Time for a little Christmas Spirit, and maybe a peppermint martini?

The Quirks have been discussing favorite Christmas movies. Some are humorous and some are serious tearjerkers. Here are our favorites....

Tara: Tara loves It's A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. She thinks "It embodies all that makes the holidays so wonderful, especially family and friends pulling together to help someone in need. It also chronicles the story of a good man, who doesn't understand his own worth, who realizes with the help of his guardian angel that every person has a purpose and has value. Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends."

(excuse me while I wipe a tear from my eye.....sniffle, sniffle....)

Her honorable mention goes to A Christmas Story.

Kate: She casts a vote for Love Actually, as well as Holiday Inn, which she watched every year growing up. (She is now horrified by the "racially inappropriate/offensive black-face scene"). Woops!

Dalton: A Christmas Story. She says, "So many great scenes, I don't think I could pick just one. The leg lamp, the dogs, the bunny suit, visiting Santa, the tongue, xmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant, 'You'll shoot your eye out, kid!' I could totally go on." (I also love the scene when the little brother gets dressed in his winter clothes and can't get his arms down. Hee heeeee.....)

Michelle: Her favorite movie is also It's A Wonderful Life. The reason? According to Michelle, "Jimmy Stewart, so I need not say more. Plus it had a dark edge to it and magic and a less than pristine Angel."

Victoria: "It's A Wonderful Life, hands down. It was the first movie that made me cry and everyone needs to be reminded that 'no man is a failure who has friends.' I still cry when I watch it. I love A Christmas Carol, also. I like to watch the ending over and over, the scene when Scrooge redeems himself with Bob Cratchet. That one makes me cry, too."

What a bunch of crybabies!!!!! On the totally opposite end of the spectrum, here are my favorite irreverent and completely secular favorites....

Penny: First of all, if you have never seen Olive the Other Reindeer, you must go out and rent it ASAP. Drew Barrymore voices Olive, Joey Pants is Martini the Penguin, and Michael Stipe is a hilarious reindeer who sings. What more could you ask for??? In the same vein, Elf with Will Ferrell is fabulous...funny, sweet, quirky. Right up my holiday alley. And left over from childhood days is Santa Claus is Comin' To Town, narrated by Fred Astaire. It's the story of a young Kris Kringle and his bride Jessica. Sigh. Hey, that's a great idea for a romance novel....love in the Klaus family.....hmmmm......

Happy Holidays to All!

Penny

A BLOG BY ANY OTHER NAME

I need your help. As I embark on the journey which is my writing career post-publishing, I find myself running in a million directions. Popular opinion is that a published author needs to blog on their own blog site. If only to act as a forum to post promo updates and exciting, hot off the presses news. I am sure my readers stay up most nights holding their breaths waiting for my latest news. NOT. But still, there is an allure about an interesting blog post. Hence, I do blog. But what's a writer to do with limited time and a million decisions to be made about how to spend it wisely?

Hence, I need your opinion. What attracts you to read an author's blog? A catchy title? A contest? Humor? Do you click over to their weekly specials such as HOT HUNK day? Does the subject have to be provocative? Or perversely, would you click to a site posting a position with which you passionately disagree and spend your time ranting in the comments of the poster?
So what draws you more often than not? We all make random forays from time to time outside our typical patterns, but what is the typical pattern? Assuming it's not a blog you follow religiously, what topic brings you to that new site to peek?

Oh ye wise olde blog readers, help a gal out who needs to figure out how to use her precious time to fill the pages of her blog. So that when aliens visit our dead planet millennium in the future, excavate the remnants of our society, discover the gem which is my blog as they rig up a way to play our dinosaur computer and web structure, I'll give them only the best to read. I'm considerate like that (grin).

Comments? Leave them here or on my blog, just for the heck of it. http://www.michellepicardsblog.wordpress.com/

Oh, and I'm appearing at the Romance Junkies blogging (imagine that?) about Gateways and Portals on Tuesday, December 8th. Visit and join my contest for my book. Check out my blog at http://www.michellepicardsblog.wordpress.com/ and read how to double your chances to win the book.

Stay sane (relatively),
Michelle

Sweet Inspiration Has Arrived!

My release day has finally arrived! Sweet Inspiration is now available for purchase at The Wild Rose Press. Yippee! Please stop by Penelope's Romance Reviews today to celebrate...I'm giving away some cool snowmen holiday ornaments, drinking egg nog, and probably surfing the net for photos of Hugh Jackman dressed in a Santa hat. Thanks to the Quirky Ladies for their undying support and excellent stalker-like tendencies as I begin my "virtual tour" of promotion.

Here's the purchase link for Sweet Inspiration at The Wild Rose Press.

A great review just got posted on Outlandish Dreaming! Check out this awesome blog.

Stop by Penelope's to par-tee!

Another great review...yay!  4.5 stars at the Romance Readers Connection!

Guest Blog at Between the Pages

I've blogged about my cross-genre journey over at Between the Pages. Please visit. And while you're at it, visit my blogsite at www.michellepicardsblog.wordpress.com to check-out my What's Behind the Gate contest.

I'm busy with promotion, so stay tuned shortly for my Quirky blog on finding time to write once you're published. Maybe you can help me out.

RULING EDEN RELEASED!

After mucho waiting, RULING EDEN is finally out! My romantic contemporary fantasy is available at Crescent Moon Press. The formal announcement is at my blog today at:

http://www.michellepicardsblog.wordpress.com/.

Please visit. There's a contest to enter and, face it, don't we all love contests?

With oodles of happy dance excitement,

Michelle

Review of Ruling Eden at Smexy Books

Earlier in November RULING EDEN, my soon to be released novel from Crescent Moon Press, was reviewed at Smexy Books. And the lucky authoress I am, the book received

Four Stars and enough praise to make me glow. A first review is an exciting thing. Below are a few excerpts from it. If you want to read the full text, click over to her site here.

"Michelle Picard writes very engaging, deep characters and I can't say enough about how much they captured my attention and left me satisfied throughout the story....Ruling Eden is a great tale of romance, mystery and just a wonderful beautiful world Michelle Picard has created. I like it so much, I gushed all over an email I sent to her and asked if she wouldn't mind doing an interview with me."

In fact, she did indeed interview me later that same day she posted her review. If you want to read the text of the interview, click here. I had a lot of fun at Smexy.

Visit my site at www.michellepicard.com to read more about the story and my blog at www.michellepicardsblog.wordpress.com to read the excerpt I posted for Excerpt Monday just this past week.

Enjoy!

Character Interview and Contest for Bound Odyssey

Hey folks, I've invited Dalton Diaz to pop over to my blog to interview Roman Nash, one of the heroes from my new release BOUND ODYSSEY out at Ellora's Cave. And boy did she throw fantastic, if tough questions his way. Luckily, Roman can handle them.

Please visit. There's a contest to win a yummy vanilla scented massage candle. Until I found it in the store, I hadn't even known what a massage candle was (grin).

I'd love for you to meet Roman, he's quite the devil. Go to: http://www.michellepolarisblog.wordpress.com/



Later,

Michelle

The Pimp Room

Okay, seriously, let's say you are designing a corporate hotel and have to come up with a design scheme. Dark leather sofas? Neutral colors? Non-threatening art work? Boring ass lounge area with beer nuts and wood paneling? Well, if you are the Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel in Iselin, NJ, you might actually decide to go with a funky 70s-inspired bizarre mix of weirdness that includes giant chessboards, 6 foot long red beaded chandeliers, white fuzzy chairs sized for Vikings, and of course, a pimp room. Yes folks, didn't you know that corporate America has been jonesing for a lounge with a disco ball, lava lamps, sequined walls, leopard skin throw pillows and of course love bead curtains. Let's just say the decor at the Woodbridge Hotel, site for the New Jersey RWA conference this past weekend, was....well....extremely unique. Extremely. Unique. And I've got the photos to prove it....

Here is the disco ball:

Here is the lava lamp:

Here we are lounging in the pimp room:

from left to right, Frances Stockton, Victoria Morgan, Kate Macarthur, Michelle Picard, Heather Laskowski, and Tara Truesdale.

BOUND ODYSSEY IS RELEASED!

Finally! It's happened. Release day for BOUND ODYSSEY at Ellora's Cave. I'm dying for everyone to meet Mira, Jace and Roman, my three protagonists. I fell in love with them from almost the first, and consequently, they fell in love with each other. Please visit my blog today to check out my post on the book. I'll be running a contest there as well. This book is for mature audiences, so no one under 18 need go any further. Heck, I've told my grandmother, who insists she wants to read the book, that she in fact may be too young to read it (grin). Although I'm only slightly prejudiced, let me say that this book is all that. Please check it out, check out my website at http://www.michellepolaris.com/, and join my newsletter. The link to join is available on my website. I can be found on Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter as well.


And for more fun, Dalton Diaz is planning to interview Roman on the Quirky blog next week on Tuesday. He's a kick in the pants, so plan to stop by. He'll probably be running a contest of his own that day.


Remember, safe, sane and consensual. Be well and join me in my personal happy dance about the release.


Michelle

MY BOOK COVER!

My book cover got released today at Ellora's Cave. Can you guess a bit about the subject matter from the lovely crop my heroine is wielding? (LOL) And my brand new website went live today. Visit me at www.michellepolaris.com.

BOUND ODYSSEY can be purchased as of 10/23/09, next Friday. Stay tuned for the date for my release party both here and on my blog at: www.michellepolarisblog.wordpress.com.