Month: January 2009

To get you excited for the commericals during the Super Bowl tomorrow, here’s one of my daughter’s favorites from last year!

Hello, everyone! I’m delighted to be here today, and can’t thank Shelli and her fellow Naughty & Spicers enough for inviting me to chat about my single title contemporary debut, TANGLED UP IN LOVE (http://www.heidibetts.com/books/tangled.php), which will go on sale this Tuesday, February 3rd! (Can you tell I’m bouncy with anticipation? Nah, I’m sure it’s not obvious at all. *g*)

So what should I talk about? Not usually a question I have to ask myself, as I can normally talk the paint right off the walls. :-p But there’s so much I could say about TANGLED, it’s hard to pick just one. I could mention how excited I am to be writing super-sexy, super-funny contemporaries for St. Martin’s Press (picture jumping up & down & making a lot of high-pitched squealing noises)…or how much fun the story was to write (a little less jumping up & down, but a lot of chuckling & still some high-pitched squealing)…or that the “Chicks with Sticks” trilogy is all about knitting. Hot, funny, naked knitting, no less.

Yes, I could talk about all that & more.

But I won’t. Instead, I think I’ll talk about…magic.

Magic is a wonderful thing, don’t you think? The fairy dust, the fantasy, the faith it takes to believe in something we can’t necessarily see or touch or prove.

While I wouldn’t call TANGLED UP IN LOVE a paranormal by stretch of the imagination, it does actually contain a small paranormal element. You see, in addition to the three funky “Chicks with Sticks” and the three smart and sexy men who keep them company through the series, there’s this character in the trilogy named Charlotte. Charlotte is aunt to one of the knitting gals (Jenna from Book 2, LOVES ME, LOVES ME KNOT, which will be out in August) and considers herself a bit of a matchmaker…as well a Lucille Ball wannabe, judging by her choice of hair color & penchant for getting herself into trouble. *g*

In addition to raising a herd of adorable alpacas and spinning their fibers into yarn that she then uses to knit all manner of wonderful things—like scarves and sweaters and hats and mittens—Charlotte also happens to have a spinning wheel that’s been handed down from generation to generation through the women of her family, which is said to be enchanted. Magic. Able to bring true love to those who use the yarn it creates.

Is the wheel actually enchanted? Does it truly possess magic, happily-ever-after powers? I don’t know…I think I’ll let you decide that one for yourselves.

But what I will tell you is that there is something very magical about this entire trilogy for me. From the way it came about in the first place (which is a story I shared earlier this week on both my WIPs and Chains and Must Love Yarn blogs) to how every detail of the stories came together perfectly—and everything in between. It was like I had a fairy godmother sitting on my shoulder, guiding me in all the right directions and bringing all the right things to me with a little sprinkle of her glittery dust. And I couldn’t seem to stop myself from sharing a bit of that fairy dust with the characters of the “Chicks with Sticks” trilogy, making sure they all got their Happily Ever Afters, as well.

No doubt about it, a little bit of magic, a little bit of legend, and a whole lot of faith are involved in bringing Veronica Chasen and Dylan Stone (the hero and heroine of TANGLED UP IN LOVE) together. Frankly, considering how much these two despise each other when the book begins, I’m not sure it would have happened without a touch of magic. LOL

So tell me, do you believe in magic? Do you believe in enchanted objects, or lucky charms, or blessings passed down from those who have passed before us? Tell me what you think…and maybe even give an example of a time when it felt like magic was at work in your life…and with the ladies’ permission, at the end of the day, I’ll draw three winners for their choice of an autographed book from my backlist (http://www.heidibetts.com/books/index.php/back). (This includes the HOTTER THAN HELL anthology, by the way, even though you have to scroll up a bit to see it.)

Wishing you lots of lots of love, knitting, & magic,
Heidi
*~*~*
HeidiBetts.com
HeidiBetts.com/WIPSandChains
HeidiBetts.com/MustLoveYarn

So, I’m writing this scene where my heroine has her hands tied behind her back and my hero is feeding her In-n-Out fast food on the tailgate of his pickup. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make fast food sexy? I have no idea what these people are thinking, but my characters tend to like  very unusual things, especially when it comes to food! Here’s a quick peek, odd as it is:

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Not feeling too good here. Forgot to post earlier because um, I fell asleep on the couch at eight p.m. last night and never really got back up. So I’m lacking any thought to come up with a blog post today…

See ya next week!