Coming Attractions for November!

by Anna Campbell

Wow, November is rockin' in the lair! We've shipped in extra cabana boys to cope with the extra strain on the bar!

We've got guests and giveaways galore and not one, but TWO infamous launch parties (yeah, you can see why we need extra staff!).

And don't forget, if you click on any of the covers, you go straight to Amazon!

First cab off the rank (such an elegant cab - clearly a Jaguar!) is fabulous historical romance author Sarah MacLean who will be my guest on Tuesday, 2nd November.

Sarah burst onto the historical romance scene this year with her fantabulous NINE RULES TO BREAK WHEN ROMANCING A RAKE. She's visiting us to talk about her November book TEN WAYS TO BE ADORED WHEN LANDING A LORD. Love the titles, Sarah!

Sarah is a load of fun (and she's doing a giveaway) so don't miss her visit.

On November 3rd, Jessica Andersen returns as the newest installment in the Nightkeepers saga launches. BLOOD SPELLS is Patience and Brandt's story. In their honor, Jessica will discuss "After the HEA" with us. She may also have a Big Surprise for us.



On 4th November, Caridad Pineiro visits the Banditas to celebrate the publication of her 25th release – STRONGER THAN SIN from Grand Central Publishing. This is the second in Caridad's Sin series. We like a bit of sin in the lair so that should be huge fun!














On Friday, 5th November, a dear friend of mine Emily May (who also writes brilliant fantasy romance as Emily Gee) will be here to talk about her latest Regency romance, THE UNMASKING OF A LADY. Emily is coming to the lair all the way from New Zealand and she'll be talking about her two identities and giving away a signed copy of her book.








On 9th November, Nancy will host Julie Kenner/J.K. Beck in the lair. Julie is here to talk about her latest series of vampire romances, WHEN BLOOD CALLS, WHEN PLEASURE RULES and especially her latest release WHEN WICKED CRAVES. Sounds like something the Banditas and their Buddies can get their teeth into! Oh, I do love the chance for a good meaty vampire joke!












On November 11th we have the lovely Donna Grant talking to us about her fabulous, pulse-pounding paranormal Scottish historical Dark Sword series. Her latest release is WICKED HIGHLANDER - ooh, I can see myself being wicked with him!












Aussie contemporary romance author Kandy Shepherd returns to the lair on Tuesday, 16th November, to talk about her wonderful new book HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS. People who loved LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD will adore this story about an FBI agent who gets involved unwillingly in a doggy daycare center. Kandy will be doing a giveaway!







On the 20th November, we have the first of our Bandita launches for the month. RITA winner and one of my favorite authors Beth Andrews lets her latest release A MARINE FOR CHRISTMAS loose in the lair. Swing by for mayhem and margaritas.

Here's the blurb:

It’s a wonderful life…?

Growing up in her perfect sister’s shadow wasn’t easy. Especially because JC Montgomery had been in love with Liz’s boyfriend for as long as she could remember. Brady Sheppard, a a guy who thought of her as only the kid sister. But that all changed when Liz married somebody else and Brady ended up in bed with JC! It was like a dream come true.


Except now JC’s pregnant. And Brady’s a wounded marine, so it’s going to be difficult for him to get down on one knee and tell her she’s his reason for living…But he will. Because she still believes in Santa Claus.

For 21st November we have a delicious treat for all you historical lovers. Delightful debut author Kieran Kramer is chatting with us about her Impossible Bachelor series. WHEN HARRY MET MOLLY, the first instalment in the series, hits the shelves this month.







To finish the month (11/30), we have another fabulous Bandita release to celebrate (oh, my poor aching cabana boys!). Tawny Weber's novella A BABE IN TOYLAND is out from Blaze in an anthology called IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE MISTLETOE... (Yeah, right!).

Here's the blurb:

They’re going to have a hot, hot Christmas...

The weather outside might be frightful—
but the Cole sisters are indulging in
something quite delightful...

Rita Mae Cole and Tyler Ramsey hail from feuding
families. Be together? Impossible. But the incredible
sex between them says otherwise....


After the huge success of my last contest where I gave away a pile of signed books, I'm doing it all again in my latest website contest. The question is really easy. Other than English, please name three languages in which my books are available. You might just find the answer on this page of my website. I'll choose TWO winners at random and those lucky entrants will receive signed copies of:

MY RECKLESS SURRENDER by Anna Campbell
DARK AND DEADLY by Jeanne Adams
NINE RULES TO BREAK WHEN ROMANCING A RAKE by Sarah MacLean
THE WICKED MARQUIS by Miranda Neville
PROOF BY SEDUCTION by Courtney Milan
Either WHAT HAPPENS IN LONDON or THE DUKE AND I by Julia Quinn

Good luck! The contest closes 30th November, 2010. Email your answers to anna@annacampbell.info For more information, please visit my contest page.

It's Spooooooktacular!!!!

by Jeanne Adams, AKA The Halloween Maven

Let me start by saying those immortal words...no not THOSE words...these words:

HAPPY
HALLOWEEEEEEEEN!!!!!

There, now that we have that out of the way, I want to talk about pumpkins.

And Witches.

Not more, you ask? Not warlocks, or mad scientists, or rubber-masked villains or superheroes?

Nope. Pumpkins and Witches.

Before I begin, however, I will be making a large disclaimer, note of excusement, proviso, etc. which says, in large letters: THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL BLOG post, nor should it be construed as such.

Ahem. Now that we have that out of the way....

A recent comment by a candidate which went something like this (I'm paraphrasing): "I'm not a witch, I'm just like you"

This actually made me laugh out loud. Really. Right there in my living room, I was having a snork-fest.

The woman in the ad is wearing a twin-set and pearls, is gently coiffed and well groomed. The only thing she apparently has in common with any witch I know is that she's wearing black. But a lot of people wear black and look quite good in it. Doesn't make them a witch.

So, I laughed. I'm sure many people did because she's not what most people think when they think "witch" - seriously, do you immediatly think sweater-set and pearls, when someone says, "She's such a witch!"?

Hollywood portrays witches as both good and bad - its actually very even handed these days - in movies like Practical Magic (good witches, fabulous love story), Hocus Pocus (bad witches, engaging story), Bewitched (good witch, bad movie, great tv show), and The Witches of Eastwick (good witches, bad warlock).

Seriously, you wouldn't ever think of Sandra Bullock as a traditional Bad Witch. Sandra? REALLY? Nope. The image just won't form.

Cher was pretty cool as a witch too, in Witches of Eastwick, as were Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Buffy, while technically not a witch, had one as a friend and hey, every Slayer needs a witch-y pal, right?

I've met many a witch, and you and I could meet one every day for a year and never find one who was haggle-haired, snaggle-toothed, muttering or otherwise behaving in typically wicked-witchy fashion. Most of them don't even like pointy black hats, or cooking in cast iron pots. Nor do they have an odd penchant for brooms for that matter. While even witches can have the occasional cranky day, most real, modern witches only mutter darkly whilst in the grocery store as they try to remember that third item on their list. They may cook in cast iron if they're Southern and like cornbread, or they may even wear a pointy hat, for Halloween.

Just a note on the hat thing? Those things give you a wicked case of hat-head, and they are SO 13th century, you know? Snork.

However, the point is, Witches, like pumpkins, come in all shapes and sizes.

There are anime witches, pin-up witches, old witches, young witches, running witches, cooking witches, witches who like cats, and witches who are deathly allergic to them. There are thin witches, fat witches, and witches who need dialysis, chemotherapy, or their daily dose of insulin.

It occurred to me as I was drafting this blog that except for the medical stuff and the allergies, you could substitute the word "Pumpkin" in there and get the same result. Pumpkins, like people (and witches) come in all shapes and sizes. Big, little, tall, thing, skinny, fat, and every shade of orange, white, green and reddish brown you can imagine. They still have seeds, they still have slimey guts, and through and through, no matter how they look or what their color, they're pumpkins, people and witches.

I think it's a DNA thing. If you need further clarification, we can call in the mad scientists. Snork.

That said, it has amazed me to see the sheer artistry of the pumpkin carvers today. From the simple to the masterfully complex, pumpkin carving has been elevated to an artform. There are gruesome pumpkins, Obama pumpkins, puking pumkins, haunting pumpkins, happy pumpkins and pumpkins that appear to be suffering from post-traumatic-carving symptoms.

Now why, you ask, would this occur to me now? Why would I juxtapose all this nonsense in my fevered, writer's brain??

Blame Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Seriously.

Their rally was this weekend here in DC and several friends went to it, and the news made great fun with it. One photo showed a woman with a sign that said "Keep Your Laws Off My Cauldron" Another was carrying a carved pumpkin head and a sign that said "Zombies for Colbert, Keep Fear Alive."

Still another said, "My Witch is Bigger."

Not sure if that last one was meant to be a compliment, a warning, or some kind of personal statement, but the drawing was very cool. Ha!

Now I know that you're wondering if I overspiked the Halloween punch - totally possible, btw - to bring all this together to be comparing pumpkins, witches, Snoopy, and the First Amendment (which guarantees Freedom of Religion and the press), but that's John Stewart for you. (For those of you outside the US, who have no idea who these people are, they're comedians and they staged a rally in Washington to "Restore Sanity" - Jon Stewart; and to "Return to Fear" - Stephen Colbert. It turned up a massive attendance.)

Everything's all mashed up and somehow, even Charlie Brown and witchcraft are part of the political agenda. It's very Comedy Central, don't you think?

Me, personally, I VOTE FOR Pumpkins. I think we should all buy them, carve them, cook them into pies, cakes, cookies, rolls, jam and otherwise generally enjoy the heck out of the big orange/green/white fruits that they are.

(Yes, they really ARE fruits because they have seeds.) Grins.

As for witches, I think we should respect them, just like we respect all our neighbors, whether they be tall, thin, fat, short, green, pink, purple, or even orange. And several of my neighbors were all of those colors at my Halloween party this weekend.

And, in the immortal words of three fabulously Hollywood Witches, I'll wrap this Halloween craziness up:

"My darling girl, when are you going to understand that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of Courage." - Aunt Frances (Stockard Channing), Practical Magic

"There's a little Witch in Every Woman..." - Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest), Practical Magic

"AMOK! AMOK! AMOK!" - Sarah Sanderson (Sarah Jessica Parker), Hocus Pocus

So, Have you seen any of the witchy movies I mentioned? Do you have a favorite?

Did you carve pumpkins this year? Happy or sad, scary or gruesome?

How many pumpkins did you carve? I did seven this year....

Did you go to the Colbert/Stewart march? If you lived closer, would you have gone? Did you see it on the news?

Are you afraid of Zombies? Grins.

(Had to see if you were still awake....)

Happy Halloweeeeeeen! Let me know if you're going trick-or-treating too...

Centralia, a spooky ghost town

Centralia, Pennsylvania.
It all started in 1962 with a fire...

"... started by five members of the volunteer fire company when they were hired by the town council to clean up the landfill... The landfill was located in an abandoned strip mine pit and as the firemen had in the past, they set the dump on fire, let it burn for a time, and then extinguished the fire, or so they thought." (source)

They fought the (underground) fire for twenty years. It just kept on burning (it still burns today). With carbon monoxide levels continually rising and risks such as the ground suddenly sinking (in 1981 a 12-year old boy fell into such a sinkhole but was saved), the inhabitants started to leave in the 1980s.

It's now an abandoned ghost town, apart from the 9 or so inhabitants who refuse to leave. It's hard to find because it's been taken off the map and does not officially exist (the US Postal Service has revoked Centralia's zip code.). But it's real. It's a town where streets lead to nowhere. Streets that have no names, nor houses because they have now either been burnt down or demolished.

But wait... was this town allowed to die for a reason? If it doesn't exist, it can't have mineral rights. And it's sitting on some rich coal deposits... That's what some people believe. 

Is Centralia haunted? There have been no known related deaths. But many visitors have talked about the 'strange feeling' that they get when they're there. There are two stories that you can read about here. These people heard a voice out of nowhere... and footsteps in an abandoned house. To believe or not to believe? Sony thinks so... they developed Silent Hill - a popular video game (Playstation) and film - which was inspired by Centralia.

I think... I sort of believe (I want to!) that it's haunted... at least enough that I will stay away from the place. But many go there for that reason! Would you want to visit a ghost town like Centralia? (click for map!)

Happy Halloween! 

Belgians—Wet Hair—Clogs

I’d never been on a cruise before and I’ve not been on one since. I’m not the cruise type. The idea of being captive on a vessel with a highly structured agenda amongst people from whom one can’t escape isn’t my idea of fun. Couple that with the hyper-caloric buffet orientation to cuisine and I’d always declared—“no thanks, my Spring Break days are long over.”

But my little baby wanted to go on the Disney Cruise so you can bet that we did—twice. Two summers in a row. Yep, the guy that still finds the general premise of a cruise vacation revolting, signed up for another round.  Regardless of what you think about the Disney Corporation…I believe Walt might be troubled to see the conglomerate that his vision has morphed into…the Disney Cruise is a well oiled operation and offers a delightful dose of all things Minnie and Mickey. All things Minnie and Mickey without having to go to the theme park—I dodged the bullet on Orlando and Anaheim…forever grateful for having done so. And four nights on the Disney Wonder was ample enough exposure to the Disney experience.

LFG used to wear little clogs all the time. Cute little things…some were appliquéd little vinyl ones like these and some were hand painted leather thingys that silly relatives paid way too much money for. Bottom line though, was that my little LFG tooled around in piccolo versions of clogs for several years…cute as a button every step of the way.

So here we are, fresh from the pool and the oh-so-spacious shower in our stateroom; wet heads, clogs and Belgians, headed to dinner. With a quick stop-off of course, for a photo with the evening’s host. Mouse ears are the commercial moniker for that uber-corporate contraption known as Disney. But who gives a damn when for a photo moment, your daughter’s giggly delight is equivalent to the cost of an Anderson and Sheppard sportcoat for five days on their boat.

Onward. To soccer…after having finding a fun little cache of photo memories this morning.

ADG, II

What Won't You Do?

by Jo Robertson

When I was a young mother, I visited my sister in northern Virginia. We stopped at a gas station to fill up and she asked if I would do the honors. I did so, got back in the car, and said, "I can show you how to fill up the tank if you don't know how."

My sister is very petite. She's barely five feet tall, but incredibly independent and rather ferocious when she wants to be.

She looked hard at me and said, "Oh, Jo, I know how to fill up the gas tank. I just like to maintain the illusion that I don't, so my husband will do it for me."

Now, there's not a truly deceptive bone in my sis's body, so I -- a true California independent woman -- was amazed at her subterfuge. She claimed she had no intention of ever putting gas in her -- or any other -- car.

There were plenty of other meaningful chores to occupy her time. She's also one of the most efficiently aggressive housekeepers I've ever known, always has a well-balanced hot meal on the table (even though there are only the two of them now and no longer the four children she raised), and maintains a well-stocked food supply in her larder and freezer, lest we should be attacked by aliens and be without water and other necessities at some point in the future.

I began thinking about the things I refuse to do or conveniently allow Dr. Big to do. Here's my list:

1. Yard work -- I see no redeeming quality about ploughing my fingers into Mother Nature's bosom to dig up weeds or in pushing a lawn mower around our massive backyard. I don't like to sweat unless it's on the treadmill.

2. Change a light bulb -- Any idiot can perform this menial task, but I've learned well from my big sis and convinced Dr. Big that (a) I'm too short or (b) I'm too dim-witted to change a light bulb. However, he seems rather to enjoy this little job.

3. Run the vacuum cleaner -- This is Dr. Big's own fault. I warned him when he bought that big-ass 200 pound vacuum that I would not push it around my deep piled carpet.

4. Open the mail -- Unless the mail is addressed directly to me in someone's handwriting, I figure it's junk and belongs where all junk goes.

5. Write letters in long hand -- God made email for a good reason.

On the other hand, I love to do these things:

1. Change the paper towel dowel or toilet paper dowel with surprising regularity -- This is a very good thing because Dr. Big seems anatomically incapable of doing either.

2. Iron -- There's something very soothing about ironing although I seldom do it any more. Many of you have agreed with me on this.

3. Bake -- Bread, cakes, cookies, candy, pies, love, love, love baking, not so much with the regular cooking.

4. Clean toilets -- mainly because dirty ones gross me out.

5. Write -- Seriously, I can spend hours and hours on writing a book when the going is fluid and smooth and comes out of my brain and fingers like a gift from God. Shiver.

What about you? What's on your refuse-to-do list?

What chores do you get husband, brother, father, or son to do for you?

What household chores do you enjoy doing? Any weird hobbies or pasttimes?