HelenKay Dimon's Blog, page 35

Giveaway #2!

I've had the incredible honor to be a part of two charity anthologies. The first, THE GIFT OF LOVE, benefits The Conductive Learning Center, a special school for children with spina bifida and cerebral palsy. The second is SEAL OF MY DREAMS and benefits the Veterans Research Corporation, a non-profit foundation supporting veterans medical research.

Two great causes. Many great authors. It was truly an honor to be involved in these books. And you have a chance to win them. The winner of this giveaway gets both.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment here and I'll pick a winner on the 30th. It's your job to check back and see if you've won.

Giveaway #1!

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season. To celebrate the end of the year, I thought I'd do a few giveaways. Today's prize is…

A special print edition of the holiday anthology, HOLIDAY KISSES (or a digital one, if you prefer).

Back cover:

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like…Love!

A man gives the gift of trust and receives a second chance at love in return. A woman helps to heal the wounded heart of a soldier. A couple finds that true love knows no distance. And a young widow learns that there can be two great loves in a lifetime. Love, romance and passion come together in this collection of four seasonal shorts.

TO ENTER: If you want a copy, just leave a comment here. I'll pick a winner on the 30th. It's your job to check back and see if you've won.

Happy Holidays!

To those who celebrate – Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a healthy and happy holiday season.

Next week I'll do some giveaways to end the year. Until then, enjoy your families and friends…and be happy you don't live next to these people:

Giveaway!

Awesome author and good friend Alison Kent is giving away a copy of Agony/Ecstasy, the anthology which includes my sexy workplace short Just Say Yes. Go on over HERE and enter to win.

The cover isn't all that holiday-y, but let's look at it one more time…

Happy Birthday!

Today is the hubby's birthday. We were going to play today, but instead of racing around we're hanging around home with our sick 15 yr old sweetie pie dog. She's better but we're worried, so hubby is sacrificing his day out. Love the hubby.

Happy birthday, babe.

Moment Of Zen

It's holiday time. Many parts of the US (and elsewhere) have snow. With all the present wrapping and cold weather, I thought you might enjoy this:

Gotta love Hawaii.

Saturday Snippet

The theme today is winter. Kind of seems appropriate, doesn't it? I thought about highlighting a winter-in-Hawaii book but decided to give you one more excerpt from IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU.

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He blew on his gloved hands. "It's going to snow."

"You could always tell."

"Not sure if it's my innate ability to read the signs or the fact it started coming down a second ago."

She leaned in and glanced out the big window that overlooked the lot. "Ah, brilliant."

White flecks filled the near-black sky and landed on the tree branches. She inhaled and even through the walls could pick out the refreshing scent of pine, the same smell she associated with Holloway and hayrides and hours of racing around outside once the school cancellation announcement came across the crawl on the bottom of the television screen.

If she closed her eyes she could blink her way back to the wooded acres surrounding Austin's house and relive the last winter she spent there. The nights so deadly quiet except for the soft rustle of branches and slick click of icy snow as it fell and piled in feet-high stacks.

Austin slid a thigh onto the desk and studied her. "What are you thinking about?"

"Why?"

"You're smiling."

The memory filled her with the same comfort as a cozy blanket on a cold night. "Trudging through the snow until I could barely lift my leg and was so tired I almost fell over. Impromptu snowball fights and the rumbling sound of the snow blower."

"You're kind of making me hot."

She coughed out a laugh and kept going until she doubled over and her stomach ached. When she opened her eyes again, he was at her side with that soft expression of amusement on his sexy mouth.

He slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her body tight to his. "You okay there?"

"You make me smile."

His hand tightened on her arm. "Good to know."

"Everything about you tempts me."

"Then I'll stay quiet to keep from messing this moment up."

She turned in his arms, settling in and resting her palms against his chest. "You know this isn't about you or my feelings for you, right? It's never been a matter of being unsure about those."

He just stared at her.

She rested her forehead against his. "You can talk, you know."

A long breath escaped his chest and blew across her cheek. She could feel every last inch of him tense under her fingertips.

"Gotta be honest. The break-up feels like it's about me. I'm the one you left. That you keep leaving."

The sadness in those blue eyes zapped her strength and left her weak and shaking. She searched for the right words to shift the blame back to where it belonged. On her.

____________

Remember to check out the other authors' snippets:

Lauren Dane

Rhian Cahill

Eliza Gayle

Selena Blake

Anne Rainey

Jody Wallace

Lissa Matthews

Mari Carr

McKenna Jeffries

Myla Jackson

Taige Crenshaw

Alison Kent

Delilah Devlin

Shelli Stevens

Shiloh Walker

TJ Michaels

On A Snowy Evening

Every time I think about snow and trees I think about that Robert Frost poem Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening. Specifically: The woods are lovely, dark and deep…

I recited that poem about a billion times while writing my newest release, IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU. The book is set mostly in Washington, D.C., but there's a scene in West Virginia and the couple – Austin and Carrie – grew up in a small town there. So, while I live in San Diego where it's sunny and cold means 55 degrees, I've been thinking about snow on and off since June, when I wrote the book.

I came across these snowy woods photos and they made me think about that scene and my fictional couple. For those who live in snowy areas and are already sick of the white stuff, I apologize for the following photos. For the rest of you:

Anniversary!

I've known my husband for about a billion years (okay, 24) and today is my 13th wedding anniversary. Yay us!

Love you, babe!

Thank you!

I just wanted to thank everyone who purchased a copy of my new holiday novella, IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU. I'm not sure where it will be ranked by the time this blog posts, but for at least a brief period on Friday it was on the Nook Bestseller list at #8 right between The Help and James Patterson's newest, which is pretty cool. My hubby grabbed a photo of it:

Thank you again. I am truly grateful and I hope you all enjoy the book.