Category: Reading

Me Time

Lately I’ve felt overwhelmed. Too much to do and not enough time. Every day I murmur a prayer of thanksgiving because my children are grown and gone. If I were still doing the mom thing . . . I can’t even contemplate it.

It’s not all bad. I’m realizing my lifelong dream/ambition of being a published author. It’s the peripheral obligations that are getting me down.

One of my goals for this calendar year is a monthly date with myself. Too bad I haven’t had time to do that. I barely have time to get in a weekly session of yoga. My second quarter goal is to add another half hour of exercise into my week. But exercise isn’t me time. It’s a peripheral obligation that takes away from the writing time.

I’m in serious need of not only a date with myself, but some substantial me time.

  • I’d like to go to a baseball game.
  • I’d like to do some real cooking on the weekend.
  • I’d love to go to a movie with my husband.
  • I have several ideas for custom music mixes I’d like to work on.
  • Reading without guilt would be so nice!
  • I’d like to sip a glass of wine and relax when I get home from Day Job.

I would also like writing time. Writing is my dream. Something has to give.

Another one of my goals this year is “say no.” Don’t be surprised when you start hearing me say it more often.

Writing Wednesday: Reviews

Authors live for reviews. Especially new authors. I check my Amazon and Goodread pages every day, looking for reviews. (And if you’ve read my books and haven’t left a review, why not?)

So imagine my delight when I opened my email a few weeks ago and learned Night Owl Reviews had reviewed my first book, Moonlight Serenade. The review is now up. You can read it here. If you don’t want to do that, here’s what the reviewer wrote:

The scenes and details are well written and capture the imagination and the intriguing events certainly arouse the reader’s curiosity. The author has created a fascinating setting full of intriguing and sexy characters with some interesting elements. I was completely caught up in the story from the very beginning and I am looking forward to visiting with the Toke Lobo and the Pack band again.

Doesn’t that just put a smile on this face.

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Love at First Sight: Not a Myth

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A few months ago, one of my friend’s teenage daughter watched While You Were Sleeping and snorted in disbelief because the heroine married someone she’d known for only a week.

One criticism I often hear about romance novels is the “unreality” of how quickly romantic relationships develop.

Short courtships don’t bother me. I believe in them. My parents knew each other 3 months before they got married–nearly 61 years ago. I started dating TV Stevie at the end of March; our wedding was August 8 of the same year. That was 27 years ago. But those were long relationships . . . compared to my sister.

On August 5, my sister met the roommate of a cousin’s boyfriend. On August 29, she married him. That’s twenty-four days.

While that is amazing enough in itself, you also need to know that in 1976, there was a ten-day waiting period from the time you bought your marriage license until the time you could actually get married in this state.

She lost him last month, suddenly and terribly. After 38 years of marriage, she loved him as much as she had the day she married him, if not more. The depth of her grief is unimaginable to me.

But the depth of their love for each other is the reason I firmly believe in love at first sight.

So to all the naysayers out there who don’t believe a week is enough time for love to take root , I give you this proof.

 

Reading By the Season: February

Every February, I re-read One More Valentine by Anne Stewart. I was fortunate enough to have Ms. Stewart autograph my copy a couple of years ago. ::insert fan-girl squee!::

Jamey Rafferty is a dead mobster, shot down in 1929’s St.Valentine’s Day Massacre who comes back to life every February 13 for two days. “. . . he returned each year with exactly what he left with. A package of Black Clove gum, a crumpled pack of cigarettes and a wallet crammed full of very crisp thousand-dollar bills that was supposed to pay for a shipment of Canadian bootleg liquor.” He’ll keep coming back until he finds true love.

Helen Emerson is an assistant prosecutor in Chicago, and someone from Jamey’s past is trying to kill her. Jamey has 48 hours to make sure she’s safe for at least another year.

Originally issued as a Harlequin Special Edition, the story is now available on Kindle and is again available in paperback.