Tag Archive | Avon

In Which I Wish You The Happiest of Halloweens!

Here are some very mischievous looking little 1950s kids out for a night on the town! I hope you all are having a marvelous Samhain Night. Merry Meet and Blessed Be!

Dear Reader,

It’s been a whirlwind few days since Midnight In Your Arms came out yesterday, and I’m ready to kick back and relax for the evening, handing out candy to little ghosts and ghouls from the neighbourhood. I just wanted to wish you a Happy Fright Night, and let you know that the Blog Tour is still going on strong, and there are still chances to win free copies of my new book for the rest of the week!

Here is today’s guest post at Novel Reflections.

Yesterday’s was with Book Reviews and More by Kathy.

Monday’s post was with Delighted Reader.

Be sure to stop by and join in on the conversation for a chance to win!

Have a wonderful night, and eat way too much candy!

Love, Morgan.

In Which Midnight In Your Arms Packs Its Bags For The Official Blog Tour!

Oct22

Dear Reader,

In one week exactly, the Official Blog Tour for Midnight In Your Arms begins! I wanted to let you know the itinerary, so you can visit each of these marvelous blogs on the day of my guest appearance, and show your support for the amazing people who read and review romance novels simply because they love them. Where would we be without people like them? I shudder to think! Also, visiting the blog stops will give you an opportunity to win an e-book copy of Midnight In Your Arms for your very own! I’ll be giving one away for each day of the tour.

The blog tour schedule goes a little something like this:

October 29^th, the day before Midnight In Your Arms is officially released, I will be visiting Delighted Reader with a guest post and giveaway.

October 30^th, the actual release day of Midnight In Your Arms, I hang out on Book Reviews and More By Kathy, where I will also be doing a giveaway in between bouts of celebratory dancing.

October 31^st, AKA The Best Day of the Year, my favourite holiday, HALLOWEEN, I will fly by Novel Reflections, and one reader will be treated to a copy of Midnight In Your Arms.

November 1^st, The Day of the Dead and Witches New Year, I will haunt United By Books, and bestow a copy of the book on one reader.

November 2^nd I will pay a call to Books-n-Kisses, where I will answer a set of questions and give another book away.

November 5th, the final day of my blog tour, I will be resting up at Novel Niche, and one final copy of Midnight In Your Arms will be up for grabs.

In November, Midnight In Your Arms will be released in paperback, and I will also be celebrating by giving copies away to my adored readers, so please visit me on this blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads for details on how to win!

I hope I see you at one of the stops along my blog tour, and that your Halloween plans are SPOOKTACULAR! <Queue Maniacal Laughter Here>

Love, Morgan.

In Which I Make a Few Announcements

Oct15

Pre-order Midnight In Your Arms in Paperback!

Dear Reader–

I’m excited to announce that for those of you who have no plans to jump on the digital bandwagon just yet, the paperback edition of Midnight In Your arms will follow the digital release by less than a month! That’s right–MIYA will come out in print on November 27th 2012, hot on the heels of the initial e-book release date of October 30th, so there are two exciting months in a row for me! It’s kind of nice, splitting it up like that–it gives me to things to which I can look forward!

That means that I will to do some giveaways in both digital and print formats, along with a few other seasonal/themed goodies, so watch out for that on Twitter, Facebook, my HarperCollins Microsite, Goodreads, and right here on the official website! What else will I be giving away? Good question! I was thinking I would give away some little luxuries that, for me, always make the dreary stretch of time between Halloween and Christmas just a little more glamourous and luxuriant. I want to give my fans some little gifts that make them feel pampered–like gourmet tea in seasonal flavours, themed nail polish sets, decadent chocolate made right here in the Purdy’s factory. Little things that go hand in hand with romance! What do you think?

In other news, it’s time to submit this year’s crop of novels and novellas to the RWA Rita and Golden Heart Awards. Will you be submitting? I know I will–this is my very first time, and I’m a little nervous! I wish all of you the very best with your submissions, and I hope you win! You deserve it.

Love,

Morgan

In Which The Countdown Officially Begins!

Oct1

I can’t wait for JAL’s new masterpiece!

What a fun and sexy romp this will be!

Will my new Halloween historical be able to stack up?

Dear Reader,

I don’t know if you know this, but October is my favourite month. The air has turned fresh and crisp, and smells of smoke and dying wood. The leaves crunch under my wellies when I take my dog for long walks around Silvermere Lake and along the Stave River on which I live. I start wearing the sweaters I knitted over the summer, and instead of donning just a thin t-shirt and a summer skirt, my clothing piles up in layers on top of me, so that I look like a young Mrs. Weasley—or a tea cozy, as the case may be. My husband and I make up our bed with the heavier blankets, a cozy nest of organic bamboo, wool, and down comforters. My mum’s birthday is in October, as is Canadian Thanksgiving—both of which will be celebrated next weekend. I will make so much food, we won’t be able to fit inside the house! Especially not after we eat it.

And, of course, the best part of October is that the countdown to Halloween officially begins. I start to imagine my outdoor decorations, take stock of what candy we have left over from last year, and buy much more Emergency Back-Up Candy than I really need— hence the leftovers every year. I make Halloween greeting cards for my friends and start collecting pumpkin recipes for using up the future Jack O’ Lanterns after they start to sag, but are still yummy enough to eat! Does anyone else eat their Jack O’ Lanterns? It strikes me as a particularly pagan ritual akin to burning a Wicker Man—which entirely appeals to my bloodthirsty All Hallows sensibilities X^D

This year, there is even more reason to celebrate my favourite season, an event that has never before made Halloween even more fantastic than it already is! The day before the fateful night, on October 30^th, my very first romance novel comes out with Avon/HarperCollins. This time last year, I had no idea that in nine short months I would sell my first historical romance to Avon, and make one of my dreams come true. I had no idea that the book would come out so fast that my head would still be spinning and my heart palpitating as the countdown began! It’s been such a whirlwind, not unlike a romance, and with what I hope will be equally life-changing results. Once you become a romance author, Dear Reader, you never want to go back.

I am extremely excited about October 30^th, and not only because my own book comes out. I’m thrilled to report that Midnight In Your Arms and I, its humble author, will be in very grand company indeed! For that very same day, Julie Anne Long’s new book A Notorious Countess Confesses and Eloisa James’ new novella Seduced By A Pirate both come out as well. There is a wonderful reassurance there, as if my shy debutant of a novel is taking courage and strength from more experienced and renowned compatriots. I am humbled to be in such illustrious company, and can only hope to live up to Ms. Long’s and Ms. James’ shining examples of what can happen when aspirations become reality. I feel like they will be my good luck charms. I can only hope to live up, even in part, to their achievements! Congratulations to them both, and to Avon, on their upcoming releases.

As for you, Dearest of Readers, please check back with me on any social media platform you like best this month, as I have some fun little giveaways planned, to thank you in advance for being so kind to me and my little book to be. I hope you will enjoy your beautiful, crisp October as much as I plan to do. If you take any pictures of your decorations, please leave me a link so that I can oooooh and ahhhhhh over your creations! I need all the inspiration I can get, and it can’t all come from Martha Stewart, now, can it?

Happy Halloween To Come!

Love,

Morgan.

In Which I Put The Final Touches on Midnight In Your Arms

Aug1

Dear Reader,

The past month and a bit since I sold my book to Avon has been a bit of a whirlwind of activity! I ended up more than doubling the length of Midnight In Your Arms, from just over 20,000 words to nearly 55,000—and I feel the story is much stronger and more substantial now. It’s been given the breathing space and room it needs to spread out into the story it was meant to be! That is always a good feeling for an author. No one wants to feel as though their story has been stunted, compacted into too small a space to really bloom.

I sent the final few changes to my wonderful editor at Avon, Chelsey Emmelhainz—and let me just take a moment to tell you how fantastic it has been working with her! She really gets what I am trying to do with my story, the mood and feel of it, as well as the style of my writing. She makes everything better without making me feel like I’m losing anything—a delicate balance. She is such an intuitive reader, which is the most important thing, I think, for an editor—because she must put herself in the place of (hopefully!) thousands of readers, and see the story through their eyes. That isn’t easy, but she does it with aplomb. I felt really comfortable with her, and the changes she made, from small to significant, have made Midnight In Your Arms into a story of which I feel very proud. It was a skeleton of a story only a few short weeks ago, and now it is fully fleshed out and dancing the Charleston! Whoot!

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been just over seven weeks since I wrote the first draft, sent it in, and got the call from Avon! I wish all projects ran this smoothly, with such satisfying results. I can hardly wait for October to come! Midnight In Your Arms comes out on the 30^th, just in time for my favourite day of the year—Halloween! Maybe I will dress up as my heroine, Laura Dearborn, the vampish 1920s medium who reaches across space and time to steal the heart of Crimean War veteran Alaric Storm III.

Now, Chelsey has advised me to celebrate with ice cream, even though it’s only 8 AM my time—and get on with the next story! I think I will do just that. I’ve been dreaming of a new hero and heroine who are clamouring to have their story told. Now that I’ve put the finishing touches on M.I.Y.A, I feel fully justified in indulging—both in ice cream for breakfast, and a brand new love story that makes the past as real as the present.

Love, Morgan.

In Which I Get The Call

Jun21

Dear Reader,

It happened. It finally happened. I recently sold my first romance novella to Avon Impulse. It’s called Midnight In Your Arms, and will be coming out in time to chill your bones for Halloween 2012!

When I say that it’s my first romance novella, it really is true—I’ve never written a romance novella before. I’ve written two and a half romance novels, however. But that’s another story. Before Avon Impulse started putting out stand-alone novellas, and Harlequin did the same with their Briefs and Bites series, I wouldn’t have known what to do with a romance novella had I written one. For some reason, even though there are now places for them to go, I still didn’t write one until just under three weeks ago. Let me tell you, I’m sure glad I did! It’s been like an instant gratification party around here ever since. I wrote the story over the space of about 30 hours on May 29^th-30^th. I sent it in on May 30^th about an hour before midnight, using the electronic submission process Avon has now—and a week later, I woke up to an email from Chelsey Emmelhainz at Harper Collins asking me to please call her because she loves my novella and wants to make an offer on it! Her exact words? “I loved it and would like to make an offer on it!” A dozen little words that were music to my ears! Or rather, beautiful paintings for my eyes, since I was reading them :^}

As soon as I swallowed my heart several dozen times, I did just that—and we had a lovely conversation, in which we discussed releasing the novella as a stand-alone book, when I had thought it would be part of a collection, because I had written it in response to a call for submissions for a themed anthology. But Avon liked it enough to release it on its own! So it was even more exciting than I thought—because now I get my own cover, with my own name on it, and all of that lovely, self-important stuff that writers dream about.

I called my husband right away, and told him, and he was so excited! It’s wonderful to have support at home, and I’m really lucky. When he got home from work that night, he brought take-out from our favourite restaurant that is now very far away ever since we moved out of the city, so it was a special treat indeed. I love having someone to share all the special moments with—and isn’t that what writing romance is all about? Bringing two people together who weren’t quite complete living apart. Giving them each someone to love them and support them, cherishing their dreams as if they are their own. That’s what I want to do with each pair of lovers in every book I write. That’s what I want to do with Midnight In Your Arms, which, no matter what happens in my career, will always be my First—and as we all know, your First matters!

And now I will go, because I am elbows deep in edits, trying to make a stable time loop make sense.

You’ll understand when you read it.

Love, Morgan.