If you’re like me, you’re well on your way to being in the middle of full-on hectic holiday time. There are cookies to bake. School parties to attend. Too many presents to wrap.  Family dinners. Shopping.  Full parking lots. Angry horns.

Happy holiday sounds. 😉

I love the holidays, no matter how frantic and wild they can become.  Because under that frantic wildness, well, it’s a time to sit back and enjoy the life that we have.  And no matter what my five year old may think, it’s not just about getting presents at this time of  the year.

It’s about giving. About helping people.  Yes…it’s time for my annual giving post. The post that lists easy ways for you to give and help out others. The post that asks you to share some of your favorite ways to give, too.

(And a big thank you to the folks on Twitter and Facebook who shared their giving ways with me before Thanksgiving!!)

So let’s start the list…

ONE WARM COAT–Do you have a coat in the back of your closet that you aren’t using anymore? Has your child gotten too big for his coat and you’re buying him/her a new one? Then donate that old coat to OneWarmCoat.org.  This is the way that One Warm Coat works (taken directly from their website):

• Donors clean out their closets and give their coats.
• Volunteer leaders organize coat drives and collect coats in their home towns.
• Social service agency volunteers and staff distribute the coats to those in need.
• Sponsors help us get the word out in cities across the country.

If you’d like to donate a coat, visit their donor page.  On that page, you type in your zip code, and you can see a listing of the places that are donation sites in your area.  McDonald’s is collecting the coats in my area.

THE SALVATION ARMY–I’ve been a fan of the Salvation Army Angel Tree program for years. I’ve volunteered locally and seen for myself the difference that this program can make.  You can “adopt” a child in your area for the holidays.  The child’s holiday wishes (ex. Legos, a bike, or a Barbie doll) are listed on a form for you.  You buy the presents and they are given to the family so that child will have a present to open at Christmas.

You can also donate used clothes, household items, books, etc., to your local Salvation Army.  These items are always needed and–you can even get a tax deduction for them. Come on, that’s win, win.

WOMEN’S SHELTERS–On Twitter, several people told me that they like to donate directly to their local shelter for abused women and children.  They donate new or gently used clothing, toiletries (shampoo, soap, toothbrush), and toys for the children.  You can contact your local shelter to learn more about donation information.   This is a great way to help people directly in your community–people who are in need of some kindness after a very difficult time.

A FAMILY IN NEED–Some other very helpful folks on Twitter told me that, during the holidays, they go straight to those in need. Instead of donating to an agency, they find a needy family to help in their areas.  Some people talk to school counselors to see if there are children who need a little extra help at this time of the year. Some people find out from neighbors and try to help those who are having a hard time.  One person told me that she anonymously leaves the presents on the doorstep of a family that she knows is struggling.  And another told me that she bakes a pie each year for an elderly neighbor who doesn’t have any family to visit during the holidays.  There are lots of things you can do–big and small, to help out.

SMILE TRAIN–This is another organization that was listed during my Twitter Chat on giving.  This is the information in the banner on the Smile Train site:

EVERY YEAR MORE THAN 170,000 CHILDREN ARE BORN WITH CLEFTS: MOST
CAN’T AFFORD SURGERY.

Give a child back their future with surgery that costs as little as $250

The surgery and the changes that the surgery can make to a child’s life are truly amazing.

HOMELESS SHELTER–Do you have a few extra canned goods? Then donate them to your local homeless shelter. Clear up some cabinet space and give someone a warm dinner at the same time.

SHELTER PETS–Love animals?  Then help them from the comfort of your own home. Visit The Animal Rescue Site and just click their link to feed shelter pets.  By clicking their link, you will provide, “the value of  .6 bowls of food for rescued animals.”

***

And I know there are hundreds (thousands!) of other ways to give.  Please share your favorite ways to give with me. And have a happy holiday season!!

Want to learn more about my angels? Want to learn why my Kensington editor once told me, “No serial killers!” (Yes, a girl can apparently have too many serial killers…) Then head over to the USA Today romance blog (Happy Ever After) for an interview that shares all my secrets. (I do have some secrets, you know!) And a big thank you to Pamela Clare & Joyce Lamb!

I just want to offer a huge thank you to everyone who came out and helped me to celebrate the ANGEL OF DARKNESS release. I had a great time at the party, and I hope you did, too!  All of the giveaways will stay open until noon (Central time) today, and then I will pick winners.

Again, thank you!!!

Update:  Time to announce the winners! For Dale’s post, we have the following winners:

JackieW–Tuesday’s Child

Dale’s winners: JackieW–Tuesday’s ChildBethie:  Hide N’Go SeekB&N card:
Heater

This is it…the last party post of the day. Where has the time gone? Thanks so much for celebrating with me!!  And as a thank you, in addition to the lovely prizes that Dale is offering with this post (thanks, Dale!), I will also offer up a $20 Barnes & Noble gift card to a commenter because everyone has been so awesome today, and I want to say THANK YOU!!

I first met Dale Mayer when she and I were paired together for the Brava Writing With the Stars Contest. I quickly realized–Dale knew how to write some great romantic suspense. In fact, her book, TUESDAY’S CHILD has been nominated for BEST PNR – PSYCHIC TALENT (2011) by The Romance Reviews. Go, Dale! And Dale has a new book that I can’t wait to read…

***

Here’s the blurb for the book:

Hide’n Go Seek blurb (book 2 in the Psychic Vision series)

A twisted game of Hide’n Go Seek forces an unlikely alliance between a no-nonsense FBI agent and a search-and-rescue worker.

Celebrated search-and-rescue worker Kali Jordon has hidden her psychic abilities by crediting her canine partner Shiloh with the recoveries.  But Kali knows the grim truth—The Sight that she inherited from her grandmother allows her to trace violent energy unerringly to victims of murder.  No one knows her secret until a twisted killer challenges her to a deadly game of Hide’n Go Seek that threatens those closest to her.

Now she must rely on FBI Special Agent Grant Summers, a man who has sworn to protect her, even as he suspects there’s more to Kali and Shiloh than meets the eye.  As the killer draws a tighter and tighter circle around Kali, she and Grant find there’s no place to hide.

Are her visions the key to finding the latest victim alive or will this twisted game of Hide’n Go Seek cost her…everything.

Amazon link – http://amzn.com/B005Y8538W

Allromanceebooks.com – http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-hide039ngoseekaparanormalromanticsuspense-624870-140.html

***

And an excerpt…

Twenty minutes later, Kali made her way to the kitchen. She fed Shiloh on the deck in the morning sunlight. Running her fingers through her shoulder-length hair, she remembered last night’s painting. She headed to her studio to take a look. She’d almost reached it when apprehension washed over her.

The door was closed.

She never closed the door after painting. It wasn’t good for the wet canvases, besides, the room only had a small window so the paint fumes built up fast. A frown wrinkled her forehead. Had she simply forgotten? She had been deadly tired last night.

Bolstering her courage, she pushed the door wide and flinched as the fumes rushed out almost stinging her nose. “Oh gross.”

Holding her breath, Kali crossed to the window, shoving it as far open as it would go. Fresh air surged into the small space. She’d love a huge studio, except painting wasn’t exactly a full time career for her – no matter how much she’d like it to be. It was a release for when depression and madness overcame her soul. Maybe later, when she no longer did rescue work, she could indulge her art as a creative hobby instead of as an outlet of pain and turmoil.

Walking around the easel, Kali stopped midstride.

The painting stood where she’d left it. With surreal and strangely enticing clarity, blacks and purples and browns popped off the canvas. Heavy paint splotched at places, then thinned and stretched across the top.

She stepped back and frowned. Up close, besides the heavy amount of paint, the picture resembled a distorted nightmare. Not surprising. Still, she caught a glimmer of an intentional design. She tilted her head and looked at it from a different angle. Nothing changed.

Sniffing the air, Shiloh ambled into the doorway.

Kali smiled down at the dog. “Not very sweet smelling, is it?”

She glanced back at the jumble of colors and stilled. There. She studied the abstract mess, letting the colors move and form to reveal the image hidden within.

Shivers slid over her spine.

Oh my God.

No way.

Kali blinked. It was.

There was no mistaking the image of a person buried under small bushes, civilization of some kind crouched on the horizon with a series of rough rock formations soaring behind the bushes.

“What the hell?” she whispered.

Kali was not a great artist, by any means. Blind escapism kept bringing her back to the process because it worked. She painted with wild abandon. The paint slapped on canvas with no thought discharged her emotions. For some reason it always worked.

And it always looked like shit.

This, on the other hand, was ingenious. Sure the subject matter was gruesome; however, given her volunteer work, not unexpected. Especially after finding the letter.

The artistic abandon was still there. The paint was so thick in spots the picture was almost three-dimensional. The terrain had depth and movement. The light was dark and terse, yet still shone with gruesome clarity—and way beyond her artistic abilities.

“It’s fucking brilliant.”

It was also scary as hell.

***

Scary as hell…interesting way to end the day. 🙂 But let’s go with that scary line…what scares you?  Leave a comment to be entered to win a copy of Tuesday’s Child and copy of Hide’n Go Seek. And don’t forget, commenters to this post will also be entered in the giveaway to win the $20 Barnes & Noble gift certificate. Good luck! Thanks for coming to the party!

Update:  Thank you for all the great comments!  The winners from Edie’s giveaway are:

Congratulations!

I always enjoy reading excerpts from books–excerpts can give me a taste of the story, a hint about the characters,and excerpts can sure hook me on a good book. I hope that you’ve enjoyed the excerpts that were shared today (and that will be shared–cause I’ve got another one coming up now!). My next guest is very busy author Edie Ramer, a sweetheart of a lady with a gift for spell-blinding stories. (And she comes to the party bringing a lovely giveaway–thanks, Edie!)

***

An out-of-the-world romance and 2 giveaways

by Edie Ramer

Thanks to Cynthia for having me at her fun release party. I’m so eager to read Angel of Darkness. I have a thing about angels. I also have a thing about any of Cynthia’s books!

In July, I published Galaxy Girls, a scifi romance with a lot of humor and some serious stuff. One reviewer called it “a cross between Gilmore Girls and Third Rock From the Sun.” Soon I’ll publish a Galaxy Girls novella, titled Mixing It Up. It’s a stand-alone, but I usually like to read series books in order. So here’s an excerpt from Chapter One of Galaxy Girls, which introduces all of the Galaxy ladies:

***

It was the best day of Phyrne’s life, even before landing on Earth five days ago. She, her mother Liss, her aunt Ki and her cousin Deena strutted through the gleaming casino with the one thing that brought them across thirty-one solar systems to New Jersey.

Money. Bundles of money. Their purses stuffed with money. Lovely, lovely money.

She wanted to laugh, dance and do cartwheels. But not yet. Later. Twenty-five-year-old women didn’t do cartwheels on Earth. Even after they’d known great sorrow and now knew great joy. Double joy. Freedom for the first time in their lives. And money with which to enjoy the freedom.

A plume of acrid cigarette smoke coiled in front of her and she made a face. The casino was just like she’d seen on the monitors on Kergeron, but the constant noise was louder, the motion more intense, the air sizzling with excitement. Music blaring, machines clinking, voices talking, colored lights blinking.

Avid eyes stared at the machines, but a few followed her and her family. She faced forward, careful not to catch anyone’s gaze, but in her peripherals, she saw auras, flashes of colors tinted with the deep pinkish red of carnality.

She clamped down on her pheromones. The worst timing for her make-me-a-mom chemicals to fire up. She didn’t want men following her. She didn’t want men in her new life. She didn’t want men.

Fighting the urge to release stray scents that would make men howl, she kept her gaze on the back of the nice hostess leading them out of the busy casino.

Out into the new life they would live as average Earthlings. The life her aunt Phyrne had envisioned for them ten years ago.

She quivered with an eagerness she hadn’t felt since she was a young girl, before she’d experienced the shock and pain of a fist on her face. Hard to believe she would escape Kergeron while she was mated to Argon and he was ramming her like she was the hill and he was the bulldozer.

But Argon was dead now and here they were. Free.

Better yet, free and rich.

The casino hostess opened a door and ushered them into a corridor. The smile she gave them was strained, brown spikes dulling her peach aura.

“Since you insisted on cash, we thought it would be safer for you to leave from the back.”

Her eyes darted away from theirs, and the brown spikes bled into the peach.

Phyrne shivered, her excitement turning to trepidation, though the darkening aura could mean anything. The hostess could be thinking about a sick child or a lover who beat her. Or she could suffer from one of many health issues they’d seen on the monitors back on Kergeron.

A lifetime of watching Earth TV had primed them for their new life, but they didn’t know everything. Deena could use her telepathic skills to find out what the hostess was thinking, but her jaw was rigid, her thin face tense with the effort of blocking out the cacophony of thoughts.

Phyrne ached for Deena. The plethora of auras in the casino had distracted Phyrne, colors flashing and popping wherever she looked, others shrinking and cringing. Easy to see who was winning and who was losing. But how much worse to have hundreds of thoughts swarming into her brain like an army of buzzing blusts?

The hostess took the lead again, hurrying past a stairway, elevator and bathroom. No glitz here, the walls white and stark, the mud-colored carpet so smooth the soles of Phyrne’s shoes slipped. Feeling like a clumsy udzo, she slapped her palm against the wall to keep from falling.

The others moved on, and she scurried to catch up. The hostess opened the back door, bidding them good day, speaking so fast her tongue tripped and she had to say it again. Phyrne didn’t need to read her thoughts to know she was thinking: Go. Get out. Hurry.

Maybe the hostess needed to pee. Kergeronians had elimination emergencies, too. That came with the human body they shared with Earth people, the genetic similarity confirmed by tests conducted in the previous century on a few Earth specimens. Unwilling Earth specimens.

Phyrne’s relatives chirped goodbye to the hostess and hurried out into the air that smelled like salty ocean mixed with car fumes. A black dumpster on one side and a sign on the other said Deliveries Only. Across the street was a huge concrete structure Phyrne identified as a parking building for cars. One lone van was parked by the curb, beige and nondescript.

The door behind Phyrne clanked shut. The Earth sun slunk under a black cloud—on Kergeron they called it a death cloud. The sky dimmed, the air chilling Phyrne’s arms, bare from her elbows to her cold fingertips.

From the beige van, a bright blue aura pierced the gloom, jewel colored and so bright her breath caught. As she twisted to view it better, Liss stopped and Phyrne ran into her.

“Oomph.” She bounced back, her mouth open to ask what was going on, when she saw two men stealing out from behind the dumpster. Blood red auras seethed around both men.

The small hairs on Phyrne’s arms and the back of her neck rose. The last time she’d seen an aura that color, she’d ended up in the clinic, her body bruised from her cheek to her thighs, one eye covered with a patch and an arm in a sling.

Liss stepped back, grabbing Phyrne’s forearm. “Let’s run. I feel the tall one’s anger. He wants to hurt us.”

The men pulled out guns.

“Too late to run.” Deena’s voice quavered. “We’ll have to do something else. I’ll take care of it.” She swallowed but stood tall and tossed her head.

No! Phyrne’s mental scream sliced through Deena’s walls. Deena looked at her, grimacing, lifting one hand to the side of her head.

“I’ll stop them.” Phyrne pushed past Deena. She was older and stronger than Deena, plus she possessed a powerful weapon. The ultimate weapon.

She was ovulating.

***

I’m giving away an e-copy of Galaxy Girls to a commenter. If you’ve read GG already, I’ll be happy to send Mixing It Up instead as soon as it’s available. I’m also giving away Dragon Blues to a commenter, about a saxophone-playing former dragon (now a man) and a martial arts expert who wants to avenge her sister’s murder.

So, here’s my question. What would your ultimate weapon be?

Edie Ramer

http://edieramer.com