Blogging at 1800DOMhelp today about BDSM stories...

Greetings everyone! I'm blogging at 1800DOMhelp today about BDSM stories. Do you like them light or edgy? A little spanking or full on shibari rope bondage? Stop by and share your thoughts on the topic.

2011 EPIC Award Finalist!

I'm so excited. I received an email tonight which congratulated me on finaling in the 2011 EPIC awards. Whirlwind Affair is a finalist in the contemporary erotic romance category.

This is seriously awesome and I'm really happy about this. Wow.

Congratulations to all the other EPIC finalists!

Happy Birthday to Me! Contests with prizes

Greetings everyone,
Today is my birthday and to celebrate, I'm giving the gifts. I have two contests with different prizes on two different blogs today. Two blogs...twice the fun!

Number 1. Pop over to Authors by Moonlight - read my blog entry and post a comment to qualify to win any one of my releases in electronic format.
Authors by Moonlight.

Number 2. Visit 1800DOMhelp and check out my blog entry. Leave a comment to qualify to win a print copy of Seeking Truth, a cherry flavored Lollicock and a copy of the Pocket Kama Sutra.
1-800-DOM-help

Hope to see you there!
Francesca Hawley

Cherish D'Angelo - Death by Chocolate...Covered Strawberries

Welcome everyone,
Today I'm really thrilled to have a guest blogger joining me. Her name is Cherish D'Angelo and she's celebrating a new release!

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Thank you for hosting me during my Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour, which launches my award-winning romantic suspense, Lancelot's Lady. Today, we're chatting about chocolate, romance and death. What a yummy combination, huh?

There are certain foods that we associate with romance. Chocolate is probably the #1 choice. It dates back over 2000 years to the Aztec and Mayan cultures of Mexico, and it's been called "the food of the Gods". There's just something about chocolate. It's smooth silky texture. It's bittersweet flavour. The guilty pleasure of knowing it's not exactly on Weight Watchers' daily menu.

Chocolate contains alkaloids that have physiological effects on the body. It's been found to raise levels of serotonin (a neurotransmitter that acts as an anti-depressant) in the brain. It raises endorphins in the brain, which lessens pain and decreases stress levels. Chocolate also causes change in blood pressure and blood sugar levels, resulting in feelings of alertness and excitement. There's also a feeling of euphoria connected with consuming chocolate, kind of a chocolate induced "high". No wonder people consider chocolate an aphrodisiac.

A romantic dessert would most likely consist of chocolate. Chocolate mousse, chocolate cheesecake, chocolate lava cake, chocolate sauce or chocolate covered strawberries. When you think of the latter, don't you envision a hunk of a man feeding his woman a hand-dipped chocolate covered strawberry. How erotic is that? Feeding one another can be a very sensual act, with the right food.

Another food associated with romance is whipped cream. You smiled just now, didn't you? Light, fluffy, rich and slightly sweet, whipped cream is the stuff that good romance scenes in movies are made of. Whipped cream and chocolate add to the fantasy of romance, and we can all use a bit of fantasy now and then.

Perhaps in my next romance novel, I'll incorporate chocolate and whipped cream. For now, you'll have to settle for romance and danger. Death and romance. But you can still buy some chocolate covered strawberries for your loved one. I dare you! Whipped cream too.

Lancelot's Lady ~ A Bahamas holiday from dying billionaire JT Lance, a man with a dark secret, leads palliative nurse Rhianna McLeod to Jonathan, a man with his own troubled past, and Rhianna finds herself drawn to the handsome recluse, while unbeknownst to her, someone with a horrific plan is hunting her down.

Lancelot's Lady is available in ebook edition at KoboBooks, Amazon's Kindle Store, Smashwords and other ebook retailers. Help me celebrate by picking up a copy today and "Cherish the romance..."

You can learn more about Lancelot's Lady and Cherish D'Angelo (aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif) at http://www.cherishdangelo.com and http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com. Follow Cherish from September 27 to October 10 on her Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour and win prizes.

What other foods do you associate with romance?

Leave a comment here, with email address, to be entered into the prize draws. You're guaranteed to receive at least 1 free ebook just for doing so. Plus you'll be entered to win a Kobo ereader. Winners will be announced after October 10th.

Libraries Will Survive!

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week begins today and runs through October 2. There are a few reasons this annual celebration resonates with me.

First - I'm a librarian and librarians are all about open access. I abhor censorship.

Second, I'm a reader. As a reader, I want to choose what I want to read...for myself. I don't want someone else to ever have the right to tell me I can't read something I want to read.

Third, I'm a writer. Not only am I a writer, but I write erotic romance and sex is one of those things people rush to censor, usually without have read the book first.

Banning and challenging books injures our society. In fear, censors try to protect everyone from anything they deem "questionable." But the first amendment guarantees free speech. You don't have to listen to it. You don't have to read it. But if you support the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, then you have to tolerate it.

In The American President, Michael Douglas as the President states the following:

"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free"."

And when you get right down to it, that's what Banned Books Week is all about. It's about defending your enemy's right to say whatever they will, because if they have that right, then so do you. It's hard. There are a lot of individuals out there saying stuff I don't like and I don't agree with. But in the end, it's about protecting the rights of all and not just the privileged few.

Go out this week and read a banned or challenged book. You'll be glad you did.

Cookie Monster invades the Library