Of course, that’s something I’d never say about my heroes, but whew! This summer has been a scorcher.
Wait I minute, I hear you saying. Why is Mia Marlowe committing the ultimate writer’s sin and starting with, of all things, the weather? Now I know I’m supposed to talk about my new release, my novella A Knack for Trouble in the new Brava anthology IMPROPER GENTLEMEN, but I so rarely like to do what’s expected. Plus I notice my co-author, the lovely and talented Maggie Robinson, was just here at the Season a few days ago and she filled you in on our trio of sexy stories featuring bad boy heroes.
Of course, I hope you’ll trot (slowly, of course, because of the aforementioned heat!) down to your local booksellers and snap up a copy. It’s a fun anthology. Seriously. Perfect with a tall, sweaty glass of iced tea or adult beverage adorned with an umbrella while lounging in a deck chair.
But I don’t want to beat you over the head with IMPROPER GENTLEMEN, so I’ll simply invite those so inclined to click over to my website for a free, not-available-anywhere-else excerpt. My newsletter subscribers were the only ones who had this exclusive link on release day, but I’ll let you in on the secret here at the Season. Click HERE for the excerpt that was so spicy I had to hide it on my website. And HERE to make sure you’re on my newsletter list so you’ll have access to the good stuff early next time too!
But back to the grueling heat of summer…People have discovered lots of ways to cool off–AC, window fans and blocks of ice, cool beverages, swimming pools and backyard sprinklers. However, I’m here to suggest there’s something better than all of them.
It’s your imagination.
It is possible, using nothing but your mind, to raise a respectable crop of goosebumps on your forearm. Don’t believe me? Try it.
I want you to think about the coldest you’ve ever been in your life. Call it up in your mind. Put yourself back into that situation and notice all the details. When you breathe in, do the small hairs in your nose freeze? Feel that frigid air filling your lungs. Is there snow crunching under foot? Mind your step. If you slip and add wetness to the biting temperature, you’ll be in a world of hurt. Is the wind cutting through your jacket and threatening to flay off any unprotected skin? Can you feel your toes or have they gone numb with cold even inside your boots? Is the night sky so black and clear, the stars look brittle enough to shatter if you blow on them?
Ok, anyone feel a shiver coming on? If so, you have a vivid, well-exercised imagination.
That’s the sort of visceral, sensual experience I want you to have when you read my books. I invite you to slip into my heroine’s shoes and try on her life for the space of a few hours, but it only works if you bring your imagination along for the ride. Reading is a two way conversation between the author and the reader. Thank you for holding up your half of the conversation.
Now for the giveaway! Leave a comment about when you were the coldest, hottest, something-est in your life and you’ll be entered in my random drawing for a signed copy of IMPROPER GENTLEMEN! Good luck!
For more about Mia and her upcoming books, visit MiaMarlowe.com. While you’re there, be sure to enter her contest and visit her very active blog. Mia loves to connect with readers, so you can also find her on Facebook and Twitter!
Love the sound of this book! The hottest I ever been was when we were in Arizona visiting my brother and his family, the 2 boys and I went for a short walk it was 120 out and we were gone 15 minutes when my Mom called for us to come back inside in that time I was sunburn already the boys had a cover on them I didn’t!
The coldest I ever been was when we lived in London England in the 1980’s our first house we rented had only a Outside toilet I remember the ice and snow we had to go through just to use the bathroom! It was in Nov 1988. I was glad when we moved to another town that had the bathroom inside.
I love the cold weather and fog there.
Congratulations on your new book I’m looking forward to reading it.
Penney
The book sounds great, what a combo of authors & stories 🙂 Can’t think of when I was my coldest though wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t at a football game, though it could have been when attempting to shovel my house free during one of the massive snow storms we got hit with in the past few years — boy does that drive & sidewalk get awfully long all of a sudden ;). I generally don’t have an issue with the heat (depending on the mugginess) but if my feet get cold, forget it I’m cold no matter how warm it is.
Congrats on the release
Hmmm, well it was really hot and humid the last 3 weeks. One day, the temp was 101 with a heat index of 112. But, the hottest I’ve ever been is when my DH and I decided to try our hand at camping and we chose a very hot weekend to do so. It was not an enjoyable experience, sleeping in a tent and it was our first, last, and only experience sleeping in a tent. (Besides, I like my conveniences, so if there is ever a next time, a camper with all-out amenities will be the way I’ll do it.)
The coldest I’ve ever been was 5 years ago when we had a terrible ice storm and we were without electricity for 5 nights and 6 days. We all moved to the basement because our water heater is run on gas and that helped warm up the rec room since the ceiling is low and we kept all other doors shut. Brrrr. Going upstairs to get clothes to dress every day was miserable. Luckily, Dh ran a trickle of water out of each faucet, so we didn’t have any pipes freeze up. We grilled supper some nights, went down to the Legion where the Red Cross served meals, and ate out once…..It was “fun” for the first day or so, but not really!
Congratulations on the new release! Hottest… until about three weeks ago, I’d have said anytime I was staggering around Mexican ruins at noontime (never understood what people meant by “white heat” until then), but I recently started taking public transit to get to work and my new route includes an hour-plus bus-ride. Unfortunately, on this one particular afternoon, I was one of the last folks onto the bus. It was standing room only unless I wanted to sit next to an extremely large woman who needed 1.5 seats. I felt rude, but I was exhauted, so I squeezed into the half seat with apologies. The bus takes off. Then… as the bus driver rants a full volume… we learn that the AC is broken. It’s one hundred degrees out. The bus is jammed. I’m glued to the woman next to me. And then we get stuck on the freeway in a massive traffic jam, so we can all cook a little longer. Definitely the hottest I’ve ever been 😉
My stories are similar. Staying at a cabin in the woods that also had just an outhouse . I had to walk through drifts almost to my waist and I lost my shoe – I obviously wasn’t prepared and had no boots. I continued on without my shoe but eventually found it on the way back lol. I’ve also had our electricity out for 4 -5 days during a winter storm but at least the food stayed cold unlike when a summer storm did the same thing and we lost everything in our fridge.
I’ve been hearing lots of great things about your book and look forward to reading it!!
Thanks for the giveaway. The coldest I’ve ever been is just in the wintertime. I live on the east coast and it’s always very hot in the summer. Its already been 104 this summer.
Congratulations on the release of the new book! Sounds wonderful.
The hottest I have been is this year- it’s been extreemly hot and humid in the Midwest and we haven’t gotten any rain in at least a month now. The grass is looking dead and it’s really miserable to go outside of the a/c. I have pretty much been an indoor prisoner – which is really sad. We’ve been fortunate and have not lost power except for a small brownout that lasted for a couple of hours. The coldest I have been was a couple of years ago ( I think either 2008 or 2009) when we had an ice and snow and ice storm that literally took out power for 3 days. The storm arrived on a Friday night and it took out the power within a couple of hours – thousands of people were without power – even with a fireplace the hottest we could get the house was in the lower 50’s in the living room and kitchen – we pretty much walked around with our coats on. We managed to sleep because we have a bunch of quilts and bedspreads and sleeping bags….thankfully the power came back on Sunday night – though the cable was out for another 2 days due to the ice damaging the cable lines all over town.
Well I live in temperate climes. But I’d say I was hottest when I was about 19 😉
Hi Mia,
I vividly recall the coldest I have ever been. I was in junior high when my family and I all traveled to my grandparent’s house. They were down-sizing and wanted to give us a bunch of furniture for our new (larger) house. Being a family of farmers, there was no need for us to rent a U-haul truck. No, we had grain trucks of all sizes from which to choose!
The five of us loaded up with us kids riding quite comfortably (albeit illegally) in the back on a sofa. Everything was fine when we started out, but over the course of the weekend, a cold front blew in. For some reason (that now eludes me), my mother and I started the final leg of the journey in the back of the truck while my brothers were toasty and warm in the cab with my father who was driving. We had piled on a mountain of blankets and quilts but alas, they were not sufficient to overcome the BITTER cold. Within about 20 miles (45 minutes on icy roads) we were pounding on the front of that grain bed as hard as our frozen fists would allow, trying to be heard by the passengers inside.
When they finally pulled over, my father stuck his head in the back and innocently asked, “What’s the problem?” Needless to say, the five of us traveled the next few hours packed like sardines in the warm cab of that truck.
Wow, I hadn’t thought of that experience in years, but it’s one I’ll never forget!
The book looks great. The coldest I’ve ever been…. I grew up most of my life in Southern California where the weather is almost always “perfect”. A couple of years back I moved to Washington state for a while (in Feb.) and boy was I in for a weather shock. The rain and the cold, eeek, and this was without snow. I swear I was constantly shivering. I still remember going to a bookstore up there totally bundled up with layers and layers of clothing and a scarf and the cashier took one look at me and said “You’re not from around here are you?” I was there for 2 years and I don’t think I ever fully got acclimated to the cold and rain.
Back in Southern Cali now, and air conditioner is broken in the car. I don’t think anything is hotter, or more uncomfortable, then getting in to a car that’s been sitting outside midday with no ac relief 🙁
Hi Mia. Your book sounds good. The coldest I have ever been was when our heat was out for few days due to an ice storm. It was awful. I think the hottest I have ever been was when we were hoeing our garden and it was humid and in the 90’s.
There have been several times in my life when I felt like it was the coldest I have ever been. One time when I was around 5 years old, I remember freezing temperatures and snow up past our windows in the house. The most recent was several years ago when my DH and I were both working nights. I got home before he did and we had a 13 inch snowstorm with temperatures below 0 degrees. I was out shoveling our driveway and had to keep coming inside to warm up before returning back outside. I had several neighbors that came over to help me that night.
I have also been hottest several times in my life. The most recent time was last week. Our air conditioner was out for 3 days with 100+ temperatures outside. We had all 7 of our fans running during those days and it was still totally miserable.
Love those Regency Bad Boys – the hotter the better!
Coldest I have ever been? Sleeping in a tiny little camper in the middle of a Scottish sheep pasture in March. It was so cold we piled the entire contents of our suitcases on top of us in the bed and we were still FROZEN. The wind threatened to blow the camper over, whistled in at every seam. After midnight a combination of snow and sleeting rain began to fall and we seriously considered bringing the sheep into the camper for their body heat!
Hottest I have ever been?
Exploring a bat cave in Mississippi in early August. At the deepest point in the cave we had to crawl through a tunnel one at a time on our hands and knees with barely enough room to do so in clothes that covered us from neck to toes, wearing a spelunking helmet for a distance the length of a football field. It had to be 120 degrees in that tunnel. And at the end we crawled out to jump onto a ledge in this monstrous cave with a ceiling covered entirely with bats and a floor covered with bat guano. Did I mention the amount of heat bat guano generates?
It is wretchedly hot this summer. I love my horses but this summer I would almost sell my soul for a stable boy.
This book sounds great!
The coldest I’ve ever been is when I was a kid after skating carnivals.
Mia –
I grew up in up-state New York and believe me you haven’t felt cold until you spend a winter there! Since I was born in the late 1940’s they didn’t have the insulation then that they have now. I tried to spend as much time hiding in the cellar where the furnace was because it was the warmest place in the house but my Mom thought it was better for the “children” to be outside playing in the sub-zero weather! I lived in a small village and there was no such thing as school buses so it was a mile walk to a school with no cafeteria which meant you walked home for lunch, walked back to school and home at the end of the day. I still have nightmares of the time my Mom sent us off to school in the morning and the school was closed! Come to find out the principal couldn’t climb out of his second floor window and walk over the piles of snow to the school. I think it was the only day of grade school that the school ever closed.
To get revenge on my parents when they wanted me to attend a local college I said no and moved to Arizona and worked full time and went to school nights and paid my own way. I loved the heat and had an apartment with no airconditioning (it was the 1960’s afterall). Then I moved to Florida and yup once again no air conditioning (and no snow)!
I met my husband there when he was stationed at a local Navy base during Vietnam and we married less than a year later. When he finished his duty he informed me we were moving to New England to be near his family but we’d only stay a few years. That was in 1971 and we’re still here! I’m still cold even during the summer!
I’ve found my one solution is to stay inside on a cold winter night reading your books to warm up! Today the sun is out and people are crowding the beaches down on the ocean 2 miles away but I think I’ll stay right where I am and curl up with one of your books as a cool breeze blows thru the branches of all the trees that surround our house keeping the cool weather outside and warm myself up.
I think the hottest I’ve been is when reading your Chapter 1 excerpt, lol. Seriously, it’s been around 110 the last week here in the DFW area. But the hottest I’ve ever been was while digging a mammoth tusk out of the ground in southern Mexico. It got around 115+ a few days. The coldest time was while camping out in the New Mexico mountains outside Santa Fe in October a number of years ago. I didn’t have a sleeping bag so the trip coordinator let me use an Army “sleeping bag” that turned out to be a thin wool Army blanket folded over and sewn on two sides. I nearly froze. The second night I slept with two sweaters and my coat on. The next morning I woke covered in three inches of snow and ended up with a bad cold that settled in my lungs. Needless to say, that pretty much killed any desire I had for camping out.
I look forward to reading the rest of your novella. It sounds deliciously enticing!
A few years ago my friend and I went to the theater and because of the crowd had to park MANY blocks away. It was January in Nebraska with below zero temps and winds over 20 mph. It was a miserable walk back to the car that seemed to take forever and it took forever to warm up. I’d rather deal with the heat.
The book sounds great.
The hottest I have been was in Houston, TX. Visited in July—-really, really hot.
I have enjoyed readng your books and this one sounds equally as good.
I think the coldest I have ever been was skiing in Steamboat Springs, Colorado one winter.
The hottest I have ever been was here in the Phoenix area the summer we recorded 120 degrees. I am used to the heat so it doesn’t bother me. We have adjusted to it. Living here so long any degrees below 78 is cold to me.
Sounds like another good read!
The hottest I’ve been is in my office at work! Whew, over 100.
Coldest? Snowmobile ride.
Congrats on your release! This book sounds awesome! The hottest that I have been is this summer trying to get my lawn mowed. Its been really bad this year but when I think about it when I was young we didn’t have air condition so maybe I was hotter back then. The coldest I have been was a few years ago we had a bad ice storm and was without power for a week so therefore we didn’t have heat for about three days and I will have to say we got pretty cold, then we got a karosene heater and that helped a lot.
The coldest would have been a decade ago. We had an ice storm that brought down all the power lines. There was no heat or electricity for a week. The indoor temperature was down around 3o degrees and the outdoors even colder.
I live in southern WI so we get our share of cold weather, not horrible cold all the time thank goodness, but cold still! A couple years ago it wasn’t really the cold…but the snow. Over 100 inches….ugh. Oh and shudder…ice storms, hate them! Guess I should keep that in perspective with all this record heat we had~ Congrats on your new book! Looking forward to it 🙂
Penney–Outdoor biffies are a cold proposition in the winter! Bet there’d be no malingering. 😉
Donna–I remember one football game in Iowa. The combination of freezing rain, cold and metal bleachers was brutal!
When I was a kid, my family went camping in a canvas sided trailer. One summer, we spent some time in California at Lassan National Park where it was so hot, we let ice cubes melt on our heads to cool off. When my dad asked a gas station attendant when we could expect it to cool off, the guys said, “September.”
Ann–One of the hottest I’ve ever been was on a horseback ride through a badlands like stretch in the basin of Wyoming. I felt like a biscuit in the oven.
Catslady–Losing electricity during either hot or cold weather really makes us appreciate what people used to go through all the time.
Jordan–Probably the coldest weather I’ve ever dealt with was in Iowa one Christmas. We flew in to Des Moines and the air temperature was so low, cans were exploding inside the coke machines in the terminal. When I set my purse down next to the rental car to put our daughter into her car seat, the strap upright froze in a perfect triangle. The actual air temp was 50 degrees below zero. Add a biting wind and it was seriously dangerous.
Maria–I’ve been hearing from my parents about the melting midwestern summer this year. I try not to rub it in, but we’ve really only had a few seriously scorching days here in New England. In fact, I got cold out on our veranda the other evening and had to come in. My parents just groan when I tell them that, but I know they’ll rub their mild winter in my face next January!
Clair, you naughty girl! You and me both!
Laura–Sorry your trip down memory lane wasn’t so pleasant, but that’s certainly a vivid memory. I’ll bet it makes you feel cooler even on the hottest days just to relive that time.
Sharon–I lived in Seattle for a while and found the winters mild, but you have to remember I’ve also lived in Minneapolis, Denver, Wyoming and Park City, Utah (where we had 12 mortal FEET of snow!) However, 33 degrees and rain is bone-chillingly cold.
Crystal–Matching heat and humidity are always oppressive. Since we used to live in North Carolina, I got acquainted with muggy summers. I laugh when New Englanders complain of 65 or 70% humidity.
Cathy–Oooo, shoveling. Ick. When we moved to New England from southern MO, we wanted to avoid shoveling so we opted for a condo. I may have to put up with itty-bitty living spaces, but when the snow flies, we don’t have to worry about clearing a drive.
I haven’t experienced much cold in my life, coming from Southern California and now living in Florida, but I can sure talk about heat. Florida has some hot, sticky, sweat dripping in your eyes, feel like your lungs are going to burn and you’d catch on fire if you weren’t so wet heat I’ve ever experienced. I can’t pick out just one occasion since it’s like that all summer, but I can tell you I’ve been staying indoors a lot this summer trying to avoid just such an occurrence.
Louisa–Wow! Those are adventurous highs and lows (temperature-wise!) I was inclined to disbelieve you about the cave because the temps are usually cool, but I had no idea bat doo-doo generates its own heat! As if it needed a higher “ew” factor! LOL!
Kat–How many horses do you have? We used to have a gelding and a mare when we lived in Wyoming. They were like big dogs and would follow the DH all over the pasture.
Chey–When I was a kid we used to skate on the lagoon in the park across the street. We’d totter home walking on our ankles, red-nosed and cold, but happy to have spent a day in the crisp winter air.
Jeanne Miro– Thanks for using my books to help you warm up! You made me smile. 😉
Joder–When I was young, I remember going to see Dr. Zhivago at the movie theatre and after all those scenes in Siberia, I was covered with goosebumps by the time the final credits rolled.
Estella– YOur experience in Houston reminded me of an August in Savannah, GA. Every time we stepped outside, I felt like a hot, wet army blanket had been wrapped around my head.
Joye–I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed my books! About being cold at 78 degrees–the first time I visited the Bahamas it was probably in the low 70’s/ high 60’s. All the vendors at the straw market were shivering and looking for sweaters while I was happily strutting around Nassau in my short shorts. Use is everything, they do say.
Beth–One year we drove snow machines across Yellowstone Park. We left a motel near the east entrance at oh:dark-thirty in the morning and drove all day to reach West Yellowstone as the stars were first beginning to show. Amazingly enough, I was not cold because we were so well equipped with the right gear.
QuiltLady–I’ll have to confess that I don’t miss either shoveling or mowing in our condo.
Kim–30’s inside? Oh, no! Did you have problems with pipes freezing?
Lisa– Since I wrapped a car around a light pole back in 2007, I’m far more scared of ice storms than any amount of snow.
Barbara Elness– I know that sticky heat you’re talking about. Makes you feel like you need gills to breathe!
The hottest I have ever been was during a heat wave a few summers ago. The heat was hot but it was tolerable but what made it really bad was that the electricity went out. Therefore, no air-conditioner and fan to combat the heat! This summer we’re not even close to having a heat wave which I prefer. I like breezy, warm days.
The hottest and coldest I’ve ever been was this year in Chicago. We had a huge blizzard in February and the temperature plunged. We had ice develop on the inside of our windows because we forgot to lower the humidity on the heater. The hottest I’ve ever been was just a few weeks ago. The heatwave hit us pretty hard. I took my oven thermometer to our back deck. After 5 minutes it read 115 degrees. I’m moving to a milder climate in a few weeks. I can’t wait.
I love anthologies. Thanks for the chance. The coldest I have ever been is when my car broke down in a snow storm. We had to walk to get help.
The hottest I’ve ever been is hiking through the Anzo Borrego desert–5+ miles through 110 degree weather. Not fun.
The hottest I been is when last year we went to Disney World and it was so hot that I got really sick!
When we were living in Northern Maine, I visited my husband who was on alert. (He was on a B-52 crew at the time and they spent a week on alert about once a month. They were restricted to a small area of the base and couldn’t come home. ) It was late January and there was at least 3 feet of snow on the ground. Where we parked at home was behind our quarters, but the walk wasn’t cleared, so I had to walk about 2 blocks or so to get to our front door. Our daughter was 2 1/2 months old at the time and well bundled against my chest. When I called my DH to let him know we we home, I commented it was the coldest I had ever been. He informed me it was -55 out.
We did, however, beat that benchmark. On our move from NY to CO, we were caught in a January blizzard in the middle of Iowa. We had 2 vehicles and luckily, CB radios. My car started acting up, so we stopped fighting the blowing snow and got off the interstate. We found out later that the State Police closed it shortly later. We got the last room at the two motels at the exit. We had two girls (1st & 3rd grade), a cat, a dog, over a dozen house plants, and about a dozen cases of jars of canned vegetables. We fought the storm to unload it all. The wind was blowing snow in around the closed door, and I don’t think the room ever got above 55 degrees. During the day, we all bundled together in the same bed, watched TV and tried to stay warm. We were there for three days before they got the interstate reopened, and my car fixed. It was -100 degrees with the wind chill. The big trucks couldn’t move because the diesel fuel turned to gel. We had to carry our dog outside and hold her so she could go to the bathroom so her feet wouldn’t freeze to the ground. The greasy spoon diner at the motel was the only place to eat. Our girls had a great time and we had an experience to remember.
I still don’t know which I prefer, the bitter cold or this hot, humid weather. Neither has much to recommend it.
I hope the release of IMPROPER GENTLEMEN goes well.
Can’t wait to read this book, I love all of your books.
My coldest was when I used to take public transportation and standing on the corner with a blowing wnd waiting for the bus to come!
Thanks for the giveaway! The hottest I’ve been is this summer… its been over 110 here in Dallas for like the past week!!
Probably the coldest I have ever been was a couple of years ago during ice storms. The electric went out at work (I worked at a residential treatment center) and I was making sure that the teenaged girls I worked with were warm enough so the heaters were near them. I was COLD especially whenever I had to go outside for anything.
Thanks everyone for giving me such a warm welcome here at the Season! Looks like my randomly drawn winner is Maria D! Hope you’ll all visit my website and enter my contest there. Happy Reading!