Join Us! HOD Reader's Luncheon

They say variety is the spice of life. NY Times and USA Today best-selling author Lora Leigh has learned this lesson well, giving readers more than eighty novels in four subgenres and fifteen different series. She has created worlds we long to return to again and again, and enduring characters full of flaws and failures and the strength to rise above. From the formidable undercover agents of her Elite Ops series to the reckless affection of the Nauti Boys and the genetically enhanced drive to mate in her ever-popular Breeds series, Leigh has offered a buffet of searing hot romance that captivates readers from all over the world. And this May, she’ll be here to share it all with us.



Leigh will be the featured speaker at the 15th Annual Readers’ Luncheon hosted by Heart of Dixie, the north Alabama chapter of Romance Writers of America. This annual event celebrates romance and literacy in the north Alabama community. Registration is now open for the event, held at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, AL, on May 5, 2012, from 11am until 3pm.



Special guest author Lora Leigh will share tales from her prolific world of writing during the keynote speech. She, along with over twenty other favorite romance authors, will host a table for lucky romance readers and sign books at this year’s event. Other attending authors include Linda Howard, Linda Winstead Jones, Peggy Webb, Rhonda Nelson, Lynn Raye Harris, Kimberly Lang, Vicki Lewis Thompson, Kira Sinclair, and Melanie Dickerson.



HOD's Annual Luncheon includes lunch with guest authors, door prizes, raffles, and much more. A book fair and autograph session with the attending authors following the luncheon is open and free to the public at 2pm. Profits from this year’s book fair will be donated to the Hackleburg School for their library, helping encourage children in this area devastated by last year’s tornados to embrace literacy and the love of reading.



Join us as we celebrate romance in all its various forms! Registration is $25 and must be received by April 21st. Seating is limited, so register today. More information and registration forms can be found at www.heartofdixie.org or call 703-861-4271.

Join Us! HOD Reader's Luncheon

They say variety is the spice of life. NY Times and USA Today best-selling author Lora Leigh has learned this lesson well, giving readers more than eighty novels in four subgenres and fifteen different series. She has created worlds we long to return to again and again, and enduring characters full of flaws and failures and the strength to rise above. From the formidable undercover agents of her Elite Ops series to the reckless affection of the Nauti Boys and the genetically enhanced drive to mate in her ever-popular Breeds series, Leigh has offered a buffet of searing hot romance that captivates readers from all over the world. And this May, she’ll be here to share it all with us.



Leigh will be the featured speaker at the 15th Annual Readers’ Luncheon hosted by Heart of Dixie, the north Alabama chapter of Romance Writers of America. This annual event celebrates romance and literacy in the north Alabama community. Registration is now open for the event, held at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, AL, on May 5, 2012, from 11am until 3pm.



Special guest author Lora Leigh will share tales from her prolific world of writing during the keynote speech. She, along with over twenty other favorite romance authors, will host a table for lucky romance readers and sign books at this year’s event. Other attending authors include Linda Howard, Linda Winstead Jones, Peggy Webb, Rhonda Nelson, Lynn Raye Harris, Kimberly Lang, Vicki Lewis Thompson, Kira Sinclair, and Melanie Dickerson.



HOD's Annual Luncheon includes lunch with guest authors, door prizes, raffles, and much more. A book fair and autograph session with the attending authors following the luncheon is open and free to the public at 2pm. Profits from this year’s book fair will be donated to the Hackleburg School for their library, helping encourage children in this area devastated by last year’s tornados to embrace literacy and the love of reading.



Join us as we celebrate romance in all its various forms! Registration is $25 and must be received by April 21st. Seating is limited, so register today. More information and registration forms can be found at www.heartofdixie.org or call 703-861-4271.

MOANday: Luncheon Hotties

I realized recently that with the tornadoes and power being out and all, I never posted a Moan Day in May!!! What’s up with that?!?!

So we are due for a good dose of hotness this month! I picked a few from the hottie archives for your viewing pleasure. And this first guy is actually really sweet and nice – I had the pleasure of meeting him this past weekend at the HOD luncheon, where he took pictures with our attendees so they could make their own romance cover. Yep, the Playfriends who attended managed to survive the luncheon another year, and enjoyed hearing Kerrelyn Sparks’s hilarious speech! You must ask her about the Cabin #9 fan mail. And I got to have lunch and dinner with Barbara Vey, which was awesome because I’ll be missing the annual breakfast with her at RWA Nationals this year. And dinner with Kerrelyn, Emily March, and Barbara Vey. Woohoo!

Now, for the hotties:


Simon, who appeared at the Heart of Dixie Luncheon, who was fantastic with the ladies, and graciously carried our very heavy HOD author basket to its recipient. And his pecs are even better in person. ;)




Gotta love a cowboy and his... chaps...



Hmmm... I may have a slight thing for tattoos that I may have mentioned...



Is that a baseball bat or...




I'm a sucker for a guy on a motorcycle. Well, only if he looks like this one. :)

I really need some new ideas for MoanDay hotties! Who would you most like to see?

Angel

Coming Soon!
Check in this Wednesday, June 8, on the blog for a big surprise announcement! And next week we welcome editor Shana Smith to the blog. Don’t forget!

It's nice to be important

Last week was National Volunteer Week, but because it was also Best of the Bookshelf Week, I had to let it slide until today. But this week or last, volunteering is important. You shouldn't need a specially designated "week" to give back to your community and/or the world.

I've yet to hear of an organization that turns down volunteers. Every week my church bulletin is filled with announcements about this agency or that group needing help. Sometimes they need money. Sometimes they need supplies. And sometimes they need YOU.

A group of folks I know are very involved with a program called Foodline. It's a program to provide emergency food to individuals and families who run out of money before they've run out of month. I sat in on a Foodline session one day and I felt absolutely horrid about having complained I'd not had a steak in a month. Some folks have NOTHING. They are like Old Mother Hubbard, and the cupboard is bare -- at least until the next Social Security or disability check arrives.

Other folks I know are very involved with Habitat for Humanity. Our local group is building five new homes in the same neighborhood this year, and since 1987 they have provided 187 families with new homes in this community. In 2010, 4,651 local volunteers worked 26,475 hours and helped make this group one of the top 50 US affiliates of Habitat International.

A family in my church has a daughter who is currently serving in the Peace Corps in the African country of Burkina Faso. At the moment, she's contemplating extending for a third year. It's one thing to sit at a phone in an air-conditioned office and listen to folks tell you they have no food. It's quite another to give up two years (or more) of your life halfway around the world.



I am currently working with a program called Beginning Experience. It's a peer ministry for persons who are separated, divorced or widowed and is based around the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross model of five stages of grief. I attended the program as a participant and then felt drawn to help as a facilitator. It isn't easy to step into a room full of strangers and spill your guts about being divorced. It's also not easy to sit and listen as a facilitator. It takes me back to when I first attended and I often wonder, "Was I that much of an emotional mess?" (And the answer is yes.)

This isn't my first brush with volunteerism. When I started listing all the places I'd volunteered, I was quite surprised to see how much of my time I'd given away to a telephone crisis hotline, various churches, my boys' schools (I was always the field trip mom), three different neighborhood watch programs, the homeowners' association where I used to live, Cub Scouts and Romance Writers of America at both the national and local level.

Most of us think it's nice to be important. And yeah, it feels good. But...



And you don't even have to leave your desk to be nice and help others. Sites such as Free Rice let you click at the keyboard, test your vocabulary and donate rice to help end world hunger. Or just offering to help the elderly lady across the street can mean the difference in her having a bad day and having a good one. A kind gesture, no matter how small, can make an enormous difference.

Do you volunteer? One random commenter will get a book from my stash.

Good Times, Good Friends, Good Fun

This weekend was a big one for the Playfriends. Our local RWA chapter, Heart of Dixie, hosted its 13th annual Romance Readers Luncheon. I can’t tell you how proud I am to be associated with this event, which has grown over the past few years to over 150 attendees annually and 26 author hostesses. Every year, I meet such enthusiastic romance readers and the authors are gracious and fun. There is nothing like being in a room with that many people who enjoy your same interests and enthusiasm.

Each Playfriend has a job while we’re there, because we simply can’t sit back and not do anything. :) Instigator and Problem Child hostess author tables and sign their books. I’m in charge of the raffle basket committee, and as our Chapter’s Events Coordinator, Smarty Pants has a hand in most of it from Day One. Playground Monitor often is assigned a job, but I’m most impressed by her ability to chat with attendees and never meet a stranger, which makes so many people feel at home. Inspiring for an introvert like me! The Luncheon Coordinator, Kathy Bone (who often comments here), does a spectacular job with everything, down to the smallest details. Personal, thorough service is a special gift of hers, and she makes attendees feel special from the moment they call for information.

On top of all this, I get to spend a day and a half with my fellow chapter members as we prepare for the event and wine and dine the night before (because what gathering is complete without margaritas?). They’re my favorite people in the world outside of family, and we get to talk books and writing to our hearts’ content. Fabulous!

Okay, enough with how awesome our weekend was. :) Each attendee at our luncheon receives a goodie bag with books and promotional items sent from authors all over the world. I’m often humbled by the generosity of these authors, who not only donate items but pay to ship them to us, so that our attendees can be introduced to their books. In regular Luncheon tradition, I’m going to gift one of my commenters today with a goodie bag of their own, with books and promotional items I’ve put together. All you have to do is tell me about a time you met an author who inspired you, or the name of the author you’d most like to meet!

Happy Reading!

Angel

Walkabout Wednesday - Rocket City USA

Huntsville, Alabama is located in the north central part of the state, less than twenty miles from the Tennessee state line. It’s the fourth largest city in Alabama with a 2008 population of roughly 177,000. The metropolitan area, which includes surrounding towns, has a population of over half a million.




The town was settled in 1805 by John Hunt. Hence the name Huntsville, though it didn’t get that name until 1812. Originally known as Twickenham, it was the first incorporated town in Alabama in 1811. It grew quickly because of the cotton and railroad industries, and cotton still plays a part in this area’s economy.

In 1819, a constitutional convention was held in Huntsville and the town became the capital of the new state of Alabama. Then on April 11, 1862, the city was occupied by Union troops during the War of Northern Aggression. After the war, the area became a center for cotton mills. Each mill had its own housing, school, church, stores and other supportive businesses. One of the mill areas, Merrimack, was recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the old mill offices were remodeled into a performing arts center.

The depression years saw a decline in Huntsville’s industry, but the city became known as the Watercress Capital of the World. There are still a few spots around where the cress still grows.

By 1940, Huntsville was a sleepy little town with less than 15,000 inhabitants. Then with the US’s involvement in World War II, the town was chosen as the site for a chemical and munitions manufacturing plant. The Huntsville Arsenal closed after the war, but by that time, Wernher von Braun and his German rocket science team had been brought to the US and they settled in Huntsville to begin developing the United States’ space program.

Marshall Space Flight Center was dedicated on September 8, 1960 by then President Dwight Eisenhower and we began the space race to the moon and became known as Rocket City USA. Huntsville is still heavily tied to the space program as well as the US Missile Defense Command. It also is home to the second largest research park in the world.

In terms of geography, Huntsville is located in the Tennessee River valley. Several plateaus and large hills, which we residents call mountains, surround the city. The area is also heavily dotted with caves in the limestone bedrock, and we have the occasional sinkhole or two. We are also the headquarters for the National Speleological Society.

The climate is humid subtropical, characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild winters. Some years, we have outbreaks of tornadic activity in spring and fall, though tornadoes can occur during any month as evidenced by the November 1989 tornado that killed 21 and injured nearly 500 people. Snowfall is rare but occasionally Mother Nature will goof like she did on January 1, 1963 when she dumped 17 inches of snow on the city in 24 hours. The last significant snowfall was 13 years ago, and forecasters say we’re overdue. Because snow is so rare, the area has no real road equipment to deal with it, and the standing joke is that if you drop a tray of ice cubes on your kitchen floor, the city will most likely close the schools for the day.

Huntsville is also an official US Customs port of entry, which is why you can go into the McDonald’s near Huntsville International Airport and find members of the US Border Patrol. They are NOT guarding the border between Alabama and Mississippi; rather they are looking at the numerous air shipments that arrive from all over the world.

The city has three historic districts, numerous museums and parks, a large yearly music festival, a yearly arts festival in the park and an annual science fiction convention (of course we do because we’re The Rocket City). Performing arts abound, and the downtown area is highlighted by the Von Braun Center, which opened in 1975 and includes an arena where Elvis performed on May 31, 1975 and where Goldie Hawn’s son plays hockey for the local university. The VBC also plays host to the Heart of Dixie Romance Readers’ Luncheon each May.

Does Huntsville have any notable natives? Sure! There’s Tallulah Bankhead, the actress; Bo Bice, American Idol runner-up; Albert Russel Erskine, chairman of the Studebaker Corporation; the country music group Heartland; John Hendricks, founder and chairman of the Discovery Channel; Grammy-winning singer Brian McKnight; numerous MLB and NFL athletes as well a several Olympic medal winners; and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.

I like to say it’s one of the best kept secrets in the country. It’s international in flavor because of the high-tech industries and the universities yet still retains a small-town feel. Our schools are good and the cost of living is low compared to other areas of this size.

And if you’re ever in the area, y’all give us a holler and we’ll treat you to biscuits and grits, tea so sweet it will make your teeth hurt, and take you to eat BBQ at Angel’s husband’s restaurant.

Where do YOU live and what's it famous for?

SPANISH MAGNATE, RED-HOT REVENGE

by Lynn Raye Harris

Available NOW from Harlequin Presents



Nobody messes with Alejandro de Ramirez. He doesn't suffer fools, and certainly has no time for manipulative wantons. Rebecca Layton was both. Five years later, Alejandro's life is still in turmoil—and he's more merciless than ever. The Spanish magnate wants retribution….

Unusually, and frustratingly for Alejandro, his plan doesn't go smoothly. Surely Rebecca wasn't this alluring before. And did his body always respond in this way—with such passionate fury? This is no longer just revenge…this is red-hot and dangerous!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Hello, Playfriends and Honorary Playfriends! I’ve been a visitor to this blog since I realized in early 2006 that I was moving to Alabama. I remember going searching on the web one day for the RWA chapter closest to where I would be and somehow stumbling upon this site. The Playground quickly became a favorite stop on my morning blog tour, and I began to feel like I’d found friends even though no one here knew me yet.

When I arrived in Alabama in November 2006, the Playground Monitor emailed to ask how I was and to introduce me to the Instigator, who worked in an office close to where I was staying at the time. I quickly met up with Instigator for lunch, and felt just as welcome as I’d known I would when I still lived 5000 miles away.

Fast-forward nearly three years (really? Three? OMG, how time passes!) and the Playfriends are my friends in truth. From the moment I arrived at my first Heart of Dixie meeting, I knew I’d found a home with wonderful, welcoming, and crazy women just like me. (Not to mention I’d landed in the Mecca of Shoe Fabulosity!)

So when it was time to have a blog book launch party for my very first book, SPANISH MAGNATE, RED-HOT REVENGE, there could be no other place to celebrate than with my friends on the Playground (and that includes all you Honorary Playfriends too!).

It’s been a long journey getting to this point. It’s been filled with tears and frustration, but it’s also been filled with laughter and joy. There’s nothing better than seeing that book on the shelves finally. Nothing better than getting reader mail or receiving a great review.

Writers spend so much time laboring in isolation and waiting for the day when their work is available to the reading public. It seems rather surreal that my day has come. Just yesterday, in fact, I learned that my book debuted at #7 on the Borders Bestseller List for series romance. You may think I jumped up and down and called everyone I knew.

But I didn’t. I sat there looking at that list and remembering the journey that brought me to this point. I quietly told my husband. A bit later, I decided to share the news on my Facebook page and on Twitter.

It still seems unreal to me, you see. As if it could all disappear if I blink too hard. It took so long to get here that surely, surely it’s a dream.

But my friends assure me it is NOT a dream. I’ve seen my book in stores, I’ve signed copies, and I’ve talked to readers at the Literacy Autographing in Washington D.C. last month. It’s real, my book is real, and this day here with all of you is real.

So let’s get this party started! I’ll have Smarty Pants bring out all the Moan-Day hotties and get them busy serving the official Playground cocktail, the Teeter-Totter. (Because she’s super-organized like that.) They’ll also be serving whatever drink your heart desires, and they’ll be providing massages and bringing you unending supplies of chocolate. (We hope to see Captain Jack today, but he’s been a bit busy sailing and plundering the seven seas.)

I’m in such a happy, party mood that I’m going to give away not one, but two signed books to commenters! So get your party hats on and, for fun, tell me who your favorite romance hero is and why. (Or your favorite inspiration for a romance hero if you’re a writer.)

Postscript from the Playground Monitor:


I started reading this book at home, then brought it along to my mom's house and finished it on the beach. See?

Today I toured the Millionaire's Village on Jekyll Island, Georgia. It was begun as a hunting club for the uber-wealthy and a few of the "cottages" are open for viewing. These cottages are anywhere from 8000 to 15000 square feet and were only used for two to three months each year. I imagine Alejandro might have had a house on Jekyll if it were still a thriving hunt club today.

To go along with the books Lynn is giving away, one additional person will get my copy of the book, which is a little shopworn from the trip and may still have sand in the pages. Plus I'll throw in a little sea turtle paperweight and some sand I scooped from the shore on Jekyll Island, where real-life Presents-type heroes used to sun