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye already.

I learned a few things while I was gone, and I thought I’d share some of them with you.

Top Ten things I learned while on a writing retreat in 

Whistler, BC

10) I’m not the only writer who runs on caffeine, but one cannot write without muse fuel of many other kinds. (we hit Costco on our way out of town.)

This is what muse fuel looks like - note all the various types of caffeine present

9) Whistler Fashion Tip: No matter how cold it gets, you can still wear a mini dress and heels at night, so long as you wear a toque, too. (observed numerous times while walking to and from the main village for dinner.)

8) Whistler is full of Canadian beauty, Australian employees, and bears. 

7) People from Ontario and Winnipeg can't tell the difference between fog and clouds. When you point out the difference, they'll create the hashtag #mountainsarehigh and post about it on Facebook

Yep, mountains are high. And that's not fog, Zoe...

6) Romance writers cry. Over the course of our stay, every single one of us ended up tearing up over one of our scenes.

5) It takes 3 writers to make one pitcher of blood orange cosmos. (and one to take a picture.)

Mixology is a group activity

4) Sharing a condo with people from other time zones makes for early mornings for the west coasters, and very late nights for those from farther east. (but it was totally worth it.)

3) Writers will travel long distances to sit together at a table in total silence, listening to music on noise-canceling headphones, and write "all the words."

And apparently, we all write on mac airs....

2) You can open a wine bottle with a knife if there’s no corkscrew handy

1) The clerk will be very confused if you go to sign in at the front desk and have to ask your friends “So, what the hell are your real names?”

It was an amazing, wonderful, and very productive week. I can't wait to do it again. 

Bonus picture:  I snapped this one on the ferry to Vancouver. What a view!  

#RomanceWriterResearch.

And one of the actual view

Loving Stories and Love Stories with @NathanBurgoine

While the Husky loves the ever-cooling weather, his intrepid thrice-daily-walker (a.k.a. me) is less thrilled. I struggle with the season of wet (followed by the season of snow and ice), though he certainly helps. It's hard to begrudge the frost-covered leaves when it makes the husky run in circles of abject delight.

See? He loves it.

Me, on the other hand? I want to run and fetch a blanket, some white hot chocolate, and sit down with some short stories or novellas. Happy ones.

I think this reaction to the cooling weather mostly came from working retail for a couple of decades. The tilt of our lovely planet's axis means that pretty soon, those of us in Ottawa will be waking up in the dark, and coming home from work in the dark (though, this weekend, we get some light back in the morning for a while, at the price of early evening sunsets). Heading to a retail job in the dark, returning in the dark, and not seeing the sun until a day off? Doesn't breed love for late fall nor winter's approach.

It may sound silly, but November and December are months where my reading habits completely change. For one, I re-read things I've loved. I need to dive into waters I've already explored, and swim along with the current knowing it's going to take me somewhere nice, or just get back out of the water when I'm ready, since I already know how it ends.

On the re-read side of things, a few books of the season: A Coventry Christmas by Becky Cochrane is a book a re-read every year at some point in November, and it starts my "find the joy of the season" quest. Similarly, no December is complete without a re-read of A Christmas Carol. And it's not always about the holidays. I often dive back into the early Harry Potter books.

For another, I read shorter things almost exclusively. The same way the sun seems to fade, so goes my ability to hold attention on a longer story. I need my jolt of happy endings to come faster.

Enter short stories and novellas.

I'll re-listen to Blame it on the Mistletoe by Eli Easton (usually while baking cookies), and page my way through The Firflake by Anthony Cardno. I'm looking forward to revisiting A Little Queermas Carol by Sassafras Lowrey, too, which I discovered last year. I'll re-listen to I Heard Him Exclaim, by Z. A. Maxfield, too (usually while walking the dog). Basically, all the happy holiday stories I can find? Gimme.

I dig out my Year's Best collections, be they science fiction, romance, mystery, or otherwise, and stack them beside the bed, often reading a story a night. I find my magazines, too, and load my e-reader with short fiction and novellas I've picked up throughout the year.

Heavy on the holiday romances, of course.

Between the dog's joy in the snow, and all these small tales of happy loves, (and ginger cookies and white hot chocolate and a lot of commiseration with my husband, who feels the same way and generally adds video games to his list of coping mechanisms), I get through the dark months.

As a writer, I hadn't done a holiday romance story before. Mostly that came from working retail (I swear there's little to top that in sapping a person's love of the holidays), but since I stopped, a few ideas circled in my brain, and eventually, I sat down and wrote one. It wasn't on contract, and it wasn't for a specific call, and when it was done I realized I didn't have the slightest idea where I could give it a home.

Happily, NineStar Press was willing. So this year? This year one of those holiday novellas out there, hopefully adding a bit of light to the dark for readers like me? One of them is mine.

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At nineteen, Nick is alone for the holidays and facing reality: this is how it will be from now on. Refusing to give up completely, Nick buys a Christmas tree, and then realizes he has no ornaments. A bare tree and an empty apartment aren’t a great start, but a visit from his friend Haruto is just the ticket to get him through this first, worst, Christmas. A box of candy canes and a hastily folded paper crane might not be the best ornaments, but it’s a place to start.

A year later, Nick has realized he’s not the only one with nowhere to go, and he hosts his first “Christmas for the Misfit Toys.” Haruto brings Nick an ornament for Nick’s tree, and a tradition—and a new family—is born.

As years go by, Nick, Haruto, and their friends face love, betrayal, life, and death. Every ornament on Nick’s tree is another year, another story, and another chance at the one thing Nick has wanted since the start: someone who’d share more than the holidays with him.

Handmade Holidays is available for pre-order at NineStar Press.

50k or Bust: #NaNoWriMo2017 #AmWriting @LDBlakeley

It's that time of year again!

Do you NaNo? I have a few times, but have only managed to do it successfully once. I've decided to give it a whirl again this year since my writing schedule somehow magically aligned with NaNoWriMo. There was no scurrying around trying to come up with a story idea. And because I'm writing the third book in a series, banging out character sketches and plotting storyline didn't make me want to pull out my hair. Much.

I'm so organized I could cry.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I just jinxed myself by putting all that out into the universe. That's how that works, right?

In any event, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for the unindoctrinated) kicks off today. And while 50,000 words in one month may sound somewhat daunting, it's not so bad if you break it down into daily chunks. 50,000 words in 30 days? Yikes. But 1,667 words in one day? A bit less nail bitey.

I know a lot of full-time writers can hit this word count goal in their sleep. But for someone like me (quite possibly the slowest writer in all of Canada; most definitely the slowest one in the Greater Toronto Area) I can drag 50,000 words into months and months of writing, no matter how inspired I'm feeling. So for me, NaNoWriMo is the perfect virtual cheerleader.

I like dropping by Twitter or Instagram (provided, of course, I don't get sucked into a day-long scroll) for a bit of a check-in with other participants. Knowing so many others are in the same boat can sometimes give me that extra bit of oomph I need to push past a scene or chapter.

If you'd like to join in the fun, head on over to NaNoWriMo.org and sign up. And if you'd like to add me as a writing buddy – you can find me HERE. I'd love the company!

With that said, I have a word count to meet. See you in 30 days!

Happy writing,