Valentine's Day And Twitter Parties

Today is Valentine’s Day, a day for lovers.

According to Wikipedia, “Saint Valentine’s Day, commonly shortened to Valentine’s Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs, Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD.”

WOW, I have a feeling when Valentine’s Day was celebrated in 496 AD it was nothing like we celebrate now. Each year it seems it gets a little more out of hand - the flowers, the candy and the gifts. When I was in high school, students exchanged cards and boxes of candy. If you got a flower at school, it was usually a single rose but mainly the flowers were given after school at home. Nowdays, high schools look like a florists with so many bouquets of flowers being sent by the students to other students.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with exchanging flowers, candy and cards. But it’s the simple things - everyday things - that have so much more meaning to me. The flowers that I prefer are the ones that come from the nursery so I can plant them, rather than from a florist where their beauty only lasts a week or so. I love roses, but I also love unusual varieties of herbs. Spending a lot of money on a gift doesn’t always make the gift special. How you give the gift and who’s giving it, now that’s special.

I’ve said all of that to lead up to a book giveaway and some interesting events going on Twitter today to celebrate the ‘day of love.’

What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with a #SciKiss Twitter Party with THE SCIENCE OF KISSING author Sheril Kirshenbaum (@Sheril_).

@GrandCentralPub is hosting an all-day #SciKiss Twitter party today (Monday, Feb. 14) with all tweets related to THE SCIENCE OF KISSING and everyone is invited to attend! The day will be filled with all sorts of fun – trivia, giveaways, discussions, and much more.

In addition, Brianne from Hachette Book Group will be hosting a very special Valentine’s Day BlogTalkRadio show at 3:30 p.m. with Sheril and SEALING THE DEAL author, Diana Kirschner: http://ht.ly/3U85r. You won’t want to miss this fascinating and exciting discussion, so mark your calendars!

Also, in honor of Valentine’s Day and thanks to Brianne and the folks at Hachette Book Group, I can offer 3 more copies of THE SCIENCE OF KISSING as a giveaway. So if you missed your chance earlier at a copy, try again. Be sure to check out the giveaway guidelines at the end of the post and remember, books will be given away throughout the day on Twitter as well.

There’s also another Twitter party going on today to celebrate the day of love.

Forever Romance and Grand Central Publishing invite everyone to attend their “Valentine’s Day Twitter Party.” Be on @ForeverRomance and hashtag your tweets #4evrloveday to join the fun.

The party will get underway at 9 a.m. and run till 5 p.m. today, Feb. 14. Various authors will be at the party and they can’t wait to meet everyone.

Now to the giveaway here for a chance at 1 of the 3 copies of THE SCIENCE OF KISSING, send me an e-mail (mcbookshelf@gmail.com). Your subject line should read, “Win Valentine‘s Giveaway.” Your message should include your name and mailing address. The contest is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only and no post office box addresses can be accepted. In addition, Hachette is advising winners that they will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if they win the same title in two or more contests, they will receive only one copy of the title (or one set in the case of grouped giveaways) in the mail. (Winners here have always be great about letting me know if they have already won the book somewhere else so another winner can be selected. However, this announcement is something that has to be passed along from Hachette). And, just so you know, I don’t share the mailing information or use it for any other purpose. The deadline to enter this giveaway for a chance at one of the 3 copies of THE SCIENCE OF KISSING will be 8 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

Here’s another look at the book trailer for THE SCIENCE OF KISSING, enjoy.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY filled with all the things you love and wish for. Keeping in the spirit of the day, I’m sending you virtual flutes of champagne, bouquets of roses, and boxes of chocolate.