Good stuff to watch

I love westerns. Probably a lot more than the average woman. Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven is one of my favorite movies. And so is True Grit, starring John Wayne. When I heard the Coen brothers were doing a remake of the 1969 classic, I got really excited. Last night I went to see it and I'm happy to report that I was not disappointed. Not in the least (okay, I still prefer the original cinematic ending of John Wayne on his horse jumping the fence, but I won't quibble). Jeff Bridges did a very stand up job as Rooster Cogburn and Matt Damon was passable as LaBouef. Barry Pepper plays Lucky Ned Pepper (name coincidence?) with a very creepy realism. But the stand out actor in this movie was Hailee Steinfeld as the scrappy Mattie Ross. If you love westerns, or if you loved the original, or if you just love good movies, go see this!

Good stuff to read

Okay, so I'm back from my mini-break vacation which was utterly fabulous. We spent 4 days in Orlando, doing Christmas with the family and visiting friends. We saw ICE (utterly fabulous and if you live in the Orlando area, don't miss it). We also went to Harry Potter World, which might have been utterly fabulous but because of the frigid weather and humongous crowds turned out to be semi-miserable. However, I do want a butter beer kit. So if you see one, please send along. We also went to Tampa for a couple days, saw more family and that was fabulous as well.

Now I'm back to my house (which needs cleaning) and a few dozen emails that need answering. And a special thank you to everyone who has texted or emailed me to tell you how much you've enjoyed/loved/adored The Boyfriend of the Month Club. You've all made my day!

Here is some really good stuff to read today. I promise. It's fabulous. First, there's Marilyn Brant's blog which kind of choked me up. If you're a writer, then run to read this. She makes so much sense. I love Marilyn!

Then there's Lisa and Liz over at Chick Lit is Not Dead. I love this site and they're offering up free books. All you have to do is comment and tell them which post of 2010 is your favorite. They give you 5 fabulous posts to pick from.

Happy Reading!

PS And yes, fabulous was the word the day:)

Blog tour and book giveaway

Today I'm over at Get Lost in a Story, a fabulous new blog that connects readers with writers (in reality, I'll be at Harry Potter World freezing my arse off, but I'll be at the blog in spirit and hopefully will be able to check in and make comments!)

Maureen McGowan (one of the nicest and most talented writers around) interviewed me and the questions were fun. Find out how I like my hamburger and leave a comment here telling me which fictional heroine you'd like to be to win an autographed copy of The Boyfriend of the Month Club!

Dear Santa,

or Baby Jesus, or Mike Geraci (whichever of you is in charge of granting world peace and presents),

This is Maria (again). Remember me? I'm the one who firmly believed in you until my younger sister Carmen tried to tell me you didn't exist. In retaliation, I cut off all the hair on her Tippy Toes doll. However, I don't think you should hold that against me as that was over 40 years ago. This is what I would like this year for Christmas:


Louis Vuitton Neverfull GM

I have lusted after this bag for awhile now. I mean, who wouldn't? It's gorgeous. Plus it's red inside and red is my signature color.

In the event that world economic issues make this an unfeasible gift, I will happily take a very good knock off. (PS. I have already ordered the knock off from a purse party I went to a couple of weeks ago. If that makes things any easier for you).

Guilty. By Gucci.

Go smell it. It's fabulous.

Oh, and if Chris Evans, world peace, lower taxes, and a cure for cancer and all the other horrible diseases out there, were under the tree, I wouldn't complain either.

Have a Digital Merry Christmas!

Okay, all I have to say is that whoever did this is a creative genius. I love it. You will too. Merry Christmas, and oh, avoid Romans (hee)

Blog-o-Mania

Yep, I'm still doing the blog tour thing. Today, I'm supposed to be over at Coffee Time Romance. I love that place! It's the first site I ever received a review from. I'll always remember the excitement of that email (Feb 12, 2009) telling me they'd reviewed Bunco Babes Tell All. It was a great review and I'll always be grateful to them (can you imagine your first review being a stinky one?) *shudder* We authors are much more delicate than you can imagine.

So... as you can see I'm supposed to be over at the Coffee Time Romance Blog. I was supposed to post the blog myself and was given directions, but being the procrastinator that I am I waited till the wee hours of the morning to post the blog. Yep, should have done it yesterday, but nope. Didn't. So yep, something went screwy and I can't post it and am waiting for help from the Coffee Time Romance crew. Hopefully, the blog will go live sometime today.

NOTE: Yay! I am now live at Coffee Time Romance. Check out my blog right here.
PLUS, Coffee Time Romance is giving away a copy of my book, THE BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH CLUB and a copy of HUNGRY FOR YOU, by Lynsay Sands. If you'd like to be entered for the giveaway, go to their home page and sign up for Feeding My Addiction.

In the meantime, I'm still giving away books! Leave a comment and maybe you'll be picked to win an autographed copy of The Boyfriend of the Month Club!

Night Owl Blog- Where does Inspiration come from? ends December 17
Chick Lit Central- Celebrating the Winter Holidays ends December 19

Knight Agency Holiday Party!

HO HO HO! It's the most wonderful time of the year, and that means it's time for The Knight Agency’s annual online holiday party! Join our agents, authors and TKA Santa for an hour of non-stop giveaways. This is our most fun, relaxed chat of the year. No worries about what to ask a guest author or waiting your turn to speak -- it's literally a free for all!

This year Gena Showalter, Nalini Singh, Maria Geraci, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Shannon K. Butcher, Linda Gerber, Michelle Celmer, Louisa Edwards, Lydia Dare, Joey W. Hill, Jessica Andersen, Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Chris Marie Green and Shirley Jump are all giving away signed copies of their releases. Plus we're raiding our book closets and giving out titles by Rachel Caine, Marley Gibson and Cecil Murphey, among others. Oh yeah, and there's a Christmas stocking prize stuffed with books and holiday treats. Don't forget to mark your calendars!

WHAT: Knight Agency Annual Holiday Lunchbox Chat

WHEN: Thursday, December 16th @ 12:30pm ET

WHERE: The Knight Agency Chat Room -- http://client1.sigmachat.com/sc.php?id=115545

HOW TO CHAT: Enter any combination of username and password. Login. Your computer must be Java enabled to chat.

Blog tour and giveaway

Today I'm over at Chick Lit Central talking about my favorite winter holiday rituals and memories. And of course I'm giving away a copy of The Boyfriend of the Month Club, so come on over and comment!

And if you love chick lit as much as I do, check out their Facebook page here. There's always lots of great info on your favorite books :)

More free books!

Thanks to my buddy Susan McBride, author of the fabulously funny The Cougar Club, I'm over at The Stiletto Gang blog today talking about books that end with the word "club". Yeah, there are a lot of those! Come on over and visit me there and then go here to my Facebook page and tell me what you're doing this weekend for a chance to win an autographed copy of both The Boyfriend of the Month Club AND The Cougar Club.

If you've already bought my book, an autographed copy makes a great holiday gift and The Cougar Club is a fantastic read. Sure to chase away all your holiday stress!

Also, there's more places to find my book, completely free. There's an interview of me over at Romantic Crush Junkies. Two lucky commenters will win a copy of my book! Deadline is Dec. 12.

I'm also still at Book Binge. Give away also ends on Dec. 12.
Night Owl Reviews. Give away ends Dec. 17.

It's tomorrow!

Or the day after my yesterday, which means, well, as you can see I've not gotten a whole lot of sleep, because I'm not sure I'm making much sense to anyone except myself! Except to say that I'm relieved/happy/sad/worried that my 3rd baby is out in the world (that would be The Boyfriend of the Month Club) not my real baby (she's still in class or rather, she better be.)

The relieved and happy part are probably obvious emotions. The sad/worried maybe not so much. Sad? Only because I almost wish I was writing it again, I loved that part so much. Worried because I hope people get it. My editor mentioned in passing to me during lunch this summer that she thought there was a lot of me in this book. And she's absolutely right. Me as in I think I let go more in this book than in my previous other two books. And that's both exhilarating and a bit frightening. Writing a book is like walking naked down the street (okay, in my case that would be extremely frightening) but you get what I mean.

I received a really lovely review today from Julie at What Women Write. "Stylewise, think Dorothea Benton Frank meets My Big Fat Greek ... er, Cuban Wedding."

I really loved that she said that! You can read the whole review right here.

So, I'm still hopping the blogosphere. You can still find me at Book Binge, Night Owl Reviews Blog and Chick Lit is Not Dead. And I'm also being featured on the Romantic Times Book Reviews Mainstream Spotlight!

Plus, my fabulous friend Louisa Edwards is giving away a copy of my book on her Facebook Fan page. Right here. All you have to do is tell her the name of your first boyfriend:)

It's Today!

So today is the day that The Boyfriend of the Month Club comes out. Yay! I want to thank my editor, Wendy McCurdy, the fabulous Erin Galloway (my publicist), my agent Deidre Knight, and all of you who have emailed me to congratulate me. Thank you! Writing a book might be a solitary endeavor, but getting one published takes a village.

What am I going to do to celebrate? Clean the house, of course! While listening to Christmas music and running to my computer every few minutes to interact on the many blogs I have out there today. I will NOT be googling my name, my book, or checking my stats on any sites. No sirree, I will not. Repeat and repeat and again.

This is where you can find me today:

The Romance Dish
Girlfriends Book Club
and I'm still at the fabulous Chick Lit is Not Dead (will be there till Thursday)
I'm also going to be at Book Binge and Night Owl Reviews blog
Whew! I'm also supposed to make cookies today (the Neimen Marcus ones) but I don't see that happening. Do you?

Release week!

It's finally here! The Boyfriend of the Month Club is out everywhere tomorrow (and in some places today) so go out and get a copy and write a review. Word of mouth and reviews are the best promo an author can't buy. So if you like my books, tell your friends and tell them to tell their friends and so on. Before you know it, you'll be my connector, or maven, or whatever Malcolm Gladwell calls it (if you don't know what I'm talking about read his fabulous book The Tipping Point). Help make my book an epidemic! (in a good way, of course)

This week, I'll be all over the blogosphere. Today I'll be at the fabulous Chick Lit is Not Dead blog in which my bucket list will be revealed. Warning: I was a bit punchy when I sent in the list!

And if you purchase or have purchased my book, don't forget to get credit for it! Enter my contest and you might win a grand prize of a $100 Amazon gift card plus a wonderful assortment of women's fiction novels signed by the authors themselves. There will also be 5 runner up prizes of a $20 Amazon gift card and a special Boyfriend of the Month Club desk top calendar. To enter, email me at mariageraci1@gmail.com with the word "contest" in the subject line. Tell me where you purchased the book or send me your online confirmation. Contest ends December 12. Winners will be announced on December 13.

Snowman Band!

I absolutely love this little snowman band! I have Guitar Freddy and Saxophone Joe and I just need 2 more little men to make my collection complete. The coolest thing about this band? You hit the button on one of the snowmen, and all them start to chime in with their individual instruments! The lady at my local Hallmark store got a kick of watching me hit the button over and over again. Addicting! Plus, the sound quality is awesome.

Holiday Movie of the Day and Quote:

Little Women (1994 version starring Susan Sarandan and Winona Ryder
(and before you tell me that Little Women isn't a holiday movie, it's listed as one in the On Demand section of my cable!)

Okay, I have so many favorite quotes from this movie it's hard to pick just one. But I'll pick two.

Quote #1
Friedrich (to Jo) "Jo. Such a little name... for such a person." (note: I totally ripped this line off and made it into a chapter title for The Boyfriend of the Month Club!)

Quote #2
Friedrich (to Jo) "But I have nothing to give you. My hands are empty."
Jo entwines her hands with his. "Not empty now."

Sigh... such a simple gesture, but so romantic!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bunco Flamingo!

Last night my Bunco group, the fabulous Bunco Broads of Tallahassee had our annual Christmas get together. This is the month we don't play Bunco. We just eat and party. And drink Jingle Juice. Jingle Juice is terrific. Don't ask me what's in it, but trust me on this.

We also do our annual ornament exchange. Except this year we changed things up and instead of exchanging ornaments, we did white elephant gifts. Only the gifts were good! This is what I got:

Yes, it's a Deck the Palms Dip Bowl and Spreader. Plus a Deck the Palms Bottle stopper set! I had to fight like a tiger to keep this from leaving my sweaty palms last night but the struggle was worth it! The Flamingo is my new totum and no one was brave enough to tussle me for it.

FREE BOOKS

If I haven't mentioned it before, let me tell you again. All month long over at Girlfriends Book Club, we're giving away free books. All you have to do is scroll on over right here and leave a comment. It's as simple as that. Today's free book is courtesy of the lovely Brenda Janowitz, the author of Jack with a Twist and Scot on the Rocks.

Oh, and I haven't forgotten about the movie thing. Today's quote comes from Home Alone 2, Lost in New York. Which as I've said, is mediocre compared to the original Home Alone, but still worth the watching just for the hotel scenes.

Angry mom (fabulous Catherine O'Hara) "What kind of idiots do you have working here?"

Desk clerk, as she, Tim Curry (playing the Concierge and Rob Schneider playing the bell hop) all proudly puff out their chests: "The finest in New York!"

Holiday Movie Countdown

I love love love holiday movies. So I've decided to do a month of holiday movie watching. I know what a hardship. I started last night with a Home Alone mini-marathon. I love Home Alone! Home Alone 2 not so much, but the scenes with Tim Curry more than make up for blah-ish plotline.

I forgot how many great liners there were in the original. The one that got the most laughs last night at the Geraci house? When the adults were in the airplane on their way to France and they're talking about how Kevin was left behind. Mom (played wonderfully by Catherine O'Hara) is beating herself up. And Uncle Frank (gotta love/hate him!) sighs and says "If it makes you feel any better, I forgot my reading glasses."

Hee hee... Oh well, I guess you had to be there!

Happy December 1st everyone, and don't forget to check out Marilyn Brant's blog where she's giving away a copy of my new book!

And... if you want to get inspired AND win a couple of free books by the fabulous Lauren Baratz-Logsted, go to the Girlfriends Book Club and leave a comment.

I'm off to Publix! Happy December, everyone!