Summer is here! With it, hot weather, long nights and vacation fun.

One of the things I like to do when I’m procrastinating writing, cleaning, or paying bills, is to search for things I don’t need on eBay. I have huge lists of things I “watch” but will never bid on, just because I’m curious how high the bidders will go on items like Ursula Leyk lighthouses from Germany (very popular with military wives back in the 90’s), or Villeroy & Boch Christmas ornaments. While browsing the lists, I was surprised by how many vintage toys are available for purchase, and began to search for toys that I had as a child.

My absolute favorite was the Sunshine Family dolls, a sweet hippy family made by Mattel, consisting of Mom, Dad, and Baby Sweets. My older sister had Barbies, but I only wanted to play with the Sunshine Family, and I brought them with me everywhere. I think they cost about $10 back in 1974, and I saw them on sale for about $70 on eBay.

The least favorite toy I had was a ventriloquist Bozo the Clown doll that scared the bejeezus out of me. I would grab it by a foot and, holding it at arms’ length, would fling the thing deep into my closet. My mom would pull it out and put it back on my chair, and I never had the courage to tell her how much I hated that doll. My uncle came to visit one day with his golden retriever, Molly, who had an obsession with burying things. My sisters and I gave the Bozo doll to her and watched in glee as she buried it behind our garage. After that, we were too afraid to go back there for fear that it would crawl out of the ground and come after us.

These days, my favorite toys include things like my iPod, my laptop, and my Wii. What about you? What were some of your favorite toys as a child, and what about now? Leave a post here, and I’ll select somebody at random to receive a $25 Amazon gift card toward the purchase of a new toy!;-)

The Blaze Babes are having a Scavenger Hunt!!!

Where? Here on the blog

When? From the 14th of the month till the 14th of the month

How? All you need to do is watch the blog and read each post during the month. Included somewhere in 5 posts will be a Scavenger Hint When you put all the hints together, they’ll give you a message or ask you a riddle.

Email BlazeAuthors@gmail.com with all five hints and what the message or answer to the riddle is (don’t post it anywhere here on the blog or you’ll be dq’d). All the correct messages will go in a drawing for a fab prize!

Sound like fun? Then let the hunt begin…

Wishing you a day filled with Blazing Hot Romance!!

I think I know why people read romances. I figured that out at thirteen when I found a Harlequin Presents left behind at the family cottage. But why write romance when there are so many “loftier” forms of literature?

Way back when I first decided to write a novel, I was thrilled to join a small, apparently dedicated group of writers who met once a week in a community building. They were “fiction writers” and I joined with bright-eyed enthusiasm and barrels of energy, eager to learn and absorb all they were willing to share.

The group consisted of a retired English teacher, an extremely talented writer married to a musician who was convinced he was the only creative in the family and she didn’t deserve the time to study craft or to write. There was a family man who wanted to write adventure. Another member sold non-fiction articles and had a fabulous idea for a women’s fiction novel. We had a woman married to a professor (for some reason she thought his position was relevant in terms of her ’standing’ in the group) She was convinced that literary fiction was the only thing worth writing.

I found this group in October of that year…and had already begun my first romance novel. By January, I’d completed a partial and had queried Harlequin to see if they’d be interested. I never considered not querying. The whole thing of you write, you submit, you write, you submit just made sense.

Apparently I was alone in that theory. As time moved along, I realized not a one of them had ever submitted their work (aside from the article writer that is).

The retired teacher was actually afraid of what her family would think. This was a woman well into her middle years who’d raised a family, had a successful career and a genuine love of the written word.

By the next fall, I’d had my first rejection from Harlequin, (the first of many!) had found the local chapter of RWA, and was working on a new story. I wrote, I submitted, I wrote . . .

The chance to do a reading from our works in progress came to the group. I was asked not to read. Why? Because I wrote romance, and you know, they didn’t want the writing group’s rep to be tarnished. Huh.

I went to the reading: heard a member read a poem by Robbie Burns instead of his own work. Other people in the group finally admitted they hadn’t actually been writing and had nothing to read.

And these people were encouraging me to stop writing romance. Huh.

I write romance because I believe in romance. I believe love is what makes us get up in the morning. It is a driving force in our lives. Love makes us connect with others, makes us have pets, makes our lives glorious and miserable and messy and beautiful.

Love makes life . . . life

. . . and I wouldn’t trade my romance writing for anything else.

And if I feel a twinge of validation for my efforts and in my career I hope you’ll forgive me. There’s a five year old in most of us who gets a one-shot at blowing raspberries and when my first Harlequin Blaze hits the stands in a few weeks, imagine me, mouth pursed, blowing the biggest juiciest raspberry EVAH!

One thing that you can always count on with a Blaze hero is that he’ll be hot and sexy! The question this month is, is there a type of hero you find sexier than others? The dark haired hotties or those dashing blonds? Redheads with their fiery passion? Cast your vote and share what your favorite sexy hero looks like in the comments section.

Wishing All of You a Happy Holiday from All of Us here at the Blaze Authors Blog!!

According to that most authoritative of research sources, Wikipedia, October 25 has several interesting events associated with this date:

1415: The feast date of Sts. Crispin and Crispinian, featured in Henry V as well as the date of the Battle of Agincourt. This is the “Band of Brothers” speech by Henry rallying the men. I use it in Her Last Line of Defense as the hero Luc talks about the bonds formed with his fellow soldiers under the harsh conditions of war. In a weird footnote, these saints are the patron saints of leather workers and leather wearers—i.e. bikers. Glad to know somebody’s looking out for them considering all the bad traffic on the road.

1616: For our Aussie friends, Dutch sea captain Dirk Hartog makes landfall on, yes, Dirk Hartog Island off the West Australia coast.

1760: For our British friends, George III becomes King of England. For our American friends, George III eventually becomes Mad King George, whose “eccentric” reign encourages us to wave England a fond farewell.

1813: For our Canadian friends and editors (who are friends as well), the Canadians and Mohawks defeat the Americans at the Battle of Chateauguay. My father’s family are old New Englanders, and some of the children were kidnapped into the Mohawk tribe in the 1600’s. When their original family found them many years later, several of them refused to come back, and had been adopted into the tribe. Even now, many Mohawks have my same last name.

1861: Again for Canada, the Toronto Stock Exchange opened. Is Harlequin traded on this exchange at all? If so, can I buy some stock? Or is that insider trading? From what I hear, Harlequin is doing very well.

1938: For Dubuque, Iowa (because you’re not a Dubuquer if you don’t play euchre), Archbishop Francis J.L. Beckman calls swing music “a degenerated musical system… turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people”, warning that it leads down a “primrose path to hell”. Although Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller don’t seem like demonic minions to me, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

1944: For our Filipino friends, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle in history. Also for my husband, the biggest World War II buff in history.

For this kind of information, Wikipedia can be fun and a great brainstorming tool. I looked up my birthday, my family’s birthdays and other various dates. Take a look at what you can find out about your favorite dates. If you find anything interesting, let us know!