Can you tell I love to write about the holidays? Something about the special sights, scents and sentiments of the season gives me endless fodder for stories. This year I have a new Heather Hiestand holiday release, Christmas Delights, and as Anh Leod, “Wet Christmas” in the Christmas Nookies anthology. The top line of stories are sensual and the second line are sweet.
Learn more about all my books and holiday stories at the link below!
http://www.amazon.com/Tempting-Josie-Anh-Leod-ebook/dp/B00JWRWA7I
Read my sexy contemporary romance set in small town Spruce Park, WA this holiday weekend for just $.99! The second Spruce Park story, Wet Christmas, will be out in a holiday anthology any day now.
Blurb:
Miguel Barrino, an undercover FBI agent, has trailed a priceless piece of stolen art to his former home town. He needs answers from his artist ex. She’s involved in the theft somehow. Can he keep Josie out of trouble and still heat things up with her under the covers? With criminals on the loose, falling in love could lead to more than hearts in danger.
This extract from my new release had to be cut from Chapter One! It is one of three mini-stories I made up as part of my holiday house party tale.
from Christmas Delights, Chapter One:
“I know a story about birds,” Miss Redcake said dreamily. “I particularly remember it because my cousin Lewis used to make automaton birds. They spoke in the eeriest voices. When I hear the story I think of his creations.”
“Oh, do tell,” Penelope urged. “You can stop any time you feel out of breath.”
Miss Redcake nodded. “This is the story I was told. In Roman times, Clementina was trying to escape from a lover who’d become too insistent when they’d taken an after-dinner walk. She ran into a fen, to hide on a peat mound among the tall grasses and spindly willows, hoping the sounds of bird calls would hide her slow progress along the sand. It had rained a great deal, being spring, and she left footprints in the clay. But before she went deeper into the fen, she turned, fearfully, to look for her tormentor, and saw that her footsteps were being filled in by wildflowers.” Miss Redcake paused and sniffed her salts.
“My goodness,” murmured Victoria. Another spurned lover tale. She’d rather hear one about a lover catching the girl and laying her down in a meadow of wildflowers.
But no, Miss Redcake had a more poetic soul than she. “When Clementina turned back, she found her way blocked by a tall figure. The light was descending by then and she only had a faint impression that this was a man in a cloak or a habit. A monk perhaps? A traveler?
“Clementina stepped forward, holding out her hands in imprecation. When she looked back again, sure she’d heard footsteps, she found reeds had grown up all around her and the figure. Protection or imprisonment? She did not know.”
“Good heavens,” Penelope breathed, letting the bag of peppermint candies she’d taken out of her pocket drop to her lap.
Miss Redcake smiled. “The sound of footsteps diminished. The figure in front of her raised its arms. Clementina shrank back, then all of a sudden, the figure dissolved into hundreds of sedge warblers. Their frantic squeak chirr calls sounded in deafening repetition. But five seconds later, the birds were gone, flown over the reeds. And Clementina was alone, her virtue safe for another night.”
“Lucky her,” Victoria said sarcastically.
Christmas Delights, the new Redcake’s book, releases in electronic form today, to join its print brethren! Because it is a holiday house party book, it is truly a standalone release in the series and can be enjoyed whether you’ve read the first four books.
To by the book, see my links here
Join my blog tour to read exclusive excerpts from the book and enter to win a big gift card!
November 10: Susana’s Parlour
November 10: A Writer’s Life
November 11: Rachel Brimble Romance
November 12: Room With Books
November 13: Queen of All She Reads
November 14: SBM Book Obsession
November 17: Dena Garson – Real… Hot… Romance
November 17: Unabridged Andra’s
November 18: Buried Under Romance – review
November 19: The Buttontapper
November 20: A Cup Of Tea and A Big Book – review
November 21: Brooke Blogs
November 24: Cynthia Gail
November 25: Love Saves the World
November 26: Booklover Sue
November 27: Bunny’s Review – review
November 28: Danita Minnis
November 28: Hope. Dreams. Life… Love
Meet my Characters Blog Hop~Meet Lewis from “Christmas Delights.”
Hi everyone! I was invited to participate in this blog hop by Heather Heyford. You can read Heather’s post here: http://heatherheyford.com/?page_id=1419
First, a bit of info about Heather Heyford:
Author Bio:
Born in the Northeast, Heather Heyford learned to walk and talk in Texas, and then moved to England. (“Ya’ll want some scones?”) While in Europe, Heather was forced by her cruel parents to spend Saturdays in the leopard vinyl back seat of their Peugeot, motoring from one medieval pile to the next for the lame purpose of ‘learning something.’ What she soon learned was how to allay the boredom by stashing a Cosmo under the seat. Now a recovering teacher, Heather writes love stories, feeds hardboiled eggs to suburban foxes, and makes art in the Mid-Atlantic. The first book in her Napa Wine Heiresses series from Kensington Publishing, A Taste of Chardonnay, is available in print and digital. For Kindle or in print: http://amzn.to/1u3zFhF Nook: http://bit.ly/1u3zIKq
For iPad, download iBooks app or go to the iTunes store on-line. Or go to HeatherHeyford.com
Thanks, Heather, for the invitation!
Now, I’m supposed to choose one character from a work-in-progress or a recently published book and answer seven easy questions. Here goes!
What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?
Lewis Noble. He is fictional, although he’s been living in my head for so long he seems real. His first appearance was in The Marquess of Cake, the first in the Redcakes series, set in 1886. Now, he finally gets his own story.
When and where is the story set?
Christmas Delights is set in London and Pevensey, England over the 1889-1890 winter holiday. This is my 12 Days of Christmas/holiday house party story.
What should we know about him/her?
Lewis is a sexy, absent-minded inventor. He’s a humble and brilliant man. Back in 1886, he was living in his uncle’s home and mostly working for the man, inventing improved equipment for the family’s baking businesses. He loves all machinery though, and is mostly focused on horseless carriages these days. He has a teenaged ward, Eddy Jackson, who we met in One Taste of Scandal, who acts as his apprentice.
What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
He thinks he’s in love with his cousin, the Marchioness of Hatbrook, who married another man a few years before the start of his book. This lost, perfect love keeps him from searching for a lasting happiness with a woman. Did he really love her, or is the ideal of her a useful convenience?
What is the personal goal of the character?
He wants to perfect whatever piece of machinery he’s tinkering with. During the book, he’s working on a submarine with his friend, the Earl of Bullen, during the holidays.
Is there a working title for this novel and can we read more about it?
The working title was Castle in the Sea, but it was changed to Christmas Delights.
Here is the blurb:
The sweetest gift is the hardest to unwrap…
Lady Victoria Allen-Hill never dreamed she’d be a widow at twenty-one—let alone a virgin. Her father insists that she attend a matchmaking house party in the snow-covered seaside town of Pevensey in hopes she’ll find a suitable husband. But for Victoria, it’s an opportunity to indulge in a passionate affair—and the handsome inventor she meets at the Christmas Eve masquerade ball may be just the man for the job…
Lewis Noble is the cousin of London’s famed Redcake sisters, so it almost stands to reason that he’s just as irresistible as one of their sugar-iced pastries. Lewis catches the eye of every woman at the party—but Victoria is the only one who catches his. He won’t be tied down in her father’s business, but watching other men court her amid a flurry of engagements ignites a jealousy he’s never felt before. A dose of honesty may be just the thing to mend their broken hearts—for many holidays to come…
You can access all of the buy links here:
https://heatherhiestand.com/books/christmas-delights/
Follow the blog hop! Next up is J.A. Kazimer on October 27th!
J.A. Kazimer is a writer living in Denver, CO. Books include The Junkie Tales, The Body Dwellers, CURSES! A F***ed-Up Fairy Tale, Holy Socks & Dirtier Demons, Dope Sick: A Love Story, SHANK, Froggy Style: A F***ed Up Fairy Tale, The Assassin’s Heart, and the forthcoming Deadly Ever After series from Kensington Books – The Fairyland Murders. You can find her online at jakazimer.com.