It’s a Happy Holiday from your favorite Authors and Bloggers. While we know everyone celebrates a different way, we wanted to make sure that you guys knew how much we treasure you all. So from Dec 14th to Dec 17th, all 200 or so of us will be blogging about the holidays and what they mean to us. We may talk about our favorite holiday traditions, recipes, gifts, reads, heroes, and so much more. We want to hear about what you do for the holidays, what you read, and who you’ll spend it with. We hope to see you here and happy hopping!

And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.

But that’s not all….

We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize: A $200 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

Sharing the love is what holiday Romances are all about, so that’s what I’m going to do. Everyone who comments and includes their e-mail address will be entered to win one of four $5 Amazon gift cards. Follow my blog for another entry! (Be sure to tell me in your comment so I don’t miss you on the list!)

That’s not quite enough, though, so everyone who enters my giveaway will get a copy of my short story “Coping Mechanism”, featuring my two horny heroes from Comfort and Joy, Sam and Charlie!

To make it a little more fun, in your comment tell us your favorite thing that’s special about the holidays. Is it a dish you only cook (or eat!) once a year, or do you look forward to singing and dancing along with Snow Miser?

When I was a kid my Grammie would ride all the way across the country on a Greyhound bus to spend the holidays with us, from her rural town in Upstate New York to the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a professional cook, and some of her favorites became mine. I especially love Parker House Rolls. I only make them twice a year, but they’re delicious little butter-bombs so my daughter and I have no trouble polishing them off! (Even when they don’t turn out perfectly, which is most of the time!) I don’t make as many as Grammie did—she was used to cooking for an entire lumberjack camp or restaurant—but I do make them from scratch.

I love kneading dough. It’s one of the most satisfying things I think I’ve ever done (yes, I do get extra sentimental over the holidays! :)). When my daughter was growing up I made most of our bread, and the rhythm of kneading inspired me to daydream about stories and characters (one of these was Sam’s mother).

I use the recipe in Joy of Cooking (because my math is terrible and I never could convert Grammie’s recipe to feed less than a small army) and would definitely recommend it! It’ll tell you to place the little rolls on cookie sheets for the second rise, but I use a 9” X 13” pan. When Grammie made them she put so many on each cookie sheet that they may as well have been in a pan, and they come out so light and fluffy this way.

I love Holiday Romances because it doesn’t matter what time of year it is or where I happen to be sitting, reading a Romance set against a backdrop of snow and decorations, or where families (blood or chosen) get together to celebrate helps me recapture the magic of the season.

Now that I’ve made you hungry with pictures of food, here’s a little taste of my erotic holiday Romance novella, Comfort and Joy, now available on Amazon and All Romance eBooks!

How much love does it take to heal the wounds of hate?

Sam and Charlie have been together over a decade, and their commitment to each other has only grown stronger through the years. But love isn’t always easy, and eighteen months after a violent assault, their fairy-tale relationship is still struggling. Charlie can’t shake the lingering fear of attracting more violence by displaying affection, and he’s angry at himself for not getting past it. Sam would do anything to help Charlie feel better—if only he knew what that was.

The century-old farmhouse in Northwest Oregon is the perfect place to spend the holidays with Sam’s family, but it was their refuge after the attack, and it still holds painful memories of those difficult first months. Christmas should be a joyful time, but even being surrounded by people who love him isn’t enough to make Charlie feel safe. He could try to keep to himself, but even if Sam agreed to give him the space he needs, Sam’s warm and loving family might not. And even though they agreed not to exchange gifts, Sam has a surprise up his sleeve that he hopes will make everything merry and bright. But he may end up more surprised than Charlie before the week is out…

Excerpt:

Sam continued up the stairs, considering how to go about putting Charlie’s perfect ass on a piano bench became entangled with the unfortunate fact that as long as they slept upstairs they would be showering separately. He gave Charlie first chance at the hot water and then sped through his shower as fast as he could. Sam stopped just inside the bedroom door and closed it quietly. He towelled his hair and let his gaze linger on Charlie, lying still on top of the quilt, bare feet on the floor, partially covered with a green towel. A slice of moonlight filtered through the curtain on the opposite wall and across Charlie’s body, which was a work of art even when not bathed in romantic mood-lighting. After a few moments Sam realized Charlie was also watching him.

Charlie flipped the towel up and away from his body and Sam felt as though someone had just grabbed him by the throat. After barely a heartbeat’s hesitation he strode to the foot of the bed and leaned over Charlie to kiss him. Sam’s free hand caressed his slender chest and shoulders. When he felt goose bumps Sam lowered himself over Charlie but kept all his weight on both knees and one hand.

Sam moaned softly and moved his dark hand over the fair skin on Charlie’s abs. He hadn’t regained any of the bulk he’d lost but made up for it with dizzying definition and a solidity he hadn’t had before.

“Vanilla ice cream.” Sam began to kiss his way down Charlie’s chest and felt a cool hand on his head exerting a gentle pressure, urging him lower.

“You’re lactose intolerant.”

Sam looked up and grinned for a short moment, then slipped down even farther. “I’ll just have to lick you instead.”

Thank you for visiting my stop on Carrie Ann’s Holiday Gifts of Love Blog Hop!
Don’t forget to leave a comment with your e-mail address for a chance at all the fabulous prizes & then click the picture below to return to the list & hop on!!!