50th party blog guest - Lynne Marshall

I first met Lynne Marshall on the eHarlequin boards and then on an author loop. We hit it off straight away (and although we haven’t met in person yet – I’m in England and she’s in California – I know we’ll get on really well when we do). Again, we have lots in common – apart from writing for the same line, there’s food, dogs, books, films… She’s another good friend who’ll share the joy with you, and be there when you need a hug. And, hey, anyone who sends me a chocolate angel is very all right in my world :o)  (Thank you, Lynne!)

Over to Lynne:

LET’S DANCE! By Lynne Marshall

A special celebration is in order for Kate’s fiftieth book, I say let’s dance!

There’s nothing quite like kicking up our heels to express our joy, is there? Dancing allows us to let go of pent up feelings and it releases endorphins, so it is a win-win endeavor, wouldn’t you say?

I recently saw a lovely French movie titled The Intouchables (English translation) where my favorite scene is where Driss, after suffering through a long evening of tame classical music (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), jumps to his feet and pumps up the music volume to dance. He chooses Earth, Wind, and Fire to serenade the birthday boy Philippe, while he dances.

Here’s where it gets tricky – Philippe is a quadriplegic and is watching from his wheelchair. How cruel you say? Think again. Driss, a tough street guy, has forged a very special relationship since he’s been hired to be the helper for the aristocratic and ailing Philippe. Driss is the only person to treat Philippe like a regular guy, forgetting that he can’t move his hands or feet. Teasing him like a regular person instead of treating him like a delicate broken object. In other words, he has added life and joy to his otherwise routine existence. Philippe has the most glorious smile on his face listening to the raucous music and watching his crazy new friend (that is what he considers this young man who has invaded his life) dance. The scene made me cry with joy.

Ever notice something when you’re dancing? My guess is that you’re smiling, just like we all do when we let our hair down and kick up our feet. Well, today I’m doing a special “let it all hang out” dance for my friend and fellow Medical Romance author Kate Hardy, who, by the way loves to ballroom dance. ☺

What do you say we all get up and shake our booty for Kate’s fiftieth book!

I have a book to give away to one commenter who answers one or both of these simple questions: What is your favorite movie musical? Who is your favorite dancer?

Lynne Marshall writes contemporary and Medical Romance for Harlequin and The Wild Rose Press. The first book in the Grady family trilogy, Courting His Favorite Nurse, was a March 2012 Harlequin Special Edition. Dr. Tall, Dark…and Dangerous? is Lynne’s July 2012 Medical Romance. Also available in e-book only is, An Indiscretion, a contemporary romance with strong medical elements, (and ballroom dancing!) from The Wild Rose Press.

You can connect with Lynne Marshall on the Web:

Website http://lynnemarshall.com
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/LynneMarshall.Page
Romancewiki http://www.romancewiki.com/Lynne_Marshall#On_The_Web
Author page http://rbpp-lm.blogspot.co.uk

more blog party winners

Haven’t forgotten! Fiona is on deadline so she'll be back soon with her winners.

In the meantime, here are mine. And because it’s a while since I posted a doggy pic, I thought I'd post one of winner-picker (taken with the new camera – he was still in slight sulk-mode at this point).

Winners of a signed copy of Breakfast at Giovanni's are Minna, Robyn L, KimW, Tinkerdelle and Annabel. Please contact me on kate dot hardy at btinternet dot com (sorry, spam-evasion - close up the spaces and replace dot with . and at with @) with your snailmail addy and a copy will be winging its way to you (sigh, despite UK postal strike).

I also need to remind previous winners to get in touch (otherwise the authors can’t send you your prizes): Minna (for Anne McAllister’s book The Antonides Marriage Deal), Devon (for Shirley Wells’s book Into the Shadows), Janie and Mona (for Lynne Marshall’s book In His Angel’s Arms).

blog party winner

Apologies for being so slack! We have another blog party winner – Anne McAllister’s gorgeous dog Gunnar picked Minna as his winner for a copy of The Antonides Marriage Deal. Congratulations, Minna - please get in touch with your snailmail address so Anne can send you your prize.

I also have some winners from earlier who haven’t been in touch yet – so here’s another call to Devon (for Shirley Wells’s book Into the Shadows), Janie and Mona (for Lynne Marshall’s book In His Angel’s Arms).

As I still can’t get to the bottom of why my email forwarder isn’t working (I may just have to change it completely, sigh), please email me at myfirstname dot mysurname at btinternet dot com (replacing the words and dots and at sign as apppropriate) again, apologies about the format but I’m desperately trying to avoid the spammers!).

and even more winners…

Lynne Marshall says that there were so many responses, she'd like to give an extra prize – so we have two winners of In His Angel’s Arms. (Thank you, Lynne!) And we have another beautiful dog involved; Lynne says, ‘This is Rogan, my Rhodesian Ridgeback and part time muse. After completing his meal, he chose my winners. Unfortunately, he got buttery paw prints on all of the entries.’

Rogan’s choices were: Nell - for her struggle with dyscalcula and getting the CSE math qualification; and Janie - with enough rejections to wallpaper a room!

And because I was impressed with the amount of people who posted, I too would like to offer an extra prize - Breakfast at Giovanni's - to Mona.

Congratulations, Nell, Janie and Mona – please get in touch with me so we can arrange your prizes. (Again – sigh – to defeat the spammers: please email me at myfirstname dot mysurname at btinternet dot com)

Kate’s 25th party, guest blogger #23 – Lynne Marshall

My guest today is from America: I’m so pleased to introduce Lynne Marshall, fellow Medicals author, who's also one of my shelfmates this month. She did actually give me her post ages back, but because of the RWA conference and jetlag and what have you, I swapped the schedule so she’d have a chance to come and talk!

So here's Lynne:

Congratulations on a job well done. You deserve a break today, so I thought I’d make a blog entry for you. LOL. Seriously, thanks for inviting me. Let me introduce myself to everyone. I’m Lynne Marshall and I write Medical Romance for Mills and Boon along with the amazing Kate Hardy. J I am currently completing my fifth novel and stand in awe of Kate’s achievement of 25 books in six short years. What have I done to compare? Well, I’ve been a Registered Nurse for 25 years, and I’m looking at my 25th wedding anniversary this September. Twenty-five of anything is no easy feat, and I am proud to say I’ve stuck with something that long! LOL. I remember wanting to quit nursing altogether the first week at my first big hospital assignment in California. Many times in that first year I found myself sneaking outside the ward to shed a few tears in private. Never in my life did I think nursing would be so hard and stressful. But I kept showing up for work, the days clicked by, I got better at what I did, I learned how to handle the always-surprising world of medicine, and before I knew it, a quarter of a century had gone by. Amazing. I look back over the many people I’ve helped through my job and smile. That’s definitely an achievement I’m proud of.

As a writer, there is a completely different sense of satisfaction knowing that I can take the sometimes-harrowing circumstances of medicine and create stories around them with characters of my making, lessons to be learned, love to be found, and above all, a positive, hopeful and happy ending. Who could ask for more? My current UK July Medical Romance release, In His Angel’s Arms, is about a nurse who, when tragedy strikes, must step in and care for a man who has always secretly touched her heart. He can’t deny her healing skills, or resist the temptation of his very special nurse.

GIVEAWAY: A copy of In His Angel’s Arms

GIVEAWAY QUESTION: Now I ask you, what have you stuck with much longer than you ever dreamed, and are proud to share with us? It doesn’t have to be 25 years, just something you have overcome the challenge of, prevailed, and became a better person for. I can’t wait to read your responses.

If you’d like to find out more about me visit my website: http://www.lynnemarshallweb.com/