Carly Phillips's Blog: Carly's Web Blogs, page 40

Most Embarrassing Moment

Yesterday, thanks to hubby’s car’s navigation, we went to pay a condolence call and walked into wrong house in same name town. House unlocked and by Jewish tradition we let ourselves in and scared a woman to death. Maybe the cookie platter in my hand reassured her we weren’t serial killers? What’s your most embarrassing moment?

DARE TO TOUCH EXCERPT!

If you are on my newsletter list, you received a preview of DARE TO TOUCH, Chapter One last week! If you aren’t, you can get it now … I’m so excited to bring you Olivia Dare and Dylan Rhodes. Their story, DARE TO TOUCH, will be available in all retailer outlets on January 13, 2015. One short month from now!

You can preorder DARE TO TOUCH at iBooks: HERE

Coming soon, you will be able to preorder at Amazon and other e-retailers. Print will be available on release day as well!

Olivia Dare, executive director of the Miami Thunder, and team travel director, Dylan Rhodes share more than just a passion for football — their chemistry is explosive and their feelings for each other are intense. But Olivia is wary of any man getting too close. Given her background — a near-bigamist dad and an ex-boyfriend who merely enforced her lack of priority in his life — Olivia fears being hurt again but she can’t resist embarking upon a passionate affair with Dylan, even as she holds part of herself back.

Dylan isn’t a man who does anything half way. Once he decides to pursue Olivia, he goes all in. When the Pro-Bowl takes them to the desert oasis of Arizona, Dylan is determined to make sure their time together isn’t all business. What happens while at the luxury resort is life altering but when Olivia admits her deepest pain, will Dylan be able to prove he’s a man with staying power? Or will Olivia be disappointed again, this time by the most important man in her life?

Preorder DARE TO TOUCH now!

Exclusive iBooks preorder — HERE.

Don’t worry, Kindle, Nook, Google Play, Kobo and print links will be up soon or on the release date — January 13, 2015.

 

HOW TO READ THE EXCERPT/SAMPLE CHAPTER:

There will be two ways that you can download the sample chapter:

1.) CLICK HERE , and enter the password dylanisdreamy.  Once you’ve entered the password you’ll have the option to read the chapter there or to download a PDF or Word sample of DARE TO TOUCH.

Or

2.) Visit iTunes at this link and when iTunes opens (you MUST be in the iTunes application, not just the browser!), click on GET SAMPLE beneath the cover image: http://bit.ly/1G7t2le

I HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR PREVIEW!

Winners!

Hi, all! I have a bunch of winners to announce here!

All randomly chosen …

1. The winner of the eBook ARC of DARE TO TOUCH is …

Alyse Novak

Alyse has been notified via email.

2. The TSU only contest winner of a $25 Amazon Gift Card is …

Colleen Everly (@colleenE)

Colleen has been notified via TSU message.

3. The winner of the Jeannie Moon Giveaway is …

# 16 – catslady

Please email Jeannie with your choice of book of Jeannie’s BACKLIST at: Jeannie @ jeanniemoon . com (no spaces) to claim your prize!

Guest Author Jeannie Moon & Giveaway!

Saturday at my blog is about what are you reading – usually – today it’s about a book I read and fell in love with – Jeannie Moon’s THIS CHRISTMAS. I have to say Jeannie is pretty fantastic too. If you want a heartwarming holiday novella between two people meant to be, I really highly recommend this book – on sale for a limited time for .99! Jeannie is doing a generous giveaway below too. Read on for BUY LINKS and more.

The Giant Christmas Tree

I’m thrilled to be back with Carly, especially in December when celebrations of love and family are everywhere. In my new Christmas novella, This Christmas (which is on sale for .99 for the next few days!) traditions play a major part in setting the scene.

Sabrina Gervais, my heroine, is part of a wonderfully close family and they decorate their coastal Holly Point, Long Island home from top to bottom for the holidays, including a big Christmas tree they get from a local tree farm. I decorate extensively as well, but we don’t do real trees in my house anymore, and let me tell you why.

About fifteen years ago we had what we have come to know in my family as the “Tree Incident.” The children were 10, 8 and 6 and since our trees always dried out before we were ready to take them down, we decided to go to a tree farm to cut our own. I thought fresher was better.

The day before our outing, youngest was riding his bike, ran over something in the driveway, and flipped over the handlebars. It was a bad fall, but he was wearing a helmet, so his noggin was spared. His mouth, however, not so lucky. The poor kid was a mess. He ended up losing a front tooth in the following days, but what we knew immediately was that he was in no shape to tree farm. So, I stayed home and watched cartoons with my banged-up little guy, while my daughters and my husband went to find a tree.

I don’t have a big house. I have a front-to-back split level, but what I do have is a vaulted ceiling that’s twelve feet at its highest point. I love that I can have a tall tree and my husband and the girls went out to look for our eight-footer.

A few hours and several phone calls later, and my tree farmers pulled in the driveway with a large evergreen lashed to the roof of our station wagon. I was so excited to get it inside and start decorating. And that’s when I noticed it was sticking off the ends of the car. BOTH ENDS. And eight-footer this was not.

Once my husband wrestled the tree in the front door, I looked at the trunk. It had to be a foot in diameter. After hearing the stories about how hard it was to cut down with a hand saw, we tried to stand it up. Needless to say, it did not fit in the tree stand and the top of the tree bent at the ceiling line. Yup. It was over twelve feet tall.

Hubby went out and bought a new tree stand, cut away at the base of the trunk, and eventually the tree stood. Victory! No. We took off the netting and it was like the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when the tree explodes. Fortunately, there was no squirrel, but the tree that was still brushing the ceiling was taking up half my living room. HALF! And I didn’t have enough lights, or garland or ornaments.

I stared at my husband and my daughters and shook my head. “I wanted a big tree, but not this big!” I said. My husband was cold and tired and I think he might have growled, but it was my middle daughter who put it in perspective. She looked up at the tree with its dense branches and bent top and said, “It didn’t look that big next to the sky.”

Out of the mouths of babes.

So, after making a few trips for more decorations and lights, the tree was finished. There were too many branches near the floor to put presents under the tree. We had to move several pieces of furniture so we could walk through the room and the star wasn’t square on top, but tilted off to one side. We had to tie it to the stair railing with dental floss because the cat enjoyed climbing into the branches, and the last thing we needed was for the blasted thing to fall and take out the front window.

In the end, we had a good laugh over it. The tree was a great conversation piece and it has been a good story for years. Did it stay fresher than a pre-cut tree? NO! I had more needles in my house than ever before. I think I was still vacuuming up the little suckers in June.

It was then that we decided to buy a fake tree. We still have it. It fits the room perfectly, but it’s never going to give me a story like the one I just told you.

GIVEAWAY

I have a copy of your choice of book from my digital back list and a lighthouse tree ornament for one commenter. Do you have any holiday stories that have come part of your family folklore? Share it with me in the comments!

Please stay in touch!

My spam-free newsletter is only sent when there’s something wonderful to share. You can sign up here.

Like my Facebook page for lots of book related fun.

And find me on Amazon. All my books are listed and remember my Christmas in New York novella, This Christmas is on sale through Wednesday, 12/17. You can read an excerpt on my website.

A little about This Christmas:

Single mother Sabrina Gervais has built a happy life with her daughter Charlotte in their eastern Long Island hometown of Holly Point. Having Charlie meant putting some of her own dreams on hold, but Sabrina is content to surround herself with family and friends, safe from the realities of the outside world. She had enough of that when the man she loved broke her heart.

Jake Killen’s career in professional hockey has brought him many rewards on and off the ice, but returning to New York brings back a flood of memories he wasn’t prepared for. When he sees Sabrina again, he discovers that he didn’t just walk away from her ten years ago, but also from their unborn child.

Struggling with anger, guilt, and chemistry that’s off the chart, Sabrina and Jake wonder if they can find love again and, this Christmas, make all their wishes come true.

About Jeannie

Jeannie Moon has always been a roman¬tic. When she’s not spinning tales of her own, Jeannie works as a school librarian, thank¬ful she has a job that allows her to immerse herself in books and call it work. Married to her high school sweet¬heart, Jeannie has three kids, three lovable dogs and a mischievous cat and lives in her hometown on Long Island, NY. If she’s more than ten miles away from salt water for any longer than a week, she gets twitchy. Visit Jeannie’s web¬site at www.jeanniemoon.com

Enter to win a DARE TO TOUCH e-ARC

DARE TO TOUCH is finished … it’s being edited and formatted … I’m giving away an e-ARC to one lucky winner! Enter to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tsu

I know you’re probably wondering what the subject of this blog is. Tsu is another social media website — now now, before you groan and I don’t blame you, hear me out. It’s a fact, and Facebook has let the world know, that as of January 15th, they will be limiting what kind of “advertising” posts people see. Worse than it is now — and it’s pretty bad now. I have 41,000 plus subscribers and on a good day a post about my books shows to 3,000 people if I’m lucky. Usually less. Despite the fact that these people have liked my page and want to see what I have to say.

TSU – Romance writers seem to be flocking to this new social media platform. Will it last? Who knows. But right now they show everything. I’ll still post on Facebook, I’ll still post on Twitter … but if you want to give it a try, here is my Tsu URL – a lot of authors are trying it out. Bloggers and readers too.

Hope to see you there!

LIKE ME ON TSU HERE – https://www.tsu.co/carlyphillips

So … what do you think? Will you give it a try?

Princess and the Pea

That’s me. I’m so fussy with my bedding and my pillows. We’ve already talked pillows. This summer, after years of the same sheets that were super soft but finally ripped, I took the plunge. I bought sheets. I hate the expense and worse I am  … NOT HAPPY so I just ordered a set from Bed Bath and Beyond (DKNY sateen – GREAT reviews on softness/coolness). I’m so annoyed at the money wasted on the other sets. Sigh. Am I the only princess in the group?

Dare to Touch Excerpt

The first chapter of DARE TO TOUCH (1/13/15) will be revealed to newsletter subscribers TOMORROW! Make sure you’re on the mailing list:

Sign up today:
http://www.carlyphillips.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Preorder Dare to Touch:
iBooks - http://bit.ly/DTTiBooks
Coming soon all other retailers!

 

Recommend a Book to a Tired Author!

Today I am taking a list of books to read once I write THE END on Dare to Touch … by today or tomorrow.

WHAT’CHA ALL READING?!

Black Friday Winner!

Just wow! 668 comments for a chance to win the $25 Amazon Gift Card! I turned to www.random.org to generate a winner/number. And the winner is ………..

#340 – Sasha R!

Sasha, please email me at: carly phillips author @ gmail . com (no spaces) to claim your prize!

Thanks everyone for entering!

HAPPY SUNDAY!