Good news and bad news!

Good news: The prizes from the 20+ Days of Christmas Giveaway are all in the mail! I’ve been mailing them steadily ever since the contest started and most winners have already received theirs. However, I had the Canadian packages here, as well as the final few winners, but they’re done now!

Bad News: After getting all the packages together, I discovered that I’ve emptied my box of conference books and promo items, so the contest is over. I thought there might be one or two left, but no. It’s all gone.

Good News: You can still win! Today, I’m showcasing fellow Allure and Wicked Writer Sasha White’s latest release WICKED, and she’s generously offered to give away one copy to one of today’s commenters! Pretty sweet, eh?

Berkley Heat
ISBN-10: 0425219186
ISBN-13: 978-0425219188

"White turns up the heat with electrifying erotic scenes and a delicious alpha hero. It’s a realistic portrayal of two commitment-phobic people who turn sex games into romance. Fans will recognize some secondary characters from previous books, and new characters add just enough conflict to make things interesting. The plot moves at a good pace, and the sex is edgy, including threesomes and a M/M couple."
— Romantic Times Magazine

Readers first met Karl Dawson in BOUND, they’ll get to know him a little better in TROUBLE, but one woman will learn all in WICKED.

Bad-boy divorce attorney Karl Dawson has seen all the ways love can go wrong. That’s why he’s given up on it. Jaded and feeling restless, he has playmates, not girlfriends. A leather-clad Dominant, he comes and goes in the city’s after-dark playgrounds as he pleases. That’s how he likes it.

Lara Fox is an independent jack-of-all-trades who can do anything she sets her mind to - except that falling-in-love thing. She’s got a need for control too strong for most men, and an inability to walk away from a challenge. Including a challenge like Karl. He’s cocky, arrogant, and demanding. That’s how she needs it.

They’re perfect for each other. But what begins as a sensual battle of wills turns into a journey neither is prepared for when Lara is threatened and emotional walls start to crumble.

READ AN EXCERPT »

Order at:
Chapters.ca | Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | Fictionwise.com

If you’d like to win a copy of WICKED, tell me if you’ve read Sasha before and which title of hers it was/they were!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla ready-to-spread frosting
3 tablespoons red sugar
18 miniature marshmallows
36 currants or semisweet chocolate chips
18 red cinnamon candies
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat oven to 400°F. Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Beat butter, granulated sugar and lemon peel in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Break legg and add to the bowl and milk. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Turn off the mixerer thingy. At this point it’s best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, try another cup just in case.

2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 3 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. If they start smooshing together, it’s okay. Just sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity. Press bottom of drinking glass on each until about 1/4 inch and 3 inches in diameter. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. (Put the oven mitt on first…) Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Check the Cuervo again while waiting. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.

3. Smear frosting on cookie (throw stuff on each cookie before starting another. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.). Check the Jose Cuervo. Sprinkle red sugar over top third of cookie for hat. Press on miniature marshmallow for tassel. Press 2 currants for eyes and 1 cinnamon candy for nose into center third of cookie. (if you knock over the fruit, just dust it off. 5 second rule…) Toss coconut over bottom third for beard. (Or all over, who giveshz a sheet, it can be a snowman. They’re lucky you even made them cookies.)

Greash the oven.

Don’t forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

CHERRY MISTMAS

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What’s your favorite cookie? (I’ll pick two winners from the comments to make up for missing Wed.)

Today is my day to post over at Romancing the Blog, so we’ll hold today’s giveaway over there.

Today’s topic is Gift Books! What are some of the books you’ve received as gifts that you cherish?

In our house we have a few familiar staples — green bean casserole, candied yams, and mashed potatoes and gravy to name a few. We serve both kinds of cranberry sauce (with and w/out berries). We also serve Almost-A-Dessert Cornbread (the recipe is here). But this year, the runaway favorite was sweet potato casserole. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the dish. All recipes for it have pretty much the same ingredients I think — butter, brown sugar, vanilla, nuts. I think the reason why the dish was so popular this year was because of the pecans. I used Emerald Pecan Pie Glazed Pecans. They are soooo good…

What’s your favorite side dish?

I don’t have too many holiday anthologies for some odd reason. I love the holidays and I love anthologies, you’d think I’d have a bunch of ‘em. The ones I own are:

See? Not many.

I have a story in a holiday print anthology, you can see the e-book cover in the sidebar –>

So, how about you? Do you have a favorite holiday anthology? (I’ll be asking about holiday single titles in another post…)

This is another tough one for me. I’ll list a few of my favorites tomorrow. (I got distracted tonight by other things and ran out of time.) But in the meantime, I found this. Enjoy!

I have a few, but the first one that came to mind and one I’ve loved for over a decade is THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

There are so many things I love about TNBC. Tim Burton rocks! Danny Elfman’s voice… OMG. I miss it. And his music… I’d love to have him compose a soundtrack for the MARKED series! (A girl can dream…)

We watch this movie so often in our house that every family member can sing along all the way through.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should try it. I’ll be the first to say that it won’t be everyone’s cuppa tea. But in our house, it’s well-loved.

What’s your favorite holiday movie?