Fantastic Gift Basket Drawing--Celebrating a New Release

Elaine Marie Cooper, Author of "The Promise of Deer Run"

Elaine is giving away a fantastic gift basket to celebrate the release of her new book, The Promise of Deer Run (available in paperback, hardcover or ebook). 

Here are the rules: Leave a comment about the giveaway and let me know what your favorite item in the basket is to receive one entry. Subscribe to my blog or let me know you're already a subscriber, and you'll get TWO additional entries. You must tell me you're a subscriber to get the extra entries.

I'll draw my winner on Nov 18th, and give it to the blog hostess heading up the blog tour. A grand prize winner will then be drawn from the winners from each blog taking part and will be posted/notified on Nov 21. Be SURE you leave a way for us to contact you. Write your email out like this: miralee at yahoo dot com, etc.

Grand Prize (Retail Value: $297.38) Contains:

• Basket
• $25 Starbucks gift card  
• Spode Christmas teapot  
• Spode Christmas mugs   
• Yankee candle
• Hardbound copy The Road to Deer Run
• Hardbound copy The Promise of Deer Run
• Bath and Body Paris Amour scent                                                                                                                                                          
• An Absolutely Charming Tale!
  Once again, Elaine Marie Cooper pens an absolutely charming tale of eighteenth century Americana. War, no matter the era, takes its toll on both soldiers and families. The Promise of Deer Run is a precious next story following Mary and Daniel’s story in The Road to Deer Run, picking up with Mary’s sister, Sarah a few years down the line. Be sure to read the first book too! As a historian and author, I am grateful to Elaine for her dedication to authenticity.  —Lisa Lickel,  author of A Summer in Oakville
  
  About The Promise of Deer Run:
  America’s war for freedom from England has been over for seven years, but the wounds of that conflict still haunt the minds and hearts of the residents of Deer Run. Young American veteran Nathaniel Stearns has withdrawn to a life of isolation as he awaits his father who never returned from the war.
  
  A near-tragedy in the woods brings Nathaniel face-to-face with nineteen-year-old Sarah Thomsen, someone he had long admired but he assumed had eyes for another. This chance encounter opens a crack into the door of his heart as mutual affection quickly blooms.
  
  But slander and lies soon mar the budding romance, rendering both Sarah and Nathaniel wounded and untrusting as their faith in both their God and each other is shattered. Set in 1790, this book continues the story of the Thomsen and Lowe families as they struggle to survive in the aftermath of the war that birthed the United States.
•  
• The Road to Deer Run won the following honors:
  
  • Finalist: 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
  • Honorable Mention: 2011 Los Angeles Book Festival
  1. Best Romantic Moment: ClashoftheTitles.com, February 2011
   

I was given a complimentary copy of the book to read for a future review, but the publisher or author did not pay me to take part in this tour.

Are You Ready for Winter?

Can you believe Thanksgiving is approaching and daylight savings time ends tomorrow night? Where has the summer gone? And did we really even have a fall? Our summer hers in the Pacific NW didn't kick in until July 15th...two months later than normal, and it ended toward the latter part of Sept. I'm hearing rumblings of heavy snows and even hints that we could see some white stuff drifting down over the next few nights. 

I'll admit...I'm NOT a winter lover. Give me 12 months of spring, summer and fall...let's just avoid winter all together, shall we? 

At least I was able to find time this year to bed all my rose bushes with bark chips, something I didn't do last year, and I lost four plants as a result. We still need to dig up the rest of our potatoes, drain a pump in our pond, and a couple of other little things before icy cold hits.

How about you? Are you looking forward to winter? Running away to warmer weather instead? Staying home, snuggling down in front of a fire and don't care if it snows? Or are you a snow bunny heading for the ski slopes? What do you to to get you through the long, dreary days of winter?

I'd love to hear from you, and if you have any great ideas to cheer up a person who does NOT enjoy winter, send them my way!