Patricia Sands

Author

new release

New release!

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

I’m delighted to let you know that Book Two in the Villa des Violettes series is now available on all platforms. I hope you enjoy the ongoing adventure of Kat and her new life in the south of France.

Click right here for the Amazon.com page!

Synopsis:

The Love in Provence characters are celebrating a glorious spring on the Côte d’Azur …

There are sweet-smelling blossoms, buds bursting into bloom, explosions of golden mimosa, dazzling sunshine, a shimmering sea …

And a worrying disappearance!

A hidden past is uncovered and shocking truths are revealed. But life goes on.

Kat and Philippe welcome their first B & B guests to the Villa and are busy with other demands, all the while keeping hope alive as police search for their friend.

A special request from Simone and an unexpected appearance turn a planned motorcycle trip on Corsica into so much more.

Thank you to everyone who has already taken the time to leave a review! Every single one is most appreciated.

Newsletter #62

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Do you subscribe to my newsletter? In case you don’t, I’ll post it here today. Good luck with the giveaways! Bon weekend!
Newsletter #62                                                             November 15, 2018

 

Bonjour

 

I’m excited to let you know that today is a special one for me! It’s launch day for The First Noël at the Villa des Violettes. This is a Christmas story featuring Katherine, Philippe and friends from the Love in Provence series. I wrote it because so many of you have asked what was happening with them. I love becoming engaged with characters in books I’m reading, and it’s a thrill for me when someone writes and tells me the same about my characters.

 

I must admit it was a lot of fun for me to be back on the pages with those familiar personalities. As happens so often with fiction writing, they had a few surprises in store for me!

 

The header photo above is one that I often referred to as I was working on this book. The story is about the first Christmas/Noël that Katherine and Philippe are celebrating in their restored villa. Katherine hopes there would be snow on the mountain tops, just like in the picture.

This is the café where Kat likes to sit to read her copy of Nice-Matin and practise her French. I like to do the same when I’m in Antibes and it was here that I worked on edits last summer for The First Noël.

The cover of this book has a special story to it. The artwork was created by two talented women, Clare Strohman and Donna Fedele, who were on the September tour in France that Deborah Bine and I led. The three of us talked about concept, colour, and effect and they went to work to produce this lovely result.

 

I am going to write three books in the Villa des Violettes series. The next will be published in the spring and another in the fall, and the cover will be the same but with changes to the vine and the flowers in the pots. How do you like that concept? The stories will all be a bit shorter than a full novel and I hope you will enjoy them.

 

So today is launch day for the ebook and the print copy should be out by December 1st. Thanks for spreading the news!

 

 

As Thanksgiving in America approaches, I’m sure many of you are busy with plans for the holiday. Are you travelling or are friends and family coming to you? Who is cooking and what? Are you turkey lovers? And football is a must, right? Tell me all about it when you enter this month’s giveaways.

 

It’s gratifying to see so many of you enter your name each month for a chance to win a book. Thank you also to winners for taking the time to send thanks to the authors whose books are sent to you. I’ve heard from many of my author friends about how they appreciate your thoughtfulness.

 

In keeping with the upcoming December holidays, here are some festive Christmas stories for you, including mine!  Rest assured all of these enjoyable stories will help to fill you with the Christmas spirit!

 

Giveaway #1 is for two ebooks of A Season for Hope  by Tammy Grace. Born and raised in Nevada, Tammy loved reading at a young age. With the help of her middle school teacher, she discovered the joy of writing. After spending a career in local and state government service, she retired and finally has the time to dedicate to writing.

When Tammy isn’t working on ideas for a novel, she’s spending time with family and friends or supporting her addiction to books and chocolate. She and her husband have one grown son and a spoiled golden retriever.

Connect with Tammy at her website tammylgrace.com.

 

 

Blurb:  A Season for Hope is a charming story about the kindness of strangers and finding hope where you never expected it. Cozy up with a holiday read sure to warm your heart.

 

Giveaway #2 is another holiday read to warm your heart from Judith Keim, who is offering two ebooks of A Christmas Star.

Judith Keim enjoyed her childhood and young-adult years in Elmira, New York, and now makes her home in Boise, Idaho, with her husband and their two dachshunds, Winston and Wally, and other members of her family.

Judith writes heart-warming novels about women who face unexpected challenges, meet them with strength, and find love and happiness along the way. Her best-selling books are based, in part, on many of the places she’s lived or visited and on the interesting people she’s met, creating believable characters and realistic settings her loyal readers love.

Connect with Judith at her website http://www.judithkeim.com/

 

 

Blurb:  A page-turner that perfectly captures the spirit of Christmas. A chance meeting, along with an act of goodwill, will lead one woman on a journey that will help her to heal her broken heart…and once again believe in the magic of Christmas.

 

Giveaway #3 features two stories from our very own Hallmark Movies star! USA Today bestselling author Nancy Naigle whips up small-town love stories with a dash of suspense and a whole lot of heart. She began her popular contemporary romance series, Adams Grove, while juggling a successful career in finance and life on a seventy-six-acre farm. She went on to produce works in collaboration with other authors, including the hilarious southern fiction G Team series. A Romance Writers of America Honor Roll author, her books have been translated in multiple languages and received favorable reviews from major trade journals. Now happily retired from a career in the financial industry, she devotes her time to writing, antiquing, and horseback riding with friends. A Virginia girl at heart, Nancy now calls North Carolina home.

Crown Media is bringing two of Nancy’s novels to Hallmark’s holiday programming. Nancy is also currently working on original novels for Hallmark Publishing.

 

You can connect with Nancy at her website.

 

Nancy’s first offer is an ebook of Christmas Joy. Did you see the movie on the Hallmark Channel on November 3rd? It was fabulous!

 

 

Blurb:  A heartwarming Christmas story about family, friendship and finding love in unexpected places.

 

Nancy’s second offer for you is a print copy of Hope at Christmas. WATCH FOR THIS TO DEBUT ON HALLMARK MOVIES & MYSTERIES ON NOVEMBER 20th!

 

 

Blurb:  Nancy Naigle delivers a heartwarming Christmas story that proves you can always go home again in Hope at Christmas.

 

Giveaway #4 is for three ebooks of The First Noël at the Villa des Violettes to help celebrate this launch day!

 

 

Blurb:  THE LOVE IN PROVENCE CHARACTERS ARE BACK …

Everything was going so well in Kat and Philippe’s life together. Then suddenly it wasn’t. Philippe hoped a weekend trip to the famous Christmas markets of Strasbourg would solve everything.

As it happened, things were about to get worse.

 

As always, send your entry for these giveaways to patriciasandsauthor@gmail.com. Names will be chosen randomly. Tell us how you are celebrating Thanksgiving or do you have different plans?

 

It’s a pleasure to offer these giveaways from my writing friends. Thanks for the great response each month. I’m glad you appreciate them and are so keen to enter. I hope you enjoy meeting authors who might be new to you, and connecting with those you already follow. Savor 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.

 

Congratulations to last month’s winners:  Audrey Wick, Jessica Chappell, Theresa Timlin

French Market Giveaway Package winner: Laurie Blum

 

Now it’s time for some photos from France. The setting for most of my Christmas book is in and around Antibes, with the exception of one weekend when Kat and Philippe visit the famous Christmas markets of Strasbourg. Have you ever been to those markets?

 

 

I have photos of the marché de Noël in Antibes and can’t find them! Does that ever happen to you? I need to take a few months and completely reorganize my photo files. Since I want to send this off today, I’ll post a few of Katherine’s favourite spots in Antibes.

 

I have almost finished posting pictures from our September women’s tour in France. I just have two more days to go. Have you been following along on my blog? Click right here. (https://patriciasandsauthor.com/category/blog/)

 

Instead of sharing a recipe today, here’s another opportunity for a great Christmas gift … a Kindle Fire 7! The contest is open until the end of this week, so try your luck and bonne chance!

 

 

Click on this link for all the details! 

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!

À bientôt!


If you have read the The Bridge Club or any of the Love in Provence books or Drawing Lessons and can find a minute to leave a short review on Amazon and Goodreads.  I thank you in advance.

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It’s launch day! New release!

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I’m excited to introduce this first book in my new mini-series, featuring those beloved characters from the Love in Provence series.

Christmas markets, French pastries, family, friends, all come together after unexpected challenges threaten a joyeux Noël or a merry Christmas. Then there are those two adorable Chocolate Lab pups! Spend time on the stunning Côte d’Azur as Kat and Philippe deal with one crisis after another.

It was so much fun to get back on the pages with all of the characters! Stay tuned for Book Two of the Villa des Violettes series in May and Book Three in October.

I hope you love the cover as much as I do! In September, when I was co-leading our South of France Memories Tour with my BFF, Deborah Bine (aka Barefoot Blogger), two women on the tour offered to help design the cover. Talented artists and good friends, Clare Strohman and Donna Fedele, worked with me to create the cover I envisioned … and they made it even better!

(May I just add how amazing these two women are in every way? And we were not intentionally colour-co-ordinated for this photo. Just sayin’! Our entire group of 16 women on the tour were a dream to travel with.)

Then, with the help of literary/tech assistant Carolyn Ring, fonts and placement of the title and my name were chosen and … badda bing, badda boom … the cover was born. My gratitude to each of those clever women.

Kate Rock and Tonni Callan, the founders of Literally Connected, made magic happen behind the scenes. A bouquet of thanks to them.

Also, thanks to everyone who helped make this happen today. Mille mercis! I’m grateful to each and every one of you.

Click here for the Amazon link.

Here’s the blurb:

THE LOVE IN PROVENCE CHARACTERS ARE BACK …

Everything was going so well in Kat and Philippe’s life together. Then suddenly it wasn’t.

Roman ruins delayed the work on the Villa des Violettes. The Russian drug gang might be back in the neighbourhood. On top of that, Kat had worked herself into what Molly classified as a full blown “Christmas conundrum.” Kat wanted the holidays to work perfectly as she blended a Canadian Christmas with a Provençal Fête de Noêl for the first time in their new home. Now she’d lost her confidence and, with it, the holiday spirit.

Philippe hoped a weekend trip to the famous Christmas markets of Strasbourg would solve everything.

As it happened, things were about to get worse.

Are you feeling ready to embrace the holiday season? Have you started to decorate or do you wait until December arrives?

A Paris romp in Karen Burns’ new release!

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

Today we’re talking with author Karen Burns about writing, a new release, and the magnificent City of Light, Paris, in which her books are set.

Before we go further, here’s an FYI ~ Paris was nicknamed the “City of Light” (not City of Lights) originally because it was a vast center of education and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment.

Today, our enlightenment is all about Karen’s new release, Paris Ever After! Her exciting publishing day was May 1st and I’m delighted she had the time to stop by for a quick Q & A.

Bienvenue, Karen!

PS ~ What was your first novel and when did you write it?

KB ~ My first novel was The Paris Effect. It’s the prequel to Paris Ever After and tells the story of how Amy, a young woman from Arizona who’d never traveled anywhere, ended up having an amazing adventure in France. This book took me five years to write—I finally finished in 2015. I think that first novel always takes an author a long time, because when you start you really have no idea if you’ll finish. It’s very much the experience of setting out into the vast unknown. I should say that while my two books go together, each can be read on its own. You don’t need to have read The Paris Effect to follow, and enjoy, Paris Ever After.

PS ~ Was it always your plan to be an author?

KB ~ Well, it was always my ardent desire! Ever since I first picked up a Dick & Jane book at age two I knew that reading and writing would be my thing for life. Nearly all of my “real” jobs involved words in some way (public relations, journalism, editing) and I’ve written everything from pamphlets to speeches to instructional manuals. Novels are the most difficult things to write, in case you’re wondering. But also the most fun!

PS ~ Your covers are beautiful! How did the story line come to you for The Paris Effect and Paris Ever After?

KB ~ With the first book, I just started out with a situation and then followed along, seeing where it took me. (E. L. Doctorow once famously said, “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”) However, this method—while exciting—results in tremendous amounts of rewriting, so with the second I tried to plan things out a bit better. My husband is incredibly helpful in this regard. He’s an engineer and claims not to have a creative bone in his body, but he’s a wonderful person to discuss plot ideas with. We love to go for long walks and talk about “what if she does this” or “what if that happens.” When I get home I scribble it all down.

PS ~ Your knowledge of life in Paris shines through in those two books. How much time have you spent there?

KB ~ I lived in Paris for three years in the nineties. Since then I’ve been lucky enough to return more or less regularly, sometimes for a couple months at a time. This city seeps into your bones and I think that’s why my novels are set there. Also, writing stories set in Paris is the next best thing to being in Paris!

PS~ How did you select your characters’ names?

KB ~ I called my main character “Amy” because it reminds me of “aimer,” the French verb for love. I chose “William” for her husband because I wanted the contrast of a short word with a longer one. I picked “Kat” for Amy’s friend because it has a sharp sound, and this character has a sharpness about her. Margaret is named after a lovely English lady I met while hiking the Cotswold Way in southwestern England. She was charming and gracious and welcoming (and just slightly loony), like Amy’s Margaret.

PS ~ Imagine your books as movies. Whom would you cast for the main characters?

KB ~ It’s funny you should mention this because my first novel (The Paris Effect) has just been optioned for film and TV. So you’d assume I’d have already thought a LOT about which actors would play my characters. But I don’t want to jinx it! However, I will say that while writing about Amy I often imagine women like Jennifer Lawrence and Ellen Page. It helps to have a picture in your head and I admire the strength, intelligence, and humor these actresses can convey.

PS ~ Would you give us a hint as to what we might expect next from you?

KB ~ Well, I’m noodling around some ideas. No actual writing yet. These days, the launch of Paris Ever Afteris taking up most of my time and energy!

PS ~ Based on your experience, what advice would you give to an author about to be published for the first time?

KB ~ Be prepared for a wild, emotional ride. Publishing a book is nerve-wracking, exciting, gratifying, and a bit terrifying all at the same time. You’re putting your baby out there for people to love or to hate, to relate to or to completely misconstrue. It’s really exposing. But people reading your work is the natural end result of writing. It completes the circle.

For more information, you can connect with Karen on her website.

Here’s where to find Karen on Facebook and on Twitter.

I had the pleasure of advance reading Paris Ever After and after just a few pages I messaged Karen to tell her I could not stop laughing. Her lovely sense of humour shines through the pages and the quirkiness of the original personalities she has created offers readers an entertaining distraction from everyday life. And to have it all set in Paris? Fantastique!

Here’s my review: “Magnifique! Fall in love with Amy as she stumbles through her new life in Paris, gradually learning what means the most in her unscripted world. Burns’ dry sense of humor and intimate knowledge of Parisian life are woven through the story as perfectly as the Hermès scarf in one of the book’s most unforgettable scenes. Heartwarming and full of colorful characters, the surprise-filled narrative is smart, wry and poignant. You won’t want to put it down. Five stars!”

And Karen’s cat, Tache, agrees!

 If you receive my monthly newsletter, you know that Karen is generously offering two print sets of these books in a giveaway. Be sure to enter and bonne chance … good luck!

If you don’t already, you can join over 5,000 book lovers (and dedicated Francophiles … oui?) with a simple click ~ subscribe to my newsletter by clicking right  here. Once a month I get to chat with all of you and offer great book giveaways from author friends who write in many different genres. On y va!