Stephanie Cage - Writer

This time last year my sweet Christmas novella, 'The Santa Next Door' had just released.  I might have to re-read it to get back in a seasonal mood.  In the meantime, I've been reminding myself of my favourite things about Christmas by re-reading a blog post I wrote last year for Sarah Cass's 'Redefining Perfect' blog, about my top 10 ways to prepare for Christmas.  Why not pop over there and see how many of them you agree with? http://redefiningperfect.com/top-ten-tuesday-stephanie-cage-talks-christmas/

It's that funny bit of the year that didn't have a name when I was growing up.  I'm a little late to wish you all a Happy Christmas, and a little early for New Year.  Still, I hope you're enjoying the festive season and haven't been too inconvenienced by the weather. If, like me, you're already thinking about fitting in more big writing projects next year, you may enjoy my post over at Book in a Week about time management books for writers: http://www.book-in-a-week.com/2013/12/time-management-books-writers/ On the other hand, if you're looking for a smaller project, you may like last month's post on writing a haiku a day: http://www.book-in-a-week.com/2013/12/haiku-day/ And finally, did you catch my visit to Melinda Dozier's blog before Christmas?  The Santa Next Door makes an appearance, and Melinda asks me some intriguing questions about writing and Christmas. http://melindadozier.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/12-days-of-romance-santa-next-do...

And in other news... The Santa Next Door will also be one of the books featured on popular blogsite Snarkology's 25 days of Christmas series.  Check out Melissa's shiny, lovely site over the course of December to be introduced to a whole Christmas cornucopia of seasonal stories! Here she is: http://melissasnark.blogspot.co.uk/

I'm at Just Contemporary Romance today talking about whether Christmas really is the most romantic time of the year, in connection with my Christmas romance, The Santa Next Door.  Plus, there's a giveaway!  Share your opinion about the most romantic season, and you could win a copy of my first published romance, Desperate Bid. 

If you've heard those horrible announcements on the radio which tell you how few days you've got left to do your Christmas shopping, you might welcome something to help get you in the mood for Christmas. Here's one idea: The Santa Next Door is free on Kindle from today until Saturday 19th October. Why not download a copy and get back in touch with the spirit of Christmas? Or pop a copy on your Kindle now and save it until you're ready to feel the Christmas spirit (but maybe 24th December would be a little late...!) Click here to view the book on Amazon and get your free download.

There are certain moments in the life of a book that stick in your memory.  Getting a first sentence you love.  Writing 'The End' and meaning it.  Seeing the cover for the first time.  And of course, the first review. 'The Santa Next Door' has its first review, and thanks to book blogger Katie L Thompson, it was an absolute delight for me to read.  You have to love a reviewer who says about your book: 'I’d give it 6/5 if I could'!  She praises the book's writing style, characters and plot - click here if you want to find out why.  I'm hugely excited about this review, because although my friends, family and editors have all said good things about Santa, that's not the same as hearing a positive opinion from someone whose only connection with me is the book. Amanda Hocking, bestselling author of Switched , says that book bloggers can make a huge difference to the success of a book, and with Santa's first review being a 5-star one, I'm exci...

Squee!  And assorted other excited noises!  It feels like Christmas... for two reasons.  One is that seeing my book going out into the world always feels as exciting as opening a shiny new parcel and waiting to find out what's inside.  The other is that the book in question is the snowy story I've mentioned a few times on this blog... The Santa Next Door.  Although it's not officially released until early December, it's already available exclusively from Amazon on the Kindle Select program .  Look, here's a picture!  Oh, and if you missed the earlier mentions of the story, you can find a sneak peek into the snowy opening here and an introduction to the lovely Sue and Bryn here.

So...  it's official.  My Christmas novella, The Santa Next Door, now has a cover, and I love it!  That's about it really.  Oh, except that if you missed an earlier sneak peek of the opening, you can read it here .  Now I'm just waiting for a release date.  Hopefully some time around Christmas...

A while ago I introduced you to the snowy setting of my Christmas story, with the working title of 'The Santa Next Door'.   If you missed it, you can read it here . Now, I'm delighted to announce that Santa Claus really will be coming... to an electronic device near you.   I've just signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press for this short Santa story to be published as an e-book, hopefully in time for Christmas 2013.   So this seems like a good time to let my lovely heroine, Sue, and hero, Bryn, introduce themselves, to each other and to you...     “You said don't go in strange people's houses.”   Sue winced.   Apparently Trudi had inherited Sue's love of rules.   But why did she always have to trot them out at the most embarrassing moment?   Before Sue could find an answer, and definitely before her blush had faded, he had already supplied an answer: “Your Mum is quite right, usually.   But you see, I'm not a stranger...