My friend's name is Courtney Milan, and her debut historical romance is Proof by Seduction.

When Courtney and I met over three years ago, neither of us had ever written a full novel. We started working with another friend, Carey Baldwin, who had a full draft under her belt and a few more clues than we did, and together the three of us worked our butts off to figure out this romance-writing thing.

I still remember the day Courtney sent me the first draft of her first scene with Proof's heroine, Jenny Keeble. Jenny just leapt off the page with intelligence and secrets and desires and delicious potential, and I did a little dance in my chair because I just knew Jenny would be the star of Courtney's dazzling debut. And here she is!

Of course, by now, a lot of other people have figured out how brilliant Courtney and her book are, so don't take my word for it! Here's what the early reviews are saying:

“Historical romance fans will celebrate Milan’s powerhouse debut, which comes with a full complement of humor, characterization, plot and sheer gutsiness.”

—starred review, Publisher’s Weekly

“A dazzling debut by a multitalented author… Milan steams up the pages while drawing readers into an emotionally powerful relationship centering on the true meaning of love. Completely satisfying, this is a book meant for all time.”

—4½ star review, TOP Pick! RT Book Reviews

(To read yet more praise and an excerpt, check out Courtney's website.)

To mark the release of this amazing book, today (Monday) we're kicking off a Twitter countdown to the official release day. It's the 12 Days of Proof!  If you're on Twitter, join the fun by following me at @tessadare, or the #12pbs tag. For each of the twelve days, we’ll be tweeting a twist on the classic Christmas song, inspired by Courtney's book. The...verses?...are the collaborative creation of Courtney's most devoted fan base, the Bonbons/Vanettes.

AND, on each of the 12 days, we’re giving away at least one autographed book. Authors who've graciously donated their books include Eloisa James, Julia Quinn, Anna Campbell, Sherry Thomas, Elizabeth Hoyt, Sara Lindsey, Julie Anne Long, Carolyn Jewel, Victoria Dahl, Jennifer Haymore, Zoe Archer, and of course Courtney Milan herself and yours truly, Tessa Dare. We're all fans of Courtney!

To enter each day, just follow @courtneymilan and use the #12pbs hashtag in a tweet—either by RTing our 12 Days tweets, or by using the hashtag to do your own gushing, yearning, posting of book-spotting photos, etc. Winners will be picked at random from the #12pbs twitter stream. The entry period for each day will run from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM EST, and I will do my best to announce winners promptly after close of each day, but it being the holidays and all, please forgive minor delays. Winners will be asked to DM their snail addresses.

On the 12th day, Carey Baldwin and I will be in Courtney’s hometown to celebrate her official release day! We’ll be heading around to different bookstores, spotting and signing stock, and we’ll give away copies of PROOF all day long.

If you're not on Twitter and want a chance to win PROOF and two other great debuts (or even if you are on Twitter and want to hedge your bets), enter my monthly website contest!

Thanks for playing along!  However you celebrate the holidays, I hope you find the time to give yourself the gift of reading!

If you haven't already read Goddess of the Hunt and Surrender of a Siren, this would be a good time to catch up. Because the third book of the trilogy, A Lady of Persuasion, hits shelves next Tuesday, September 29th! And you don't want to be that one person who isn't caught up and can't dish immediately about all the yumminess that it is Sir Toby Aldridge, do you?

Trust me on this. You do not.

(Is it weird to say I adore Toby? Absolutely had the time of my life writing him. Thus far, he is the only one of my heroes to inspire a t-shirt. That alone has to say something, right?)

However, chances are if you're reading this blog, you've already read Goddess and Siren, and therefore need something else to tide you over. A novella might be just the thing! And I know it's not even October, but it's never too early to be getting into the Christmas spirit, is it? (Just go with me here.)

My absolutely brilliant friend and critique partner, Courtney Milan, has her print debut novella coming out in an anthology. The Heart of Christmas has an official release date of October 1st, but copies have been found in stores all over and are already flying off the shelves. Courtney's novella, "This Wicked Gift" is touching, funny, sexy, and smart. You don't want to miss it. So buy your copy now, before they all get sold out! You do not want to be sadly deprived of her Christmas goodness, do you?

Trust me on this. You do not.

As for me, how will I be spending my weekend? It's back to the deadline cave for me. My second Stud Club book, Twice Tempted by a Rogue is almost finished. Which is good, because it's due to my editor next week.

OH. How could I forget? Something very exciting happened this week--I got to see the preliminary versions of the Stud Club trilogy covers. They are unbelievably gorgeous. And...brace yourselves...super HOT. I can't wait until I have the go-ahead to post them. Perhaps I'll post some teasing little snippets on Tuesday.

Pleeeze come back Tuesday--Release day! Prizes! Friends! Merriment!
Until then....

And if you'd like to be among the first to read it, click on over to the Borders TrueRomance blogthis morning. There's a little video that book buyer extraordinaire Sue Grimshaw taped with me during the RWA conference in DC. And I'm blogging about the writing of Surrender of a Siren. Best of all, if you comment, you could win a full set of the trilogy!

More links from the Department of Random Awesomeness:

Can you believe mega-bestselling author Vicki Lewis Thompson took my little book on her summer vacation? Yes, she read Goddess of the Hunt and liked it and added to the Book Club portion of her website! How cool is that? I was completely stunned and so honored. (There's a little blurb there by Vicki--if you use a browser other than IE, you might have trouble viewing it because it's light on a light background. You can highlight the text, and then it should show up.)

And Rakehell.com posted a great review of Surrender of a Siren the other day.

It's just a few weeks until the release of Courtney Milan's fantabulous debut novella, This Wicked Gift, published in the Heart of Christmas anthology with a few authors you might have heard of....Mary Balogh and Nicola Cornick, anyone? Go to Courtney's site to learn more about the book and enter for a chance to win a copy! Also giving away copies is the fantabulous Sherry Thomas, of the mad query writing skillz. (And, um, not to be a copycat, but I intend to be giving away copies too! When A Lady of Persuasion releases. So if you don't win any of these, come back around here in three weeks. Or just go buy it, 'cause you know you want to.)

Lastly, I am going to be signing books and (eek!) speaking at my local RWA chapter meeting this Saturday morning! Our afternoon speaker? You might have heard of her. Little-known author by the name of Linda Howard? Yes, my life is charmed.

Wow, that was a lot of name-dropping! Sorry.
Feel free to name-drop in the comments section. Any brushes with greatness lately?

Over the weekend, I had my first bookstore book signing! It was so much fun. The Costa Mesa Barnes and Noble was our gracious host, and I was lucky enough to share the table with my fellow local authors DeAnna Cameron, Debra Mullins, and Jennifer Haymore (who also writes as Dawn Halliday).

All this was exciting enough, but just as the signing was starting, a mysterious man came up and gave me a gift:

If you look closely, or click on the image, you will see it is a paper boat, labeled S.S. Siren, filled with paper goats. Now, amongst my good friends, my second book, Surrender of a Siren, is affectionately known as "Goats on a Boat". But this strange man was not one of my good friends. So I was a little bit weirded out.

But the signing was starting, and people wanted to take pictures and have books signed, and so I just sat there puzzling over it. Then a text came through on my cell phone: "You look nice in pink."

Now I knew something was up. I jumped up, and out from the nearest bookshelf popped soon-to-debut authors Courtney Milan (who flew in from out of town!) and Sara Lindsey (who drove down from LA with her mom in tow!). I couldn't believe it! What wonderful friends.

My other critique partner, Carey Baldwin, has a sorta kinda important job and understandably couldn't make it, but look: she bought everyone in her office a copy of Goddess of the Hunt!

I have the best friends in the world. That is all.