Happy Holidays!

I’ve got my jigsaw puzzle, my hot cocoa, and my Jane Austen, so I’m good through New Year’s! I’ll be taking a break from blogging until January to spend time with my family, but before I go, I figured I’d reflect a bit on the events of this year (which isn’t quite over).

For me, 2012 was a big year. My oldest child started kindergarten, I gained significant experience as a writing coach, and generally kept a household of five up and running. Oh, yes, and I debuted as a romance author!

I was thrilled to have Random House publish my first two books as part of its Loveswept line. Deep Autumn Heat kicked off the Star Harbor series, featuring the sexy-as-sin Grayson brothers, and Blaze of Winter followed a few months later. Folks had a lot of wonderful things to say about these books, and I was grateful for all the positive reviews and comments.

I also attended my first conference—Romance Writers of America’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California—where I had a chance to spend quality time with my fabulous editor and equally fabulous fellow Loveswept authors! Through RWA, I also participated in my first book signing (sensing a pattern of firsts here?) and throughout the year, I was honored to speak on several panels covering topics such as writing, editing, and my path to becoming a published author.

There’s a lot more in the pipeline for 2013, as two more Star Harbor books will give the other Grayson brothers ample opportunities for romance. Long Simmering Spring (Cole’s story) is due out in May, and is now available for pre-order on Amazon and B&N. Slow Summer Burn (Val’s story) will be released in August. I love both of these books, and I adore both of these heroes.

I’m also hard at work on a new series. Intimate relationships, secondary characters that pop off the pages, a fabulous Connecticut setting—I’m really psyched about how it’s developing and hope to have more to report next year.

Finally, thanks to the friendships I made at RWA and throughout the romance community, I plan to do more collaborative blogging next year. Stay tuned for more information on this front, as things will start heating up in January.

I also want to thank you all for your support! It is through word-of-mouth (i.e. you telling your friends) that my writing continues to be discovered, and I truly appreciate all the encouragement you’ve given me. Please keep up with all my goings-on through my website, Facebook, Twitter, and of course, right here.

I hope your holiday season is happy, healthy and safe.

All my best,
Elisabeth

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Blog Takeover with Jennifer Probst – Winner Chosen

The winner has been chosen, and it is Kris! Thanks everyone for leaving a comment!!

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Prepare yourselves for something a little different. Today, I am taking over Jennifer Probst’s blog and she is taking over mine. Who is Jennifer Probst, you might ask? Well, I’ll tell you: Jennifer Probst is the New York Times, USA Today  and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Marriage to a Billionaire series, which includes The Marriage Bargain, The Marriage Trap, and The Marraige Mistake. She is also a Mets fan (something that Mr. B is super happy about), a mom of two, and all-around funny lady. For our swap, we decided to tell tales of motherhood and do a giveaway! Without further ado, please let me present: the Blog Swap!

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Holiday Breakdown by Jennifer Probst

Ah, motherhood.

Aint’ it grand? Most of the time. There are special times around the holidays that I savor and make me feel incredibly lucky to be a mom. My two young boys adore the festive season of Thanksgiving through Christmas. They love feasting on turkey and spending time with their cousins. Look forward to putting up the tree, scrambling through boxes and re-discovering their handmade ornaments and favorite decorations. Adore marking up the huge Toys R Us catalogue with their lists for Santa. Long lists. Really, really long lists.

But let’s be honest. The holidays are also a time for major breakdowns. Can’t even blame the poor kids – there’s too much going on and their poor little brains misfire. Sparkling lights, endless commercials toting the latest gadgets, desserts cramming space in their bellies. The result?

Meltdown.

The other day, I had to drag my kids into the store – which I try not to do around this time of year – and sure enough my older son caught sight of a large box with a glittery sign screaming Slushie Magic.

Oh. My. God.

“Slushie Magic!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. He hugged the box and lifted his beautiful face to mine. I looked into the melty brown eyes. “Mommy, please! I NEED to have this.”

“OK, I’ll get it for you.” He shook like in a convulsion. “For Christmas,” I said firmly.

NOT the right answer.

He dragged in a tearful breath. “No! I can’t wait for Christmas – that’s years away!”

I wheeled the cart  past the box and tried to jolly him along. “Let’s go, sweetie. Christmas is only a few weeks away and I promise you will have it under the tree.”

He didn’t budge. Pulled himself to full height. And said: “I want it NOW.”

My head scissored like the Exorcist. My kids know one thing about me. I am a huge pushover and get them way too much stuff. But the moment they act like a spoiled brat, I lose it. “Enough,” I snapped. “I told you before – no gifts till Christmas. Now stop acting badly or Santa won’t come at all.”

Thank goodness for threats of the big guy. But this time it didn’t work. My poor son just lost it.

He burst into tears and started screaming: “I want Slushie Magic! I want Slushie Magic.”

And so it began. I ended up dragging him down the aisle, while he cried with snot dripping from his nose. My little one stuck up for him and began crying too. I pushed the frikkin cart back down the aisle to the checkout, ignoring him completely while other moms shook their head in judgment AND sympathy. Let’s be honest, there’s nothing like a bratty kid that’s not ours to make us feel like a hell of a better mother. The cashier eyeballed us in horror, and I did the walk of shame to the parking lot while my usually sweet boy demanded his damn slushy.

So, let me pose the question to you my dear fellow mothers. What is YOUR breakdown story this holiday season? Hell, if you don’t have one for this year, I’ll let you comment on a previous one to be fair.

I’m giving away a free ebook of my holiday short romance, The Holiday Hoax.

Enjoy your season of presents, family, and tantrums!

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Jennifer, it has been awesome having you here! Thanks for joining me!

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Contest Over – Naughty & Nice Holiday Blog Hop

The contest is over, and Allison Anderson is the lucky winner of the Loveswept gift card! Congratulations, Allison. Please email me ejbarrett15 [at] gmail [dot] com so I can get you your prize! Also, for everyone else, please be sure to check the R@R site to see if you’ve won any prizes there.

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Holiday Blog Hop?

I know what you’re thinking. Man, it is way too early to be thinking about the holidays. Well, you’re right (unless you’re talking about Halloween, which is next week). But seriously, it always freaks me out when I get catalogues for Christmas stuff in August (right after the Halloween stuff that comes in July), so I feel you. But there’s something to celebrate, here. Namely Naughty & Nice, a compilation of holiday stories from three of my favorite authors, Ruthie Knox, Molly O’Keefe and Stefanie Sloane, which is to be released on November 5th.

$1.99 for all this goodness? You heard that right! In fact, the cover alone should make it an auto-buy! See for yourself (and if you click on the image, it takes you to Romance @ Random’s main site for the hop:

And of course, this being a blog hop and all, R@R is giving away a ton of goodies:

· 15 Net Galley Preview copy winners of Naughty & Nice

· 5 ABOUT LAST NIGHT paper giveaways (US only)

· Grand Prize of $15 Gift Certificate to eRetailer of choice!!

Note that you must be 18 or older to participate

There are so many other awesome bloggers participating:

1.	Ruthie Knox	2.	Stefanie Sloane
3.	Reading Reality	4.	acting balanced
5.	From the TBR Pile	6.	Coffee Beans & Love Scenes
7.	Manic Readers Guest Blog	8.	Manga Maniac Cafe
9.	Musings from an Addicted reader	10.	Shawntelle Madison
11.	The Book Reading GAls	12.	Seduced By A Book
13.	The Book Tart	14.	herding cats & burning soup
15.	Bea’s Book Nook	16.	Romance Around the Corner
17.	The Bunny’s Review	18.	Books Books and More Books
19.	Lori’s Book Blog	20.	Molly O’Keefe
21.	Full Moon Bites	22.	Delighted Reader
23.	Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews	24.	Eye On Romance
25.	eBookGirl.com	26.	Liz Maverick
27.	Harlie’s Books	28.	BookHounds
29.	Sascha’s Secrets	30.	Romantic Reading Escapes Book Blog
31.	Ramblings From This Chick	32.	Book Lovin’ Mamas
33.	Saucy & Sinful Blog	34.	Book Flame
35.	cupcake’s book cupboard	36.	Storm Goddess Book Reviews & More
37.	Sharon Cullen	38.	Ex Libris
39.	Ahhhhhhhromance	40.	Darkest Addictions Book Reviews
41.	Confessions From Romaholics	42.	What’s On the Bookshelf
43.	StuckInBooks	44.	Blogging by Liza
45.	Read Your Writes Book Reviews	46.	Victoria’s Titallating Tidbits
47.	Guilty Pleasures	48.	Ravishing Romances
49.	Cassandra Carr	50.	The Lucky Ladybug
51.	Romantic Book Affairs	52.	Simply Ali
53.	Elisabeth Barrett	54.	Book Lovers Inc.
55.	SOS Aloha	56.	Socrates’ Book Review Blog
57.	Book-A-Holic Anon	58.	Love To Read For Fun
59.	Romance Junkies	60.	Romancing the Darkside
61.	The Book Nympho	62.	Romantic Reads and Such
63.	GraveTells	64.	Fic Fare
65.	Romance Book Craze	66.	Me and Reading
67.	Blackraven’s Erotic Cafe	68.	Blackraven’s Reviews
69.	AJ’s Readng Nook	70.	The Readers Roundtable
71.	Dark Divas Reviews	72.	HEA Romances with a Little Kick

And you should know by now that I can never get the Rafflecopter thingy to appear on my site, so please click here for the Rafflecopter giveaway.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! I’m also giving away one Loveswept gift card, good for one free e-book! All you have to do is to leave a comment below. Here’s a topic for discussion: Christmas catalogues in August: love ‘em or hate ‘em?

One random commenter will be selected. U.S. only, please. Contest ends 10/30 at 9pm PDT.

Happy hopping, and good luck!

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