*Giveaway Now Closed*

Everyone please welcome historical romance author, Grace Burrowes to Paperback Dolls! Grace has just released her debut novel, THE HEIR, and you have a chance to win a copy of your very own at the end of her blog!

I am not young (except possibly by the standards of my ninety-year-old dad and his bride of these 68 wonderful years) but I am young at heart and I would like to stay that way. Writing romance novels is a big help in this regard, but on New Years, I often don’t feel very young at all. Christmas is over and it no longer holds the same charm it did when I could wish for a pony with all my heart. And then, bam! Right after Christmas, we smack into New Year’s with its blasted, benighted, rubbishing (you get the idea) New Year’s Resolutions.

In the dead of winter, when it’s fifteen below, dark, and miserable day after day, we’re supposed to look ourselves in the mirror and Vow and Declare to swear off comfort food. To get up out of our polar bear caves and exercise. To read Serious Stuff, and or balance our checkbooks, or otherwise function as if our brains and our commonsense were not telling us to go back to bed, cuddle up, and dream pleasant, naughty dreams until spring comes around.

I no longer make New Year’s Resolutions, for two reasons. First, if something is a good idea—like eating more veggies—then it’s a good idea on December 17 or August 12, or whenever we are inspired to try it. Second, the data suggests we have about a one in twenty chance of keeping that New Year’s Resolution for even thirty days, so how much of a resolution is it really?

Valentine’s Day, however, enjoys substantial advantages over New Year’s Day as an opportunity for inspiring Resolutions. In the first place, spring is at least a gleam in the ground hog’s eye by February 14. Living in rural Maryland, I have heard peepers the first week of March. Not often, and they aren’t exactly signing four-part little peeper-arias, but even a single peeper-lullaby will mark the end of winter for me. With spring in the wind, hope for sanguine change is a more reasonable undertaking.

In the second place, Valentine’s Day is about love, and if there’s ever an idea to inspire well intended vows, declarations, and the effort associated with keeping same, love ought to qualify.

In the third place, there is chocolate on hand to mark the occasion of the New Leaf one intends to turn over, and pretty flowers to provide further grace to the day. There are also some pretty good sales going on, which is a cheering prospect if you’re the retail therapy kind.

Go to the gym if you must and by all means eat your leafy greens, but consider as well joining me in some Valentine’s Day Resolutions intended to enhance my wellbeing and that of the people I care for. My own list includes the following:

• I will call my folks at least every other week. (They have seven kids, sixteen grandkids, and a smattering of greatgrands, otherwise I’d up it considerably.)
• I will take a walk NOT for exercise (bah, humbug on that idea), because it’s lovely to be ABLE to walk.
• I will smile at waitresses, cashiers, and bank tellers, and thank them for taking care of me.
• I will let that guy hunched over his steering wheel (the one looking like he has to get to a bathroom immediately) go in front of me in traffic and even smile as I wave him on ahead.
• I will pet a cat and a dog every day.
• I will read some happily-ever-after romance because it’s cheering; I will read some steamy happily-ever-after romance because it’s fun (and spring is coming).

You get the idea. These resolutions are probably going to be in pretty good shape thirty days from now, because they’re about the love, and the joy, and the things that really inspire us to make good changes. What are your Valentine’s Day Resolutions? Or St. Patrick’s Day? Or Halloween? Or….?

~*~*~*~*~*Giveaway!*~*~*~*~*~

Grace is givingaway a signed copy of her debut novel, THE HEIR, to ONE lucky US commenter and all you have to do is answer her question!

A debut novel by a rising star with remarkable characters, intriguing plots, and settings of fascinating historical accuracy. In this Regency era battle of wits, wills, and the sexes, a wily old duke is determined to see the succession of his line secured, and his three headstrong sons are equally determined to resist the bonds of matrimony. In The Heir, the first in the series, the Earl of Wyndham, weighed down by responsibilities and determined to avoid the rounds of country houses of and matchmaking mamas, decides to summer in London. There he discovers a potentially perfect duchess in his lovely, mysterious housekeeper…

More ways to win:

+1 for each place you post about today’s contest on your blog, social network, or anywhere you can. Digg it, stumble it, twit it, share it with the world. Wherever you share it, make sure you add a link to it along with your comment.

Giveaway ends March 7th and the winner will be chosen by random.org on March 8th. We ask the winners to post a review of the novel someplace. Whether it is on their own blog, Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing or wherever, it doesn’t matter. Just help get the word out. Also, we will try to contact the winners, but we ask that you check back to see if you’ve won.

Grace Burrowes started writing as an antidote to empty nest and soon found it an antidote to life in general. She is the sixth out of seven children, raised in the rural surrounds of central Pennsylvania. Early in life she spent a lot of time reading romance novels and practicing the piano. Her first career was as a technical writer and editor in the Washington, DC, area, a busy job that nonetheless left enough time to read a lot of romance novels.

It also left enough time to grab a law degree through an evening program, produce Beloved Offspring (only one, but she is a lion), and eventually move to the lovely Maryland countryside.

While reading yet still more romance novels, Grace opened her own law practice, acquired a master’s degree in Conflict Transformation (she had a teenage daughter by then) and started thinking about writing…. romance novels. This aim was realized when Beloved Offspring struck out into the Big World a few years ago. (“Mom, why doesn’t anybody tell you being a grown-up is hard?”)

Grace eventually got up the courage to start pitching her manuscripts to agents and editors. The query letter that resulted in “the call” started out: “I am the buffoon in the bar at the RWA retreat who could not keep her heroines straight, could not look you in the eye, and could not stop blushing–and if that doesn’t narrow down the possibilities, your job is even harder than I thought.” (The dear lady bought the book anyway.)

To contact Grace, email her at .