Pride...I has it...

If there's one thing I've learned about being a parent, it's that you'll have more than your fair share of moments...some are fabulous, some aren't. You'll be scared, happy, sad, angry, worried and—there will be times when you're just plain proud!

I'm so lucky to have had one of those moments this weekend. Now, let's set the picture just a bit...

For those of you who don't know, I have three kids. Two active, outrageous boys and an even more outrageous girl. Kyle's the oldest at 13 going on 25, Jared's stuck in the middle at 11 going on, well, not quite sure. Sometimes I think 11 again, but hey, 12 is fine. And then there's Sydney, who's 8 going on 30, lol.

Now my boys are typical boys. They play hard, get lots of injuries from said play and do just enough to get by in school. Jared is lucky in that for many subjects, he's a natural. Kyle, while he's got the brains, he just lacks the motivation. And with him being in grade 8, well, I'm trying to get him to see how he might actually have to try once he gets to high school. He does have one passion—wait for it because being Canadian this will surprise you—ready—hockey!

I know, totally out of the ordinary for a good old Canadian boy. But yes, he loves hockey. He's actually applied for a hockey academy next year, but that's another post once we find out. Anyway, in his pursuit of his love for hockey, Kyle decided to extend his passion to another on ice position—one that actually earns him money. He's a hockey official...or ref as I call it.

So, this is his second year ref-ing and he loves it. Now, realizing his options for a lifelong career are perhaps more narrow than I would like, I've been encouraging him to keep up with his ref-ing. He's taken it even farther and is taking every job he can get his hands on. He willingly gets up at 5 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday to ref games and just this past weekend, ref-ed two games then, with only 10 mins between, went and played his own hockey game. Yeah, he's dedicated. And as a result, he got recognition!

I was informed this weekend that Kyle is Comox Valley's Official of the Month! I know, it's such a small thing, but damn, I'm so proud of him. And he'll have his picture up on the Hockey website for the next few weeks! Sigh....

So take a look folks, that cute face is the future of officiating... and don't be surprised when you hear his name in the NHL one day... cause those older guys gotta retire someday!

Congrats, Kyle!!!!! You earned it!

Drum Roll Please...

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

Terra Pennington

2nd PRIZE

Miranda (Sweet Vernal Zephyr)

3rd PRIZE

Jason

Congratulations!!

We'd like to thank everyone who entered. We were thrilled with the response and are so excited by everyone's interest. I only wish there were 100 to give away. The above winners will be contacted via email and will need to response to Jessica (jessica@jessicajarman.com) within three (3) days to claim their prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

As for my extra portion of the contest, I've decided to give away 4 sets of two books, since there were so many entries, as a show of appreciation for dropping by and leaving your comments. In case you're wondering how I chose the winners, I used an online program called random.org. You put in how many entries there were, and how many winners you'd like. Here are the four numbers as generated by the program...

90   17   4    12

And those winners are...

Jennifer M - who chose Hard Target and Worlds Apart

Nancy C - who picked Centrefold and Worlds Apart

Perpetua - who would like Twice Bitten and Centrefold

Leagh C - who asked for Deadly Vision and Deadly Obsession

While I do have everyone's information, I'd appreciate a quick email to confirm that these were the books you wanted, to let me know whether you want .pdf or epub formatting and to make sure your email information is, indeed, correct...so everyone's happy! You can contact me via contactme@krisnorris.ca.

Congratulations to the winners!

Jessica, Devon, Bronwyn, Gwendolyn, Kris, and Suzanne.

Women 101...

Okay, first off, if you're popping in here to enter the contest, please remember to leave you contact information and what 2 books you'd like from my backlist in the comments section of the previous post... all entries must be made on the post with the lovely animated banner (yeah, I made that... pretty cool, huh) so we can keep things straight. You can imagine how hard it'd be to have to scroll through multiple comment sections to see who put in the correct information. Oh, and please remember to leave you name at all 6 blogs, along with the books you'd like from that author. While I'm flattered you love Suzanne's books so much, you'd like a copy from me, too, I can't put your information into the all mighty spread sheet until I have all of it.

Now, onto today's post... and wow... look at me go. Another post and we're still in the first week of January... but hey, my life is crazy, or is it just me. Okay, so I'm sure many of you are finally back to some semblance of normal after a wild and crazy holiday season. I'm one of those folks that doesn't begrudge having the kids home, but all the hectic chaos associated with Christmas can really take a toll...on everything. Take men and women for example...the holidays gives us more time to spend with our partners and to rediscover, yet again, why nine hours apart each day is a godsend.

Now don't get me wrong. I love me some man time, but hey... there are some simple rules men need to follow in order to save the woman from spending endless hours chatting with her BFF to see if they know anyone... yes anyone... who might fall into the category of hired hit man. So... I thought I'd save some time and write a few things down, so others may learn from the tragedy of those who have come before....

1 - Directions. I love traveling and going to see friends is a fabulous way to spend some of your holidays, but here's the thing... women have a much better time when you actually get the instructions to said friend's house. And no... knowing that the house is brown with white trim is not enough... knowing that the house resides somewhere east of town, isn't quite enough either. And for the record gentlemen... spitting out the window to see which direction the wind is blowing doesn't give you omnipotent powers... so please... get the directions and have a map. Or get the iphone app for the built-in GPS... there are several for that.

2 - The use of the word fat. Okay, I don't care if you do mean it as phat and that it's all the rage... nothing good will ever come from this word, so strike it from your vocabulary. Now! And no, it doesn't matter if you're referring to the bulldog on the fido commercial... seriously... lose it.

3 - Movies. Hey, us ladies love action/adventure flicks as much as you guys do, but here's the thing. When the hero finally gets to kiss the girl, don't moan and slump in your seat as if someone just kicked you in your junk...or worse...turn to your lady and comment on how hot the woman is...or you might be slumping in your seat because she just kicked you in your junk.

Well, that's a start. The lessons are endless, but three is a good starting point.

I hope you all are having a great week, and don't forget to scroll down if you're here to enter the contest.

Welcome to 2011! And what better way to celebrate than with a brand new Nook Color!

Six sexy authors of erotic romance are coming together with a fabulous giveaway to usher in the New Year! And entering couldn't be simpler.

Just visit each of the six authors' blogs beginning January 3rd, and leave a comment on the contest post (this one) with:

your name (or user name) and contact email, and

your top two (2) choices from the author's backlist to kick-start your Nook library should you win.

Contest will close at Noon ET on Tuesday, January 11, 2011, and a winner will be drawn at 1:11pm ET from all the readers who commented on all six blogs:

Gwendolyn Cease at gwendolyncease.blogspot.com
Suzanne Graham at suzannegraham.blogspot.com
Bronwyn Green at bronwyngreenblog.blogspot.com
Jessica Jarman at jessicajarman.blogspot.com
Kris Norris at krisnorris.blogspot.com
Devon Rhodes at devonrhodes.blogspot.com

The Grand Prize winner will receive a brand new Nook Color and two ebooks of their choice from each author!
Second Prize will be winner's choice of ebook from each author's backlist!
Third Prize will be winner's choice of an available print book personalized and signed by the author!

More surprises and prizes at each blog, so what are you waiting for? The clock is ticking, and when it comes up all ones, you could be the winner!!

Details, shmetails:

• In order to be eligible for the drawing, you must leave a comment at each of the six blogs with your email address and choice of two books. We're sorry, but anyone who misses a blog or forgets to leave their contact info will be disqualified.
  
• All comments must be posted by 12:00 Noon, ET, on January 11th.
  
• Valid entry comments must be in response to the official Contest post on each blog, although we also welcome comments on other posts, so feel free to poke around!
  
• The Nook will be shipped directly from the store to the winner's house. Ebooks will be emailed separately to the winner.
  
• Winner must respond to Jessica within three days or an alternate winner will be announced.

And as an extra welcome to 2011, I'll draw one name from those on my blog who don't win and they will receive the two ebooks from my backlist specified above as a thank you for joining in the fun. And if you're wondering where to find a list of available books, I've listed the titles. You can find links to blurbs and excerpts by scrolling down a bit and looking on the right sidebar...or you can visit my website at www.krisnorris.ca and search flip through the New Releases and Bookcase sections.

Dark Prophecy: Sacred Talisman

Dark Prophecy: Twice Bitten

'Til Death: Deadly Vision

'Til Death: Deadly Obsession

Centrefold

Checkmate

Enchanted Lovers: Healing Hands

Worlds Apart

Photo Finish: A Handcuffs and Lace Tale

Threefold Anthology: Keeping Faith (plus 5 other stories)

Hard Target

Good luck to all, and thanks for making 2010 a fabulous year. I hope you have a safe and prosperous 2011.

Cover Art... I has it!

Hey all.

Well, looks like 2011 is starting out fabulously. I have new cover art for my upcoming Phases book entitled Coyote Savage:Hunger Moon. And before I say another word, I want to do a shout out to Les Beverly who designed this cover, along with all the other covers in the collection. Another amazing job Les...he's also the cover artist for Worlds Apart and Hard Target...two of my favourite covers...I actually use the Worlds Apart for a number of my picture icons. I just love the browns and oranges of the planet on that cover. As for this one... wow... I love the lightning and the gorgeous moon at the bottom. Keep 'em coming Les.

Now Coyote Savage is one of twelve books in a fabulous new collection in which six authors—myself, Bronwyn Green, Brynn Paulin, Mia Watts, Cheryl Dragon and Abigail Barnette—each write two stories tied to the different phases of the full moon for their month. I was lucky enough to draw February and July, so I've got the Hunger Moon and the Thunder Moon.

The other required elements for this collection is that all of the books have to be a ménage (either M/M/M or more, or M/F/M or more) and at least one of the characters has to be a shifter. As you've guessed, my first book involves coyote shifters... the men are the shifters this time... whereas in my next book, the lone female will be a shifter, Bobcat to be exact. This is my first book involving shifting and I'm totally thrilled.

Anyway, I'll be posting more about the series later. I really just wanted to show off the new cover... and did you notice that I have a new header, in which there is a snippet of this cover? Well, yeah, I was trying to waste time the other day, so...

I hope the first couple of days in the new year are going well. I'm off to Squamish today to visit some, dare I say, old friends... gee. When did I get old enough to say I've known someone for twenty years, and I wasn't five when we met? Oh, the shame. And Monday starts the push for keeping my resolutions... here's hoping my body holds out.

Happy New Year...

Just a quick note to say Happy New Year. I hope 2010 went out with a bang and that 2011 is starting off just a fabulous.

I'll be officially announcing the contest on the third so be sure to stop by and enter for your chance to win a brand new Nook Color.

Until then, enjoy the last day or two of the holidays and remember to stay safe and have fun.