Weekly Winners, Eileen Dreyer, JAKE'S WAY, and Beach Blanket Bingo

We have winners at SOS Aloha from the past two weeks - LadbookFan, Gretchen, Glenda, Alexia, Girlygirlhoosier, and Denise win a book choice from my convention stash. Winners, please send your mailing address to sos.aloha@yahoo.com.

Award season is upon us ... romance author Eileen Dreyer takes to Facebook to share her thoughts on the winning gowns and winners' speeches. From her bio (link),

New York Times bestselling, award-winning author Eileen Dreyer, known as Kathleen Korbel to her Silhouette readers, has published 31 romance novels in most of the sub-genres, 8 medical-forensic suspenses, and 7 short stories.

A retired trauma nurse, Eileen lives in her native St. Louis with her husband, children, and large and noisy Irish family, of which she is the reluctant matriarch. She has animals but refuses to subject them to the limelight.

A frequent speaker at conferences, Eileen is also an addicted traveler, having sung in some of the best Irish pubs in the world, and admits she sees research as a handy way to salve her insatiable curiosity. She counts film producers, police detectives and Olympic athletes as some of her sources and friends. She’s also trained in forensic nursing and death investigation, which she figures could come in handy if this writing thing doesn’t pan out.

Eileen is rereleasing her classic Kathleen Korbel novels, including JAKE'S WAY, Wounded Heroes Collection No. 1:

Everybody knows Jake Kendall. Jake is a success story. Orphaned early, he did such a good job turning around a failing Wyoming horse ranch, he put his three siblings through school and gained a nationwide reputation.

Amanda Marlow is the epitome of an east coast author: bright, funny, curious. When she shows up at a cabin on Jake’s land to research a book, she threatens Jake’s entire world. She represents everything he longs for: freedom, exploration, learning. But Jake has a secret that could bring his entire life tumbling down. And if he lets Amanda close, she could expose it.

Eileen is joining us for Beach Blanket Bingo at the RT Booklovers' Convention (link),

Join Annette Funicello (Kim Rocha) & Frankie Avalon (Kim Lowe) for a special edition of Book Cover Bingo. Expect spontaneous singing, dancing, & flirting with lifeguards inspired by the beloved 60s film. Readers will join sun loving authors at their favorite beaches and compete for the book laden gift baskets ... perfect for the sand and surf!

Eileen's favorite beach is Inch Strand, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland.  From Dingleway.com (link),

Famous for being the place where an inch is actually three miles long, the fantastic beach at Inch has been chosen several times as a film location. Hollywood movies that are familiar household names include "Ryan's Daughter" and "Playboy of the Western World". With continuous barrage of long rolling waves that come crashing ashore, it is easy to see why this dramatic setting has been picked time and time again.

A popular attraction for bird-watchers is the nature reserve behind the banks of sand dunes on the strand. These wetlands are important wintering grounds for many ducks and waders.

inchbeach.com

I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Leave a comment about Wyoming or Ireland!  My husband briefly lived in Laramie, Wyoming, when he Air Force father earned his degree in Engineering through AFIT.  His mother often shares the story of moose walking down the street.  Hubby and I have visited County Kerry, Ireland - just gorgeous!

2. Comments are open through Sunday, February 5, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3. I'll post the winner on Monday, February 6.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

visitlaramie.org

On this day in history ... the first Navy nurses

Today's trivia is worthy of writing a second post. From the Navy History website (link),

Red Rover, the Navy's first hospital ship, was a side-wheel steamer built in 1859 at Cape Girardeau, Mo. Purchased by the Confederacy 7 November 1861, she served as CSS Red Rover (see II, 560), a barracks ship for the floating battery New Orleans. At Island No. 10, near New Madrid, Mo., from 15 March 1862, she was holed during a bombardment of that island sometime before 25 March and abandoned as a quarters ship.

When the island fell to Union forces on 7 April, Red Rover was seized by the Union gunboat Mound City, repaired, and taken to St. Louis. There she was fitted out as a summer hospital boat for the Army's Western Flotilla to augment limited Union medical facilities, to minimize the hazards to sick and wounded in fighting ships; and to ease the problems of transportation-delivery of medical supplies to and evacuation of personnel from forward areas.

In December, Red Rover, used during the fall to alleviate crowded medical facilities ashore, was ready for service on the river. On the 26th, she was commissioned under the command of Acting Master William R. Wells, USN. Her complement was 47, while her medical department, remaining under Assistant Surgeon Bixby, was initially about 30. Of that number, three were Sisters of the Order of the Holy Cross. Later joined by a fourth member of their order and assisted by lay nurses' aides, they were the forerunners of the Navy Nurse Corps.

Group photograph of the first twenty Navy Nurses in 1908

Public Domain (link)

As we continue to enjoy the Christmas holiday, let us remember those who serve - military, medical, first responders, and law enforcement.  

I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash to one randomly selected commenter. To enter the giveaway,

1. Do you have any nurses in your family?  I don't have any in my family ... but I have serveral friends, including nurses turned authors Eileen Dreyer and Siera London!  Bonus - Siera is a retired Navy nurse!

2. Comments are open through Sunday, January 1, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3. I'll post the winner on Monday, January 2.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

Navy Flight Nurse School, 1940s
Public Domain (link)

Aloha to Eileen Dreyer and A FINE MADNESS

Aloha!  I am away from home this week with limited internet access. I hope you enjoy the book spotlights in my absence ...

Eileen Dreyer is celebrating the rerelease of A FINE MADNESS from her alter ego, Kathleen Korbel, hence the name Korbel Classics. Should you have the opportunity to meet Eileen, ask her how she chose her pen name ...

A Fine Madness by Eileen Dreyer

Quinn Rutledge has been hired to remodel historic Hartley Hall into a 5-star hotel.

Ian Matthews, a Special Forces officer in the Queen's Protection service, is vetting the hall's security for a secret international meeting, and presents himself to Quinn as a corporate officer checking on her progress.

All seems simple enough, until the pair uncover a crazed band of terrorists, a destructive ghost with an odd sense of humor, and an inconvenient attraction to each other.

Neither have time for love, and Ian is the embodiment of everything that went wrong with Quinn's first marriage. But Love doesn't care.

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
GooglePlay 

New York Times bestselling, RWA Hall of Fame author Eileen Dreyer has published 31 romance novels in most genres, 8 medical ­forensic suspenses, and 10 short stories.

2016 sees Eileen enjoying critical acclaim for her foray into historical romance, the Drake’s Rakes series, which Eileen labels as Regency Romantic Adventure that follows a group of Regency aristocrats who are willing to sacrifice everything to keep their country safe. She is also working on her first non­fiction book, TRAVELS WITH DAVE, about a journey she's been taking with a friend's ashes.

A retired trauma nurse, Eileen lives in her native St. Louis with her husband, children, and large and noisy Irish family, of which she is the reluctant matriarch. She has animals but refuses to subject them to the limelight.

Website: eileendreyer.com

Facebook: facebook.com/EileenDreyer

Twitter: @eileendreyer

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Eileen offers an excerpt from A FINE MADNESS ...

He was about to reach behind him for the door, intent on closing her out, when she turned to him. She opened her mouth and then, suddenly, her eyes. She was looking over Ian's shoulder.

Ian's reflexes were the best, but this time he never stood a chance. Before he could move, the heavy oak door slammed into his back like a battering ram, pushing him right at Quinn. His choices were to grab on to her or fall on his face. He grabbed on to her. And then he fell on his face.

"Urn.... excuse me."

It was all Quinn could manage with the wind knocked out of her. Ian had landed right on top of her, his weight mashing her against the floor. The slamming door still echoed faintly down the hallway, and down in the foyer, Copenhagen barked. Quinn lay flat on her back trying to get a breath, trying to get her mind to work as fast as her heart. Trying to quell the sudden chills racing through her from the intimate contact of a very virile man.

"Sorry, "Ian mumbled in her ear, the whisper of his breath sending shivers down her legs. His face was in her hair, his body stretched out over hers, his arms still around her.

Quinn couldn't imagine what she should do next. She couldn't believe what she wanted to do. Her heart was thundering, and it certainly wasn't from the ghost's latest surprise. She actually fought the urge to turn her face to his, to nuzzle the rich gold of his hair.

"No... no problem," she managed, acutely uncomfortable. "I'd really like to move, though, if it's all the same to you."

He didn't budge. Quinn could hardly feel him breathing against her. "In a moment. Do you mind?"

She turned her face toward him. "I beg your pardon?"

She'd been in England too long. Back home it would have sounded more like, "What the hell do you mean, do I mind?" But then she realized how tight his voice sounded, and remembered that limp.

"No," she obliged instead, trying to relax a few muscles. "No problem. Anything I can do?"

She couldn't believe she was being so calm. Here she was lying on the floor in a strange man's arms and they hadn't even had supper together yet.

"Thank you, no."

Quinn wasn't quite sure what to do next. Her own arms were still around Ian's back, and she could feel the quiver of taut muscle. She smelled wood smoke and heard the rasp of his breathing. Those curious little chills still raced up and down her back, multiplying, snaking along her limbs.

"Your leg?" she ventured carefully, eyes rigidly to the ceiling molding where Antique Ceiling White had been untidily splattered against Old Ivory.

"Mmm."

"Feel free to curse," she suggested diffidently. It was certainly something she was considering.

He actually smiled. Quinn could feel it against her cheek. "Wouldn't be sporting, now, would it?"

Quinn chuckled. "I wasn't aware we were on a playing field."

It took him a second to make up his mind. His voice wasn't quite as robust as the colonel's, but Ian's repertoire was at least as impressive, leaving Quinn with the impression that he'd also spent his share of time in the military. Either that or he was an ardent soccer fan.

"Better?" she asked without moving.

"Oh, much."

Quinn fought the urge to stroke that rich soft hair that tickled her cheek. She considered curling her arms just a little tighter around that rock-solid back.

The thought died stillborn. Without warning, Ian pushed himself up to a sitting position.

She stared at him, stunned. Considering the fact that he'd evidently been disabled enough to keep him from moving out of a strange woman's arms for what had seemed like at least an hour, he looked pretty damned composed. His face was a bit pasty, but his eyes sparkled with the most annoying humor. And Quinn was still lying on the floor with the smell of his hair in her nostrils, wondering why she should resent his moving.

"Need a hand up?" he asked, reaching over. “I'd like to continue looking about. But first, I need a change of clothing.”

It took Quinn a minute, but she reached for his hand.

His pull was easy and strong, not a hint of discomfort marring his classic features. Stiff upper lip, hell, Quinn thought. The way this guy healed he should have been a football player.

Then he smiled again. "Your hair smells wonderful, by the way."

Quinn froze. He still held her hand in his callused one, and he looked down on her with those crystal-gray eyes. And Quinn, who had spent the majority of her life avoiding complications just like Ian, found herself enchanted.

"Thank you. Uh... the chapel in fifteen minutes then?"

I'll be the one praying for sanity.

More books from Korbel Classics ... 

Aloha to Eileen Dreyer, Kathleen Korbel, and THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA

I enjoyed the pictures posted online yesterday for Veterans Day. Many authors in Romanceland contributed to the pictures ... and have supported military tributes at the RT Booklovers' Convention. In fact, Eileen Dreyer sang twice - a special song for her father in 2011 and the National Anthem in 2014.  Eileen is a woman of many talents, including writing humorous contemporary romance as Kathleen Korbel (I believe a bottle of Korbel influenced her pen name).  Eileen is celebrating the digital release of THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA:

Moritanian Crown Princess Cassandra leads a fairy-tale existence. Some consider her the most spoiled woman in Europe. Then she is kidnapped.

Retired spy Paul Phillips is a self-made man more at home with flying bullets and fast cars than champagne and caviar. Then he finds Crown Princess Cassandra.

Now speeding through Europe, the pair are ducking enemies and each other. But as sparks fly, they wonder if they might be driving toward a fairy tale ending.

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

New York Times bestselling, RWA Hall of Fame author Eileen Dreyer has published 31 romance novels in most genres, 8 medical­ forensic suspenses, and 10 short stories.

(Kim's note:  It is amazing to see the Rita pins on Eileen's badge holder)

2015 sees Eileen enjoying critical acclaim for her foray into historical romance, the Drake’s Rakes series, which Eileen labels as Regency Romantic Adventure that follows a group of Regency aristocrats who are willing to sacrifice everything to keep their country safe. She is also working on her first non­fiction book, TRAVELS WITH DAVE, about a journey she's been taking with a friend's ashes.

A retired trauma nurse, Eileen lives in her native St. Louis with her husband, children, and large and noisy Irish family, of which she is the reluctant matriarch. She has animals but refuses to subject them to the limelight.

eileendreyer.com

facebook.com/EileenDreyer
@eileendreyer

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Eileen offers a sneak peek at THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA

"You can't steal just any car," Paul said as they drove by yet another candidate.

It was dusk, the clouds deepening the gloom and a cold northerly wind whistling at the car windows. Quitting the little cabin at sundown, they'd been cruising the streets and restaurant parking lots in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen for the better part of an hour trying to find a likely car to steal. The chances were that Paul's car had already been identified, leaving them vulnerable at a crossing. In a new car, though, he still might get by with just flashing his passport.

"What difference does it make?" Cassandra asked, scanning the other side of the street. The car Paul had just turned down had been a Citroen, ugly but serviceable. "The speed?"

"The style. There are certain cars I wouldn't be caught dead in."

She stared at him. "Well, now that certainly makes sense. Just what car would you like to be caught dead in? It might come to that if we don't stop fooling around."

Cassandra was feeling better for the five hours' sleep she'd managed that afternoon. For the first time in over two months, she'd felt safe in a bed. She'd been secure enough not even to dream. Paul had kept his vigil by the front window, claiming not to be tired. Cassandra realized that he was just watching out for problems. Shamelessly, she'd let him, and slept like a newborn beneath the delicious down comforter.

"Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini. Mercedes Sport if I'm really pressed."

She shook her head, delighted. "And I'm the one with the difficult reputation. Right now, I'd settle for a horse-drawn cart."

"You wouldn't if you'd ever had to outdrive the competition on a mountain road," he assured her with an unrepentant grin.

"A Volvo can do the job."

"But not with as much class. A man has a reputation to uphold."

"Who did you work for before your government?" Cassandra asked. "A chop shop?"

Paul turned on her, surprised by her terminology.

"Contrary to popular belief," Cassandra informed him archly, "the modern-day princess is quite well informed."

"She also seems to watch Miami Vice."

She relented with a smile. "Only after the banking conferences are over."

"There it is."

They'd pulled into the back of a small parking lot, away from the lights of a restaurant where dinner was most likely being served. In the corner, crouched like a nocturnal beast, sat a black Ferrari. It was wedged between a Volvo and an old model Peugeot.

"Aren't you asking for trouble?" Cassandra demanded, instinctively liking the line of the expensive sports car. "The owner of that Ferrari is going to scream a lot louder about his car being missing than the Peugeot's owner is."

"We'll only need it for a few hours."

"And then we'll give it right back?"

"Of course not. By then we'll be in Switzerland. But we'll leave it there safe and secure. I'll even let the police know where to find it."

"What about your car?" she asked. "How are you going to get it back?"

"I'll leave it in the lot at the train station. Then in a couple of days, I'll have a friend pick it up."

"You have those?"

"Friends? Yeah. And they all like fast cars. By the way, do you drive?"

Cassandra concealed a dry smile of triumph. "Oh, I get by."

"A stick shift?"

"Uncle Eric taught me on the Daimler."

Paul rolled his eyes. A Daimler was a great car. It was not, however, a Porsche or Ferrari. "Do you think you could drive my car down to the train station and park it without running into anything?"

Cassandra nodded, now thoroughly enjoying herself. "I think so."

He nodded, pulling to a stop before the Ferrari. "Okay. I'll meet you there in ten minutes. Try not to get kidnapped again before I get there."

Paul stepped out and handed over the driver's seat to Cassandra. He was just about to lean back in the window to give a few final warnings, when she slid the car into reverse and backed to the end of the parking lot at about thirty miles an hour. Yanking on the emergency brake and spinning the wheel, she executed a perfect 180-degree turn and sped out onto the street, her taillights disappearing quickly down the mountainous road.

Back in the parking lot, Paul could only stare. “Well, I'll be damned.”

Aloha to Eileen Dreyer and PRINCE OF A GUY

The Magic of Books 

by Eileen Dreyer

I grew up in a two-bedroom house with ten people. My dad hated for me to say that. He was always afraid people would think we were like an Erskine Caldwell novel, in a hovel down by the tracks. It wasn't. It was a lovely, tidy little house in a great neighborhood where we played out in the evenings and had block parties. But the house had two bedrooms. My sister and I were in one, my parents in the other and the boys and my grandpa in the attic my dad had tailored.

The thing about living in a family like that was that we had great educations, and a lot of sports and camping, because that's what we could afford. Once a year we took a twelve hour trek up through Illinois into Michigan to stay at a cabin my uncle had built on Lake Michigan.

My memories of those visits were my first indication that I yearned for greater, more magical things than a ballerina-wallpapered bedroom and kick the can in the street. That lake was magic to me, something so alien to my landlocked existence in St. Louis that I was forever having dreams that somehow they'd built land up in the lake like Amsterdam, and somebody put a car plant right in front of the cottage. And yet, every year we would come over that last little hill, and there would be the lake sparkling all the way to the horizon, the beach empty and golden, the clouds piling up in in the distance. It was my Wonderland. My Oz. The closest thing to great travel and adventure I could imagine.

And then, I found the library. I'll never forget those first great realizations that inside a book I could go anywhere I wanted to. It was breathtaking to me. I could fly to Corfu or take a tramp steamer to the South Seas, sail in an old tall ship to India and drive Route 66 all the way to the Pacific. Within my imagination and an author's words the world—the universe—was mine.

And then, I came to my second realization. I could not only go wherever I wanted, I could be whoever I wanted: a girl detective, an army nurse, a rabbit, a wise man from India, an evil sorcerer. A nun. A cowboy.

I already had an imagination. Books fed it like water a plant in the desert. I mean, my physical world was limited. But I found that the world inside my mind was immense. And more and more I wanted to spend time there.

And then. Oh, and then I discovered if I didn't find it in a book, I could put it in my own book. I was ten when I began to write my own stories. I'd been devouring Nancy Drews like jellybeans and reached the inevitable end. I do really remember the day I walked up to Mrs. Madras at the Brentwood Library.

“Excust me, Mrs. Madras,” I said. “I've read all the Nancy Drews back there. Where are more?”

“There are no more,” she said. “Not til next year.”

Next year?!! I could be dead next year!(now lest you think I was unpardonably dramatic—I was only pardonably dramatic—this happened in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis when we spent afternoons curled up under our desks preparing for nuclear holocaust). I trudged back out of that library knowing that all the joy had drained out of my life. And then? Then, literally, the lightbulb went on.

“Wait! I can write my own!” I started to smile again. “And I can make them turn out the way I want them to.”

And from that moment on I realized that not only could I visit anywhere and do anything somebody else thought of, I could create all the worlds and people I wanted myself. Pretty powerful stuff at ten. I created twin sisters who solved crime in a boarding school(I quickly realized that I'd just created a limited victim pool).

Which leads me to Prince of a Guy. Not only did I get to be a secretary from Brooklyn, I got to be a secretary from Brooklyn who had to impersonate a princess from a tiny European country(that I invented. In fact, my favorite fan letter was from an irate reader. “Dear Author. You obviously know nothing about royal protocol.” “Dear Madame,” I answered. “It's my country. It's my protocol.”). Oh, and yes. I—er, she—gets to fall in love with an actual handsome prince.

Not bad for a girl from a two bedroom house in St. Louis who didn't get on a plane 'til she was seventeen. Easy stuff for an imagination raised on adventure stories and travel(I did get to do that, too. On my webpage, under the Extra link is a TRAVEL FOR FUN page. Stop by for some stories and recommendations). I might not have gotten to the Alps before writing Prince, but I could go there any time I wanted in my imagination. And nobody told me no. 

Mahalo, Eileen, for sharing the magic of books!  Eileen is giving away a digital copy of PRINCE OF A GUY to one randomly selected commenter:

When New Yorker Casey Phillips visits the tiny country of Moritania, she simply wants to see where her ancestors came from. Instead, she's mistaken for a princess.

The real princess has been kidnapped, and Crown Prince Eric von Lieberhaven insists Casey—a dead ringer for the missing royal—step into the princess's shoes until she can be freed.

As Casey upends royal tradition, Eric finds himself hoping the cheeky American never returns home. But can a secretary from Brooklyn really find happiness with a prince?

To enter the giveaway,

1.  Leave a comment about a favorite book you checked out from the library.  I discovered romance while living in the Netherlands.  I was fortunate the Army library offered Heather Graham's romantic suspense titles set in my hometown of Miami, Florida.

2.  Comments are open through Saturday, October 17, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, October 18.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore
Aloha Spirit in Charm City

More books from the Korbel Classics Humorous Collection

Aloha Eileen Dreyer, Kathleen Korbel, and ISN'T IT ROMANTIC?

Eileen Dreyer is the female equivalent of the Dos Equis Man ... she is the most interesting author you will meet.  From her bio,

New York Times bestselling, RWA Hall of Fame author Eileen Dreyer/Kathleen Korbel has published 31 romance novels in most genres, 8 medical­ forensic suspenses, and 10 short stories.

2015 sees Eileen enjoying critical acclaim for her foray into historical romance, the Drake’s Rakes series, which Eileen labels as Regency Romantic Adventure that follows a group of Regency aristocrats who are willing to sacrifice everything to keep their country safe. She is also working on her first non­fiction book, TRAVELS WITH DAVE, about a journey she's been taking with a friend's ashes.

A retired trauma nurse, Eileen lives in her native St. Louis with her husband, children, and large and noisy Irish family, of which she is the reluctant matriarch. She has animals but refuses to subject them to the limelight.

Website
Facebook
Twitter

Eileen (left) with Patricia Rice and Cathy Maxwell
RT/2011 in Los Angeles

Eileen joins us to celebrate the re-release of ISN'T IT ROMANTIC? from her alter ego Kathleen Korbel ...

I Love a Road Trip

I love road trip stories. Maybe that's because I like to travel so much myself. But I think it's more likely that road trips automatically offer more opportunity for different experiences to impact our hero and heroine's relationship. There is inherent forward momentum.(Okay, and sometimes I get to travel myself to the places I drop my characters. You know. Research)(It's my story and I'm sticking to it).

So when I was coming up with the idea for ISN'T IT ROMANTIC? I had to figure a way to get Brooke Ferguson and Pete Cooper to have to leave home and rely on each other in order to survive and triumph over all the challenges I was going to strew in their path. And then, out of the blue came Pete's Aunt Mamie. Pete grew up with his Aunt Mamie. Brooke spent most of her formative years tagging along after Pete and her brother, which meant she, too, became best friends with the tiny gray-haired woman.

When Mamie dies, it is up to Brooke and Pete to fulfill Mamie's tenets of her will and more importantly the plan for her funeral. It seems that Mamie's fluttery Southern sisters refused her request for a Jazz Funeral or Limericks at Sunrise or an Elvis Impersonator or even to dress up as their favorite characters in Gone With The Wind.

So the day after the funeral Mamie's sisters planned for her(which didn't even include a drive-by from the Hell's Angels), Brook and Pete head out in the vintage robin's-egg-blue 1956 two-door T-bird coupe to fulfill Mamie's last wishes.

And I admit that I had a wonderful time sending them on their journey from Rupert Springs, Arkansas to New Orleans, then Shiloh, Natchez and up to Atlanta, passing time with, yes, Hell's Angels, a Jazz funeral, limericks at sunrise on the banks of the Mississippi and an otherworldly meal in an antebellum mansion named Thirteen Oaks. The fact that they also encounter a tornado and muggers just enlivens their journey from friendship to love, all the while guided by the gentle hand of Pete's canny aunt.

Brooke and Coop, as she calls him, first made this trip in 1992, when I wrote as Kathleen Korbel. It's been so much fun for me to take the trip with them again. I hope you'll come along with me.

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Eileen is giving away a digital copy of ISN'T IT ROMANTIC? to one randomly selected commenter:

Pete Cooper and Brooke Ferguson were once childhood friends who spent evenings watching TV with Pete's Aunt Mamie.

Now Pete is a famous cable news anchor who earned his stripes in war zones, and Brooke watches Pete on the same old TV in the same small town.

Then Aunt Mamie passes away, and everything changes.

When Pete and Brooke set out on a road trip to fulfill Mamie's last wishes, they discover more than tornadoes, Hell's Angels, New Orleans Jazz Funerals, and one unique antebellum mansion. They find they might just be falling in love.

To enter the giveaway, 

1.  Leave a comment about road trips - can you share a special memory?   When I was a Lieutenant at Hanscom AFB outside Boston, I took a road trip with a group of friends to Annapolis for the Air Force-Navy game.  We reserved an RV for the trip ... but we were given a van when a couple kept the RV for an extra week of fall foliage.  Luckily, we could crash at a friends' parents' house outside Annapolis.  What a weekend!

2.  Comments are open through Saturday, September 19, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, September 20.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

US Naval Academy ... it's romantic!

Aloha to Eileen Dreyer and TWICE TEMPTED

The fabulous Eileen Dreyer joins me today for a cozy chat to celebrate the release of TWICE TEMPTED.  From her bio,

A retired trauma nurse, Eileen lives in her native St. Louis with her husband, children, and large and noisy Irish family, of which she is the reluctant matriarch. She has animals but refuses to subject them to the limelight.

Dreyer won her first publishing award in 1987, being named the best new Contemporary Romance Author by RT Bookclub. Since that time she has also garnered not only six other writing awards from RT, but five RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America, which secures her only the fourth place in the Romance Writers of America prestigious Hall of Fame. Since extending her reach to suspense, she has also garnered a coveted Anthony Award nomination.

Eileen is an addicted traveler, having sung in some of the best Irish pubs in the world, and admits she sees research as a handy way to salve her insatiable curiosity. She counts film producers, police detectives and Olympic athletes as some of her sources and friends. She's also trained in forensic nursing and death investigation, although she doesn't see herself actively working in the field, unless this writing thing doesn't pan out.

eileendreyer.com
facebook.com/EileenDreyer
@eileendreyer

Kim:  Where do you keep the RITAs?

Eileen:  Actually, they're on a bookshelf in my office. Now, to be specific, it's the office where I store my research and do business. I have another little cubby where I write, because I found that when I tried writing with my awards sitting over my shoulder, they had a disconcerting habit of chuckling evilly whenever I got stuck. Kind of like, “Yeah, you thought you were so good, romance girl.” So now they laugh at my research books, and in my cubby I can't hear them.

Kim:  What Olympic sport would you be best suited to win a RITA, er, Gold?

Eileen:  I just heard my parents whimper in my head. I come from a family with five boys and athletes all around. My mom and dad coached us all in sports when I was a kid. My mom tried to teach me tennis and my dad tried to teach me golf (that experiment failed when I sent him to the ER for stitches with my backswing). And while my mom had to have me on the softball team for my unnatural ability to hit a ball (my legit batting average was in the .700s. I couldn't hit for power, but I could always dink the ball over the infield. I was lead-off hitter for five years), she put me in short-center so all the other girls could support me. I can catch a ball, but when I throw, even my four-year-old grandson says, “Oh, grandma.”

And that was as close as I got to being athletic. I was even called The Klutz in theater and asked never to dance. So I guess if they had reading, acting, singing or gardening in the Olympics, I might stand a chance to even be at opening ceremonies (I did sing the National Anthem at a minor league baseball game once—it was one of the coolest things EVER). Otherwise, my sport is watching the Olympics from my living room.

Kim:  Which movie director would you like to direct what book from your penned books?

Eileen:  Ooh, that's a good one. If I were to film any of my medical-forensic suspenses, I'd definitely want Christopher Nolan (Memento, Dark Knight, The Prestige—maybe he could also get Hugh Jackman to star...). He just has the touch for suspense.

For my historical romances, I think that the most filmable would be my first Drake's Rakes book, ONCE A RAKE, since it begins on the Eve of the Battle of Waterloo and I'd love to see that filmed. If David Lean was still directing, I'd ask him (think Lawrence of Arabia). But since Tom Hooper is directing now, I'd ask him (who did not only HBOs John Adams, but King's Speech and Les Miserables—which shows he can do scope. And might talk Colin Firth into starring as Jack, although really Hugh Jackman is Jack). If I filmed my newest book, TWICE TEMPTED, I'd ask Neil deGrasse Tyson because astronomy and science are at the heart of my heroines's lives—and I have a mad science crush on Neil deGrasse Tyson. I think he'd love to direct a movie that highlights the contributions of women to astronomy in the late 18th and early 19th century, and Fiona and Mairead Ferguson are not only witnesses but pretend participants. As for the nefarious spies chasing Fiona and Mairead and the lovely relationships they form with Alex Knight and Chuffy Wilde (yes, those who've followed my Rakes, Chuffy is one of the heroes), I figure Tyson is smart enough to ask help from Nolan (and could get Hugh Jackman, although Alex is really Richard Armitage) and maybe Jon Turtletaub, who directed one of my very favorite romantic movies, While You Were Sleeping. Easy, huh?

Thanks so much for inviting me to play. This was fun!  If you want to know more about the research for Twice Tempted, it's going up on my website eileendreyer.com.

Eileen (left) with Patricia Rice and Cathy Maxwell
A good time was had by all ...

TWICE TEMPTED

Fiona Ferguson's troubles began with a kiss . . .

It feels like a lifetime ago that Alex Knight saved Fiona from certain doom . . . and stole a soul-shattering kiss for good measure. Wanting nothing more than to keep her safe, he left her in the care of her grandfather, the Marquess of Dourne.

But Fiona was hardly safe. As soon as he could, the marquess cast her and her sister out on the streets with only her wits to keep them alive.

Alex has never forgotten that long-ago kiss. Now the dashing spy is desperate to make up for failing his duty once before. This time he will protect Fiona once and for all, from a deadly foe bent on taking revenge on the Ferguson line-and anyone who stands in the way . . .

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Books-A-Million
Powell’s
Google Play
iTunes

I am giving away a print copy of TWICE TEMPTED to one randomly selected commenter.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  What is your best sport?

2.  Comments are open through Saturday, November 29, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, November 30.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City 

More from Authors Doing Good - Inigo Montoya, Mrs. Dogood, and Eileen Dreyer

My family is a fan of the Maryland Renaissance Festival - my teens especially enjoy Fight School. From their website (link):

Here we come... walking down the street... we get the funniest looks from... everyone we meet. Hey Hey We're the Fight School!

The quirky quartet demonstrates famous sword fights, including "the one from a movie we can't identify due to copyright infringement". Yet the audience knows it is The Princess Bride with Inigo Montoya vs. Westley (link).

Inigo Montoya offers up the best quote to combat the ongoing Catfish controversy, "You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means."  To recap, a YA author accused a reviewer of "catfishing" for using a pseudo name on social media.  Catfishing typically refers to online dating ... but if the YA author wants to use it in this manner, then let us look to the original catfisher, Mrs. Dogood. She portrayed herself as a middle aged widow to comment on social issues in Colonial Boston.  Mrs. Dogood was, in fact, 16 year old Benjamin Franklin.  

May 14, 1722 • Silence Dogood #4

(Mrs. Dogood shares a dream in which she visits the Temple of Learning aka Harvard University):

I reflected in my Mind on the extream Folly of those Parents, who, blind to their Childrens Dulness, and insensible of the Solidity of their Skulls, because they think their Purses can afford it, will needs send them to the Temple of Learning, where, for want of a suitable Genius, they learn little more than how to carry themselves handsomely, and enter a Room genteely, (which might as well be acquir'd at a Dancing-School,) and from whence they return, after Abundance of Trouble and Charge, as great Blockheads as ever, only more proud and self-conceited.

Benjamin Franklin, through Mrs. Dogood's letters, offers veiled criticims of Harvard University.  It is the Alma mater of the YA author who remains unapologetic for stalking the reviewer.   Mrs. Dogood says its best, "as great Blockheads as ever, only more proud and self-conceited."

I have several friends who attended Harvard - they are not blockheads.  Likewise, not all authors are blockheads.  Perhaps one of the most vivacious, entertaining, and generous is historical romance author Eileen Dreyer.   From her bio (link):

Eileen is an addicted traveler, having sung in some of the best Irish pubs in the world, and admits she sees research as a handy way to salve her insatiable curiosity. She counts film producers, police detectives and Olympic athletes as some of her sources and friends. She’s also trained in forensic nursing and death investigation, although she doesn’t see herself actively working in the field, unless this writing thing doesn’t pan out.

Eileen first published as Kathleen Korbel - gasp!  A pseudo name!  Should you meet her at a book signing, ask her how she picked this name.  Eileen won five RITAs and is the fourth author to be named to the RWA Hall of Fame.  

Eileen (left) laughs with Patricia Rice and
Cathy Maxwell at RT/11 in LA.

Eileen is now putting all her "research" to work as a Jeopardy contestant.   Make sure to watch on Thursday, October 30 - check your local listings.  Meanwhile, follow Eileen's road to Jeopardy on her Facebook page at this link.

Let's celebrate those who are not blockheads!  I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash, including several titles from Eileen.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Leave a comment about Jeopardy - which categories would you win money?  Lose money?

2.  Comments are open through Saturday, November 1, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, November 2.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

Check out pictures from our recent visit to Harvard (during our trip to Boston) at this link and link.

Celebrate Little Victories - Planes, Taxis, and RWA in NYC

A Cowboy in Times Square

I set aside Saturday to celebrate little victories.  This feature is inspired by Mary Gramlich, The Reading Review.  We met at RT/06 in Daytona and roomed together since then at several conventions.  Mary is a prolific reader of all genres and posted online reviews long before book blogging exploded.  She encouraged me to create this blog when I moved to Hawaii.   We chat once a week to celebrate the little victories.   Today Mary is my guest with a nostalgic look out our last adventure together in 2011 ....

Planes, Taxis, and RWA in NYC 

Before my sons grew up, got married, and started giving me grandsons, I had money to spend on trips instead of toys. I love my grandsons and every moment that I spend with them is a gift so great it cannot ever be duplicated.   But I do miss those trips I used to take with Kim because we had such an amazing time together.

The year we went to RWA in New York City is the one that sticks out in my mind as a full blown adventure.  Kim and I flew from different cities to Baltimore to connect on the same flight to NYC.  We were feeling no pain as the flight departed for LaGuardia as the rosary beads were out and the lovely relaxing pill we both take had kicked in.  After getting off the plane and riding down the escalator to baggage claim, we spotted a limo driver holding up a sign for “ROBYN DeHART”.  This prompted me to look at Kim and say “If I had known she was going to be so famous I would have spent more time on my reviews of her books”. 

(Mary's reviews are spot on whether the author is famous or not).

We start off by getting into an unofficial car service with another woman who wanted to share the ride.   The driver was an EMT who mastered warp speed down a four lane highway feeding into a tunnel.  He turned on his siren to get us ahead of the crowd.  The adventure continued in Manhattan when the woman riding with us jumped out of the taxi, threw money at the driver, and ran off like the FBI was after her. 

(I think this should be a scene in a contemporary romance).

Our hotel was located on Times Square, which hosted the Transformers III World Premier.   I spotted Bumblebee up close and personal.   During the book fair, Roxanne St. Claire yelled my name to come see her.  We dined with Eileen Dreyer. We followed Delilah Marvelle through Hell's Kitchen for a late night donut run.  The next day, we enjoyed breakfast with Katie Lane, lunch with Tracy Anne Warren, and drinks with Kat and Larry Martin. I soaked up NYC's atmosphere by accompanying Kim on her many trips to the post office; one included me running into the hot dog vendor that left mustard on my shirt.  Kim pulled me back out of traffic several times so the taxis didn't run me over.  And this was only Day 2 of our week at RWA in NYC.

Bumblebee from Transformers

Mahalo, Mary, for recounting our "Lucy and Ethel" moments. If only I had you to entertain me on my trip home to Hawaii (as I hate flying, especially over the ocean).   I will miss you at RWA in San Antonio but I carry your spirit (and that of Bumblebee) with me to next week's RWA Annual Conference in San Antonio. 

Can you share a wacky travel story?  One randomly selected commenter wins a book choice from my convention stash. Comments are open through Sunday, July 27, 10 pm in Baltimore.  I'll post the winner on Monday, July 28, should I recover from RWA.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

Learn more about Mary and her reviews at marygramlich.blogspot.com. 

Chorus Dancer in Times Square

Celebrate Little Victories ... Part Time Job, Romance Conventions, and Hawaii Five O

Aloha!  I am now back to work, part time, where I was employed before we moved to Hawaii.   I am thankful that my boss welcomed me back and remains flexible with my schedule. My job will fund my adventures at this year's romance conventions.  So far, I am signed up for:

Big Book Getaway at the Mohegan Sun Resort in CT, February 21 - 22.  From its website (link),

Friday, Feburary 21, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.
> Steamy Stories ~ An Intimate Conversation with Bestselling Romance and Erotica Authors: panel presentation in the Convention Center featuring Avon authors Eloisa James, Laura Kaye and Cathy Maxwell; joined by Lisa Gabriele, author of the S.E.C.R.E.T erotica series.

Saturday, February 22, 11:00 - 11:45 am

> Racy Romance ~ Bestselling Authors Presented by Avon featuring Eloisa James, Laura Kaye, Cathy Maxwell and Lisa Gabriele

Barbara Vey's Reader Appreciation Luncheon in Milwaukee, April 26.  From its website (link),

Join us as we welcome 50+ authors to Wisconsin ... including NYT best seller Debbie Macomber.

I am sitting with the fabulous Eileen Dreyer!

RT Booklovers' Convention in New Orleans, May 13-18.  From its website (link),

SOS America Military Salute: Kathryn Falk, founder of SOS America Inc., invites all booklovers to join her for this annual salute to military families. Our celebration includes an Honor Guard, barbershop quartet, and special guest speaker, Chief Michael Jaco, retired US Navy SEAL. We will recognize military veterans from the US and its allies plus the extended family who serve back home. Goodie bags will be presented to the military families.

Color Guard at Military Tribute
RT/Chicago 2012

I'm eyeing a few others:  WRW Retreat (link), Book Expo America (link), and RWA Annual Conference (link).  All this travel translates into more books to giveaway!

Speaking of RWA, I receive its monthly magazine and enjoyed this month's issue with Shana Galen's article, IS A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT RIGHT FOR YOU?    I read the magazine at the gym and I almost fell off the exercise bike laughing when I read a quote from Eileen Dreyer,

"My husband once tried to be helpful and filed the paperwork in my office.  I still haven't found it".

This is why I am sitting with Eileen at Barbara Vey's luncheon!

Eileen Dreyer, Patricia Rice, and Cathy Maxwell
RT/Los Angeles, 2011

Hats off to the producers of Hawaii Five O for last night episode, HO'ONANI MAKAU KANE - HONOR THY FATHER.   This episode, airing one week after the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, focuses on an unsolved murder from WWII.   The episode offered a historical perspective of the surprise attack, the internment of Japanese Americans, and the 442nd Infantry Regiment - comprised of Japanese Americans who served in the European Theater.  The 442nd is the nicknamed the Purple Heart Battalion because it is the most decorated unit in Army history.   For an excellent review of the episode, check out this link.

Byodo In Temple on Oahu
Built on the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Japanese Immigrant

The emotional content was gripping ... and I enjoyed the scenes shot on Pearl Harbor ... places I've lived, visited, and posted on my travel blog, ALOHA ON MY MIND (link).  

Well done, H5O, well done!

How was your week?

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

The cast of H50 visited my son's school, Hickam Elementary.
Pearl Harbor is behind the school.

Aloha to Eileen Dreyer and ONCE A RAKE

Back in August, I wrote that I would be attending Barbara Vey's Readers Appreciation Luncheon on April 26, 2014 (link). Readers have a chance to sign up to sit at the table with their favorite author ... and I asked readers to guess which author I chose.    I signed up to sit with .... Eileen Dreyer!  She is a dynamo in persona and a virtuoso in writing.   From her bio (link),

Eileen is an addicted traveler, having sung in some of the best Irish pubs in the world, and admits she sees research as a handy way to salve her insatiable curiosity. She counts film producers, police detectives and Olympic athletes as some of her sources and friends. She's also trained in forensic nursing and death investigation, although she doesn't see herself actively working in the field, unless this writing thing doesn't pan out.

Eileen laughs with Patricia Rice and Cathy Maxwell

Eileen is celebrating the release of ONCE A RAKE, Book Five in the Drake's Rakes series.   Eileen joins us today to talk about research through travel, "It's a filthy job, but somebody has to do it."  

When Research Is Really Tough

By the way, if you don't know me, you won't know that the title is tongue-in-cheek, because I'm about to talk of the traveling I do for my work. I know. It's a filthy job, but somebody has to do it. And every time the opportunity comes up, my hand is raised first.

I love to travel. Let's get that one out of the way quickly. I am fascinated by people, by places, by anything that is different from the rather predictable life I've led in St. Louis. Not that I don't love home. I do. But there's so much out there to see and hear and taste and smell.

And there is the secret to traveling for research(or researching so you can travel. The differences have long since blurred). When I was first learning to write, one of the most important lessons I learned was from Nora Roberts, and that was the use of senses. In every scene(but especially love scenes). For every character. I mean, even if all you're describing is a rainy day, each character sees it differently. One might look out and be depressed and cold and lonely. Another might see only relief from hard work, or harder sun.

But also, when you tell a story, especially one set in a different place or time, what sets your audience firmly in place and time? Senses. Taste, touch, smell, feel, sight. And the quickest, most thorough way for me to learn that, is to go there.

For instance, in my Drake's Rakes series, I have walked Mayfair in London. Literally. Every street. I know how Curzon Street sweeps downhill and then uphill. I know what Grosvenor Square looks like when the central garden is in bloom. I know how the floor of Berry Brothers squeaks when you walk in the door, and how the famous scales look like an iron chair.

For ONCE A RAKE, I also traveled to the Lyme Regis area on the south coast. Not only is it an area rich in fossils, but the flora and fauna are lush and lovely. The Undercliff, where Lady Clarke paints, is a jumble of ferns and elephant ears and bluebells tucked under oak and beech and fir trees. The cliffs are still uncertain, looking as if they will crumble away at any moment. The Undercliff itself was created when the land slipped in a previous century.

I traipsed across the ground and saw my Sarah and her family following the same paths. I wandered through Lyme with its impossibly steep streets and mismatched shops and stood before the old Post Office where not only Sarah, but Jane Austen posted mail. I smelled the sea and felt the damp air brushing against my face. I heard the chuckle of the waves as they slipped in over the shingle beach. And I saw that wonderful hot spring green carpet the fields, highlighted by iridescent yellow rapeseed fields. I felt the slow, steady pace of the region, where the ocean sets the clocks. And I knew how to walk in my heroine's shoes. (okay, the 600 pound pig she named Willoughby was just an added bonus. I had to look the Large Black breed up).

So, if I've done my job, I will have taken those steps and transferred each and every one into ONCE A RAKE so you can walk along. Let me know if you do. 

Lyme Regis by John Cummings (link)
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Mahalo, Eileen, for joining us at SOS Aloha! I enjoy reading your travels on Facebook. I am looking forward to reading ONCE A RAKE as it teeters atop my TBR pile (the pile is looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa).   I am giving away a print copy of ONCE A RAKE to one randomly selected commenter.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Lyme Regis inspired Jane Austen's Persuasion, Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, and John Fowles' The French Lieutenant’s Woman.   Have you read any of these books or seen the film adaptations?

2.  This giveaway is open to all readers.

3.  Comments are open through Saturday, November 2, 10 pm in Baltimore.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, November 3.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

To learn more about Eileen, her books, and her travels, check out her social media:

eileendreyer.com

facebook.com/EileenDreyer
twitter.com/eileendreyer
pinterest.com/eileendreyer
goodreads.com/author/list/19012.Eileen_Dreyer