A benefit of living in tornado alley is the pretty brick mailboxes. I’ve posted a picture of mine on the right. This baby has come through 2 BIG tornadoes with winds exceeding 300 plus miles per hour.

You’d think the tornado is what scares me. Nope, what makes me nervous are the birds who like to make their home between the bricks and the bottom part of the actual box. If you look closely, you’ll see twigs, and what looks like a straw wrapper poking out as these industrious birds build their nest.

I’m not ashamed to admit it, my big fear is that when I open the mailbox, I’ll startle what birds are living there and they’ll fly into me.

So, for years now, I’ve been making A LOT of noise as I approach the mailbox. Clapping, clearing my throat. Your basic idiot stuff – but it all worked. No bird attack!

Then it happened.

The bird got me. I felt the flutter of its feathery wings on my bare arm. But I had the kids with me, and I have a strong commitment to not giving them my phobias. So I sucked it up. But I shuddered and screamed inside. And as I am while writing this.

Of course in the big scheme of things, this isn’t a big thing to get over. That’s not always the case with our favorite Blaze heroines. Our brave ladies seem to fall into two categories – those who get over “something” in the book or those who’ve just gotten over “something” and are ready to hit life all over again. That’s what makes them special. (Okay, and there could be another type – feel free to add.)

What’s your favorite kind of Blaze Heroine?

I did not need to see this movie. I lived it. I counted, and in my younger days, I was a bridesmaid 7 times. Luckily for me, only one of those dresses was hideous…and it really wasn’t all that bad. It was just very plain and totally not my style or color, meaning I’d never wear it again in a thousand years, but luckily, it hadn’t been expensive and it did look good in the pictures.

But I love weddings. Even when I’m not a bridesmaid, I’ve often been involved in the wedding. I sang at two weddings and did the reading at one. I have given more showers than Mother Nature in April and I watch shows like SAY YES TO THE DRESS and MY FAIR WEDDING all the time.

Why is it then that I’ve never once written a wedding book before now?

It’s a popular enough trope in the romance genre and yet, because I write for Blaze, rarely do my characters end up with a proposal, much less a whole wedding. I’m lucky if I can get those randy so-and-sos (those would be my main characters) to commit to each other in the end. They’re so fiercely independent, it’s hard to wrangle. But I love weddings, so I jumped all over the chance to write a 3-in-1 Encounters for Blaze called 3 SEDUCTIONS AND A WEDDING that will be out in June.

The premise is thus: A wonderful couple, Bianca and Coop, have been together for over ten years. They started dating in college, fell madly in love and got engaged. The trouble is, they’ve never gotten around to getting married. They’re too busy going on adventures around the globe for their jobs (she’s a translator and he’s a software designer) to stand still long enough to say, “I do.”

Well, Coop’s best friend, Leo Sharpe, has had enough. He also has a secret agenda. He’s been pining for Bianca’s bff, Jessie Martinez, for just as long as Bianca and Coop have been engaged. They, too, were once madly in love–until Leo screwed up and Jessie told him to take a hike. Now, he’s planning on using the excuse of throwing a surprise wedding for Bianca and Coop as a reason to work his way back into Jessie’s good graces.

There are two other couples in the book, too. Coop’s older sister, Annie, and Bianca’s younger brother, Drew as well as Coop’s boss, Ajay, and Bianca’s boss, Mallory. Everyone gets into the wedding spirit! In a most Blaze-like way.

In fact, next week (beginning on April 26th), eHarlequin will begin publishing a free online read (short story length) about Bianca and Coop and what is happening between them on the eve of their return home. They have no idea their friends are planning a wedding…and they might not even make it down the aisle if they do. It’s a rough couple of days in the Costa Rican jungle for these two…and did I mention it’s free?

But I also have author’s copies! If you’d like a chance to win an early copy of this book, just answer the following questions:

Do you like weddings?
Were you ever a bridesmaid?
Tell us about either your prettiest bridesmaid dress or your worst…(and if you weren’t ever a bridesmaid, feel free to tell us about the worst dress you ever saw at a wedding…)

This should be fun!

I’m currently working on a Blaze where the heroine goes on a dozen dates, so when I saw a review of Undateable: 311 Things Guys Do That Guarantee They Won’t Be Dating or Having Sex, I checked it out. While I was interested to see if the authors’ deal-breakers matched my deal-breakers, I really wanted to avoid having the hero commit any no-nos. The authors, Ellen Rakieten and Anne Coyle, rank men’s transgressions as Red Flags, Storm Warnings, Not Getting Any, and Kiss of Death. Examples of Red Flags are black jeans, crocs, cell phones clipped to the waist, ugly, gray sweatpants, and vanity plates. Storm Warnings are jorts (jean shorts–who knew?), being overly cologned, having a soul patch, fanny packs, shaving your chest, rearranging your junk in public, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. As for Not Getting Any, we have tube socks, bike shorts, holiday sweaters, double denim, open mouth breathing, and owning a rodent. Kiss of Death transgressions include wearing tighty whities, hair plugs, attending a medieval festival, bringing a baseball glove to a professional game, mesh tops, and guylights.

Some of these made me laugh and some were very familiar. Gleefully, I read the article aloud to my husband, who hates what he calls “arbitrary” rules. A little while later, I heard him rummaging around and he emerged from the closet with the belt clip to his cell phone. He made sure I was watching as he clipped the phone to the waistband of his jorts. He also wore tube socks and a tee-shirt on the storm-warning list. Oh, and there was a shadow beneath his lip–a one-day-old soul patch. I just looked at him and said, “No.” He laughed and left the house in his car with the vanity plates. He was probably going to shop for crocs. Later, he changed into black jeans. Also bike shorts, but he was actually biking. At least he didn’t bring home a rodent. Or a girlfriend.

Clearly, I was blinded by love when I was dating, so I don’t know about the 311 things. Sure, berating the wait staff would make a guy undateable for me, but what’s wrong with black jeans?

What makes a guy undateable for you?

When the time comes for my next blog here my book will be off the shelves to make room for April’s Blazes. It’s been lovely to wander into bookstores, grocery stores and even drugstores to sign the copies of Possessing Morgan.

In one drugstore the Customer Service clerk I spoke with thought I was saying that I was the model on the cover! Ahem, I’ve never been brunette and it’s quite awhile since I could be mistaken for twenty-five. The poor woman looked like she was about to call for security when I pointed at my name and said, “No, I’m not the model. I wrote this book.”

In another store I had the Assistant Manager ask me for identification. Luckily I had my business cards with me. My comment to her was, “Hey, if I were going to impersonate a writer, it would be a famous one…not me!”

I guess I’ve gotten used to signing books in my local bookstore chain where they know me and my books. Having Possessing Morgan all over town has been a joy. My friends have seen it and reported sightings in other places, too. It came out in audio format right away and a reader emailed to let me know she’d found it at www.audible.com How cool is that?

I’ve also been garnering reviews from other sites on the web as well.

Harriet Klausner gave the book 4 stars and says: “This is an exhilarating romantic suspense although the thriller elements take a backseat (figuratively not literally) to the growing love between the lead couple. Morgan with her history and her current occupation brings the freshness to this fun brisk tale.”

And from Night Owl Romance’s Diana Coyle: . . . “All I can say is this story was HOT! I’m pretty certain steam was coming off the pages as I was reading them. Morgan and Mac were fantastic together and their chemistry was sizzling. I couldn’t put this story down and once you start reading it, I assure you you’ll feel the same way. Ms. Edwards created fun characters and a great storyline that will pull you in quickly and leaving you panting for more. I would highly recommend this story to other readers!

Diana gave Possessing Morgan a 4 out of 5 rating which Night Owl says is “a page turner”. A lovely ranking!

I’ve had a wonderful month! Spring’s in the air, my Blaze is still on shelves for another few days. Because I’m feeling a touch of Spring fever I’m giving away 1 copy of Possessing Morgan for the best “miscommunication” story we get here today.

I’ll post the winner at around 8 p.m. Eastern. So, what’s your story? Where has a conversation gone wrong for you? (Seriously, that clerk looked desperate for help – ack! A lunatic thinks she’s a gorgeous 20 something romance cover model – I’m still chuckling!)

The weirdest thing is happening to me. I’ve never experienced it before, and maybe it’s all in my head, but what can I say? It’s bizarre. And I’m going to share it with you.

It begins like this. I’m judging books for the RITA. I try to every year because I enter every year. Plus it forces me to read books I’d never pick up otherwise. I find it good to expand my reading palate, so to speak, and heck, who doesn’t like free books? I also feel like I’m a good judge, have a good handle on writing technique and market understanding, bladda bladda bladda. So, I picked up one of my RITA books to judge this morning.

I didn’t notice the correlation at first. It took me hours to figure this out-and again, maybe it’s all in my head-but I’m having an immune reaction to this book. Seriously. Every time I pick it up, my nose starts getting congested, I start sneezing, and my head begins to pound. Sure, I’ve read books that have made me feel nauseous and yucky. One of the first books on my judging list was (a) rather gross and (b) really boring when it wasn’t gross. But I like this book. Let me repeat this. I like this book. It’s well written, interesting, and funny. And it makes me sneeze like you wouldn’t believe. I put it down, do some other things, and bam, I feel better. Nose clears up, headache recedes, and I think, okay, quit playing around, time to go back to reading. (Scores are due WAY too soon!) And then half a page in, I’m sneezing and feeling sick again.

WTF???? Fortunately, I’m into energy healing. I have some experience in dealing with the bizarre. So I did a short session on my reaction to this book. No real insights appeared, but I can now go 3-4 pages before I clog up. That’s progress, but not an answer. And I’m really not sure how I’m going to read and judge a 293 page book in 3 page increments. I can see my email to the coordinator now: Sorry I cannot judge this book. It makes me sneeze.

So here’s my question to you. Have any of you ever had an experience like this? Or other weird reaction to a book. What did you do? Best as I can figure, something in my psyche dislikes what I’m reading, but…wow, it’s certainly not in my conscious thoughts. Or am I just loopy?

I watched The Proposal this past weekend (really cute movie) and the heroine mentioned reading Wuthering Heights every Christmas. Do you read one special book every holiday? Are you looking forward to receiving a gift of books this year, or do you expect to be too busy to read (gasp!) this season? What books are you giving?

I tell family and friends never to buy me books — a gift card is fine, but I buy far too many of my own for anyone to know what I’ve read or haven’t, so books as gifts never work for me, but I do enjoy giving them. I try to make notes through the year of books I think family members will find interesting or fun, though sometimes I don’t wait. When my MIL visited this past September, I bought her the first four Karen Marie Moning Fever books because I was too anxious for her to read them to wait for Christmas. As for books we read every year, I don’t really have any particular book I return to over and over again. Last year, my husband had their Uncle’s enthusiastic reading, which he enjoyed, too. It’s nice for kids to have books as well as TV shows for their annual traditions, I think, even though I love many of the TV specials we grew up with.

I will be reading a lot through the month, working through my Kindle TBR and enjoying curling up in the evenings with some good reading. I am reading Charlaine Harris’s Grave Secret at the moment (not very Christmassy, I know, but it’s a good book), and have a list of romances (including some Blazes, of course) that I am looking forward to, as well. Are you reading any holiday-oriented romances you would recommend?

So what books are you reading, or do you want to curl up on a holiday evening and read this month? Share your current reading and I’ll pick two winners to receive a signed copy of my previous Christmas Blaze, Talking in Your Sleep, along with a tin of hot chocolate and a pretty mug. If you have this book already, just let me know if you would like it signed for someone else, and maybe it can be one of your gift items this season. Merry, Merry, and best wishes for a happy and peaceful month, whichever holiday you celebrate.

Sam

I want to live at the North Pole with Santa Claus. I have this idea that everything is perfect there. They most definitely have a white Christmas. There’s always enough hot chocolate to go around, and there are lots of elves to help with everything from toy making to house cleaning.

I could use a few good elves. I need an elf to help me promote my upcoming Blaze, “Take Me If You Dare.” I need an elf to finish my annotated bibliography for a school project. I need an elf to do my holiday shopping and write those holiday cards. I need an elf to write these three proposals for new book projects that I promised before the first of the year. One of those pointy-shoe folks to do the cooking and the cleaning. One to write all my TV and movie columns over the holiday would be nice. And those are only the first few things on my list for December.

My children will tell you I’m short enough to make a perfectly good elf, and quite honestly if I could clone myself I would. What I’ve learned over the years is that when it comes to holidays, you do what you can. I try to get done the things that make me and my family happy, and the ones that pay the bills.

That means I may not send out those holiday cards, but I will provide a lovely buffet meal on Christmas Eve for family and friends. I will most likely do the majority of my shopping online, though at least one day I’ll stop by the mall to enjoy the decorations and to get that feeling of the holiday bustle.

I’m determined that I will make time to do the things I enjoy. That might mean working some late nights the first part of the season, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make. I will DVR my favorite holiday programming, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, A Charlie Brown Christmas, to watch while I’m wrapping presents. Ugh. I’m so bad at wrapping presents. I can’t tell you how many times someone has said, “Oh, how sweet, you let your kids do the wrapping.” I’m not kidding. I know they make those beautiful bags you can just slide stuff in, but I like watching people rip open that paper. We’ve already decorated for the most part. By we’ve, I mean my husband set up the tree, and I did everything else.

This year we are traveling for Christmas Day, which means even more to do. But it’s okay. We’ll have Christmas Eve here, as we have since the kids were tiny. None of it matters as long as we are together. My kids are older and I know there will come a time in the future when I will have to share them, but for now I’m holding on as tight as I can. The best part of the holiday for me is when we are sitting around on Christmas Eve singing carols. The kids grump and complain, but the one year we didn’t get to do it because of a family illness, they were depressed.

Normally, Christmas isn’t about the gifts for me, but I’ve been very lucky in that department the last couple of years. This year all I want is for us to be happy, healthy and together. Though, um, I will be purchasing all those December Blazes for myself.

So I want to hear about your plans for the holidays. I’d love to hear about some of your holiday traditions, food or fun stories from the past. Is there a gift you want for this Christmas? Don’t be shy! If you don’t celebrate Christmas, tell us about your holiday traditions too. I’m always curious.

Santa, if you’re reading this. I’ve been very good this year, except for that one time, and um… You know what? Never mind.

Happy Holidays Ya’ll

What is the secret of a book you can’t put down?

As a reader, I have three basically different book experiences: the books I get a few chapters into and abandon; the books I can read, a bit at a time, over a week or two; and the books that demand to be read NOW. I can’t stop. I’ll read it in a day or two (depending on the book, sometimes in a few hours), because I. Must. Find. Out. What. Happens. These books are commonly referred to as “page-turners” because you can’t stop turning the pages. I love that experience when I find it.

Right now I am in the middle of Richelle Mead’s Storm Born, and it’s that kind of book for me. My entire brain is sucked into the pages (I have to finish this blog so I can go read…). Other recent page-turners have been Karen Foley’s Able-Bodied, Natale Stenzel’s Pandora’s Box, Nina Bangs’s current “dinosaur” books (“Gods of the Night”), and Beth Andrew’s Superromances. There are a lot more I haven’t mentioned — many of the early Blazes, in particular, hit me this way.

It seems like when I was younger, I read like this all the time — compulsively, non-stop — but maybe I just had more time then, and I was less particular. I read a lot of good books now (more even, with the Kindle, God help me), and I enjoy them, but I think the experience of being so sucked in you literally cannot put the book down gets farther in between these days, either because those books are more rare or I am just a different kind of reader. Probably both.

The books mentioned above are all very different. Then there was a non-fiction book, Cliff Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg (highly recommended for anyone who enjoys technology, even if it’s a bit dated). I still remember it clearly, because I nearly went into a coma staying up all night to finish that book. I think it’s one of the few times I stayed in pajamas all the next day, reading. But it’s completely in a different universe than the other three, and yet, still a page-turner.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some readers kindly tell me they stayed up all night to finish one of my books, or that they couldn’t put it down, or read it in, as we say, “one sitting.” (Thank you, every single one of you!). Those comments were made about different books by different readers, which makes me wonder if the “page turner” isn’t more in the eyes of the reader than the writer. That as a writer, there is no magic combination that makes a book a page turner, but what hooks into us and makes us unable to put the book down is more about us than the book itself. People find their addictions in different places. A page-turner, like a drug, grabs us in some way that it might not grab a hundred other people. Maybe we see ourselves in it, maybe it takes us an adventure or addresses a fantasy that we have, or something.

So… what is it? What do you think makes a book a page-turner, and what’s the most recent one you’ve read? What was it about that book that reached out and sucked you in so that you couldn’t put it down? Share, and I’ll choose someone to win a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate at the end of the day, enough to perhaps buy your next page-turner.

Sam

It has been 15 years since I’ve taken more than three days away from work, but I won’t be able to say that much longer. My in-laws are celebrating their 50th anniversary and wanted my husband and his sisters’ families all together. In one place. All of us. Together. Sigh. For an entire week. It’s not that I don’t love them, I do. They are all good people. But I’m usually good after about four hours of their company, and I’m sure they feel the same way about me. You know, like at Christmas? We get together, we eat a meal, we open presents, and then we go our separate ways.

This isn’t the first time they’ve done one of these big family things, but I’ve always had to travel for work during them. Sheer dumb luck, I promise. The phrase I keep telling myself is, “at least we are on the beach.” Crystal Beach, Fla., which I know is beautiful. They’ve rented a McMansion and my husband and I will have the carriage house all to ourselves. So that will help. A week from today, we are celebrating our 25th anniversary (Yes, I married very young. And yes, I can think of many, many ways to celebrate such a milestone that don’t include my in-laws.)

So… It’s been a really long time since I’ve had time off. I will have to do some work, but only about a day’s worth while I’m there. My plan is to sleep, eat, play in the ocean, and read — a lot! I’m downloading the June Blaze’s to my Kindle, and I’m open for suggestions as far as books. I’m in the mood for humorous reads, and anything paranormal.

Are you guys going on vacation this summer? Where are you going? Do you have have suggestions on how to handle these big family vacations? I asked my mom how she survived when I was a kid and we traveled with my dad’s family. “Valium, lots of Valium,” she said. I told my doctor this, and she laughed at me. But she wouldn’t give me a prescription. Sigh. It’s okay, knowing me I’d fall asleep on a floaty and drift out to sea where a handsome sailor…. Hmmmm.

Do you have funny vacation stories? I want to hear them. Book suggestions? Coping with large family gathering suggestions? Tell me!