Lynn Raye Harris

My idiocy is your gain! I bought Trish’s The Ruthless Greek’s Virgin Princess on my Kindle and devoured it — without realizing I’d also bought it in print. I don’t need the print book, do I? So I’m giving it away to one lucky commenter!

Tell me what you love about ruthless Greeks, virgin princesses, or Harlequin Presents in general!

Pamela Varnado is the Aug – Sep contest winner! Congratulations, Pamela!

The winner is Pamela Varnado! Congratulations, Pamela! I’ll be sending your prize in the next few days. Thanks all who entered, and look for my next contest which I hope to post soon!

School has started again, the Halloween decorations are in the shops, and I’ve even seen Christmas decorations! This is the time of year when it’s still summer, but it seems as if Fall is coming really, really fast. If you have kids, they have homework & school activities where just a few short weeks ago they were free for the summer. You might also think it’s time to start considering where you’ll spend the holidays and, if you stay home, who you’re inviting over for dinner. I’ve already started thinking about Thanksgiving, about the yummy turkey, the pies, the stuffing — and wondering if I’m cooking, if my mom is cooking, or if we’ll all go to my in-laws house.

It’s a little stressful, isn’t it, to be thinking of all these things when the pool is still open and the heat index is in the 90s? To help you out, I’ve decided to give away a nice stress-relieving prize pack!

One lucky winner will receive a satin tote, a microfiber hair wrap, an Alluvia Berry Blast travel set (body wash, soap, and moisturizing lotion), an exfoliating body scrubber, a velvet makeup bag, a set of Vitabath Spa Therapy candles, and a copy of the UK version of Spanish Magnate, Red-Hot Revenge to enjoy while you pamper yourself!

The Rules:

1. By entering, you acknowledge that you will be automatically subscribed to my spam-free newsletter. I don’t send it often, no more than once a month typically, and unsubscribing is very easy.

2. The winner will be drawn at random. All decisions are final. The winner will be announced on this blog and will also be notified via email.

3. If you are related to me, don’t enter. Nice try, but it won’t work.

4. There is no purchase necessary.

5. If you win, I have the right to post your first name and location on my website as my lucky winner!

6. International entries are welcome! I reserve the right to substitute items of equal value due to postal considerations, should it prove necessary. If you win, and you reside in a location other than the United States or Canada, I will give you options before substituting items, should it prove necessary.

7. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.

How to enter:

Email me at contest@lynnrayeharris.com with your name, address, email, and the answer to this question: what is Alejandro doing when Rebecca confronts him about his plans for her company (the answer is a breeze to find on this website – try here)? Please include all information or your entry will be considered incomplete and, therefore, ineligible.

The contest ends at midnight, US Central Daylight Time, on September 9th!

Hey, where are my winners? Click on the contact button to send me your info so I can get these books in the mail to you!

What kind of summer fun have you been up to lately? I’ve been swimming a gazillion times — which, really, is a lie. Because I can’t swim very well, so to call what I do swimming is inaccurate. Fortunately, I’ve finally decided that I can take instruction from the hubby. He used to be a competition swimmer, so he looks beautiful in the water. I want to learn to do that too.

We’ve also been to picnics, barbeques, and out to dinner and movies with friends and family several times. It always seems as if the summer social calendar is much fuller than the fall and winter. I do love summer, but man is it hot in Alabama. Most activities need to take place indoors unless it involves the pool. And even the pool has felt like bathwater lately.

Now, who can tell me how many novels I wrote before I sold one? (Hint: the answer is on the Media page.) One lucky winner gets a book! And tell me what you love about summer where you live!

Clearly, I need to give away more books! I have an entire box of my August release just begging to be read. If you want a copy, tell me in the comment trail the name of the hotel that Rebecca Layton wants to buy from Alejandro de Ramirez. You can find the answer on this website, so do poke around! And stay tuned for more giveaways. I’m making plans for a great contest in the near future!

(A comment is an entry; by entering, you will also be signed up for my spam-free newsletter. Unsubscribing is very straightforward.)

— I am not giving away the entire box today, btw! Thanks, Hannah, for pointing that out.

Keep it coming y’all! Winners tomorrow. Yes, I will choose more than one.

This weekend, I took a mini-break from the deadline and went to a movie with my hubby. We both wanted to see Star Trek. I remember the original series, in reruns of course, when I was a kid. It came on late at night, and I just loved it. Then came TNG. That was also a great series, and I’ll just bet the producers thought that Will Ryker was going to be their Kirk equivalent (handsome, tall, alpha) instead of Picard. And yet it was Picard that often got the sexy storyline and the girl.

Fast forward (or backward, LOL, if you’re serious about your canon) to the new Star Trek movie. Without giving away spoilers, I just have to say that while Kirk is indeed the womanizing sexy guy he always was, the show-stopping majorly sexy guy upon whom I now have a major crush: Spock. OMG, Spock. Who the heck knew?

It’s not because the actor, Zachary Quinto, is all that. (He is good looking, yes, but it’s not that.) It’s the emotion he puts into Spock. And the fight with that emotion. Spock is not the unfeeling intellect we’ve known and loved. He’s still the supreme logical guy — and yet he’s fighting with himself, warring with his emotions, and it’s the most incredibly sexy thing imaginable.

There is so much more, and I just don’t want to say because if you haven’t seen it then I don’t want to ruin it. But oh my. Kirk is over the top alpha, as always, but it’s Spock’s tormented alpha that strikes a chord for me and reminds me so much of why I love Harlequin Presents.

Presents heroes are always Captain Kirk in many ways. They are large and in charge. They take a backseat to no one. But they are also at war with themselves once they’ve met the heroine (if not before). They are brave, strong men trying really damn hard not to show or feel emotion. They battle like hell to keep a lid on it. But when they lose? When they cave in to the heroine and admit they’re in love? I am so weak at the knees by then.

I’m writing a hero now who is battling emotion. He’s battling some dark stuff, and yet he won’t be able to keep it in ultimately. The heroine will know that while he’s strong and capable of battling the world, he can’t battle her. She is the one who gets inside, who is able to help him accept that emotion is fine and good and not at all contrary to strength and power. Ooooh, shiver, I love this kind of stuff.

And I totally love Spock. Can’t wait for the sequel!

Have you seen Star Trek? What did you think? Are you crazy for Spock? Or does Kirk’s swaggering alpha do it for you? (Don’t get me wrong, I love a swaggering alpha too! And Kirk is also tortured, but his torment isn’t as bad as Spock’s.)

I’m so sure that Spock is a tortured Harlequin Presents type hero that I’m giving away a copy of my book today to one lucky commenter. See if Alejandro de Ramirez isn’t holding something in and fighting it with all his might! (Be aware you will have to wait about a month or so before I get copies, but soon as I do, I’ll send it over!)

Friday, I mentioned doing some things this weekend that included shopping and the Farmer’s Market. I also said something about relaxing.

Huh.

Apparently, I failed to realize that all these things I wanted to do entailed going places, walking, lugging, doing things, etc. The upshot is that there was very little relaxing involved.

Though it WAS fun.

Weekend itinerary went something like this:

1. Meet friends and family at winebar Friday night. Laugh, talk, drink wine for a couple of hours.

2. Sat: wake up early, go to Starbucks for coffee and a breakfast sandwich.

3. Farmer’s Market. Where Hubby proceeded to gag on goat cheese while I explained to the artisan that though his cheese was indeed excellent, my Darling Hubby just can’t stand goat cheese — no matter how many herbs and spices are mixed in. I bought some, of course, and not just out of sympathy. I thought it was excellent.

4. Yard sale. It was impromptu, and no one was more surprised than I when Hubby pulled over. Unfortunately, there was nothing interesting. Except a typewriter. An actual typewriter! (Kids, see Google.)

5. Costco. Where Hubby proceeded to look grouchier and grouchier as I piled stuff into the cart. Apparently, “we need a few things” and “I haven’t been shopping in a while” mean something different to him than to me. Although he perked up when we bought two whole chickens for him to put in the smoker.

6. Drop Hubby and groceries at home. Go to mall. Walk around for 3 hours, looking for things for my readers’ luncheon giveaways, but only find stuff for me. Spend a very long time trying on clothes and shoes. Leave with a big shopping bag or two (in my defense, it was a SALE).

7. Back home. Grill out with Hubby.

8. Watch Blade Runner — never saw it before, very good, but I had weird dreams afterward.

10. We’re up to Sunday now. (Exhausted yet?) Wake up, have breakfast and coffee at home. Play on computer for a bit.

11. We’ve invited my parents over for smoked chicken. This means the house, otherwise known as an official disaster area, must be cleaned and tidied. This takes a very long time, entails scrubbing and decluttering, and makes my back hurt.

12. Prepare side dishes while Hubby smokes chicken.

13. Did I mention laundry?

14. Crap, have to go to the store and get a couple of things. Most important: some live flowers to replace the dying ones on the mantel.

15. I. Am. So. Tired.

16. Dinner is practically done, parents arrive, we eat and talk and have a good time.

17. More laundry. Some wine. Bed.

Apparently, having fun is a lot of work! I’m exhausted from this weekend. Did you relax this weekend? Or did you find out, like me, that weekends can be a workout? What’s your favorite thing to do to relax, or your favorite activity, during the weekend?

Monday Giveaway: Leave a comment to be entered for a copy of Jessica Anderson’s Nightkeepers!

Hopefully, you found your way here easily enough today. Things have changed a bit, as you can see. My website and blog went to the salon rather frumpy and out of date and came back sleek and gorgeous. Oh if only it were that easy to do the same for me!

Reminds me of another rather frumpy person who today, one week after she became a YouTube sensation, is a global star. Not that my website — or I — can claim to be mega-stars.

The web is abuzz, of course, with many many articles about Susan Boyle. About her appearance, our expectations, the hope and triumph, etc. I won’t bother adding links because unless you’ve been in a cave, you’ve seen this stuff out there. I do like the articles that take us to task as a society, however, for not expecting this kind of pure beauty in such a rather ordinary, even — alas — mockable, appearance.

With that in mind, I offer this song of Susan’s that is the only recorded song she’s ever done. Made for a charity CD, of which only 1000 copies were made. Click the link, close your eyes, and tell me this isn’t the voice of a sultry chanteuse. Gorgeous, gorgeous. I will most definitely be buying this woman’s first album when it comes out.

Sometimes, getting a makeover is about perception. In Susan’s case, it was the judges, the audience, and now the world who got the makeover.

And now back to MY makeover. Well, my site makeover. Leave a comment to win a copy of one of my absolute favorite makeover romances of all time: Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

Not in my book! Or at least I don’t think so, which is why I’m carefully reading my proofs that came on Wednesday for CAVELLI’S LOST HEIR and making sure everything still says what I want it to say. Which is also why I failed to write a blog post for Thursday, and why this one is so short.

The best news that happened around here in the last two days was finding out about all my friends who finaled in the Golden Heart and RITA contests! Thirteen of my 2008 Pixie sisters went on to the class of 2009 in the GH, and my dear friend and chapter mate from Heart of Dixie, Danniele Worsham, also finaled in the Short Contemporary category. Yay!!!!

You can read about Danniele’s call at the Writing Playground. The party was yesterday, but I’m sure she won’t get tired of reading all the congratulatory notes flowing in.

Hope you have a great weekend! Any big plans? Mine involve the wine bar tonight, something to do with yachts tomorrow (not on a Presents scale, alas), and maybe a movie at the fancy theater where they serve alcohol and food during the flick.

Today, RITA and Golden Heart calls go out. I am almost as excited as I was last year when I was hoping to get that call for the GH. Except this year, there’s no pressure for me! I’m in transition. Not eligible for the GH because I sold, and not RITA eligible because I didn’t have a book in print in 2008.

But I’m so excited and hopeful for friends, both published and unpublished. I’ll be following the news on the various loops and screaming for excitement when someone I know gets the call.

However, there are inevitably going to be disappointments. And, speaking solely about the Golden Heart, please remember there is always next year, another book, etc. Or, you may sell and be ineligible. You do NOT have to final in the GH to sell. And many finalists are still waiting for their first sale. So don’t put all your hopes in this one contest, please.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. I entered 4 times before I finaled. And the book I sold to Harlequin was not my finalist. So don’t get depressed, and don’t give up. You can indulge in a few tears, eat some chocolate, and kick the couch. But only for a day, okay? On Thursday, get back to work.

And if you DO final? Honey, get busy making sure that manuscript is revised and ready in case you get a request from a finals judge. And enjoy the pageantry of it all. You’re gonna have a lot of fun, and you’re going to bond with your fellow finalists in ways you won’t believe. They’ll be with you forever.

Good luck!