HAPPY 2011

As 2010 draws to a close and the New Year dawns, I want to wish you and yours all the very best for the coming year. May your year be filled with all your heart's desires, health and happiness.



And Happy New Year to my Aussie and Kiwi pals. Hope the New Year looks fabulous for you already!

Much love,

Maya xxx

Merry Merry Christmas...

To all my wonderful blog friends, readers and to everyone.












Hope your day is filled with love and happiness :)

Love,

Maya xxx

Blog Tour Winners Announced!!!

Thank you so very much for everyone who took the time to comment during The Wild Rose Press authors' blog tour. Your support is very much appreciated and I hope you enjoyed our various posts on the Christmas theme.

And now for the best part. The names were put in a hat, shaken and stirred and the winner of the first prize - a pair of silver strand earrings goes to.....

Liz Flaherty!!!

Congratulations and please contact me with your details.

The second prize of a 3-chapter & synopsis goes to....

Joanna St James (or anyone she nominates)!!!

Congratulations and a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year to everyone!

Maya xxx

The Wild Rose Tour Welcomes Amy Corwin

To round off our Wild Rose Blog Tour, I'm honoured today to welcome Amy Corwin who's here to tell us about her favourite Christmas tradition. I'll be over on Lilly Gayle's blog talking about my own Christmas "tradition", so do stop by and say hello :)

Amy:

Strangely enough, this was the hardest blog to write because my family never really had any traditions! That sounds so terrible and yet we always had the best time because the holidays were always low-key and simply a fun.

For Christmas, Mom would really “do up” the house. We only had a few lights outside, but inside…wow! In the early 60’s, we had one of those silver tinsel trees with a rotating color disk to make it green, red, yellow and blue in succession. And we had a smaller white tree with bubble lights in our dining room bay window. Then every surface had decorations from ceramic figurines, to wax candles. We had so many bayberry candles that it simply isn’t Christmas to me without the scent of bayberry burning.

My aunt knitted us stockings to hang on the fireplace and over the years, they stretched and stretched and stretched until they held tons of goodies by the time we were adults. We never stopped hanging our stockings at the fireplace, either. When I got married fifteen years ago, my aunt knitted my husband a stocking to hang on our fireplace. Of course, his doesn’t hold nearly as much as mine, which has been stuffed with goodies every Christmas since 1957. Of course, the goodies it was stuffed with consisted of undies, socks, gloves, one or two “Just for fun” tiny toys, and a few candies.

My mom was so holiday crazy that she even made felt doorknob covers, complete with embroidered and sequined Santas and dangling bells. During the 70’s, we all made ceramic Christmas trees that lit up, as well as ceramic ornaments for our tree. The silver tinsel tree drifted down to the basement and we got a bigger, better green one that could hold the millions of lights, tinsel, and ornaments we either made or bought (on sale!). By 1974, we must have had seven or eight trees dispersed through the house for the holidays, plus two complete ceramic manger sets my mom made.

We weren’t allowed to open any presents Christmas Eve. We usually had a wonderful dinner, lit the logs in the fireplace and sprinkled powder over them to make them sparkle with brilliant colors. I have no idea what it was, but I remember the scents and amazing multicolored flames. Then with the fire crackling, we watched a holiday movie and finally, as the fire died down, laid out the cookies and milk for Santa. Then it was early to bed (as if we could sleep). The next morning-wow! We would all tumble out of bed early, dressed in our Buster Brown pajamas, quilted robes, and slippers and run into the living room. Nothing could happen until everyone was there.

Then we’d take all the bulging stockings down, first, and pass them to their rightful owner. We start a fire in the fireplace and us kids would start handing around the packages. While we saved most of the paper for the next year, if there was any packaging that couldn’t be reused, into the flames it went! And what glorious flames some of those metallic wrappings made!

Once the orgy of gift giving was over, we’d dress and start cooking a really, really, BIG breakfast. There was no standard meal, per se, but it was often pancakes, real maple syrup, bacon, and orange juice. It seemed like we barely finished cleaning up breakfast when we started cooking again. Sometimes it was ham, sometimes a roast, sometimes a turkey—there was really no set meal—but the food was amazing. After dinner, Grandma would pull out all the boxes of cookies we had been making earlier in the month, in addition to mincemeat pie with real whipped cream. I’ll never forget opening the refrigerator to see a bowl and mixer in there, chilling so the whipped cream would be really fluffy.

And the eggnog—how I loved eggnog—real, homemade eggnog with plenty of nutmeg.
We spent the day cooking, playing with—or wearing—our gifts, and talking. Just having fun. This was the day when we also brought out our board games such as Monopoly or Scrabble, sometimes even cards. I loved those games and the chance to just sit around, eat, and talk all day. So while we never had any strict traditions, we sure had magical Christmases.

And now here's a brief bio: Amy Corwin is a charter member of the Romance Writers of America and has been writing for the last ten years and managing a career as an enterprise systems administrator in the computer industry. She writes Regencies/historicals, mysteries, and contemporary paranormals. To be truthful, most of her books include a bit of murder and mayhem since she discovered that killing off at least one character is a highly effective way to make the remaining ones toe the plot line.

Amy’s books include the Regency, SMUGGLED ROSE; three Regency romantic mysteries, I BID ONE AMERICAN, THE BRICKLAYER’S HELPER, and THE NECKLACE, and her first paranormal, VAMPIRE PROTECTOR.

Website: http://www.amycorwin.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/amycorwin
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmyCorwinAuthor
Blog: http://amycorwin.blogspot.com/

Blurbs

The Bricklayer’s Helper
A masquerade turns deadly when a murderer discovers who hides behind a commoner’s disguise.

After her family perishes in a suspicious fire, Sarah hides her identity by working as a bricklayer's helper. But her disguise can't keep her safe when someone discovers she survived the flames.

Alone and terrified, Sarah pins all her hopes on William Trenchard, the only available inquiry agent with Second Sons. William, however, seems far too handsome to have the intelligence necessary to solve the mystery, and Sarah fears that involving him may be her final~and fatal~mistake.

The pair are in for a wild ride as they try to solve a decade-old mystery of murder and deceit in Regency England.

Vampire Protector

A frightened woman must unlock her memories if she's to survive the deadly company of her Vampire Protector…

An anonymous note forces Gwen on a mission to discover an ancient family secret that may be hidden in her long abandoned childhood home. When she asks her attractive neighbor, John, to accompany her, she’s not expecting much, except possibly help if she falls through any rotten floors.

Unfortunately, that's just her first mistake.

John is a vampire, and her house is not exactly empty. Secrets—and the dead—won’t always stay buried, and John’s extraordinary strength and determination may be all that can withstand what awaits them in the shadows...

Thanks so much for sharing your tradition and books with us! Wishing you the happiest of holidays!

And visitors, to make the holiday season just that little bit more magical and fun, remember to please comment for a chance to win any of the fabulous prizes from the Rose Tour. If you've already commented and have stopped by these last four weeks, can I just say a massive thank you for your support.

All the very best for 2011 everyone :)

The Wild Rose Blog Tour Welcomes Rachel Brimble

Christmas is a mere 17 days away, can you believe it??? I certainly can't. I seemed like just yesterday when I celebrated my son's six birthday in May! But yes, the holiday season IS upon us and our thoughts turn to that special day and what makes it even more special for some of us. I'll be sharing my favourite Christmas movie over on Amy Corwin's Blog, but today, Rachel Brimble is here to tell us what movies make Christmas extra special for her...

Ahh, Christmas in front of the fire with a movie….

Is there anything better than the time comes when you know there is nothing more you can do to prepare for the big day??

I love that moment when I know I’ve bought all the presents and food, the decorations are up, the tree is looking beautiful, the cards have been sent – and all that is left, is waiting for Christmas Day. What I haven’t bought/send/ remembered now is just too bad!

And when that time comes, it is my family tradition to put on a movie and sit back with a glass of wine, the kids and hubby and enjoy…

My two absolute favorites that come on every year for as long as I remember are:

Miracle of 34th Street with Richard Attenborough

This movie just has everything! (And I cry every year without fail…)

The girl with the lisp and the huge eyes, the most perfect movie Father Christmas EVER and love rules triumphant – what more do you want in a Christmas message?

My daughters are just coming out of the age of believing in Father Christmas so I know this is probably my last year of the magical moment of watching their eyes wide in wonderment - there is nothing better in the whole world!

And then for hubby and me?? Total madness! We love putting the kids to bed the night before Christmas Eve and sitting up to watch….
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase.

You either love it or hate it – I LOVE this movie!

You can’t help but laugh at the madness, the mayhem, the characters we all know and love, it’s just a great, great movie!

Make sure you check out my fellow tour authors’ guest blogs (I have Amy Corwin visiting with me this week!) – we are all sharing our favorite movies. It’s gonna be fun, fun, fun!

Make sure to comment as we are all giving away a fantastic prize each at the end of the tour.

Merry Christmas, everyone!
Love,
Rachel xx

You can stay in touch by visiting Rachel at http://www.rachelbrimble.com/ or http://www.rachelbrimble.blogspot.com/

And remember, while this tour runs, you can be in with a chance of winning some amazing prizes like these pair or earrings or a three-chapter & synopsis crit from me. For a list of the other awesome prizes from the authors check out Rose Blog Tour.

Stay In Character

So, after several years of writing I'm still surprised and thrilled when I get another one of these ============>>>

You're writing what you think it an awesome scene, everything is going brilliantly, then all of a sudden, your character does or says something stupid. Or quirky. Or dirty. Heck, even blasphemous. Know what I mean?

Now, while there's nothing wrong with any of these scenarios, your fingers suddenly pause because, deep inside, your know something's wrong. You find yourself thinking, hmmm, would he/she really say that at this particular moment? And therein lies my problem. I had a line I really wanted my character to say. It was awesome. It rocked. I repeated it to my husband and he loved it! But somehow, my hero just hated it.

He tried to say it at the beginning of the sentence. Didn't work. In the middle of the sentence, with a stupid grin on his face. Didn't work. At the end, with one raised brow, clenched jaw and fist clenched. Er, heck no, it didn't work.

Guess why not? Because that would've meant him acting out of character.

Let me give an example: Your character is a mime, doing his routine, thrilling the audience. Then halfway through his routine... he speaks. This is the equivalent of throwing the reader completely out of the story. If it goes spectacularly wrong, your book can even end up being a wallbanger (cringe).

My character rebelled because what I was trying to get him to say just wasn't HIM. He knew what he wanted to say and he got pretty frustrated that I wasn't finding the right words for him.

Now, previously, I would've have just got him to express himself better without knowing exactly what he was doing wrong. But now I know exactly what he's doing wrong and I even have a name for it, yipppeeee. Spotting the mistake a mile off is a huge relief and saves me loads of time (and this is where learning craft helps). It may not sink in initially, or even for a while after you learn a new trick or two (like me), but after while, once you keep writing, it will come to you.

And hopefully, you will share it with me *wink*

Maya xx

The Wild Rose Blog Tour Welcomes PL Parker

As the holidays draw ever closer, I for one have started planning for the best bit - the Food! Today, I welcome PL Parker who's awesome enough to share with us not one but two family recipes. And they both sound truly yummy!

I'll let her tell you more about it...

Every year on Christmas morning, while the presents are being opened my father brings out several pans of what we’ve termed “Dad’s Breakfast Casserole.” He fixes it several days in advance and on Christmas morning, whoever is hungry dishes out a serving of this wonderful concoction and warms it in the microwave. It is a long-standing tradition and one that makes Christmas all the more special.

Dad’s Breakfast Casserole

Phase 1:
9 x 11 pan – spray with Pam
8 slices of bread cut into bite-sized pieces
1 ½ lbs sausage – browned & drained (I prefer less spicy but to taste)
¾ cup cheese grated (your choice but I prefer medium sharp Cheddar)
Layer bread, sausage, cheese
Phase 2:
Mix together:
4 eggs
2 ½ cups milk
½ tsp. salt
¾ tsp dry mustard
Pour over bread and sausage mixture and refrigerate over night.
Phase 3:
Next morning mix together:
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or creamy chicken soup if you prefer)
½ cup milk
2 cans mushrooms (drained and sliced)
Pour over the casserole and bake uncovered at 325 degrees for 1 hour.
(If you are a mushroom hater like my Mom, leave out the mushrooms
and stick with the creamy chicken soup – still wonderful.)


My grandmother was an absolutely wonderful cook, she worked as a pastry cook when I was little and every year at Christmas, she’d come up with something new and fun. One year she made Rice Crispie treats in the shape of snowmen and decorated their faces with little candies and served them on a stick. She made lemon meringue pies from scratch so absolutely wonderful, I can still taste them. Unfortunately, she didn’t keep recipes. Everything she made was in her head. She was so creative. I really miss her still, more so at Christmas. But:

She passed on her talent to my mother and each year we had to have Mom’s Oatmeal Cookies. These are cake-like cookies and so full of flavor, I’m going to have to make a batch when I get through writing this – YUM!

Mom’s Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup sugar
2 tbls sweet milk
2 cups flour
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch salt
1 cup lard
3 eggs
1 level tsp soda in ¾ cups hot water
2 cups oatmeal (quick cooking kind)
1 cup raisins or nuts (to your taste or omit if you don’t like)
Cream together sugar and lard
Add in the soda/hot water mixture
Add flour, cinnamon, cloves, salt
Add eggs
Add in the oatmeal and raisins/nuts.
Mixture should be really stiff – if not – add a little more flour or oatmeal.
Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for
15 minutes or until brown.

Thanks so much for being here today, PL. Now tell us a little more about yourself.

I am a mother to 3 grown sons, a grandmother to 1 sweet granddaughter--whose birthday just happens to be Christmas Day. I am married to my best friend and soul mate. I currently have published with The Wild Rose Press three novels, Fiona, Riley’s Journey and Aimee’s Locket, one shorter story, Heart of the Sorcerer, and two Free Reads, Prophecy’s Bride and Songbird. I am currently working on edits for two more novels, Absolution, and Into the Savage Dawn (sequel to Riley’s Journey). For more information (reviews, blurbs, cover art, places to buy), visit me at: http://www.plparker.blogspot.com/ or http://www.plparker.com/

Remember we're giving away super awesome prizes for commenting on this blog or any other Rose Tour Blog during December. Today, I'll be hanging out with Victoria Gray. Do stop by and say hi. See you there!