Looking for something fun to do?

March 11, 20121 Comment

. . . and possibly win an awesome prize? That’s right, folks, it’s DA BWAHA time again, the March Madness tournament of romance novels! You all might remember DA BWAHA from last year, when–ahem–Something About You won the whole thing.

This works just like the NCAA basketball tournaments: there are 64 books to start, with books being pitted against each other in a “head-to-head” match. People then can vote for the books (and by people, that means anyone!), and the book that gets the most votes advances to the next round. On we go, until we get down to two books and, ultimately, the champion.

As part of the fun, the authors beg for votes and engage in some pretty hilarious trash-talk. (You might all recall the video Mr. James put together last year when Something About You made it to the final round. If you haven’t seen it, you can check that out here.)

A Lot Like Love is one of the finalists this year. (Hurray!) I believe the first round of voting will take place this Wednesday, March 14th. So if you liked A Lot Like Love, and would like to support the book and help it advance to the next round, stay tuned. I’ll post when the vote goes up.

But remember, anyone can fill out a bracket! In addition to being tons of fun, there are awesome prizes at stake. (See the full list of prizes.) Click here to fill out your bracket and join in.

Good luck to everyone who enters, and go Team Love!

A whole lot of love

February 13, 201211 Comments

In keeping with the Valentine’s Day spirit, these past couple of days there’s been a whole lot of love toward A Lot Like Love (interestingly, a book set around Valentine’s Day). First, I’m so thrilled that ALLL was chosen as Best Contemporary Romance and tied for Funniest Romance in the All About Romance Readers’ Poll! Thank you so, so much to everyone who voted for the book. A full list of the winners can be found here.

Just as exciting, on Sunday morning I woke up to discover that A Lot Like Love had been picked as the Favourite Contemporary Romance in the 2011 Australian Romance Readers Awards! Whoo-hoo! Thanks so much to ARRA, and to the Australian readers– you guys have always been so wonderfully supportive of my books!

And last but certainly not least, last week A Lot Like Love won a Lovey Award at the Love is Murder writers’ conference. Very cool! I even have some photos to share:

From L-R, Donald Bain, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Julie James, David Morrell, and Raymond Benson

Author Hank Phillippi Ryan and myself

Lovey Award

Thank you, to everyone, for all your enthusiasm for A Lot Like Love. It’s wonderful to hear that so many of you enjoyed the book!

Upcoming Chicago area signing

January 4, 2012May 10, 20152 Comments

Hi all! For those of you in the Chicago area, here’s some info on a signing I’m doing on Feb 2 with three mystery authors. I’m one of the featured authors at this year’s Love Is Murder writers’ conference and the signing on Thursday evening is open to everyone. A few details, per the article link above:

“The Love is Murder Mystery Conference will host a free pre-conference book signing on Thursday evening, Feb. 2, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm at the Intercontinental O’Hare Hotel, the site of this year’s conference.

Open to the public, the signing will give non-registrants their only opportunity to meet and talk with all four NY Times-bestselling Love is Murder featured authors: Donald Bain (with Jessica Fletcher, the Murder, She Wrote series), Julie James ( A Lot Like Love, Something About You)), David Morrell (The Naked Edge, The Shimmer, ) and Hank Phillippi Ryan (Drive Time, The Charlotte McNally series); and featured local author Julie Hyzy (Deadly Interest, the Alex St. James series).

During the signing, drawings will be held every 15 minutes for books and Love is Murder merchandise. Conference registration is NOT required; hotel parking is $5.00 for the event.”

It sounds like it’ll be a great event– I hope to see some of you there!

More information about the Love Is Murder conference can be found at: http://www.loveismurder.net.

P.S. The article incorrectly cited me as a NY Times bestselling author–but maybe with this next book! : )

Thanksgiving Giveaway– What’s In Your Oven?

November 19, 201153 Comments

**Giveaway is closed. Winners will be posted shortly.

Hey everyone! Some of you may remember this giveaway from last year. . . . I figured since we all had fun (and got some really great recipes) that we might as well do it again!

So tomorrow begins my four-day preparations for Thanksgiving (my husband and I have both of our families over every year). And as the holidays approach, I thought, who couldn’t use more books? Or a gift card to buy more books?

Thus, I’ve decided to do a giveaway. Grand prize is a $25 gift card to either Barnes & Noble or Amazon, and I’m also giving away three runner-up prizes of a copy of my current release, A Lot Like Love. All you have to do to enter is tell us, in the comments below, one thing you’re baking/cooking for Thanksgiving AND you have to include the recipe. (Hey, we all can use good recipes this time of year, right?) And if you’re not cooking or baking anything this Thanksgiving, then just post any favorite recipe of yours. The contest will be open until 8pm CST on Wednesday, November 23rd.

I’ll start us out, with recipes from two fantastic cooks: my grandmothers. One is one of my favorite desserts, and the other is for the best stuffing I’ve ever tasted. I make both of these every Thankgiving.

Grandma Arline’s Magic Bars

1 1/2 cups corn flake crumbs

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

1 12 oz pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine corn flake crumbs, sugar, butter and mix thoroughly. (I melt the butter first.) Press mixture evenly into 13 x 9″ baking pan. Use back of spoon to press firmly into bottom of pan to form crust.

Scatter chocolate chips over crust. Spread coconut evenly over chocolate chips. Sprinkle the walnuts over the coconut. Pour sweetened condensed milk over walnuts.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Cool. Cut into bars.

Grandma Marge’s Bread Stuffing

3 loaves of bread

1 1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cup chopped celery

1 1/2 cup melted butter

1 tablespoon salt

2 tsp ground sage

1 tsp pepper

1 beaten egg

Milk

Break bread into pieces and leave out to go stale. (Note: I do this two days before I plan to make the stuffing and leave the bread out for two days in two brown paper grocery store bags.)

Saute the celery and onion in the melted butter until soft. Add the salt, sage, and pepper. In a large bowl, mix celery/onion mixture with one beaten egg. Begin adding stale bread, add milk as you mix in the bread to keep the stuffing moist.

Bake for about one hour at 325 degrees in a buttered 13 x 9 casserole dish. If made the day before and refrigerated, increase cooking time to about 1 1/2 hours.

Enjoy! And happy Thanksgiving!

Calling all Goodreads members!

November 14, 20112 Comments

Well, look at this. I have some awesome news to report– A Lot Like Love made the semi-finals round of the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Romance!!! Now that is some great news to start off a Monday morning. Winners advance by readers’ choice, so if you liked A Lot Like Love and are a member of Goodreads, please consider dropping by and casting your vote by following this link. (Or the handy-dandy widget below.)

Thanks! And thanks to all who voted to get ALLL into the semi-final round! The book was a write-in nominee, which is especially flattering. I’m officially the grass roots candidate. : )