As the countdown to The Mischief of the Mistletoe begins, Kirkus Reviews weighs in, calling Mistletoe “a fun, fresh installment in a successful series”, “distinguished by its Austen-like wit and historical accuracy”. Huzzah!

Best part of the review? The description of Turnip as a “gentlemanly klutz”. So Turnip!
You can find Chapter One of Mistletoe here and Chapter Two here….
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Thanks so much to everyone for your lovely and lively compositions for the cover of The Orchid Affair. I will confess, I was absolutely staggered by the volume and variety of the entries. If asked to predict, I would have guessed that there would be around ten entries. Instead, at last count, there were seventy-two. Yup. That’s 72.
So here are the rules for Round II. I’ve posted the entries below in the order in which I received them (with the exception of the PDFs, but more about that in a moment). Each has a number at the lower left hand corner.
You can vote for your favorites by posting your top three by number, in descending order of preference, in the Comments section below, i.e. #1: 52, #2: 31, #3: 70. Makes sense? I’ll tally the votes and the top three will receive advance copies of The Orchid Affair.
Voting will remain open until Tuesday, August 10th.
Now, about those PDFs…. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get my website program to post the PDFs. PDF entrants, if you can convert yours to JPEGs, I can add them to this list. If not, if I can figure out how to post them, I’ll have a second mini-contest for the PDF entries. Sorry about that!
Also, if you sent me an entry and don’t see it here, just drop me an email and let me know.
Now… let the voting begin! Happy viewing!
Read the rest of this entry »
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Due to a far, far larger number of entries than expected, it may take me a little longer than previously anticipated to get those contest covers up here on the site for general voting. Stay tuned! I should have them up by tonight or tomorrow morning.
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Just one day to go until the Cover Contest closes! With so many entries (over fifty at last count), I will, for once, be closing the contest when I said I would, at midnight on Sunday. So get your entries in now!
In the meantime, here’s a bright and floral cover for Saturday:

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Don’t you get the feeling that this is a woman with weighty things on her mind?

Just as a reminder, the Cover Contest officially closes Sunday at midnight, so if you have any last minute inspirations, now’s the time to get out the photoshop….
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A pretty and pastoral cover for Thursday….

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Hi, all! For those of you in the area, I’ll be signing books in the Pacific Exhibit Hall of the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort today, starting at 5:30. The signing runs until 7:30 and features roughly five hundred authors, including Julia Quinn, Eloise James, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
You can find the full list and all the details here. See you this evening!
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An audio cover for Wednesday!

This has the unique distinction of being the only submission for the Orchid Affair cover contest designed explicitly with the audio version in mind.
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It seemed appropriate to kick off RWA, from which I always lug home way too many books, with an image featuring a lady reading.

In The Orchid Affair, many of Laura Grey’s clandestine activities are conducted by means of a bookshop. Who, after all, would think anything of a governess purchasing books for her charges?
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Because Mondays are always tough, here’s a bright and cheerful cover to kick off the week.

Doesn’t it just beg for a caption? I’d love to know what he’s saying and what she’s thinking.
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