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On the fourth day of giveaways....

HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI sighting for today: Fellow Buzz Girl Tina Ferraro spotted it FACE OUT at the B&N in LA. YAY!!!

I posted some new author pics. Is this one spooky?

And this one goofy?

I'll probably go with this one.

Thanks for all the answers to the third day's question. The winner of the giveaway is AIMEE C!!! Aimee, please email me your address so I can rush THE LUXE over to you next week!

Today we'll talk about my fourth day of vacation....we docked at Grand Cayman bright and early. First we strolled the town for a bit and then boarded a boat to go to..... Stingray City! That's right, we spent the afternoon gallavanting and swimming with these beautiful creatures. One even let me give him a BIG smooch!

They were were very affectionate and swimming all over us hoping to get a pat or a kiss. I loved them!

We had a chance to walk around Grand Cayman some more and check out all the gorgeous jewels they sell there. And I pettet a giant bird who decided to take a bite out of me :)

Today's giveaway is the complete Secret Society Girl collection (so far) by our very own DIANA PETERFREUND! That's right, you get both SECRET SOCIETY GIRL and UNDER THE ROSE if you can answer this question: What animal did we spend the afternoon swimming around with? (No, it's not a trick question...I'm too tired to think of trivia!)

Till tomorrow!

--Dona

On the third day of giveaways...

The winner of the critique giveaway is Kelli Estes!! Congrats Kelli! Send over your manuscript whenever you're ready :) Kelli writes fantastic women's fiction and is working on something extremely cool (and sticking to a VERY strict writing schedule -- even through the holidays!)

On the third day of vacation, DH and I landed in no other than JAMAICA! Jamaica was the place I was looking forward to visiting the most because the characters from my YA trilogy (The Jewels of Jamaica) are from, well, Jamaica! We landed at Ocho Rios and hustled through town taking in all the sights. It has a very India-like feeling and the locals are incredibly friendly. We stopped at a gift-shop to buy tea, coffee and some cigars for DH.

Our afternoon adventure that day was one of the most exciting of the trip. We started by kayaking from the port to the Dunn's River falls. Now, if you've never done if, sea-kayaking is very different than lake-kayaking. The waves are literally crashing into your kayak and the whole time you think you'll tip over...straight into the Atlantic Ocean. It was an amazing adreneline rush though and I was thankful all my hours in the gym enabled me to kayak us around 2-3 miles.

Then came the climb up the Dunn's River waterfall. This fall is 900 feet high and we made the climb straight up the fall over the rocks with water gushing down over us the whole time. It was amazing. One of the most amazing things I've done, by far.

We of course, celebrated our success with Coco Locos (Jamaican run in coconut water!)

And continued celebrations with Mai-Tais back on the ship!

Today's giveaway is one of my recent favorite books: THE LUXE by Anna Godbersen. This is the story of 4 young women living in New York City...the catch? It's the year 1899. While young ladies are supposed to be prim and proper, these four are anything but...with secrets galore.

I loved reading this book, it was such a guilty pleasure.

A randomly chosen person will be selected to win THE LUXE if you can answer this question: What is the capital of Jamaica?

Have a great day everyone and stay tuned!

On the second day of giveaways....

HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI spotting of the day: My best friend from HS, Dayna Dollins found it at the Borders in Novi, MI. Yay!!!

The winner from yesterday's giveaways is SHANNON MCKELDEN, my release day twin! Shannon is the the author of VENUS ENVY, which I read (and loved!) when it came out last year. Shannon is also one of the nicest, sweetest people EVER and her sense of humor comes across very obviously in VENUS ENVY. She is also another person who names her books THEN writes the story. Go Shannon! Check out the brand new packaging here.

Moving onto today's anecdote + giveaway....

On the second day of cruising, DH and I landed in Labadee, Haiti. We spent the better part of the morning chilling on the beach and catching some sun. Then we boarded a boat and went out to the coral reefs to do some snorkeling. We saw sea urchins, sand dollars and fish. Amazingly clear Caribbean waters. Haiti is probably the most beautiful place I've been to in terms of natural beauty. (Don't worry, Paris! You still have my heart....I said natural beauty!)

After we re-boarded the ship after our afternoon of fun in the sun, we got all dressed up and had drinks at the swanky Boleros Latino bar. After coming back into the room at night, I had an unexpected guest: Towel Bat!

Today's giveaway is one full manuscript critique from yours truly. I recently attended Donald Maas's THE FIRE IN FICTION workshop which had made me MUCH better at critiquing manuscripts.

To win this, simply answer the following question: What is the national language of Haiti? (Nope, this time the answer is not in the posting!)

Thanks for playing and see you tomorrow!

5 days of Giveaways

Hello friends:

I can't believe this day has arrived. Not only is it New Year's eve, but it's also Salsa in a Sari release eve. That's right..my baby, HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI releases in stores tomorrow morning. I am practically faint =) A lot of people have already received their Amazon.com pre-orders and I am anxious to hear what you all think of the book.

To celebrate....right on the heels of the 12 Days of Christmas comes a new tradition on Dona's blog called the 5 days of giveaways! Each day I'll give away a fun book (or books!) in exchange for answers in the comments section. How to play? Keep reading!

I just returned from a 9 day glorious vacation in the Caribbean. My husband took me on a second honeymoon/5 year anniversary trip so we could both rest up and rejuvinate before the madness of 2008 set in. Our journey began in Port Canaveral, Florida where we boarded the Mariner of the Seas cruise ship.

The first day of sailing consisted of touring the ship, pina coladas, a formal dinner and dancing the night away at the Dragon's Slayer club. I checked out the ship's gym and even squeezed in a workout.

Stay tuned till tomorrow to hear about our first day in Haiti!

Today's giveaway is your own very copy of Kavita Daswani's SALAAM PARIS. This story about an ordinary Muslim girl who defies her family to find a very unorthodox future was a quick, fun read that I really enjoyed. Plus, the book is partly set in Paris =)

To win this book, post the answer to the following question in the comments section: What was the name of Dona's vacation cruise ship?

Thanks for playing and check out this spot for the winner of SALAAM PARIS!

Tag! I'm it!

I was recently tagged with this Random Meme from Ms. Arbini over at Single City Chick

Random Meme Rules
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Don't drink anything over the keyboard while reading this meme on other pages.
4. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
5. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
6. Stretch.
7. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

Seven random Dona-isms:
1. When I was younger, I was OBSESSED with horses. Like I pretended to have an imaginary one who was a paper horse doll who I would groom. I drew a giant picture of him and taped it to the wall and talked to him at night. Yes, I read National Velvet :)

2. I love to write teen's and women's fiction, but don't love reading this genre. I read these books mostly for research purposes. I LOVE to read murder mysteries, but couldln't write one to save my life. My villain would be the obvious one in chapter 1 rubbing his hands together manically while wearing a smoking jacket and smoking a pipe.

3. My parents refused to let me become a doctor, my childhood dream. I might be the ONLY Asian person in the world who's parents refused to let them become a doctor.

4. I fear ghosts, snakes and death...even though I've never seen any of the above. Who knows why?

5. I do NOT fear change, the dark, being alone, growing old or commitment. Actually I love all of the above.

6. I am a fast decision maker and take action before I think, but it's never gotten me into a bad situation. In fact, every good thing in my life has happened to due to impulse decisions.

7. I never thought this would be, but I love my day-job even more than being a writer. I could never even think about quitting to write fulltime. Weird, I know.

I tag you...
Nadine Dajani
Jill Shalvis
Diana Peterfreund
Pet and Anne
Jana DeLeon
Marilyn Brant
Sara Hantz

Happy Tuesday!
Dona

SW Article + The Speed of the Industry

First...a picture from the notorious Seattle Weekly article. If you haven't read it, and really really want to...it's here.

...but please be prepared. The sentiments in the article is NOT how most "people of color" feel about RWA in general!

Now, moving on....

Having been in the tech industry for over 5 years now, I am just now realizing how quickly we move. If I sit down with my counterpart UI designer and developer for half an hour (about how long it takes for a decision to get made), we can change how the next version of Windows will look and behave...and influence the world for about 5+ years with this decision. t.

On the other hand, I've been calling schools and bookstores to set up author events for SALSA...and the turnaround time is decidedly slower. Not a bad thing, but different for me.

Am I spoiled by having everything done instantaneously in the tech industry? By decisions made in the time it takes to down a venti white mocha? Maybe...just something to think about