Christmas in June!

Ho! Ho! Ho!  I bet the last thing you're thinking about is Christmas with summer right around the corner!

Well, Tule Publishing Group's Montana Born Books decided to shake things up a little with a Christmas in June Promo! They've repackaged the Copper Mountain Christmas novellas and added a short story as well as recipes from authors! I want that cup of hot cocoa on the cover, how about you?

The Cowboys of Cooper Mountain Bundle is on sale for 99 cents. This is a five day Kindle Countdown Deal! So a limited time offer! It's only available on Amazon, but they do have free readers for other devices besides Kindles. Order a copy here!

What's inside the bundle:

A Cowboy For Christmas by Katherine Garbera
Christmas at Cooper Mountain by Jane Porter
Home For Christmas by me
Mistletoe Magic by me
Recipes from Montana Born Books, Southern Born Books & Holiday Books authors

A contest is part of the Tule Publishing Group promo with a great Grand Prize! Check this out and be sure to enter. You can comment, like and share by clicking here.

Merry Christmas in June!

Contest time! The winner of the $5 Starbucks gift card and mini swag gingerbread bag is...Emma! Emma, you didn't have a profile attached to your name so please send me your mailing address via the contact button on the menu bar and I'll send out your prize!

We are now accepting RSVPs to our 12 Hours Of Christmas Facebook Bash. Go here so you can join the party. It'll be held at the Sweet Romance Reads page, but we'll be doing promo and pre-party stuff at the event page.

The third story in A Copper Mountain Christmas is FREE today and tomorrow. Pick up your copy of Christmas at Copper Mountain by Jane Porter at Amazon. Click here. The cover blurb reads:

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…

Speaking of Christmas, I came across this acapella version of A Little Drummer Boy on You Tube. Worth a listen!



Enjoy your Tuesday! I'm hoping I can get rid of this crud I caught!

Busy Week Ahead

I have lots going on this week and many opportunities for you to win giveaways and what not. (I'll post Friday's Gift Card winner tomorrow. I'm sick today.) So here's what's happening:

Starting today, I'm hosting the weekly contest at LASR. You can enter daily to win a $10 Amazon/BN GC, a signed book from Cynthia Owens & a print copy of A Little Bit of Holiday Magic from me. Click here to enter daily!

From yesterday December 1 until December 12, Carly Phillips and Erika Wilde are holding a 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway on Facebook. Grand Prize is a Mini iPad and $100 gift certificate.  All three A Copper Mountain Christmas authors are doing a giveaway, but I'm not sure when. To enter go to this Facebook group and enter whatever giveaways you want via a Rafflecopter link attached to the prize post. There's a special Rafflecopter to enter for the Grand Prize, too. Click here to see what's up for grabs on this second day.

Starting today until the 5th, there's another mini-contest running for the SnowGlobe Award. Thanks for all your votes because I won the Best Opening! One voter entry will be random selected to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card, too! Go here to cast your vote.

The third novella in A Copper Mountain Christmas, A Copper Mountain Christmas by Jane Porter is now available, but there's a special sale happening on December 3rd and 4th, if you want to take advantage of that. Here's the link to her book on Amazon.

Thursday I'm all over the web with Christmas giveaways and fun (I'll post specific info as this day is closer):

1) 12 Sweet Reads Romance Authors are throwing a FB Party for 12 hours with a 2 hour After Party.

2) Home for Christmas is the spotlight book at Harlequin Junkie

3) I'm hosting day 5 of Montana Born Books' 12 Days of Christmas Celebration!

I'm tired just writing all that. I'll need to go to bed early on Wednesday and do twice as many words as usual so I can just have fun on Thursday!

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Mistletoe Magic!

Before I tell you about my new short story that's now available, I want to announce the winner of my There and Here contest. Kimberlyindy is the winner of the $5 Amazon gift card. Kimberly, please send me your email address via my contact button. Thanks!

And now for the big news...

Mistletoe Magic, a 9000 word short story I've working on to go with Home For Christmas and the two other A Copper Mountain Christmas novellas, is now available. Here's the blurb:

Spending a quiet Christmas housesitting and reading novels about hot cowboys sounds perfect to Caitlin Butler. Until a stray kitten brings her face-to-face with Noah, her crush from college. Watching the handsome vet in action melts Caitlin's heart and brings back long forgotten emotion. She would be safer back at the house lost in the pages of a book. But a toe-curling mistletoe kiss tempts her to stay. Maybe she won't be spending this Christmas... alone.

Veterinarian Noah Sullivan isn't a Scrooge, but the Christmas Eve tradition of hanging mistletoe in the clinic's waiting room annoys him. Kissing doesn't belong at the Copper Mountain Animal Hospital. Noah rethinks his position when Caitlin arrives with a stray kitten she found freezing in the snow. All he wants now is to maneuver the pretty preschool teacher under the mistletoe. If he's not careful, he'll wind up on Santa's naughty list.

The story is supposed to be a freebie, but is only currently free on one site. I'm hoping the others price match soon! Here are the three places you can find the story at the moment with their price:

Free at Smashwords                   $0.99 at Amazon            $0.99 at B&N

Over at Amazon, I used the From The Author section to tell a little about this story. I'm going to share that here, too, since I'm assuming most are going to download it from Smashwords where it's free! Here goes:

Mistletoe Magic is a 9000 word short story I wrote to go along with the three novellas that make up A Copper Mountain Christmas:

* A Cowboy for Christmas by Katherine Garbera (out now)
* Home for Christmas by me (out now)
* Christmas on Copper Mountain by Jane Porter (out in early December)

I love cats! The number of cats in our house changes because I foster for a local humane society, usually seniors and ones with health issues. My own kitties range in age from 2 to 16 1/2 years old.  I also have two dogs, who the cats tolerate. Well, sort of. The dogs know to keep their distance, especially from the older cats!

When I was asked to write a short Christmas romance story, I'd been dealing with a couple sick cats that not only meant visits to the vet, but a couple trips to an emergency animal hospital.  The setting seemed a natural fit for a short story. I also wanted to rewrite something that happened to me while I was writing Home For  Christmas.

I found a stray cat in my backyard. Guess my crazy cat lady reputation made the rounds with the local feline crew. Because I foster, I knew who to call and they got right to work. A couple hours later, I was with the cat, named Shasta by the humane society, at a vet office where he received much needed medical attention. I'd received a new foster cat the night before so he was taken in by the humane society and placed with a different foster. Unfortunately, Shasta didn't survive, but for the last weeks of his life he was comfortable, warm, had plenty to eat and was loved. For me, that's what animal rescue and fostering senior cats is all about.

But I'm a romance writer and prefer happy endings. Christmas is a time for magic and miracles so in Mistletoe Magic I wrote the ending I wanted for Shasta and every foster/stray cat out there.

Montana, especially the quaint town of Marietta, is a wonderful place to spend the holidays. I hope you enjoy this short story and the three A Copper Mountain Christmas novellas.

So there you have it! Hope you have a wonderful Monday!

Katherine Garbera's A Cowboy for Christmas & Giveaway

 Home For Christmas is one of three novellas that are a part of A Copper Mountain Christmas anthology. Jane Porter's Christmas on Copper Mountain will be out soon. Katherine Garbera's A Cowboy for Christmas is available and on the Amazon Holiday Bestseller List. Woo-hoo! And if you read to the end, I'll tell you how to win a copy!

I asked Katherine to tell us a little about writing her novella. Here's what she has to say:

For a long time I’ve had Annie Prudhomme in my mind.  I had this image of a woman who was driving out of a small town, middle finger in the air and promising herself to never come back.  But 15 years later, life looks different to he and she has no choice but to go home.  A lot of this character stems from my own life and my divorce after 17 years of marriage.  Starting over when you thought you’d never have to is a big challenge and I was lucky to have my family and friends to support me.  But Annie didn’t.  She hadn’t wanted anyone and now she has nowhere to go but home.  So I started with Annie and built everything else around her.

Here is a little snippet that really captures Annie:

  

He stopped in front of a seven-foot tree and tipped his head toward it.  “This one is yours.” 

“Mine,” she said.  It was odd, the things she owned post-Davis. A rundown house, a drooling dog, a beat-up Mustang and a seven-foot Douglas fir.  She started laughing at how ridiculous that was, compared to what she used to own.  Suddenly her laughter turned to tears.  She didn’t know why she was crying or how to stop it now that it had started.

Carson started to ask her something but she shook her head and turned and ran away.  Just had to get away from everything.  Her breath sawed in and out and the cold air burned as she inhaled but she didn’t stop... just kept running as fast as she could.

 Life was too much.  Being with this sweet cowboy who could have been hers if she’d chosen a different path.  Being alone in the midst of this fragrant Christmas forest and knowing that she’d continue being lonely.  And it was no one’s fault but her own that she’d wanted to get away.

***

We all have disappointments in life, is there one thing you would change if you could? It doesn't have to be a big thing. :) For me I'd tell my 21 year-old self not to eat Big Macs everyday.

Post your answer to Katherine's question in the comment section to be entered to win a copy of A Cowboy For Christmas in Kindle ebook format. Thanks and good luck!