Anywho! Regardless of the seasonal prognostication, I have a prediction of my own: lots of cowboys. Read on to find out why!

Cover vs. Cover

Hop onto our Facebook page to participate in our cover vs. cover debate. This time it’s a Fortunes of Texas Series Spotlight! Yee-haw! Who’s your pick: Handsome Fortune Scion or Good Looking Cowboy?

Sales at Harlequin.com and Carina Press!

Our Books on a Budget has been refreshed with a new slew of $2.99 book deals. This month we’re featuring Cowboys on a Budget. You can pick up as many men of the West as you’d like–all at 40% off! Cowboys for everyone! Visit Harlequin.com to start browsing the list.

But if you’re not particularly hung up on the Stetson-and-jeans set, Carina Press has a sale on everything from the super-sweet to the super-sexy!

Featured Trailer

HARLEQUIN NONFICTION presents SUGARLICIOUS by Meaghan Mountford!

Professional cookie decorator Meaghan Mountford shows how anyone can transform drab sugar cookies into glowing planets, plain marshmallows into scary zombies, and simple cake pops into blooming flowers. This utterly charming book provides readers with step-by-step instructions to create simple, unique art from affordable and accessible materials.

Watch the exclusive video premier on Facebook!

If you’ve resolved to just read good books this year, then we’ve got a round up that you might want to read.

Meet the Fortunes of Texas at Harlequin.com Community

The Fortunes of Texas have landed in bookstores and we blogged about it earlier this week. Now you have a chance to meet these ladies and gentlemen of the Lonestar State in the Harlequin.com Community! Meet the characters and the authors behind them all week!

Harlequin Escape Winter Reads Sale

Oh, that dull winter sun is starting to kill my soul. Thankfully, Harlequin’s having a special sale to rekindle one’s imagination and remind us all what hot sunshine really feels like! Spend $15, save $5 on featured titles in our Escape Reads sale! Enjoy these titles in ebooks, too! Quantities are limited. Escape Reads sale with coupon code ESCJAN12. Expires January 31, 2012, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Carina Press Extended Excerpt

Are you a fan of Carina Press on Facebook yet? Then you probably already know that the new extended excerpt for this week is from Prehistoric Clock by Robert Appleton! Click here access the read. It’s book 1 in the Steam Clock Legacy series.

Airship officer Verity Champlain is well-respected by her crew. But after a vital mission nearly goes wrong, she is having second thoughts about her career.

Lord Garrett Embrey is on the run. The Leviacrum Council, the secretive scientific body that holds sway over the Empire, executed his father and uncle and now they want him dead too.

Professor Cecil Reardon is consumed by grief. Since his wife and son died he’s been obsessed with his work, and now he is on the verge of an extraordinary scientific breakthrough: his machine is about to breach time itself, to undo fate’s cruel taking of his loved ones.

But the time jump doesn’t go according to plan, and part of London winds up millions of years in the past. Verity and her crew—Lord Embrey, Professor Reardon and others stranded with them—must pull together to survive in a world ruled by dinosaurs…and to somehow get home.

Julie Kagawa Video from BEA 2011

Our featured video for this week is a Justine Magazine interview with Julie Kagawa, author of the Iron Fey series!

Does your cat want to be famous?

Give your feline his much-deserved chance at stardom by submitting a picture of him in a Santa hat! Harlequin Nonfiction is creating a book that celebrates all that is chubby and cheery about the holiday season – and we want your best cat portraits! Submit a high resolution photo of your cat doing or wearing something festive, and your furry friend might appear in print in a book to be distributed nationwide. Don’t worry if your cat is small, big, or an in-betweener – we accept cats of all shapes and sizes. The contest is also open to felines of all religions and nationalities, so whether your Maine Coon is posed in front of the menorah or your kitty is decked out for Kwanzaa, send us those snapshots!

Pedro wants to know if you’ve been naughty… or nice

Please send submissions with your email or snail mail address to fatcats@harlequin.ca or Cat Photos c/o Harlequin, 233 Broadway, Suite 1001, NY, NY 10279.

Extended excerpt of Nadia Lee’s The Last Slayer from Carina Press on Facebook

Demons and demon hunters–can they work together to battle dragons and demigods? In Nadia Lee’s The Last Slayer, Ashera del Cid, a talented demon hunter and the sexy-as-hell demon Ramiel must come together so that Ashera can fulfill her destiny as the heir to the Last Slayer. Ramiel has his own reasons for offering Ashera his protection, but can he really save her from the demigods that are trying to kill her?

Read the extended excerpt on the Carina Press Facebook page. It’s a perfect little afternoon snack for urban fantasy readers!

Today’s Harlequin Deal
There have been some amazing deals and gifts at the Santa Tree this year for the Holidays @ Harlequin 12 Days, 12 Deals. Today’s is another way to take a little mental holiday from the stress of the season. Download the Extreme Brain Workout brainteaser!

How Happy Is… Book Trailer!
The How Happy Is…series features 50 actionable, happiness-boosting tips in eye-catching packages from happiness expert, life coach and TV personality Sophie Keller. See the trailer below.

In between the turkey and pumpkin pie, check out our latest news. Here’s this week’s round up to get you started:

Robyn Carr’s Hold Out for a Hero Contest Continues

We’re getting some really amazing submissions for Robyn Carr’s Hold Out for a Hero contest. Harlequin asked readers to submit their military homecoming stories for a chance to win a family vacation to a featured destination within North America or the Caribbean courtesy of the Armed Forces Vacation Club, a $500 gift card to Wal Mart to put towards those vacation clothes, a family photo session and signed copies of Robyn’s latest release in the Virgin River series, Bring Me Home for Christmas.

I’d like to share one of the submissions with you:

If you asked me seven years ago what I thought my life would be like, the life I have would have been nowhere close. Two weeks after meeting a young infantry soldier, I found myself engaged. It was the night before during a 2AM-under-the-moon conversation that made my knees go weak and I knew. Two weeks after that he deployed. – Erin, Texas

You can read more of Erin’s story and a lot more like her’s at www.holdoutforahero.com.

Carina Press Facebook Giveaway

There’s still time to catch the Carina Press Facebook giveaway! Each day this week we select two winners of our special Carina Press holiday collections. Each winner will receive both a digital ebook and exclusive print copy of the book! Today is your last chance to win our male/male collection Men Under the Mistletoe, featuring short stories by Josh Lanyon, Harper Fox, Ava March, and K.A. Mitchell. Tomorrow you could win a copy of A Clockwork Christmas, our holiday Steampunk collection! Read some of the best steampunk fiction by JK Coi, PG Forte, Stacy Gail and Jenny Schwartz. All of our holiday collections will be available as of Dec. 5, but if you want a sneak peek, enter at the Carina Press Facebook page!

Harlequin Community Thanksgiving Wall

If you’ve been grateful for something this year, take a minute to share it with the Harlequin Community this month. Author Janet Tronstad is inviting you and everyone in the Harlequin family (readers, authors, and staff) to join together to build a Thanksgiving Wall of Gratitude. Janet is giving away a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card for every 25 unique readers who post a gratitude on the wall (up to 8 gift cards – authors and HQ staff encouraged to post although they won’t be eligible for the gift cards). Janet is offering this as a tribute to her fictitious small town that holds a similar Thanksgiving event every year in Dry Creek, Montana.

Harlequin Puzzles

Just in time for the holidays, Harlequin fans can find Fundex puzzles in stores now! Choose from three 1000pc puzzles featuring classic Harlequin covers! These neat retro puzzles are a great activity to share with the family over the holidays. With 1000 pieces, you’ll build vintage book covers straight from our archives in a collage style that creates puzzles zones and enhances the experience of the puzzle.  They’re available from Meijer, Walmart, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

And speaking of holiday gifts, check out our latest video that features some of the hottest books for any member of the family, be it the literary-minded aunt, a grandmother who’s a romantic at heart or your hard-to-please teen!

1. So You Think You Can Write Contest

We’re in the final two days of our second annual digital author conference and the it’s now your chance to enter our So You Think You Can Write contest — wherein you can win a standard series contract from Harlequin. The deadline to submit is December 15, so you do have a bit of time to digest all of the information that you’ve crammed in over the week and use it to create (or modify!) a manuscript fit for one of the 16 Harlequin lines. All of the details are available at soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com. Don’t forget to read the contest rules!

2. Harlequin.com Special Edition Community Cookie Swap (Nov. 1 – 16)

From Nov. 1 – 16 the Harlequin Special Edition forum in our Community boards is hosting a cookie swap! Stop by (or sign up first if you’ve never been to our Community) to trade cookie recipies and the stories that go with them. I’m especially loving the Butter Pecan Cookies recipe posted by author Christine Rimmer!

3. Carina Press titles were nominated for the RT Reviewers Choice Awards.

Altered Destiny by Shawna Thomas was nominated in the Small Press Paranormal/Fantasy/Futuristic category. We had contemporary romance titles nominated: Turn it Up by Inez Kelley, Boomerang Bride by Fiona Lowe and Yours to Keep by Shannon Stacey. Winners will be announced at the RT convention in Chicago in April 2013. You can buy these books now on www.carinapress.com and check out what the buzz is about!

We’ll have a complete list of Harlequin and Carina Press nominees for you tomorrow.

4. Third title in the Royal House of Shadows series is out this month!

Once upon a time…the Blood Sorcerer vanquished the kingdom of Elden. To save their children, the queen scattered them to safety and the king filled them with vengeance. Only a magical timepiece connects the four royal heirs…and time is running out…

So begins the Royal House of Shadows series. This month pick up the third novel from author Jessica Anderson, Lord of the Wolfyn. As a beast, Dayn mated with women to gain strength–strength he needed to rescue his royal parents. He must now choose to fight for Reda’s heated, sizzling touch or embrace his wolf to save his kingdom…

On sale this month at Harlequin.com!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Debbie Macomber’s Christmas Cookbook Trailer

Debbie Macomber is Harlequin’s “Official Story-Teller of Christmas” and her new cookbook is chock-a-bock full of holiday cheer. Recipes, crafts and decorating ideas that will get you into the holiday spirit faster than a solid round of “Deck the Halls”! Watch the trailer below and get the cookbook today!

Julie Kagawa’s The Iron Knight Trailer

Speaking of trailers, the new one for The Iron Knight has dropped and it’s a doozy! Twitter was all a-buzz about it yesterday. If you’d like to see it (c’mon now, who doesn’t?) click through to the Harlequin Teen Facebook page. You should also check out theironfey.com for more Iron Fey goodies.

Carina Press author Shawna Thomas’ Altered Destiny receives 4 1/2 stars from RT Book Reviews!

Congrats to Carina Press author Shawna Thomas! Her fantasy romance Altered Destiny received a great review and 4 1/2 stars from RT Book Reviews. Here’s a snippet of the review from RT Book Reviewer Victoria:

“A pleasant, unexpected surprise, this is a fantasy novel that embraces the old style of writing fantasy. Altered Destiny is incredibly well written. It depends little on fantasy tropes, has a clear and realistic romantic element and above all else, puts the story first. Selia is a strong central character with very human flaws and a tendency towards heroics, while hero Jaden brings an interesting twist to current obsession with vampiric characters, although he is not a vampire. What a fabulous find, a meaty novel that is a great pick for e-book readers!”

You can read the full review on RT Book Reviews.

The only constant in life is change, though–didn’t someone say that once? So here are the latest changes in the world of Harlequin!

Susan Mallery’s exclusive Harlequin.com coupon

Last month Susan stopped by the blog to discuss true love and reality TV. This month Harlequin.com has an exclusive coupon for all of the books in Susan’s Fool’s Gold series. Use the promocode HARLIVE1. Susan also recently participated in a Harlequin Facebook livestream where she announced more books in the series. You can find a replay of her livestream on our Facebook page. Stay tuned for more Facebook livestream announcements!

Rachel Vincent’s Soul Screamers Blog Tour

Author Rachel Vincent is about to kick off a blog tour on Sept. 19 starting with The Story Siren. Follow the blog tour for a chance to win a Soul Screamers Special Edition Nook Soft Touch. Daily giveaways of a copy of If I Die, the latest Soul Screamers book, will happen as well. The tour stops at the Paranormal Romance Blog on Sept. 28.

Brenda Novak’s September Contest

Each month author Brenda Novak offers a contest through her website. This month she’s giving away an autographed set of the full The Last Stand series novels. There’s a couple of fun skill-testing questions involved, but they aren’t too difficult. You can enter the contest through her website. And look for Brenda’s blog post on the Harlequin Blog at the end of the month. She’ll be writing about her latest novel In Seconds.

Carla Neggers Interview on RT Book Reviews

Carla Neggers is interviewed by RT’s Morgan Doremus on video about her latest release, Saint’s Gate. Art theft, a nun-turned-FBI agent, an undercover cop and a murder mystery set in Maine! You can see the interview here.

Finally, check out the latest trailer for Crave by debut author Melissa Darnell!

Savannah Colbert has been shunned all her life by the kids of the Clann. And when she undergoes some drastic changes after a strange illness, Savannah learns secrets about the Clann and about herself – dangerous secrets. For the Clann are powerful magic users, and Savannah herself is half Clann and half vampire – a forbidden, unheard of combination.

Book ONE in the Crave trilogy is available Nov 1st from Harlequin TEEN

• Fans of Karen Harper, we have a special treat for you. In the ebook edition of Fall From Pride, you’ll receive an exclusive free short story: Phantom Amish. Karen stopped by earlier this month to blog about Fall From Pride.
• Speaking of free novellas, Haunting the Night by Mara Purnhagen (Harlequin Teen) is available now! For those keeping up with the series, the events in Haunting the Night take place a few weeks after One Hundred Candles. For information on how to download the novella, “Like” the Harlequin Teen Facebook fan page. Check out the synopsis below:

Charlotte Silver has been through hell.  Her mom’s in a coma. She may have caused the death of a young man.

And now her friend Avery wants her to tackle going to Prom? Not going to happen, even if she is dying to spend some alone time with her boyfriend, Noah.

Instead, Charlotte needs to find some answers to a few nagging questions—why was her family attacked? Will her mother survive?

And is there a creature from the Other Side coming for her? Soon enough, Charlotte’s search for the truth becomes a race against time.

But she may just find the sign she’s been looking for all along….

Let me know if you need anything else.

• Exciting news from author of the Lady Julia Grey series Deanna Raybourn! She’ll be returning to Mira Books for a three-book deal starting in May 2013. Her first novel is set in Kenya in the 1920s and “features a flapper heroine with a string of scandals to her name and a hero who will make you rethink Brisbane as a literary crush. No lie.” Congrats, Deanna! We’re very excited about the news. It might give me another opportunity to ask you to write a blog post about the fashion inspiration for your next novel.
• In contest news, Fresh Fiction is giving away a copy of Carla Negger‘s Saint’s Gate plus a Stonewall Kitchen cast-iron, non-stick Belgian Waffle Maker, Wild Maine Blueberry Syrup, and Wild Maine Blueberry and Champagne Blueberry jams! Recently Carla stopped by the Harlequin Community to blog about her new release.
• Finally, I’ve been sitting on this Harlequin book trailer for some time now. It features the new eight-part Harlequin Presents miniseries The Notorious Wolfes. If you’re intrigued, you should stop by I Heart Presents blog for all the details on the series.

I love the show; each episode is between ten and fifteen minutes long, so watching one episode after the other is easy to do. The plots are hilarious and often resonate with my own awkward experiences in love, like having to say something to the cute new neightbor without coming off sounding like a dribbling idiot. Or getting the “family emergency” phone call while in the middle of a date. I love that the girls work at a romance publisher having been there myself! You would think that being a part of the Romance Mothership would give you extra insight into the dating world, but it just proves that no one is safe from the awkwardness of real life.

I contacted Jessica Mills, the writer, producer and star of the show, to see if she’d answer some questions about the show and dating for the Harlequin Blog. Do check out the show if you get a chance. Both seasons are available through their website, awkardembraces.com. Their love lives might not mirror romance novels very well, but they’re still entertaining!

Q: Can you describe the show in 140 characters or less? (We’re really into Twitter. )
A: Awkward Embraces is the Big Bang Theory meets Sex and the City!

Q: Your characters Jessica, Candis and Lyndsey all work at an unnamed romance publisher. What made you decide to have them work at a romance publisher? Have you ever worked in publishing?
A: My mom is a published writer of thrillers, so I grew up watching that business operate from the author’s point of view. The idea of them working at a romance publisher actually came from Candis. I was trying to flesh out the characters and story to help me get ideas for other episodes, and Candis threw that out there when we were talking about it. I love how many silly conversations and situations they can get into with designing the covers and Jessica constantly pitching sci-fi romance to Candis, who hates the idea. It’s a really fun jumping off point for a lot of the office scenes.

Q: Judging from your Twitter accounts, you’re all very similar to your characters. How would you describe them?
A: We definitely look at our characters as ourselves times 10. We are all a bit exaggerated, but I did write these characters with Candis and Lyndsey in mind, so their dialogue and the situations they get into were things that reminded me of them. And a lot of the Season 1 dating stories actually happened to me, so my character naturally developed to be like me, as well. But, of course, they are all multiplied quite a bit for comedic effect!

A bad date on Awkward Embraces.

Q: How do you write the episodes? Collectively? Is there a lot of improv?
A: I write all the episodes with the exception of three of the Season 2 episodes. Candis wrote two of them herself, and she and I collaborated on one. We do quite a bit of improv. Usually at the end of scenes, our director Adam, will just let us go and riff off of each other. So all the ends of scenes are completely improvised. As an actor, I want the cast to feel comfortable making the scenes their own, so a lot of times we’ll go off on a tangent and come back. The ratio of writing to improv is about 75/25 written/improv. I love it that we improv. A lot of magic happens when we’re just playing, and I think it lends a feeling of fun and relaxation to the whole shoot that translates to the screen.

Q: What type of romance novel would Jessica, Candis and Lyndsey see themselves as heroines in? Can you describe the plot?
A: Jessica would absolutely be the sexy captain of a Starship in a forbidden romance with a rogue bounty hunter. She’s by the book, and he’s fast and loose. Very Leia and Solo. ha ha
Candis loves her work, and works harder than any of the other girls. She definitely would see herself in an office romance. A very “Moonlighting” sort of situation where she and her office rival are fighting one minute and ripping each other’s clothes off the next.
Lyndsey is a free spirit and very unconventional. Her romance story would be something totally out there, like being kidnapped by gypsies and falling in love with their leader.

Q: Will there be a season three of the show?
A: I hope so! We funded Season 2 with Indiegogo, but I hate having to go to the fans for budget money. If I have to, I’ll do it again. But first, I want to see if I can find some sponsorship. A brand, network, or production company who is interested in investing in the show. I’m going to see what I can find on that route, before doing Indiegogo again. But the fans are so excited about Season 3, a lot of them say they are already setting money aside for us! Which is so sweet, and just makes us all feel so special. I’ve got SO MANY awesome ideas for Season 3, I can’t NOT do it. I’ll find a way, no matter what.