Happy Holiday Wishes!

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everybody a safe, healthy and happy Holidays! See you in the New Year!

Here’s a little video for you to enjoy – Hunky Santas – The Holiday Card. Enjoy!

Hugs!

jan

Our Christmas Tradition

We must have the oldest Christmas glass lights on our street.  They date back many years…I am not sure how old they are and I wonder if the neighbors ever get sick of seeing the same lights (see below pic) year after year…but they sure are pretty.

In our family we tend to really stick to tradition. We still have some of the first glass Christmas tree ornaments my parents bought back in the 1960’s. If you drop them, that’s it, they smash apart and they are gone. So we have to be very careful. “Treat them like eggs”, my dad would say.

Before my dad had his devastating stroke,  he would drag us out into the woods or sometimes to a Christmas tree farm to cut down our own spruce Christmas tree. Then he would curse as he sawed the bottom of the tree, and trim the branches to make it fit into the house. He would continue his cussing while he strung the lights and then the ornaments and the silver tinsel, always wanting everything to look perfect.  But when the deed was done he would smile and say “this is the nicest tree we’ve ever had, don’t you think?” Without fail, he would say it every year. LOL

The following is a true story:

I remember one year we were at the cottage on a mission to find and cut down our perfect Christmas tree. We had plans to put it into the trunk of the car and bring it home. We drove along a secluded cottage road until we spied a good tree. That perfect tree just happened to be on the road outside the local dump.

Well, my dad didn’t want to get into trouble for cutting a tree so close to the road, so he put me as lookout to make sure no cars were coming…unfortunately before he could cut our tree, I saw an approaching car. We hopped into our car and sped off into the dump and waited until the coast was clear…as we waited we heard the car slow down on the main road. Heard the distinct sound of a car door slam, someone sawing, another car door slam and car leaving…huh.

When the car was gone we headed back out to the main road…and discovered our perfect Christmas tree was GONE! My dad was so not amused but after our shock wore off we laughed so hard. Talk about a weird coincidence that two parties would be out on the same road at the same time, on the same mission and eyeing the same tree! We did find another tree further down the road that year, but it just wasn’t the same. But we laughed all the way home that year.

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas Tradition post. 🙂

Hugs and Happy Holidays!!!

jan

Three things I am grateful for

Three things I am grateful for.

On the top of my list of things to be greatful for are my readers! Your support is unwavering and it is because of you that I continue to write full-time to bring you stories to enjoy.

I am especially grateful over the last few days for my readers because of their support my latest indie-published story “Marley’s Menage” continues to rise on All Romance’s best seller list. Squeeeing! I love my readers and I am sending out a round of thanks and hugs to you all!!

(((((((((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))))))

Two more things I am grateful for are my two cats – CheeChee and Emily Angel.

Even on the saddest of days all I need to do is look at them and they make me smile. Especially in August of this year after the passing of Spunky, my third cat. Chee Chee and Emily were here to help me grieve. When I needed a hug, CheeChee or Emily and sometimes both were always available. They keep me cheered. Pet owners will know exactly what I mean. *grin*

Here’s are their pictures:

Above: The late great Spunky – 19 1/2 years old

Below are Spunky’s Girls:

Chee Chee – around 5 years

Emily Angel – 12 years old

Happy Reading!

jan

I’m scared!

Ohlala I love being scared… and the Friday the 13th horror movies & The Walking Dead tv series does a fine job in keeping me jumping off my seat.

I saw the very first Friday the 13th (http://www.campcrystallake.com/)  when I was nineteen or twenty. The movie centered around a camp for kids in the wilderness and a slasher named Jason in a hockey mask who went around killing the teen councilors (if I remember right). Jason was rumored to be a kid who drowned in the camp lake due to neglect from the camp councilors and he’s come back from the grave to get even.

That first movie in the series was especially impressive because on the lake where we used to have our cottage, there was a camp for kids nearby and lots of woods. It looked oddly similar to the camp in the movie, so after seeing Friday the 13th (and quite a few of the sequels – I think there are 12 or 13 at last count) I was always a bit uneasy when I would traipse out in the night and head to the old outhouse thinking that Jason was lurking around, ready to murder me. Okay…I even have the goose bumps thinking about it while I am writing this post.

A current favorite horror tv show is leaving me with tons of goosebumps too. The Walking Dead is a zombie apocalypse and follows the trials and tribulations of a group of survivors who deal with zombies on a daily basis. Currently the group of ragtag survivors is holed up in a penitentiary. But last season was especially gut wrenching as a young teenage boy named Carl had to kill his mother because she died in childbirth (the baby survived) and when people die in this world they automatically turn into zombies. Poor Carl didn’t want that for his mom and so he shot her in the head – that’s how you kill zombies.

Does anyone watch the Walking Dead? Anyone love being scared by the Friday the 13th movies? LOL

Hope you all have a frightfully delightful HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

 

The Rookies!!

For the past few days we’ve been talking about which tv show dates us the most…for  me it would be “The Rookies” starring Michael Ontkean, George Standford Brown and Kate Jackson.

OMG I believe my first tv show star crush was Canadian actor Michael Ontkean of the 1972-1976 tv series The Rookies.  I was just 12 years old but boy did he look hot!

I would drool over his pictures in Tiger Beat magazine (the first introduction to the magazine was the several copies I had found in the local cottage dump!)  My parents wouldn’t let my brother and I watch much tv back then but Monday nights were reserved for The Rookies and I made sure I watched every episode. A childhood friend and I would also sit on the front porch of my parents house where we  would write stories in our notebooks and create episodes for the Rookies. It was probably the first time the writing bug began for me. lol

Happily I have just discovered that The Rookies First Season & Second Season (the only two seasons I believe with Michael Ontkean before he left the show ) are out on dvd…and so I plan to get myself a copy of each and swoon over my main man as well as the other cutie guys on The Rookies. Woot!

Does anyone remember the Rookies? Or am I too old? LOL

Hugs!

Contest!! plus…If You Could Live In Another Time…

If you could live in another time, what time would you like to live in? That’s the topic at Darker Temptations over the past couple of weeks and a question for me to ponder…

But first….Contest! Contest! See below for details on getting a chance to win a free pdf copy of Resistance – Outlaw Lovers!

Call me crazy but I would be interested in living sometime in the future, specifically during the times of my Outlaw Lovers series…about  seven plus years from now it would be a post-catastrophic time where most of the women have died from various illnesses and there are tons of men available.

Here’s a peek at how life would be like:

A fast-acting virus has killed a majority of the world’s female population and forced the creation of the Claiming Law. Groups of males have the right to claim a female as property…sexual property. With the Terrorist Wars over, the Outlaw brothers come home to declare ownership of their women…

I would be part of the “Resistance”. A ragtag group of people who are willing to fight to reinstate a democratic government and get rid of the newly formed dictatorship as well as the Claiming Law. I’d have my pick of hunky guys who believe in a woman picking her own man (or men) for her mates. And I would try like hell to avoid getting caught by the groups of men roving around looking to claim wives.

How about you? Do you have a wish to live in another time?

So, my contest question is…

For a chance at a free pdf ebook copy of “Resistance” send me an email jan_springer_ca@yahoo.ca with the first names of the three main characters (one female and two males) in the futuristic erotic romance “Resistance” part of my Outlaw Lovers series at Ellora’s Cave. 

Your answer can be found here:

http://www.ellorascave.com/resistance.html

A winner will be picked sometime over this weekend and their name will be posted here and I will contact them as well.

Contest deadline – midnight tonight – Friday September 27, 2013 E.T.

Good luck! Woot!

Books can be read in this series order (ebook formats)…1. Jude Outlaw   2. The Claiming  3. Colter’s Revenge  4. Tyler’s Woman  5. Resistance…..and in paperback format 1. Jude and Luke (contains Jude Outlaw & The Claiming) 2. Colter’s Revenge 3. Tyler’s Woman – no paperback version of Resistance available yet.

Also an update: Look for Toygasm , Attracted to Him and Attracted to Her releasing soon from Ellora’s Cave. Details can be found here: http://janspringerauthor.wordpress.com/coming-soon-2/

And releasing soon – Marley’s Menage – Book 2 The Key Club from Spunky Girl Publishing – http://spunkygirlpublishing.weebly.com/coming-next.html

Happy Reading,

Jan Springer

“Claiming Hannah” has cyborgs!

Over the past few days Darker Temptations has been chatting about which robot/android/cyborg would I like to drop by for a visit.

My futuristic erotic romance has cyborgs. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg) “a cyborg is a being with both organic and artificial parts” and “the term cyborg is often applied to an organism that has enhanced abilities due to technology ”

Well, I would love my characters from “Claiming Hannah” to drop by. But since they are fictional, I will give you a peek into their world on Earth in  the Year 50 A.A. (50 years After Armageddon). Here men and women are drafted into the Hit Association for life. They are trained to hunt down Breeder Slaves (clones) who escape their masters and run for the Free States to have a life of their own.

These drafted Hitmen and Hitwomen are turned into cyborgs. Their eyes, ears and brains (and sometimes other body parts) are enhanced so they can track down their prey. But sometimes they do fall in love…with the people they are ordered to kill.

“Claiming Hannah” (Ellora’s Cave) is one of those stories…

Hannah is a Breeding Slave. Created solely for the purpose of producing healthy offspring for an ailing human race, Hannah Roberts longs for freedom and fantasizes about the dangerous man she can never have. With her breeding status about to commence, her hunger for freedom explodes. Escaping into the night, she knows capture will bring her certain death.

Jacob is her Hitman. Trained to be a cold-blooded killing machine, the only light in Jacob Romero’s life is Hannah, a beautiful Slave whose sweet innocence brands his heart and awakens dark desires he never knew he had. Assigned to hunt her down and kill her, he’s seriously injured when he saves her life.

Forbidden love always finds a way. Now fugitives, they hide in a deserted mansion where Hannah nurses the wounded Hitman she’s always wanted. Soon their passions ignite, throwing them into a sexual ecstasy neither can run from. Their forbidden love will face one final challenge. Escaping to a harsh new life in the Free States.

Publisher Note: Previously released by another publisher under the title of A Hitman for Hannah, this book has been extensively revised and reedited for Ellora’s Cave.

Here’s “Claiming Hannah’s” Book Trailer: http://www.ellorascave.com/claiming-hannah.html

And the “Forward” for Claiming Hannah:

Forward

Year 50 A.A. (50 years After Armageddon)

 Compliments of Armageddon, radiation and pollution continue to plague the Earth. Disease, stem cell research and organ transplants are common. Treatment for certain diseases is often extreme, leaving many afflicted with side effects such as sterility. Human reproductive failures are at epidemic proportions.

Cloning from quality, radiation-resistant embryos becomes the norm, allowing non-reproductive couples to have access to healthy test-tube babies. However, studies reveal such babies aren’t as resilient to pollution or radiation as those conceived in a human host. Couples demand access to healthier children.

Hence a large amount of Copies or Clones, as they were known in the A.C.—After Christ—years are created. They are designer babies, genetically manipulated to produce superior-quality offspring and their sole purpose in life is to be Breeding Slaves or Studs. Rich, childless humans are eligible for the enhanced offspring of the Breeder Slaves. These superior babies will be integrated into society.

After a conditioning period of eighteen years, the Breeding Slaves and Studs are moved to privately owned breeding farms—a very lucrative business where a rich couple will pay quite handsomely to purchase a baby and watch their child’s creation from conception to birth by the two Copies they select. Certain factions protest the use of Copies for breeding purposes. It goes against human morals, they say. Copies are just as human as the rest of the people. They bleed blood, they understand and have emotions. They should be free to live in society as the rest of the humans. They should have the right to pick their mates, have their own children. To gain an education.

Activists fight for Breeding Slave and Stud rights. The government does listen to an extent. Strict rights are granted. Female Copies are educated and allowed to keep their firstborn until the child is eighteen when a master can either sell the firstborn as a Breeding Slave or set him or her free. And then there are the downfalls. Being a Breeding Slave must remain a life sentence. It is after all, why these enhanced humans have been created. To serve mankind. There can be no marriage between Breeding Slave and Stud or humans. If a Breeding Slave or Stud runs, he or she must pay a deadly consequence.

Elimination.

Hannah is a Breeding Slave and she’s running. Jacob is a Hitman assigned to eliminate her.

Neither has known passion or love.

Until now.

Glossary for Claiming Hannah

 Hitman or Hitwoman: Men and women drafted into the Hit Association. Their draft is for life or death, whichever comes first.

 Hit Association: A group of men and women drafted and trained to hunt down runners. They are given enhanced eyes and ears and other equipment to assist in their jobs.

Armageddon: In the year 2050 A.C. the Fourth World War begins. It rages for seven long years. After a rain of nuclear bombs completes the war, the ensuing pollution gives the world an ailing civilization that clings to the hope of a future using genetically designed healthy Breeding Slaves and Studs—Clones, designer babies, Copies—to produce offspring for them.

enhanced eyes: Infrared heat-seeking lenses embedded into the eyes and wired to the brain of Hitmen and Hitwomen drafted into the Hit Association.

enhanced hearing: Electrical implants embedded into the ears and wired to the brain. The unit enhances a Hitman’s or Hitwoman’s hearing.

tazer gun: Sends out green ray probes of electricity and shocks the intended victim into unconsciousness.

laser gun: Depending upon the strength of the ray, it can either severely burn or kill the intended victim. In most cases it is used on a runner.

runner: A Breeding Slave or Stud who decides the breeding life is not for him or her and runs for the Free States.

Breeding Slave or Stud: Designer babies produced specifically to be conditioned into being Breeders. As adults they will be paired with mates, creating healthy babies for the ailing human race.

Free States: A harsh, lawless, cold land north of the States border where runners gain their freedom. They must survive here using their wits.

States: Since Armageddon the States have been run by a harsh dictatorship government that is trying to repopulate the land with a superior race of humans. It uses any means necessary to accomplish its goals.

To get your copy of Claiming Hannah:

Ellora’s Cave – http://www.ellorascave.com/claiming-hannah.html

ebook: Sony, Kobo, Ellora’s Cave,  Nook, ibooks, Diesel, ARe

Kindle format: US, Canada,  Japan, UK, Germany

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into the future and some day in the near future – maybe next year – I do have plans for more stories of this world so stay tuned.

Hugs and Happy Reading!

My most favorite book is the first Harlequin I ever read.

My Most Favorite Book – My first Harlequin – Summer Rainfall by Kerry Allyne

Picture this:

July 1977. A 17 year old Jan Springer is on a trip with her family to visit relatives in Switzerland…Jan doesn’t speak Swiss and her relatives don’t speak English – and the awesome scenery can only do so much…can Jan say she was BORED stiff? Shhh, don’t tell the relatives…LOL

Until Jan spied a bookshelf of English books in a store! Yes there is a God!!

But my parents only allowed me one book to buy…back then money was tight (yes even with a trip to Switzerland money was tight)…and so I picked “Summer Rainfall” by Kerry Allyne.

Before that magical book, my reading pleasures were been limited to, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and the occasional “Get Smart” paperbacks. “Summer Rainfall” was my first EVER Harlequin book and boy was I hooked. LOLOL…Little did I know that book would set me on the path of writing romances many years down the road.

I must have read “Summer Rainfall” from cover to cover several times during that trip and when my parents noticed I kept reading the same book…okay so it was the ONLY book I had…I was allowed to buy another ONE…of course it was another Harlequin and I cannot remember the name but it was good too. lolol

Here’s a blurb for “Summer Rainfall”:

She’d been duly warned, of course.

But what really got her dander up was Rafe O’Sullivan’s taunts that she wasn’t the type to manage a farm.

She had inherited the twenty-acre piece of land near Australia’s north coast and, fed up with city life, had decided to give the country life a try. Unfortunately, the land was smack dab in the middle of Rafe’s, and he badly wanted her to sell out to him.

Not on your life, she said to herself.

“Summer Rainfall” has action, adventure and a very nice romance. If you ever have a chance to grab a copy, then do so, you won’t be disappointed!  Here’s a link to Kerry Allyne’s Harlequin booklist: http://www.romancewiki.com/Kerry_Allyne

Hugs and Happy Reading!

Jan Springer

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery

Greetings!

My Favorite Series

I would have to say my favorite all time series of books would be the selected  journals of Lucy Maud Montgomery. She’s the author of Anne of Green Gables and many other stories.

L.M. Montgomery kept a handwritten diary detailing the picturesque island of Prince Edward Island where she was raised. She also kept track of many events through her life including her love of writing, being raised by strict grandparents, the publication of Anne of Green Gables, the first real love of her life, her marriage to a reverend, the birth of her sons, her husband’s mental illness, her depression and so much more.

Here are snippets from the publisher for this series of diaries:

Volume 1 – 1889-1910

A bestseller in Canada, this book will fascinate the legions of devoted readers of Anne of Green Gables and Montgomery’s other Anne books.
Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) kept extensive journals for most of her life, beginning them in 1889 when she was fourteen and continuing them until shortly before her death. Spontaneous and frank, they are unusual for their narrative interest: Montgomery’s gifts as a storyteller are as much in evidence here as in her novels. This first volume takes her to 1910, the year before her marriage, and culminates with the publication of Anne of Green Gables.
The autobiographical content will intrigue every dedicated fan of the Anne books. But the Montgomery journals are especially interesting because they provide a unique social history and the privilege of viewing closely the life of a remarkable woman.

Volume 2 – 1910 – 1921

An instant best-seller in Canada, the first volume of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery recorded the growing power and imagination of one of the world’s best-loved writers, the author of the classic novel for children, Anne of Green Gables. The London Free Press hailed it as “pure gold, the deeply felt, finely evocative rendering of years both heartbreakingly sad and splendidly triumphant,” and The Montreal Gazette termed it “one of the most haunting documents in Canadian literary history.”
The second volume promises to be equally intriguing and powerful. Ranging from 1910 to 1921, Montgomery’s revealing journal documents a time of great upheaval, both in her life and in the world around her. Here she records her thoughts about the death of her rigid, intolerant grandmother, who had ruled her life so strickly…her troubled marriage to the Reverend Ewan Macdonald…the move from her beloved Prince Edward Island to a small Ontario town…her shocked reaction to the First World War…and the rewards and difficulties of being a noted writer.
Spontaneous and frank, these journals are unusual for their narrative interest: Montgomery’s gifts as a storyteller are as much in evidence here as in her novels. The autobiographical content will intrigue every dedicated fan of Anne of Green Gables and the other Anne books, but the Montgomery journals are also interesting because they provide a unique social history and the privilege of viewing closely the life of a remarkable woman.

Volume 3 – 1921 – 1929

Ranging from 1921-1929, this revealing journal documents her efforts to juggle the demands of motherhood, parish obligations, indifferent household help, grief at the loss of older friends and family–everyday struggles to balance a woman’s social and domestic duties. Here she writes of the triumphs and trials of being a best-selling author: growing fame; the successful midwifery of her new heroines Emily and Marigold and a more adult novel, The Blue Castle; the struggle to allocate time for correspondence with publishers, fans, friends–and to actually write. We trace the happy conclusion of her lawsuits against an unscrupulous publisher and the disappointing outcome of a lawsuit arising in a minor automobile accident. And we learn of her personal worries: Ewan Macdonalds’s envy of his wife’s publishing and social success; the dark shadow cast by his attacks of melancholia; and her fear that her sons might evince similar tendencies.
In these years, Lucy Maud Montgomery turned more and more to her journals to record her insights, opinions, and epiphanies. These journals will not only intrigue every fan of Anne of Green Gables and the other Anne books, but will also provide an intimate look at life as portrayed by this remarkable writer.

Volume 4 –  1929-1935

Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)-whose Anne of Green Gables and many other novels are loved by readers around the world-kept extensive journals for most of her life. The fourth volume of the immensely success Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery covers the years from 1929 to 1935, a tumultuous period in the writer’s life. The stock market crash, a drop in royalties from her many books, the need to provide her two sons with a university education, her husband’s modest church salary often in arrears, and the fact that many loans she had made to friends and family were not repaid, placed Montgomery in the position where she had to type her own manuscripts for the first time since 1910. She also had to face personal crises as her sons’ university results were extremely disappointing and her husband suffered a total nervous breakdown. Yet this was not a period without joy as well-the volume opens with travels to Prince Edward Island and western Canada and ends with her looking forward with great excitement to a new life in Toronto.

Volume 5 – 1935-1942

The final volume of the immensely successful The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery covers the years 1935 to 1942, the year of Montgomery’s death. No longer dwelling in a farm community or a small rural village, Lucy Maud Montgomery explored life in downtown Toronto. Here she experienced the cultural riches the city had to offer while finding friendship and neighborliness in the suburb of Swansea. The journal chronicles her hopes and satisfaction with her new home and neighborhood, but also her struggles with her own and her husband’s recurring bouts of depression, her worries about her sons’ academic performance, and her thoughts on the world events during these years. The final volume in the series offers an intimate eyewitness account of life in a growing city, a friendly neighborhood, a changing world, and of a troubling family dynamic from 1935 to 1942, all recorded with Lucy Maud Montgomery’s sharp eye and characteristic wit.

Above picture – Megan Follows acts as Anne of Green Gables in the television mini series “Anne of Green Gables”.

Note from me:

There is a lot to read in each of these journals. I picked them up in hardcover format on a visit to Prince Edward Island back in the early 1990’s. If you want to get your own copies they are available on Amazon etc…

Happy Reading!

jan

Internet Time Suck – Luv my Pinterest!

I don’t know how I survived without my Pinterest. Does anyone else have this problem? LOL

My pinterest name is janspringer1 and I am a pinterestaholic. There, my deep dark secret is out!

I love pinning pictures onto boards. My favorite is collecting photos with similar color themes. Black Beauty, Sapphire, Emerald, Shades of Chiffon, Gold, Silver, Tiffany Blue and Copper Love, to name just a few of my color boards. My boards include themes such as birdhouses, autumn, leather & latex, man candy, christmas, the walking dead, kiss kiss and bondage, again, to name a few. At last count, if I counted right, I have more than 250 themed boards and I have the pleasure of following 2,700 pinners and am being followed by 1,800 pinners.

For my writing, I find the pictures are an inspiration. They inspire me to get ideas of where a story is going. My heroes and heroines are retrieved from my Man Candy and Heroine boards as well as from whomever is pinning hot looking hunks or interesting women at the time. I use pictures to decorate my heroes and heroines’ rooms in their houses, the cars they drive, bedrooms they make love in and even lovemaking positions.

If I see something I like, I will like it and/or pin it and I am thrilled when someone “likes” one of my pins too.

Pinterest can be found here: http://www.pinterest.com

For tips on how to use Pinterest:

http://www.themomcreative.com/2012/03/10-tips-for-using-pinterest-well.html

If you’d like to follow one, several or all of my boards, my pinterest name is janspringer1

http://pinterest.com/janspringer1/

Hope to see you there.

Happy Pinning!

jan