Psst…I’m giving away a DVD of this film, along with goodies and coverflats! To enter, see my contest page.

If anyone ever asks me why I became a romance writer? This movie is to blame.

Travel back in time with me, to November 11, 2005. (cue wavy effects and plinky music) I was a work-at-home mom with a toddler (dareling two was yet to be). My birthday had just come and gone a few days ago, with little fanfare. It was Friday morning, and as I drove to pick up my daily workload from the office, I listened to the weekly movie reviews on NPR. They reviewed the brand new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and in a rare occurrence, all of the critics loved it.

Now, I was already a P&P fangirl. Since high school, it had been one of my favorite books, and I’d been a huge fan of the 1995 BBC miniseries adaptation (which, for the record, is still my favorite adaptation. Colin Firth will forever be my Darcy.). Anyhow, I immediately called my husband at work and told him, this was what I wanted for my birthday – he needed to call his mother and have her come over to babysit, and then take me to see P&P that very night. So he did.

And oh, it was lovely. Funny, touching, romantic, filled with beautiful landscapes and a beautiful score and beautiful people. I pretty much floated around for days, which Mr. Dare obliquely enjoyed … Read More »

At my Samhain e-novella?

I haven’t got a page for it up on my bookshelf page quite yet — I’m waiting for the cover art. But the blurb and excerpt for my May 12th release went up on the Samhain website. If you read the title and laugh, that’s good! It’s a comedy. And the story is very loosely linked to Goddess of the Hunt.

Also – I finally have a contest going on this here website! So when you click that Contest link, it gives you something other than a vague promise of “coming soon.”

I had plans to blog more today, but I am terribly sick. I did just want to comment briefly on the latest online debate. There’s been a lot of discussion in the past week about the Kindle2 and it’s TTS (text-to-speech) feature – whether it constitutes a copyright violation, whether Author’s Guild was right to protest the feature, and whether Amazon was right to back down. (See here and here, for example.) I really can’t pretend to understand all the legal arguments involved, but I tend to agree that clutching our intellectual property tighter to our chests is not the best way to protect our income. And what I can’t understand is why an organization devoted to protecting authors’ interests would not view protecting readers’ interests as paramount to that mission. What are authors without readers? Sure, authors create the words on the page, but any cultural significance of a book is … Read More »

At long last, I have a contest up and running! Come enter Tessa’s Movie Club Contest for a chance to win some of my favorite DVDs and a set of signed coverflats!… Read More »

Is it just me, or is Facebook getting exponentially more daunting?

I got tagged a while ago to tell 8 interesting things about myself – that alone sounded difficult.  So I put it off…and then put it off some more.  Then someone else tagged me, and it had become 16 interesting things!  A week later…25!  Now I’ve been tagged by a few different friends for a survey–and the number of questions is up to 48!  Egads.  And I really was going to take a stab at it (before I got tagged for the 96-question round, you know), but then I looked at the questions and so many of them are variations on “What is your favorite_____?”

I don’t know what it is, but I can’t choose favorites.  Ice cream flavor, music, color, movie…heaven forfend, book!   If you ask me what my favorite ____ is, I just squirm.  Inside I’m thinking, Well, I love X…but then I love Y, for entirely different reasons…which do I love more?…I don’t know!…And then there’s Z!…What about Z??….Why must I choose?…I can’t handle this much cognitive dissonance within my fragile psyche! *tessa implodes*

So if you have been sweet enough to tag me lately, and I have not responded…this may be why.  Sorry!  It’s not you, it’s me.… Read More »

They’re calling me to the bookstore today. I’m so excited about these three releases, all debuts of some fashion:

My local RWA chaptermate and fellow Ballantine author, Jennifer Lyon, is debuting a hot new paranormal series with Blood Magic.  The book got a TOP PICK from Romantic Times, so I can’t wait to read it!  Plus, the cover is gorgeous.

Beaumonde chaptermate Miranda Neville (who happened to have all the right information about opera house lighting just when I needed it, bless her!)  debuts with a sexy, sophisticated Regency-set historical today, Never Resist Temptation.  ETA:  Courtney Milan is giving away a copy on her blog.  Enter by February 27 for a chance to win!

And bestselling, RITA-winning Tracy Anne Warren is making her Avon debut with Tempted By His Kiss!  Hooray!  It’s the start of a brand new series, “The Byrons of Braebourne”.

I suppose it’s only natural that right now I’m drawn to debuts.  I mean, I’m like that 16-year-old Regency miss just on the cusp of her introduction to society, watching all the older girls to see just how they handle the quadrille or carry their reticules, or… Okay, that analogy has run its course.  You get the point.  I’m reading, and watching, and learning…and just hoping that when it’s my turn, I manage to carry it off with as much grace as they do.  I found myself wondering today, just what I would do the night before my first book releases.  … Read More »

Welcome to the relaunched TessaDare.com! Thanks to a design update by CrocoDesigns, the site’s more colorful than ever, and I’m ready to add content, contests, and excerpts. Check back often! … Read More »

Wow!  Look, here I am on my new site!  I’m still figuring out how this works, so this is basically a test post.

Isn’t the diary page cool?  See the “Styles” feature at the left?  If you choose the different couples, the colors of the site change to match the respective book covers! How cool is that?  Courtesy of CrocoDesigns, folks.  Frauke, you’re amazing!… Read More »

If you visit the blog or my website this weekend, you may find it temporarily offline. The fabulous Frauke at CrocoDesigns is helping me sharpen up my WordPress template and make the whole site a little easier to use (for both me and others). I’ve decided to convert the non-blog part of my site to WordPress, too, so the conversion is going to take place this weekend. See you next week, all spiffy and updated!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!… Read More »

Okay, it hasn’t been raining quite that long, but it sure feels like we’re going to float away. Southern California is having what’s being called “our biggest storm of the year”, which to someone who grew up in the Midwest feels odd, because I think of a storm as a quick, crashing downpour accompanied by lightning and scary winds, and a California “storm” is more like…rain. And more rain. And a bit of a break, and then more rain.

Rain is good! (Unless you live in one of those areas where the brushfires were burning a few months ago, so now you’re in danger of mudslides. We don’t.) We always need water here. And once upon a time, I loved a rainy day. Rainy days meant cozying up with my favorite sweatshirt and blankets and tea and a good book. Mmmmm, nice.

At this stage in my life, however, rainy days mean two darelings literally bouncing off the walls with pent-up energy. In recent days, we’ve made cupcakes, done craft projects, used up every last piece of construction paper, and played lots of board and card games the darelings are really too young to understand. (My eldest’s idea of playing crazy eights is to spend ten minutes divvying up the cards so that she gets all the eights. Unsurprisingly, it’s a no-fail strategy!)

So here we are facing yet another rainy day with no school… Um, help? Please? What do I do with these kids?… Read More »

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

One of the best things about being a romance writer is that I often feel like I’m living Valentine’s Day all year round.  So setting aside one separate day to celebrate romance seems a little odd, given my profession.  Maybe kinda like being the presidential biographer on Presidents’ Day?  Everyone else is suddenly paying attention to your field, but for you, it’s just another day of business as usual.

But there are all kinds of love stories in the world. Especially after I’ve become a mother, true stories like this one touch my heart in ways no Regency-era courtship can.

Read the full story here--it’s worth your time.

And here are my three favorite Valentine’s Day cards so far: Coverflats arrived this week!

When you twist them in the light, those oval medallions shimmer.  I can’t stop looking at them.  Ooooh, shiny.… Read More »