Monday, October 31, 2011

I love.....

One of the things I enjoy is traveling. I don’t do it as much as I used to, but I always try to make time to head over to the Oregon coast and visit. I love watching the sun dancing on the surf and the smell of seawater in the air. And I always try to be someplace where I can watch the sun set. As the sun dips below the horizon, invariably it seems to turn colors like an incandesce ball.

Whether it’s sunny or raining, it’s always fun on the Oregon coast. There is the scenery. Yes! The food. Yummy! And of course, the atmosphere that is unlike where I live. The last time I visited, I made time to go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium and see the animals. It was a cool, rainy day, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying myself. One nice thing was that there were not a lot of people there, so I could peruse the grounds at leisure, without worrying about people crowding in. There were the usual assortments of sea life, such as sea lions, sea otters, octopus and many other creatures. At the Oregon Coast Aquarium you’ll also learn about the plant life and the history of the area. It was a fun time exploring the area, including the city of Newport, Oregon.

Of course, one of the things I cannot turn down is a chance to enjoy local food. Crab, oysters, and clams are just a few of the items on my plate. You won’t find a Red Lobster on the coast, because everything is better than a chain on the Oregon coast. If you can, be sure to find a restaurant with a view of the ocean. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve enjoyed a dinner with a drink and sat and watched the sun set!

I hoped you’ve enjoyed my little travelogue and pictures. If you can afford it, be sure to take a vacation, because there’s nothing more relaxing than having fun.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Monday, October 24, 2011

Chatting Wednesday night!

PhotobucketCome chat with me on Wednesday night at Romance Reviews Today! Crazy Mo is the hostess with the mostess and chat is always fun. I know, because I am there quite a bit. :) I am giving away to one lucky chatter in chat a nice prize. Come check it out!




Where: Romance Reviews Today chat room. Go to www.romrevtoday.com and click on Chat.

When: Wednesday, Oct 26th at 9:00 PM Eastern Time.



Get ready to rumble and have fun! I’ll be talking about ARRESTED PLEASURE!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

ARRESTED PLEASURE is available on Amazon now!

Click here to go to the Amazon Kindle version of ARRESTED PLEASURE. Only a few more days to enter my contest to win a $25 gift card. Go to http://www.holliwinters.com/ for more information.

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Friday, October 21, 2011

Writing About What You Know

While ARRESTED PLEASURE is not my first book, I must admit I still have to pinch myself and tell myself that I’m a published author. When I was a child, I used to daydream a lot and made up my own stories. Romances of course, now that I look back. I tried to write—by hand—my first romance when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. After many pages of painstakingly writing out my tale of woman meets man, it came to a grinding halt. Where do I go from here? Looking back, I realized I had no conflict. It was just a love story about love at first sight. Ah, the wonder of it all. Now I sit down and plot, including devising what the conflict is.


Writers are generally told to write what you know, yet the truth of the matter is that if we limited our plots to what we’ve experienced, we’d have a small amount of plots to choose from. Instead, we can expand on an idea we might have and work our way forward, which of course means research. While some writers do extensive research (you can rarely write a historical novel without doing detailed research of the times), I must admit I dislike having to spend a lot of time researching. So, I end up taking the words of wisdom to writers and “write what you know and then ask the right questions.”

In ARRESTED PLEASURE, which came out September 26th from Noble Romance, I based the location in Portland, Oregon. While I have spent some time in the Rose City, it has been limited. I didn’t know what parts would be considered “seedy” enough to warrant caution for most folks living in Portland. I called upon a fellow writer who lives in the Portland area and asked her. She was very helpful and helped me get some insight into the city. My heroine, Cassie, is a massage therapist. I’m not one, but have received the services of one over the years, so I asked her a little about what it took to be one and how she ran her business. Again, she was helpful. Now for the hardest part. My hero, Gabe, is a vice squad detective. I didn’t have any inside knowledge into how they worked, so I had to check online and gather what information I knew. Working up his job description was probably one of the hardest things I’ve done, but I think it worked well in ARRESTED PLEASURE. Readers will get the feel of life in Portland, Oregon and within a massage therapists life. I had fun writing it and I hope readers enjoy reading it.

Here’s a blurb:

On the brink of ruin . . . .






Spa owner Cassie Nichols can't afford any distractions right now. Hell, she can't afford much at all, which makes contending with the miserable landlord who wants her out her sole focus. Until a handsome stranger threatens to wreck—and rock—her world. He leaves her feeling out of control. Determined not cave in to the carnal hunger within her, Cassie finds herself in a fight for everything she holds dear.






On the edge of uncertainty . . . .






Portland Detective Gabe Banks never mixes business with pleasure, but the vixen masseuse is a mystery he must unravel. Her passion tantalizes him and has him craving more. Battling between a duty to investigate and a need to protect, he finds himself questioning everything he believes in.






For both, they are fighting an obsession they may never want to give up.

You can purchase the book and read an excerpt by clicking this link:

https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/334/Arrested-Pleasure

To help celebrate the release of ARRESTED PLEASURE, I have a contest going on at my website for a $25 Amazon gift card. Please check out http://www.holliwinters.com/  for more information. I try to hold several contests a year, so keep checking back!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Wednesday Ramblings....

Yes, me again.


As usual, it seems like I am swamped again. Story of my life, for sure. For fun, I thought I’d give you a sneak peek at my unedited WIP. Here is the first meeting:



She wound her car down the road, the front-end unerringly finding its way to her mother’s home, a mammoth bed and breakfast where all four Northwood children were raised. Only Tessa had left Port Hill while her sister and two brothers remained in the area and helped support their widowed mother.

Now she returned home to lick her wounds. Pseudo-fame did that to you, especially after being humiliated on national TV. She’d thought her life would be in Los Angeles, spending the rest of her days as a Chef at La Mercado. Instead, her job became a victim of elimination under the guise of a “new direction” in the hotel restaurant’s cuisine.

The truth of the matter is that management no longer wanted to be associated with anyone by the name of Tessa Northwood.

She pulled up behind a black SUV and stopped. One o her mother’s guests must have parked out front rather than in the parking lot to the side. The weekends were usually the busiest during the cool spring months, but a few weekday guests provided income, which was badly needed when the bed and breakfast wasn’t full.

Reaching for her purse, she ignored the falling rain, anxious to see her mother after five years. Yes, she was a bad daughter in not returning home more often, but with her schedule, she’d barely had time to breathe herself, with holidays especially busy. And her mother couldn’t take a vacation since the bed and breakfast was a fulltime job. Not that Tessa hadn’t asked a couple of times.

The cement walkway’s crack seemed unchanged, as did the steps leading up to the front entrance. If she remembered correctly, the third step had a loose board.

One... two...three...

Creak.

The sound brought forth a sense of home and a feeling of comfort. How she missed the sounds and smell of living in Port Hill. The horns as the boats headed out to sea to lay their nets for fish and crab. The salty fresh air mixed with the faint odor of dead fish.

She wrinkled her nose. No, the smell of fish she could live without, though right now it didn’t appear bad. It took her a couple of years in LA before she dared to incorporate a fish dish into her repertoire. It reminded her too much of home.

Taking a deep breath, she hesitated at the door. Should she walk in, or knock? It seemed silly to announce herself at her mother’s home, but much had changed in the past few years, mainly that the place she called home growing up had turned into a popular Bed and Breakfast. As a child, they’d occasionally had a guest, but now her mother advertised worldwide, mentioning a few times of guests from Europe and Australia. Her mother enjoyed the experience of meeting new people.

As she mulled over her options, the decision was taken out of her hands, as the door swung open. Expecting that her mother saw her car and figured she was here, she pasted a smile on her face. “Hi Mom. I know I’m a little early, but I made excellent time on the road and—”

She stopped mid sentence when the person in front of her didn’t turn out to be Olivia Northwood, but someone she didn’t know.

Tall, dark haired, with a commanding build, the utterly out of this world handsome man filled the doorway, his gaze roving over her body. She could already feel the first tingles of excitement in certain parts of her body. Something which had been missing in the months since her downfall and humiliation.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Monday Ramblings....

I love autumn! Where I live, it’s usually nice weather, even as the leaves start to turn orangey and the bees and wasps scamper for cover. I hate wasps—they have been bad this year.

Another thing I love about October is that it means I am writing more as I participate in my chapter’s writing marathon. The past two days I managed to whip out fifteen pages. Not bad considering I had other things to go and going on. I went over the 20k mark on this wip, which has a tentative title that I am not really happy with. Hmm….maybe I should have a contest helping me to name it. But other than that, I love the story. It’s what is important, right? We need to love our writing.

I have a contest going on at my website http://www.holliwinters.com/ for a $25.00 gift card. Be sure to check it out. I am hoping to be a bit more regular blogging. Hey, I can try, can’t I? :D
Have a nice Monday!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Arrested Pleasure is out!

Here is the buy link at Noble Romance for ARRESTED PLEASURE:

https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/334/Arrested-Pleasure

Soon it will be available at other outlets, like Amazon and All Romance Ebooks.



Here is the blurb:

On the brink of ruin . . . .




Spa owner Cassie Nichols can't afford any distractions right now. Hell, she can't afford much at all, which makes contending with the miserable landlord who wants her out her sole focus. Until a handsome stranger threatens to wreck—and rock—her world. He leaves her feeling out of control. Determined not cave in to the carnal hunger within her, Cassie finds herself in a fight for everything she holds dear.



On the edge of uncertainty . . . .






Portland Detective Gabe Banks never mixes business with pleasure, but the vixen masseuse is a mystery he must unravel. Her passion tantalizes him and has him craving more. Battling between a duty to investigate and a need to protect, he finds himself questioning everything he believes in.






For both, they are fighting an obsession they may never want to give up.