Gardening with Dani Collins

 Two summers ago, I put potted flowers on the upper balcony next to my office and wound up with tree frogs living in them.

 

At first, I was a tiny bit alarmed because I discovered the first one

*coming out of my office.* There’s a screen door onto the balcony

and one evening I accidentally left it open.

I came upstairs to go to bed and there was the young, cursed prince

in our upper hallway, sitting there looking very confused. I had to get

a plastic container to trap him and take him downstairs and leave him

outside.

 

Then I realized they were spending the days in the freshly watered

planters—and sometimes taking a swim in the watering jug!

(Good thing I don’t use chemical fertilizers.) At night, they would

climb the screen and eat the bugs.

 

Last year, I had a busy publishing schedule so I didn’t make up any

planters. I didn’t want the hassle of watering them, but I really, really

missed my little friends so I’m thinking of doing it again this year,

hoping they come back.

 

Fun fact: If you sign up for my newsletter, you can read a story

loosely based on The Frog Prince called The Forgotten Prince.

Link:

https://claims.prolificworks.com/gg/jNTv2tOWCaYWQOYF8tNh

Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with some laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. Mostly she writes contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule’s Montana Born, but her backlist of ninety books also includes self-published erotic romance, romantic comedy, and even an epic medieval fantasy. When she’s not writing—just kidding, she’s always writing. Look for Dani’s latest Presents, Maid to Marry, out now!

Dani Collins on the web:

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Dani Collins latest book...

Maid to Marry

How to avoid scandal?

Marry the Greek!

An illicit kiss with Atlas Voudouris got chalet maid Stella Sutter fired. When she bumps into him five years later, she’s still furious! Except as she accuses him of ruining her life, long-dormant desires come alive…

Atlas is about to announce the convenient wedding that will secure his inheritance. However, once paparazzi photos of his and Stella’s heated encounter go public, Atlas is left short a bride. The only answer? Make Stella his wife! But are his diamond and their dangerous passion enough to bridge the gap between their very different worlds?

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Vancouver Bloedel Conservatory with Dani Collins

 Vancouver Bloedel Conservatory

We’re well into the gloom of autumn here in Western Canada and even had a light dusting of snow, so I’m not doing much gardening right now, but this year was not my best gardening effort anyway.

 

I usually like to make up a few pots for the deck, including herbs, and plant some peas or beans or tomatoes.

 

This year, however, I had ten books release plus a series of novellas in German. It’s been absolute madness while I also completed and turned in seven more new books.

 

I jokingly told my husband I was letting my gardens ‘lie fallow’ which means I did next to no weeding and zero planting. I completely forgot to pick out my garlic from the previous fall!

 

I also did a lot of traveling this year, as a sort of reward for all those books. Fun fact: The book I’m promoting today is my 60^th Harlequin!

 

We’re heading to Hawaii to celebrate that, but when we can’t get away somewhere tropical, we like to visit places like the Bloedel Conservatory in Vancouver.

 

This was a blustery March day with a wind that had us dreaming of spring. We spent a wonderful hour communing with the birds and finished off with lunch at a microbrewery.

 

I wish I could offer tips on creating a garden like this for yourself, but I think it involves hiring professional horticulturists and avian keepers. Which my hero probably has in his palace since it’s on a fictional island somewhere near Iceland!

About Dani Collins

Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. While she is best known for writing contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule Publishing, she also writes historical and erotic romance. When she’s not writing—just kidding, she’s always writing. Dani lives in Southern BC, Canada with her high school sweetheart husband.

Stay current with Dani’s new releases by joining her newsletter or visiting her here:

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Dani Collins has a new book out!

His Highness's Hidden Heir

A shotgun wedding…
at the palace altar!

Former wild-child actress Lexi’s mission to reclaim her career at a gala is thwarted when she’s found by her stalker. Sending her straight into the protective arms of irresistible Prince Magnus! They succumb to a single night of scalding pleasure...

When a positive pregnancy test changes Lexi’s plans, she knows Magnus can’t be tied to her scandalous reputation, however safe he made her feel. But after Magnus discovers her secret, his coldly pragmatic solution blindsides her. And newlywed princess Lexi is left wondering if her royal husband even remembers their explosive encounter…

Buy on:

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Amazon Paperback

Open Your Heart to Gardening with Kandy Shepherd

Open Your Heart to Gardening with Kandy Shepherd

 

In my new release, The Tycoon’s Christmas Dating Deal, the magnificent gardens of Longfield Manor,

the ancestral home of my hero Oliver are featured quite often. Even at Christmas time, which is winter

in England, the gardens have a stark glory. Then there is the medieval walled garden, a favourite of

heroine Marissa.  The walled garden in winter plays a significant part in Oliver and Marissa’s love store,

in spring it—I have to stop there for fear of a spoiler!

 

I don’t have a medieval walled garden, but I do have a pretty, cottage-style garden at our little farm in

the Blue Mountains of NSW, Australia. I love to spend time gardening there.  My garden is at its best in

Spring which DownUnder is right now. Here, I’m sharing some favourite photos of my October garden

with snowballs, iris, aquilegia and tulips the stars. November will be rose time!

 

My husband laid the paths over several winters

 

We love this snowball tree

 

Tulips like the cold winter

 

Bearded iris with feline photo-bomber Alfie

 

Bird bath adds colour

 

The aquilegias are all self-sown

 

Friendly visitors, Australian King Parrots

 

 

Flowering cherry

 

 

 

Kandy Shepherd is a best-selling, award-winning author of contemporary romance. Her heartfelt, passionate stories are set in exciting locations around the world and are published in multiple languages. Kandy believes in love-at-first-sight and real-life romance—she and her husband of many years decided to spend their lives together after three days! She loves it when readers tell her that her books make them laugh and make them cry. Kandy lives near Sydney, Australia with her husband and numerous four-legged friends.

Connect with Kandy Shepherd over the web:

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Kandy Shepherd has a new book out this month:

The Tycoon's Christmas Dating Deal

HIS CANDY CANE CONTRACT


The loss of her parents makes working the holidays difficult for event planner Marissa. But planning a party for tycoon Oliver is an offer she can’t refuse. The problem? Oliver—her childhood crush!—needs her to be his fake date… Following his beloved grandfather’s passing, Oliver’s dedicated to giving their family manor the farewell it deserves. But his grieving grandmother is convinced that Marissa is his girlfriend, and why shatter her dreams? Yet as the festivities ramp up, the terms of their deal blur. Is their chemistry real or just a trick of the twinkle lights?

Buy on:

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Hero Plants by Liz Fielding #Giveaways

Multiple Giveaway Alert! 

Kindle copy of Murder Among the Roses 

Kindle copy of Murder Under the Mistletoe

Kindle copy of Murder in Bloom

Audio codes for Murder Among the Roses & Murder Under the Mistletoe

Let us know in the comments which giveaway would you like to go in for! 

 

HERO PLANTS

 

At the Chelsea Flower Show this year, weeds were being rebranded as “hero” plants. A third of the show gardens this year featured brambles, thistles, and knapweed, traditionally considered weeds, to highlight their benefits.

 

In Murder Under the Mistletoe, Abby Finch learned that her show garden design had been accepted for the Maybridge Show. Murder in Bloom, the third in my cozy crime series, opens on medal day.

 

The show garden theme is “Back to Nature” and she has created a disused quarry that is being reclaimed by nature and the plant she’s used are those that have made there own way there. Dandelions and willow herbs blown in on the wind, foxgloves whose seeds would have been walked in on the boots of workmen or walkers or, like the rowan tree and brambles, dropped by birds.

 

And there are nettles which grow wherever man has intruded, providing food for the caterpillars of several species of butterfly. It’s not the first time they’ve appeared as a hero plant in one of my books.

 

Here’s Honey giving Lucien a hard time in Redeemed by Her Midsummer Kiss.

 

‘Look at these!’

She shook the dying plants in his face, the bright yellow rubber gloves she wore adding to the bizarre image.

He looked at them then frowned.

‘They’re nettles.’ This madwoman was berating him over nettles? ‘Dead nettles.’ Clearly not a disgruntled member of the gardening club... ‘Whoever sprayed them did you favour, but it wasn’t me.’

‘Not dead. Dying,’ she snapped back. ‘Dead nettles are lamium album, a valuable nectar source for bumble bees. These are urtica dioca, the habitat and food source for red admiral, peacock and small tortoiseshell butterflies.’

These resilient ‘superweeds’ play a crucial role in our gardens and meadows – one study published in 2022 said that weeds were actually twice as likely to attract bees and other insects as flowers - and the gardening community is now encouraging us to appreciate their value.

I have my own “wild” spot. My daughter gave me a Hawthorn sapling for my birthday when I first moved into my apartment. It’s now five years old and in the summer smothered with white, nectar providing blossom and in the autumn covered with berries. There’s also a pyracantha – a thornless one!) that does the same job.

 

I have a heap of dead wood provided by cuttings from shrubs which provides a bug hotel habitat for bees, insects and beetles and I’m doing my best to remember that when I catch myself on the brambles that have made themselves at home there, that it’s a hero providing food for the birds in the autumn (and humans, too) and a safe space for small mammals.

Liz Fieding

Liz Fielding met her husband when they were both working in Zambia and were keen members of the Lusaka Theatre Club. He was playing John de Stogumber in St Joan, and she was the pageboy to the Earl of Warwick. He swore it was the purple tights that got him.

 

Years spent in Africa and the Middle East provided the background to many of Liz's romances. Her first, An Image of You, was set in Kenya, in a place where they had spent many happy weekends on safari. It was plucked from the slush pile because the feisty feminist heroine made her editor laugh. Emotion touched with humour has been the hallmark of her work ever since.

 

After writing 70 books for Harlequin Mills and Boon, Liz has now turned to crime, signing with Joffe Books for three "Maybridge Mysteries", the first of which, Murder Among the Roses, is published on 18th April.

 

 

Liz Fielding on the web:

 

Website             Facebook           X.          Instagram           TikTok

 

 

Liz Fielding has a new book out:

 

MEET ABBY FINCH. SHE’S A BUSY MUM OF THREE, AN EXPERT GARDENER AND THE STAR OF YOUR NEW FAVOURITE COZY MURDER MYSTERY.

One part jealousy. Two parts rage. Somewhere in Abby’s sleepy little village, the perfect murder is brewing . . .

Abby enters the Maybridge Flower Show, never dreaming for one moment that she’ll win the gold. Or an invitation to appear on telly, alongside gardening legend Daisy Dashwood!

Some people say Daisy’s a tiresome diva. But starry-eyed Abby can’t wait for the cameras to start rolling. Until . . .

Daisy staggers out on stage. Only to collapse at Abby’s feet.

Her demise might seem like a tragic accident — resulting from a cocktail of booze and hay-fever medicine.

But Abby’s not so sure. She starts digging, to uncover shifty suspects at every turn. From snarky co-stars to a toy-boy lover, they all had reason to want Daisy dead and gone.

And that’s not the only puzzle playing on Abby’s mind . . .

In life, Daisy went nowhere without her trusty caddy of healing teas. Now it’s vanished.

What if someone’s been tampering with Daisy’s favourite cuppa?

Buy on:
Amazon Kindle            Amazon UK           Amazon Aust

Multiple Giveaway Alert! 

Kindle copy of Murder Among the Roses 

Kindle copy of Murder Under the Mistletoe

Kindle copy of Murder in Bloom

Audio codes for Murder Among the Roses & Murder Under the Mistletoe

Let us know in the comments which giveaway would you like to go in for!