Deep breaths and books

What is keeping me sane this week?

Hello, friends~

First of all, let’s begin with a heartfelt and teary eyed thank you to so very many of you who reached out via email or comment last week. I so appreciate that sense of not being alone—and fun fact? I only received one negative email and no more unsubscribes than any other email, but an overwhelming number of supportive and commiserating mail. I’m still trying to respond to all of it, so please be patient with me.

So much love to you all.

I spent much of last week crying, talking with my family about where we can go now—what are our options?—and avoiding going out because I was SO angry that I was afraid I might ram my car into any truck that cut in front of me. I also binged some Hallmark movies and spent a ton of time in Paris redecorating my apartment.

What??

Here’s the situation: a few years ago, my dear friend Gail Priest (author of the Annie Crow books and this year’s Soul Dancing) gifted me a Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar. It’s an on-line calendar set in a different place/time each year; just like a regular Advent Calendar, you click on a new number every day, but with this one, you have a different activity or simply an amusing, season scene with music.

One year, it was set in the Cotswolds, another time in London . . . last year it was in Edwardian England. This year, it’s modern day Paris!

Also, you have a room in a house (or in this case, my Paris apartment) which is your base of operations, sort of; it includes options for changing the color of the furniture, rugs, curtains, and walls, and it also is where you check in daily for whatever scavenger hunt is happening that year. (Last year, it was different animals, and this year, it’s Santas.)

Ahead of the beginning of Advent, I can still change around my room setting and play the various games offered in my Paris apartment. I can decorate my trees and create pretty snowflakes.

Here’s what my Paris apartment looks like right now:

If you want to join me in Paris, incidentally, you can click here to grab your own apartment. I mean, Advent calendar. This is NOT an affiliate link or anything; I don’t get a kickback for sharing one of my sanity tips with you, just the satisfaction of passing along something that is giving me a modicum of peace just now.

DO share with me screenshots of your apartment, Christmas trees, or snowflake designs if you get your own Paris place!

What else is helping me this week? Well, of course—books!

I finished Carrie Elks’ That One Heartbreak last week. Sigh—so good!! Did you know you can get all of Carrie’s amazing romances in Kindle Unlimited? I’ve now gone back to the series that set up this small-town setting (The Heartbreak Brothers) and am reading Take Me Home. ALL. THE. FEELS.

AND Sarina Bowen’s new book Holidating is out today! This collection of three novellas includes one of my favorite Sarina books, Blonde Date. Highly recommend—and it’s also a KU read, so grab it now and get lost in the love.

Finally, a little peek behind the proverbial curtain: this year, I experimented with setting one book per series free each month. I know many of you appreciated the opportunity to discover new series, and it was fun . . . for a while. It was also, though, a huge time suck each month as I had to make all the changes (you might know that Amazon makes us jump through hoops to price our own books).

So starting this month, we’re trying something new. You will STILL have some opportunities for freebies, but they’re all first in series books, and they won’t change each month. You can get them free on any retailer.

Fifty Frogs (The Anti-Cinderella World Romances)

The Anti-Cinderella (The Anti-Cinderella Chronicles)

Maximum Force (The Sexy Soldier Series)

Fearless (The King Quartet (Save Tomorrow Paranormal Romances))

AND please remember that if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can read my entire Love in a Small Town series as well as my Crystal Cove Romances free with your subscription.

So that’s where I am today, friends. I’d love to hear from you what is keeping YOU sane and somewhat calm right now. As my granddaughter points out, sharing is caring (she’s usually talking about food).

Until next time—see you in Paris.