Happy Valentine's Day

So it's February 14th with all its attendant fuss about 'lurve' and red roses and chocolate . . .

The Magnet knows that I'm not keen on red roses (I prefer the golden ones I had in my wedding bouquet) and chocolate (I'd swap luxury chocs for a plate of chips/fries anyday!)but it's not those sort of things that count. Not really.

I was stunned this morning to learn that according to some report, the city of Hull is reputed to be the most romantic in the UK. Now Hull is just up the coast from where I live and it has never seemed a very romantic place to me. It seems that that assessment is based purely on sales of roses as Valentine's gifts. But it also seems that most of those bouquets are last-minute gifts - hmm - rushed, cliché gifts perhaps. Or am I being too cynical?

Anyway, whatever you're doing today I hope it's a lovely day for you and in celebration of the day, Harlequin have some gifts for its readers.

The first of these is a free special ebook at www.ebooks.eharlequin.com – A Valentine For Harlequin’s Anniversary. It contains a story “An Evening To Remember” by Catherine Mann, and 60 of the favourite posts by Harlequin authors and readers from the eHarlequin Community on topics like “Why I Write” and “Favourite Harlequin Moments”

Those favourite Harlequin Moments were written because - as I've already mentioned - Harlequin is 60 this year. And as part of those celebrations, and "to thank our many readers for taking us into their hearts and homes for 60 years and making us the world’s leading publisher of romantic fiction, Harlequin is giving every woman in America and Canada a free book. "

In fact, they’re giving away 16 free Books that readers can download.

The titles are available as a PDF and in all eBook formats. There is no drm (digital rights management)
The titles are also available as a Stanza App for the iPhone and iPod Touch
The titles can also be found at all the online retailers like Sony, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Fictionwise.com, eReader.com, etc.
The 16 free books (one for every series) will be available throughout 2009.

So why note head over to HarlequinCelebrates.com and take your pick from the slection of titles - from all the lines Harlequin publishes - to help you celebrate Valentine's Day too.

Finally - Valentine's Day is also the day that my friend Anne McAllister launches the new look on her web site. It has been freshly reworked and revamped by the brilliant Heather Reed from We Write Romance who also looks after my site. And it looks fabulous.

Anne is running a great contest to mark this relaunch so why not visit the site and see if you can win yourself a great prize.

And whatever you're doing - whether you're with someone or enjoying being free and single, I hope you have a lovely and loving day today.