Meet Ann Tracy Marr - Holly Jolly Blog Week 5

Welcome to week five of our Holly Jolly Blog Tour. My guest today is Ann Tracy Marr who is the author of romance novels with a splash of magic.  So, let's turn this right over to Ann and let her tell you a little about herself and her thoughts on Christmas in her novels and get a peek at her 2013 New Year's resolutions. So, abracadabra, may I present Ann ...

Ann Tracy Marr writes paranormal Regency romances. She may pretend to be a Christmas bah humbugger, but if she had $150,000 floating around, she would give the twelve gifts of Christmas as prizes for following this blog tour. (She would keep the ten lords a'leaping for herself.)  Anyone up for French hens? Visit her at www.AnnTracyMarr.com .

 

 

Are any of your books centered around Christmas? Tell us a bit about them please. 

Sorry, none of my books even think about Christmas. Maybe I should rewrite A Christmas Carol and make it more real. Less sappy.

 

 

And for the New Year, of course: what are your 5 New Year's writing/reading resolutions? 

Only one resolution applies strictly to writing. I am so much more than just a writer.

1. Chug along. Isn't that what everyone does?

2. Do better.
3. Work harder.
4. Relax and let it flow.
5. Borrow Shakespeare's brilliance.
And my wish for the New Year is for my daughter to marry the beloved son of a major publisher. That will get me a solid gold IN in the publishing world. No more rejection letters!

Thank you, Ann, for this glimpse of you and your writing. For those of you who took the time to stop by, please leave a comment on these questions or share with us how you would answer them. Your comment might just win you a $50 Amazon gift certificate when we draw one lucky winner at the end of our blog tour.

And, I’d like for you to stop by Christine London's blog http://www.christinelondon.com/ and check out my answers to the above questions.

 

Also, we invite you to visit the blogs of all the authors taking part in this Holly Jolly Christmas blog. Leave a comment for another entry in our fifty-dollar gift certificate drawing!

Kelley Heckart - http://www.kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/

Regan Taylor - http://regantaylorsworld.blogspot.com/
Regina Andrews - http://worldofgood-gina.blogspot.com/
Angie Dobson – http://www.loveromancesandmore.blogspot.com/
Ann Tracy Marr - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-Tracy-Marr/114711658247?ref=ts

Meet Angie Dobson - Holly Jolly Blog Tour - Week 4

Welcome to week four of our Holly Jolly Blog Tour. My guest today is Angie Dobson. It’s very exciting to have a book reviewer as a guest on my blog this week! So, let's turn this right over to Angie and let her tell you a little about herself and her thoughts on handling her reading/reviewing, traveling and absent family member during the holiday season. Sooo, here’s Angie ….

I am Angie Dobson, reviewer for LoveRomancesandmore. I spend most of my time being a mom to a 9-month-old girl, who is getting ready for her first Christmas and her first international trip to spend the holidays with our family in England! I also work full time in the office of a gift shop manufacturer - can we say chaos this time of year? I am also a rep for a direct sales company called Lindt Chocolates - but enough about my day-to-day life; let's talk about my favorite things for this post!

How do you manage your writing/reading schedule with all the other activities around the holidays?

I don't! Once December 1^st, hits, my life revolves around the holidays. I do everything I can to put everything else aside until January 2^nd each year. I work full time for a high end gift shop manufacturer – we make robes, bath wraps, and baby products. We do more business in the first 3 weeks of December than we do all year around. My whole life becomes on big chaotic blur. I also travel for Christmas each year – anyone have any advice on traveling from the States to Europe with an infant – and all her gifts in tow?

How about traveling during the holidays: do you go visiting or have you in the past? What has that been like? Have there been any absent family members during the holidays ? How has it effected your writing; have you used any of that in your stories?

I would not know what life was like without traveling during the holidays. Since I got married 13 years ago, I have never spent Christmas Eve in my own bed. My husband's parents are in England, most of my family are in West Virginia…And we live in Eastern Pennsylvania. We try to alternate years with them, so we can still get in a summer vacation without feeling guilty! Most often someone is missing from our families, and of course we have loved one who have passed that each year we stop and remember. I think our experiences shape who we are, and even though I don't think I have referenced our holidays in anything I have written, it certainly shapes my mindset and feelings as I read and review a novel – making me feel more deeply, remember and smile at different things that others might just gloss over, or feel even stonger.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, Angie. Now, Angie and I would like for those of you who have visited my blog to share your comments on Angie’s thoughts. Also, please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on these questions. Every comment will give you a chance to win a fifty dollar Amazon gift certificate to be awarded at the end of our six week blog tour.

My thoughts on the above questions can be found on Regan Taylor’s blog this week - http://regantaylorsworld.blogspot.com . Also, you can visit all our wonderful blog hop authors and leave comments there to increase your chances to win the gift certificate.  They can be found as follows: 

Ann Tracy Marr - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-Tracy-Marr/114711658247?ref=ts

Christine London - http://www.christinelondon.com

Kelley Heckart - http://www.kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/

Angie Dobson – http://loveromancesandmore.com

Regina Andrews - http://worldofgood-gina.blogspot.com/

Regina Andrews - Holly Jolly Blog Tour - Week 3!

Welcome to week three of our Holly Jolly Blog Tour. My guest today is Regina Andrews. So, let's turn this right over to Regina and let her tell you a little about herself and then she's going to share her thougts on Christmas gving and Christmas literature.

Hi Sharon! Thanks for having me on your blog.

Thanks for stopping by Sharon’s blog to spend a bit of time getting to know me!  I am Regina Andrews, Inspirational Author - but that sounds kind of stuffy, don't you think?

Let's try this -- everyone calls me Gina and I love happy endings, I love writing, I love romance and I love God, so naturally I write romance novels with an inspirational point of view. After all, what's life without a good dose of faith to carry us through those times when things are not exactly going the way we'd like them to be? I know I need it, most definitely.

During the day I am lucky enough to have a full-time writing job at a national jewelry company, specializing in high-end designer and Estate pieces - I'm the one writing what you read about all these one-of-a-kind treasures!

In my off time, I volunteer for the blind, work at the local children's hospital and sing my heart out in the church choir. My hubby and I are proud 'parents' of a semi-feral cat named Queenie who really is in charge of the whole house. She loves Christmas -- especially tinsel! -- and so do I, so let's get to the questions and kick off Week 3 of this fun and fabulous "Holly Jolly" blog tour!

Which charity is most deserving of your holiday generosity and why?

Absolutely, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. For so many reasons, but most of all what really touches me is that no child is ever turned away. Each and every child is a precious treasure, and St. Jude’s not only recognizes this, they actively fight each day for every child. It’s a war against illness, despair and pain and these valiant angels are on the battle lines every day. I’m not one for ‘war talk’, but in this case – it really is a matter of life and death for the children and their families. http://www.stjude.org

What is your favorite holiday tradition in literature?

If I could count the Bible as Literature, then absolutely I would say my favorite tradition would be the theme of the quest for a home and, in a larger sense, the theme of the journey. By this I mean directly the way Mary and Joseph had nowhere to go and had to keep trudging along to find a place to stay. All they wanted to do was park it someplace for the night, to find a spot to rest. But they had to keep plowing along until there was a room - in a barn. They were very grounded, very rooted in reality and needed to stay put so Mary could have the Child. Similarly, but, actually almost the mirror image thematically, the Three Wise Men followed a star and traveled very far to find the Baby Jesus. They started out, traveling day and night. Following a star? How esoteric! Think about all this action - there was a lot of activity in that desert, lots of traffic! People roaming around to find a place to stay, others going out and embarking on a journey, and looking to find the real King. All this movement, and restlessness and unsettledness builds up the anticipation, of course, and the expectation. I think the common theme with so many different motives and unique backstories is why I love this tradition of the journey. Even today, we each take an individual spiritual journey every Advent.

Now if I can’t reference the Bible as Literature, I’d have to go with gift-giving as in O. Henry’s “Gift of the Maji”. Oh, that still gives me shivers!

‘Nuff said, I’ve probably gone on too long J But the irony – oh!

Thank you so much for hosting me, Sharon!! You can find out more about me and my list of published books at: www.reginaandrews.com and

http://worldofgood-gina.blogspot.com/ .

 

Here's the cover of just one of Regina's books:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please visit all our wonderful blog hop authors. Leave a comment and be entered to win a fifty dollar gift certificate!

 

Ann Tracy Marr - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-Tracy-Marr/114711658247?ref=ts

Christine London - http://www.christinelondon.com

Sharon Poppen - http://poppensthoughtsonwritingandstuff.blogspot.com

Regan Taylor - http://regantaylorsworld.blogspot.com

Kelley Heckart - http://www.kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/

Angie Dobson – http://loveromancesandmore.com

Regina Andrews -  http://worldofgood-gina.blogspot.com/

Author Kelley Heckart Shares Some Holiday Fantasies

Welcome to week two of the Winter Blog Tour. My guest today is Kelley Heckart. Kelley and I belong to the Lake Havasu City Writers Group so I've know Kelley for a few years. What I've pleasantly learned is that although Kelley resides on the earthly realm with her husband and two dogs, she always has one foot firmly planted in the otherworldly realm of mystical creatures, fierce warriors and magic. A psychic once told her she has an old soul and this comes across in her tales of long ago places. An avid reader, she turned her lifelong passion for Celtic Mythology into a way to express herself through writing. In her free time, she enjoys playing her bass guitar, writing poetry/lyrics, hiking, watching sunsets/sunrises and horseback riding.

Now, lets turn this over to Kelly -

Hi Sharon! Thanks for having me on your blog.

What is your favorite holiday food and why?

Pumpkin rolls. They are yummy!

You can have any person in history over for your holiday dinner. Who do you invite and what do you talk about?

I would invite W.B. Yeats. I love his writings on faeries, especially Celtic Twilight. I would want to hear his stories of how he gathered all of his information on faeries.

***

 Kelley Heckart writes historical fantasy romances set in ancient on up to early medieval time periods. Her stories reflect her passion for history, storytelling and the supernatural. Inspired by the ancient Celts, her tales are filled with fierce warriors, bold women, otherworldly creatures, magic, conflict and romance. Kelley can be found online at http://www.kelleyheckart.com/.

Her latest release, Daughter of Night, is set in ancient Greece where two mortals are caught in the midst of the battle between the Titans and Olympian gods. Also, all three books in her Dark Goddess trilogy are now available in print, Kindle & Nook. Set in Dark Age Scotland, an Irish clan is tormented by a vengeful goddess and their only escape is to break an ancient faery curse. Buy links for all of Kelley’s books can be found here: http://kelleyheckart.com/BookShelf.html

Please visit all our wonderful blog hop authors. Leave a comment and be entered to win a fifty dollar gift certificate!

Ann Tracy Marr - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-Tracy-Marr/114711658247?ref=tsKelley

Heckart - http://www.kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/

Christine London - http://www.christinelondon.com

Regan Taylor - http://regantaylorsworld.blogspot.com

Regina Andrews – http://worldofgood-gina.blogspot.com

Angie Dobson – http://loveromancesandmore.com

'Tis The Season to win a Prize!

So glad you dropped by! And, your timing is great. For the next six weeks I'll be hosting six terrific authors as they share some holiday season tidbits that make this time of year so very special. They'll also be listing some of their novels - novels that cover a wide variety of genres. And, because you take the time to read their post, they invite you to leave a comment which will put you in the running to win a $50 Amazon gift card! So stop by every Sunday from now through Jan 6th. You're in for a good time!

The first guest I'll be hosting is Regan Taylor who writes primarily in the historical romance genre.



Regan Taylor
 

What is your favorite holiday novel - and why? Movie?
I'm not much for reading holiday books, however, last year I read Sheila Roberts Nine Lives of Christmas and it was wonderful. I plan to read it again this year the closer we get to Yule, because it's just a good story. It would make a fantastic holiday movie.

My favorite movie? Miracle on 34th Street - the original with Natalie Wood. I watch it every year whenever it's on and borrow it from the library as well.

Let us know your favorite holiday tradition that you cherish in your home. And, what holiday tradition do you find fascinating, even though you might not do it at your house? (That might be another culture.)

I don't really celebrate a holiday per se. Before I adopted Missy and Bogie, I did put up a tree - however with how Missy climbs and views pretty much everything as her toy, it's not a good option. Bogie might be content to sit under the tree - but knowing how he imitates everything Missy does .... I can just imagine what they'd do. What I do enjoy is spending the day with some friends of mine. We have a lot of laughs and good conversation.

Regan's Published Novels

• The Spell - Book 1 of the McKenna Crime Series
• The Glass Cage - Book 2 of the McKenna Crime Series
• Indentured Bride - Book 1 of the Bride Series with Awe-struck Books
• Ghost of a Chance - Cafe Nowhere Anthology with eXtasy Books
• Four of Cups - Tarot series with eXtasy Books
• Her Knight in Shining Amour - The Knight of Pentacles
• Jason's Accord - Book 1 of the Descendants of Earth series with eXtasy Books
• Michael's Flight - Book 2 of the Descendants of Earth Series
• His Eyes - with Bookstrand

So - Thanks for stopping by before you all run out to rent your copy of Miracle on 34th Street! Oh - And don't forget to leave Regan a comment and put yourself in the running for that $50 Amazon gift card.

Check out the other blogs for more chances to win the gift card:
Blogs

Ann Tracy Marr - ttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-Tracy-Marr/114711658247?ref=ts Christine London -
http://www.christinelondon.com
Sharon Poppen -
http://poppensthoughtsonwritingandstuff.blogspot.com
Regan Taylor -
http://regantaylorsworld.blogspot.com
Regina Andrews -
http://reginaandrews.wordpress.com
Angie Dobson –
 http://loveromancesandmore.com
Kelley Heckert -
http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com