Category Archives: Contests
Yay for Gift Boxes!
Back in December I
had entered Siobhan Muir‘s Hot Teddy Bear Hero Gift Basket giveaway, as you do, and much to my shock I won!
So today I received a big box with four of her books (Flip the Trope: Endless Summer, The Samhain Soldier, Broken Chains, The Beltane Witch), a nifty cell phone wrist purse with stickers and jewelry, a magnificent ceramic hot drink glass with all kinds of tea samples, a branded mask, and a beautiful Bearifairy (shown at right) who I have named Isabeau Bear. She now sits with my Edgar Allan Poe doll and watches me as I write, which is only appropriate.
I also got this beautiful lightweight shawl in a pale apple green with delicate beads along the ends. The moment I saw it I knew my Muse would be wearing it in future TikTok videos because it goes perfectly with her hair.
So a big THANK YOU goes out to Siobhan Muir for this amazing swag (and I plan on trying the tea tonight).
In other news it’s cold and rainy out there right now so soup is on the menu for tonight, I’m continuing to plow ahead on Claw, and I think once the omnibus is done and I have the print version ready I’m gonna do my own book box giveaway with swag and other nifty things. Because it’s always important to keep the love flowing, you know?
Vote for King of Blades in the Swoon Awards semi-finals!
There’s a new contest in Romancelandia! The Swoon Awards are chosen by popular vote and are open to all romance readers. Much to my shock and delight, I found out that King of Blades made it into the semi-final round for the Fantasy Romance category.
Voting for the semi-final round ends tomorrow, so if you’d like to vote for King of Blades in the Fantasy Romance category you can do it here — go to the middle of the page and click the pink Next button to start voting. And thank you for your support!
N. N. Light’s Book Heaven’s Christmas and Holiday Book Festival – Natasha M. Stark
Hello, all you lovely people, and welcome to the blog! I probably should explain the discrepancy between the name in the blog title and the name on the website itself — I write speculative romance (SF/fantasy/paranormal) as Nicola Cameron, but in 2020 I started writing contemporary romance as Natasha M. Stark. My very first contemporary holiday romance, One Sweet Christmas, is the story of an unemployed personal assistant traveling to LA who gets stranded in a Colorado ski town when her car breaks down. She gets talking into helping the local hot baker make an emergency wedding cake for an influencer Bridezilla––and hijinks ensue!
One Sweet Christmas was an absolute ball to write as it combined three of my favorite things––romance, banter, and baking. I can neither confirm nor deny that this story was influenced by The Great British Bakeoff, but I do enjoy baking assorted treats like mince pies and fruitcake, which leads me to my family holiday tradition. When I was a kid, my mother used to make a Polish fried cookie called Chrusciki (angel wings) every Christmas, and watching her making them was almost as good as eating them.
This was before the advent of silicone baking sheets, so she would spread a clean sheet over the kitchen counter to get a smooth surface, scatter it with flour, then roll out paper-thin sections of dough before slicing them into rectangles and cutting a slit down the center of the long side.
One end would get pulled through the slit to form a kind of dough bow tie, before going into hot oil and puffing up into a delicious, crispy cookie. The final touch was sprinkling them with powdered sugar (this had to be done while they were still hot and slightly oily so that the sugar would stick). You couldn’t wear anything nice when you ate Chrusciki because you’d get powdered sugar over everything, but we didn’t care because they were so yummy.
If you also love baking and want to take a crack at making these delicious cookies, Jenny Can Cook has a really good recipe that produces authentic Chrusciki. Just don’t wear anything that has to be dry cleaned when you nom them.
Thanks so much for stopping by the blog, and I hope you had a good (and safe) holiday this year! Before you go, I’d like to remind you of the Rafflecopter giveaway being held by N.N. Light’s Book Heaven. Everyone who enters has a chance at winning one of the following:
- $50 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
- $50 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
- $25 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
- $15 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
- $10 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
Direct Link: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db775087
The giveaway is open internationally and runs December 1 – 31, and a drawing will be held on January 4, 2021. Click the link above to enter, and good luck!
Want to read some AWESOME holiday books and win an Amazon gift card?
Calling all holiday-themed readers! We’re celebrating Christmas and the holidays all month long at N. N. Light’s Book Heaven’s Christmas and Holiday Book Festival. 48 holiday-themed books featured plus a chance to win one of the following:
- Enter to win a $50 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
- Enter to win a $50 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
- Enter to win a $25 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
- Enter to win a $15 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
- Enter to win a $10 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card
I’m thrilled to be a part of this event. My book, One Sweet Christmas, will be featured on December 31st, 2020. Each author shares a family holiday tradition, including me. You won’t want to miss it.
Bookmark this event and come back every day:
https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/christmas-holiday-festival
Yeah, this is definitely Monday
I have been in better moods. The fact that my ears and sinuses are aching do not help (please, dear sweet baby Cthulhu, I do not need another sinus infection).
On the plus side, however, I finished a rather nifty mixed media pendant for a giveaway I’m going to run on Friday. Anyone who follows my Instagram account will be able to get in on the fun — I’ll be giving away copies of Shifter Woods: Howl as well as the pendant.
Where everything starts. A printout of the coyote gets glued onto sterling silver with rubber cement, then cut out very carefully with a jeweler’s saw
Once the shape is roughed out, I use various needle files to refine the shape further, then polish with jeweler’s rouge to smooth off any sharp edges or burrs.
The final coyote shape in sterling silver, placed against a 1″ round of red brass to see how the final piece will look.
Then I get to play with fire. The underside of the coyote piece and the topside of the moon were coated with flux, which was then fired (this prevents soot from building up between the layers and preventing a clean bond with the solder). I cut off and heated three balls of easy silver solder, put them onto the back side of the coyote, turned it over and put it onto the moon, and heated everything until the solder melted and bonded the two pieces. The pendant is now in the pickle pot having firescale and residual gunk removed.
The final product, clean and shiny! The smudges on the coyote’s body are my fingerprints.
Want to win a Kindle Fire? Of course you do!
Do you like sci fi romance? Do you have a hankering for a new Kindle Fire? Then do I have a contest for you!
BookSweeps is holding an awesome giveaway where you can win my book Degree of Resistance, plus books from authors like Evangeline Anderson and Cara Bristol, as well as a new Kindle Fire. This giveaway ends on May 1, so make sure you hurry and enter here — bit.ly/sfr-apr-17. Good luck!
Want to win a new Kindle Fire AND a copy of Degree of Resistance?
Have you seen this awesome giveaway from BookSweeps? You can win my book Degree of Resistance, plus books from authors like Evangeline Anderson and Cara Bristol, and a Kindle Fire. This giveaway ends soon, so make sure you hurry and enter! Good luck!
Join the fun here! bit.ly/sfr-apr-17
Breaker Zone up for Book of the Year at The TBR Pile!
Calling all Breaker Zone fans! I just found out that book Two in the Olympic Cove series is up for Book of the Year over at The TBR Pile!
This is where you come in — I need you to go and vote for me. No registration is required, just a click of your mouse button. (Plus you would earn my undying gratitude by voting for me because the second half of this year has been sort of crap on the personal front and wining Book of the Year would do wonders for my peace of mind). So please go and vote for Breaker Zone, and I thank you for your support!
P.S. Empress of Storms has now paid off 100% of its production costs and 70% of its promotion costs. I may well break even before the end of the year — woohoo!
Evernight Readers’ Choice Awards Nominations @evernightpub
Hey folks, it’s that time of year again. The 2015 Evernight Readers’ Choice Awards Nominations are now open! Here are the dates you need to know when participating:
Reader Nominations: Monday, Nov. 9th – 18th
Voting: Nov. 21st – 30th
Winners announced first week of December
Only Evernight books published between Nov 1, 2014 – Oct. 31 2015 are eligible.
My Eligible Series and Books Are:
Links below go to those pages on this site (a new tab will open)
Olympic Cove (Books 2-3)
Breaker Zone
(Heroes: Dr. Nick Gardiner, Aidan, and Liam) Paranormal, Menage, BDSM, Gay, Fantasy, Erotic
Deep Water
(Heroes and Heroine: Poseidon, Amphitrite, and Griffin Moore) Paranormal, Menage, Gay, Fantasy, Erotic, Shifters/Vampires
Don’t forget to add your name and email at the end of the form to enter for the chance to win a $25 Evernight GC.
VOTING LINK: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GHVTTGH
WOOHOO! Happy 5th Birthday, Evernight Publishing!
Thanks to readers like you, Evernight Publishing has grown by leaps and bounds in five years so they’re pulling out all the stops and throwing an extreme BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION BLOG HOP in your honor!
That’s right! It’s Evernight’s birthday but YOU get the presents…
Prizes include:
• Apple Watch Sport
• NEW Kindle Paperwhite
• Fitbit Flex
• Evernight, Amazon, and ARe Gift Certificates
Plus, each author on the hop will offer his/her own special prize!
I personally want to wish Evernight Publishing a wonderful and very happy fifth birthday, and a huge thank you for taking a chance on me and publishing what is turning into the fantasy erotic romance equivalent of Harry Potter (I swear, Storm Season was supposed to be short and sweet. Next thing I know, I have a six-book epic series in progress. I ask you).
Speaking of my books with Evernight, here’s a look at my first Evernight title and my latest release in said epic series:
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In addition to all the nifty prizes from Evernight, I’m also offering a personal blog prize of a $25 Amazon gift certificate. To enter, just leave a comment here and tell me about your dream birthday (all-expenses-paid spa day? Cruising in the Bahamas? Dinner and birthday cake with Michael Fassbender? Eating birthday cake off Michael Fassbender? Go wild).
And if that’s not enough, it’s a great time for an Evernight shopping spree because all Evernight titles are 25% off through October 9th at AllRomance eBooks!
Click here and enter to win the Grand Prizes using Rafflecopter! And once you’re done with that, hop on over to the next blog!
Nicola Cameron Writes 