First things first. Winners. We’ve got two this week. I love sending these out but at the holidays it is just sort of special. So claim them early so if you have a moment to spare, you’ll have a brand new pile of books to pick from!

The first winner is blog post #21, Betty Hamilton, who posted on December 5, 2011 at 9:35 AM and said:

What a wonderful Christmas present winning this would be!! I plan on doing a lot of Christmas cookie baking this week!
Merry Christmas!!! and TY for the contests!

I hope Betty baked … Read more »

I love crafting or making holiday gifts–especially all those small gifts you have to take to parties or because all of a sudden you remember you forgot a gift for someone. I think something you have made or put together yourself just means a little more than a bottle of wine you snagged on the way to a holiday party.

So here is something I am doing this year: Homemade Seasonings.

I got empty spice jars at a local wrap and container store, and then I mixed several large bathes of my favorite Taco Seasoning and a favorite Steak/Chicken Rub, … Read more »

My family is full of cooks. We all love to bake and cook and try new recipes, get together and share our discoveries. On the holidays though, we trot out the family recipes. The ones that have been passed down for generations. No one would think–horrors upon horrors–of doing anything but the recipes we all know and love.

In our family, that means “Tess’s rolls” (my mom’s recipe that she’s made forever), that cranberry relish we all love, and a few years ago, in what was dubbed Anarchy Thanksgiving, I snuck in a new dish, Spicy Pearl Onions. It was … Read more »

I posted something over on Twitter earlier this week about Thanksgiving coming and got a panicked reply back from Christina Dodd. “Not next week!” she hollered through the Twittersphere. Yes, people. It’s nearly here.

I’ve blogged about my Thanksgiving trials and tribulations over the years. Take Thanksgiving 2008, when my husband declared he was going to cook Thanksgiving. Lesson learned: a man who says he is going to cook Thanksgiving is only going to delegate. Don’t get sucked into the fairy tale that you won’t have to cook. I’ve also gone on about the stress of counting down to … Read more »

I have nothing pithy to say this morning. I spent all weekend buried in revisions for Along Came a Duke. (Before you ask, it is coming out the end of May.) I will say the changes my wonderful editor asked for were rather minimal, but you still have to go through a story with a fine tooth comb before the copy editor gets her hands on it.

(Insert the boo-hiss here.)

Poor copy editors. They are much maligned and so very necessary, but they are the bane of a writer’s life. So I like to make sure there is … Read more »

Might as well trot out the romance writers. Every year it is the same thing, suddenly the media finds us interesting, they want our thoughts, our opinions on love, romance and of course, the big V-Day. Well I say, Ba-humbug!

Okay, so I am a little cynical about this holiday that has been foisted off on me just because of my chosen profession. But really, if I held the secret to everlasting love and how to make the perfectly romantic night, do you think I would share it? Because then everyone would be doing it and then it would be … Read more »

Thank you one and all for the wonderful year you have shared with me. From your posts here on this blog, to your friendship on Facebook, to your kind emails that arrive in my inbox like little presents, I find daily reminders about why I love being an author–the readers who share my joy in happy endings, a bit of comedy and a dash of adventure. I am constantly amazed that you care so deeply about these characters I’ve created (yes, I am talking about you die-hard Marlowe fans!) and how much they live through not only through my … Read more »

Or, perhaps I should have named this post, What Was I Thinking? In the next few weeks I need to get all the Christmas shopping done. Cook Christmas dinner. Get all the stuff that has to be done for the arrival of How I Met My Countess on December 29th wrapped up and out the door. Oh, bother, I forgot. Get the newsletter written. And yes, finish the next book. Which is very close to being finished, but let me tell you, Christmas is putting the pinch on.

Oh, and to top it all off, my beloved Alphasmart had a … Read more »

I read in an advice column recently a letter from a woman who had hosted Thanksgiving last year and the next morning, one of the guests called her and berated her for not giving out the leftovers. The writer couldn’t fathom why she was supposed to give away her leftovers, while the guest couldn’t fathom how anyone wouldn’t share. When you get right down to it, I suspect leftovers are often the most battled over serving of the entire dinner, with the possible exception of my mom’s holiday rolls. There are never any leftover.

Yet this is all about blending … Read more »

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you might be aware that I adore Thanksgiving. Any holiday dedicated to a week’s worth of cooking that is devoured in about 20 minutes makes my heart go pitter-pat with delight. I mean, come on, I have an entire Category on this blog dedicated to Thanksgiving. There is just something about the marathon aspect of Thanksgiving, the countdown to the big meal, the planning, the recipe sorting, the shopping, the secondary shopping, and the “oh, crap I forgot to get (insert item here)” shopping and then an entire day of … Read more »