Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Tis the season...no, not THAT season.  The other one.  If you're a parent, you know what I mean. End of the school year. My son is 16.  He's fairly self-sufficient and really, he should be looking forward to this more than I am.  And maybe he is.  All I know is that I CANNOT WAIT. We don't get a bus for him so I do carpool duty twice a day.  The school is only five miles away but at 6:30 in the morning, it feels like 50 miles.  And in the afternoon, it totally disrupts my day.  So yeah, maybe I'm whining but summer break can't get here soon enough.  To be able to sleep in and not deal with an alarm, is like a fantasy right now. Three weeks. And for the first time in a really long time, we have some plans for the summer.  Last summer we did a trip to New York for a week and it was fine but it was partially for work so I didn't love it.  This summer?  Some of the trips are work related but so much more fun!  Plus, ...

When a writer has a book due the same day her daughter goes back to school in August, it’s time to get creative about the summer schedule. Last summer, my husband and I found a great latchkey program for Little Miss R. She’s a very outgoing kid, and she loved what was basically an endless PE class with dozens of other children. (I was very different at her age.) This year, that program filled up within a few hours of opening enrollment, so we’ve had to get creative. Summer camps at the Y? Check. Public science camps? Ok. A few art classes? Add those in. And some time with the grandparents? We can do that too. Every week this summer will be a little bit different. To Little Miss R, this is more amazing than ever. To control-freak me…well, let’s just say I’ve made a biiiiig calendar for the summer.   If you have school-aged kids, how do you keep them occupied during the summer—especially if you need to keep to a work schedule? I’d love any and all tips you could share!

Bottoms Up! Otter Explores Bucket in Georgia Aquarium I’ve always had a fondness for aquariums, especially in the summer. Zoos can be hot, overly bright, noisy, and, unsurprisingly, redolent of their various inhabitants. By contrast, aquariums tend to be temperature-controlled, softly lit, reasonably quiet—give or take the occasional dolphin-click, whale song, waterfowl squawk, or seal bark—and less odoriferous, provided you don’t mind the smells of brine and sea wrack.   And there’s something soothing, even hypnotic, about watching multicolored fish or sea mammals glide silently through the waters of their tanks, while kelp forests sway in the current. I’ve been to several fine aquariums over the years: Monterey Bay, with its charming sea otter exhibit; Stanley Park, Vancouver, where I first saw beluga whales; and Georgia, which boasts an amazing collection of aquatic life that includes whales, dolphins, otters, penguins, and an albino alligator (the latter looked like ...

After having wonderful adventures in Colorado Springs, CO this summer, safely avoiding all natural disasters, the clan and I took our final summer vacation to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD. My husband and I haven't been there in over twenty years. Needless to say, a lot has changed since then. For instance, imagine my delightful surprise when I spotted the biggest Barnes and Noble EVER. As if the clouds parted and the angels sang...This. Was. Awesome! The picture below sort of resembled that feeling. At least, I thought so.   BTW Sourcebooks sisters...your new releases were on the tower as soon as I walked through the door.    Just to give you an idea of how truly big this place was...The building used to be a power plant.   In 92 degree heat, we played the typical tourists and did most of the attractions like touring the ships. During which, we had a hard time trying to convince my son he wasn't a pirate.   I...

I'll admit that I do spin tales of fiction, but there is no way I could possibly make this up. The clan and I recently returned from a family vacation in Colorado Springs, CO. For those of you who have never seen this beautiful state, place it on your bucket list! As our flight traveled from Denver to Colorado Springs, we saw the raging forest fire below that destroyed thousands of acres in the Black Forest. Yep, you guessed it. The fires were in Colorado Springs. Being from Pennsylvania, this type of natural behavior is not something that we're readily accustomed to and frankly, we were more than a little nervous. We said a silent prayer the fire wouldn't impact our vacation and it didn't, but our hearts certainly went out to the five hundred families who lost their homes. We were somewhat surprised that Colorado natives continued to go about their business as if the fires were a common occurrence. I guess they were. I suppose Ca...

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I’m Macy Beckett , the new kid on the blog, and I’m thrilled to join my Casa Sisters in discussing our favorite summer pastimes. As you probably guessed from the title, we’re going to talk about this: (Image source: Jenny's Southern Comfort) Oh, yeah, baby! Bring on the fruity firewater! Alcohol has many names—booze, hooch, alky, sauce, spirits, social lube—but no matter what you call it, a cool libation is one of my favorite summertime pleasures. Why have literal sex on the beach, (sand…ouch!), when you can experience it in liquid form? How about one of these Parrot Bay frozen daiquiri pouches? Just throw ‘em in the freezer for a couple hours and viola—a tropical vacay in your mouth! One of my friends calls these "Capri Sun for parents." (Image source: Monarch  Beverages) Another personal favorite is the TGI Friday's Orange Dream mix. Just pour it in the blender, add ice, and in minutes, you're sipping a grownup ver...

by Amanda Forester While the rest of the country has been sweltering, here in the Pacific Northwest it has been downright cold and rainy - even more than usual. Winter was cold, Spring was cold and wet, and Summer has been, well I'm still waiting for Summer. Last week the Seattle Times published an article called the "78 minutes of Summer". Apparently, there have been only 78 minutes so far this summer when the temperature was over 80 degrees. My poor kids want to know when summer is going to start. I'd like to know too! Of course, if you have been suffering through the record temperatures, I can't expect sympathy... still, I'd like to find a little warmth. In desperation to find Summer, I took the family on a vacation to California. Despite only going so far as the bay area, the heat did not disappoint I am happy to say. The first day I began the thaw. The next few days I soaked up the vitamin D. And now as I write this my naturally pasty white ski...

Our Casablanca blog theme for the month: Hope. This made me think of the age old question: Is your glass half empty or half full? Yes, you are seeing a blinged-out, be-dazzled, monogrammed wine glass. It started out as a joke at a neighborhood picnic and now has become a cute tradition when we gather for cook outs. Stick on jewels are courtesy of the local craft store. :) Diet coke, straight from my fridge. But I digress. I like to think I'm a glass-half-full kind of person. Although like most folks, I have my days when it seems the glass it mighty darn empty. So, on one of those days, I posted the "glass" question on my facebook page, hoping to find either commiseration or inspiration. I actually found both in the witty answers of my facebook friends. Here are a few of the highlights. I hope they bring a smile to your face as well! Is your glass half empty or half full? *Neither. Mine is overflowing. *Depends on whether I'm drinking. *What glass??? * It...

I'm posting this before we go on vacation because we're heading west, young man. (I know, corny, but I swear, that's what I hear every time I think that we're going "out west" - I'm a north-easterner; that's how we talk.) Since it's the 19th, we should be in the Grand Tetons and heading back to Denver to catch our flight home on the 20th. Kind of funny to be writing about the end of the vacation before it's even started, but I'm told cell service is nil in Yellowstone, and pretty sad for this part of the country for AT&T (gee, thanks, guys...). We're doing Mt. Rushmore, Mt. Crazy Horse, the Black Hills of SD, Devil's Tower, Cheyenne and all points in between, and Yellowstone. All places I've been to before, but it's been (ahem) thirt y-one years. I can't wait to see how much more of Crazy Horse is completed; I want to see if the acres of prairie dog ditches are still near the base of Devil's Tower (and if there ...

I am a night person. I am the most creative at night, when everyone else is asleep and the house is quiet. The phone doesn’t ring. They neighbors aren’t loud in the court. It’s just me and the slight hum and glow of my laptop. It’s heaven. Until middle school began… (And I do have to say ‘middle school’ or my middle schooler will get persnickety about the whole thing. It was junior high when I was that age; but I would dissuade anyone from saying ‘junior high’ to a middle schooler. Or do so at your own risk, in any event. Or maybe it’s just my middle schooler.) Anyway, this past year my son had to be at his desk before 7:30 am. I should probably repeat the first line again – I am a night person. Getting someone somewhere before 7:30 am is a special kind of torture for a night person. For the last nine months, I have risen at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am to shower, dress, fix breakfast, pack a lunch for my son, make sure he’s showered and dressed, and leave the house just in time to make...

I see that this blog now has almost 100 followers, which makes me wonder how that translates into the number of people who actually visit this site every day and read the posts. No, wait. Perhaps it's best not to dwell on that. It's scary enough to think about the total number of books sold versus the number of people who've actually read them. Think about that. One library book can be read by hundreds of people before it finally goes into the recycling bin, and an ebook posted on the internet could be read by millions! Now, that's REALLY scary! But I digress. We're doing the summer theme thing this month, and since I just got back from Myrtle Beach at a little after 1 am on Saturday morning, the whole vacation is fresh in my mind. Or is it? It's funny how quickly we forget things. I know I could probably recall most of it if I put my mind to it, perhaps even tell you hour by hour what we did, but that would be boring. What I mean is, to truly enjoy anyone's...