Tag: acatherinenoon

  • Home for the Holidaze

    Home for the Holidaze

    \"BurningBright300\"I\’m with Neal Harrison today, the star of BURNING BRIGHT by me, A. Catherine Noon, and my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder.  We figured, since it\’s the holidays, we\’d find out a little more about what our favorite Dom does when the mistletoe is overhead and eggnog perfumes the air.

    ACN:  Welcome to NGWN, Neal!

    NH:  Glad to be here!

    ACN:  So, I read that you have a mixed-religion household.  How does that affect your celebration of the holidays?

    NH:  We celebrate Christmas as an American holiday, since it\’s become so consumerized and is in all the stores and stuff.  My family wasn\’t super religious growing up, so it didn\’t loom very large for us.  Doc is Wiccan, so he celebrates the Winter Soltice, or Yule.  Steve is Christian and likes to meditate and retreat from the world.

    Steve pokes his head into the room:  I heard that!

    NH:  I know you did, big guy, that\’s why I said it!

    ACN:  Gentlemen, gentlemen, one at a time, please.

    NH:  But you wrote us multiple men at a time, we figured that\’s –

    ACN: MOVING RIGHT ALONG NOW.  So tell me, what did you get as gifts for Doc and Steve?

    NH:  I haven\’t yet.

    ACN:  Really?  But you seem so organized and buttoned-up in the book!

    NH:  Appearances can be deceiving.  It\’s only the 11th.  There\’s plenty of time.

    Steve hollers from the hallway:  I\’ve already got presents for everyone!

    NH:  Yeah, and they\’re probably already wrapped and hidden.  Wait til I tell Doc where your hiding place is!

    ACN:  Now, now, that\’s not fair.  You\’ll ruin the surprise.

    NH:  Yeah, but then I can get some ideas.  ~He grins~

    ACN:  Do you have any special menu plans for the holidays?

    NH:  Yes.  We called the special menu \”Holidaze.\”  We\’ll be serving Hot Buttered Rum from the 20th through New Year\’s Eve.  It\’s an old secret family recipe.

    ACN:  Wow, that sounds really yummy!

    NH:  Thank you.  If your readers would like to find out more about me and my restaurant, they can check out BURNING BRIGHT, available now from wherever fine books are sold.

    ACN:  Happy holidays to you and yours!

    To win a copy of BURNING BRIGHT of your very own, just in time for the holidays, tell me in the comments:
    What is your favorite holiday beverage (alcoholic or not)?

    Here\’s the details on the rest of the hop, including the grand prize.  Visit at least five of the participating blogs and leave a comment to be entered to win.

    Happy reading!

    Tina Christopher Grand Prize of a $50 All Romance eBooks Gift Card and the choice of 3 of my books

    Dani Wade $10 Amazon Gift Card

    Nona Raines A digital copy of Nicely Naughty 2–Erotic Christmas Anthology & $10 Gift Card

    Harlowe Wild A Surprise Prize

    Leela Lou Dahlin A copy of Rumor Has It or A Haught Date and a $10 Amazon gift card

    Angel Payne A $15 Amazon Gift Card

    Taige Crenshaw A $10 All Romance Ebooks eGift Card

    Jianne Carlo One copy of Prymal Lust and one copy of That Pearly Drop

    A. Catherine Noon eCopy of Burning Bright (or other backlist title)

    Lara Archer A $10 Amazon Gift Card

    Leela Lou Dahlin A copy of Rumor Has It and a $10 Amazon Gift Card

    Cynthia Sax The choice of any eBook from my backlist

    Ella Sheridan An e-copy of any backlist book

  • Two for Tuesday

    Two for Tuesday

    I was looking for a lolcat to adorn my post today, so I asked Google, \”lolcats all of thems.\”  This is one of the ones that came up and since I guffawed out loud – sorry, \”lol\’d,\” I figured I\’d better use it.

    Why?

    Because lolcats.

    ANYway.  I have not one but TWO posts for you today!

    The first is at the Chicago Region of National Novel Writing Month.  Just because you didn\’t \”win\” NaNo doesn\’t mean you lost.

    The second is at Torquere Press\’s blog, Romance for the Rest of Us.  I got to musing about my daily round and shared pictures.

    Hope you\’ll stop by and show me some love in the comments! Happy reading!

  • Two for Thursday!

    Two for Thursday!

    Happy Thursday!  I know, I know my post title doesn\’t rhyme.  Par for my week.  The heat went out at our building last night, so my brain hasn\’t thawed yet.  I\’m applying liberal servings of coffee.

    I have two posts for you today!  One is by me, ~waves~, because I\’m over at Beyond the Veil today talking about – what else – NaNoWriMo!

    The second thing I have for you is a chance to win prizes! Woot! My buddy Dani Wade is up at the Nice Girls Writing Naughty blog today with some tips on staying the course – if you\’re feeling discouraged, this post is a great pick-me-up. Plus, she\’s giving away a prize to one lucky commenter – AND you will be entered to win our grand prize of $25 USD to All Romance eBooks.

    Happy reading!

  • November Is NaNo Time! Join Us For Tips, Tricks, and Prizes!

    November Is NaNo Time! Join Us For Tips, Tricks, and Prizes!

    Today kicks off our NaNoWriMo extravaganza at the Nice Girls Writing Naughty blog.  Your first post is by the fabulous Leela Lou Dahlin.  Leave a comment and be entered to win a prize from her as well as a chance at the grand prize, a $25 gift certificate to All Romance eBooks.  We have other prizes throughout the event, including a copy of Sealed by Fire by Rachel and I (or a choice of our backlist).

    What are you doing NaNo this year?  If you\’re not yet tempted, what might you write if you decided to?
  • Torquere Tuesday

    Torquere Tuesday

    Join me over at the Torquere Press blog, Romance For the Rest of Us, and share with me your angstiest songs!

  • Sometimes, Only a Quickie Will Do! (In the kitchen, that is…)

    Sometimes, Only a Quickie Will Do! (In the kitchen, that is…)

    Join me over at the Romance Cooks today for a quickie recipe – because, after all, sometimes only a quickie will do!

  • Yarnglee

    Yarnglee

    So, I\’ve been on a major yarn hiatus.  I\’ve been doing calligraphy like a madwoman; I\’m filling notebooks with the stuff (and no, that\’s not a typo; yes, I mean more than one).  Let\’s just say I had to order a second set of practice markers because I used up the ink in the first set.  See what I mean?

    But I\’m feeling the bug again.  I\’m beginning to see that this is part of my normal pattern (which only took me fourteen years to figure out, but let\’s not go there, kthxbi).  I seem to set knitting aside around May or June and pick it up around September or October.

    We celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary this year – yay! – and went down to southern Illinois and St. Louis to poke around.  One of the shops had some lovely Lana de Oro and I had to get some.  I\’m thinking socks.  50% wool, 50% alpaca.  Michael picked heather grey, I picked heather lavender:

    The lavender has bits of other colors in it, more as shading than a true ombre.

    The lighting is weird because I took these outside.  I tried to get a close-up and the camera changed the coloring.  Sigh.  Must.learn.Photoshop.

    Can you tell I\’ve been playing with the grey hank?  ~blush~  But this is the grey with the lavender; I\’m thinking that I\’ll use a small mosaic in the cuff of each sock in the opposite color.

    It\’s really not as pink as it seems in this picture.  But I\’m excited.  I may even use the toe-up technique, though I think I should do the first set with practice yarn first.  We shall see.

  • November Is Coming, and With It, NaNoWriMo!

    It\’s official!  I was accepted as one of the Chicago region\’s Municipal Liaisons.  I\’m very excited and can\’t wait to get started.  First order of business is planning a kick-ass kick-off party.

    Hmm.

    Shame I can\’t just call it the Kick-Ass Kick-Off, huh?  Must stay family friendly.  Rats.

    Well, whatever we decide, and it\’s not just up to me, will be awesome.

    Get ready, internet.  November is coming.

    WRITE ON!
  • Sunday Box Talk: Gardening

    Sunday Box Talk: Gardening

    I\’m over at the lovely Nice Girls Writing Naughty blog today with a recipe for Mint Syrup.  It\’s the last day of our contest, so please stop by and enter to win several awesome prizes, including a book from yours truly AND a gift certificate for $50 USD.

    Apropos of that, I thought I\’d chat about gardening a bit for today\’s Sunday Box Talk.

    I saw a button once that said, \”Gardeners plant gardens to relax and then spend all their time working in them.\”  There\’s a lot of wisdom in this saying.  The \”in the moment-ness\” of gardening, or any hobby, is what provides its sense of peace and \”now-ness.\”  By tending to the garden, we tend to ourselves and allow our bodies to experience grounding in a literal sense as we play in the dirt.

    Do you garden? Even a potted plant can be magical if approached with the right mindset.  It\’s a lot cheaper to by a pathos plan than it is to pour a drink, and the plant won\’t pack on the pounds or make your mind fuzzy.

    If you garden, what\’s your favorite plant? If you don\’t, yet, what would you like to have growing in your daily round?
  • Friday Funnies

    Friday Funnies

  • Thursday 13 – 13 January Images

    Thursday 13 – 13 January Images

    It\’s snowing.  My husband is not amused.  🙂

    Boria napping in our new living room.  We had to get rid of the beanbag chair, but the cat loved it.

    Here comes the train.  It\’s snowy and they don\’t put salt down on the platform, but sand.  Yes, it\’s slippery.

    This is a path that leaves the corner of my usual lunch park.  Where does it go?

    This is the viaduct.  I love the cave-like hold under the train. Gorgeous.

    Waiting for the bus to the Purple Line to go downtown.

    Moon over train. Or, wait… is that a glare on the camera?

    Cloud ceiling under the plane.

    Peeking over the seats at the people ahead of me on the plane.  I am NOT creepy.  Just curious.

    Red Rock Canyon.  Actually, I think this is a canyon south of it.

    Bird.

    Creosote?

    Knot?
  • A to Z Challenge, Day 26: Z Is For Zen

    A to Z Challenge, Day 26: Z Is For Zen

    Image © 2014, A. Catherine Noon, All Rights Reserved
    Zen Koan

    Chao-Chu fell down in the snow

    and yelled, \”Help me up! Help me up!\”

    A Zen Monk came and laid down beside him.

    Chao-Chu got up and went away.

    Thank you for visiting and traveling with me during the April A-Z Blogging Challenge.  I\’ve enjoyed making new blogging friends and collecting new followers.  It\’s readers like you that make writing such a pleasure.  I appreciate your support!

    Happy blogging!