Circle of Hope, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit breast cancer organization located in Santa Clarita Valley, California.  We are dedicated to making a difference today, for a brighter future tomorrow. Circle of Hope is the only breast cancer organization in the Santa Clarita Valley that provides financial, emotional, and educational support services for uninsured and underinsured individuals with breast cancer, their families, and the local community. We have helped over 130 clients to date, issuing over $100,000 in financial support.

I’m happy to be a part of the Circle of Hope family. I hope you will take advantage of this offer–and don’t worry, CAPE SEDUCTION is worth a read even without the donation!

Thank you for your support.

All silliness aside, I am thrilled to be a part of this 8th annual event benefiting breast cancer patients of the Santa Clarita Valley. The weather has been ordered up special, too.

Besides sponsoring a table (mine this year is “Snowy Night”), I am donating copies of my first lighthouse mystery, POINT SURRENDER, to all attendees. I’m happy to do it. And should any of my new 300+ fans wish to buy CAPE SEDUCTION, I’m passing along $3.00 from their purchase to Circle of Hope. In fact, I’ll make that deal to anyone who happens along here between now and year end. Just click HERE to take advantage of this special offer. (Sounding a little like a TV commercial!)

Some of MURDER WE WROTE, 2010

I really love this event. Very casual, laid-back, beautiful park grounds setting. It was here, a couple of years back, where my author pals and I met the venerable Ray Bradbury! This year, we will be rubbing shoulders with the very popular, best-selling author of SHANGHAI GIRLS, Lisa See. I can’t wait.

Just as important, I’ll be meeting up with a fine group of mystery authors. Yes, MURDER WE WROTE is getting the band back together! Joel Fox, Jenny Hilborne, Gayle Carline, Jeff Sherratt and Teresa Burrell will be joining Alyssa Montgomery and I for some dark, devious planning that just might involve criminal intent. We might even sell a few books at the same time.

If you’re local (or loco) and looking for a really fun afternoon with some really fun people (REALLY fun, I mean it!!) then head on out to Westminster Gardens in Duarte on Saturday, October 8th, from 10 am to 5 pm. It’s free to get in, free to park, free to enjoy the fresh air. Yeah, the books cost money, but they are still one of the best entertainment values around (you can buy two of mine for the price of one night at the movies!)

More info can be found here. Come on down!

Pam & Kwei

To lighten the tone after my last cranky post, here’s a snapshot taken yesterday at Barnes & Noble, Valencia, California. Kwei Quartey is the author of the Inspector Darko Dawson Mystery series, the most recent of which is CHILDREN OF THE STREET. Kwei is a delightful guy and I’m always glad to see him. He periodically sends me lighthouse photos he snaps while traveling, most often from Ghana, his home country.

Big thanks to Jackie Vick and Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles for setting up our panel discussion. Also to Lori Christian of Barnes and Noble, a most gracious and knowledgeable hostess! We’re hoping to put together a lighthouse discussion in the future.

If you missed this event, all of our books are available at Barnes and Noble, as well as that other big online bookseller you might know about.

January 12, 2011 – Santa Paula, CA – The earliest of California’s 35+ lighthouses have protected its coastal waters for over 160 years, and are thus a big part of the state’s history. According to local So. Cal. author Pam Ripling (who also writes as Anne Carter), these iconic symbols of protection, guidance and times past evoke a variety of thoughts and emotions. In recognition of Blanchard Community Library’s Centennial Celebration of California History, Ms. Ripling will share her knowledge of our West Coast beacons, relating how they came to be and where they are now.

Beginning with an overview of the multitude and variety of light stations constructed statewide, Ripling with focus on a few of her favorites, relating rich historical detail and anecdotal background. Ms. Ripling will also explain how, as a mystery author, she is inspired by lighthouses and works with them as aura-enhanced settings for her novels. Throughout her travels, Ripling has visited many of these lighthouses and will offer an entertaining PowerPoint slideshow to augment her presentation.

Also included in Ms. Ripling’s talk will be a discussion for fiction readers and aspiring authors about the fascinating process of researching her subjects. She will explain why an abandoned lighthouse six miles off the California coast might be the perfect setting for romance…and possibly murder. Using the real-life St. George Reef Lighthouse as her inspiration, Ripling (as Anne Carter) penned her second paranormal lighthouse mystery, CAPE SEDUCTION, (Echelon Press, 288 pp., $13.99), released in the fall of September, 2010.

Extensive research included interviewing one of the last keepers from St. George Reef Lighthouse. While the station in Ripling’s book is entirely fictional, the Coast Guardsman’s memories were invaluable in helping the author create a believable setting for CAPE SEDUCTION. “He described in great detail what it took to keep the lighthouse working—without electricity—in the 1940′s, and what one would have to do to survive locked away in a tower entrapped by treacherous seas.”

Born in the Midwest, Pam Ripling is the author of six published novels, a variety of fictional shorts and non-fiction articles. The married mother of three is a member of Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles and her short story Just Like Jay appears in their newest anthology, MURDER IN LA LA LAND.

Ms. Ripling will be signing a limited number of her books for attendees.

Blanchard Community Library is located at 119 North 8th Street, Santa Paula, CA 93060-2709. For more info on the library’s Centennial Celebration, contact District Librarian Daniel Robles at (805) 525-3615.

Loretta made headlines when, in 1930 at age seventeen, she eloped with her co-star Grant Withers from The Second Floor Murder. Withers was nine years her senior, and the marriage was soon annulled. Apparently, some quick thinking moguls at the studio re-titled the starring pair’s soon-to-be-released film Too Young to Marry.

Overall, Loretta Young made something like 100 films, working with such Hollywood heavyweights as Frank Capra, Cecil B. DeMille, and Orson Welles. She was a beloved leading lady who appeared with Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey, Charles Boyer, Ronald Coleman, and Robert Taylor, to name some of the many popular actors of the day. Her Oscar nod came with a Best Actress win for 1947′s The Farmer’s Daughter, beating out favorite Rosalind Russell for the coveted award. I recounted this scene in the beginning chapters of CAPE SEDUCTION, as my characters dine at the Brown Derby and remark about Loretta’s shocking upset. Nothing like real-life drama to bring a sense of authenticity to a novel’s era!

Loretta went on to receive an Emmy (1953) for her dramatic television series, the first actress to earn both the Emmy and the Academy Award. All in all, she won three Emmys, two Golden Globes and one Oscar, and snagged many nominations. Possibly one of the most interesting stories about her concerns daughter Judy Lewis,  known to the public as adopted during Young’s marriage to second husband Thomas Lewis. In her 1994 autobiography, Lewis claimed that she was actually Young’s biological daughter with actor Clark Gable, Loretta’s co-star in 1935′s Call of the Wild. The claim was ultimately confirmed by Loretta herself in a biography published after her death in 2000 from ovarian cancer.

She is attributed to saying, on strategy: “The trick to life, I can say now in my advanced age, is to stop trying to make it so important.”

May I have a drum roll please? Contest time! Jeepers, I had a lot of entrants. Have written all the names down on tiny fortune-cookie-sized papers and folded them up. Have dropped them into the beautiful ceramic bowl my son made in high school. Have stirred them. Have woken my teenaged daughter from her after-school nap and made her dip her fingers into the bowl. Draw one please?

But wait! No, I’m thinking I’m feeling very generous today. Pick THREE. Yes, dear, pull out three and then go back to bed.

WINNER #3 – DEIDRE DURANCE

WINNER #2 – CAITE MAIRE

and (drum roll quickens, ascends, ceases!)

WINNER #1 – SUSAN GRISCOM! Susan, you’ve won your choice of a $25 giftie card from everybody’s favorite big box book bin, Barnes & Noble… or 5 ebooks of your choice from Echelon Press!!

Deidre and Caite each win a copy of one of my books!

Well done, bloggers!!

And thanks ever so much to Karen for hosting me today! In the words of our immortal governator, “I’ll be back!”

Later today I’ll be drawing the winner’s name in my Blog Tour contest! Yep, everyone who went to my excerpt page and posted a comment about CAPE SEDUCTION, and those who commented along the way in my blog tour will be in the running for free books!

Stop over at the Echelon Press blog for another chance to win. Tell Karen I sent you and she’ll give you a good seat.

Nonetheless, I embark on another sort of tour Monday, where I will begin my “trip” with author Sean Hayden! Sean has taken the time to ask me some new and interesting questions, and will share them on his blog at Sean Hayden’s blog.  Do stop by!

Same day, I’m guesting at The Romance Studio, talking about whether books with lotsa sex and lust sell better than those considered “sweet” = plot that suggests intimate relations but doesn’t give the play-by-play. Help me out with your comments.

Don’t forget about the contest! All you have to do is read the CAPE SEDUCTION excerpt and leave me a relative comment—you’ll be in the drawing for FIVE Echelon Press eBooks of your choice, downloaded onto a really cool 2GB flash drive! (Or a $25 gift card to B&N, your choice.) Drawing will be on my last blog tour stop.

To make this more interesting, you’ll get an additional chance to win for every comment you leave at my tour stops! Whoa! Dude! So here’s the sched:

Monday, Aug 30:  Sean Hayden’s Blog

Monday, Aug 30:  The Romance Studio Blog

Tuesday, Aug 31:  Legendary Lighthouse

Wednesday, Sept 1:  Enjoying the Waves

Thursday, Sept 2:  Beth Fish Reads

Monday, Sept 6:  JFHilborne’s Blog

Tuesday, Sept 7: Mysteries and Margaritas

Wednesday, Sept 8:  A Writer’s Jumble

Thursday, Sept 9:  Lighthouse Musings

Friday, Sept 10:  Echelon Press

So, come on down!!

A quick surf through cyberspace will turn up numerous celebrations of National Lighthouse Day. I am celebrating by kicking off my month-long campaign to launch my latest romantic lighthouse mystery, CAPE SEDUCTION!

But back to NLD. What’s it all about, actually? Well, back in 1988, Senator John H. Chafee (Rhode Island) sponsored a joint resolution that was introduced to Congress on April 28^th, designating the day of August 7, 1989 as “National Lighthouse Day.” The enactment of the resolution would coincide with the 200^th anniversary of the signing of the Lighthouse Act and the commissioning of the first Federal lighthouse in the United States. Read more about it at my Legendary Lighthouses Blog.

Traditionally, those lighthouses open to the public plan special events and celebrations every August 7^th. This year is especially fun because the 7^th falls on Saturday, a day when lighthouse visitation is already high. One particular lighthouse, however, will remain shuttered today, as it does for most of the other 364 days a year:  St. George Reef, the inspiration for CAPE SEDUCTION. Which brings me to my campaign!

CAPE SEDUCTION officially launches in September. So, between now and September 10^th, I’ll be conducting a contest! I haven’t done one in awhile, so it’s time. Here are the answers to your questions:

WHAT DO I DO?

• Visit the excerpt page for CAPE SEDUCTION on my website.
• Post a Comment. Must be relevant to the excerpt, please!
• By posting, you agree to let me Tweet your wonderful comment or post it to Facebook.

WHEN DO I DO IT?

• Between August 7 and September 10, 2010, during which time I’ll be on my annual BOOK BLOG TOUR! (More on this next time.)

HOW DO I WIN?

• I will make a random drawing and announce the winner at my last BLOG TOUR STOP, which is LIFE AS A PUBLISHER with Karen Syed!

WHAT DO I WIN?

• Winner’s choice: $25 Gift Card from Barnes and Noble or
• Flash Drive loaded with 5 Echelon Press novels of your choice! (A $40 value!)

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU (ME)?

• The hope that the excerpt will inspire you to BUY CAPE SEDUCTION! You enlightened ebook readers can get it for $2.99, and those tactile-feely-paper-lovers are welcome to it for $13.99 from Amazon! Check Omnilit for various ebook formats of both lighthouse mysteries, CAPE SEDUCTION and POINT SURRENDER.)

As always, thanks for visiting my blog today. I know how valuable your reading time is.