Hi! Thanks for stopping by and joining in the celebration!
On the ninth, tenth & eleventh days of Christmas, Stephanie gave to me...a triple feature!
Featured Authors: Megan Crane, Jane Porter & Melissa McClone
Featured Books: Tempt Me, Cowboy (Megan Crane), Home For Christmas (Melissa McClone), Take Me, Cowboy & Christmas At Copper Mountain (Jane Porter)
Giveways: E-books by Megan, Jane & Melissa
Megan Crane
Stephanie: What Christmas movies are a must watch?
Megan: I like to watch Love, Actually and A Christmas Story. And if I'm really feeling the holiday spirit, A Sound of Music.
Stephanie: Fresh or fake Christmas tree?
Megan: Fresh! I love how it fills the house with that lovely scent!
Stephanie: I personally have on my wish list to visit New York and London during the holidays to see each city lit up and decorated. Do you have any place you'd like to see during the holidays?
Megan: I have seen both New York and London at this time of year, and they're gorgeous. Now I live in California where it's never cold enough or lit up enough to suit me… so I suppose I have to do my best to make my living room pick up the slack!
Stephanie: Would you rather have a winter Christmas or summer Christmas ?
Megan: Winter, hands down. My family celebrates Christmas in Vermont with snow and sleigh rides… I really need to book a trip back home to enjoy that!
Stephanie: Do you read outside the genre that you write? If so, what genres?
Megan: My favorites are paranormal, romantic suspense, erotica, and mysteries.
Stephanie: Are you from a reading family?
Megan: Oh, yes. It's not uncommon to find lots of us sitting around reading on a lazy afternoon at some family gathering or another. We're all big readers--and there are a lot of us!
Stephanie: What do you prefer e-book, paperback or hardcover?
Megan: All of the above.
Stephanie: What's your favorite place and or time to read ?
Megan: After I've handed a book in, so I have nothing I ought to be doing instead. In front of the fire. Bliss.
Megan's All Time Favorites!
Television Show: My all-time favorite show is Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Color: I'm a fan of blue: oceans, summer skies, my true love's eyes.
Book, Song, Movie: The rest is subject to change at that next great book or song or movie.
Jane Porter
Stephanie: What Christmas movies are a must watch?
Jane: White Christmas and Holiday Inn. I love the old fashion musicals!
Stephanie: Fresh or fake Christmas tree?
Jane: Fresh, fresh, fresh! (But I do have a fake one for the Hawaii house!)
Stephanie: I personally have on my wish list to visit New York and London during the holidays to see each city lit up and decorated. Do you have any place you'd like to see during the holidays?
Jane: I love Germany during the holidays. Two years ago I took my then 13 year old to Munich for the christkindlmarkt, and would love to go back next year and visit Nuremberg's, as I used to live there as a thirteen year old.
Stephanie: What was the best and worst gift you have ever received?
Jane: Best gift was my baby boy on Dec 22nd one year and the worst gift? A butter dish that my brother gave me every single year. He's a very funny guy.
Stephanie: Would you rather have a winter Christmas or summer Christmas ?
Jane: Winter Christmas with snow! (But I usually end up in Hawaii since my husband has a surf school there and needs to work during the holidays.)
Stephanie: Do you read outside the genre that you write? If so, what genres?
Jane: I read historical romance and paranormals, but my fav is historical because nobody gets hurt (well, dresses to get damaged and reputations bruised) but they are romantic and hopeful and beautifully written without gore and violence. But I am addicted to Kresley Cole and JR Ward paranormals.
Stephanie: Are you from a reading family?
Jane: Yes. My mom and dad were huge readers and my older brother was a sci fi/fantasy reader when we were kids and I read everything I could get my hands on. My sister and older brother still read voraciously. Sadly, my sons aren't big readers. At least not yet.
Stephanie: What do you prefer e-book, paperback or hardcover?
Jane: Paperback is preferred, then ebook, and hardcover last.
Stephanie: What's your favorite place and or time to read ?
Jane: Airplanes, hotels, vacation, bed, couch…but I have a hard time reading at home when on deadline. Just can't unplug from my own book enough to read then.
Stephanie: When you have a new book go “live” on release date, how do you feel? Nervous, excited?
Jane: Excited. Not nervous since the work is done. But I'm, hopeful. I want readers to love it as much as I loved writing it.
Jane's All Time Favorites!
Song: U2's Pride (In the Name of Love)
Book: Little Women
Movie: Shanghai Noon …love Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson together!
Television Show: can't remember an all time fav, but I do love all the reality series with singing and dancing
Color: red
Melissa McClone
Stephanie: What Christmas movies are a must watch?
Melissa: I'm a Christmas movie junkie so this is a hard question for me to answer. But my must watch list included: The Christmas Card, Love Actually, Miracle on 34th Street, Holiday Inn and It's A Wonderful Life.
Stephanie: Fresh or fake Christmas tree?
Melissa: We have a fake tree. I have very mixed feelings about this given we live in the Pacific Northwest and drive past tree farms daily. But a few years ago, my husband had knee surgery in November. He was still on crutches in December so cutting down a tree, as was our tradition, wasn't going to happen. I decided to get a fake one that year and we'd use it on the porch or upstairs in an arched window next year. That Christmas was the first year I didn't get sick. I realized I was allergic to something with a live tree so we've continued using the fake one.
Stephanie: I personally have on my wish list to visit New York and London during the holidays to see each city lit up and decorated. Do you have any place you'd like to see during the holidays?
Melissa: I've been to New York at Christmastime. That's where we spent my oldest child's first Christmas visiting my husband's family. It was lovely with the lights and decoration. I'm a homebody when it comes to the holiday, but I'd really like to visit Disneyland sometime between Thanksgiving and New Years to see their decorations. <~~~Disneyland is awesome at Christmas time! -Stephanie
Stephanie: Would you rather have a winter Christmas or summer Christmas?
Melissa: Winter Christmas! I've had summer Christmases growing up in California and white Christmases after we moved to Spokane, Washington when I was in junior high school. For me nothing beats a white Christmas. It's hit or miss whether we get Christmas snow (or any white stuff) where I live now, but that's always on my Christmas list!
Stephanie: Do you read outside the genre that you write? If so, what genres?
Melissa: I have always read outside of the genre. I love to read thrillers, fantasy and an occasional horror.
Stephanie: Are you from a reading family?
Melissa: We are most definitely a reading family. All five of us (two adults and three kids) have Kindles and books are everywhere in the house.
Stephanie: What do you prefer e-book, paperback or hardcover?
Melissa: I have a Kindle Fire HD that my husband gave me a year ago so I'm finally reading eBooks. Until then it was only paperbacks (my preferred reading though e-book is much easier for me). Hardcovers are saved for my favorite authors such as Nelson DeMille.
Stephanie: What's your favorite place and or time to read ?
Melissa: If I have free time, I don't care where I am, I'll read. But if I could choose, I love to read in our red chair in the Great Room while the dogs sleep at my feet and a cat or two are on the ottoman and the chair back.
Stephanie: When you have a new book go “live” on release date, how do you feel? Nervous, excited?
Melissa: Release days are a mix of emotion for me—anticipation, nerves, excitement. You have no idea the response you'll get or if anyone will want to read your "baby." It's like sending your child off to school for the first time. You want to let them go, but a part of you wants to hold onto them and keep them home. I just sent my two youngest kids, 5th and 8th graders, to full-time school this year after homeschooling for five years and the feelings were more intense than a release day, but similar!
Melissa's All Time Favorites!
Song: Beautiful In My Eyes by Joshua Kadison
Book: The Stand by Stephen King
Movie: Star Wars
Television Show: Battlestar Galactica (the original one)
Color: Red
Today, instead of featuring just one book, we are going to feature books from all three of our featured authors. They all have stories in Montana Born Books Copper Mountain/Marietta, Montana series. If you love small town settings and cowboys you'll definitely want to check them out!
Too much temptation…
Chelsea Collier wants nothing more than to save the old depot built by her railway baron ancestor and turn it into a museum—until it’s sold out from under her!
Jasper Flint made himself filthy rich in the Texas oil business by the age of 35. Now he wants a quieter life and building a microbrewery in Marietta, Montana is the perfect project.
Neither one of them knows what to do with the passion that explodes between them! But Chelsea knows a man like Jasper will never stay in one place for too long. Can he convince her that this time, he means to stay?
Ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon...the smells of Christmas. The smells of home.
Rachel Murphy longs for home and family. Since childhood, she's dreamed of owning her own pastry shop, but after being burned by a celebrity chef and losing her new bakery in Arizona, Rachel's spending the holidays with her brother in Montana. To keep her dream alive, she's creating custom gingerbread houses and selling them around town. All she needs is a bigger kitchen...and to stay away from her brother's handsome boss.
Former venture capitalist Nate Vaughn has embraced his inner cowboy and now runs a successful dude ranch where Rachel's brother works. Nate's commercial kitchen is perfect for Rachel's baking needs, and seeing the cute blonde's business acumen, Nate knows she'd be the perfect partner for a new venture. When he makes her an offer she can't refuse, he discovers he's interested in more than her gingerbread.
While Nate could make her dreams come true, Rachel's heart, as well as her head, tells her mixing business with anything else could be a recipe for disaster. Should she return to Arizona, and leave Nate and her new eager-for-more customers behind? Or can Nate convince her that, here with him in the mountains of Montana, she's already home? For Christmas...forever.
When Jenny Wright’s fiancé leaves her standing at the altar in a Vera Wang bridal gown she can’t afford, she’s humiliated and heartbroken. To have Marietta hero bull riding champ Colton Thorpe witness her shame – makes the rejection even more devastating.
Jenny and Colton grew up in the same rough neighborhood and they both left home right after school to pursue big dreams. Now they’re both back, with Colton as the celebrity chair for the 75th Copper Mountain Rodeo, and Jenny in disgrace.
Sexy, rugged Colton didn’t get to be a national champion by chance. He’s a man that takes risks and goes after what he wants. During the rodeo weekend, Colton makes it clear he wants Jenny. Flustered but flattered, Jenny finds it difficult to resist his charm. But what happens when the rodeo ends and Colton leaves town? Will she dare to dream again?
Since the loss of her family in a plane crash, Harley Diekerhoff has led a quiet
life and keeps to herself. Taking the temporary job at the Copper Mountain Ranch
as widower Brock Sheenan’s housekeeper seems perfect for her. But her calm
cocoon is invaded with the arrival of Brock’s pre-teen twins, Mack and Molly
who’ve never experienced a proper Christmas and before she knows it, Harley’s
determined to make their holiday perfect.
Annoyed at first by Harley’s
interference, Brock is secretly pleased she’s changed Mack and Molly’s world. It
doesn’t hurt that he finds Harley incredibly attractive, fierce, smart and
passionate. It’s also an added bonus that she’s not afraid to challenge him and
get his blood heated! But when sparks fly and the attractions sizzles between
them, Harley’s not so sure she can handle something permanent with this dark,
taciturn cowboy who doesn’t know how to let her in. But Brock is determined to
hold on to her and praying for a Christmas miracle…
There will be four lucky winners for Days 9, 10 & 11!
Giveaway #1 - E-book of Tempt Me, Cowboy by Megan Crane
Open Internationally (as long as you can receive a gifted e-book from the US)
Giveaway #2 - E-book of Home For Christmas by Melissa McClone
Open Internationally (as long as you can receive a gifted e-book from the US)
Giveaway #3 - E-book Take Me, Cowboy by Jane Porter
Open Internationally (as long as you can receive a gifted e-book from the US)
Giveaway #4 - E-book of Christmas At Copper Mountain by Jane Porter
Open Internationally (as long as you can receive a gifted e-book from the US)
**All winners will be announced on January 1st**
Lose weight
Improve your finances
Exercise
Get a new job
Eat healthier
Manage stress better
Stop smoking
Improve a relationship
Stop procrastinating
Set aside time for yourself
Are you planning to make any resolutions this year? If so, what are your goals?
Be sure to check out all 12 Smart & Savvy Days of Christmas for more great author & book features and giveaways!
Have you met Kelly Elliott? Not only does she write the yummiest cowboys, she's one of the sweetest people I've met. I had the pleasure of meeting her first in 2013 at the Naughty Mafia event in Vegas and then again in Seattle where she took the time to meet some of her readers while she was in the area. Because she's one of my favorites, I'm going to give away a Kindle copy of the first book in her Wanted series. It's one of my favorite series and the first book I read by Kelly. 
For those of you who have followed me for awhile, it should be no surprise that Molly is on my list today. I am a huge fan and big support of her. When I had the opportunity to meet Molly at the Naughty Mafia event in Vegas in 2013, I told her I had to hug her for making me cry so much. If you've read Taking Chances and Stealing Harper, you should understand. She's also ruined me (in a good way) with Forgiving Lies/Deceiving Lies, but that's a whole other story. LOL #KashIsMine Today I am giving away a KINDLE copy of Letting Go, which is fabulous!
I first met Jane at the Emerald City Writer's Conference Book Fair a few years ago. I had read a few of her Harlequin titles, but I was excited to meet her because she was the first author I was aware of that grew up in the same area of California as I did. It was fun talking to her about it. Since then I've had the pleasure of watching the amazing work she and the fellow founding authors have done with Tule Publishing. Today I am giving away a signed set of Jane's The Brennan Sisters series. Book 2, The Good Daughter, is my favorite, but the entire series is great! 
I happened upon Kristen's books when I was looking for something new to read. As I am fascinated by all things Seattle, the fact that her series was based there was very appealing to me. So much, in fact, that I bought all the books that were available at the time. I'm so very glad I did because I ended up loving all of them. I've also had the pleasure of meeting Kristen a few times and she's such a sweetheart. :) Today I am giving away a signed copy of Loving Cara, the first in her Love Under The Big Sky series. 
I was told I just had to read these books about this race car driver named Colton by a friend of mine, so I bought Driven and Fueled, but I didn't read them right away because she also said they had cliffhangers. I normally don't mind cliffhangers, I like to be surprised, but I heard the second one had a pretty wicked one, so I wasn't in a hurry to read them. I finally broke down because I kept reading more and more and then I wondered why I didn't read them sooner. They were amazing. Then I started following and interacting with Kristy and discovered what a great person she was. I finally had the awesome opportunity to meet her a few months ago and she's just as fantastic in person as she is online. She also holds the place of being the first author to make me cry on a plane while reading. LOL Today I am giving away a signed copy of RACED. This is the companion novella to the Driven series that features several different scenes from Colton's point of view. It's amazing and more emotional than you would expect given the fact that it's not a complete story. 
So, Christina isn't an author but have you seen her Doodles? They are amazing! I have several of them myself and am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with each time. I'm still trying to talk her into doing my favorite book series. :) Today I am giving away one of her Taken Chances by Molly McAdams doodle. 
