We just returned from our annual girls' weekend and boy did I have a hoot. You can't beat the camraderie between sisters, whether they are by blood or simply declared as such. There is something so uplifting and positive about hanging out. So there was Terri, Jackie, Leigh, Jenny and myself on this girly excursion. We saw a bear, a deer, a Blandings turtle (at least that's what Terri told me) and a 'Hummingbird', which we happened to save from drowning. Of course there is a story here...<G>

You see we were out on the dock (pictures above) gabbing about this or that on Saturday afternoon, which happened to be sunny. This was rare as we got a fair bit of rain and cloudy weather this weekend. We were all desperately trying to avoid Terri's camera, which always seemed to be in our faces, and I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I could see small wings desperately flapping in the water and I looked harder. I saw what looked like a small bird and it looked to be struggling to keep it's head above water, or so I thought. I yelled and all the ladies came over to see what was happening. After some hemming and hawing, Jackie grabbed a paddle to see if she could reach it from the dock... but to no avail. It was still out of reach. Now keep in mind that we couldn't really get a close look at it so we still weren't sure what kind of bird we were dealing with except it was pretty small and it could beat those wings exceptionally fast. We were thinking Hummingbird but weren't sure. In the meantime Terri had grabbed a long stick, taken off her shoes and socks and went in after it. (Note, she was dressed in jeans, a t-shirt,a sweater and walking shoes... this was not a warm day.) So in she goes and it's getting deep fast. Finally she can reach the struggling bird with her stick, but by now she's immersed up to her waist. I clearly saw the relief on her face when she successfully rescued... a humungous DRAGONFLY. Groan... well at least we knew what it was. And except for getting a little wet, Terri was no worse for wear. (Just between you and I, I think she would have gone in after the dragonfly anyway. That's the way she is, even for the little icky things...LOL).

Now the cottage was beautiful as you can see from the above photo. The fireplace was HUGE! You can see a little bitty Jackie on the oversized chair in the right hand corner. That should give you an idea of how big this fireplace was. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland just after she shrinks herself to be able to get through the small door... LOL.

While in cottage country, we did our best to avoid Huntsville at least until we were leaving on Monday in order to avoid the G8... err... G20 mess. Instead, we went to Port Carling. We had lunch at Just Crepes (fantastic crepes btw) and went shopping. Cute town and it gives cottagers like us something to do on a rainy, hazy day. We also visited this great furnishing place called Muskoka Living Interiors. It had things like huge iron chandeliers like ones you might see in dungeons (LOL) or antler lamps (faux of course) or driftwood mirrors. As I said, girls' weekend was fun.

The next bit of news... the winners of contest #13 for some swag. The winners are Michele Skehill and Maria Griffo. Yay!

And the winners of the worst gift contest are listed below. Good job everyone and thank-you for your candor. Personally, I believe you all deserve a prize for all your suffering, but unfortunately I don't have that many books to give away. What I do hope, especially for those of you that received real stinkers from your significant others, is that either they learned their lesson from the disappointment, and in some cases sheer horror, that would have crossed your faces OR their poor judgement won't be a problem anymore because they were shown the door.

I think that's all the news I have right now. And I hope you all have a fantastic and safe summer holiday!

Lynsay

June 8, 2010: The following e-books were released: Love is Blind, The Perfect Wife, The Reluctant Reformer, What She Wants, Love Bites, Single White Vampire and Tall, Dark & Hungry.

June 29, 2010: Harper Collins reissued Love Bites, Single White Vampire and Tall, Dark & Hungry. This is good news for anyone who has had difficulty finding a copy of these stories.

July 13, 2010: The following e-book will be released: Bliss

July 20, 2010: The following e-books will be released: Always, Sweet Revenge, The Switch, The Key, and The Deed

August 31, 2010: Born To Bite, the thirteenth book in the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter series, will be coming out this September. Armand Argeneau has been living on a farm squirrelled away from public life for decades without anyone bothering him. Until now that is. Lucian has been kind enough to volunteer Armand to babysit Eshe d'Aureus in order to protect her from a rogue vampire out for revenge. At least that's the story he's told. In reality, Eshe was sent to Armand on assignment to find clues to explain his many wives' 'accidental' deaths. This installment of the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter series will also answer the unanswered questions from Nicholas's story, The Renegade Hunter.

November 30, 2010: Hungry For You, the fourteenth book in the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter series will be coming out this December. It involves the last of the Willan sisters, Alex, and one of Martine Argeneau's older sons, Cale. Alex is a successful chef and restauranteur trying to expand her business, unfortunately the new location's debut seems to be riddled with bad luck. Can Cale, a successful european chef . . . er . . . businessman, help her keep her business afloat and still keep her frazzled attention long enough to see him for who he really is . . . the love of her life?

January 25, 2011: The Countess, the first book in Lynsay's new historical series called the Madison Sisters will be starting 2011 off right! A fairytale marriage Christiana did not have. As a matter of fact the best part about it was the abrupt ending when her husband, Richard (or Dicky as he liked to be called), died. Or at least that's what they thought when Christiana and her sisters put him on ice. Only he didn't stay dead AND he became nice... huh?! And now the new and improved Richard can't help wondering if Christiana's sweetness isn't all an act. That she's actually a money-hungry murderess with great acting skills.

February 22, 2011: The Heiress, the second book in the Madison Sisters series will be hard on the Countess's heels. You met Suzette in Christiana's story and now you get to hear her story. Suzette needs a husband NOW. No doddling, whining or even love required. Anyone would do and the poorer the better as she needs a potential husband who is happy and pliable so she can access her substantial dowry to help pay off her father's overwhelming gambling debts. Daniel seemed to fit the bill to a 't' and their obvious chemistry was an added bonus. Now the only issue would be to try to stay alive and keep their hands off each other long enough to keep Suzette's virtue intact until they make it to Gretna Green.

This contest is for a signed copy of the long awaited Argeneau/Rogue Hunter novel... Born To Bite! The details are in the pudding right? So we would like you to name (or describe if they weren't given a name) the 'bad guy' from each Rogue Hunter novel (The Rogue Hunter, The Immortal Hunter and The Renegade Hunter). All reasonable answers will be accepted. Please submit it to Terri by midnight on Tuesday, July 26th.

Here are the answers. Hope it was fun! View Crossword

The winners for signed copies of the Hellion and the Highlander are stories #3, #2 and #30. There was also an honorable mention, story #23, just for the sheer sweetness of this worst gift story and we will be sending her a Love Bites' bag. The winner's stories can be found by reading on...

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