Flames of Desire Blog Hop #ValentinesDay #giveaway

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Welcome to the Flames of Desire
Valentine’s Day Blog Hop, from Feb. 5th – 11th!

The Grand Prize Is A Kindle Fire HD 7”!

Winners Need To Be In The US or Canada to Win Items That Need to Be Shipped, But Anyone Can Win an E-Book.

All the prizes on the hop page except the books for the winner’s Kindle will given away daily!

The Power and Appeal of Romance

Romance is the most popular of all fiction genres. Women today are stressed out by modern life. Romance novels are about female empowerment. By the end of the book, the heroine has overcome all obstacles and she even gets the guy. Some men say they don’t like romance because “the woman wins”. I prefer to think that both people win when they form a loving, committed relationship.

Novels help people escape from their problems, even helping them deal with the emotional, even the physical, pain of their lives. When my mother died some year’s ago, I was devastated. For several weeks afterward, it seemed like the only time I wasn’t crying was when I was reading. (Unless I was crying over something that happened in the book.) Reading can be a form of inexpensive stress relief.

Happy sensual weddingRomance also affirms values like love, commitment, bonding and family. The books often end with a proposal, a wedding, or the birth of a child. When you come right down to it, romance is about the survival of the species!

Yet romance gets no respect in the literary world. The books are criticized for being unrealistic. Is it unrealistic to think that young men and women are going to fall in love and marry? If so, we’d better add Homo Sapiens to the endangered species list.

Hoppers get extra entries towards the grand prize by doing the following things:

Follow each blog
Like and follow on Facebook
Follow on Twitter
Leave a comment with your email address

Comment Example:
Name: Jane Doe
Email: [email protected]
Comment: Great post!
Twitter: Followed
Facebook: Followed
Blog: Followed
Country you live in: US

Callie

My new love, Miss Callie.

My prizes are:

$10 Amazon gift card

2 e-book copies of Lily and the Gambler

To win one of my prizes, leave a comment below with your name and email address.

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Available at Amazon Kindle, BN/Nook, Kobo and Smashwords.

Add to your TBR list at Goodreads.

To keep hopping follow the link below.
http://safariheatbooktoursandauthorservices.blogspot.com

Enjoy the hop!

Linda

Once a Librarian… #MFRWauthor 52-Week #Blog Challenge

2018 blog challenge buttonIt’s Week 4 in the 2018 #MFRWauthor 52-Week #Blog Challenge and the topic is: What I would do if I couldn’t be a writer.

Book Cat

Funny cat+eyeglasses, dreamstime.com license

Well, that’s easy. I’ve been a book junkie since childhood, so I’d probably be working part time at a local public library or at least volunteering there. And to paraphrase an old proverb: You can take the librarian out of the library, but… Well, you get it. I still visit the library to check out books for writing research, as well as for some pleasure reading. And if I weren’t writing, I might have time for more reading. My to read list is ridiculously long.

Reading Dog

Reading Dog, dreamstime.com license

Last year I joined the local branch of AAUW, the American Association of University Women, and was immediately roped into doing publicity for them. If I weren’t working, I would happily avail myself of all the wonderful interest groups they have. As it is, I’m enjoying the International Interests group that studies foreign policy issues. Here a link to the AAUW branches, in case anyone is interested. It’s a wonderful organization with lots of lovely, intelligent women. I might learn to play Mah-Jong or brush up on my high school Spanish.

And of course, I would travel, as often as I could afford and manage. I have quite a wish list of places I’d like to see before I die.

And soon I’ll have this adorable little distraction underfoot. My niece and I were just approved to adopt a small female puppy. Is she cute or what?

Annie as puppy

What about you? What would you do if you had more time and enough money?

Linda

As always, use the Linky List below to hop to other posts in the #MFRWauthor 52-Week #Blog Challenge.