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Category: Giveaways

Posts in which we or our guests offer a giveaway.

Hello, everyone!  It’s so nice to be back in  Bloglandia for a while.  It feels like it’s been a long and….interesting….winter, and I’ve never been more grateful for great books to read and things to write.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASpeaking of things to read….my publisher just sent me a few extra ARCs of my next Amanda Carmack mystery (Murder at Westminster Abbey, book two of the Kate Haywood Elizabethan Mysteries, out in April).  So let’s give them away today!  I have 4 copies, so 4 commenters will be winners.  And now I’m diving back into revisions for The Book That Will Never End (affectionately called, of course…)

 

 

See more at Amazon

Murder at Westminster Abbey-1

1559. Elizabeth is about to be crowned queen of England and wants her personal musician Kate Haywood to prepare music for the festivities. New to London, Kate must learn the ways of city life…and once again school herself as a sleuth.

Life at the center of the new royal court is abuzz with ambition and gossip—very different from the quiet countryside, where Kate served Elizabeth during her exile. Making her way among the courtiers who vie for the new queen’s favor, Kate befriends Lady Mary Everley. Mary is very close to Elizabeth. With their red hair and pale skin, they even resemble each other—which makes Mary’s murder all the more chilling.

My own website (sadly behind on updates, which are getting done this weekend, but lots of Elizabethan info and pics…)

So what have you been doing this winter???  Read anything good lately?  what will do you when (if) it warms up??  Do you like mystery series with a recurring character?  (I’m finding I love getting to stay with Kate for multiple books and see how she grows and changes.  She gets a bit of romance in this book, too….)

Posted in Giveaways | 5 Replies

Andrea4CoverWe have Tuesday winner announcements!

Lesley A you have won our Cara Elliott giveaway!  And Amy Kathryn, you have won an ARC of my next Amanda Carmack book, Murder at Westminster Abbey!  Please email me your contact info at Amccabe7551 AT yahoo

Meanwhile, I am continuing to get better every day!  Reading lots of books and drinking lots of tea.  Back with a proper post next week

Murder at Westminster Abbey-1So many lovely new Risky books lately!!!  I am headed to the hospital today for surgery (hopefully just one night there, then I will be home again), and I have my Kindle loaded with new books and my stuffed Hello Kitty in my bag to keep me company.  In the meantime, I think a giveaway would be a good thing…

The second in my Amanda Carmack “Kate Haywood Elizabethan Mysteries” is out in April!  Murder at Westminster Abbey is set around the festivities of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation (which was tremendous fun to research!).  I just got a boxful of ARCs last week, and will give away one of them to a commenter on today’s post!  Just let us know what you’re reading lately, some of your favorite get-well-quick tips, whose coronation you would have liked to attend, anything you like.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASee you all next week!

Posted in Giveaways | 5 Replies

It’s Thursday. I’m going to be taking my oldest on one last college visit tomorrow and I’m casting about for something to post tomorrow, but my mind is shot.

Here’s a snap of my To Do List for the week. Note how many items are still not crossed off. And they include gems like “Fill out CSS Profile”. For the lucky ones who don’t know, the CSS Profile is a detailed financial aid profile required by some colleges (including my oldest daughter’s #1 school) which makes the FAFSA look like child’s play. I’m half-expecting a line item asking which extra organs we’re willing to sell online in order to afford tuition.

So I’ll take a quick break to fantasize about what I’d put on a Regency To Do List.

Gerard_Lady_Reading“Read a horrid novel”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tatting“Learn to tat”

There’s a nice article on tatting at the Jane Austen Centre website.

 

 

 

“Ride around the beautiful grounds of my country home”

ladylade

Well, that was fun while it lasted. Now I need to go back to financial aid paperwork.

Are any onerous tasks plaguing you this week? What’s on your fantasy Regency To Do List?

And before I go, let me announce the winners of the Lady Dearing’s Masquerade audiobook giveaway.

Rochelle Klieger, Jemma, Victoria Seaman, Louisa Cornell and Jo’s Daughter

I’ll email you the download codes, along with directions. Happy listening!

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Andrea1Cara here,

Hi everyone, and thanks to Amanda for asking me to stop by today and talk a little about sisters and sisterhood. As avid readers and lovers of the Regency, we are part of a close-knit sorority—with Lizzie and Jane Bennet as our patron saints! It’s a special bond, for as the great English Romantic poet Christina Rossetti wrote: “For there is no friend like a sister, in calm or stormy weather, to cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.”

I have two brothers and no sisters, so when I first read Pride and Prejudice, one of the things I loved about it was the wonderful closeness and camaraderie between Lizzie and Jane. (Yes, my brothers were great about teaching me lots of important lessons in life, like how to hit a curveball and how to fall out of a tree without bursting into girly tears. But they weren’t exactly interested in sharing tears over first crushes or shopping for pretty party dresses.) The two eldest Bennets have such a strong and special bond despite—or maybe because of—their very different personalities. With her inimical skill at depicting nuances of character, Austen captured to perfection a portrait of two sister-in-spirit as well as in blood. To this day, whenever I reread it, I feel a pang of longing for having missed having a sister with whom to share my secrets. (Though I do temper that wistfulness by reminding myself that I might have gotten Lydia instead of Jane!)

Andrea3SistersAs I read Austen’s other books, I found it fascinating to see how she developed a full range of “paired” sisterly relationships. In Sense and Sensibility, Elinor and Marianne are close, but while Elinor, like Jane is sensible and very reserved, she also is much more of the “big” sister, feeling she has to hide her own most intimate feelings because she must be a model of wisdom and guidance to her more impetuous younger sibling. It’s a very different dynamic. And then, in Persuasion, Austen creates a pair of sisters who couldn’t be more ill-matched—Anne and her older sister Elizabeth have nothing in common emotionally, intellectually or morally.

 

All those nuances of sisters and sisterhood obviously stuck with me because when I sat down to and started working on a new series idea, I found myself drawn to the challenge of creating a trilogy around three closeknit sisters. (Hey, since I didn’t have those perfect confidantes in real life, I realized I could create them myself!) The “Hellions of High Street” is all about the three Sloane sisters who share a number of things, including a closeknit friendship, an unconventional sense of humor—and a secret passion for writing. Olivia, the eldest, pens fiery political essays, Anna, the middle sister, writes racy romance novels, and Caro, the youngest is an aspiring poet. As you can imagine, the conversations between them can get rather . . . interesting.

Especially when the talk turn to men.

Andrea4CoverIn Scandalously Yours, the first book in the series, which debuts today (you can read an excerpt here) Olivia has several “men” problems. Which all involve the oh-so proper Earl of Wrexham, a former war hero known in Society as the Perfect Hero. Her fiery political essays, written under a pen name, have attracted his attention, but the problem is, he mustn’t learn that a lady has written them. And then there’s the tongue-in-cheek reply to a newspaper that has been inadvertently sent to the earl’s young son . . .

Her sisters have some clever suggestions on what she should do to put out the flames. But all of a sudden, the sparks seem to be flying out of control! Because as we all know, secret passions can lead a lady into trouble . . .

 

So, do you have sisters? If so, are you like Jane-Lizzie, Elinor-Marianne or Anne-Elizabeth . . .or something in between? Do you have any other favorite pair of sisters in literature? One commentator will be chosen at random to win a copy of Scandalously Yours (w either e-book now or print in several month—your choice!)Cara here,Hi everyone, and thanks to Amanda for asking me to stop by today and talk a little about sisters and sisterhood. As avid readers and lovers of the Regency, we are part of a close-knit sorority—with Lizzie and Jane Bennet as our patron saints! It’s a special bond, for as the great English Romantic poet Christina Rossetti wrote: “For there is no friend like a sister, in calm or stormy weather, to cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.”

Posted in Giveaways, Guest | 26 Replies
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