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Bonjour!

Have you been battling a heat wave?  I’m still in France, but I’ve been reading about the record hot temperatures in some parts of North America. I hope you’ve been keeping cool in one way or another.

Here in Provence it’s been hot, hot, hot too! La canicule! This header photo is one I took in Antibes last week. That shady doorstep was an inviting stop for a few minutes.

Remember the writing event on June 3 in Nice,which I told you about in my last newsletter? Well, it was a great success. Please check out my blog next week when I will post all about it. It was a fabulous afternoon spending time with fellow authors and so nice to meet and mingle with enthusiastic Côte d’Azur readers.

This is my last week in France for 2017 and June has been a busy month. From June 6th to 18th, my friend Susan Sommers and I led our third tour of Provence. Sixteen women from the UK, the USA and Canada joined us for twelve specially-planned days, and we all had a fabulous time. The women were great travellers and interested in everything we had scheduled. Most had read my books and were delighted to visit places they had become familiar with in the stories.

We could not have asked for a more congenial group and it was great fun to watch everyone get to know each other and become friends. This is one of my favourite photos of the entire group, including Susan and me. That’s the beautiful village of Roussillon in the background.

I posted photos of each day of the tour on the Womens Travel Network blog. If you would like to see all the beautiful days we shared, just click right here and enjoy!

I want to send out a special “thank you” once again to each of the sixteen women. It was a pleasure getting to know you and you certainly helped create memories that will last forever.

The two months here in France have flown by. The weather has been wonderful, even with the extreme heat of the past three weeks. I’m not complaining.

I spent many afternoons writing on the roof terrace of our rental house … and many hours dreaming there too!

Even though it was a little early for lavender this year, we did see some fields in bloom. And we found sunflower fields, as well as the last of the poppies. It’s hard to catch everything at its peak, so we were thrilled with all that. Even though those are the most popular flowers to find this time of year, the south of France is full of colour from the many other plants and shrubs that create such beauty all around us here.

For this last week, I am in St. Remy with two of my best friends from Toronto. We’re having a girls-only getaway and I’m reminded every day of what a special thing it is to share such meaningful experiences. I hope you have similar types of priceless friendships in your life too.

And while I’m talking about France, I hope you have downloaded The Good Life France summer magazine. You know how I always like to say it’s free, fabulous and all about France. Click right here if you haven’t seen it yet. You’ll be glad you did.

In the midst of this, I’m also working my way through the final proofread of Drawing Lessons. And for that reason, I’m going to keep this newsletter short and catch up on more news with you next month.

Congratulations to the winners of last month’s giveaways:  Tara Brown, Ruth Thomas, Jana Leah Burkhardt, Catherine Lemanski, and Jane Coward.

Amy, my irreplaceable right hand, is always on top of things so I’m certain you have all heard from her by now. If not, please let us know.

And now for this month’s exciting giveaways! You will recognize these writers from their bestselling releases last year. Now they both have new novels out for us!

Giveaway #1 is for two ebooks of Camille di Maio’s brand new release, Before The Rain Falls.

Camille always dreamed of being a writer, and those dreams came true with her bestselling debut novel, The Memory of Us. She and her family have just completed an exciting move to live in historic Williamsburg, VA.

Connect with her at www.camilledimaio.com

From an Amazon reviewer: “5 Stars ~ A wonderful story with rich, well defined characters set in west Texas spanning 70 years with lots of twists and turns.”

Giveaway #2 is for two ebooks of Suzanne Kelman’s new novel, Rejected Writers Take The Stage (Southlea Bay Book Two).

This is the follow up to Suzanne’s debut novel, The Rejected Writers’ Book Club. An award-winning screenwriter, Suzanne was born and raised in the United Kingdom. She now lives in Washington State in her own version of Southlea Bay with her husband, Matthew; her son, Christopher; and a menagerie of rescued animals.

Connect with Suzanne at suzannekelmanauthor@blogspot.com

From an Amazon reviewer: “One terrific book to read, makes you laugh throughout the story. Just shows how a small community can bond together to help one another. Highly recommended reading for anyone.”

If you didn’t win in our giveaways last year for Camille’s and Susan’s debut novels, perhaps this will be your turn to do so! Good luck!

To have a chance to win, just send an email to patriciasandsauthor@gmail.com. Let us know which novel you would like or take a chance on winning both. You never know! It just may be your lucky day!

I hope you enjoy meeting authors who might be new to you and connecting with those you already follow. Savour their books, find out more about the writers and pass along their information to your friends. The best way to hear about a good book is by word of mouth from dedicated readers like you.

If you have time to write a short review, even better, and always appreciated.  Good luck! Bonne chance!

And now, here’s a date to mark in your calendar! On July 18th, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. EDT, I’m inviting you and your friends to our Women’s Fiction Fans (Facebook Group) Summer Party. Join me and Bette Lee Crosby, Ashley Farley, Grace Greene, Barbara Hinske, Andrea Hurst, Dete Meserve, Nancy Naigle, and Christine Nolfi.

We are having a bookclub theme and the winner of the grand prize will receive nine ebooks and a virtual visit to their bookclub from one of the nine of us. It will be great fun! We love visiting with bookclubs … and readers in general!

If the winner doesn’t belong to a club, then other friends can be invited to join in the visit.

Of course, there will be plenty of other prizes and surprises!

I hope to see you and your friends there! My time slot is 8 p.m. but I’m certain I’ll be watching everyone else’s visits to the party too. There are always a lot of good things going on when we all get together!

Thanks and mille mercis to everyone who has pre-ordered my new novel, Drawing Lessons. If you still haven’t, you can do so by clicking right here! I’m excited it will be ready for you in October. Poppies play an important part!

I’m going to sign off now and get back to finishing up the work on my proofread so I can send it back to my patient Amazon editor, Danielle Marshall. Then I can have more fun exploring with my BFFs this afternoon. They’ve gone into the village for coffee so I can finish my newsletter. True friendship!

Here’s the salad I had for lunch yesterday. It was scrumptious and I want to share it with you. So easy for any of us to make … just fresh greens, a round of chèvre (goat cheese – this one has poppy seeds on it but you can change that up), ripe figs, and raspberries. Just add a light vinaigrette and there you go!
Fresh baguette on the side, bien sûr!

Stay well, my friends, be kind to one another, read a lot and appreciate every single day. Profitez de tous les jours! I’m reminded on a regular basis that the best part of being an author is hearing from readers. I value the messages I receive from you. Thanks also for sharing my books with your friends and for the reviews you write. It’s all most appreciated and inspiring. See you next month!

Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July to all celebrating those holidays next week! I better get this June letter out before then!!!

Bon appétit et à bientôt!

P.S. If you would like to read some of my past newsletters, you can do so at this page on my website.

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