Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you have a wonderful Friday whether you're spending Valentine's with your loved one or if you're on your own this year!

I've been playing around with a new app and came up with this for you:

A Post and an eBook for You

Did your team win yesterday? Mine wasn't playing. But I live where everyone is a 12th man and the number 12 flags fly everywhere. Fireworks and shouting were going on like it was New Year's Eve. I felt so bad for Chaos. She doesn't like noises like that!

One of my critique partners, Lisa Creane, who is brilliant and doesn't let me getaway with much (okay, anything) when she reads my chapters, wrote a great blog called House Tone that combines Harry Potter and parenting. Worth a read!

Lisa is a mom-extraordinaire, a psychologist and writer, a woman who wears many hats. I'm honored to work with her and more importantly, have loved getting to know her. Click here to go to her blog.

If you happen to be a Harry Potter fan, you might be interested in the link on Lisa's post that sorts you into the four houses from the book.  If you take the test, I'd love to know how you were sorted.

As part of my Valentine's Giveaway (click here to enter), I'm doing random contests on the blog and Facebook between now and Valentine's day. Today's prize is an ebook from my backlist. To enter, post a comment. I'll randomly pick a winner and post the name on Friday so if you'd rather not leave your email where I can contact you, just check back on Friday to see if you won.

Good luck! And have a great Monday!

Valentine's Day Giveaway

From today until 8 am on Valentine's Day, I have a giveaway going on!

The prizes are:

• $10 Amazon eGift Card
• $10 Starbuck's eGift Card
• $5 Amazon eGift Card
• $5 Starbuck's eGift Card

You can enter using the Rafflecopter below or the one on my Facebook page! Thanks for reading this blog and my books! I have the best readers! Love ya lots! xoxox

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Hop Winners

Sorry this is a couple days late. I caught another cold on top of my sinus infection or maybe that's just hanging around! Not good with a book due and Christmas next week. Here are the winners from my blog contest during the Naughty and Nice Blog Hop.

Daily $5 Amazon or Starbuck eCard winners:

Wednesday's winner: Shari (sent)
Thursday's winner: Elisabeth (sent)
Friday's winner: Barbara (sent)
Saturday's winner: Denise (sent)
Sunday's winner: Valerie (sent)
Monday's winner: Janine (sent)

The three eCard post-blog hop winners:

1) $15 Amazon or Starbuck eCard:  bn100 (sent)
2) $10 Amazon or Starbuck eCard: Eva Millen
3) $5 Amazon or Starbuck eCard: Stephanie Gibson (sent)


Thanks to everyone who entered. And remember, I have four Christmas stories out right now, one of which is free:

A kitten reunites lost loves… Short Story Free at Amazon Home isn't always where we think… 39K words Novella $2.99 at Amazon All you need it to believe… 55K words novel Amazon, BN, iBooks Trade-sized includes  Home for Christmas 3 novellas $13.14 at Amazon

Naughty and Nice Blog Hop - A Christmas Memory

Welcome! I'm participating in the Naughty and Nice Blog Hop so this post 

will be up from December11th to the 16th!

The blog hop rules and instructions are listed on the Safari Heat site. Click here to go to hop headquarters. The overall hop Grand Prize is a Kindle Fire HDX 7" with eBooks! Other prizes will be rewarded to commenters at the various blogs each day of the hop! Only residents of US and Canada are eligible to win prizes that need to be shipped due to postage costs, but anyone can winBooks or digital prizes. 

I remember the first Christmas after marrying my husband. We decided to stay in the Bay Area rather than fly to New York to be with his family or Oregon to be with mine. I was worried I might miss my family since I'd never spent Christmas away from them, but I had to admit a romantic first Christmas alone with my husband sounded pretty perfect to this newlywed and unpublished romance writer.

Of course being alone never happened. And forget about missing being home with my family. We were too busy, surrounded by loved ones...our friends!

Christmas Eve arrived with an invitation from a college friend to spend the evening with him and his family. His father cooked the most incredible dinner and gave me pointers to use for my Christmas dinner, ones I continue to use today. We watched my friend's sister-in-law light the Menorah, then said goodnight so we could attend Midnight Mass.

Christmas morning, my other best friend from college and her husband paid us a visit bearing good tidings and gifts. They gave us an engraved frame marking the occasion. We have a pic from that day in it! That afternoon, our apartment became the gathering place for anyone who didn't have a place to go. We ate Christmas dinner, the first I'd ever cooked, together!

Not much romantic alone time as we'd planned, but that was okay. Everything, and more importantly everyone, came together to give us a perfect first Christmas! Do you have a special memory of a Christmas you want to share? 

Sometimes getting together takes so much effort, but that Christmas plans fell into place perfectly, proof to me there really is Christmas magic, something that plays into each of my Christmas stories out now.

A kitten reunites lost loves… Short Story Free at Amazon Home isn't always where we think… 39K words Novella $2.99 at Amazon All you need it to believe… 55K words novel Amazon, BN, iBooks Trade-sized includes  Home for Christmas 3 novellas $13.14 at Amazon Now some blog hop info:  Prizes will be awarded on comments left here daily so be sure to put your email address when you comment. To get four extra entries into the Grand Prize Kindle Giveaway: Leave a comment, follow my blog, follow on FB and/or on Twitter. Just note that you've done these on your comment, but a comment alone enters you. The extra steps are for more entries! If you want a format to follow you can copy and paste this for your comment: Name: Email: Twitter: Followed @username Facebook: Followed by Your-user-name Blog: Followed by (put name if it's different from your own) Country you live in: (so we know which prizes you're eligible for) Comment: I'm giving away prizes at my blog during the hop, too: Daily: a $5 Amazon or Starbuck eCard to one commenter randomly chosen from all the comments Wednesday's winner: Shari Thursday's winner: Elisabeth (also won a book from the main hop, see comment section) Friday's winner: Barbara Saturday's winner: Denise Sunday's winner: Valerie Monday's winner: Janine After the hop ends, three winners randomly chosen from all the comments left on this blog during the hop. The prizes are: 1) $15 Amazon or Starbuck eCard 2) $10 Amazon or Starbuck eCard 3) $5 Amazon or Starbuck eCard To keep blog hopping click here.

Busy, but fun day ahead!

So get your fingers ready to type and join me on a few Internet stops, all of which include giveaways! And there's something else I'd love help from if you have a minute! Not that you will have much time if you're following me around!

At 10 am (EST) until midnight, there will be a party at the Sweet Romance Reads Facebook page. You can drop by for as long or short as you'd like, once or several times. Lots of giveaways, free books, fun and a $100 Amazon gift card for the grand prize!

I'll be hosting the following hours (EST):

 Noon to 1:00 pm
 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
10:00 pm to Midnight

But plan on stopping by when I can!

Tomorrow, I'm also at Harlequin Junkie doing a spotlight on Home For Christmas. The giveaway there is a $10 Amazon Gift Card. Just leave a comment to be entered. Click here.

And I'll be at the Montana Born Books' blog for the 12 Days Of Christmas in Marietta, Montana. Fun prizes there! I'm day 3 so maybe there will be 3 prizes. Who knows? But click here to find out

Home for Christmas is on a 99 cent Kindle Countdown Deal until the 10th. It's being featured here this morning on Kindle Books and Tips. I'll put the link here once it's live. The book will be listed on their Facebook page later so if you see me request a "Like" for that posting if you follow my page, please like it!

Thanks so much! I hope you know how much I appreciate each one of you!

Okay, that should cover it. I hope you'll join me today around the Internet!

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.

Black Friday Blogging & Giveaway

Normally I'd be out shopping by 5 am this morning, but I'm hanging with the family today. We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving being grateful as well as having fun celebrating my mom's birthday. Going out to eat definitely worked well! My mom seemed to really enjoy herself yesterday!

Today I'm over at Sweet Romance Reads blogging about being addicted to Christmas movies. Stop by and say hi if you get the chance. The trailer to my current favorite Christmas movie is there. Any guesses what it might be? Post your answer here before going there. One commenter will win a recipe card, gingerbread cookie cutter and a $5 Starbuck's gift card! The winner will be chosen randomly so no peeking! Click here to go there.

Also if you have a minute, could you please go here and vote for best opening line?  My book Home for Christmas is entered. I won't tell you which entry number is mine. Just vote for your favorites. One voter will receive a $10 Amazon gift certificate from the contest! Here's a little more info about it:

November 28-November 30-Catchiest Opening Lines! On November 30, the winning opening lines will be announced and a voter entry will be randomly selected and both winners will receive a $10 amazon gift card.

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!

A Cowboy For Christmas Winner & More

The random number generator over at random.org picked 4 and since I'd taken my comment out of the running, the eBook winner of Katherine Garbera's A Cowboy for Christmas is Quilt Lady. Congrats! Quilt Lady, please send me your email address via the Contact button above and I'll get a copy sent to you from Amazon.

Quilt Lady already has a copy so she said to give it away to someone else. So random # generator picked 5 so the new winner is Marcy! She included her address so we're all set. Quilt Lady, please email me your address. I'm putting together a little promo item for December and will mail you one when I have them ready! Thanks!

Thanks to all who entered. It was interesting reading the comments about what you'd do differently. I also appreciate Katherine for her guest blog. Thank you!

Also something fun happened this weekend that's book related. For the first time (at least that I've seen) A Little Bit of Holiday Magic hit the #1 spot on the Amazon Harlequin Romance Best Sellers list. Thank goodness I grabbed a screen shot because I wasn't there for long and have dropped considerably since then. But seeing this still makes me smile!

Definitely fun while it lasted! Celebrating the little things is important because in publishing there can be long, dry times when it comes to big things. At least that's been my case.

I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

Home For Christmas Winner

My great Friday turned not-so-great when I ended up at the animal hospital with my 15 year old cat Miss Mousie. Sigh...  We're hoping it was just a reaction to some medication she's on. Otherwise I fear we'll be back there today.

I've decided to give two copies of the book away! I used a random number generator to pick the winners. And they are:

1) Cinderbella

2) Cindy Hamilton

Please use the Contact button on the menu bar to send me your email address.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered. I'm so happy to see that some of you have already read the novella and discovered Montana Born Books! They are putting out wonderful stories! And to B, I'm so sorry about your cousin. Prayers and condolences to you and your family.

Time to recheck on my cat! It's been a late night, but hubby took the early shift so I could get some sleep.

Enjoy your Saturday. I'll be catwatching and writing.

A Very Good Friday Giveaway!

Last night....

Stanford beat Oregon! Awesome!

The Portland Timbers beat the Seattle Sounders! Woo-hoo!

A pet store agreed to host my oldest's 4-H club's Kong Dog Toy Drive service project! Great!

Today...

An email from one of my soldiers arrived this morning! Yippee!

Katherine Garbera's A Cowboy for Christmas (A Copper Mountain Christmas novella like my Home For Christmas) is currently ranked #10 on the Kindle Holiday Bestseller list! Exciting!

I'm so thrilled for my friend, Katherine. She's the one who suggested I be a part of the Montana Born Books anthology. If you like cowboys and Montana, buy her book! I'd love to see her hit #1!

If you want to pick up Katherine's novella click on the link above or use the widget below.

Since it's been such a good morning and I'm oh-so Cardinal proud, I'm giving away a copy of my novella Home For Christmas. It's a Kindle-format eBook, but you can read that from your computer or phone, too!

Comment to enter. I'll pick a winner tonight.

Check back in the morning to see if it's you because I'll need the winner's email address so I can send them a copy of the book!

So...how are things going in your life?

The fun never ends...

I thought things would be settling down around here. But nope.

On Wednesday, Miss Mousie came down with what Spirit had. Luckily we could get her on the right meds right away on Thursday and she's doing fine. Spirit has completely recovered, too! Amazing considering a week ago I thought we might have to put her down!

On Friday, Rose twisted her ankle at a trampoline place. She had to miss her soccer game on Saturday and limped around most of the weekend.

On Saturday night, we ended up at the ER with Finn. He could barely walk after his swim meet on Saturday. The kid still managed two personal bests and two state A times, but turns out he has tendonitis in his left foot. He's in an air splint, and we see his pediatrician tomorrow. I was just so happy something wasn't broken. The last time this happened we discovered he'd been swimming for two weeks with a broken arm.

As you can imagine, I'm ready for life to settle down. I hope to be back to my normal blogging once that happens. Been praying and crossing fingers. Seriously not sure how much more this mom can take.

On the writing front, I wanted to tell/remind you about a couple things.

First, if you haven't signed up for my newsletter, please do. Click here or go to the right column to sign up. I'll be doing giveaways for subscribers in November and December to celebrate my two Christmas releases. Gift cards and gingerbread are the prizes so sign-up before 11/1 to be entered in the November giveaway.

Second, there's a Goodreads giveaway going on right now for copies of my upcoming release A Little Holiday Magic. Go here to enter or you can use this gadget to get there, too.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Little Bit of Holiday Magic

by Melissa McClone

Giveaway ends November 01, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Hope you had a nice and uneventful weekend!

My New Cover!

I wanted to share the cover for my upcoming November release, A Little Bit of Holiday Magic, the final book in my Hood Hamlet Christmas Magic series that's available for preorder!

Here's the back cover copy:

A new family…for Christmas?

All widow Grace Wilcox wants is a fresh start for her and her young son, Liam. When her truck spins off the icy road, her rescuer turns out to be the hottest firefighter in Hood Hamlet, and even wary Grace can't say no to his offer of help!

Bill Paulson has stuck to his no-dating rule so far this Christmas, but having Grace in his home is testing his chivalrous side to the limit! Her little boy is melting his heart, even asking for a new daddy from Santa….

But Grace has already loved and lost one hero. Can she really let herself get close to another?

I also had Hot Damn Designs add the cover to my Facebook page. If you haven't liked the page, please do. Now that I have more time will be hanging out more there:

I'm going to be doing giveaways in November and December to celebrate my book's release and Christmas! Be sure to sign up for my newsletter(you can do so on the right) because at least two giveaways will be for subscribers only!

Book Giveaway!

I'm doing a giveaway on Goodreads. Three copies of my latest release THE MAN BEHIND THE PINSTRIPES are up for grab. Either click here to be taken to the entry page or use the handy widget below.

I've been on Goodreads, but haven't used it much. Any suggestions or hints on how to make the most of the site both as a reader and author!

Thanks!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Man Behind the Pinstripes

by Melissa McClone

Giveaway ends August 09, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Interview & Giveaway!

I'm over at Harlequin Junkie, promoting my new release Winning Back His Wife, with an interview and a giveaway. The prize is a  $10 Amazon gift certificate. Click here to enter.

Instead of doing my normal March blog contest here, I'm doing it there, so be sure to head over to Harlequin Junkie and enter. 

I'll have a couple of books I picked up at ALA to giveaway here on the blog next week! I planned on doing it in late January then February, but time got away from me.

Hope you have a great Thursday! I'll be spending my morning volunteering at school and my afternoon writing! What about you?

Insane day

I feel like applying my face to the wall. It's still early but so far:

1) Minivan was dropped off at the car dealership at 7 am to be fixed.

2) Interview and giveaway scheduled for today postponed due to the website's host being down. I feel so bad for her because it's totally out of her hands and I now how frustrating that can be when I had issues with a site hosting my fonts (they were recently switched because of that.)

3) One of the cats threw up this morning while I was doing #1 and made a total mess in the landing.

Are you having a normal day or an insane one.

Forgot

This LOLcat forgot their key. I forgot to blog!

I've been so focused on revisions and sleeping that I let Monday slip by. Oops.

But I'm on a roll with the rewriting and just don't want to stop. I keep getting all these ideas on what to do with the story. It's fun and exciting and overwhelming at times. But it's my favorite time as a writer, when the characters and story keeps coming to you 24/7. Though it makes me a tad distracted at times!

Anyway, I just wanted to check in. I still have contest prizes to send and figure out what the prizes will be. I wanted to run a specific contest with books I got from the ALA, but I got sick and was on deadline and it never happened. But I'll get around to it soon. I promise!

Have a great Tuesday! Happy Anniversary to my mom and dad! And Happy Birthday to my niece!

December Contest Winner!

This was me this morning. I wasn't on an epic journey, just starting my day, but I was so tired I went back to sleep for a few minutes. I woke up three and a half hours later!

Needless to say, I must get writing. I'll post my Rose Bowl Recap tomorrow. In the meanwhile, the winner of the December blog contest is Brandy who commented on my post WEEKEND RECAP. Brandy, please use the contact button on the menu bar above to send me your email address and whether you want a $10 eGift Certificate from Amazon or BN.com. You have seven days to contact me.

Thanks to everyone who posted comments this month and entered the contest! A new contest is underway starting on January 1. The winner will be announced on February 1st unless I post otherwise. To enter just comment on a blog post!

Hope you have a good day!

November Giveaway Winner

Another full weekend ahead. The two youngest kidlets swim in the morning at a meet while our oldest swims in the afternoon. That means hubby and I will be two ships that pass in the night. Actually two cars who will pass on I-5!

Making progress on the proposal, but it's slow. I was deterred slightly by a rescue that happened on Mount Hood. The climbing forum I belong to was and has been discussing it.

The climber posted his situation on his Facebook page. Turns out he belongs to the climbing forum, too. Thankfully he's safe and made good choices while stuck up there. Kudos to the friend who told him to stay then drove from Bend to Timberline to be there when he got down and to the rescuers from PMR who got him down safely. The climber wrote a very detailed post about what happened and his decision making progress. Very interesting!

This month's winner of a $10 gift card to either Amazon or bn.com is Quilt Lady. She commented on my post "Happy Thanksgiving." Quilt Lady, please use the Contact button on the menu bar above to send me your email address and which gift card you want. You have seven days to contact me or I'll choose another winner. Thanks!

What do you have planned for this weekend?