Holding the Reins on Holiday Spending by Jean C. Gordon

When do you start your holiday shopping, and how carefully do you plan? 

Personally, I don’t holiday shop until after Black Friday, but I know many people like to start earlier. And for people who like to shop — I don’t — it’s easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of holiday cheer and spend a lot more money than you intended. But the whirlwind of bills that may come due in January should be enough to convince you to create — and stick to — a holiday spending plan.

Start with a List

Impulse buying can quickly derail your finances. Before you begin your holiday shopping, make a list of everyone you buy gifts for. Then set a separate spending limit for each person based on the total amount you can reasonably afford to spend. When it comes to buying for kids in the family, I like to check with them and their parents so I can choose something in my price range that they want and aren’t already going to get. Once you’ve reached the spending limit you’ve set, stop buying.

Control Credit Cards

Bringing multiple credit cards with you to the mall may tempt you to overspend. It’s probably best to leave them at home. If you want charge purchases to get rewards or discounts, keep track of what you’ve charged by writing down the amount of each purchase. Make sure you’ll be able to pay off the entire balance when your statement arrives.

Comparison Shop

Newspaper flyers can help you compare your gift list with what’s on sale at local stores. Always check out prices of big-ticket items at several places before you buy. An online search can save time, gas, and money, even if you eventually buy the item in the store. If you do buy online, look for perks such as free shipping and gift wrapping.

Consider Gift Destinations

If you’re mailing gifts, choose items that are small, lightweight, and easy to pack. Remember to send packages early to avoid having to pay extra for rush delivery.

Books Are a Bargain

Where else can you buy someone hours of entertainment for less than $10? For the romance readers on your list or to treat yourself, here are three 99¢ deals that are easy to fit in anyone’s holiday shopping budget.

Bridget O’Brien lost her fiancé to a dangerous job. And, while she’d love to have a relationship like the one she lost, the last thing she wants is one with another man who willingly puts his life in danger. Luke Foster is a motocross racer whose track record with women runs short and no-strings-attached on both sides. He’d never seriously pursue a forever-after woman like Bridget.

All they want is a holiday week away. Bridget from her well-meaning family’s condolences about her planned Christmas Eve wedding and her memories of a future that won’t be. Luke from his family’s annual critique at which he and his life choices always fall short of expectations.

But, under the blue Caribbean skies, anything can happen. 

A Team Macachek Novella: Meet the strong women and fearless men of the motocross circuit.

Buy: Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo

Team Macachek Book One — 99¢ through November 14

Physical therapist Dana VanAlstyne’s dreams of a family were lost in the dust of a motocross racecourse. Although she’s filled her life with her work and church activities, it hasn’t filled the empty space inside her. Nor has it eased the heartache of being abandoned by a man who wasn’t ready for a wife and children. Now her dream is to open her own private practice. All she needs is the capital to make that happen.

Anton, “Mac,” Macachek may be the top professional motocross racer in the country but he still has one race that matters more to him: winning a championship at Unadilla Raceway and showing the hometown folks the bad boy did amount to something. But when a horrific accident sidelines those plans, he makes a deal with the woman he once loved with all his heart. A woman who abandoned him. If Dana will get him back in racing shape, he’ll fund her new practice. Then an even more dangerous risk is revealed. If Mac races again, he could die.

Does Dana have enough faith to risk her heart again? She loved Mac once, but feared he loved motocross racing more than he loved her. If she helps him mend his broken body, will it also mend her broken heart? Or will it all be lost again in the dust and danger of a motocross racetrack?

Buy: Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo. Also available in paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble online.

And if you haven’t bought your copy of Sweet Romance Christmas 3, scroll up and click on the cover picture in the right-hand column.

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For Amazon bestselling sweet and inspirational author Jean C. Gordon, writing is a natural extension of her love of reading. From that day in first grade when she realized t-h-e was the word the, she’s been reading everything she can put her hands on. Jean and her college-sweetheart husband share a 175-year-old farmhouse in Upstate New York—where she sets her books—with their daughter and her family. Their son lives nearby. Connect with Jean on Facebook, as @JeanCGordon on Twitter, or on JeanCGordon.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter and receive a free eBook.

What's a Facebook party? by Denise Devine

Have you ever wondered what a Facebook party was or why you would attend one? Simply put, a Facebook party is an online celebration for a specific purpose. For readers, it’s an event to meet new authors, find great books and win prizes. That’s what this post is about—connecting readers to authors and great books.

Do you have to know someone or be invited by someone to attend? Not usually. Most parties are open to the public. If you receive an invitation on Facebook, that means someone in your list of friends invited you to a party. However, if you see a post in your news feed announcing a party, that’s an open invitation to everyone. In either case, it’s free and there’s no obligation to buy anything.

Event Page – Most parties are held on a Facebook page set up specifically for that event. Once the event is over and the prize winners are announced, the page is no longer used. The next time a party is set up, a new page will be created by Facebook for that purpose.

Banner – This is important. It will convey to you the theme, date and time of the party.

About Section – This is where the organizers will give you a brief description of what the party is about.

Pinned Post – The first post in the party will list the guest authors in the order they appear, usually one every half-hour. That post will stay at the top.

What do the authors do? First, they introduce themselves, post links to their web pages, newsletters, Amazon author pages, etc. That way, if you want to find out more about a certain author, you can click on the links she provides. If you want to stay in touch with a particular author and receive notification when she publishes a new book, simply sign up for her newsletter or follow her on Amazon. Second, the author will post her newest release along with a 1-2 paragraph description of the book and “buy” links. Third, authors will post party games. A party game is usually an activity posted in the form of an intriguing question in keeping with the party theme, but it’s not limited to questions. Authors come up with all kinds of interactive activities. Holiday parties are especially fun because there is so much ground to cover! At least one prize is awarded in every game.

What’s a party favor?  This is usually a free ebook offered to everyone at the party.

How to participate – This is the easy part! Simply read through the posts as they appear and comment. That’s it. You’ll have to refresh the page periodically to keep up. If you have to leave for a while to answer the phone, make supper or whatever, you can simply click out of the page and come back later. The posts will stay up in the order they were posted for a long time after the party closes. The winners are usually chosen the next day to give latecomers and people who had to leave for a while a chance to read through all the posts and comment.

Winners – What’s a party without prizes? They vary from party to party, but the most common prizes are free ebooks, printed books, book bags, bookmarks, personalized notebooks, jewelry and Amazon gift cards ($5-$10). Grand prizes can be large Amazon gift cards ($25-$100) or a new Kindle. The amount and type of gifts vary from party to party. The winners are chosen after the party closes—usually the next day. Sometimes the authors choose the winners, sometimes they are chosen using a random generator. Either way, you can’t win a prize unless you participate by commenting.

To get you started, I’ve provided three Facebook parties within this post that I found under “Events” on my personal Facebook home page (not the timeline). If you aren’t aware of this feature, Events will be listed on the left side. On my page, it’s toward the bottom. I have included the links to these events below.

Have fun and I hope you win a prize!

 

Kathi Daley Books Halloween Spooktacular – Going on now through 10/31

https://www.facebook.com/events/1807306899516140/

 

November 10^th –  Third Annual Cowboys and Christmas Release Party

https://www.facebook.com/events/1581040595557067/permalink/1686354905025635/

 

November 14th - Gobble Till You Wobble! (Grand Prize - Kindle)
https://www.facebook.com/events/559407924255395/

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Denise Devine is a USA TODAY bestselling author of romantic comedy, contemporary romance and she also loves to write inspirational fiction. She wrote her first book, a mystery, at thirteen and has been writing ever since. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers. She writes about true love, happy endings and stories that touch your heart. For more information, visit her Amazon Author Page or her website.

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Sweet Christmas Kisses 3
On sale now for only 99 cents!

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 https://www.facebook.com/events/559407924255395/

Hurricane Matthew Watch by Kristin Wallace

So as I write this, South Florida is bracing for Hurricane Matthew. It looks like it will hit north of where I live in Miami, but could still experience power outages, flooding and some damage. The worst thing is, some of the forecast models have the storm making a loop and coming BACK to Florida next week!!! 

WHAT?????

I don’t think I can handle this storm prep again…not to mention the possibility of another landfall.

I lived through Hurricane Andrew many years ago. I had just graduated from college and I was living with my parents on Brickell Avenue, which has a lot of high rises and condos. We had to leave and ended up staying with friends further west. The storm ended up coming in south of us and the devastation was incredible. Destruction everywhere. After the storm my family tried to drive back to the condo to check things out. Trees were down, debris everywhere, street signs gone, traffic light missing. It was hard to even tell where we were. At one point we realized we had left the road and were driving in the middle of a golf course. The recovery from that storm went on for months.

While the threat is real and possible damage nothing to laugh, there is humor during these times. Seeing the news coverage reminds me of how really stupid some of the reporting gets. The news channels down here live for these storms. We don’t get a lot of wild weather. Most of the forecasts consist of “Partly sunny with storms in the afternoon.” It’s pretty boring. A tropical storm or hurricane is exciting. It gives them something to talk about endlessly. Probably the most entertaining thing about a storm are the ill-fated reporters who are assigned the duty of standing outside so they can tell us that, yes in fact, it is raining and the wind is blowing…HARD! I think we can hear that is pouring and that the wind is roaring, thank you. Still, they like to do it for the drama. Here are some examples of the stupidity for your pleasure.

But seriously, this hurricane is no joke. When this blog posts, hopefully the storm will be out of here and will NOT BE COMING BACK. Also be praying for those in the South Carolina where the storm could head after Florida.

Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and contemporary romance, and women’s fiction filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. Check out her latest release, Sweet Christmas Kisses 3, a box set with 17 holiday romances for 99 cents. (Which just happened to hit the USA TODAY bestseller list this week!!!!)  Kristin’s contribution is FALLING FOR YOU AT CHRISTMAS, part of the Shellwater Key Tales series. For more info visit her website at Kristin Wallace Author.

If you haven’t gotten your box set, here are the handy buy links, AND for a limited time you can also get Sweet Christmas Kisses 1 & 2 for only 99 cents.

Amazon  iTunes  Barnes & Noble  Kobo  Google Play

Want a FREE book? I’m on Instafreebie where you can download FINDING YOU AT CHRISTMAS now. CLICK HERE