by Donna Hayes, President, CEO of Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

All of us at Harlequin love the holidays – and we know our readers do too – which means we publish lots of holiday themed books at this time of year. I thought I’d tell you about a few of them, just to get you in the spirit!

At our bookstore we decided to highlight our holiday editorial by creating our very own North Pole, filled with great holiday books. The range is eclectic, from Victorian Yuletide to celebrating with Vampires—and not to stop there, we created a North Pole book trailer as well!

Here are a few of my faves for this holiday season:

New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery is back with a brand-new Silhouette Desire, HIGH-POWERED, HOT-BLOODED! Our final Man of the Month is Duncan Patrick, CEO Scrooge. His whole life turns around when he meets sweet kindergarten teacher Annie McCoy. I have to give kudos to the art department for creating such a beautiful image to present the wonderful story inside. This is the first time in years a Desire cover hasn’t been red.

Desire also has a new book by New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer in December as well! THE MAVERICK is a brand-new story in Diana’s Long-Tall Texans series. Click below to read the first chapter:

If you’re in the mood to be a bit naughty, the Harlequin Blaze line has a few steamy holiday reads from stocking-stuffer sized short stories in BETTER NAUGHTY THAN NICE by Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jill Shalvis, and Rhonda Nelson to a new Blaze Historical—TWELVE NIGHTS by Hope Tarr.

Finally, it will be no surprise that the Christmas spirit is strong in our Steeple Hill line of inspirational romance novels. Holiday-themed stories can be found in all three Love Inspired imprints, from contemporaries, historical, or romantic suspense. There are too many books to name them all, so be sure to visit the Steeple Hill section of eHarlequin.com for book descriptions, excerpts and more. And if you still think it’s a bit too early to be talking Christmas, you can find Thanksgiving-set stories in A FAMILY FOR THANKSGIVING by Patricia Davids and THE THANKSGIVING TARGET by Laura Scott!

Don’t forget—these make fantastic stocking stuffers, so you can share the lovely holiday spirit with your fellow readers.

Do you like giving books as presents? Do you try to introduce your friends and family to new authors or give them a book by an author they already enjoy?

by Donna Hayes, President, CEO of Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

Happy Holidays, Dear Readers!

Too soon? You haven’t even planned your Thanksgiving menu yet? I don’t want to rush you through the holidays, but because of how many wonderful Christmas books we have available now, we’ve got Christmas on our minds! Between the business of prepping for the holidays and deadlines at work, I love being able to grab an hour and settle back in my comfortable reading chair and delve into the warmth and happiness that the holidays promise.

Let me share a few of our highlights.

I have to start with our Queen of the Holidays, Debbie Macomber, who loves Christmas. Don’t believe us? Check out the video below and you’ll see!

Did I mention that Debbie loves Christmas? THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS is Debbie’s new book, but don’t miss her wide selection of holiday titles!

(And those are just the November releases! If you missed Debbie’s Cedar Cove days, the entire town of Port Orchard transformed itself into Cedar Cove, read about it here.)

Tomorrow I’ll share some more highlights from our Christmas editorial. I have to confess though, that there are two things beyond books that are a must-have in my house every Christmas—the fabulous Vince Guaraldi soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas, which I could listen to over and over again—and do (and I always have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in my back yard)—and the original video of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love the music, I love the sheer goofiness of it and I love the message.

Do you have any of your own must-have traditions to get you into the spirit of the season?

Hello Readers!

I’m Donna Hayes, Publisher and CEO of Harlequin Enterprises Ltd, and I want to welcome you to our new blog. The launch of the Harlequin Blog means we have another way to talk with our readers and we do hope you will share your thoughts and opinions with us! Come back to the blog a few times a week to learn about new releases, special events (like the recent Cedar Cove days that Don Lucey from our public relations department will be blogging about), posts from authors and editors, and much more, including secret publishing-house insider information (you’ll be the first to know!).

2009 is our sixtieth anniversary and we’ve been celebrating in style with a fantastic art exhibit in New York featuring the evolution of the Harlequin romance cover and a simply amazing author party in Washington. For sixty years we have provided women with the best fiction and romance in the world.  And we have no plans to stop anytime soon.

Lovely authors at the Washington, DC party!

From L-R: Sharon Sala, Linda Turner, Maggie Shayne, Tara Taylor Quinn, Brenda Jackson

While we have been celebrating all of our established romance series all year long, we’ve also been busy launching brand-new imprints that cater to what women want today, tomorrow and always.

With Harlequin Nonfiction, we’ve provided phenomenal authors new opportunities to reach their readers, to build relationships that transcend the pages of their stories. For example, readers of Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove series love creating delicious recipes from the Cedar Cove Cookbook (much to the delight of their families, I’m sure!)

Harlequin Teen is a new line of books for young women. Our goal is to publish fantastic stories young women can share with their mothers, much like their mothers shared their first Harlequin romances with them. I invite you to try some of the Harlequin Teen books, like Rachel Vincent’s My Soul to Take or Gena Showalter’s Intertwined. I know that you’ll be passing them along to everyone you know. They’re just that good.

HQN and MIRA are also buzzing with exciting new releases in the next few months. We’re gearing up for A Creed Country Christmas, a brand new addition in Linda Lael Miller’s Montana Creeds series. Speaking of Linda, you’ll want to catch the trailer for her new McKettricks of Texas trilogy debuting right here. And if you’re more into mystery, Jason Pinter’s upcoming The Darkness will satisfy that whodunit craving. These are just some of the books we want to talk about!

As a special thank-you to readers who find us on our inaugural post, we have a contest! Please comment about any Harlequin book you have read and enjoyed and we will enter you into a draw for a copy of New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs’s Lakeshore Christmas. We’ll be giving away five copies of Susan’s heartwarming holiday tale. Comment with your name and the Harlequin book you read and enjoyed by October 23 and we’ll randomly select five winners to receive this wonderful hardcover book.  Open to residents of the United States and Canada only. One entry per person. For full contest details, click here.

Thank you for joining us at the Harlequin Blog. Don’t forget to sign up for our RSS feed—it’s the quickest way to get our posts. We’re very excited to start the conversation!