Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

You can find many things in Pismo Beach: breathtaking ocean views, brisk winds and bracing, salty air, cliffs ablaze with flowering shrubs, and gorgeous sunsets. You can also find all kinds of engaging fauna, of both the domesticated and wild variety. Pismo is doggie heaven, without question, and at any given time you can find dogs running ecstatically along the beach, sniffing eagerly over every inch of the pier and boardwalk, or being fed and watered outside the most popular local eateries. Like this Golden Retriever, whom I first spotted licking out the remains of a bowl of clam chowder that its owner was holding.  A little unhygienic, perhaps, but who could resist this face? Cats are harder to spot, but the hotel we stayed at used to have a colony of semi-feral cats who lived in the bushes lining the clifftops and who emerged every morning to be fed on the outside deck of the hotel restaurant. And one of the used bookstores boasts a sweet-natured Maine coon cat who s...

by Olivia Cunning Summer is only a few days old, but mine is already crazy. Last month, I was wishing on a lucky star that I'd get a new job in Galveston, TX. And... I got it! So life went from hectic to crazy in the span of a few days. I just finished teaching an accelerated summer class at my present job (yesterday, to be precise), or I'd probably already be driving a moving truck to Texas. I'm currently packing and getting the house ready to sell. We leave next weekend. Next weekend?!?! That can't be right. I'd better get back to packing. I spent last weekend running a yard sale. I met neighbors I didn't even know I had. They bought my stuff for cheap which means less packing for me. I also donated a lot (LOT) of stuff to charity, which also means less packing for me. The less I pack, the less I have to unpack. While getting rid of all these material possessions, I have determined that I'm a total pack rat. As we're moving from a three bedroom h...

by Olivia Cunning Springtime always gives me itchy feet. Not because I have Athlete's Foot (ew!), but because every spring I have the sudden urge to make huge life-altering changes in my life. This usually involves wanting to move to a warm area near a beach. I'm sure it has something to do with living in landlocked Nebraska and spending all winter scraping frost off my windshield, shoveling snow, walking like a penguin, and gazing at barren cornfields, which are pretty depressing things to stare at for five months every year. Cornfields aren't very picturesque when they have  brilliant green stalks of corn growing in them. Imagine them empty and gray with dead corn stubble stretching in neat rows as far as the eye can see. Just writing about it depresses me. Two springs ago, my cold and itchy feet decided to visit Las Vegas (I was researching Rock Hard at the time). Much of the book takes place in Las Vegas. The band has a concert there, and the heroine and her...

by Amanda Forester What do you associate with the word “beach”? Smooth white sand? Palm trees? How about barnacles?! My family loves going to the beach, but for us in the Pacific Northwest it’s not exactly tropical. One of our favorite things to do is explore the tide pools at low tide. With nothing more than a pail and shovel my kids can be amused for hours. That’s free entertainment! Exploring the rocky shore line can lead to many exciting discoveries: shells, starfish, snails, sea anemones, sand dollars, crabs, jellyfish, seaweed, limpets, and eels. My son is fearless, picking up huge crabs and catching slickery eels. We also learn a lot by observing how these creatures live. Did you know sand dollars are actually purple and live sticking up in the sand? We have even found an octopus. For my son who is a great lover of cephalopods this was a huge treat, second only to attending a squid dissection at the zoo. Do you see the red octopus in this picture? If red is an indication of his ...

Wow! That was quick! Last time I blogged here I mentioned that HEALING LUKE ARCs had been sent out to reviewers. Well, last week I received my first review back from Armchair Interviews. Here's part of what the reviewer said: Reviewed by Heather Durow It happened in a flash. One small spark changed Luke Morgan’s life forever…almost took it in fact. He had always thought that he was infallible and now here he was, burned and scarred from a boat explosion. Abby Stanford has scars too. Only hers are on her heart. She is in Florida, on her honeymoon–alone. The tickets were non-refundable and, after finding her fiancé in bed with a buxom blonde, she figured she deserved time away from Texas. Abby’s path crosses Luke’s at his family’s business and she is the first person to get any response from him that wasn’t completely jaded. Aaron and Bart convince Abby to stay for a few months as Luke’s unofficial therapist, to help get him back on track and back to himself. With her occupational th...

How’s that for a hook? (And, yes, I do giggle every time I use the word “hook” in a context other than sea-related, why do you ask?) As you can see, I got my book cover, and, to celebrate, I just had to put it on my NEW website. And of course, you can’t launch a new website AND a new cover without something stupendous, so…. Go to http://www.judifennell.com/ and see all about my promotional contest for my Mer books. You can win one of THREE romantic getaways at Bed & Breakfasts in the areas where my stories are set. The Atlantis Inn ( http://www.atlantisinn.com/ ) in Ocean City, NJ and the Hibiscus House ( http://www.hibiscushouse.com/ ) in West Palm Beach, FL have joined with me to offer you a two-night stay at their beautiful resorts. You can see all the rules and beautiful pictures, as well as be able to register at ( http://judifennell.com/contest.html . We’re working on having local restaurants chime in, maybe a spa or two…one never knows. And, who knows, I might just pull a ...