A Double With Donna

This month sees the eBook release of A Deal at the Altar in the UK.

My SOS: Convenient Husband Required is paired with the debut book of one of my best writing buddies, Donna Alward, Hired By the Cowboy, in this 2-in-1.

Donna has gone on to write the fabulous Jewel Cove series of books and is now a New York Times bestselling author.

Here are the blurbs -

This convenient arrangement could be so much more! Two popular marriage of convenience stories—in one convenient volume!—from New York Times bestselling author Donna Alward and Liz Fielding.

Hired by the Cowboy
Alexis Grayson can look after herself—even if she's alone and pregnant. But gorgeous cowboy Connor Madsen seems determined to take care of her. Since he needs a temporary wife, Alexis decides she can help him. A short-term marriage will solve their difficulties…until this wife-for-hire wants a marriage for real!

SOS: Convenient Husband Required
May Coleridge must marry to inherit her family home and keep her new business afloat. Adam Wavell has turned his life around and is a corporate success story. But when his sister leaves him with her screaming baby, a deal must be done. May will help Adam with his niece if he'll answer her SOS!

Here are the links -

Amazon (this link will take you to your local Amazon store.
Harlequin
iBooks
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Mills and Boon

My year....

Some highlights of my year....

For His Eyes Only was published.

Anything But Vanilla shortlisted for the RoNA Rose!

 The Bride, the Baby and the Best Man re-issued as eBook

A new grandbaby - Etienne John - arrived on 16 October

Twenty-second anniveresary of first book celebrated sith a reissue in a lovely new cover!

End of year perfection with a two-in-one duet with the wonderful Donna Alward!

Take one cowboy, one tycoon and two desperate women...

This is the best fun! A book share with my best online buddy, Donna Alward is released in the United States today.

A Deal at the Altar is a two-in-one containing two marriage of convenience stories - Donna's cowboy romance HIRED BY THE COWBOY (originally published in 2007) and my UK/Dallas based romance, SOS: CONVENIENT HUSBAND REQUIRED (originally published 2010).

Here are the blurby bits -

Hired By the Cowboy

Alexis Grayson is good at looking after herself - she's been doing it all her life. So what if she's alone and pregnant? She'll cope But gorgeous cowboy Connor Madsen seems determined to take care of her. And Alexis can help him - he needs a temporary wife; she needs somewhere to live until the baby's born. A short-term marriage will solve all their difficulties!

SOS: Convenient Husband Required

May Coleridge must marry before she's thirty to inherit her family home and keep her new business afloat.

Adam Wavell comes from a long line of wastrels—but he's turned his life around. He's a corporate success story and a pillar of the community. Only, now his flaky sister has left him with her screaming baby! 

A deal must be done. May will help Adam with his niece if he'll answer her SOS!


Some reviews for Hired By the Cowboy
A story that will have you crying one minute and hoping that the love of two people can survive through anything. If you like a OLD fashion romance then read a good book by Donna Alward and you will have trouble putting the book down. A must read for any of the avid readers. I enjoyed the story immensely and friends would find anytime this book to read. ... a reader at Amazon

"...sincere, sweet, romantic, having all of the elements which make a great love story!" --Pink Heart Society Reviews


Some reviews for SOS: Convenient Husband Required

"This is a great summer fun read! I don’t think anyone but Liz Fielding could make this theme work or work so well. The story is part ‘baby on the doorstep’ (desktop), part ‘poor boy to rich boy’, part Jane Austen style entailment caused ‘marriage of convenience’ and for good measure there’s a touch of ‘thriller- adventure’ to give the story a dash of life and death drama. I guess you can do this after you’ve written over sixty books!" from a review posted by an eHarlequin.com member,

This was a great story of a love lost that is found again. A baby and archaic will help May and Adam realize that they always had one another but they just didn't know it! Angie at Goodreads

Here are the links -

Amazon US
iBooks
Barnes and Noble

I'm sorry that there's no KOBO link, but they won't let me link to the US site from the UK, however if you click on the link in the sidebar I have no doubt it will take you to your home market.

Spring Memories Part 2: Easter - by Donna Alward

I love Easter.

When I was a girl, Easter always seemed to mark the TRUE beginning of spring. I used to love getting up Easter morning to see what the Easter Bunny brought me, and it was usually a basket with treats and fun stuff like a new skipping rope or Frisbee or ball along with a healthy (or unhealthy) amount of chocolate and jelly beans. I didn’t even mind the chocolate-covered marshmallow stuff. It was AWESOME.

But my favourite part of Easter was the new dress and shoes. 

In our family, we took the “no white shoes after Labour Day but okay on/after Easter” thing very seriously.  I almost always had a new dress to wear to church on Sunday morning, probably in a pastel colour with some ruffles at sleeve, neck or hem.  You did not wear that dress before Easter.  And of course last year’s shoes wouldn’t fit, so it was off to town for a new pair of white ones. The best Easter Sundays were the ones where your white shoes were open toed or sandals for summer and it was warm enough that it made sense to wear them.

When my girls were little, Holy Week was fairly crazy. I sang in our church choir, which meant services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and again Easter Sunday. Our pieces on Thursday and Friday were always somber, and one was usually a version of “Were You There”.  In a darkened church on Good Friday, the sound of that hymn being sung a cappella by the choir in 3 part harmony was haunting. We would dress in winter clothes…dark trousers or dresses and black shoes. But then, Easter morning would arrive, and my girls would be able to wear THEIR Easter dresses and new shoes (usually courtesy of Payless) and we’d head off to church where we’d smell Easter Lilies and sing bright and happy songs to celebrate the Resurrection. I remember one year the girls had new dresses in lilac and golden yellow, with cute little box pleats and matching wide-brimmed hats. Oh my, those were the days (these days it’s more about heels and eyeliner).

I definitely understand that not everyone celebrates the religious holiday of Easter, but I think most can relate to a day where we leave the darkness of winter behind and celebrate a bright new season of life and colour.

Do you have a “Rite of Spring” where you throw off the shackles of winter?

Donna’s latest book is THE HOUSE ON BLACKBERRY HILL, out on April 29^th and the first title in her new Jewell Cove series from St. Martin’s Press. Catch up with her on her website at www.donnaalward.com and don’t forget to enter the Blog Hop contest for your chance to win a great box of books, chocolate, T-shirts, a Tote bag and more!

Here's the Rafflecopter - you know what you have to do!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Spring Memories Part 1: Down on the Farm… from Donna Alward

Spring is not my favourite season.

Late spring? Sure. In the late spring green things are sprouting, flowers are starting to bloom, days are longer, and there’s this feeling that summer is right around the corner.

But that happens closer to the May side of things, and spring “officially” starts on March 20^th or 21^st. Why don’t I like it so much? Well, it’s a bit dirty, to be honest. The snow melts, but then the ground is muddy and it smells…not so nice. Dirt tracks into the house. Even the road, when it’s dry, is a pain because it’s covered with gravel from the sand trucks going all winter. The dog tracks in with muddy feet. The trees are still gnarled and bare and the grass is brown. Sigh.

Still, I have some good memories of early spring from when I was a kid. For instance, as soon as the driveway and parking lot were clear at school, it marked the beginning of skipping season. Either singles ropes or doubles, and things really got fun when we had ropes of the same length and could get Double Dutch going. I spent a lot of noon hours skipping during elementary school.

It was also a time of year where I could earn some money. I grew up on an apple farm, and during March my dad did all the winter pruning. In the mature orchards, that meant a lot of branches on the ground, branches that had to be picked up. I spent spring Saturdays picking brush – piling it precisely in the middle of the rows between the trees, so my dad could come along after with the bush hog and grind it up. It was back breaking work, and sometimes there was still snow on the ground so feet and hands got cold and wet. But the money was worth it!

Once pruning was over, it was time to look at fertilizing. By the time I was eight, I was driving the smaller tractor we owned. My dad and our hired hand would fill buckets with fertilizer and spread it around the trees by hand while I drove the tractor with the wagon behind it. If there was a really soft spot, my dad would hop on the tractor and get me around the corner to the next row. I was so short that to push in the brake and clutch, I had to stand up off the seat. But driving the tractor was really cool and I earned some money doing that, too.

By the time the fertilizer was spread, it got more fun. My dad was the local “dealer” for fruit trees in our area, and he took orders over the winter and got the trees in May. The trees needed to be kept somewhere moist, so we also got a few loads of sawdust to keep them in. My job was to go out and water them with the garden hose until “Pick Up Day”. I knew where different varieties were, so when Pick Up Day arrived, I was out in the big metal building that was our barn, helping bundle trees together, putting a little sawdust in the empty fertilizer bags to keep the roots wet for when people took them home. I loved Pick Up Day!

It always seemed like once the trees were gone, spring was over and the real summer work began. 

Donna’s latest book is THE HOUSE ON BLACKBERRY HILL, out on April 29^th from St. Martin’s Press. You can find her at her site at www.donnaalward.com... Meanwhile she’s probably writing her next book or outside pruning and fertilizing her own apple trees. Don’t forget to enter the Chocolate Box Blog Hop contest for a great prize, including one of Donna’s latest books.

 HERE ARE THE PRIZES!

Here's the Rafflecopter! You know what you have to do!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Christmas Letter from Donna Alward

My guest today is the fabulous Donna Alward who, since she was first published six years ago, has been winning plaudits and prizes for her wonderful warm, emotional romances.

This Christmas, she has teamed up with fan favourites Fiona Harper and Shirley Jump to produce a fabulous threesome of stories (in the UK - the books stand on their own in the US).

Here is Donna to tell you about it...

 

Thanks for having me over to visit, Liz, and helping you celebrate such a great milestone. To be in this business for twenty years takes some staying power. I can’t even begin to imagine the changes that have happened in the industry over that time. I’m six years in and my mind is already blown.  Not only that, but your books continue to be as warm and charming as ever… I looked up to you way before selling my first title and I still do. There are lots of times I ask myself WWLD? (What would Liz do?) Thanks for your ever-present generosity and inviting me to share a bit about my latest release, Sleigh Ride with the Rancher.

 

I wrote this book as part of a trilogy with Fiona Harper and Shirley Jump. I couldn’t have picked two better people to work with. It was a lot of fun chatting back and forth (sometimes even about the books!) and now having the stories out for the holidays. In the US the books have come out back to back – Oct/Nov/Dec. But in the UK the Holiday Miracles trilogy has come out as a single volume called A Christmas Letter. I have serious cover love for this version. In fact, Fiona and I first caught a glimpse of it together! We were in California for the RWA conference and editorial sent it through to her e-mail. Since seeing each other in person is a very rare occasion, it was super special that we were there together. We were just missing Shirley…

 

The cool thing is that each book offers something slightly different while still blending into each other. When I got my antho copies, I read all three from start to finish so I can tell you that’s really true. If you like romantic English settings and a fairy-tale romance, Fi’s title SNOWBOUND IN THE EARL’S CASTLE is for you. If you’re into rugged heroes, independent women, and snow, then SLEIGH RIDE WITH THE RANCHER (mine! Set in frosty Canada!) should fit the bill. And if you like heartwarming, small-town Hallmark-style Christmas stories, you’ll adore Shirley’s MISTLETOE KISSES WITH THE BILLIONAIRE, where she wraps up the holiday (and the entire family!) with a big bow.

 

You can check it out at amazon uk, at Mills and Boon or if you check out the M&B facebook page, you can enter to win a copy (and a chance at a new ereader!)

 

Thanks for having me Liz, and congratulations. Here’s to many more.

PARTY DAY 4!

Day 4 - I'm starting to feel a little giddy! Maybe it's time for a sit down in the shade while the guys fire up the barbie and we sip on a cool drink.

Colin looks eager to serve.

And just to catch up, winners of books have been announced in the comments column, so do check to make sure you've followed up on that.  I will do a round up of all winners on Saturday, just to be sure you don't miss anything.

My first guest today is the charming Nell Dixon, who writes for Little Black Dress in the UK, Samhain and Astraea Press in the US.  She has twice won the prestigious Romantic Novelists’ Association “Romance Prize” with the accompanying Betty Neels’ Rosebowl – the only author to manage that extraordinary feat.

I first met her face to face at an RNA conference in Leicester and spent a very pleasant Sunday afternoon on the train with as we headed for the hub at Birmingham.

She’s come along today with a copy of her exciting new title, DANGEROUS TO KNOW, which seems to have a whiff of the suspense about it – and haven’t we all been longing for the return of romantic suspense?

The authors who turned me onto romance were Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart.  Whose book first grabbed you by the heart and made you a lifelong fan of romance?

Moving over to let Donna Alward – darling girl – slide in beside me.

I’ve known her since she was a “wannabe” author on the eHarlequin community; she calls me her “writing mum” and was thrilled to celebrate with her when she joined the tanks of the Harlequin “Romance” authors.  She’s had a pretty stellar year, being shortlisted in a fistful of prestigious published author competitions and I’m so glad she could find a moment to drop by and offer one of her lovely romances as a door prize at my party.


Donna is giving away two of her books, her latest Harlequin "Romance", A FAMILY FOR THE RUGGED RANCHER, and an ARC of the new Samhain, BREATHE.

Donna writes a stunning cowboy.  


Karin Stoecker, until recently the Editorial Director of Romance HQ in the UK, once told me that a sheikh was a cowboy in a different hat.


With that in mind, which hat would your hero be wearing?

Oh, look, Daniel's just turned up to give Colin a hand. 


Excellent!


My next guest, Chris Stovell, is almost a neighbour.

She lives in the next county to me and is a member of the Carmarthen chapter of the RNA. She was also my flatmate at the recent RNA conference at Caerleon; fun to be with and a wonderful author.  

I hope she’ll manage to visit today – she’s in the middle of having her new house rewired so life is a bit on the edge for her at the moment.

She’s offered a copy of her first book, published by ChocLit called TURNING THE TIDE.  The inspiration was her love of the sea and sailing and it’s an “all’s fair in love and war” romance with two strong characters facing off against each other, a wonderful cast of supporting players and some touching sub plots.

Are you captivated by the sea? Does the snap of a sail make your heart beat faster? Or are you a river, or lake woman?  Paddling about in a dinghy, or gliding along in a punt? What memory lingers of a watery moment?






And while you're thinking about that, dig in...

ARE YOU A HARLEQUIN ROMANCE FAN?

At a time that's seeing a huge growth in the market for romances that don't focus on explicit sex but on the relationship between the hero and heroine, fellow HR author, Donna Alward, is writing an article for Romantic Times BOOKclub magazine about the very special appeal of Harlequin Romance, the series that started it all.

For those of you who don't know this, many of the books published in the Cherish and Riva series (including my own) are published as Harlequin Romance in the US so, like Donna I'm eager to hear exactly what it is that, no matter what other books or Harlequin series you read, you still come back to Harlequin Romance, or Cherish or RIVA authors such as Jessica Hart, Nina Harrington, Fiona Harper and myself.
.

You can leave a comment here, or email me on liz @ lizfielding dot com.  I will need an email addy so that Donna can contact you for permission to quote.  Or you can go direct to the source on the eHarlequin website and leave a comment here

COLORADO AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

I had a bit of news last night, just before I went to bed.  The kind that good dreams are made from.

SOS: Convenient Husband Required has been shortlisted in the Short Contemporary Category for the Colorado Award of Excellence

Also listed is my good friend, Harlequin Romance author Donna Alward for her book HER LONE COWBOY - which I have read and loved.

And if you want to check out more recent good news for Harlequin Romance authors, then click here

DONNA'S PICKED A WINNER!

According to Liz I've been slacking on the hero front. Never let it be said that I don't take my duties seriously, so I'm here to post a note from the delightful Donna Alward.

Donna...

Thanks, Tom. (Whew! Fanning myself here.) Okay, here goes.

All the comments really proved what great memorable characters Liz writes, and I was really happy to see some heroes make the list and not just heroines! This week’s winner is Maureen. Maureen said she liked Belle because she made a really difficult choice and then had to live with it. This really summarizes a lot of what I feel about characters in general, and in The Soldier’s Homecoming, both Shannyn and Jonas have made choices they have to live with now, years later. So, if Maureen will send in her address, I’ll happily put her signed copy in the post!

Thanks for inviting me Liz!

...

Thanks for that, Tom. Did I say you were slacking? Never in a million years...

Congratulations, Maureen, and thank you for a terrific weekend, Donna. I can't wait to read The Soldier's Homecoming.

Abby Green will be here this weekend, with her latest Mills & Boon Modern/Harlequin Presents. I've read her excerpt, believe me, you won't want to miss it!

ST PATRICK’S DAY...

To those of you of the emerald persuasion,
have a brilliant day!




THE LOVELY DONNA...

What a great guest Donna has been this weekend. It was such fun hearing which of my characters were most memorable. And useful, too. Clearly chocolate and burgers make a great heroine – something to be for the future.

Right now I’m writing another slightly larger than life heroine who has a little cottage industry making home made sweets. Fudge, coconut ice, something close to tootsie rolls. I discovered tootsie rolls on the web and my dd sighed with remembered pleasure – apparently she ate them by the bucket load when she was working in the States. There is something about that name that is slightly naughty that is just perfect for a romantic comedy don’t you think?.

A BRIDE FOR ALL SEASONS...

Spring is just about here and my spring bride’s book, The Bride’s Baby is already on sale online – and as a eBook. Now the wonderfully talented and incredibly kind Trish Wylie has put together a special blog for this four books series (the other three are by Fiona Harper, Trish Wylie and Shirley Jump) so if you want excerpts, links and all things wedding related (plus the chance to win all four books), go to here to check it out.

THE LAPTOP AND I...

The laptop saga continues. This morning it was returned by courier. I hugged it to my bosom, crooned over it like a baby.
The work note from the “tech guys” said “No error found”. That had to be good, didn’t it? Nothing lost. I would have all those emails I hadn’t had time to answer. Get all my addresses back. Retrieve my lost chapter...

Elation remained until I plugged it in and switched it on.
Nothing. It was, in fact, worse than when I’d sent it away. Then it was only the screen that was dead. Now nothing works. So it’s being picked up again tomorrow.

Another week...

IT'S BEEN QUITE A WEEK!

Gale force winds brought down a huge tree that smashed through the roof of the old village school in Golden Grove (if you're an Under Milk Wood fan that name will ring a bell), just down the road from us. It's been closed for a couple of years and there was no one inside at the time, but when I drove past yesterday it was a sorry sight. It's a pretty stone building in a group with an equally pretty village church and the great manse. Needless to say, I didn't have my camera with me.

Then, the minute I finished posting my blog on Monday, my laptop died on me. I'm usually good about backing up, but somehow my head has been all over the place with the book I'm writing and a whole lot of stuff slipped through the net. The poor thing was picked up this morning and taken away to be made better (fingers crossed) and now I'm struggling with a strange machine.

My worst concern was the fact that I'd lost all the stuff that this week's guest, Donna Alward, had sent me in plenty of time.

I met Donna online on the eHarlequin message boards before she was published by Harlequin/Mills & Boon. She was enormous fun, loved the Harlequin Romance series and we all gave the biggest cheer when HIRED BY THE COWBOY was bought and published.

This wonderful warm and emotional read set the standard for Donna's storytelling and she has quickly become a fan-favourite. I'm delighted that, in what is a very hectic time for her, she's able to spend a little time celebrating with me and sharing news of her latest book, THE SOLDIER'S HOMECOMING with all of us.

Donna...

I’m so happy to be here and help Liz celebrate such a glorious milestone. Some days I get to be completely awed at what I’m doing and the company I’m doing it with. This is one of those days.

When I first starting reading in the Romance line, Liz was one author I knew I was going to love, as soon as I read the first book. She creates such memorable characters. One of my favourites ever is Dodi from The Bridesmaid’s Reward…I mean who can’t appreciate a woman with a love of a fine hamburger! I’ll always love that scene!

And when I was a regular on the eharlequin boards looking to get published, she was incredibly generous with her advice and support. I was a little star-struck at first but she’s so friendly and has such a unique sense of humour that I soon got over it! Well, for the most part. I think I’ll always be a little star-struck because I simply respect her and what she’s accomplished so much.

Now I’m fortunate to call her my friend, and that’s very, very special to me.

To help celebrate Liz has again shown her generosity in inviting several of us to tell you about our latest books. Mine is THE SOLDIER'S HOMECOMING, out this month and it is the hardest thing I’ve ever written, probably because I loved my hero so much that it hurt to torture him so! I could feel his pain, his guilt, his feelings that he wasn’t worthy any more. He’s a Special Forces soldier, wounded, working as an instructor as he isn’t medically cleared for combat. He’s feeling guilty because he survived an attack that he considers his fault. Everything he based his identity on, is gone.

Of course, what he needs a woman strong enough to stand beside him. The only problem is, that very woman has betrayed him by keeping a secret…the fact that she had his baby five years earlier.

Here’s a short excerpt…from when he learns the truth:

The door to the back opened and she heard his voice talking to Geneva, thanking her politely. Shannyn turned her head towards the sound, only to snap it back abruptly as the front office door swung open carrying laughter with it.

“Mommy!”

A charged bundle in jeans and a red t-shirt barreled across the floor towards Shannyn’s desk, bouncing to a halt and grinning up precociously. “Surprise! I came from kindergarten!”
Jonas released Geneva’s hand as he turned, his heart stopping for a brief moment as the girl wrapped her chubby arms around Shannyn’s neck.

I have a daughter. The thought struck him like the sure aim of a bullet.

As if she sensed something was off, the girl turned her head and their eyes met, green to green. Every muscle in his body tightened with the impact of the truth. This is Shannyn’s daughter.

She’s in school. I left six years ago. She has my eyes.

Shannyn’s cheeks coloured; the blatant guilt on her face and the way she shifted in her chair seemed to confirm his suspicion. This was his daughter, one Shannyn had kept hidden from him all this time. A tiny poppet who looked eerily like the pictures of himself he remembered from his grandmother’s photo album.

All of it left him gutted. How much more could he lose? He clenched his fingers. It wasn’t enough to have the life he’d made for himself ripped away in the space of a moment. Now he had to find out he had another, separate life that he hadn’t even known existed.

It took every ounce of his self-control to not go to the little girl, to kneel before her and demand to see her eyes again. Moss green eyes. His eyes in a miniature of Shannyn’s delicate features. But what would that accomplish beyond frightening the child? She wouldn’t understand. He didn’t understand.

Congratulations Liz on Fifty Fabulous books! And thanks for letting me celebrate with you!

I’ve got a copy of The Soldier’s Homecoming up for grabs…all you have to do is post in the comments and tell us who your favourite Liz Fielding character is!

And, a final word from Liz, if you can't wait,you can buy now here. And don't forget, it's also available as an eBook!