Saturday, December 29, 2012

This will be my last blog post until next year...

Now you know why no one ever finds gold at the end of the rainbow...and lives...

Have a marvelous New Year, and I wish everyone happiness and health.  I will be too busy working on my wips to continue to fruitlessly post to this blog, since only about three of my friends drop by the read it...so if I don't post much for awhile, it isn't necessarily because I am dead.  But it might be, so if I don't post for a whole year, you will know I am dead.

Hugs...

Fran 

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Happy Apocalypse...and winter solstice...

I was thinking that maybe I would stay in bed today...

But I figured if the world was going to end, I might as well try to get my house cleaned up a bit...you know...just in case I had visitors drop by.  Then I realized that Christmas was only a little over three days away, and I wrapped more of the little gifts I had for kids and friends.

Here it is...13 minutes past time for the apocalypse...and I am still alive, as is much of the rest of humanity. I am relieved that I get to enjoy another Christmas, and see my friends for another few years.  And I pray that the word "apocalypse" holds true to its meaning...

The word in Greek means that we are entering a time of greater knowledge that was hidden from us by those who wished to dominate humanity through falsehood and deceit.  It is a lifting of the veil that hides enlightenment...and we will now see things clearly in the light of truth.  The gospels of John stated that the apocalypse would  mean the ultimate victory of Good over Evil...the end of the present age and the entry into an enlightened age where we would see the wonders of God and understand that we have a higher purpose.

I certainly hope so...because I was getting pretty tired of having to deal with lies and hate and ugliness.  So I will make this Christmas and the new year coming something special...opening my heart and mind and doing all I can to help others do so, as well.

I look forward to a longer bit of daylight tomorrow...and a clearer sky with more stars....

Happy Solstice...

Hugs and much lo ve...

Fran Lee

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Okay...time to get back to work...

I have a dozen wips but not a single one ready to go!

Time to start sitting down and getting to work.  The virus that caught up to me is almost gone...I feel human again...and now I need to feel good about writing once more.  Trouble is, I have SO many wips in the works, I can't decide which one to work on.  Sigh.

I am playing Christmas carols on my car stereo...but no Christmas tree up yet.  What a mess.  Trying to figure out what to do for special people this year. And SO not ready for the holiday.  Usually I'm rarin' to go, but this one is a bit of a slow start.

Think I'll pull out all of my Harry Potter Movies and watch them again.

Think I'll heat up some apple cider and drop a cinnamon stick in.

 Or maybe I'll just go back to bed...which where I have spent that first week of December after catching a virus from my grandson...yawn...

The only thing that makes me get well is sleep.

Will get back to you when I figure out which wip to start on...hugs!

Fran  

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

I feel lazy today, but I have things to do and places to be...

So it's time for me to get off this computer and fix the frog-eye salad and the ham. But before I do, I want to ask you what YOUR favorite Thanksgiving dishes are. Do you love the old faithful turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce? Or do you go for Ham and mashed? I have switched back and forth several times, to voluble complaints from those who wanted one or the other. So now I fix both ham and turkey, and let them choose their meal.

Because my house is too small to hold so many people, we have dinner at my son's home. I left the 10-pound turkey breast with my son last night, along with the taters and the big crescent rolls and the Martinelli's Sparkling Cider (I don't buy wine anymore because it makes the gathering shaky at best) and I will heat the spiral sliced ham and make the dressing, the frog-eye salad, and the candied yams. They love my recipe for the salad, dressing and yams.

I watched my mom slave over those damn yams year after year, and I detested them. Cooking great big huge yams from scratch was a total pain. You could never get the stringy things out of them. And using brown sugar is great, but brown sugar and marshmallows don't give the deepest flavor. Yep, they are sweet, but something was always "missing".

So I decided to experiment. Why spend three hours boiling, baking, or steaming those yams when there are some wonderful canned sweet potatoes available in the store?  I buy a couple of large cans, drain them, and arrange them in the bottom of a glass casserole dish. Then I dot butter over the surface and add light brown sugar to cover the yams. I sprinkle walnut halves over that, then cover the whole thing with tiny marshmallows. Then I drizzle heavy cream over the top (not a lot, because it makes the yams too wet).

Pop into the microwave (or oven if you have time) until the goo on top is melty and bubbly. Then allow to cool on the table before spooning out. The yams will be resting in a nice golden caramel cream sauce and the nuts add warmth and crunch. As the sauce cools it thickens up.

And my dressing is never made in the bird anymore. I use the turkey drippings and chicken base and I use cornbread mixed with the traditional crouton type stuffing pieces. I saute finely chopped onions with finely chopped fresh celery, using one full cube of real butter. I add the poultry stock and stir, then add a cup of slivered almonds. I add sage and seasonings to taste, then I pour the stock mixture over the bread crumbs. I mix by hand until it is well soaked, and then I spoon the dressing into a baking bag, and pop it into the oven for about two hours (or the microwave for about 18 minutes).

Another thing I sometimes add to the dressing before baking is sliced mushroom caps. I buy the small ones. The kids don't like those as much as the nuts, so I often split a batch.

Hope your Thanksgiving is good.  Let me know what your favorite recipes are.

Hugs!

Fran

Saturday, November 17, 2012

What are your holiday traditions?

When I think of the winter holidays, I think of the origins of the Holy Days...

I think of Angels and creches and friends and family. Well...the angel above is not quite the angel that I usually think of for the holidays, but let's just say I am thankful that I still have a healthy libido.

I love the holidays of the year, including birthdays, because birthdays, after all, are the most personal of holidays. 

I love the end of year holidays the most because they reflect on the beauty of life and the return of light to a darkening world. While the end of the year signals the shortest amount of daylight and the longest nights, it encourages us to reflect on the warmth of a crackling fire...the beauty of a snowy night with the moon brightening the landscape...the sound of carols and the beauty of stars glittering in clean, cold, windswept skies.

Halloween is the first of the year-end holidays. The time of the year when heaven (and hell) are closest to our plane of existence. Traditionally the night of the dead, when spirits seeking solace (or mayhem) return to earth to attempt to contact those who live on in abandon, unaware of the closeness of the other worlds. Modern humans follow ancient traditions without the foggiest notion of what they are commemorating. 

Humans have long associated darkness with evil. Samhain was the traditional beginning of the "dark" months of the year. Samhain is a Druidic/Celtic observance that has far more meaning than our modern Halloween. However, All Hallow's Eve (the Christian All Souls Day) blended seamlessly into the Christian All-Saint's Day, when the faithful departed who had reached Heaven were asked to pray for the souls of those who didn't quite make it to Heaven, and those who remain locked to the earth until the end of life.

Today I am talking about Halloween. 

When I was a child, we trick or treated everywhere without adult supervision. People broke full candy bars into pieces and we gobbled them as we walked. We got so sick on candy we threw up by the time we got home. Mom threw away most of the rest, except for the pieces she ate herself. We got popcorn balls, candied apples, and coconut marshmallows. Nobody worried about any of the stuff being tampered with.

When my kids were little, I helped them get ready for trick or treating by helping them with garish, scary disguises and ghoulish makeup. I dutifully ordered them not to eat any candy that was not securely wrapped. No popcorn balls or candied apples. I also warned them not to eat any of the fruit until I had inspected it. I sent one of the adults in the family around with the kids to make sure they were safe in their travels. And when they got home, we divvied up the candy to make certain it was safe to consume. A lot of it got trashed.

As the candy-giver at home, I always bought candy that could not easily be adulterated with cyanide or needles. I gave out wrapped Tootsie Pops, taffy in wrappers, Bottle Caps, Twizzlers in cellophane, etc.  And I told the children who came trick or treating stories about the old fashioned Halloween celebrations where people didn't go treat or treating, but had big parties where everyone was safe and drank cider and bobbed for apples. I told them that the costumes they love to wear were derived from older traditions. And every year, fewer kids would come to my door. 

I guess the story got around that they would have to learn something before they got that little piece of candy. LOL!

How do you celebrate Halloween?

Thanksgiving is coming up next.  Be prepared.

Fran

Thursday, November 8, 2012

The year end holidays are rushing upon us...are YOU ready?


Many people feel pressured into jumping into the holidays headfirst...

Christmas ads and store promos start the minute Halloween is over, and they continue until New Year's Day. Some of us tend to feel sorta like this poor little treed cat...stuck in the Christmas rush and unable to get back out. But I tend to ignore the invitations to shop 'til I drop, and get into the spirit of the season.

The WalMart I shop at had its Tree and Ornament department up and running in mid-October.  I went in yesterday and found a sparse Thanksgiving aisle next to the 80% off Halloween aisle. Since I don't "do" Halloween (having no small kids to buy for) I picked up a couple of nice things from the Thanksgiving display, and continued my shopping.

Once my kids were old enough to understand that Christmas was a commemoration of Jesus' birth instead of Santa's run around the world, I became quite eclectic in my holiday traditions. I have friends who celebrate year-end holidays in different ways, and I simply adjusted my holiday decor to include the wonderful myriad of traditions I saw when I visited their homes.

Even Thanksgiving changed for me, since I tossed out many of the traditional concepts of Thanksgiving and exchanged them for more realistic stuff. I grew up around Native Americans, and listened to their stories and legends. My 4th grade teacher was a beautiful lady whose lineage included Onandaga and Seneca. She read us wonderful stories about Native American mythology and real NA people like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull and Chief Joseph.

She also talked about the "first Thanksgiving", and how the "story" has evolved over the centuries. A day of thanksgiving was common in the colonies, and often was to give thanks for a good harvest or for winning battles. The particular thanksgiving that is interlaced into our legends and stories appears to be the specific one in Plymouth Colony in 1621. It stood out from the others because it was a "shared" feast.

The Plymouth colonists had just enjoyed their first successful harvest in the new world. They had harvested the crops they had planted. As they prepared a feast to give thanks for their good crops, they received an unexpected visit from the the great Sachem Massasoit. Massasoit had walked for two days with his wife and 90 of his warriors to visit the colonists and the tribe provided wild turkey, squash and bushels of corn. The Wampanoag hunted so that the colonists had enough wild game for their feast, so the colonists decided to invite them to share the feast.

My grandkids were told the story a bit differently. Namely, the starving Indians needed help so the magnanimous colonists gave them food.

No matter how it came about, it would not have been such a great harvest had the colonists not learned how to fertilize their crops and plant different vegetables from the thankfully friendly tribes they found in their new homes.

When I was a kid, we always had a huge turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, celery sticks filled with soft cheese or peanut butter, all kinds of veggies, fruit salads, green salads, and then pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream. And everyone ate waaay too much. The turkey coma kicked in, and everyone just sat around gabbing for a couple of hours, then went back to the table and ate some more. 

The food was ready at about 2:00 in the afternoon, and sat out on the table for the rest of the day. I know that I got pretty sick after the third time to the table...because no one seemed to understand that leaving warm food out for that length of time often gave kids or old folks food poisoning.

So, after I grew up and had my own thanksgiving dinners, I changed the status quo...dinner was set on the table at the normal dinner time, we ate, and then I would immediately start to pack the warm food into baggies or Tupperware or old cottage cheese containers and put it away in the fridge. If anyone wanted more, they had to get it out and eat it cold, or heat it up again.  There has not been a single case of food poisoning in my house since I started doing that.

Also, I changed the whole ball game when I decided to make homemade Tex-mex enchiladas for Thanksgiving one year. It was great! We ate everything...no leftovers. 

So what are your Thanksgiving traditions? Your favorite Thanksgiving dishes? Tell me what your favorite menu is for Thanksgiving...and what holiday traditions are all yours?

Hugs!

Fran

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

I genuinely believe I have given up flying forever...

I will take "alternate" transportation from now on...

This Romanticon was the first time I have ever flown Frontier Airlines...and the first time in over 20 airplane trips that I have had nearly more trouble than the plane trip was worth. My trip had been planned since July. Reservations made. Hotel all set up. Electronic tickets...the works. In all the times I have flown before, the planes have been on time...the connecting flights have been on time...and the whole ball of wax.

I should have realized that things would go haywire when we were informed that the plane that I expected to fly out to Denver on was nearly an hour late. Because they had to switch planes in Seattle. Because of mechanical problems.  But it would be just fine, they said, "because the connecting flight I was to catch in Denver would be an hour and a half late." Because they had to switch out planes. Because of mechanical problems.

That made me feel safe and secure as all git out. 

Well, That put me two and a half hours behind schedule to catch the last hotel shuttle from the airport to the McKinley Grand Hotel, which was a free service. The result? I had to find a cab at 1:45 a.m. and pay $70.00 to get myself to the hotel. Instead of getting a good eight hours of sleep before having to get up and start motivating, I got exactly three.

Dragging my fanny out of bed and crawling downstairs to breakfast was a real joy. Ahhhh...the free breakfast buffet. I was hungry enough to eat a cardboard horse that morning, so it tasted fantastic.  Of course, nobody told me that I could order anything off the hotel breakfast menu that I wanted (for free) so I settled for the reconstituted scrambled eggs and hashbrowns, some cut up cantaloupe and tons of crisp bacon or sausage every morning. When I could have had eggs benedict...or waffles...or....sigh.

LOL! I guess I should have asked, right? No big deal, because it was free food and I was on a budget (especially after that $70 taxi ride). Besides...I'm used to my own cooking, and can't say that I'm a gourmet chef.

The hotel was great...the convention was fabulous. A wonderful time was had by all. I hated to leave. Then I took the free hotel shuttle back to the airport...only to find that my plane was late.  Because they had to switch out the planes. Because of mechanical problems.

Sigh.

Because my connecting flight in Denver would be taking off about an hour BEFORE my delayed flight would land, they scrambled to find me another flight from Denver to Utah. They got me on a United Airlines flight that was to leave Denver at 10:05 p.m....making it necessary to call my son to pick me up four hours later than I had asked at first. So I looked at the scrolling flight boards in Denver to find my flight out, and it said that flight 6314 would leave from gate 33A at exactly 10:05 p.m.

YAY!  I had time to get a bite to eat and I found a McDonald's about one football field away from gate 33A and had a leisurely meal. After gobbling my meal and dragging my 70 pounds of carry-on luggage back to gate 33A, figuring that I would relax until the flight boarded at 9:39 p.m., I opened a book and read for a couple of hours.  After a while I began to notice that there was no one joining me for the next flight from gate 33A, and the scrolling sign over the podium said "Montreal 11:15 p.m."

Ummmm...

So I got up and walked over (dragging my friggin' two-ton luggage filled with books and junk from the convention) and found a gate attendant and asked if I was in the right place for flight 6314 to SLC. She hit a few dozen keys and replied laconically, "You are at the wrong gate. Flight 6314 has been changed...uh-huh...because we had to switch out the plane." Because of mechanical problems. Uh-huh. So where was I suppose to be to catch flight 6314 now? Ummm...where the hell is gate 90B? Ummm...whatdya mean, it's about five miles that-a-way?

 Thank God there were four people movers that covered 40 of the gates in between...but that left this tired, frustrated, old lady humping her five-ton luggage through two full concourses, over the river and through the woods, down to another level, then back up and back down again. I finally sank into a chair at gate 85A because I was about to fall on my face. (The altitude change from 1100 feet to 5600 feet didn't help my blood pressure).

After huffing and puffing until my heart rate lowered to a safe 120 bpm, and getting my second wind, I crawled out of that lovely chair and managed to drag the ten-ton luggage to gate 90A, where I collapsed and waited anxiously for them to announce that my gate had been changed back to 33B!

Then came the ominous announcement that they were asking for "volunteers" to take a flight the following morning because the smaller plane was seriously oversold...no friggin' way! I am here...you WILL take me home TONIGHT!!!

I was fully ready to fight my way into the damn plane if need be, and didn't mind one damn bit having to check my carry on bag at the gate because the overhead area was "too small" for roll alongs. I was finally on the plane...the oversold one...when a commotion broke out at the front. There was a slightly over-Xantaxed passenger who was talking too loudly about the last time she flew and how she had started screaming "OH GOD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

The flight attendants asked her take a later flight that wasn't so crowded, and her two adult kids (who shared my three-seat row) decided they would not fly out without Mom.  So I was able to stretch out over three seats and watch a free in-flight movie because...uh huh...the flight was so late.

So next year I believe I will drive...or take a train...or maybe catch a ride on Shadowfax. Any of those options seems to be better than flying the friendly skies.  

Tell me...have you ever had this type of travel nightmares?  Please share.

Hugs!

Fran

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The best Romanticon ever!

No...this is not an Ellora's Cave cover model...

This is the inimitable Fran Lee. Inimitable, you ask? How so? Well...I am the ONLY person who DROPPED her Super Star Award...four times. Snort! I am seriously thinking about having it framed in a shadow box to protect it from myself. Thank God they are made of sterner stuff than glass...they are made of heavy, strong, crystal-clear Lucite.

A wonderful time was had by all. Including Yours-Truly, who doesn't usually do well in large crowds. This was my third Romanticon Convention, and was the best yet. I met many wonderful new friends, and came together with many wonderful already-friends. Hmmm...did I just coin another phrase?

My SWAG was an apparent success. I gave away 800 Zombie and Debil Duckies. The funniest part was, I put stickers on the bottom of about 600 (I ran out of stickers the third day) and on 30 of the Duckies I placed "prize" stickers. I was told that people were taking several at a time, but only 15 people claimed their prizes.

 Zombie Duckies and Debil Duckies!

These little items went like crazy. I took gold-embossed "Fran Lee Romance" pencils and some darling tiny flip-flop erasers that were quite a hit, as well. You can always use pencils and erasers...right? I never knew so many women collected flip-flop collectibles. Good thing I brought about a thousand...

Like I said in an earlier post...UACC...Useful, Attractive, Creative, and Cheap. 

Please check out my Facebook pages and albums to see my Romanticon photos. I took nearly 200! 

Tomorrow I will tell you all about my trip...and how I really wanted to cash in my flight tickets and rent a  car after my arrival in Denver...only two hours late. My connecting flight was also late (thank heavens!) or I would have been in deep duckie doo-doo. 

Hugs to everyone!  I must be off...I have an alumni association meeting to get to.

Fran


Monday, October 8, 2012

Packing for a trip is arduous activity...

Packing all I need to take in ONE medium-sized carry on bag.
(It's tougher than it sounds...)
Um...socks go in the bottom, laid out flat. Underwear next, again laid out flat. My dress slacks. Four dressy tops. (One nice set of dressy slacks can work with any number of tops.) Two pairs of nice casual slacks. A couple of my book-cover T-shirts. My Pajama Party PJs (I sleep in a T-shirt). The two big leather belts that are to be my Zombie-night costume. (I am simply wearing a black T-shirt and my Zombie-Killer belt and a leather bandolier of bullets). My dress shoes. 

I will not be lugging my lap-top along this trip.  It's fairly big and heavy, and I hate having to unpack it, open it, turn it on, etc. just to get on the plane. I almost missed my flight last time because it took almost an extra hour to go through the garbage to get my bags through the xray machine, etc.  Oh, and having a titanium hip makes it even more of a joy. 

Of course, without my lap-top, I will be unable to get my e-mail, check my Facebook page (oh, woe is me!) and so on.  But then, maybe I can use someone else's computer.  Or buy one of those slimline, tiny, 7-inch thingys that can fit in your purse.

And my "purse". The piece de resistance...my 24-inch long, 18-inch deep, 8-inch wide shoulder bag that carries my "real" purse, plus all my ziplock-bagged cosmetics, prescriptions, herbs, Alka-Seltzer,  allergy pills, tubes of Airborne, etc.  Can't leave home on a trip in a crowded plane with everyone around you coughing and sneezing without your tubes of Airborne.

If I could find a way to pack it, I would also take my car so that I could tour the area. 

I will NEVER take luggage that has to be checked. Too many ugly things happen to luggage.  (Just ask Laurann.)  After one trip where we took luggage that had to be checked (A Disneyland trip for my family) and coming up missing the bags with the most important stuff like cameras, tickets, etc.  I learned my lesson.

So, tell me how YOU pack for trips. What are your methods? Can you manage to get everything into a carry-on bag? Tell me about YOUR nightmares with luggage.  Have fun!

And if your comment strikes my fancy, you might win a copy of one of my back list books. 

(I know...it's sad to have to bribe people to come to your blog, but authors can be totally shameless that way!)

Hugs!

Fran


Friday, October 5, 2012

On my way to Romanticon!








This is Ellora's Cave's fabulous Romance Readers and authors convention! 
If you are in the Akron Ohio area next week, and want to get books signed by your favorite Ellora's Cave authors, drop into the book signing between noon and 4:00 p.m. on October 14, 2012.  All your favorites will be there. Including moi. LOL! It is being held at the McKinley Grand Hotel, 320 Market Avenue South, Canton OH 44702.

I will be signing a brand new print book that will not be released formally until November 23, 2012, but will be made available at the book signing. Check it out...


COMING SOON!
 November 23, 2012

Double Your Pleasure

Helen is working a latte shop just outside an upscale high-rise apartment in Manhattan. Switching shifts with her boss, she finds herself face-to-face with the most delicious, maddeningly arrogant men she’s ever met. He’s hot and sexy as hell, but the fact that he can’t lift his eyes from her chest is a strike against him.  Too bad he’s such a jerk…she would have loved to get to know him better. But as soon as he’s out of sight, she turns around to find another one, just like him, but this one looks her in the eye, and has a smile that takes her breath away. Dear Lord, there are two of them?

Jason and Jonathon Blackstone have the same taste in clothes, cars and women. Identical twins, they often trade clothes…and sometimes they even share their women. Jon may have seen her first, but Jace intends to be the man who gets her. Unfortunately, he may just end up having to share again, since the sexy coffee girl seems to want them both.

Her Own Set of Rules

Bored with her sex life with a husband she still loves, but who has the Saturday-night, three-minute orgasm—his—down to a fine art, Haley takes the first step on a journey of sexual discovery when Josh, younger brother of her closest friend, expresses a decidedly carnal interest in her. The result is more than she imagined in her raunchiest fantasies.

Josh has had a crush on Haley since he was a kid, gangly and too damn tall for his weight. But he isn’t a kid anymore, and he grew into his six foot five inches, plus some. He’s come back home for one thing only—for a shot at the girl he fell for when he was too damn young to do much about it.

But Harry’s not done with his wife—not when he finds out that inside that prim, repressed shell, she’s been hiding the sexual temptress he’s always hungered for. Now all Haley has to do is ask, and two men are ready to give her everything she wants.

See you there!

Hugs!

Fran Lee

Sunday, September 30, 2012

In memoriam...


God bless and keep you...
Angelo Riguero

At just 27 years of age, one of the sweetest, most considerate and loving men has been taken away from us.  Angelo was our favorite Caveman...our most asked-for cover model, our most delicious dancer...and one of our sweetest friends.  His face and body are on a great many of our favorite Ellora's Cave books.

So many people loved and admired him...there has been such an outpouring of prayers and sentiments that this small tribute seems miniscule. So I will tell you what I personally loved about Angelo.

He made you feel special with a smile and a caring word. He radiated energy like the sun. He had a smile that lit up the room. He was beautiful, kind, and loving to everyone, no matter who you were or how you looked. His personality sizzled and glowed, and he was undoubtedly the most magnetic man I have met. When I attended my first Romanticon in 2010, I had a second floor room in a hotel that didn't have an elevator. I have had hip surgery twice, and am a very slow, careful climber. I almost had to crawl up the stairs at the end of a long, hard day on my feet...and between Angelo and Rodney, I was never left on my own to make that climb without assistance. Angelo was sweet enough to offer to carry me up the stairs. (I outweighed him by a good 20 pounds). I thanked him and just grabbed his arm, and up we went.

No matter who he met, he paid close attention to every word, remembered names, and always had a grin and a kind word. You sort of felt like you were his BFF. Not many gorgeous young men have those qualities.

We will miss him desperately.

Rest in peace, mi amigo...

Fran

Thursday, September 27, 2012

New Cover Art...


































Coming November 23, 2012!
This special edition will be available for one day only prior to its formal release date.
It will be available on book signing day
(October 14, 2012)
at Romanticon!
 
Broken Rules

Double Your Pleasure
Helen is working a latte shop just outside an upscale high-rise apartment in Manhattan. Switching shifts with her boss, she finds herself face-to-face with the most delicious, maddeningly arrogant men she’s ever met. He’s hot and sexy as hell, but the fact that he can’t lift his eyes from her chest is a strike against him.  Too bad he’s such a jerk…she would have loved to get to know him better. But as soon as he’s out of sight, she turns around to find another one, just like him, but this one looks her in the eye, and has a smile that takes her breath away. Dear Lord, there are two of them?

Jason and Jonathon Blackstone have the same taste in clothes, cars and women. Identical twins, they often trade clothes…and sometimes they even share their women. Jon may have seen her first, but Jace intends to be the man who gets her. Unfortunately, he may just end up having to share again, since the sexy coffee girl seems to want them both.

Her Own Set of Rules
Bored with her sex life with a husband she still loves, but who has the Saturday-night, three-minute orgasm—his—down to a fine art, Haley takes the first step on a journey of sexual discovery when Josh, younger brother of her closest friend, expresses a decidedly carnal interest in her. The result is more than she imagined in her raunchiest fantasies.

Josh has had a crush on Haley since he was a kid, gangly and too damn tall for his weight. But he isn’t a kid anymore, and he grew into his six foot five inches, plus some. He’s come back home for one thing only—for a shot at the girl he fell for when he was too damn young to do much about it.

But Harry’s not done with his wife—not when he finds out that inside that prim, repressed shell, she’s been hiding the sexual temptress he’s always hungered for. Now all Haley has to do is ask, and two men are ready to give her everything she wants.

Thanks for looking!

Fran

Thursday, September 20, 2012

It's that time again...

 It's time for another new release
Giveaway!
 
GIVEAWAY:
a : something given away free; specifically : premium 
b : the act of giving something away free (staging a promotional giveaway)
 
Rules?

To win, simply check out the Ellora's Cave page for the book and read the excerpt. Name the six people who appear in the excerpt in the body of your e-mail sent. In the subject line, show "Never Tempt Fate"!

Please be sure to give your REAL name and valid e-mail address for my records if you win!

Send your entry to me at:  fran.lee.romance@gmail.com

 There will be secondary prizes, as well, including SWAG items for this book. So have fun!

By the way...           >>>-----------------------------------------------[>
I am also asking those of you who have Facebook accounts to come over to my fan page there and "like" me.  Yes, this is a bald-faced, groveling plea for more fans on that page.  Just click on the Facebook button on the far right of my blog, sign in to your Facebook and click on "like". 

Thanks so much!

Hugs!

Fran

http://www.franleeromance.com

 

Monday, September 17, 2012

I am getting geared up for Romanticon...

And even though I am not at all thinking about seeing the Ellora's Cavemen again this year...
(Truly!)

I am eager to see all of my wonderful friends again.  I don't go to other conventions because I can't afford to, so I must pick and choose the things I spend money on. And when you go to a convention, you have to do the SWAG (stuff we all get) thingy.  You want convention-goers to remember you...so you get stuff that advertises your web pages and your latest books.  Book marks are great, but they don't seem to excite the readers like cute, neat, expensive stuff does. Trading cards are great as collectibles, but no way can I afford to spend $700 on 250 professionally-made trading cards for each of my 20 books. And when I checked out all the cute, neat advertising stuff online this year, I sighed and shuddered to find out that I had to pay for 500 to 1,000 of each item in order to get such neat, cute stuff.  (Even at $.65 a piece, 1,000 items can get pretty costly...and that doesn't even include the S&H or setup fees.)

Most of the authors do some pretty fabulous promo giveaways there...they bring hundreds of things, and readers grab those neat things up as fast as they put them on the tables.  In fact, some folks grab more than one of everything (to take home to sis and mom, etc)...so you have to bring literally tons!  One of the most popular items last year were the wonderfully cute rubber duckies that someone brought...and the nifty shot glasses and bandaid covers and then there were the lip glosses and the letter openers and the great little plastic cases to hold everyone else's trading cards!  Some authors brought literally thousands of dollars worth of SWAG stuff, and I felt like sorta hiding my little stash of stuff under a basket so no one would see what I brought.  Um...not that I felt like a cheapskate or anything...much.

Things haven't changed much this year, so I decided to be very creative.  They said to bring enough stuff for about 300 convention-goers, so I am doubling that.  But I have scrambled to find the cutest things I could find that were UACC:
1.)  USEFUL
2.)  ATTRACTIVE
3.)  CREATIVE
4.)  CHEAP

Um...I admit it...I can only stretch my promo dollars so far before the tightwad in me snaps. So if you find my tiny little display on one of those long, heavily-laden tables, please don't laugh too loud.  I worked very hard on my offering.  (Besides, I am bringing a raffle basket as well, with some bigger stuff in it.) 

To be brutally honest, I probably would never have managed to even get to Romanticon this year if not for some wonderful friends, so I am just thrilled to be going.  

If you see me there this year, it might well be the last time we get together in person, unless one of my books takes off like a shot and hits all the best seller lists.  If that happens, you can bet your booty that I'll be there next year, if I am still alive and kicking.  

Now, with four new releases in four months, that just might happen...(not the best seller thingy)...but I might be able to stash enough cash away to pay my higher income taxes, my house taxes, and still have money left for Romanticon. And even though my inner tightwad will protest heartily, I may do something really fabulous next year.  

So if you are going, please look me up.  I'll be the fat old lady gimping through the halls and NOT dancing her fanny off every night.  :)

Hugs to all, and to all a good night!

Fran

Monday, September 10, 2012

I have cover art...

And it's YUMMY!

I love my favorite cover goddess, Syneca...I give details on my books, and she comes up with the most amazing covers!  In case you weren't aware, Licking Her Wounds is the sequel to Hallie's Cats. I got some wildly mixed responses to that book...but the one thing that stood out was that readers and reviewers wanted to read Cal's story.  I made a book trailer for Licking Her Wounds, if you are interested in checking it out.



I don't have a release date yet. Check back and I'll put it up when I know.  Now, the cover to Licking Her Wounds is golden and sexy as opposed to the cover for Hallie's Cats, which is dark and sexy.  I asked for similar intensity...you tell me if you like the covers...


Leave a comment and tell me what you think...and you could win a copy of Hallie's Cats.  I'll choose a random comment and if you leave your name and e-mail addy in the comment that will help a lot. 

Have a marvelous week!

Fran

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Changing tack...

It's time for me to invite friends to do interviews and guest blogs again...

It's been a long time...and so many of my pals have great new books coming out...I think it's time to make good use of this blog. I've been terribly lazy. I used to be such a social creature, but over the past year I have slipped back into being a total introvert. Having a bad writing slump can do such terrible things to a person.

So, beginning in September, I hope to have at least one guest each week here. And I will be reviewing at least one book every month. It's time for me to emerge from my shell.

I Plan to bombard the Yahoo loops with invitations to do guest shots, so those of you who drop by occasionally get first dibs on my guest blogs. If you are interested in doing a guest blog, or being interviewed, raise your hands...

Um...I don't see any hands in the air...

Hugs,

Fran

 


Friday, August 17, 2012

Pre-release contest for Come, My Love

Win a copy of my upcoming release...

Between now and the formal release date of August 29, 2012, I will accept e-mail entries to win a copy of this upcoming release.  Simply go to my website and check out my contests page.  The formal rules are shown there.

For those of you who have already read this short novella under the title First and Ten,  the editing here is much better and there are a few plot alterations because the book no longer relies heavily on the works of my dear friends who wrote short stories for our original Anthology.  If you have not read it, please feel free to drop me an e-mail.  The winner will be chosen at midnight August 29, 2012.

An Excerpt From: COME, MY LOVE
Copyright © FRAN LEE, 2012
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

To: franjamison@think_tank.com
From: SikorskiK@WIndiU.edu

Hello to all of Gracie’s Girls, class of 2002. Once again, thanks to all of you for the flowers and phone calls after my aunt Gracie’s passing last winter. You all meant so much to her, and to me.

As I’m sure you all know, our ten-year college reunion is coming up this summer. Since I now have Aunt Gracie’s big rambling house all to myself, I’d like to extend an invitation. If any of you are coming back for the reunion, you’re more than welcome to stay here, in your old rooms. Gracie quit taking in college students several years back, so there’s no one here but me and I’d love to have some company while I’m getting the house ready to put on the market. So what do you say? One last time as roommates? It would be great to see all of you again.

Hugs,
Karen

She hadn’t planned to attend, at least not until she’d received Karen’s guilt-inspiring email. Every instinct she possessed screamed at her to hit the delete key and pretend the email hadn’t arrived, but she just couldn’t do that. Karen was having financial problems and might have to sell the historic but dilapidated old Victorian house they had all shared in college.

She shouldn’t feel so gun-shy, but even after all these years it would be hard for her to go back and see all her old pals with the memories of her college years slamming hard into her refurbished self-image. A self-image that had taken her seven long years of analysis and hard work to create.

Fran sighed and rubbed her temples, shoving her reading glasses up onto her sleep-tousled head. She’d received the formal reunion invitation last week but had tossed it without even looking at it. No use reliving the whole college scene just to see how everyone else looked… See how many of her friends had kids… How they had all changed over the ten years since she’d last seen them. She certainly didn’t feel like listening to them telling stories about new babies and favorite pets and how they’d met their husbands.

All the things Fran had excluded from her life in favor of monetary success and “being her own woman”.

Fran was far more realistic now. She refused to kid herself. She had never found the man of her dreams and settled down to raise a family, mainly because it had taken her seven years to get past her own demented mental image of herself. And now that she finally recognized her own worth and had learned to love herself as she was, she was way past the wild need to flaunt her wares and try to trap some unwary male. Besides, most men in her age bracket were already married. Or divorced and on the rebound. Or just looking for a one-night stand. So far, that had never quite appealed, no matter how good-looking the man in question happened to be.

Men were not a necessity in life. Besides…she’d royally screwed up, long ago, with the only man she’d ever really wanted any sort of relationship with.

She ran her fingers through her wild curls and pressed her thumbs against the bridge of her nose. Back then she’d been so sure that the tentative advances he’d made were simply another way for the jock community at WIU to have a laugh-fest at her expense. She’d reacted defensively, tearing his ego into tiny strips. And then he’d basically left her alone.  

Damn…

Only years later, after many long sessions with her uber-patient therapist, had it flashed with astonishing clarity into her mind. Jack Gerrard—her dream man—had actually tried to ask her out on a date. And she had gone off on the man as if he’d just asked her to jump naked into an anthill.

She gave a sigh of resignation. The worst part of it was that she’d always had the most pathetic crush on the man—most girls had crushes on the hot, sexy hero of the WIU gridiron.

Even in high school, Gerrard had always been in the company of cheerleaders and prom queens and the most popular girls. They hung all over him like bees around a honey pot. One look from those riveting blue eyes could make any girl drop her panties with a scream of delight. But Jack had ignored them most of the time, keeping up excellent grades so he could play varsity football. She supposed that was the true attraction.
Sure. There she went, lying to herself again. She’d been hot for his ripped body, just like all the other girls. But it had gone deeper than that with her.

He had offered her some modicum of friendship, and good-looking guys did not want to be pals with Fran Jamison. So when that friendship was withdrawn without explanation or reason, it had torn her up inside.

Hugs!

Fran