Crazy Canuck New Years Blog Hop & Top 10 reasons why Canadians write better romance novels...

Be sure to enter the Crazy Canuck Blog hop contest after reading this (Details at the end of the list)! You can enter to WIN 17 books for your new devices from 17 CANADIAN AUTHORS! Sorry for shouting. I'm REALLY excited!

 

Without further adieu...

 

1. It get's REALLY cold here. Rather than bundling up, we prefer to find more exciting ways to stay warm...inside. What's more, after getting hot and steamy, we most certainly do NOT want to venture out and therefore curl up by a nice fire and write about our activities.
2. 
   The majority of Canada is wilderness - nature at it's finest really. So you could say we are in tune with nature... and what's more natural than - ahem - romance?
   

   
3. Compared to other countries, Canada's population is relatively small. All that wilderness and so few people. The term 'There are plenty of fish in the sea' stands true in the literal sense however, when it comes to finding spouses, not so much. We have to do what we can to hold on to our partners! Being kinky is a survival necessity!
4. We are known for our beavers. Enough said.
   

   
5. We name town's after... things. Romance is literally everwhere! With places named 'Dildo' (Yes, I'm serious), 'Conception Bay', and 'Cupids', it's hard to escape dirty thoughts when they are literally where you live.
   

   
6. We're lovers, not fighters. No one hates Canada. We don't start wars because we're too busy trying to stay warm.
7. Our premier looks like he could be Mr. Darcy, or the man you've been reading about. Seriously. He runs our country...
   

   

    
8. We are ALWAY'S polite. It's not as if we are super-human. Everyone get's angry, let's be honest. We just don't show it externally. We save all of our pent up aggression for... writing. Even Canadians have to be naughty now and then.
9. Our landscape. With places like Lake Louise, Petty Harbour, Niagara Falls and the Rocky Mountains, it's hard not to be inspired!
   

   
10. We are adventurous! With so much wilderness to explore, it's hard to stay indoors (When it's not cold of course). Encounters with grizzly's and mountain lions tend to get your heart racing... and then grateful for the person beside you for protecting you all alone in that forest. Besides that, we were brave enough to try poutine, and then to recommend it. Seriously, have you tried one? It's freaking delicious!

 

 

 

 

I've been so excited to share this with you all! Author Lisa Emma (Mostly Lisa) and I have set up a Crazy Canuck Blog hop! The theme is, 'Fill your new devices with Books from Canadian authors'. The books and author's we have include:

Altering Authority by Ashley Dooley
Dead and Kicking by Lisa Emme
Something in the Air by Marie Landry
Magic Resistant by Veronica DelRosa
The Naughty List by Cori Vidae
Firefly: Ice Born by P.M. Pevato
Thirteen by Shannon Peel
Enemy Within by Marysol James
Questing for a Dream by P.D. Workman
Vice by Rosanna Leo
Lakeshore Secrets by Shannyn Leah
Guarding Midnight by Kacey Hammell
3013:Renegade by Susan Hayes
The Raven Room by Ana Medeiros
Alien Next Door: Complete Series by Jessica E. Subject
Slow Ride Home by Leah Braemel
One Gold Heart by Sadie Haller

 

 

That's SEVENTEEN new books for you! Did I mention that you can WIN these books? Plus two Chapter-Indigo gift cards!

 

The links below will get you to where you need to go to enter. Be sure to click the little froggie and check out the other blogs as well! Good Luck!

  

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Newfoundland Fairies...

I'm so excited to finally be able to share this. For years I've been working on a teen fantasy series based on my childhood neighborhood, as well as a few of the legends surrounding it. My sister-in-law and I sat down and came up with the concept and character names and then kind of forgot about it. I'd worked on it in secret over the years in hopes of surprising her for her wedding with a physical copy however that didn't happen. I was a month or so too late but none-the-less, its in the editing stages!

I realize that in this day and age, fairies are about as realistic as vampires, werewolves and zombies - probably even less so considering the fact that you can find shows and movies about the other things and not so much about fairies, however, in my day - which wasn't that long ago, be nice! - we legitimately believed in them.

Being surrounded by woods, Shea Heights was shrouded in mystery, with plenty of room for kids to wander, get lost and draw their own conclusions. Not wanting to constantly be under the watchful eye of our parents and nosey neighbors, we'd retreat to the forests with our coats, sweaters or t-shirts turned inside out or with bread in our pocket - to ward off evil sprites of course - and to do the things that kids and  teenagers do, still hearing our parents and grandparents voices in our head, "Watch out for the fairies". I cant think of a time that we'd ever really sought them out, preferring to trust the adults when they told us stories about their relatives who'd gone missing for days, were pushed into wells or simply disappeared because of the little people.

A couple stories that stand out specifically to me were that of a perfectly healthy boy who'd gone out
for milk at his mothers request only to show up two years later with it in his hands and unable to speak a word. He'd walk past us in the street and we'd glance at him curiously, but always with caution. Another instance was of a young girl heading home from a party down the street from her house during a snow storm. She would continually walk toward the light over her front porch, just barely able to make it out from the blowing snow, but never reaching her destination. When her body was found the next morning, she'd worn a path on her front lawn from walking in circles. Others include aunts and uncles being found naked and stuck in a tree mumbling words about fairies and little people.

Whether or not the stories were told to us to simply scare us from wandering too far from home, the countless Google results that turn up when you type in Newfoundland Fairy Legends suggests other wise. My front lawn in the summer gets 'fairy rings' - mushrooms that grow in a circle - and despite being a fairly logical, educated adult, I still haul my kids back when they attempt to step in the middle.

'Don't let the fairies take you!' I say. ;)