A New Post on the New Site

I'm slowly but surely moving to my new website...as I figure out how to build it, and put pretty buttons and links and stuff on it, I'll post here less and less. But I did manage to get up a new blog post over yonder at
TeriAnneStanley.com

Stop by and say HEY!

You Gotta Read Ruthie

I was amazingly fortunate to get a shot at Ruthie Knox's newest release, Flirting With Disaster, a couple of weeks ago. Na, na, na boo boo!

I'm a huge fan of Ruthie, and every new book just pushes me that much closer to the Land Of Fan Girls Who Can't Speak In Her Presence. Okay, that might be a stretch. I actually tend to ramble when I'm overwhelmed with awe, but you get my point.



Flirting With Disaster is a continuation of the Camelot series, though it's certainly Stand Alone Worthy. But why would you want it to be? You want to read the others, too. Trust me.

Anyway.

In brief, Katie is a woman on a mission to prove herself "enough" at something, so she's decided to be a field agent with her brother's security firm. Problem is, she gets partnered up with the one guy who won't speak to her. So obviously, she assumes that he doesn't talk to her because he holds her in poor esteem.

Well, guess what? He doesn't talk to her because he's head over heels in love with her, and he's got this little stuttering issue, which seems to blow up into a GINORMOUS issue where Katie is concerned. And her name couldn't have been "Ingrid" or "Sue." It had to be K-k-k-k-atie, didn't it?

Hijinks ensue. Hijinks of the oh-so-sexy and oh-so-heart-melting variety. And there's a musician with some issues and secrets, a stalker, some more sexy hijinks...

I'm going to suggest you run to Amazon and download this puppy right now. Or Barnes and Noble. Go on, now. Really. I'm done, I don't have anything else to say. You can go now.

Bye! GO!

Title Update

Hey!  I'm only about ten days late on my promise to have a title for my marina story...and a winner of the Amazon Gift card.

There's a story here. It's long and sordid, and involves babies (not mine), exterminators (mine) and a general inability to make decisions, resulting in brain spasms (something I invented recently). I'm not going to share it.

But after many emails and a phone call, my agent and I decided that as long as we had a title for the SERIES, we could work around the actual novel title for now. 

But I announced a contest, and while I might be slow and disorganized, I'm generally honest (notice I hedged on that statement). I decided, in order to be fair, to draw a name from the list of people who contributed AWESOME title suggestions for the marina story.

And the winner, of a $10 Amazon gift card, is the lovely and talented Kate Warren! Woo Hoo! 
*Applause*

Kate, please get in touch with me (email me at Teriannestanley (at) gmail (dot) com, and I'll get you a code, with which you can buy many, many things from Amazon. As long as they are small things.

Everyone else?  You guys rock.  Thank you!

Honorable mention goes to Jami Field for "Muddled Moorings at Clandestine Cove."  When I change my name to Carolyn Keene and start writing grown up Nancy Drew Mysteries, I'm totally using that.

Oh. By the way. The series title is Hot Summer Secrets. Cool, huh? BWAHAHAHAHA!

COVER REVEAL! Malicious Mischief (Mischief and Mayhem, #1) by by Marianne Harden

*EEP!* I just re-read the directions, and I thought this was supposed to go live at noon, not last midnight. Sorry! 

Anyway. Fellow Entangled Publishing Author Marianne Harden has a cover to show off.



How awesome is that?  Look at that cute little skull and crossbones on the fountain! 

I can't wait to read this! Here's some more info--and a contest!

Malicious Mischief

 Career chameleon, Rylie Keyes, must keep her current job. If not, the tax assessor will evict her ailing grandfather and auction off their ancestral home. When a senior she shuttles for a Bellevue, Washington retirement home winds up dead in her minibus, sticky with a half-eaten s'more, head clad in a cellophane bag, and a pocketed complaint letter accusing her of driving by Braille, her goal to keep her job hits a road bump.

 
The deceased was thought to be a penniless Nazi concentration camp survivor with a silly grudge against Rylie. However, the victim has enemies who will stop at nothing to keep their part in the murder a secret.

Forced to dust off the PI training she's kept hidden from her ex-detective grandfather, Rylie must align with a circus-bike-wheeling Samoan to solve the murder, all while juggling the attentions of two very hot police officers.

About Marianne Harden

Marianne Harden loves a good laugh. So much so, she cannot stop humor from spilling into her books. Over the years she has backpacked through the wilds of Australia, explored the exotics of Asia, soaked up the sun in the Caribbean, and delighted in the historic riches of Europe. Her goals in life are simple: do more good than harm and someday master the do-not-mess-with-me look. She divides her time between Switzerland and Washington State where she lives with her husband and two children.

Marianne is giving away a $25 gift card to the book retailer of the winner’s choice:

Rafflecopter Giveaway

Find the Book

  Goodreads

Amazon

Barnes andNoble

 

Find Marianne Harden

Website: www.marianneharden.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/MarianneHarden

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorMarianneHarden

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6572367.Marianne_Harden

Name That Novel Update, and other stuff

Hey!

Thanks, everyone, for the awesome name suggestions for the Novel Formerly Known as Safe Harbor. I'm still undecided, and working a few more things around--we decided I need a good series title and then we can settle on the individual book titles...feel free to toss more suggestions out there. When I make a decision, I'll let ya know.

And another thing. My friend and fellow Dangerous Diva Entangled NaNo Smackdown winner, Cathy Perkins, Entangled Release For Love or Money came out today. I bought it this morning, and I'm having trouble getting my family to leave me alone so I can read it...it's really good! And I say that in the "It's Really Good And I'm Not Just Saying This Because She's My Friend" sense of "good."

So you should go buy it. But while you're reading it, if you think up a name for my novel and/or the series, please let me know!

Name That Book--A Contest!

I need help! I realize that when I told people about my heart attack and you said, "If you need any help, just ask," you probably weren't thinking that I would ask you to come up with a title for a book, but...hey. I have a heart attack card. I'm playing it.

Okay, so here's the deal. I wrote this book. It's set at a marina, and there's some romance, some scary bad guys, and, well, here's a very brief synopsis:

Olivia Walker got more than she bargained for when she inherited the run-down Salty Bone Marina and its cast of misfits, including one incredibly gorgeous Army veteran handyman--who just might be seeing the ghost of his ex-best friend. When  bad guys, Olivia's bipolar mother, and some overzealous party planners show up, things go from OMG to worse!

 I need to give this book a name.

There are a couple more stories in the works, all set at the Salty Bone Marina, in Napier's Bend, Kentucky, so I'd love to find a group of names that go together. But really--I'll be thrilled to have one name.

Something river-y, stream, harbor, dock, shore... would be great. But with sexy and thrillery/mystery-y, included...I love titles that are a spin on song titles or movie names...I just keep drawing a blank when I try to come up with something for this book.

HELP!

What, you need a reason other than the heart attack card to help me? How's about some incentive...a $10 gift card to Amazon to the person who saves my desperate butt!!!  I have to choose a name by Monday, or my agent will send me back to the slush pile (she won't really do that. I don't think). But I want to pick a name so she can maybe sell this puppy and make us both rich and famous.

Post your ideas in the comments, or email me (teriannestanley at gmail dot com), okay?

All right. Get your thinking caps on. GO!

It Really Was Just a Little Heart Attack

So, I guess I haven't been getting enough attention lately, what with all the signing of contracts and going to the Romantic Times convention and all. So this past Sunday, I decided to have a little heart attack.

Let me back up.

I came home from RT with bronchitis. I think everyone did. I got my Z-pack, a steroid shot, stayed home a few days from work, and started to feel better.

I'm a generally healthy person. I'm a good fifty pounds overweight, and I don't get enough exercise because I have arthritis in my feet, but otherwise, I'm healthy. I suppose there is maybe a little stress in there, but... I've got a full-time job, three kids of my own plus a couple of extras living in my basement, two dogs, a travelling husband, a budding writing career...but nothing CRAZY. I'm not diabetic, I don't have a family history of heart disease, I don't smoke, blah blah blah. Okay, there's a minor caffeine habit, but hey! I'm a writer. It's kind of a job requirement. But I don't even DRINK ALCOHOL, fer chrissakes!

So this past Sunday--yes, that would be Mother's Day--I spent a few hours at my brother's house on the other side of town. Very fun, I like my family, no drama. I left Mr. Stanley at home to talk to India about his issues with Windows 8.

On the way home, I felt this weird...lump of ick in my chest. Kind of a tightness. Kind of...like how they describe heart attack symptoms. And my left arm hurt. So I thought, "Gee, these are classic heart attack symptoms, but I'm a woman, so it must be indigestion. I could stop here at this hospital...or this next one...or the one after that, but I'd probably better get my kids home, because since it's just indigestion, I would be getting them all stirred up over nothing."

So I came home and told Mr. Stanley about it, and maybe we should go confirm that this is, indeed, indigestion (I ate a LOT of that bagel dip at my brother's house).

So we went to the Emergency Room, and after a grueling fifteen second wait, was ushered into the triage room, where I sat for an interminable thirty seconds describing my symptoms and rolling my eyes at myself for over-reacting.

And then, suddenly, I was in a room, being bled and injected and fed nitroglycerin and covered with stickers that held electrodes, and tweeting #tweetsfromtheER, because, you know, it was kind of funny. Until Dougie Howser's little brother came in and told me I was having a heart attack, and they were just waiting for a bed in the ICU.

WAH!? HUH????  I'm only 49 years old!

I think there was some morphine added to the situation at this point, because it gets a little fuzzy for a while. The brick of undigested bagel dip got a little bigger and started trying to strangle me a little more, so there was some more nitroglycerin and some more morphine (I really liked the morphine part. Totally made the whole experience worthwhile).

So, Blah, blah, blah, Doctor visits, IV's, blood draws, Angiogram, Echocardiogram, blah blah blah, here are a bunch of prescriptions, good luck keeping all of this straight, and by the way, you have to stop taking your arthritis medicine.

Forty Eight hours in the ICU, and I'm home. No blockages, just some narrowing of one artery, some meds, and significantly less caffeine.

So I have a new crusade. Watch that video above, but don't forget the "usual" signs. And don't worry about over-reacting. I got a lot of pats on the back for coming in right away and not ignoring the bagel dip feeling.

Do you think I'll get kicked out of RWA if I can't drink real coffee anymore?