unladylike pursuits

Full does not begin to describe our weekend and my plate today. It's like Thanksgiving after you've had seconds at both grandmas' houses. While busily tidying up the homestead after our first morning of summer vacation (which involved "summer school" Green Girl-style, laundry, emails and urgent messages) someone knocked on the door. Was it the summer help arriving an hour early? No, it was not. It was my friendly neighborhood Jehovah's Witnesses with a pamphlet on managing stress. Ironic, eh?

I'm sure they didn't notice the empty beer bottles I'd set on the washing machine to carry out to the recycle bin later. If they did, they were too polite to remark upon it.

Our weekend included meeting new neighbors, a graduation party and Cheese Fest.

Mr. G demonstrates the Two-Fisted Cheese Curd Eating Technique

Mr. T shows how a good cheese curd can stretch when eaten properly (outdoors, with family, while listening to live music and preparing for carnival rides)

Mr. B had some room and stomach left over after the rides for cotton candy AND a sno cone. Both blue. Both really bad for his teeth.

But in the midst of chaos, I'm offering the first FABULOUS of this month: Unladylike Pursuits penned by Alyssa Goodnight, fellow blogger and writer I met over at On the Writers' Road Less Traveled. Alyssa Goodnight left a stable, sensible career as an engineer (testing microcontrollers) for the wild existence of being a stay-at-home mom. Apparently lacking in things to do, she decided to spend her spare time writing a romance novel--it only took her four years. Alyssa's novel is published by her own press, Impress Ink. Ironically, she is now represented by Rebecca Strauss of McIntosh & Otis, hoping to get her second book published the traditional way. Unladylike Pursuits is a romance novel perfect for beach reading or bathtub reading, hot tub reading or coffee shop reading.

She needs to find a husband but in truth would rather not.
Miss Emily Sinclair has just answered the summons that will change her life. On the eve of spinsterhood, she is offered a month to find a willing gentleman or suffer a marriage to her stepmother's odious cousin. Neither choice seems palatable.

He wants to remain a bachelor and is weary of marriage-minded misses.
Lord Brandon Davenport has had more than enough of marriage--the infidelity, the gossip, the inconvenience. It has all reaffirmed his conviction to never involve himself in such a predicament.

Of course, need and want are very different matters...or are they?
When the two find themselves grudgingly paired in the ambush of highwaymen, temper is matched equally with desire, leading Emily to realize that Brand is the perfect prey for her husband hunt. But is Brand too cagey to be caught in her trap?

Every comment between now and Saturday is an entry to win this book! Spill it, reader. How do you relieve stress? Escape into a good book? Escape into the woods? Escape into a bottle of vino? Escape into the nearest spa?

Posted in: bloggy love, Books and Writing, gratuitous photos of Team Testosterone