Friday, February 13, 2015

Friday Fun Facts: Just in Time for V-Day

Happy (early) Valentine's Day! No matter how you might be spending tomorrow, here are some fun facts you might not know about this day...


More than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are sold for Valentine's Day each year.
On average, men shell out $130 each on candy, cards, jewelry, flowers and dates. That’s more than double what women commit to spending.
About 8 billion candy hearts will be produced this year; that’s enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Arizona 20 times and back again.
About 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged in US each year. That's the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.
Worldwide, over 50 million roses are given for Valentine's Day each year.
Women purchase 85% of all valentines.
In order of popularity, Valentine's Day cards are given to teachers, children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.
73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.
Men buy most of the millions of boxes of candy and bouquets of flowers given on Valentine's Day.
In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.
Richard Cadbury invented the first Valentines Day candy box in the late 1800s.
Alexander Graham Bell applied for his patent on the telephone, an "Improvement in Telegraphy", on Valentine's Day, 1876.
The oldest surviving love poem till date is written in a clay tablet from the times of the Sumerians around 3500 BC.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Writers' Wednesday: Welcome to Summer on Main Street!

Well, here we are at another Wednesday. Happy Hump Day, everyone! I have a project I've been working on, in the very newest stages, but I'll share with you some of the news today: it looks like I will be part of another boxed set, releasing this summer! This time all the stories will be set in small towns -- because there's just so much delicious conflict and characterization that can happen there, right? We're tentatively titling it Summer on Main Street, and we hope you'll look forward to spending part of YOUR summer getting to know each of our small towns.

I'm happy to say that the following authors will be part of this set as well. Please check them out, follow them on Facebook, sign up for their newsletters...you know, all the usual stuff so you get the earliest peeks at when this set is releasing!

Crista McHugh
Rebecca J. Clark
MJ Fredrick
Cerian Hebert
Liz Kelly

Monday, February 09, 2015

Monday Mentionables: Get in on the Good Stuff!

Happy Monday, everyone! Well, as the white stuff is coming down outside, I have two mentionables to warm your day. First, in honor of Passionate Kisses 2 releasing next week, we're holding a day-long Facebook party, with lots of sneak peeks, excerpts, yummy pictures, and of course GIVEAWAYS! Join us by clicking below:



And....speaking of giveaways, A Girl and Her Kindle is giving away a Kindle Paperwhite E-Reader AND a year's subscription to Kindle Unlimited (all the books you can read for a year!). Want to enter? Just click below to see all the ways you can win chances. And stay warm!