Guest post: Enter Charley Descoteaux's Christmas in July contest!

I'm heading off on vacation for the next week, but here's something to keep you busy: fellow Dreamspinner Press author (and all around great gal) Charley Descoteaux is having a Christmas in July contest on her blog. More info from Charley herself:

 

Thanks for letting me invade your space to let your readers know about my Christmas in July contest!

To celebrate my two summer releases I’m giving away 7 prizes, including ebooks, one-of-a-kind swag, and book money!

The book cover key chains were made by the talented Megan at Swagmaster Designs, and the winner gets to choose a little added bling!

The Directing Traffic key chain comes with either a shell/starfish for Neil (or both, they’re small ), a flip flop for Ty, or a rose for both of them (or just because it’s a pretty rose). The winner can also choose a stingray for Ray.

Choose a trumpet for Jake on the A Sunday Kind of Love key chain, a clarinet for Mason, or comedy/tragedy masks for DJ. Both of the heroes are musicians so there’s a treble clef to choose from too.

Here’s how to enter:

Find the four Christmas pictures hidden on my blog & send me an e-mail telling me what the pictures are and which page you found them on (c.descoteauxwritesATgmail.com). The contest is on until July 31st, and I’ll choose the winners via random number generator to be announced the first weekend in August—just in time for the first snippet sharing of the month!

 

The prizes!

1. Ebook of my debut novella, Comfort and Joy
2. Bundle of two ebooks: Comfort and Joy, and A Sunday Kind of Love
3. Bundle of three ebooks: Comfort and Joy, A Sunday Kind of Love, and Directing Traffic
4. One-of-a-kind A Sunday Kind of Love key chain
5. One-of-a-kind Directing Traffic key chain
6. & 7. Two $10 gift certificates to Amazon, All Romance eBooks, Dreamspinner Press, or Amber Quill Press! Winner’s choice!

Thanks for playing!

Back from the beach, heading to the Bay

The beach, just a few steps from our door.

The beach!

 My blog and Twitter have been a bit dark lately, even though I have the best of intentions (I did, I swear) of updating while I was on vacation. It'll be easy, I thought. I'll get so much done at the beach! The kids will be worn out from playing in the water all day, and I'll get to sit out on the big porch and listen to the waves crash while I finish my latest book.

In a perfect world, my kids would be angels and I'd be done with my Christmas anthology novella submission for Dreamspinner Press. The one that's due Aug. 1. (Oy.) But I don't live in a perfect world, and I don't know why I always romanticize vacation so. The Bub and the Barnacle are hyperactive whirlwinds at home, and they're twice as bad on the road. In reality, I actually lost 2,000 words on my latest manuscript because my laptop battery had a heart attack of some sort (sob), my kids slept about a total of 12 hours the entire week, and I now have first-hand knowledge that the going rate for a hooker at the gas station in OMG-is-this-actually-a-town North Carolina is $20 for half an hour.

Dark and foggy at 1 p.m. Guess
this is why they
call them the Smokies?

("Mom! That guy is paying money to spend time with that lady! Can I ask people who talk to me for money?" "No, son. No.")

Road trip shenanigans.

We also had less-than-perfect weather for our drive. We're Midwesterners, so mountains are a foreign concept. Driving through them in the rain and fog with two bored children who like to try to out-shriek each other with inane noises when they're bored? Not something I'd recommend.


We did have fun, though. And now I kind of want to write something historical with pirates after spending some time out on the open sea on The Black Dagger with a fierce (but tiny) pirate crew.

The Barnacle, who opted for a fierce
pirate mustache with her doo-rag.

The Bub, firing water cannons off a pirate ship.

In a few days, I'm dropping the kiddos off with the in-laws and heading off to San Francisco to visit friends and belatedly celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary (hey, Hubs and I are getting it in before our 11th, which is in August, so it counts, right?). I have every intention of writing, Tweeting, and blogging while I'm gone, but you know me... *g*

Coming this fall: My first book in paperback!

Time to uncork some champagne!
Photo credit: Niels Noordhoek

A few months ago I posted about submitting my first full novel manuscript to my publisher. It's been a looooong wait, but I finally heard back earlier this week--Island House will be released by Dreamspinner Press this fall!

I'm over the moon with excitement. About eight months ago my first title came out, a short called Traditions from the Heart, joined later by the novelette Diving In. My first novella, The Buyout, will be out July 3. Working on each of those ebooks and seeing them through from idea to ISBN has been amazing, but I have to admit that I haven't felt like an author until now. Maybe it's because I grew up in The Time Before E-Readers, but there's something about holding a paperback in your hands that makes it feel real. I'm not going to liken authorship to motherhood, since I have two kids and I know firsthand that labor is a lot more painful than the writing process. Still, even without the tragically over-used birth metaphor, bringing a new book into the world is something magical. I'm eagerly anticipating the day when I can hold Island House in my hands!

Island House Blurb:

Niall is a British ex-pat who left the UK for the sunny skies and beautiful scenery of Tortola after his partner Nolan was killed four years ago. Living in the Caribbean had always been their dream, but the reality of it leaves Niall desperately unhappy. When a new client shows up at his real estate firm looking for a home, Niall sees an opportunity to make enough money to change his life—but he gets a lot more than he'd bargained for with Ethan. They make it through a hurricane together, but then life keeps throwing curve balls their way that are harder to weather.

On sale today: The Buyout

My new novella, The Buyout, is on sale today. It was mentioned in this week's Happily Ever After romance novel round-up in USA Today, which was incredibly exciting for me. I hope you'll pick up a copy!

All Parker Anderson has ever wanted is to take over as CEO of Anderson Industries when his father retires. But when his father is ready to leave the company, he doesn’t plan to pass the reins to Parker. Instead, he plans to sell the company, jeopardizing not only Parker’s job but hundreds of others.

Parker finds an unlikely ally in Mason Pike, the company’s resident IT guru. What starts as a flirtation takes them from coworkers to coconspirators in a plan to forcibly buy Anderson Industries out from under Parker’s father. While they focus on the buyout, their budding romance has to be put on hold, but that doesn't stop them from flirting and teasing each other to distraction—and once their master plan comes to fruition, nothing and no one can keep them apart.

ISBN-13: 978-62380-775-7

Pages: 125

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Lou Harper
Categories: Novellas, Contemporary

Book type: eBook

File Formats Available: .epub, .mobi, html, pdf

Purchase The Buyout directly from Dreamspinner Press 

or find it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.