DFW Tea Book Club Meetings

Monday - February 6, 2012

Barnes & Noble Stonebriar (directions)
121 and Preston Road
Frisco, TX 75034
http://www.meetup.com/DFWTea/events/30607641/

7:00pm - 8:00pm local time

Our Guest is

Jaye Wells

After several years as a magazine editor and freelance writer, Jaye Wells finally decided to leave the facts behind and make up her own reality. Her overactive imagination and life-long fascination with the arcane and freakish blended nicely with this new career path. Her Sabina Kane urban fantasy series is a blend of dark themes, grave stakes and wicked humor. Jaye lives in Texas with her saintly husband and devilish son.

http://www.jayewells.com

Books:

Silver-Tongued Devil, January 2012
Sabina Kane #4
Green-Eyed Demon, March 2011
Sabina Kane #3
The Mage In Black, April 2010
Sabina Kane #2
The Mammoth Book Of Vampire Romance 2, November 2009

More Books

Tuesday - February 7, 2012

Maria Munoz Home
Fort Worth, TX
http://www.meetup.com/DFWTea/events/43293462/

7:00pm - 9:00pm local time

Our Guest is

Kristan Higgins

Kristan Higgins, author of My One and Only and six other romantic comedies, combines real life, true love and lots of laughs in her stories. Her books have received praise and accolades from readers and reviewers alike. Kristan is a USA TODAY bestselling author and the two-time winner of the Romance Writers of America's RITA® Award...in 2010 for Too Good To Be True and in 2008 for Catch of the Day. Called "one of the most honest and creative voices in contemporary romance," Kristan is hard at work on her next book. She lives in a small Connecticut town with her heroic firefighter husband, two lovely children and a very cute puppy. Kristan loves to hear from readers!

http://www.kristanhiggins.com/

Books:

Catch Of The Day, March 2012
Until There Was You, October 2011
My One and Only, April 2011
All I Ever Wanted, August 2010

More Books

Wednesday - February 15, 2012

Plano - Reyes
Plano, TX 75024
http://www.meetup.com/DFWTea/events/43225752/

7:00pm - 9:00pm local time

Our Guest is

Sexy, Suspenseful and Seriously Funny!

Christie Craig

Pseudonym: C.C. Hunter.

Photojournalist, Author and Speaker

Christie Craig grew up in Alabama, where she caught lightning bugs, ran barefoot, and regularly rescued potential princes, in the form of Alabama bullfrogs, from her brothers. Today, she is still fascinated with lighting bugs, mostly wears shoes, but has turned her focus to rescuing mammals instead of amphibians. She currently lives in Texas, with her four cats, her teenage son, and a prince of a husband, who for the record, is not a frog. She is an award-winning, multi-published novelist and writer whose non-fiction and photography have appeared in over three thousand national magazines. After selling four books in one day, she has gained a reputation for writing romance fiction that has both a witty humor and suspenseful, sexy tone.

http://christie-craig.com

Books:

Don't Mess With Texas, September 2011
Shut Up and Kiss Me, June 2010
Divorced, Desperate and Deceived, December 2009
Divorced & Desperate #3
Gotcha!, June 2009

More Books

Tuesday - March 6, 2012

Maria Munoz Home
Fort Worth, TX 76053
http://www.meetup.com/DFWTea/events/48235952/

7:00pm - 9:00pm local time

Our Guest is

JB Lynn

A lifelong resident of New Jersey (something she hopes you won’t hold against her), JB Lynn doesn’t care if the cup is half full or empty; all she cares about is whether it’s regular or decaf!

She writes with a parrot on her shoulder, two dogs at her feet, and a patient husband in the next room.

http://www.jblynn.com

Books:

Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman, February 2012
Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman, February 2012
The First Victim, June 2011

More Books

Wednesday - March 21, 2012

Plano - Reyes
Plano, TX 75024
http://www.meetup.com/DFWTea/events/43225772/

7:00pm - 9:00pm local time

Our Guest is

Photo Credit: The Portrait Gallery with Photography by Karen

Shannon K. Butcher

A lot of authors knew they wanted to write books from the time they were little. Their heads were full of fanciful stories that they yearned to commit to paper with a passion that only grew as they did. They spent hours reading fiction, voraciously absorbing every kind of story they could get their hands on.

Shannon was not one of them.

When she was little, she wanted to be a daddy. When she learned the anatomical improbability of that happening, she decided instead to become what her dad was: an Industrial Engineer. So that’s what she did. She never once changed majors or veered from her path. After she graduated, she went to work for a big telecom company earning a steady paycheck while her husband pursued his dream to become a published author.

For those of you who might not know, Shannon's husband is Jim Butcher, fantasy and sci-fi author extraordinaire. She learned to write in an effort to help him improve his own work and as soon as she discovered that writing was more a learned skill than a natural talent she knew she had to give it a try. She couldn’t resist the challenge of taking the pieces of a story apart and putting them back together again. It’s the kind of puzzle that made her want to be an engineer to begin with – to learn how things work and why. She thought she’d write the same kind of thing Jim did, but then she picked up her first romance in 1998 and was hooked. Somehow, stories about how two people come to love each other made everything else seem shallow in comparison. Maybe it was just her hormones talking, but whatever it was, it was loud, so she listened and she started writing romances. She wrote great heaping piles of suckfulness – like most new writers – but eventually her work sucked less and hopefully that trend will continue as she learns more. Heaven knows she have a great teacher. (Thanks, Jim.)

A family of geeks to the core, the Butchers live in Independence, Missouri, with their son and a dog who is only one four-foot stick away from being a dust mop.

http://www.shannonkbutcher.com

Books:

Dying Wish, March 2012
Sentinel Wars #6
Bound by Vengeance, February 2012
A Sentinal Wars Novella
Razor's Edge, November 2011
Edge #2
Blood Hunt, August 2011
Sentinel Wars #5

More Books

Monday - April 2, 2012

Barnes & Noble Stonebriar (directions)
121 and Preston Road
Frisco, TX 75034
http://www.meetup.com/DFWTea/events/30607641/

7:00pm - 9:00pm local time

Our Guest is

Jodi takes you to the Heart of Texas

Jodi Thomas

A fifth generation Texan who taught family living, Jodi Thomas chooses to set the majority of her novels in her home state, where her grandmother was born in a covered wagon. A former teacher, Thomas traces the beginning of her storytelling career to the days when her twin sisters were young and impressionable.

"I'd tell them stories at night that made them too scared to get up and go to the bathroom. I got in trouble for that," Thomas claims. "I told them wild stories of school until they cried not to go. I got in trouble for that too. Mother said she's not sure, but she thinks I was 10 before I ever told the truth about anything. And all my life stories have always been in my head."

The stories Thomas has committed to paper have earned her an impressive list of distinguished awards. Her first book, BENEATH THE TEXAS SKY (1988), won the National Press Women's Novel of the Year in its category. Book two, NORTHERN STAR (1990), was named best novel by the (Texas) Panhandle Professional Writers and the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc., an organization of writers' groups from several states. Book three, THE TENDER TEXAN(1991), was Thomas's first national bestseller and won her the first of two Romance Writers of America RITAs, the $1.5 billion romance publishing industry's equivalent of an "Oscar." Book twelve, TO KISS A TEXAN (1999) was her first novel to score on the USA TODAY Best-selling Books list. For THE TEXAN'S WAGER (2002), sixteen was the magic number. As Thomas's sixteenth novel, the book scored number sixteen on the NEW YORK TIMES extended bestseller list. FINDING MARY BLAINE, (2004) received the National Readers' Choice Award in 2005. Thomas was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame in 2006 for winning her third RITA for THE TEXAN'S REWARD (2005). She also won the National Readers' Choice for TWISTED CREEK (2008) and TALL, DARK, AND TEXAN (2008). In 2010, THE LONE TEXAN won the Reader's Choice 2009 Best Western Romance from Love Western Romances.com. Jodi received a RITA for WELCOME TO HARMONY (2010) and the Booksellers’ Best Award for SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY (2010) at Romance Writers of America in 2011.

With a degree in Family Studies, Thomas is a marriage and family counselor by education, a background that enables her to write about family dynamics. Honored in 2002 as a Distinguished Alumni by Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Thomas enjoys interacting with students on the West Texas A & M University campus, which houses the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, the state's largest historical museum.

"My door is usually open to students all morning," explains Thomas, who talks to the classes at the University and on other campuses during her many speaking engagements when not writing in her spacious office in WTAMU's Cornette Library. "They come by to visit and ask questions about being a writer. When I was a child, being a writer wasn't an option. All the people I knew had regular jobs. I'm hoping that students will see that being a writer is a possibility. This is particularly important in these days when programs in the arts are being cut in the public schools."

Commenting on her contribution to the arts, Thomas said, "When I was teaching classes full time, I thought I was making the world a better place. Now I think of a teacher, or nurse, or mother settling back and relaxing with one of my books. I want to take her away on an adventure that will entertain her. Maybe, in a small way, I'm still making the world a better place."

While the author toured the country last year, speaking to Desk and Derrick clubs about her 2003 novel, THE WIDOWS OF WICHITA COUNTY, the members of various chapters formed a Jodi Thomas Fan Club. The group enthusiastically promotes her novels and public appearances and even volunteers to provide drivers for her out of town engagements. More information is available at the author's website.

http://www.jodithomas.com/

Books:

Just Down The Road, April 2012
Just Down The Road, April 2012
Be My Texas Valentine, January 2012
Be My Texas Valentine, January 2012

More Books

Tuesday - April 3, 2012

Fort Worth
Fort Worth, TX
http://www.meetup.com/DFWTea/events/48236002/

7:00pm - 9:00pm local time

Our Guest is

Wildly funny...deeply sexy

Shelly Laurenston

Pseudonym: G. A. Aiken.

Originally from Long Island, New York, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shelly Laurenston has resigned herself to West Coast living which involves healthy food, mostly sunny days, and lots of guys not wearing shirts when they really should be. Shelly Laurenston is also The New York Times Bestselling author G.A. Aiken, creator of the Dragon Kin series.

http://www.shellylaurenston.com

Books:

Bear Meets Girl, March 2012
Pride #7
Big Bad Beast, May 2011
Pride #6
Hunting Season, August 2010
The Gathering #1
Beast Behaving Badly, June 2010
Pride #6

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