See You on Monday!
Our offices will be closed for the long weekend from July 1-5, so Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July everyone!
We’ll be back on Monday with more news and features. ‘Til then, this is what I’ll be doing:
Archive for June, 2010
Taking the Love Bus with 5 Harlequin Authors
by Heather Foy, Senior Manager, Public Relations
I had the chance to hit the road last weekend with authors Carla Neggers, Gena Showalter, Susan Mallery, Rachel Vincent and Emilie Richards on the Authors in Motion Book Tour and it was a blast. We had a great time riding in the “love bus” (although our driver one day was a little crazy) and it was a real privilege to see them meet excited readers.
From L-R: Susan Mallery, Rachel Vincent, Emilie Richards, Gena Showalter and Carla Neggers
Fans arrived from all over (even neighbouring states) to meet them, some with quilting squares for Emilie Richards and others with custom-made books for Rachel Vincent. All the fans got photos to remember the experience, and they left with signed books and great memories.
Thanks to all the authors on the tour! Harlequin is so proud to publish your amazing work, and you are all incredibly talented. I’d be happy to travel with any of you, and we proved that with Starbucks all things are possible!
Gena Showalter cuddling up to something Grande and iced.
And just in time for the holiday weekend, here are their latest releases from the authors on tour – ALL great beach reads!
Happy trails!
Heather
PS—Check out Rachel Vincent’s blog for more photos of the tour!
New Free Online Read: Scandal at the Balfour Ball by Michelle Reid
by Andrea Kerr, Producer
Sophisticated man of the world? Check. Captivating woman? Check. Glamorous, international settings? Check. Passion and seduction? Guaranteed! July’s Special Event Read on eHarlequin.com has all the things readers adore about the Harlequin Presents series. But the best part? It’s an exclusive prequel to the all-new continuity, The Balfour Brides! Scandal at the Balfour Ball will be available July 1 on eHarlequin.com!
Here’s a sneak peek of the FREE story by beloved author Michelle Reid:
After barely a year of marriage, Alessandro and Meredith Ferrera’s relationship is already strained by careers that force them to live in different countries for weeks at a time. So it doesn’t take much to raise Alessandro’s suspicions about what his bride is up to with his best friend Marco when he’s not around!
Meredith Ferrera doesn’t know what’s gotten into her husband. When she calls him in Milan to tell him some important news, she’s discouraged by his surly attitude and veiled accusations. And when he fails to show up in London to escort her to the ball hosted by her illustrious Balfour relations, she quickly discovers the room is abuzz with rumors about the state of their marriage…
Want more? Don’t miss a single, seductive volume (psst, all Presents titles are available a month in advance on eHarlequin.com!)
A powerful dynasty, eight daughters in disgrace… And so begins a scandalous saga of dazzling glamour and passionate surrender!
Mia and the Powerful Greek by Michelle Reid, August 2010
Kat and the Dare-Devil Spaniard by Sharon Kendrick, September 2010
Emily and the Notorious Prince by India Grey, October 2010
Sophie and the Scorching Sciilian by Kim Lawrence, November 2010
Zoe and the Tormented Tycoon by Kate Hewitt, December 2010
Annie and the Red-Hot Italian by Carol Mortimer, January 2011
Bella and the Merciless Sheikh by Sarah Morgan, February 2011
Olivia and the Billionaire Cattle King by Margaret Way, March 2011
First three covers in the series
Get Your Vote On!
by Karen Queme, Manager, Digital Marketing
In late April, we launched The Gift of a Second Chance contest to tie in with the theme of Debbie Macomber’s latest book, Hannah’s List.
We received thousands of submissions from old and new fans of Debbie, who all expressed what they would do with another chance, whether it be at love, school, work or family.
The submission deadline was on May 29th and a list of 10 (our finalist list) was selected by Debbie Macomber herself! She was definitely touched but all of the entries.
We are now in the voting phase of our contest. Our 10 finalist submissions ranges from going back to school, helping out family members and students in their community. Now, I don’t want to give it all away, so check out the contest site, read the entries and vote for your favorite today!
By the way, our instant win game is still on! Visit every day to vote for your favorite finalist, and while you’re there, play our instant win game for a chance to win a copy of Hannah’s List.
If you haven’t gotten your copy for Hannah’s List yet, check out www.Hannahslist.com to find out where!
Good luck!
New York Times Bestsellers, June 27
Congratulations to all of our authors who are on this week’s New York Times bestseller list.
Hardcover:
#29 Dangerous by Diana Palmer (HQN, week 2)
Paperback:
#6 Orchard Valley Grooms by Debbie Macomber (MIRA, week 3)
#7 McKettricks of Texas: Garrett by Linda Lael Miller (HQN, week 3)
#17 Honeysuckle Summer by Sherryl Woods (MIRA, week 3)
#23 The Darkest Passion by Gena Showalter (HQN, week 3)
#33 Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber (MIRA, week 7)
#34 The House on Olive Street by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 3)
Enjoy a sample of some of our bestsellers with the Browse the Book widget!
Seven with One Blow–Plus Twenty
by Marie Ferrarella, author of Finding Happily-Ever-After (Silhouette Special Edition, available for pre-sale July 1)
The above words occurred to me (my head is a mass of swirling trivia) when I went browsing through Amazon as I do periodically when I run out of energy to do anything else.
As you might remember from your childhood fairy tales, “seven with one blow” got the bragging little tailor in trouble and pitted him up against a fire-breathing dragon (he got the princess in the end, so all was well). But what do those words have to do with me? Well, they lit up my heart because, according to Amazon, on June 21st, they released twenty-seven of my out-of-print books on Kindle, where those books, in virtual form, will go on to infinity (and beyond, to steal a phrase from a current, extremely popular movie franchise).
This is cause for dancing around and singing (which I do with only the dog to bear witness; she’s fairly closed-mouthed) for two reasons. One is, of course, that the more books out, the merrier and the second is that there is something humbling about immortality. Let’s face it, somewhere out in cyberspace, these reprints, along with space debris, will continue far longer than I will. It’s like being told your family line will go on forever.
I love each and every one of the books I have written. Writing is a labor of love for me. It’s also very much like a birthing process (where, unlike with my kids, I get to decide what color hair and eyes and what kind of a personality each of my characters will have). I regard each and every one of the books I have written as my children, fruit of my imagination as opposed to the other end.
The sad downside of writing series books has always been that their life expectancy is limited to around thirty days on the shelf and then, three to six months later, poof, they’ve disappeared from the warehouses and can only be found in second hand book stores, their little covers beat up, their pages dog-eared, bent and fading. Now, they’re lovely and fresh, just as they were when they sprang off the presses, full of promise and hope.
Yes, I am a touching person (in oh, so many ways…) and I like to touch the pages of a book when I read. I have to admit that I still prefer the real over the virtual (in books and in husbands). But there is something grand about knowing that you are carrying around Shakespeare’s entire collection of works (along with as many of your own books as are out there) in your purse and you are not building up to the mother of all hernias.
And, with more of my older books available in e-book format, I’d like to think that, just possibly, a reader who has discovered me for the first time might want to pick up a few more books and can have that option at their fingertips rather than leaving it up to fate and the availability of the closest used book store.
Isn’t technology grand?
Don’t miss Marie’s next release, Finding Happily-Ever-After, available for pre-sale from Silhouette Special Edition on July 1st!
Private investigator Jewel Parnell doesn’t believe in fairy-tale romance. What she does believe in are low-risk, short-term flings and ignoring her mother’s constant matchmaking attempts. But her newest clients—a solemn, sexy professor and his grieving little nephew—might just give Jewel the lesson in love she so badly needs!
Christopher Culhane hires Jewel to locate his deadbeat ex-brother-in-law, never intending to fall for her or build a family of his own. Yet drawn by her beauty, Christopher is soon determined to prove to Jewel that she can find happily ever after…with him. Even if he has to do it one kiss at a time…
Earthquake Hits Romance HQ!
by Olga Kwak, Blogger and Earthquake-Survivor (we all did!)
What are all of these people doing outside this nondescript building?
We were evacuated this afternoon after a 5.0 magnitude earthquake hit Southern Ontario! Earthquakes are a pretty rare occurrence in Canada, so getting hit with one this hard was an extra big surprise. As you can imagine, Twitter erupted with panic and incredulity, even as the ground still rumbled. We had just enough time to send a tweet before we were evacuated.
Came back to lots of great responses, including this one:
Although it’s a pretty unique experience, it’s not one I’d like to go through again. However, watching Dr. Strangelove’s fishes wobble around in their water during the earthquake is pretty surreal. That’s exactly how I felt as it was happening!
So, what’d you do on your hump day?
Five Bestselling Authors Hit the Road Together!
by Heather Foy, Senior Manager, Public Relations
Road trips. Nothing says summer like hitting the road in search of fun and adventure. This weekend, I’m lucky enough to be striking out with five of my favorite Harlequin authors for the ultimate summer signing road trip.
If you’re in the Chicagoland area this weekend, you have a unique opportunity to join best-selling authors Carla Neggers, Gena Showalter, Susan Mallery, Rachel Vincent and Emilie Richards as they make stops on the Authors in Motion book signing tour. I’m so excited to have this amazing group of writers all appearing at the same time, and they are anxious to meet their fans. Susan Mallery joked: “Most of us work at home in our sweats or pajamas so it’s a big deal to get dressed up with makeup and shoes!”. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet your favorite writers, get a photo, and of course a signed book.
The tour rolls into 8 different locations between Chicago and Milwaukee and the complete schedule is below. You can follow our adventures on twitter also at #lovebus. Come and join our summer road trip!
| Friday, June 25th: | Saturday, June 26th: | Sunday, June 27th: |
| 10am-12pm
Meijer Highland, IN 10138 Indianapolis Blvd, Highland, IN 46322 |
10am-12pm
Kmart Naperville, IL 1199 E. Ogden Ave. Naperville, IL 60563 |
10am-12pm
Kmart Racine, WI 2211 South Green Bay Racine, WI 53406 |
| 2pm-4pm
Kmart Tinley Park, IL 16300 Harlem Tinley Park, IL 60477 |
2pm-4pm
Kmart Bloomingdale, IL 156 South Gary Ave Bloomingdale, IL 60108 |
2pm-4pm
Kmart Brookfield, WI 18200 W. Bluemound Rd. Brookfield, WI 53045 |
| 6pm-8pm
Walmart Joliet, IL 2424 W. Jefferson St, Joliet, IL, 60436 |
6pm-8pm
Walmart Gurnee, IL 6590 Grand Ave Gurnee, IL 60031 |
Introducing Harlequin’s Big Summer Reads!
By Emma Cunningham, Production Coordinator, Digital & Internet
Oh, Summer. Long days, warm weather—is there a better way to enjoy the heat than lounging with a book by the pool or on the beach? If you can’t tell from our brand-new Harlequin Blog Summer layout, we don’t think so.
At Harlequin, we’re all crazy bookworms who spend our working and pleasure time immersed in books and romance (we know you’re super jealous, and no, you can’t have our jobs!) We frequently get sidetracked from producing books by talking about recent releases we love. We were doing exactly that when we got the idea to put together a list of our favorite Summer 2010 books. We picked some old favorites that we’re reissuing and a bunch of fresh, new voices, and wound up with an eclectic list of contemporary romance, paranormal, and everything in between. And so Big Summer Reads was born.
Now that we had an exciting program like Big Summer Reads, we had to think of the best possible way to get it out there. And you know what we love besides reading outside in the sun? Bloggers. In fact, we love them so much, that we’ve put together a massive and still growing database of book blogs and we’re sending out a selection of ebooks from our Big Summer Reads list for review. Some lucky bloggers will even get some fancy prizes to help readers enjoy their summer reading experience even more!
Here are some of the Big Summer Reads books that we’re e-mailing out to bloggers:
Linda Lael Miller – McKettricks of Texas: Garrett
Susan Andersen – Skintight
Marie Ferrarella – Finding Happily-Ever-After
Brenda Jackson – Star of His Heart
Victoria Dahl – Crazy for Love
Susan Mallery – Almost Perfect
Susan Grant – Sureblood
Kristan Higgins – All I Ever Wanted
Debbie Macomber – Orchard Valley Brides
Debbie Macomber – Orchard Valley Grooms
Susan Wiggs, Susan Mallery, Sherryl Woods – Summer Brides (The Borrowed Bride, Fireside, Harbor Lights, Accidentally Yours)
Robyn Carr – The House on Olive Street
Just a sample of what you can find in the Big Summer Reads program
So, to sum it all up, look for the Big Summer Reads featured on your favorite blog soon. And if you’re a blogger yourself, don’t hesitate to give me a shout and I’ll happily send some free books for review your way, too.
New York Times Bestsellers, June 20
Congratulations to all of our authors who are on this week’s New York Times bestseller list.
Hardcover:
#20 Dangerous by Diana Palmer (HQN, week 2)
Paperback:
#4 McKettricks of Texas: Garrett by Linda Lael Miller (HQN, week 2)
#5 Orchard Valley Grooms by Debbie Macomber (MIRA, week 2)
#11 Honeysuckle Summer by Sherryl Woods (MIRA, week 2)
#16 The Darkest Passion by Gena Showalter (HQN, week 2)
#25 The House on Olive Street by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 2)
#31 Blown Away by Sharon Sala (MIRA, week 2)
#35 Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber (MIRA, week 6)
Enjoy a sample of some of our bestsellers with the Browse the Book widget!
