The Jaunty Quills are happy to welcome Cyndi D’Alba!

This post is proudly a stop on the TEXAS TWO STEP Blog Tour. For a complete listing of all stops on this tour, please visit here. All contests are for U.S. residents only unless otherwise noted. Comments left on this blog will be counted toward the Texas Two Step Faithful Follower Gift Certificate. To see a complete listing of Blog Tour Prizes, click here.

Ever since I heard this vicious rumor about Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, I’ve decided that we cannot be friends. I know, I know. It is shocking that I would rebuff any friendship overtures from Her Grace, but I’m afraid I must. So what has she done that is so heinous? One word…PANTYHOSE. She’s wearing pantyhose on all public appearances. And you’re thinking, so what? Here’s what…fashion authorities say she is single-handedly bringing pantyhose back into fashion. No! Say it ain’t so, but alas and alack (I threw that in for your historical writers!) it appears to be.

When I was growing up, girls were not allowed to wear pants (including jeans) to school. We were restricted to skirts and dresses. (Why yes, this was the dark ages. Why do you ask?) Through the sixth grade, all the girls wore shorts under our skirts. How else could we do flips and climbs on the monkey bars without the boys seeing our pretty white panties?

When we graduated from elementary school to junior high in the seventh grade (now called middle school), shorts were left behind with all our other childish ways and we started wearing nylon stockings, complete with a girdle(!) and garters, not that any of us needed a girdle. (As a side note, my favorite girdle was purple paisley print. I doubt I could get that puppy stretched around my thigh today, much less my hips!) I can still recall the pain of those garters digging into my thighs. Somewhere around eighth grade, pantyhose began showing up in stores. We gladly traded girdles and stockings for the comfort of pantyhose, which remained a staple in my wardrobe for years

Somewhere in the late eighties or early nineties, professional/business women began appearing with tanned, bare legs. I remember seeing a bare-legged Heather Locklear playing a sexy business professional onMelrose Place. At first, I was appalled. After all I was a professional and every day I struggled to pull those tight, thigh squeezing, runner-prone pantyhose up my legs. Pantyhose were considered to be a required article of dress for a female professional.

I tried alternatives like thigh-high hose. Wow. Was that a disaster. Let me just say that thigh-highs were not made for my chubby thighs.

The day finally came when nude legs could be worn in the workplace and a southern woman still be considered professional. I wept with joy on that day. Personally, I believe it should have been a national holiday, but I digress.

In Texas Two Step, my February Samhain debut, the heroine, Olivia wears thigh-highs as part of her wedding attendant attire. Here is a quick excerpt on Olivia’s thoughts about wearing hosiery.

As she hurried through the lobby to the Promenade, her three-inch strappy heels clacked on the white and black tile of the foyer. Hosiery and she were not close friends. Heck, they were barely acquaintances. Normally, she avoided wearing stockings when she could, but for tonight, thigh-high black silk stockings made a sexy swoosh sound as she race-walked. She liked it.

So that’s what the heroine thought. What did my hero, Mitch, think about her thigh-highs?

The sexy swoosh of silk stockings teased him as she neared. He swallowed hard. Mitch’s heart got a beat faster with each step she took, until it raced as she stepped beside him.

And

He stroked fingers along the inside of her thigh, the silk of her stockings tickling and enflaming her flesh at the same time. “Your silk stockings drive me wild,” he said, nibbling along her chin. “Your skin was always silky and smooth. I love to touch you. I’ve always loved to touch you. I loved the way you moaned and twisted at my touch. The way your eyes would glaze over when I stroked you.” His hand moved higher, stopping at the top of the stocking. “But tonight, I want—no, need—to see you in these stockings. These stockings, my necklace and nothing else.” His voice was coarse and guttural and harsh.

So what about you? Did you grow up wearing pantyhose? Girdles and stockings? Thigh-highs? Nude legs? Tell me about your leg coverings.

Today’s TTS Blog Tour Prize

Many guest bloggers can offer a copy of a backlist book to be given away as a potential prize for a blog commenter. As a debut author, I don’t have a backlist. But I do have some awesome author friends who have stepped forward and offered one of their books as a prize. Today’s TTS Blog Tour Author Sponsor is HQ Super Romance Author Liz Talley. Liz will send Vegas Two Step to one lucky person who leaves a comment. To find out more about today’s Blog Tour Sponsor, you can visit her website, Twitter or Facebook.  

To learn more about Cynthia D’Alba check out the links below:

• Her website 
• Friend her on Facebook
• Follow her on Twitter
• Join her and her fans at her group Blog 
• Sign up for inside scoops and special contests by receiving the newsletter she shares with her blog buddies.

Texas Two Step is available for preordering at Samhain, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble and I will be forever in your debt if you would buy it!

The randomly selected winner of THE ROGUE PIRATE’S BRIDE is Laurie G. Laurie, check your inbox in the morning. I’m blogging here again on February 6 (the dreaded Jaunty Quills porcupine interview)  and giving away more copies of THE ROGUE PIRATE’S BRIDE, so check back.

I’ll admit it – I was a late convert to the electronic reading experience. I started with a plain kindle and I found it really cumbersome to use. What if I wanted to go back 60 or 80 pages? I wasn’t going to ‘click’ back 80 times to turn all those pages. Do a search? Maybe I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for. What if it was a character whose name I couldn’t remember? Or a previous scene that gave a clue to the mystery (or whatever)? I certainly wasn’t going to do a search for a specific word or phrase if I didn’t know what I was looking for, was I? With a good old book in my hands, I could just flip back to where I think I saw what I was wanted – because I always remember right about where I saw the pertinent information (about a quarter of the way through the book, on the left side, halfway down. Right?)

I’d had my kindle for about a year and a half when I went on a trip to Europe with my husband and I wasn’t sure what books I wanted to take with me. Hey – no problemo! My kindle – though not perfect –  was loaded with whatever reading material I might want while I was away! I had at least 100 books on my device, so there wasn’t a chance that I would have a boring moment. Flight delays? Who cares. Insomnia? Got it covered. I read The Hunger Games trilogy during my trip, plus two other books! I became a devotee of electronic reading.

Now I’ve got an iPad, and the reading and searching is even easier with it than on my kindle. Plus, it seems more like reading a book. (Test one out at an apple store some time and you’ll see what I mean).

The Pew Research Center determined that ownership of electronic readers practically doubled over the holidays in 2011 (from 10% to 19% of adult Americans who own one). What if ownership doubles again next year? We’d be talking about nearly half the population owning an e-reader! As the prices of these devices goes down, I think even more people will buy them.

All of the Jaunty Quills have books available electronically. My last ten for Avon (as well as a few of my earliest books) have been digitized for e-readers, and I’ve noticed a huge surge in electronic sales for my last three or four books.

 Do you own an electronic reader or read books on an iPhone? If you do – what do you like/dislike about it? If you don’t – is there a reason why, other than cost?

AP Miller!  Congratulations!!!  AP, please check your email for a message from me.  Thanks to everyone who shared recipes.  I can’t wait to try them all.

Jacquie D’Allasandro tells me every time she sees me that I have heroine hair. This is a great compliment, but it’s time that the truth came out. I have naturally curly hair. Okay…I have mostly naturally curly hair, with some of it naturally, let’s say frizzy. That might be a bit of a stretch as well. Let’s try this. Some of my hair is naturally curly – I was actually born with curls – but some of it is wavy, some is frizzy and some just won’t cooperate at all.

So here’s my big confession. I get a perm once a year to even things out. There I’ve said it. I’ve come clean. I don’t really have heroine hair. It’s not pure and natural and glorious. It’s manufactured, assisted, and chemically enhanced. I have to use a $100 straightening iron to pull all these corkscrews out and then it lays there, flat, lifeless and boring. Which is why I continue to get those annual “treatments” because my hair just works better all wound up. And why I gave said flat iron to my sister earlier this year cause there’s just no point.

I’ve come to the conclusion that most women don’t love their hair. Right now my oldest daughter loves her super curly hair, but I know a day will come when she’ll loathe it and wish she had her little sister’s straight hair. Women just can’t make peace with their hair, though we strive to on a regular basis. Don’t we all obsess about it? The color, the texture, the cut, the everything. It’s enough to drive you nuts. This might explain why most romance heroines come with perfect hair. That as much as the hero is part of our fantasy. ☺

And you know for the most part all this fretting we do is for all the other women in the world because most men don’t even notice. The Professor has voiced that he prefers my hair curly to the ironed straight look, but says the straight is a nice change when I do it. Diplomatic, that man.

So how about you, do you have any hair secrets? Do you get yours colored or curled or chemically enchanted in any way? Come on, spill the beans and tell me your beauty secrets?

I love my slow cooker.  It sits in a place of prominence on my kitchen counter.  I don’t use it every day, sometimes only a few times a month, but I can safely say it’s one of the few kitchen appliances I wouldn’t want to be without.

Kind of funny, really, because up until 10 years ago, I’d never used a slow cooker before and wasn’t familiar with coordinating meals first thing in the morning that cooked all day.  Then, one of my busy friends with four kids showed me her crock pot.  She’d bought it on a recommendation of a friend.  “It’s so easy,” she said, “and the recipes taste great.”  It was ideal for her, because she could set it up before she went to work and when she got home, dinner would be ready.  She could save money by using cheaper cuts of meat, too, that would become tender through the cooking process.

So, 10 years ago, during a trip to Costco, I bought my Rival Crock Pot (I still have the same one).  I was busy writing passionate, adventurous medieval romances, hoping to sell my first novel, eager to find ways to squeeze a few more minutes out of my day that I could spend with my roguish heroes and willful heroines, or with my young daughter and husband.

The crock pot filled my needs perfectly.  I’ve made stews, pot roasts, chili, spaghetti sauce (heavenly!), even a Sticky Toffee Pudding (My British husband was thrilled).  I’ve only dipped my finger, really, into all the yummy prospects this nifty appliance can provide.  One of my goals this year is to try recipes I’ve never made before and add to my collection of favorite slow cooker recipes.  There are some great ones at Food Network (http://www.foodnetwork.com/topics/slow-cooker/index.html) and Epicurious (http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=slow+cooker&x=0&y=0).

My crock pot is still my go-to gadget if I have a busy week along with late-afternoon appointments.  There’s nothing more rewarding than stepping into the house after a long day to the delicious aroma of a healthy, ready-made meal.  To my trusted slow cooker, I say “thanks.”

What’s your favorite slow cooker recipe?  Please share it in the comments section.  Everyone who shares a recipe will be eligible to win a copy of A Knight’s Vengeance, Book One of my Knight’s Series—either a paperback (now out of print) or a Kindle version.  Winner’s choice!

I’m not a very outgoing person. I mean I can be funny and the life of the party with people I know but with strangers I’m very quiet and shy.  A few glasses of wine has been known to make me more outgoing but that’s the exception rather than the rule.

Look at this lady in the picture behind us–my daughter calls this photo bombing. This so unexpected and funny. I smile each time I see her in my picture. I don’t know who she is but she is making me laugh!

I am by nature someone who likes routine and things in their place so by rights this stranger in my picture should bother me but it doesn’t.  One of the mom’s I knew when my son was in second grade told me a story about how when she was new in town every day this crossing guard would smile and wave at her.  She said she expected that he did that to everyone but as she knew no one in town that little gesture just made her feel a little better about moving to some place unfamiliar.

Have you ever had something unexpected just make you smile?

The question I think all of us romance writers dread is this: “When are you going to write something real?“ This question inevitably comes from a person who hasn’t read one of my books; I answer only by smiling and suggesting they read something I’ve written, then ask me again. They never do ask. J

I love writing romance. I love reading romance, even though I’m a very happily married woman. Most romance readers are, in fact. Isn’t that neat? And yet, when let loose in a bookstore, I go to one section immediately. Romance.

For me, romance novels do a lot of things. They make me happy, for one, because their underlying message is that anyone can find true love, and that makes life better. I love those happy endings! Sometimes people criticize romance novels for being predictable, but to me, they’re not predictable—they’re a promise. Yes, the couple will end up happily ever after. They’re better for finding each other. How lovely is that?

Another thing romance novels do is let me escape. I’ve never been to France, for example, but Nancy Robards Thompson’s Angel In Provence made me feel like I lived there. Oh, the places I’ve been! Scotland (thanks, Terri!), and Texas, and Wyoming, and London…I swear, I’d know exactly where to shop in Regency London based on all the romance novels I’ve read.

Romance novels are cathartic. Oh, lordy, the tears I’ve shed over these imaginary people! It feels so good to cry for something that’s not truly happening. Sometimes, it’s easier to cry for a character than for an actual person in our lives…and those scenes unlock something in us and let us release those feelings.

And romance novels let me fall in love. In real life, I love one guy. I chose well, I’m happy to say. He brings me coffee and flowers, thinks I’m pretty, still checks me out. But we’ve been married for 20 years, and while McIrish is many things, he’s not new. I know him better than I know anyone else on earth. Sometimes we say the same things at the same time, even. But a romance novel lets me feel the rush of new love, the magic of a first kiss, the delicious thrill of a first fight. It’s utterly delightful. And the happiness that gives me is absolutely real.

How about you? Why do you love romance novels?

This week I’m celebrating the release of “Jackson Hole Valentine” (on shelves January 24).  This book is my 25th book for Harlequin!!

Here’s a little teaser about the book: 

When Margaret Fisher’s friends were killed in a tragic accident, she suddenly found herself co-guardian of the couple’s six-year-old son.  Cole Lassiter was the last man she ever wanted to see again after he’d broken her heart in high school, but she’d do anything–even move into his house–to be a mother for Charlie.

Successful entrepreneur Cole still felt betrayed by Meg…and couldn’t imagine sharing anything with her, let alone a son.  But while adolescent wounds ran deep, so did their very grown-up attraction for one another.  And as they learned to be  good parents to Charlie, the mismatched pair were also learning about forgiveness–and the power of forever love.

I first sold to Harlequin in 1999 and that book came out in 2000.  My title was “Faith on a Harley.”  The title it came out under was “Unforgettable Faith.”   If you haven’t guess it, those books were inspirational romance (romance with a faith message).  I wrote for Love Inspired for a number of years as well as Silhoutte Romance (which no longer exists) before moving to Special Edition.  In addition to writing for Harlequin, I’ve also written two contemporary romances for Avon.  And, until this past June, I was working full time!

In celebration of this release, I’m giving away three books from my RX for Love mini-series–of which Jackson Hole Valentine is a part–to one lucky commenter.

All you need to do is tell me what quality you like to see in a hero to be entered into the drawing.

Let me also shout out a big THANK YOU to everyone who’s bought my books and posted a good review.  I appreciate your support!

Congratulations, Linda Henderson and Tina SL! You’ve each won a copy of WHEN BEAUTY TAMED THE BEAST by Eloisa James. Please send your snail mail addies to kimscastillo@gmail.com.  Enjoy the book!