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New book from Heidi Vanlandingham

October 4, 2018 by Shanna Hatfield

 

Heidi V WWII giveaway

I have a wonderful giveaway for fans of WWII romantic fiction! You could in a digital copy HEART OF THE SOLDIER, a new release from the amazing Heidi Vanlandingham. To enter, fill out this form https://tinyurl.com/HeidiV-giveaway1018
then visit www.HeidiVanlandingham.com to learn more about Heidi and her books.

HEART OF THE SOLDIER

He battles the German war machine. Her magic helps the French Underground. Will love push them together or will the war pull them apart?

Called to defend his country, Stuart Williams finds himself on the front line against the Nazi War Machine. But when he meets a beautiful American Resistance fighter, his focus becomes divided between defeating Hitler and protecting her from the enemy.

Trapped by the Germans in France, American college student, Caroline Grayson, uses her magical ability to read maps, helping the Resistance track the enemy’s movements and help their cause against Hitler. When she finds an American soldier lost behind enemy lines, she’s not only fighting Nazis but also her traitorous heart.

Helping the Resistance, Caroline puts her life in danger, but Stuart’s first allegiance is to the army, and he’s forced to leave Caroline behind. When enemy tanks attack his regiment, he’s captured and thrown into a prisoner of war camp. At the war’s end, will Caroline use her magic to find and rescue him or will he succumb to the Nazis’ brutality?

Available on Amazon / Kindle Unlimited
https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Soldier-Heidi-Vanlandingham…/…/

Winner randomly selected and announced 10/06.

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Christmas in Romance

October 1, 2018 by Shanna Hatfield

Welcome sign

Welcome to Romance — an Oregon town where love lingers around every corner and residents pull out all the stops for Christmas.

Six authors from the Welcome to Romance series have joined together to bring you a fabulous new collection of sweet Christmas novellas!

CIR meme with covers

Celebrate Christmas in Romance

Between odd animals, lost loves, second chances, hidden identities, a secret Santa, and bickering senior citizens, it might just take a miracle to bring everyone a happily-ever-after for the holidays.

Settle in a chair by the fire, sip a cup of hot cocoa, and immerse yourself in the friendly town of Romance with this series of six sweet Christmas novellas from bestselling and award-winning authors.

 Sleigh Bells Ring Meme

Sleigh Bells Ring in Romance by Shanna Hatfield – Releasing Nov 1.

You’re never too old to fall in love . . .

Will two over-the-hill neighbors embrace a holiday romance?

Rancher Jess Milne lost his wife years ago, but he’s finally ready to give love a second chance. It’s a shame the one woman in Romance who captures his interest is a prickly, wasp-tongued she-devil. She used to be one of his closest friends until he asked her out. Her vocal, vehement refusal made her thoughts on dating him crystal clear. Despite her animosity, Jess can’t help but be attracted to her fire and spirit.

Widowed more than ten years, Doris Grundy tries to convince herself she’s content with her life. Her recently married grandson and his wife bring her joy. The ranch she’s lived on since she was a young bride gives her purpose. She’s an active member of their close-knit community. But the old coot who lives down the road continually invades her thoughts, keeping her from having any peace. Doris will be the last to admit she longs for the love and affection of her handsome neighbor.

When the two of them are unexpectedly thrown together, will they find a little holiday spirit and allow the love of the season to ring in their hearts?

pre-order SBR

 

A Merry Miracle Meme

A Merry Miracle in Romance by Melanie D. Snitker – Releasing Nov. 2.

It’ll take a Christmas miracle to turn a grudging friendship into true love.

Baxter Reid returns to his hometown of Romance, eager to see his childhood crush. Unfortunately, Savannah hasn’t forgotten all the ways he used to tease her back then. He’s got his work cut out for him if he’s going to get a second chance.

When Savannah Miller learns her former arch enemy is back in town, she dreads running into him. Baxter is at the center of some of her most embarrassing childhood memories. She’s more than happy to avoid Baxter until he apologizes and suggests a truce. Now what is she supposed to do?

Only time will tell whether the spirit of Christmas in Romance is enough to transform a grudging relationship into true love.

pre-order Melanie

 

Holding Onto Love meme

Holding Onto Love in Romance by Liwen Y. Ho – Releasing Nov. 3.

She’s a small town inn owner learning how to trust.

He’s a big time singer struggling to protect the woman he loves.

Together, they must fight to keep their romance alive.

Being engaged to America’s hottest pop star brings Izzy Sutton’s insecurities to the surface, making her question if she can handle life in the public eye. Complications multiply when her ex shows up on her doorstep two weeks before the wedding, with nowhere to live.

Through hard work and determination, Chase Lockhart climbed the Top 40 charts and won the hand of the only woman he’s ever loved. Helping Izzy overcome her cold feet, however, proves to be more challenging than expected, especially when he’s away on tour days before their wedding.

With their Christmas Eve wedding fast approaching, Izzy and Chase face the biggest decision of their relationship. Will they allow their circumstances to divide them or will they find enough reasons to keep holding onto love?

pre-order Liwen

 

A Reel Christmas meme

A Reel Christmas in Romance by J. J. DiBenedetto  – Releasing Nov. 4.

Owner of the lone movie theater in Romance, Marianne Carter loves the old movies she shows on the big screen. She’s just struck up an email friendship with a newcomer to town. Unaware of his identity but feeling loyal to him, she fights her attraction to a handsome man she keeps bumping into around town.

Under a false identity, Jack Nelson comes to Romance to investigate the historic movie theater and decide if it should receive the status of a historical landmark. Little does he know the woman sending him charming emails is the same one who owns the theater.

While Marianne’s theater plays the old classic film The Shop Around the Corner, Marianne and Jack unknowingly play out the same story in real life. Will they figure it out in time to write their own happy ending?

pre-order James

 

A Christmas Carol meme

A Christmas Carol in Romance by Franky A. Brown – Releasing Nov. 5.

Christmas is coming to Romance, Oregon…but for Andy McKay, it’s only a reminder of the day the love of his life walked away. Guilted into playing Scrooge as a young man in the town’s production of A Christmas Carol, Andy unexpectedly finds himself acting alongside his girlfriend of romance past.

Cassie Winston has spent the past year traveling, writing, and regretting that she left the man she loved behind her. She’s afraid the old adage about how you can never go home again might be true. It’s hard enough to convince Andy to consider giving them a second chance, and acting with him in Scrooge and Belle’s breakup scene certainly doesn’t help.

As ghosts from the past resurface, can they find a way to create a new future together?

pre-order Franky

 

Santa's Visit meme

Santa’s Visit in Romance by Jessica L. Elliott – Releasing Nov. 6.

Santa’s got his work cut out for him to help a reluctant couple find love during the holidays.

Marshall Duncan swore off women when his wife ran away, leaving him with an infant to raise alone. But a newcomer to Romance might just change his mind, with some help from a mysterious friend and his precocious daughter, Savannah.

Latiesha Harris lost everything when her fiance left her in Denver. Hoping to escape her mother’s judgment, Latiesha goes to Romance to stay with an old sorority sister. But when she meets Katie’s childhood friend, there’s no denying the sparks between them.

When Nick Klauss gets a Santa letter by mistake, he can’t help but try to make the little girl’s wish come true. But how can a retired cowboy give Savannah a mommy by Christmas?

pre-order Jess

Find out more about Romance, Oregon on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/welcometoromance/

Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments »

The Conference Project

September 25, 2018 by Shanna Hatfield

landscape

Since I’ve been sharing about projects I’m working on, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the conference I’m chairing this year.

Women Writing the West is an international non-profit organization of writers who tell the stories of the American West through non-fiction, fiction, and poetry.

The 24th annual conference will be held in Walla Walla, Washington, next month. Each year, the conference is held in a different location, and 2018 just happens to find the conference in southeastern Washington.

My friend Carmen Peone is president of the organization this year and when she asked me about chairing the conference I hesitated to jump right in. I’d co-chaired the conference back in 2015 with the awesome and incredible Jane Kirkpatrick. But Carmen won me over and here we are, a month away from the conference and neck deep in plans.

If everything comes together as it should, this will hopefully be a fun conference for all attending!

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Book Projects

September 21, 2018 by Shanna Hatfield

Stack of books

Today, I’m sharing a little about some of my book projects that are in the works.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I recently signed a contract with TwoDot Books for a Christmas project for 2019. I’ve been frantically working on it the last month or two and will continue at a hectic pace to wrap it all up by the end of the year. It truly is so much fun for me because it combines so many things that I love: cowboys, cooking, baking, decorating, Christmas, entertaining, gift-wrapping (yes, I love to wrap gifts and I know I’m weird!).

In addition to that project, I have eight (that’s right EIGHT) new sweet romances releasing between next week and Christmas.

DOHH Meme Long

Dream of Her Heart releases Sept. 27 and is book three in the Hearts of the War series set during World War II.

This book pulled me back into research from the 1940s (which I enjoy so much), and allowed me to revisit the characters from the first two stories, tying them together in a fun way.

Just because… here’s a little teaser from the book:

flourish text divider 1 png

Drops of rain started to fall and she looked up as Zane stepped in front of her.

“Care to dance with me?” he asked, holding out his hands.

Billie knew the smart thing to do was to climb in the car, shut the door, and wait for him to drive her home. But her heart overruled her head.

“I’d like that,” she said in a low voice she barely recognized as her own. Zane swept her into his arms as the singer on the radio crooned “The Very Thought of You.”

While a soft spring rain fell around them, Zane danced her around in circles, humming along to the song. Billie wondered if he had any idea what he was doing to her. The damage the romantic song with the even more romantic moment was inflicting on her heart.

“It’s just the thought of you,” he whispered as the singer sang the last line of the song.

One moment they were dancing and the next Zane had bracketed her face with his hands and was kissing the rain drops from her eyelids, her cheeks, her lips.

The second his mouth brushed hers, Billie felt the impact of the touch throughout every cell of her body. When he wrapped her in his arms and lifted her up, she slid her arms around his neck and gave herself over to the passionate exchange.

Oh, the man could kiss! His lips tantalized hers in a dance far more exquisite than any their feet might have executed. And he tasted heavenly — rich, dark, and decidedly decadent.

In that moment, Billie knew she was lost. Lost to emotions she hadn’t anticipated, to a love she’d most certainly not expected. Lost to the possibilities of what the future might hold with Zane by her side.

You can pre-order the book today.

flourish text divider 1 png

The rest of the of the books that are heading your way are Christmas stories!

FB party banner 1

November 8 is my fifth annual Cowboys and Christmas release party that not only helps raise funds and awareness for the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund, but also celebrates the release of a new holiday book.

This year, the book releasing that date is the sixth book in the Rodeo Romance series! It’s titled Racing Christmas.

The story is about a barrel racer and a pickup man. She hates him, he’s never gotten over his love for her. Should make for some fun reading, don’t you think?

Stay tuned… I’ll have a cover reveal and more info about Racing Christmas soon!

Well, that covers two books. You’re probably wondering about the other six, right?

Four of the books are a new holiday series I’m super-duper excited about. I’ve been wanting to write this series for the past three years and just never managed to work them into my schedule. So I began this year by spending January writing them. The books are full of laughs and love and heartwarming moments. And animals. Did I mention wacky, crazy, lovable animals who almost steal the show?

I hope you’ll fall in love with them as much as I have. If you want to get the first look at this series, be sure to attend my Cowboys and Christmas release party where I’ll do a cover reveal and share more about the stories.

Then there were two… more projects.

I’m working with five other authors on an awesome holiday series and although I can’t tell you anything about it today, I can on Oct 1, so be sure to check back then!

And last, but not least, I plan to release another book in the Hardman Holidays series. I have yet to write said book, so I have no idea on the release date, but if all goes well, it will be early December! If you have any characters you are particularly interested in seeing in this book, let me know!

So there you have it… the many book projects I’m working on right now!

 

Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments »

The Kitchen Project

September 20, 2018 by Shanna Hatfield

Labor Day weekend, one of the occupants of our home (raising hand in air as the guilty party) freaked out at the rapidly growing blackness that had been spreading across the backsplash behind the kitchen sink.

It had started as a few gnarly looking spots that ,while not pleasing to the eye, weren’t all that noticeable.

Then, as the summer progressed, so did the icky stain behind the “tile.”

When the dark stains began to seemingly multiple overnight, we decided to rip it out and replace it. (It was not a long thought-out decision, but one of haste driven by panic!) I had visions of black mold taking over the entire kitchen. Every worst-case scenario flew through my head.

It took no time to pull off the backsplash and discover three startling facts:

  1. The backsplash “tile” was not tile at all but vinyl flooring.
  2. The “tile” had been attached to thin sticks (think shims) and glued to the wall.
  3. There was not a lick of sheetrock to be found behind the whole mess.

Since we hope to completely gut the kitchen and do a major renovation in a few years, we just needed a temporary fix. But one better than than flimsy sticks and linoleum.

So I did some searching online and found Smart Tiles. These are basically big 3-D stickers that look like real tile. You can get them in a variety of patterns and styles.

There are a number of companies that produce them, but Smart Tiles was the only one I found that guarantee their tiles to stick. (Yes, I read enough Amazon reviews on the various tiles to know that can be a problem if you don’t follow the directions.)

The tiles can be applied over a variety of surfaces, but our problem was we basically had nothing to attach them to beyond the studs from the walls. Our first step was to put up sheet rock.

Only the tiles won’t stick to sheet rock. So we painted them with primer made specifically for sheet rock (which has to cure for 72 hours before you can attach the tiles).

kitchen 3.jpg

When the waiting period for the primer was over, I assembled my tools, which included a cutting mat, an exacto knife, and a ruler.

The tiles I chose are glossy subway-style tiles. They come so the ends notch together seamlessly. In a corner, you simply cut away the notches to get a straight edge. Super easy!

And applying them to the wall was a very simple process.

kitchen 2

I couldn’t be happier with the end result. Are they tiles that will last for twenty years? No. But they will look nice until we get around to that full-blown kitchen remodel!

The day we ripped out the backsplash, I decided since the kitchen was a disaster anyway, I might as well turn on the self-cleaning cycle on my oven.

Apparently, the stove took exception to being cleaned, because it died. Like, totally died, dude!  And since nothing beyond an expensive repair bill would resuscitate it, we decided to order a new one.

I felt pretty fortunate to find a Labor Day sale with appliances 40 percent off, then another 10% discount if I ordered online. So… I talked CC into getting a new refrigerator while we were at it. The fridge we’d been using worked fine, mostly. I’d recently noticed some leaking (and it didn’t have an ice maker or water in the door) so the leak was not a good sign. Seventeen years ago when we bought our house, the fridge came with it and it wasn’t new then. It was time for an upgrade.

The only problem… the appliances would take three weeks to get here.

Three weeks! Since our old fridge was still working, that wasn’t a problem. But three weeks with no stove? Especially when I’m elbow deep in working on recipes for my Cowboy Christmas book project?

It was a long three weeks, but when the appliances arrived this week, I decided it was worth that wait!

kitchen 1

I love, love, love my new stove and fridge!

Posted in Books, Ramblings, Writing | Tagged , , | 7 Comments »

Projects, Projects, Projects

September 19, 2018 by Shanna Hatfield

Since I’ve been buried in projects the last few months, I thought you might like to know what some of them are!

I’ll share about them in the coming days, but today’s post is about a brand-new endeavor for me that I’m super excited about it.

This summer, I signed my very first book contract. I’m working with a fabulous editor at TwoDot Books on a project for the 2019 holiday season that combines so many of my favorite things: cowboys, home decor, Christmas, and cooking!

Could it get any better?

I think not.

The book is tentatively titled Cowboys and Christmas and will be out in time for the holidays next year. It will feature interviews with cowboys and their families, decorating suggestions, gift-giving ideas, crafty tips, recipes, recipes, recipes, beautiful photographs, and more!

The fact my stove died and I had to go three weeks without one put a bit of a damper on my creation of recipes, but the new stove arrived yesterday and I’m prepared to put it through a workout in the coming weeks.

Oatmeal Cookies

I’m on deadline to get half the book finished by mid-October, the rest by the end of the year. So this is one of the many projects keeping me hopping. (But it’s such incredible fun!)

 

Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged | 6 Comments »

Book Signing at Hamley Western Store

September 13, 2018 by Shanna Hatfield

hamley store

Today, I’m excited to spend the morning at Hamley & Co – an iconic western store in Pendleton, Oregon, that’s been in the same location since 1905.

Hamley’s was first known as a harness and saddle maker, but soon gained a reputation as the maker of “the finest saddles man could ride.”

If you happen to be in Pendleton today, stop by the store between 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. I’d love say hello and you can get an autographed book while you’re there!

Find out more about Hamley & Co on their website: https://www.hamleyco.com/about-us

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

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