Seasons Greetings to all of you and to your families! Well, my presents are all wrapped and are under the tree, the menu is planned for both our Christmas Eve get together with close family friends, and for our family on Christmas Day. Now, my attention turns to honing up my current manuscript which is due for delivery to my publisher on December 31st! At last count, there were subscribers to this blog from 77 countries. You won't all be celebrating Christmas, and those of you who do will be celebrating in different ways. Although my ancestory is English and European and we still follow the tradition of having roast turkey for lunch, we've dispensed with the traditional plum pudding in favour of a honeycomb icecream cake and my daughters make chocolate shortbread and use star cookie cutters to set the Christmas theme. I've posted the images on Facebook before and will probably do so again this Christmas. While those in the Northern Hemisphere are rugging up, many Au...

Today’s guest joins us from Minneapolis, Minnesota! I’ve had the very great pleasure of meeting Elizabeth Hoyt at RT Conventions and am looking forward to seeing her again at the Booklovers Con in New Orleans next May. (Yay! Getting closer!) A New York Times, USA and Publisher’s Weekly Best Selling author, Elizabeth is the author of over 20 historical romance novels and has also written contemporary romance under the pen name, Julia Harper. It’s been a very successful writing career for a lady who started out with a BA in Anthropology and has said that she’s been a barista, sales clerk, “data entry slave” and “archaeological field work grunt”. Welcome Elizabeth! Thank you so much for joining me on the blog. Thank you for inviting me! I’ve been hooked on your stories since your very first novel, The Raven Prince, so I’m thrilled you found your true professional calling!  It’s fantastic to know you’re signed with Grand Central Publishing for the Greycourt Seri...

Think contemporary, sexy romance packed with “emotion, excitement and passion” and you’d be spot on in a description of my guest today—USA Today Best Selling Harlequin Mills & Boon author, Annie West. I first met Annie in 2003 at my first RWAus conference. From memory, we chatted in a lobby bar until quite late that evening and I was very interested to hear about her writing. Neither of us was published at that stage and we talked about the pitches we were preparing to the Harlequin editor at that conference. I had one pitch prepared, Annie had three!! I’m not quite sure how long it was after that conference, Annie got ‘the call’, but I know I’ve been thoroughly enjoying her stories ever since, and if I see one of her books on the shelf at the store, you can guarantee it makes it to the checkout with me! Her story Damaso Claims His Heir won the 2015 RWAus Romantic Book of the Year Award for short, sexy category romance, and she’s also been listed on the RWAmerica Honor ...

Apologies for being a day later than advertised with this announcement as My next deadline for my publisher screams towards me! A huge thank you to Eloisa James for giving away an autographed, hard copy of her title,   An Affair Before Christmas . Thanks also to all of you who entered by leaving a comment or sending through an email. The winner is Kathy D who entered via email. Congratulations, Kathy! I’ve just emailed you personally to let you know you’ve won. Now you’ll need to reply with your address so I can forward it to Eloisa for delivery. For those who missed out this time, try your luck in the current Brenda Novak contest and upcoming Elizabeth Hoyt contest. Happy Reading! Best wishes, Alyssa

Hi everyone and thank you for visiting the blog and entering the Tina DeSalvo Contest either by leaving a comment or by emailing me at alyssaj.montgomeryromance@gmail.com All names were put into the draw and one pulled out at random. The winner is....       LISA MURRAY Congratulations Lisa! Please send me your contact details, (alyssaj.montgomeryromance@gmail.com) I'll get them to Tina and she can forward you the Amazon Gift Voucher. If I don't hear from you, there will be a redraw after December 12th (Australian Date). Thanks to Tina for running this contest on the blog. I hope you'll all keep visiting the blog to meet up with authors and for more chances to win. There is currently a contest running from Eloisa James, this week Brenda Novak is giving one lucky reader a chance to win one of her titles and in a couple of weeks there'll be two Elizabeth Hoyt titles up for grabs. Have a wonderful week and don't forget to check out Tina's latest release, ...

I ’ve met NY Times and USA Bestselling author, Brenda Novak, a few times now at different RT Conventions, but this year I was at a “Make a Date with Harlequin” author signing event with her, and I have to say, it was a thrill to think I was signing my books at the same event! Not only have I been reading and loving her stories since...well, it seems like forever...but I also successfully managed to bid for a writing critique from Annie West through Brenda’s on-line auction which she organised for many years to raise funds for Diabetes, and that critique helped me hone the first three chapters of my story “Roses for Sophie”. I can only imagine how many others Brenda’s auctions helped—both in terms of raising much needed money for Diabetes and in helping aspiring/published authors.   One of Brenda’s favourite quotes is from Bill Widener who said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” It seems to me that’s pretty much a quote that Brenda has lived by. Brenda says she ...