Just call me Princess Nancy. Yep, that is my bona fide, official Las Vegas stripper name. I am, you see, a proud graduate of Stripper 101.
I must admit, on booking my trip to Vegas, I was apprehensive but kind of intrigued by the whole notion of ordinary women learning stripper moves. I might not have done it but I thought my characters would in my upcoming series, so, Naturally, where my characters go, there go I! There were six of us in the class, which is given in a small dance studio in the V theater in Planet Hollywood. While we were in class, a Beatles tribute band played out front adding the surreal experience. So, anyway, here’s what I learned. 1. The sexiest part of a woman is her attitude. It’s true! We were all shapes, ages and sizes, and it didn’t matter. Once a woman finds her inner stripper, she connects with her sexuality. Or maybe that works the other way around. 2. Pole dancing is easier than it looks. I have pretty weak arms and was fairly certain I’d be on the floor faster than a firefighter zipping to a five alarm fire. But, in fact, you use your own body momentum and your legs to help hold you up. Though, I must admit, my arms are still sore and the class was Thursday. 3. The stripper is in control. I think that’s the fun of it for us average women who never intend to take our clothes off in public (and probably wouldn’t get paid if we did). When you do this stuff in the privacy of your home, you set the pace, and the results can be a lot of fun.

So there you are, my holiday gift to you, straight from Princess Nancy, three tips for a thrilling private strip party. 1. Attitude, baby. Attitude. 2. Use your body and trust it. 3. Take control. And have fun with it. Your guy will thank you.

I wish you all a very happy, sexy and fun filled Christmas and holiday season.

Nancy

Ho, ho, ho! I’m talking about Santa Clause.

Santa’s always been one of my favorite parts of Christmas. As a kid growing up we exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning was all about what Santa had left the night before. And while getting presents from my family was fun, it was the anticipation of what SC had brought that was exciting! (G) It was a tradition I continued when I started my own family.

I would say at sixteen that my daughter is long past the age when she believed…er, not really. I think she was about twelve when she asked was Santa really, really real. We were at Home Depot of all places. She said she wanted the truth. I can’t remember exactly what I said but the girl got upset and I did some fast backtrack talking. She obviously wasn’t ready to give up the idea of Santa. The kid was thirteen, in middle school, and arguing with the other kids that there really was a Santa Clause. I guess that was the year that she finally couldn’t deny the hard, cold truth anymore.

However, we still put out the milk and cookies and there are still gifts from Santa under the tree come Christmas morning.

I think I was about eleven when I begged for the truth from my mom and promptly cried when she told me. I checked with a friend the other day and he said he was thirteen when he found out.;-(

One of my good friends has a daughter close to my daughter’s age. They never “did” Santa Clause. She felt it was lying to her child. Personally, I never had any problem perpetuating the myth. Somewhere in my disorganized paperwork there are letters to Santa my child wrote over the years. I have to say, she never asked for outrageous things and it wasn’t ever a long list. However, the year she asked for a baby brother or sister — “request denied!”

In my December Alaskan Heat book, NORTHERN ESCAPE, the entire town celebrates the holiday season with a Chrismoose festival. Chrismoose began years ago when a hermit named Chris rode his pet moose into the town of Good Riddance to pass out toys to all the kids in case Santa couldn’t find the little bush community. See, those kids in Good Riddance, Alaska were double-whammied with both Santa Clause and Chrismoose.

What about you? How old were you when you got the cold dash of reality? Do you have any fun Santa traditions you’d like to share or any alternatives similiar to Chrismoose?:-)

My family and I just got back from a fantastic vacation to Disney World. We went so that we could see how Disney does Christmas and to help us all get into the spirit of the season. We weren’t disappointed! In fact, I really want to figure out how to make going back every year at this time part of our family Christmas traditions. Special parades, lots of fireworks, snow on Main Street… You can’t see these things and not smile. However, there was one event that really got me in the spirit of the season – the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights.

The Osborne Family (not Ozzy) used to put these lights up every year on their home. The display started small but grew every year. For whatever reason, they decided in the mid 90s that they couldn’t do it anymore but wanted to see the tradition continue. They donated all of their decorations to Disney with the understanding that they’d be used in one display every year. And let me tell you, it’s impressive.

Trust me , the pictures don’t do it justice. The night we saw them was unseasonably cold for Disney. In my mind, it was perfect. Not only did it feel like Christmas (in Florida) but it looked like it too. Periodically the lights ‘dance’ to holiday music. I stood in the middle of the street twisting around in awe with this goofy smile on my face. The fact that my kids were fussing because they were cold and just wanted to go back to the room didn’t detract from my joy in the moment.

I’m a sucker for Christmas light displays, and let me tell you, this one is the best I’ve ever seen.

Do you like Christmas lights? Do you have any traditions? They must go up the day after Thanksgiving? Do you drive around the city on Christmas Eve looking at the displays before Santa comes?

Kira

P.S. I’ve got a new release coming out on Jan 1st. If you like a little danger with your romance, you’ll love Caught Off Guard!

During the busy holiday season we all have many places to go, many appetizers to make, many pounds to gain. :-O (Just keeping it real, lol) Anyway, every year when these events start rolling my way, I’m always asked the same question–”Are you bringing the cheese ball?” And almost always, I am, because I can pull it together in about five minutes and it’s really, really good. I look like a culinary genuis and have not spent hours in the kitchen. Win, win. Here’s the recipe.

2 blocks cream cheese
1 small can of smoked ham
1 packet of dry Ranch dressing
1 cup of chopped pecans

Mix first three ingredients well. (At least a minute with the hand mixer.) Form into a ball and roll in chopped pecans. Serve with crackers. Weep with satisfaction.

What about you? Any easy go-to recipes you’re always asked to make around this time of year? I’ll pull five books from my shelf for five lucky commenters!

So a few weeks ago, I bought an iPad.  The reasons (excuses) are myriad and all boil down to this.  I needed (wanted) a tablet-like thing, and even though I’m PC all the way, nothing available beat the iPad.  So I bought one.  And I LOVE it.  My husband, btw, HATES it.  Why?  Well because this is what I do every morning before I even get out of bed.

I wake up and reach for the iPad.  I download my email before I’ve managed to blink four times.  And while I’m in a weak and vulnerable state, all those beautiful ads pop up. 20% off, just touch here!  Sale today!  Shop now!

Easy peezy!  I touch the SHOP button because I really don’t want to face the day.  And instant gratification appears.  All those lovely things I could buy!  Oh how much fun it is!  No more standing in line on Black Friday.  No more combing my hair or getting dressed.  All I have to do is touch a button, and bam, the whole world of internet shopping is available to me while I lounge against my pillows.  And after a Thanksgiving day dinner like I ate this year, believe me when I say I did NOT want to get out of bed for any reason at all!

So tell me what your secret shopping habit is.  Are you a crack of dawn Black Friday shopper?  Or a laze in bed internet binger?  (That would be me, btw).  Tell me, tell me, and one lucky commenter will get a copy of my newest Blaze, Taking Care of Business by Kathy Lyons.

This month is the second book in my Alaskan Heat series, Northern Encounter. This is the story of native guide Clint Sisnukett and videographer Tessa Bellingham.

Clint’s mother was a Canadian filmmaker and he knows from bitter experience how she didn’t fit into the Alaskan wilds and how he never fit into her world in Montreal.

Tessa Bellingham has felt displaced in the world ever since her parents died when she was young. She’s enchanted with Clint and his world, but can she ever truly belong there?

Brenda said in her blog post at the first of the month that this was her favorite of the Alaskan Heat series. That’s because Brenda shares my love of animals, totems, and native cultures. You’ll find all of the above in this book. Eagles, wolves, and my favorite, a malamute named Kobuk. Kobuk is actually based on a dog I knew and was quite fond of. He belonged to my college roommate’s parents and was named after Kobuk Valley National Park in AK.

Today I’ll be giving away a copy of Northern Encounter. Just post the name and any tidbits you want about your favorite pet — hey, it can even be one that belongs/belonged to a friend.

Brenda kicked off November with a great blog about heroes, and I’d like to dedicate today’s blog to my own lifelong hero…my dad. Today is his 71st birthday, although he is forever young in my mind (like in this photo, where I’m 14 and he’s 37 years old). Even at 71, he’s more active and physically fit than many men who are decades younger than him.

He and my mom got married just a few months after she graduated from high school , right after he was discharged from the Navy. My mom had been crazy about him for years, despite the fact her parents said he was bad news and would never amount to anything. They bought an old Victorian that needed a lot of work, and some of my earliest memories are of watching him turn that old house into a home. I don’t recall him ever having the luxury of just relaxing; if he wasn’t working on the house, he was under the hood of a car, trying to keep our two clunkers running. He worked two jobs so that my mom could go to college. He was the one who got my sisters and me ready for school in the morning , and tucked us into bed at night. I remember him on his hands and knees hunting for our missing shoes, and making us each different meals for supper because we refused to eat the Western sandwiches that he was so fond of.

When I was in middle school, he was the one who told me that since the town didn’t have a girl’s softball team, that I should try out for little league. I didn’t make the team, but by the following year the town had established an all girls league.

After my mom graduated from college, my dad put himself through school and I remember watching him receive his Bachelor’s Degree, and then his Master’s Degree and being so proud of him. That was more than 35 years ago. He and my mom will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next year…not bad for a marriage that most people said would never last. But that’s the kind of man he is. When he makes a promise, he keeps it.

My dad has been battling cancer for the past two years, with the same determination and dignity that he’s demonstrated his entire life…with a quiet conviction that he will not only succeed, but that he’ll come out on the other side a better man.

Who are the heroes in your life, and why? Let me know, and I’ll pick three winners to receive a copy of my book, HOT-BLOODED, the first book in the It Takes a Hero mini-series.

Happy Birthday, Dad, and many more!

So this little girl flew into my sliding glass doors and knocked herself stupid enough to let me pick her up and set her safely on the deck rail. I’d never seen this kind of bird in my backyard before and it took going through many books twice to finally figure out that she was a Common Yellowthroat, but there’s nothing common looking about her at all if you ask me. So pretty, so dainty, so scared out of her sweet little mind.

I’ve really started watching the birds in my backyard over the past several years and am constantly adding new feeders and different seeds to attract them. Chickadees are far and away my favorites. Such happy, melodious little birds and there’s something utterly adorable about them. Love the blue birds and finches, too, and the nuthatches and sparrows. I look forward to watching them fill the trees and scratch around in the feeders, watch the mourning doves waddle around on the ground.

What about you? Any birding fans out there? I’ll be out of town today, back in tomorrow, and will randomly select five lucky commenters to win a free book from my bookshelf.

Thanks, everyone, for stopping by to say goodbye. It was lovely having one last chat with you all. Thanks for sharing your dreams, news and awesome book recommends. Hopefully I’ll be chatting to you all sometime in the future.

Until then, all the best,

Sarah

* Original post *
Hello. Lovely to “see” you all. This month I wanted to talk about my latest release, The Best Laid Plans. As you can probably tell by the photo accompanying this post, it’s a Super Romance, not a Blaze, but we’ll get to that later…

The Best Laid Plans is the story of Alex (Alexandra) and Ethan, both of whom are lawyers working for a prestigious Melbourne law firm. Alex and Ethan play racquetball and have lunch occasionally and generally see eye-to-eye on business issues to do with the law firm. They’re friends – sort of. Ethan is a good looking guy, and he’s got a bit of a reputation with the ladies – ahem – and Alex is very career focussed and professional. The last thing she would ever do is let herself “go there” with a fellow partner. It’s hard enough being a woman in a male-dominated industry – she’s not going to make it any harder for herself. So she keeps Ethan at arm’s length – until the day she runs into her ex on the street and discovers he’s become a father.

Eighteen months ago, Alex broke up with Jacob because, after seven years together, he refused to even discuss the idea of them starting a family. Heartbroken, Alex ended things between them – having a family is something she’s always, always wanted, and she refused to give up on her dream. But now Jacob is a father, despite all his protests that he would never want to be a parent, and she is single and heading towards her 39th birthday. Then she visits her doctor for her yearly check up and gets worse news – contrary to what she’s always imagined, her chances of having a baby with her own eggs after 40 are just 10%. Time is literally running out for her.

Freaking out, she joins Ethan for their weekly racquetball game and ends up blabbing far too much personal stuff to him. And Ethan winds up caring way too much about the stuff Alex has blabbed to him, because contrary to appearances, he was once a man who desperately wanted a family, too. Being lawyers, these two smart people make things very complicated before they acknowledge their feelings for one another – but then, of course, there are other issues to overcome on the journey to happiness.

This book was inspired by an ad I saw when I was living in New Zealand – a woman was advertising for a sperm donor, clearly having made a decision that even though she was not in a relationship, she didn’t want to miss out on being a mother. That ad really got me thinking – a woman would have to be really determined and sure about what she wanted to take this route to motherhood. Alex is just such a woman, and getting to know her and Ethan was a great journey for me. If you want to know more about this book and my thoughts when writing it (or if you ever wondered what I sound like!) I recorded a podcast with Malle Vallik, Harlequin’s on-line editor, a few weeks ago and it’s available here.

As I pointed out above, this is a Super Romance, as are the next few books I’m contracted to write with Harlequin. For some reason, these are the kinds of stories that are popping into my head at the moment, so these are the stories I am writing. As such, it feels a little naughty for me to keep blogging here at the Blaze Authors blog, so I have come to the difficult decision that it’s time for me to resign from the blog. This was a very tough call for me – I LOVE being a Blaze Babe, and I LOVE the Blaze line and everything it represents, and I LOVE Blaze readers – you are awesome, interesting women. But, as I said, it feels wrong to be talking about other Harlequin lines on this Blazing red hot site!

Rest assured, I will miss you all so much. I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that my blogs here are the highlight of my month, and I have loved sharing laughs, dreams, stories and opinions with you all. Sniff sniff. Please drop by my website occasionally if you want to stay in contact, or perhaps send me an email via my site to let me know you’d like to join by new releases newsletter list – this means you’ll hear from me whenever I have a book out or other big news.

To celebrate the release of The Best Laid Plans and to commemorate my time on the blog and send myself off in style (can you send yourself off? Not sure!), I‘m going to give away a copy of The Best Laid Plans and three books from my backlist (except Can’t Get Enough, all out of them!) as well as a $50 Amazon voucher for you to add to your TBR pile. Tell me about a dream you have that you refuse to give up on, or simply tell me how things are in your corner of the world, or tell me about your most recent great read – I’m always looking for new authors and books to add to my TBR pile.

Looking forward to our last chat!

Being so close to Halloween, I’m going with the obvious–costumes.

How do you pick yours? Do you prefer to indulge in a fantasy? A joke? Traditional fun? An opportunity to terrorize the neighborhood kiddies? Do you do the costume thing at all?

We always have a neighborhood party, as well as a contest at my gym. (Yes, the gym. The legendary performance still held by my friend Erin as an early-80’s Olivia Newton-John a la Physical. Headband, leg warmers and all. Hilarious!)

Personally, I go with a combination fantasy and silliness. Last year, I did my version of The Little Mermaid (With hair like mine as well as my height, it wasn’t much of a stretch). I thought it was fun, and though I love crab legs and lobster, I don’t really have much desire to live my life below the sea full-time.

This year, I’m going for joke (as you can see from the photo of me in my blond Lady Gag wig). But I have to admit, the songstress superstar is a bit of fantasy for me, too. I can carry a tune. In the shower. In church. I have rhythm (If you’re throwing a party where there’s dancing, I’m so there.)

But I can’t really, you know, SING.

Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, the amazing Glee star Lea Michelle and, of course, Gaga can belt out a tune. The break-neck pace, the travel, the pressure and your private life up for public debate are probably minor inconveniences for doing what you were apparently born for.

Being a writer is similar, in a way. In between the book signings and publisher parties, there’s a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Hoping all of you have a happy and safe Halloween (as well as scoring some superior chocolate),
–Wendy