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!