Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

I live in a house full of guys . Four boys, a husband and two male dogs. I'm outnumbered in a big way. Maybe that's one of the reasons I like reading and writing romance so much? Romance gives me my girl fix.  At any rate, I am surrounded by all things dude . An all guy household is easy to spot. 1. The laundry baskets are either empty with dirty clothes around them or have one or two lone items hanging over the edge. But never anything in the basket. 2. Their bathroom strongly resembles a gas station restroom and no matter how often it's cleaned, there's a lingering pee smell. 3. At any given moment, there's either no milk or there's hardly any left. Same goes for bread. Cookies? Good luck. They vanish within an hour of returning from the grocery store. 4. My grocery expenses consistently exceed the clothing expenses. 5. Farting is the funniest thing ever. Here's another example. Yesterday I took three of the boys to the movies and they voted...

Two weeks ago today, my brother got married. Brother R and his new bride—who has instructed me to call her either “Master Ninja R” or “Mrs. Brother R” on the Internet—are medical residents on the east coast, and they had about 5 minutes* off of work in which to get married. Family and friends traveled there safely, the wedding was beautiful, we all danced at the reception, the cake was delicious. So much for the good news. But there were some weird bits, too—and those, my friends, are the ones I will share with you today. 1. My dad is one of eight siblings, and they all eight of them gathered at the house of one of my aunts. Since I was tooling around eating boudin while they all practiced wedding music, I thought I’d make myself useful by boiling up a batch of candy. This take on pralines is something of a family tradition. Slight problem: my aunt possesses a gas stove. I had never used a gas stove before in my life. It makes FLAMES IN THE HOUSE YOU GUYS. My c...

by Danielle Jackson (soon to be Dresser) As you are reading this post, I will actually be basking in the sun on my HONEYMOON! In light of my recent wedding, and for an end of the week pick me up, I thought I'd share some of my favorite wedding scenes from movies: Sense and Sensiblity has always been my favorite of Austen's books, and this movie version by Ang Lee is also my favorite adaptation. The wedding scene at the end is very quick, but I love how each couple's personalities come across: So, this one isn't technically a wedding, but wouldn't you love to be serenaded by Fred Astaire, near a beautiful church, wearing lovely clothes, like Audrey Hepburn's character in Funny Face ? One of my all time favorite movies overall, but I always loved this scene: This next scene, from Love Actually, is actually kind of sad, but I really love how gorgeous Keira Knightley looks in the film--how every bride wants to look! And both actors in this scene do a wo...

Let me preface this rant by saying that I love the winter holidays as much as the next girl. (Personally, I do a mini Winter Solstice celebration and then a big fat Christmas with the fam.) But I've got a big bone to pick with all you anxiety-inducing reindeer-whipping present-wrapping carol-singing freaks at this time of the year. BACK THE HECK OFF MY THANKSGIVING!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of them all. Yes, it even edges out the big traditional Christmas by just a touch. It's totally food based, which is so my wheelhouse. It's about being together, and cooking, and eating, and I'm sure you're supposed to be thankful at the same time, which is sort of hard to do at about 2pm on Thanksgiving day when you're snoring like a freight train in front of the football game while some unlucky family member is STILL washing dishes. But seriously. Thanksgiving is the best holiday, and Christmas needs to stop glomming all over it.  By Jamain (Own work)...

BITE ME, YOUR GRACE is a Kindle Daily Deal!! W0000T!!! This is exciting not only because it is the first time my book has been on sale, but also because I LOVE book sales and have been a little jealous of all my author buddies who've gotten to have theirs. Now it's MY turn. ::cue villainous laugh:: For those of you who haven't heard of it, BITE ME, YOUR GRACE takes place in London in the midst of Western Europe’s vampire craze spawned by the publication of Dr. John Polidori’s The Vampyre. Angelica Winthrop plans to ruin her reputation to avoid marriage and become a gothic authoress like her idol, Mary Shelley. Unfortunately, her schemes always backfire. To find inspiration for her next story, she breaks into the home of Ian Ashton, Duke of Burnrath. Ian is the Lord vampire of London and because of Polidori’s story tongues are wagging about his nocturnal proclivities. The duke destroys Angelica’s plans by publicly proposing marriage to her in order to save his reputatio...

For someone who has repeatedly mentioned how much she enjoys cooking, it seems odd in retrospect that I have yet to share any recipes here.   With autumn settling in, temperatures dropping, Thanksgiving just around the corner, and people beginning to crave hearty, savory fare, now is the perfect time to remedy that. So here are three favorite, flavorful recipes that will stick to your ribs in cold autumn weather and make the house smell wonderful as they cook. (DISCLAIMER: I can't claim to have invented these recipes so much as added my own touches and innovations here and there. But I'm certainly prepared to give credit where credit is due.)     Rosemary White Bean Soup (Adapted from Ina Garten's recipe) INGREDIENTS 1/2   lb. dried white beans (Garten uses cannellini beans, but as I've always had difficulty finding those, I substitute Great Northern Beans) 2 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (I usually find half a large on...

Please give a warm welcome to fellow Sourcebooks author, Anne Cleeland, whose second historical fiction novel, Daughter of the God-King , hit stores this week! New from Anne Cleeland:   Daughter of the God-King Hello, fellow book lovers!   I was a mild-mannered lawyer and mother of four when I decided—like many people who love reading—that I would try my hand at writing the kind of stories I loved to read.   My favorite stories are about ordinary people swept up in extraordinary events, so that’s what I like to write.    Daughter of the God-King is the second book in my Regency adventure series; the first was Tainted Angel , which came out last June.    Here’s the run-down: The daughter of world-famous Egyptologists is living an uneventful life in England until her parents disappear while working their latest find in the Valley of the Kings.   Suddenly, the various factions from Napoleon’s last war are pursuing her, and sh...

Authors like nothing more than to see their books "in the wild!"  That means sitting on a bookshelf in a brick and mortar store, held tight in the hands of a girl on the subway, or glowing on the kindle of the lady seated beside them on the plane.  (Yeah, I discreetly looked.  And then I smiled from ear-to-ear for four straight hours on the flight from Chicago to San Diego.)  Until we see our books "in the wild," the fact that we're actually, factually, really and truly published doesn't quite seem to register.  And because this is the case - At least it is for me.  Am I the only one?  Am I?  Show of hands, fellow authors?  Bueller?  Bueller? - my family and friends delight in snapping photos of my books "in the wild" and sending them to me.  I save each and every one of them.  They're that precious.  So today, in celebration of the fact that BORN WILD, the 5th book in my bestselling Black Knights Inc. romantic su...