Release Party and Giveaway for Susie & Gina

It's a big celebration at the Inkwell this week as we join Susanne Dietze and Gina Welborn in celebrating the release of Barbour's The Most Eligible Bachelor Romance Collection of nine historical novellas.

We congratulate Susie on her debut release, Love's Reward, one of the nine novellas in this collection.

In honor of her story, I've visited her Love's Reward pinterest board and invited her two main characters to be members of our wait staff.
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We'll start with the heroine of Susie's Love's Reward novella, heiress Josie Price who will be serving an assortment of flavorful teas at whatever temperature suits your fancy.

And from Josie's expression, she may have caught sight of the hero of Love's Reward, architect Daniel Blair, weaving through the crowd.




Although Josie's eyes are on Daniel, it's the tray of scrumptious mini Orange Souffles he's carrying that's drawing guests to cluster around him. 

As we congratulate Gina on another release, we'll use an image I found on her Baker's Dozen pinterest board for the perfect setting of our party.

Can you see us here?

I can... I'm descending the stairs with my hand trailing down the polished surface of the banister, smiling at the guests who have come to congratulate Susie and Gina. A lavish setting in Gina's Baker's Dozen novella, called the Baker House, family home of her hero, cattle baron Duke Baker.

And here is Duke Baker himself, carrying a tray covered with rich slices of Chocolate Mocha Cake. Oh my, oh my.

And the woman at the coffee bar... I believe that's Gina's Baker's Dozen heroine, socialite Irie LeCroix.




With all those coffee flavours, both traditional and contemporary, she's sure to have something you like.

So make yourself at home and visit with guests and characters alike.

Before you drag yourself away, leave a comment for the giveaway detailed below. And tune back in on Wed for more of our celebration.

* * * GIVEAWAY * * *

Susanne Dietze and Gina Welborn are each giving away a copy (print or digital) of The Most Eligible Bachelor Romance Collection. That's 2 copies up for grabs. To be entered in this giveaway, be sure to leave a comment with a method of contact before the deadline of 11:59 EDT Sunday, May 10th.

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Love's Reward Giveaway!

It's Release Day!

Susanne here. To celebrate the release of my very first novella, Love's Reward in The Most Eligible Bachelor Collection, I'm offering a giveaway!

Why the Ghirardelli? (Why NOT the Ghirardelli?!) Well, my story takes place in 1896, San Francisco, and the main characters Daniel and Josie would have enjoyed the locally-produced chocolate.

Lots of bicycle giveaways too, because America was in the midst of a cycling craze during the 1890s. Both Josie and Daniel enjoy cycling. (Plus, I thought the Cavallini notebook and sticky notes were adorable.)

Inky Gina Welborn is also featured in the collection. Her story rocks!

It's easy to enter the contest. Just pop over to my website for the automated entry form! The contest is open until May 10. Winner chosen at random by Rafflecopter and announced on my blog, Tea and a Good Book, May 11.

The giveaway items are exactly as pictured, no substitutions.
Void where prohibited.


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Susanne Dietze is having a pretty good day. She hopes you are, too!

A Hidden Blessing

This morning I awoke with the goal of posting some of the videos I'd taken this month onto my YouTube channel. Due to our slow internet connection, I have to do this early in the morning or late at night for the quickest result without interruption.

I started with a video that was the result of a camera error. You see, I usually keep the video settings on my Nikon P500 CoolPix as HD (High-Definition) instead of HS (High-Speed) mainly because the HS doesn't work well. With HS, the videos are too slow and there's either no sound of the sound quality is drawn out. Sometimes the HS video won't play on my laptop. At other times, the HS video is very dark and hard to see.

But this time, I love the result...





I don't know how something marked High Speed can give such a slow video, but then I don't understand all the intricacies of a camera despite having taken a photography course. Somehow the f stops and aperture settings are just extra buttons when I'm in a hurry to snap a photo, so I normally keep my camera on the automatic setting. I extensively use my zoom and focus as I go.

As I waited for my Canada Geese Slow Motion Flying to load on YouTube this morning, I saw the blessing of this camera error.

Having recognized it as a blessing, I wrote it down on a blue slip of paper and dropped it into the glass bowl I wrote about in my Inkwell post, The Blessings Bowl.

And that got me thinking of dark days and how often we experience troubles and disappointments and instead of receiving sympathy or empathy, someone will tell us that every cloud has a silver lining. Or if one door closes another one opens. Or if a door closes, crawl out the window. Or... some other insensitive comment that makes us feel worse.

Except sometimes those options are real but we have to look hard to find them. 

This video was an easy find. Yes, I was discouraged when I first realized that I'd missed my chance because of the wrong setting, but instead of automatically deleting the raw footage, I saved it to my laptop and then watched it.

At the very least, this video shows beauty and grace in motion. I hope you can glean something from it as well.


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Anita Mae Draper is retired from the Canadian Armed Forces and lives on the prairie of southeast Saskatchewan, Canada with her hubby of 30 plus years and the youngest of their four kids. Anita is pleased to announce that her short story, Here We Come A-Wassailing, published in A Cup of Christmas Cheer, Volume 4, Heartwarming Tales of Christmas Present, Guideposts Books, October 2014, is a finalist for the Word Guild's 2015 Word Awards. Anita is represented by Mary Keeley of Books & Such Literary Management. You can find Anita Mae at  www.anitamaedraper.com

Scripture Pic: 1 John 5:14