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Where Jane talks about everything on her mind…and yes, as usual, there is quite a lot on her mind.

Gardens & Goodbyes

Five days until I move out of our beautiful Yarrow Point house and into a hotel for our last month here in Washington. So bittersweet!  It’s going to be very tough for us to say goodbye to this house and to Bellevue.  There are so many memories here.  Two of my three sons were born in Bellevue at Overlake Hospital.  This was our house after the divorce.  We closed on the house just two weeks after I met Ty Gurney for the first time.  And this was the house Mac came home to as a newborn in May 2009.  We did a two year remodel here, not knowing we’d be leaving for California so soon, so it’s a strange time…good, exciting, scary, but hopefully, ultimately, positive.

The practical now demands attention, too.  I finalized everything with movers today, and tomorrow we start packing up books in the kids rooms, and then the winter clothes, etc. It’s going to be chaotic packing and sorting out what goes to the hotel and what goes to storage, as I have a book due by Friday and I need to write, but keep getting distracted by all the things that demand a decision and my personal attention.

And speaking of practical…my office and files and promo stuff will all be packed as of Friday too, and that includes all the blog prizes that are sitting in my dining room unclaimed.  If you haven’t written to me to claim your prize yet, please do it now.  I have at least 5 unclaimed prizes from my last two blog contests, and you might be one of the winners and forgot to check.  So do check, and if you won, contact me!!   You have until Thursday night to claim your prize, and then it’s too late as everything will be packed up until July 1st when we start settling, and unpacking, in the new house.

It’s a gorgeous day here…the weekend was unbelievably beautiful.  Warm temperatures, blue skiies, lots of sun.  I walked around my garden with my coffee this morning and admired all the flowers that are in bloom, as well as the perennials that are popping up in my shade garden.  I hate leaving my house and my library, but also my dogwoods and my Japanese maples, and the wisteria that is blooming profusely right now.  It’s so wonderful to see my young wisteria that I planted two years ago finally blooming…so glad I got to see it bloom before I left.   I always struggle leaving my gardens…is anyone else that attached to their trees and flowers?

I have a special contest prize for one of you and it MUST be claimed by Friday.  Tell me about life…tell me about something you are reading…or something you are thinking…tell me anything and you’ll be entered for my Gardens & Goodbye prize.  Contest runs through Thursday night and winner will be announced Friday morning.  The winner must get back to me Friday, too.  So talk to me and I’ll keep checking back to read comments in between writing, writing, packing, and more writing.

Fifty Shades of Grey Discussion

On Friday, May 18th, I am hosting a one-time only book club event in Bellevue to discuss the book by E.L. James that everyone is talking about. Fifty Shades of Grey has been talked about on the news and T.V.  It’s also been the topic of discussion on social media sites and various other online forums.  A lot of my friends have read it too and I thought it might be interesting to have a group discussion about it.

If you’ve read the book, live in Greater Seattle, and think this sounds like your kind of thing, I’d love to have you join us for the evening. We’ll be meeting at a Bellevue location at 6pm on Friday, May 18th.   Drop me a note at jane(at)janeporter(dot)com and I’ll send you more details!

 

Tuscany!!

By the time you read this, I will be in Tuscany!

I left Seattle on Thursday and flew into Pisa by way of Paris and am now settling in at The Watermill where I’ll be writing for the next week.   While I work during the day, Ty Gurney is going to be off riding his rented Triumph Bonneville motorcycle around the countryside, and then returning to join us for dinner at night.

It’s a trip but not a holiday as I must get some serious writing done.  I’ve got just a little over a week to  finish my book and there is still chapters and chapters to go!   However, if I have to be putting in long hours, why not do it somewhere gorgeous?   I haven’t been to Tuscany since I was thirteen and lived in Europe with my family, and while I don’t remember Tuscany per se, I do remember Siena and Pisa so this will be a great refresher trip since I adore all things Italian.

But why specifically Tuscany, and why now?  Because I got it into my brain last February that I needed to improve my craft!  And so here I am, taking the Creative Writing Course at The Watermill led by the wonderful, absolutely delightful Sharon Kendrick. Sharon is a bestselling Harlequin Presents author from the UK and I find her zest and energy so inspiring and I can’t wait to see what Sharon has to share with us!

At the last minute my pal Megan Crane /Caitlin Crews was able to sign up for the course and so she’s also here, having flown in from Los Angeles, and then she’ll head over to London for a few days after to see friends and meet up with her Harlequin Mills & Boon editor.   And as happy as I am to see Megan, I don’t think there will be much lolly-gagging around as Megan and I both have that same May 15th deadline.

To celebrate my trip to Tuscany and my talented author friends Caitlin and Sharon that also write for Harlequin Presents, I’m giving away two prizes consisting of the not yet released UK anthology, Infamous, featuring my book Hollywood Husband, Contract Wife and Caitlin Crews’ Pure Princess, Bartered Bride, and a copy of Sharon Kendrick’s Monarch of the Sands, along with lots more fun goodies.   For a chance to win, tell me about your Mother’s Day plans, or how things are going in general.  I love hearing from you even when I’m far away, so bring me up to speed and you’ll have a chance to win! This Infamous contest ends Friday night and I’ll announce the two winners names sometime on Saturday.  Ciao!

 

Many Many Stories Later

Still recovering from Mac’s fun party while writing fast and furious on Dragon’s Bride, my latest Harlequin Presents, that is due May 15th, and while packing for Tuscany (yes, I leave Thursday for Sharon Kendrick’s course at The Watermill!) and organizing the packing of Bellevue house and the move into the hotel on the 20th….yes.  Am feeling a little frantic.  Okay, more than a little frantic, but hey, that seems to be the Jane Porter way.

But in celebration of Sharon Kendrick’s fantastic looking course and my current Harlequin manuscript which I am loving writing, I wanted to do a special contest where I’m giving away the 1st Harlequin Presents I ever wrote, The Italian Groom, and the very last one I wrote, the 2nd book in my royalty duo, His Majesty’s Mistake, and you’ll have a chance to see how I’ve grown or changed as a storyteller over the years.  There will be 10 winners and along with the books you’ll get fun gift cards and pens and notepads and nail files and other JP reader goodies.

Want a chance to win?  Tell me 5 things that bring you happiness–and it can’t be people this time!  If you mention a person or family member you will be disqualified!  <g>  I want to know what you do when you need a pick me up, or what makes you smile, or what you cherish…

I’ll share my 5 happy things now:

1)  fresh flowers

2)  dancing like a mad woman to Adele’s Rolling In The Deep (playing it very loud)

3)  that first cup of coffee every morning

4)  remembering my travels and trips over the years

5)  the joy I find in books….particularly my beloved Georgette Heyer!

Your turn, now!  Contest runs through Thursday night, and the 10 winners will be announced Friday morning!  Good luck and have a wonderful week!

xoxox

Jane

 

Happy 3rd Birthday, Mac!

It was my littlest guy’s 3rd birthday yesterday…can you believe it?  So many of you have been reading my blog and chatting with me since before I was even pregnant with him and now he’s a boy…playing Viking and knights and pirates.  He loves to dress up and wield a sword…and has quite an impressive sword collection at this point.  I’d be worried if I hadn’t had two other boys before him and realize this is just a boy loving being a boy!

For his pirate party we invited his preschool class and his friends from soccer and five were able to come.  Every time a little boy or girl arrived he’d beam and say, “I have a friend here!”  We had a bounce house in the back yard and a pirate theme table with pirate loot….hats and swords and boxes of treasure, plus a treasure chest pinata.

My sister, Kathy, sent balloons since she couldn’t join us and Mac loved them!  They were huge and colorful and he thought they needed some sword fighting.  I convinced him they were better off without swords and daggers but maybe he could gently punch them…

And then at 6 pm when Mac’s preschool friends left, I had a few close family friends come over and have an adult dinner.  He was in the middle of jumping in the bounce house with Jamette and my big boys when the pirates arrived looking for their lost treasure.

Armed with a map, the pirates had Mac help them “hunt” for their treasure hidden in our yard, collecting gold coins along the way.  Mac loved his pirate friends and I love Austin Hambling and his friends for making a three year old’s birthday dreams come true!

Thanks pirates, thank you friends and family, and thank you sweet fierce Mac for being such a fun little boy.  I love being your mommy!

PS  I’m giving away 3 prizes in honor of Mac’s 3rd birthday…bring me up to speed, what are you doing, what are you reading, how are things?  Three winners will be drawn from the comments below on Monday morning so you have all weekend to post.  Good luck and have a terrific weekend!

Love my Harlequins!

I have officially started writing my new Harlequin Presents as I anticipate the late May 22nd release of my next Harlequin Presents, Not Fit for a King?, which has gotten a stellar 4 1/2 star Top Pick review from RT.  I try so hard not to get attached to reviews, good or bad, because I give each book my all, and pour my heart and soul into every manuscript, but it does feel good to know this one resonated with the reviewer.

I do hope you’ll love Not Fit for a King?, too.  It’s the first book of my royalty duo, (twin princesses separated at birth!) with the second one, Emmeline’s story, out in late June.  So even if you don’t ordinarily read Harlequins and prefer my women’s fiction, I think a lot of you would like this one.  The heroine, Hannah, is American…Texan…and the hero is a gorgeous king (former professional soccer player from a ‘kingdom’ on the Adriatic Sea) and Hannah is having to impersonate an European princess and she’s completely out of her element.  It’s a fun, romantic twist on The Parent Trap!

Fit For a King

While readers wait for Not Fit For A King? to hit store shelves, I’m happily writing a new Harlequin, due May 15th, and this new story is set on the glorious Amalfi Coast with wonderful Positano and Sorrento and Pompeii all making appearances.  A year ago Ty Gurney, my sister Kathy Porter, and my older sons spent a week in Sicily and another week on the Amalfi Coast in an unforgettable vacation that is fueling this book and taking all the photos and pictures and memories in my head and turning them into something beautiful and passionate, something I am hoping my readers will love.

Must go to bed now as I can’t wait to wake up in the morning and get to writing.  I love my hero in this new story, Drakon (or Dragon in Greek).  Perhaps later in the week I can share some of the ‘pictures’ I’m using to inspire this story.  If Pinterest can throw up pics everywhere, why can’t I?

PS  Are you on Pinterest?  Should I be???  Fill me in and you could win one of 3 mystery prizes that feature cool Starbuck drink cards, hot, sexy heroes and glamorous international destinations…!  Contest runs through Saturday night and I’ll announce the winners Sunday morning.