Onward to 2017!

I hope your Christmas was fabulous! We spent a quiet day together, and then, in a shocking break from tradition, we went to a restaurant for Christmas dinner! It was lovely not having to spend the day chopping, peeling and cooking, constantly checking the clock to make sure everything was running on time. I’ll admit, it wasn’t quite the same as being at home, but there were definitely advantages. Christmas was also a little different this year as we did not have our son home for the first time ever! We missed him a lot, but he spent a happy holiday with his fiancée, so I don’t think he missed us quite as much! 🙂 And now here we are in the last week of December, waiting for 2017.

The coming year promises to be an exciting one for our family. We are eagerly awaiting the birth of our very first grandchild in April! Our daughter and son-in-law have chosen not to find out what they’re having, so it will be a great surprise for us all, but I can tell you that this little one is already being spoiled! And we’ll have a wedding in the works – we don’t know the date for that yet, but the happy couple are so excited, and we are too. Amidst all that, I’ll be launching my second release from Harper Collins at the end of March. I can’t wait to get The Memory of You into the hands of my readers, and I hope you’ll love the story as much as I do. In the meantime, if you can’t wait a few more months, you can grab an advanced copy on NetGalley! We love early reviews, so please leave one on GoodReads if you end up reading it that way! You can also PRE-ORDER your copy now and it’ll be delivered on release day, March 28th!!

Lately, I’ve been evaluating how I spend my time, and how best to reach out to my readers and really make those meaningful connections. As you may know, I do hang out a lot on Facebook, and you’ll find the most updated information about my books and writing life on my Author Page, but I’d love to make this blog a fun regular place for us to interact as well.

My plan for the new year is to post every Monday and Friday. Mondays will be my usual musings on writing and life in general, and I’ll try not to be boring, but Fridays I thought we could talk about books, tv shows and movies, because who doesn’t love to talk about that? And if you have any questions you’d love us to chat about, shoot them my way and we can work them into the schedule as well. Speaking of chats, my next Author Chat Party will be held on Tuesday, January 24th, if you’d like to mark the date for that! I’ll be setting up a Facebook Event closer to the time, so look for it, and I hope you’ll join us. The last one was really fun, with great conversation and giveaways!

Speaking of fun and giveaways . . . today is the start of my FUN POST-CHRISTMAS PHOTO CONTEST!! Now you can’t tell me you didn’t just get up and dance around the room!! It’s okay if you didn’t. 🙂

Here’s how it works –

* Send me your cutest Christmas photo – your dog, kids, spouse, anything that captures the fun you had over the holidays – email the photo to catherine@catherinejwest.com (By sending your photo you give permission for me to post it in the Fun Christmas Photo Contest Gallery on my Facebook Author Page).
* All photos must be received by and will be posted on January 1st, 2017! My readers will be asked to vote over the next week, and decide on the 3 best pictures!
* 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners will all receive one copy of any one of my books, winner’s choice! Winners will be announced on Monday January 9th! 

And that’s all there is to it! I can’t wait to see all your fun photos! Here’s my fun photo to inspire you!

“The things I do for this woman . . .” said Noah, putting on his most adorable pose in hopes of an extra treat.

Well, that’s about all the news from this end, thanks for reading!

Tell me how your Christmas was, what was your one best thing this year?