Happy Holidays!!! Today we are having a party at CMash Reads!! Grab a beverage and some Christmas cookies because Jihan, from GCP/Forever, is stopping by with not one author but TWO!!! AND, I had the opportunity to ask these lovely ladies some Holiday questions!!!!! Let’s get this party started!! Please help me in welcoming Ms. Katie Lane and Ms. Hope Ramsey!!!!!!
KATIE LANE HOPE RAMSAY
About Katie Lane:
So here’s the thing. I love to write about fictional people, but I feel very uncomfortable writing about myself. So let’s dispense with the biography and I’ll tell you a story. And everyone knows that all the best stories start with . . .
Once upon a time there was a little girl who walked around with her head in the clouds. While the other kids paid attention to the world around them, this little girl (For clarity’s sake, let’s just call her Katie.) spent her days dreaming. The dreams varied. One day Katie might be a princess who was rescued by a prince on a three-legged horse (Perfection can be so boring.), and the next day she might find herself as an overworked mother of ten. (Mothers are wonderful heroines, don’t you agree?) This playacting was acceptable when Katie was little, but as she grew older, people started to take notice and think her a little odd. (Odd? What’s odd about a tall, skinny seventh grader pushing an overfilled doll stroller down the street?)
Luckily for her social standing, Katie gave up the play-stage for the written-page, spending hours writing down her daydreams in a spiral notebook. But over the years, her storytelling took a backseat to hormones and high school, and it wasn’t until her two exceptional daughters were grown (Ten seemed a little redundant after the first labor pain) that she returned to writing.
Now Katie spends her days at a computer daydreaming, while the rest of the time she enjoys hanging with her family, reading, going to the gym, playing golf, motorcycle riding, traveling, or just snuggling next to her snoring prince. (Snoring might seem like a minor imperfection when compared to a three-legged horse, but believe me it’s not) Because if the little girl of the clouds learned anything over the years, it was that every moment in life is a happily-ever-after just waiting to be fulfilled.
Visit Ms. Lane at her website here.
About Hope Ramsay:
Hope Ramsay was born in New York and grew up on the North Shore of Long Island, but every summer Momma would pack her off under the care of Aunt Annie to go visiting with relatives in the midlands of South Carolina. Her extended family includes its share of colorful aunts and uncles, as well as cousins by the dozens, who provide the fodder for the characters you’ll find in Last Chance, South Carolina. Hope earned a BA in Political Science from the University of Buffalo, and has had various jobs working as a Congressional aide, a lobbyist, a public relations consultant, and a meeting planner. She’s a two-time finalist in the Golden Heart, and is married to a good ol’ Georgia boy who resembles every single one of her heroes. She has two grown children and a couple of demanding lap cats. She lives in Fairfax, Virginia where you can often find her on the back deck, picking on her thirty-five-year-old Martin guitar.
Visit Ms. Ramsay at her website here.
HOLIDAY QUESTIONS
KATIE LANE:
Any special Holiday traditions? Every year, my family draws names and does a gift exchange. One year, it will be pajamas. The next year, DVDs. This year, it’s crazy ski hats. I’m already scouring websites for the most embarrassing hat I can find for my son-in-law. We’re going to Colorado to ski and I’ll get a big kick out of him racing down the mountain in a purple Mohawk hat…or maybe the one with all the yarn braids. Lol!
How do you celebrate the Holidays? I celebrate with family and friends. I bake cookies and make gingerbread (graham cracker) houses with my granddaughters. I do white elephant gift exchanges with my book and writing clubs. And Christmas Eve and Day is spent with my husband and two daughters and their families. We go to church, look at lights, eat, and unwrap presents.
What makes Christmas special for you? People are so giving during the holidays. They offer up smiles, volunteer to serve food to the homeless, or give to their favorite charities. At Christmas, we stop long enough to realize that we’re all part of God’s great big family.
Holiday shopping–online or malls? Both. I like the no hassle of buying things online, but I love to go to the malls when they’re packed. I like watching the kids sit on Santa’s lap and just being in the bustle of the holiday.
I’d like to wish everyone at CMASH Reads the happiest of holidays!
Love, Katie Lane
HOPE RAMSAY
Any special Holiday traditions? Oh this question makes me want to tell a family story. My father, much like Abe Chaikin, a character in Last Chance Christmas, was a non-practicing Jew. My mother was an Episcopalian. When they got married my mother insisted that we kids would be celebrating Christmas, even if we also celebrated other holidays. Pop agreed. But every Christmas my father would complain because Mom would do the same things over and over again. She insisted that she was creating traditions. Pop would roll his eyes and ask, “Can we do it different this year?” When it finally got to be my turn to make Christmas for the family, I decided to adopt just a little bit of my father’s attitude. So some years we go out to Christmas Eve dinner. Some years we stay in. Some years we dress up. Some years we don’t. Some years we put up an artificial tree, some years we go cut our own. Some years we go to the movies on Christmas day, and some years we stay home and play games. When we stay in on Christmas eve, the dinner menu is never the same because my husband likes to let his mad chef persona out every year and he makes a big gourmet meal for the family and any guests we’ve invited. He never makes the same thing twice.
This year our granddaughter is 18 months old. And we’ll be doing Christmas morning at my son’s house. As our family grows and includes new people, our “traditions” are changing. And I’m learning that holding on to traditions isn’t so easy, when the family is growing and changing. It’s much better to be flexible. So I would like to think that Pop ultimately won that argument he used to have with Mom every year. Traditions are nice, but it’s also nice to do something new and different for a change.
How do you celebrate the Holidays? Wow, that’s a big question, and kind of hard to answer since we don’t always do the same thing every year. But I guess there are a couple of things we sort of do every year. We always do a big dinner on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. Lots of eating and alcoholic beverages are involved. We also put up stockings on Christmas Eve, and somehow Santa always arrives and stuffs them. Everyone gets to open a present on Christmas Eve from Elmer the Elf, who is my husband’s personal elf from the time he was quite little. Elmer always gives people PJs. The stockings and PJs are not something anyone is ever allowed to outgrow. When our children were little (and not so little), my husband always read the Polar Express to them right before sending them off to bed.
What makes Christmas special for you? Family, family, family.
Holiday shopping–online or malls? Neither. (Okay I do some shopping at malls.) But I much prefer to go shopping on Main Street – or in my case on King Street in downtown Alexandria, Virginia. I’m a huge fan of Small Business Saturday (and I avoid the malls on Black Friday). I really like supporting local small merchants, if I can. Those merchants are the lifeblood of small towns. And even though Alexandria is right across the Potomac from the Nation’s Capital, it’s still a small town.
HUNK FOR THE HOLIDAYS by Katie Lane
Always putting business before pleasure, Cassie McPherson works hard for her family’s construction business. That might explain why she doesn’t have a date for the company Christmas party. But it doesn’t quite explain why she’s crazy enough to hire an escort for the event or – crazier still – why she’s dying to unwrap him like a present . . .
With whiskey-colored eyes and a killer smile, James is one gorgeous hunk who really knows how to fill out a tuxedo. He charms everyone, including Cassie. And when the night ends, the party doesn’t stop. As Cassie falls, literally, into his bed, James falls head over heels in love. Now he has to figure out a way to tell her the truth: he’s not an escort. He’s her family’s fiercest business rival. But all he wants for Christmas is her.
Book Details:
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Price: $7.99 US/$8.99 CAN
ISBN-13: 9781455522361
On Sale Date: 09/25/2012
LAST CHANCE CHRISTMAS by Hope Ramsay
Dear Reader,
I’ve been wishing for a miracle for my oldest boy, Stone, and this Christmas my prayers might just be answered!
Her name is Lark, and she’s here in Last Chance, looking into her father’s past-and stirring up a whole mess of trouble without meaning to. As the chief of police, Stone sure has his hands full trying to keep up with her. Ever since his wife died, Stone’s put everything into raising his daughters and dodging the Christ Church Ladies’ Auxiliary matchmakers. And it’s clear Lark has been through some trouble and could use a place to finally call home. I only hope Stone can let go of the past soon enough to keep her .
Goodness, I need to stop talking and finish up Jane’s highlights so we can make the town tree-lighting. You come back by because the Cut ‘n’ Curl’s got hot rollers, free coffee, fresh-baked Christmas cookies-and the best gossip in town.
See you real soon,
Ruby Rhodes
Book Details:
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Price: $7.99 US/$8.99 CAN
ISBN-13: 9780446576079
On Sale Date: 09/25/2012
THANKS TO JIHAN, FROM GCP/FOREVER, TWO (2) LUCKY
WINNERS WILL WIN A HOLIDAY PACKAGE, BOTH BOOKS
U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
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Always like learning about new to me authors!