Elizabeth Boyle's Blog, page 31

Five Things about Gayle Callen

If I were to describe my friend Gayle, I would say "she's good people." The sort of person you would never vote off the island. Funny, smart and down to earth, she's someone that the more I get to know her, the more I discover we have in common! I hope you find some commonalities with her and check out her new book, Every Scandalous Secret.

1) Favorite indulgence: Chocolate Nutty Cone ice cream. Broken pieces of cone covered in chocolate all mixed inside. Need I say more?

2) First memory: the vacuum cleaner coming at me as my mom tried to vacuum around me. I can still see the bright light beaming at me like a UFO.

3) The last book you read: Ellen Hartman's Married by June, a Harlequin Superromance. She's a good friend of mine–and a great writer![image error]

4) Favorite dessert: Seven Layer bars, the ones with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut–OMG. We make four batches at Christmas.

5) Most played song on your iPod: The soundtrack from Wicked. Yep, I'm a musical theater geek. On car trips, my daughter and I sing the songs at the top of our voices. My husband puts in earbuds and listens to something else…

To learn more about Gayle and read excerpts from her latest historical romances, current, A Most Scandalous Engagement and the just released, Every Scandalous Secret visit her website at GayleCallen.com.

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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What's an Author to do . . .

Well, get her book done. Right now I am in the home stretch of finishing a book and there is chorus going round the house right now is "When my book is done–". I don't think I can compose the strident tone or the aggravated, please don't bother me AGAIN notes that come with along with that statement, but they are not the only ones who are being put off as I log more hours than I care to count in front of my computer.

Hey, boys, I've been putting off all kinds of things that I want to get going on (not just your requests) including:

Planting my spring bulbs

Learn to crochet a hexagon (following this tutorial: Hexagon How-To)

Clean up my office

Read about 2 dozen books in my TBR (CJ Sansom's Revelation, anyone?)

Write the workshops that I will be giving next month

Fun things. Interesting things. Things that will replenish the creative well (even the cleaning part) and get me ready for the book to follow Along Came a Duke. Which already has a name . . . But you will have to wait to find that out, (right along with the child who wants me to take him clothes shopping, and the other one who wants me to get him registered at the Y) just like I have to wait to get to my To Be Done list.

What's on your "If I Wasn't Up to My Neck in _______, I Would be Doing _______" list?

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Five Things About Blythe Gifford

I met Blythe a little over a year ago at the RomCon conference and found her a delightful authorly companion to share a table with. And then I read her book and loved it, so it was only natural that I would want to share that table with all of you and let you get to know Blythe Gifford:

1) Favorite indulgence:  Miss Meringue Cappuccino Classiques.  My local

store no longer carries them so I order them shipped to me a carton of a dozen at a time. But they have no fat, so that makes total sense, right?

EB: Blythe–have you met Katharine Ashe? I think you two were sisters separated at birth. She's a cookie fanatic as well.

2) The last book you read:  Ravishing in Red, by Madeline Hunter.  I know, I

know, it's a 2010 release.  I'm a little behind on my TBR pile.  Once you are published, you can barely keep up with the releases from your friends!

EB: So very true!

3) Favorite place to shop online:  Amazon.  I've got the app on my iPhone. Seriously.

EB: Really? There's an app for that??? Oh, the evil things I learn from my friends. LOL

4) If you could go on a date with one of your heroes, which one and why? Uh, I already have, but I'm not telling you which one, when, or what happened.

5) Secret passion:  I'm a closet fashionista, but since I spend my days in pajama pants in front of the computer screen, it manifests itself in a nail polish addiction.  (After all, digits on deadline should be pampered.) Right now, I'm wearing a deep, creamy teal on my fingers and bright red on my toes.

Isn't this cover just wonderful? I so had love at first sight with this cover. You can get a copy of His Border Bride (print or ebook), and learn more about Blythe's upcoming new trilogy, set on the Scottish Borders by visiting her website, www.blythegifford.com.

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Shout Out

I am going to make this announcement short and sweet, because I am in the home stretch of finishing up Along Came a Duke and don't want to dally around the issue. So here it is:

Last week's blog winner is: PhyllisC, commenter #29, who also tweeted as MamaCrab01.

Phyllis, please send me an email (my address can be found on my Contact page) along with your mailing address before Saturday, September 24th.

As always, unclaimed prizes go back into the prize closet!

Thanks everyone for playing along and when I get the book done, I will be having a lot more Monday blog contests–these are great fun. If you didn't win, that doesn't mean you shouldn't enter my regular Contest. The prize right now is a Nook Colour.

Have a great week!

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Five Things about Liza Palmer

Cool and hip are the best ways to describe Liza Palmer. And funny. Good gracious, this woman is funny. Depends sort of funny. But most of all, I just love her honesty. It is such a breath of fresh air. Minus the blue cheese.

Without further ado, my friend, Liza Palmer:

1) Most played song on my iPod: At 498 times, The Healing off the Lady in the Water soundtrack. I listened to this back to back to back to back to back when writing A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents. Never has a book called for the listening of one song before or since.

2) Favorite indulgence: As you know, Elizabeth, I have an unhealthy affection for cheese and cheese plates. I love Midnight Moon and Humboldt Fog cheeses – and would clutch them to my breast in times of war…as should you.

3) The last book I read: I am in the middle of reading Jane Eyre for the first time. I KNOW. My book club, which the ever fashionable Megan Crane is also a member, is reading Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea in tandem. Reading this book…it's like I've been found – you know, that beautiful feeling you get when a book understands you so? Amazing.

4) Secret passion Cheese. See above. Oh, I have to… I can't answer the same answer twice? I love to drive – it clears my head. I've never felt so free and myself as I have behind the wheel and hurtling up some beautiful coastline. I'm lucky that I live in California, as I have ample coastline and ample natural beauty. But, if I have any extra time, I will make a playlist, open the window, brew a cup of tea – OH, TEA! That's my secret passion!! I recently had a Tea Bracketology Tournament where I, once and for all, set out to find the best Earl Grey Tea. It was intense and took weeks – a lot of tea was drank (Drank?? drink, drank, drunk)… a lot of tea was drunk. And the winner was Village Tea. So good. So, Secret Passion? Tea. Driving. Cheese.

5) Coolest celeb you've ever met: Living in LA, I had to go to Salinas to meet the coolest celeb – I went to the Steinbeck Museum and saw the Rocinante. Amazing. The Rocinante is the vehicle that John Steinbeck drove around the US in Travels with Charley. I decided that I was going to the museum on one of my Head Clearing Drives – got to Salinas rather late and only had about an hour to see the entire museum. I spun around a corner and… there it was.

Liza's next book, More Like Her comes out January 3, 2012 and is available for pre-order. Want to find out more about Liza and her other titles, check out her website: www.lizapalmer.com.

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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The Questions Behind 5 Things

For the past four months, I've been devoting my Thursday blogs to asking some of my favorite authors and good friends to give up five things about themselves that you might not know. I thought it would be a fun and unique way to introduce new authors to all of you.

This is how it works: I email a bunch of victims, er, good friends, acquaintances, authors I've read and enjoyed, and ask them to pick five questions out of a list of 10 (or to make up their own) and share the five things they think is interesting or unique about themselves.

Here are the 10 questions/categories they have to choose from:

1. Favorite indulgence:

2. First memory:

3. The last book you read:

4. Favorite place to shop online:

5. If you could go on a date with one of your heroes, which one and why?

6. Favorite dessert

7. Most played song on your iPod

8. Secret passion (hobby, collections, sport, thrill seeking)

9. Coolest celeb you've ever met (other than me)

10. Best advice your mother/grandmother/cool funky aunt/sister/college roommate gave you about men

Some of the answers have been surprising–Hello, Megan Crane and Toni Blake have both been in touching range of George Clooney. Finding out that Robyn DeHart and I both love the Don Juan DeMarco soundtrack, and that no one wants to share the advice their mother gave them about men. Or that said advice is just unrepeatable.

What's the deal with that?

But here is where I want your input. What questions am I missing? What would you add to the list? I'm bringing back my Monday blog contest to get all of you to dig deep and give up the question you want answered by your favorite authors. Or, tell me who you want featured here.

Prize: A box of books! Of course. I've been collecting some great reads over the summer and now it is time to share them.

This is how you enter for a chance to win:

1) Leave a comment below with your questions for my upcoming Thursday interviews. If you are reading this on Facebook, you can only enter at my actual blog. Facebook does not allow contests via their site. http://elizabethboyle.com/blog/?p=1376 and/or

2) Tweet the following: @ElizBoyle hopes one of you can take home this box of books. http://elizabethboyle.com/blog/?p=1376

Do both and you are entered twice! I'll give you all until midnight, PT, Saturday, September 17th to get your entries in and then I will pick one lucky winner.

Make sure to check back here Monday, September 19th to find out if you won.

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Five Things about Elisabeth Naughton

I met Elisabeth Naughton a few years ago at an author dinner that was great fun. She made a comment about someone's age being "really old." It happened to be how old I was at the time–much to her embarrassment. I have teased her mercilessly since and in the interest of putting that slight behind us (no, not really, I will tease her as long as my old age and failing memory allows me) I wanted to introduce her to you. Besides, she writes great books.

1) Favorite indulgence: Not sure I can post the answer to this without getting arrested. Or at the very least a scathing phone call from my mother. Since I would like to avoid both, I shall pick something tame . . . My favorite indulgence is a glass of pinot noir, a hot bubble bath and a good book. AND A LOCKED BATHROOM DOOR. And while I'm having this little fantasy, I'll add in NO fingers waggling underneath the door and little voices calling, "Are you done yet? Can I come in? Why do you want to be in there alone anyway?"



EB: Elisabeth and I are both the mother of boys. So we share an affinity for getting away….

2) First memory: Climbing on my metal dollhouse (yes, metal. What the hell were toy manufacturers and parents thinking in the old days?!) to look out my window at my older brother who was teasing me because I had to take a nap and he didn't. I fell (you saw that coming, didn't you?) and sliced up my nose. Still have the scar! Ah, good times.

EB: Hey, I have a scar on the back of my head from climbing up on a bathroom counter to escape my brother . . .

3) Most played song on your iPod: I had to look this one up. "Breathe" by Breaking Benjamin. Using it to get into my current hero's head. (Listening to it a lot as his head is a very scary place.)

4) Coolest celeb you've ever met: Mariano Rivera. Used to be the closer for the NY Yankees. Very nice guy and I didn't need to unbutton my shirt to get his autograph!

That's sort of an inside joke. When we were first together the hubby and I went to a San Francisco Giants/Houston Astros game. He wanted Craig Biggio's autograph so he handed me the ball and said, "Unbutton your shirt and lean way over the railing." I did. (I blame my stupidity on being young and in love.) Craig, though, bypassed me and my measly cleavage and went for the supermodel at my right. But I did get the autograph of some fat, tobacco chewing player I can't name and want to forget. You'll be happy to know I wised up a whole lot after that – and the hubby never ever asked me to do that again (He wised up too. Pretty sure the silent treatment he got through the game did its job.)

5) Best advice your mother/grandmother/cool funky aunt/sister/college roommate gave you about men: This came from my mother. It was my sex talk before leaving for college: "Don't be stupid. But if you're going to be stupid, don't be stupid about the way you're being stupid."

Words to live by, I think.

Elisabeth has a new book out, TEMPTED, which as you can see should be read alone, in the bathtub with extra candles. 'Cause you aren't going to want to put it down. To read an excerpt and learn more about Elisabeth's other books, visit her website, www.elisabethnaughton.com

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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New Contest

This is a quick, Happy Labor Day, hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend of fabulous weather post. But if you are inside–what?–and on your computer (get yourself outside, summer isn't going to be around much longer) but before you go do as I bid (right now I feel so powerful), why not hang around for just another minute and enter my new faboo contest.

Someone is going to win a Nook. Not just any Nook. A Nook color. Too cool. And it will arrive just before Christmas.

So hop over to my Contest page. Enter and then enjoy this wonderful three day weekend.

And for all of you who don't have a three day weekend, I hope the weekend you did have was lovely.

Best, Elizabeth

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Five Things About Caroline Linden

I think Caroline Linden should change her name to "Caroline Linden–the romance author you should be reading." Because, quite frankly, you should be reading her. Her books are wonderful and delightful and hard to put down. I had the privilege of reading One Night in London last spring, and have been so bummed ever since that I have to wait so much longer than anyone else to get to read the next one. So if that doesn't convince you to give her a try, then here are five things that might:

1) The last book you read: Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers, my new reading fixation. Although, really, would it be so wrong for Lord Peter to have an affair now and then? Even just a flirtation? Those books could use some sexing up.



2) If you could go on a date with one of your heroes, which one and why? Nate Avery from You Only Love Once. A quick-thinking, fast-talking Boston guy is just my style (see #5)

3) Favorite dessert COOKIES!!! How do I love them? Let me count the ways: Small ones, rolled ones, crisp ones, chunky ones, razor-thin ones, big fat gooey ones warm from the oven, with chocolate or nuts or chocolate or fruit or jam or chocolate, they are all dear and delicious to me.

4) Coolest celeb you've ever met (other than me) Years and years ago, we went to a tiny, hole-in-the-ground comedy club. It was practically deserted, so it was just my group and the comic, who sat on a barstool and laughed it up with us, and we all shook hands at the end. He was hysterically funny. Jon Stewart plays to bigger crowds now…

5) Best advice your mother/grandmother/cool funky aunt/sister/college roommate gave you about men: "Keep this one." –my college roommates, when I brought home the guy I eventually married. They were 100% right, and not just because he was old enough to buy us underage college girls booze. Seriously, if I had dumped him, at least one of my girlfriends would have asked for his number.

Caroline's new book, One Night in London, is the first in the new series, about a duke whose heirs might not actually be his lawful heirs. She has also written an online prequel, called I Love the Earl. Find out more about Caroline at her site, www.carolinelinden.com or make sure to "Like" her on Facebook.

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Kiss & Teal

Say the words "ovarian cancer" to a group of women and they will fall silent–for good reason. Most of them probably know someone–a dear friend, their own mother, a neighbor–who was lost to this "Silent Killer." Silence is what kills us, and it is about time we upped the chatter. My publisher, Avon Books has teamed up with the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance and designated six of their September titles as Kiss & Teal books to help get the word out. But more about them in a moment.

As I said, it seems like every woman knows (or will know) someone who has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I have a dear friend who was–thankfully, she has overcome her cancer and is doing great. But it struck me as I started writing this blog a week or so ago that I had never asked her what prompted her to go to the doctor. How foolish is that?

We should all be asking each other this one simple question: How did you know? And then make sure we listen and if we suspect anything, we act.

So when I saw her this past weekend, I asked her, and she said she'd been having bloating and her clothes stopped fitting and it seemed odd. But after some reflection, she sent me this email, and I am sharing it so all you can hear the answer as well:

I was thinking about your ovarian cancer question and wanted to say a little more. Other than being able to feel the tumor, I did have other symptoms. Feeling bloated, pressure, frequent urination, which all got worse over about 3 weeks. I was feeling around my abdomen because of these symptoms, and that's when I felt "something" and called my dr, if I hadn't felt this mass though, I'm sure I would have put off going to the dr – thinking it was just a digestive issue, or that I was gaining some weight, or that it was all due to getting older, etc.

Good luck with your blog! It is good to spread the word. Being alert for signs and symptoms so it can hopefully be caught early is important. There's lots of other things that can be going on with women which can cause similar symptoms which makes things tricky. So it's best to get anything out of the ordinary (anything persistent and unusual) checked out. My drs were great (even though they weren't thinking it was cancer) they took all the right "just in case" steps. And really I was just very lucky.

This is such an important cause–the symptoms are there–and we as women have to listen to our bodies and then heed the warnings. I know with busy lives it is easy to put off our own care, but it is essential that we seek treatment as soon as we suspect there might be a problem.

Please take the next 60 seconds of your life and watch this video featuring Tessa Dare. And then share the link to this blog (http://elizabethboyle.com/blog/?p=1474) with as many of your friends as you can. If you have any of these symptoms, get an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible.

Now here is what I am going to do: The first 10 readers who send me proof that they have bought all six of the Kiss & Teal books, (Click here to find all the books) and I will send you six autographed books from my backlist. What is proof? A scan of your receipt. A pic of you with your books. Forward an order receipt. Just show me you've bought all six titles and I'll double that with six of my classics. You can find my email on my Contact page. Now even if you already have my books, think about this: the holidays are coming and wouldn't a handful of autographed books make great, quick gifts? So get your proof in quick and not only will you help spread the word, but you'll double your stash.

©2011 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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